Fresh from Finland

Tuesday saw the debut of punk band Rise Against in Finland, which gathered so much interest that it actually sold out in a matter of days, faster than pop rivals Air, who will use up the same.. air.. at the same venue just at the start of December. And boy was it crowded this Tuesday at the venue, Kaapelitehdas (translated as Cable Factory, just sayin’..).

The crowd that had gathered was a cross between the younger social rebels and those with a little more mud gathered under their finger nails during the years, which caused quite the packed feel in the audience. The atmosphere was top notch, years of waiting had finally paid off and you could definitely tell by the general mood. Sweaty, grown up men rushed to the front of the crowd already a few songs in to the performance and the roaring of the crowd between songs was probably the greatest source of my earache after the show. Even the back of the audience got crammed as the band simply stated, that they had yet to see a Finnish circle pit.

The playlist was also top notch. Later on I heard, from a more matured crowd, that the playlist had apparently focused new production over the older material – something that we apparently don’t see eye to eye in. The songs played were evenly picked from all the bands material, they played the exact amount of songs from all three newest albums. As most bands tend to play more recent material out of obvious reasons, Rise Against gave the audience a vast pick of all their past riots. I especially enjoyed tracks from Siren Song of the Counter Culture, even as the newer tracks represented their newer influences well. I doubt anyone present can think of anything bad to say about the encore ballad and singalong during Swing Life Away and Hero of War, which also served as a breather before the final rougharound.

Even as the atmosphere was at an all time high, the venue is struck by pathetic live acoustics, in my own experiences. The songs and guitars were drowned in some deep porridge and can in no way be blamed on solely the mixing. It seems logical that the industrial building wasn’t built with acoustics in mind, at least not enabling them. This took a toll on Rise Against and their performance. Due to this, I’ll remember this undoubtedly terrific show as an averagely satisfactory experience, all in all.
Shame, mind you.