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Ilosaarirock 2010
Yesterday I already uploaded the photos of the festival. Now here is the story that comes with it. I started the trip to Ilosaarirock 2010 on the Friday around 3PM. Mari was driving her car to Joensuu and me and Tommi were the lucky ones to drive along and saving this way a lot of bucks, because trains are expensive vehicles to use in Finland. The drive took about 6,5 hours but included multiple stops and some sightseeing. I know saw the water dams in Imatra (Eastern Finland), very near to the Russian border, and we had a refreshing stop at the Kitee lake, where Tomi and Mari went for a swim.
Around 10PM we arrived in Joensuu at Sonja's place where I would stay over for the festival. So, luckily I didn't have to sleep in a tent on a noisy camping but on a mattress in the living room. The barbecue was already on and was waiting for our arrival to be used to heat up some sausages. Together with some sparkling wine a great start.
Ilosaarirock 2010 day #1
The next morning, it was time to rock, it took some time to prepare for the festival but around 1:30pm it was time to grab our bikes and go, via the supermarket, to the festival area. We went to the 'relax-stage' (rentolava) to see 'Jukka Poikka and the Sound Explosion Band' play their final Finnish reggae tunes. Via 'Olavi Uusivirta' on the main stage, and having a tiny picnic with the festival gang at the same time, back to Rentolava to see 'Miss Saana and the Missionaries' alone because the others went to see 'Pariisin Kevät'. Ms. Saana has a great voice and makes quite pleasant music, but, with all due respect, oh my that dress was not meant for her. When Miss Saana was done with her Missionaries I went to the smallest stage, where the upcoming/local/beginning bands were programmed and I enjoyed the energetic gig of 'The Micragirls', Their 'Pipettes"/Rockabilly sound and their fans in the crowd really made the whole experience better by hooking in the rest of the crowd to party along.
The line-up for Ilosaarirock this year wasn't spectacular for a non-Finnish person and after 'The Micragirls' I found myself wandering around seeing 'Katatonia' from Sweden for a while and the last tunes of the Finnish 'Ville Leinonen and Majakan soittokunta'.
The weather on this festival day was getting very chilly (about 18C/64.4F) and since I left a sizzling hot Helsinki (27C/80.6F and humid), I didn't bring any jacket nor pull-over with me to Joensuu. To survive the night without picking up any illnesses I had to buy myself a hoodie from the festival shop. The overpriced (35EUR) Ilosaarirock hoodie did it's work luckily quite nicely for the evening and night. It was somewhat worth it's money.
After 'Imogen Heap' it was time for 'Ismo Alanko and Teho-osasto', the Finnish artist that writes a lot of songs of which 90% are in Finnish. I knew Ismo already, or at least some of his songs, but unfortunately for me he only played the songs I didn't know. Because the songs were in Finnish, which is a bit boring for me, but the Finnish crowd seemed to love it.
The next band I visited was 'Imogen Heap'. Now that was something I'm really happy about experiencing. Her beautiful vocals and mellow songs together with a lot of interaction between her and the crowd were just awesome. Maybe for Finnish rock crowd standards the interaction was a bit too much since only a small part of the crowd participated actively and shamelessly in singing along and doing literally, a song together with her with our voices as an instrument. The stage was carefully decorated into detail and it was, like I said, a great experience. A highlight of my Ilosaarirock 2010.
'UNKLE' was something I would like to see, but once arrived at the YLEX-tent, they didn't grab me at all. Thus, I went to the Jamaican reggae/dancehall artist 'Queen Ifrica' at Rentolava. 'Queen Ifrica' was nice and really brought some Jamaican spirit to the beach section of the festival area. I didn't see too much of her performance because I needed to find a good spot to check one of my teenage heroic bands 'Bad religion'.
'Bad religion' was also the closing act of the 1st 'rokki' day. Greg Graffin and his gang played a great mix of songs from all over their 30 years of repertoire. For me 'Bad religion' is legendary. Their melodic punk rock songs still remind me of my late teenager years when I was listening to them much more actively as today. Because they played old and new songs the 'singing/yelling' along level was high and the minor throat ache was deserved after they stopped playing and a small set of fireworks was shot in the air to top off the day.
After the festival we went to Joensuu city center to have some drinks in the Amarillo bar and have some good times after the festival until the bar closed and we headed back to Sonja's place.
Ilosaarirock 2010 day #2
After only a couple (meaning 5) hours later it was time to wake up again and prepare for the 2nd 'rokki' day. It took much longer to kick-start the day and after a nice breakfast and some hours of 'preparing', we arrived at the festival area just after 4PM. 'Jenni Vartiainen' just started playing and I watched it for a little while. Again, all songs were in Finnish. I left the main stage where Jenni was playing and moved myself for a good spot to check out 'Biffy Clyro' in the YLEX-tent.
'Biffy Clyro' was great, the energetic performance and a nice mix between slow/powerful and old/new songs made it worth every second. Because the 5 o'clock slot had two bands I would really like to see I decided to go to the other band after 30 minutes. Otherwise I would have rocked it until the end. 'Biffy Clyro' was another highlight of my Ilosaarirock 2010!
The other band was 'Boban i Marko Markovic Orchestra' on the Rentolava. These Serbian fellows bring a folky mix with a big horn section. Especially their faster 'songs' were received very well. The weather improved and it was now about 27C and the sun was burning. People wanted to dance and Boban i Marko could have done more with that, by playing faster songs. But it was overall a good gig and a nice cultural influence on the mainly Finnish/English line-up.
The festival gang wanted to see 'Eppu Normaali', another Finnish band, singing in Finnish and with its hay days at least 25 years ago. I think this was the most boring thing for me ever. It was just plain boring rock, with for me, no meaning or purpose. For the Finnish crowd it was probably a nice live karaoke with the band itself. My advice would have been to just retire, like they should have done maybe 10 years ago, and live from two reunion tours or something.
After Eppu we went to have some relaxing time and picnic/drinking outside the festival area for a while because the line-up for those time-slots were not that exciting. We went back to the festival area just before DJ Shadow started his performance in the YLEX-tent. Once we manage to get into the tent, through the packed crowd, it was dancing time. I think DJ Shadow is the best DJ live set I have ever seen or heard. His mix of music styles, without using a constant boom-boom-boom bass line together with his visual presentation behind him on stage made it something unique and standing out on the festival in a positive way. It was yet another highlight of the festival for me.
Then the festival came already to a close with 'Faith no more' playing on the main stage after DJ Shadow had finished in the tent. Before they started playing I could not have told you one single song from them. But once they started to play, it became quickly apparent that I have heard their songs before. I just didn't know it was them. Mike Patton and his crew made it a energetic gig. I think the fact it was their last performance of this reunion tour made it a bit special for them too. Mike, the show man he is, had great interaction with the crowd and did even do some crowd-surfing and took over the camera from the camera girl for a while. It's too much to say that the festival finished with a bang, but it was a good end to a good festival.
After the festival we went to Joensuu city center again to hang out in the Jokela bar again for some drinks and afterwards with the bike back to Sonja's place for a slice of pizza and a night of sleep.
The next day, with again a 'couple' of hours of sleep, we had some nice breakfast once more before Mari drove us back to Helsinki. This time without sightseeing detours in order to be a bit on time in Helsinki. That was Ilosaarirock 2010 in a nutshell for me. The photo's you can find from the 'concerts and festivals'-section on this site.
Before I close this long blog I would like to specially thank Sonja for hosting and Mari for driving to and from Joensuu. Besides that a, still special, but not as special as the other one, thanks to Sonja, Mari, Tommi, Heidi and Topi for hanging out and having a good time during the festival times and rides.
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