Amorphis @ Savonlinna 14.4.2012

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When we noticed a poster advertising an Amorphis tour in Finland during the spring, we immediately went and bought tickets for the nearest show, which in this case was Savonlinna. What intrigued us about the whole tour was that most of the venues listed where not typical rock clubs but concert halls. When they finally released press releases on the tour, the idea became clear: they would be collaborating with several guest artists, most notably multi-instrumentalist Sakari Kukko. The Savonlinna stop was their second show of the tour.

Tomi Joutsen in candlelight

Alas, I didn’t get a permit to photograph the show, but naturally I did utilized the camera that is always with me, my iPhone. So, all pictures are taken with the phone in typical rock concert lighting which means that for a camera it was dark.

They started off the set with three acoustic renditions of songs from all over their over twenty year career, the attached video at the end of the post is of the third song of the set, Sign from the North Side (from their first album Karelian Isthmus). Alas, I’ve never been one to memorize setlists so I can’t give a full setlist here. The acoustic renditions were performed by the whole band joined with Sakari Kukko and a female vocalist whose name I didn’t catch when Tomi announced it.

The acoustic renditions where a marvelous showcase of the musical skills in Amorphis. They weren’t in any way done by just taking the shortest path of replacing electrical instruments with acoustic but they had been fully rearranged. Anyone who knows early Amorphis will be expecting growl vocals in the video clip, but the vocals are everything but. The acoustic portion was almost like I could expect a good session in a Jazz club would feel like.

Esa Holopainen and Sakari Kukko

After the three acoustic songs, the instruments were replaced with the more traditional electrics and Tomi Joutsen stuck to only vocals. Sakari Kukko and the female vocalist joined the band on stage for several of the songs with only a few performed only by the pure Amorphis lineup. For example the vocals in the beginning of Mermaid (from the latest album The Beginning of Times) were sung live instead of coming from a backing track. After a set of a bit over an hour, it was time for the encores.

The encores again started off with a fully acoustic set with two songs performed acoustically. Again sorry, but I don’t remember which ones. After that, it was back to electrics with Amorphis’ sing-along hit, House of Sleep. Although the house wasn’t full and the crowd was – well small to what I’m used to seeing when they are on stage – the crowd managed to make quite a good amount of noise during the chorus’. The evening was finally capped after about 90 minutes of solid music with the traditional closer My Kantele.

All in all, the gig and concept are a wonderful change to the typical Amorphis gigs. Sure, the inclusion of acoustics meant that the amount of growl vocals was reduced from the typical Amorphis gig, but Amorphis hasn’t been a pure death metal band for ages anyway. I’m fairly certain that the fans lamenting after old-school Amorphis won’t enjoy the gigs, but they manage to complain about modern day Amorphis anyway. Anyone who has an open mind and enjoys shows of excellent musicianship (and likes Amorphis) will enjoy these gigs. For me, the gig was one the best I’ve seen from them, and definitely sharing the spot of most memorable with the Magic & Mayhem tour gig from 2010.

P.S. Sorry about the camera shake in the video, while my hand is fairly steady, the fact that the concert room floor swayed with the crowd made absolute steadiness impossible. Not even a tripod would have helped. And honestly, if the house would have been full I’m not sure if the floor would have withstood a metal audience ;)

The Man-Eating Tree @ Kerubi 25.2.2012

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The Man-Eating Tree visited Joensuu for the first time in their career in the end of February while touring the country with Swallow the Sun. I’d seen (and photographed) TMET already once before during the summer, and was looking forward to seeing them again. For those who don’t know, TMET is one of the several bands to host Sentenced alumni. They were on stage with a slightly altered line-up, with guitarist Miika Pesonen filling in for Janne Markus.

I was slightly worried about the size of the crowd when they started playing since obviously most of the StS fans weren’t in the venue yet, but during the set it started filling up quite well and the crowd warmed up to them quite well. Obviously, from listening to the crowd comments before the gig despite having well known alumni in the band, TMET itself is still relatively unknown even in metal circles.

Shooting the gig was slightly challenging since there was no photo-pit and I got a spot fairly far to stage left the angel of view of most of the band, and especially the stationary keyboardist Heidi Määttä, was quite limited. Luckily the rest moved around enough and came to pose in front of the camera for a time or two. The lighting was fairly good, especially considering that the music is atmospheric metal and the lighting for the most part reflected this.

As usual, more pictures in our photo gallery.

Find characters, not pretty girls

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Just a quick note, but I finally watched an episode of Kelby Training’s D-Town due to Glyn Dewis’ recommendation and couldn’t pass up on sharing. In it, Zack Arias (who I greatly respect) says that he recently learned not to look for pretty girls to shoot when practicing various techniques or pursuing personal projects. Watch the video below (Zack’s interview starts at 08:25) for how he came to this conclusion, but do remember the ultimate lesson: find characters to shoot.

Good Night, Nightwish

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So, the other day Nightwish kicked off their European tour from their homebase in North Karelia with a arena sized gig. The band has come a long way from the first time my wife saw them in 1998 (at their fifth gig) to be performing to sold out arenas now. And at the same time many a thing has changed. For me, the underlying feeling after the evening was of melancholy and slight disappointment.

Marco Hietala in a rocking chair

Marco Hietala / Nightwish @ Joensuu Areena 2.3.2012

The thing is, that during the concert I finally figured out what has been my problem with Nightwish’s latest album, Imaginaerum: it is a soundtrack to a movie and not an album of independent songs or even a concept album of connected songs. Sure, making movie scores has always been Tuomas’ dream and in that he has – maybe – succeeded. Maybe since I haven’t seen the movie yet, for which the album is a soundtrack.

I kept wanting to see the story, as it seemed like the songs were missing a vital part of them – the visual story. For me, good album will have songs that stand alone without the need of other mediums filling up the story. It should be my mind that produces my own stories and emotions based on the song. With the latest album, it just does not happen. And I find it extremely worrisome that my favorite song from the whole album of a (ex-)metal band is the jazz-piece.

Nightwish

Nightwish @ Joensuu Areena 2.3.2012

Sure, the whole concert was a visual spectacle filled with pyrotechnics, a huge screen projecting animations, and the largest stage ever built by a Finnish band. But those visuals were not enough to give the latest songs the needed substance.

Nightwish pyrotechnics

Nightwish @ Joensuu Areena 2.3.2012

And, now we come to the part I never thought I’d write, I truly wish that Nightwish would refrain from performing Tarja-era songs with Anette. While her voice fits in with the DPP and Imaginaerum songs, it lacks power even in those when performed live. And then when we get to the earlier songs it completely falls short, especially when contrasted with Marco’s powerful singing. In Friday’s gig Planet Hell got me enthusiastic for a moment, until Anette started singing and I honestly hoped the song would be over. And when the final song of the gig, Over the Hills and Far Away started with bagpipes and all on the stage I felt a moment of joy. Unfortunately, the joy crashed down with the vocals.

Nightwish

Nightwish @ Joensuu Areena 2.3.2012

Despite it all, it was great to see how much Emppu, Jukka, Tuomas, and Marco enjoy being on stage with the new Nightwish. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Jukka smile as much as he did while drumming and Emppu was running around the stage like the happy little boy that he always has been. But still, I can’t shake the feeling that this was an end of an era for me. Sure, I might find myself seeing them live still in the future – but the anticipation of a great musical experience is gone.

Nightwish

Nightwish @ Joensuu Areena 2.3.2012

And I can’t help but feel disappointed that the opportunity to headbang is gone when Nightwish hits the stage. At least Poisonblack gave a rocking and solid performance when opening the stage. Ville Lahiala and crew were enough to keep me smiling through the Nightwish gig.

And if you want to experience some of the sights and sounds, I filmed Poisonblack performing Buried Alive and Metal Shock Finland has some fan filmed footage posted.

Nightwish

Nightwish performing Finlandia @ Joensuu Areena 2.3.2012

Project52: Still-life

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For assignment three in Project52 we were supposed to photograph a still-life. Immediately when reading the assignment my mind turned to the project I have in mind to start working on at some point (I was thinking of the coming summer). When I first saw the Star Wars Lego pictures by the Flickr user Avanaut I got it in my head to start creating images based on Fire and legos myself.

So, instead of creating any other setup that would have been easier to work, I decided to start experimenting with what I’d need to go forward with my idea. The whole concept is still very open and I haven’t even started planning any of the photographs I want to make with the idea. But as an exploration of the idea and looking into some of the technical challenges this assignment proved its worth.

The above photograph is my final selection. I tried to model a “ladder” high up getting ready approach a burning structure. The light comes from the blue alarm lights from the rescue vehicles below and the various white lights they have lighting the scene. The second photograph has more light in it, but to my eye, considering a night fire the strobes are too strong. In any case, I noticed the even at the lowest power setting the strobes are easily much too powerful for small work like this.

Also, my 150mm Sigma is a bit too long for this use, although I really like it’s bokeh etc. Using a shorter lens could have worked, but then the compression factor wouldn’t have been as strong. And when using fire in the background, having the compression factor of a long lens helps in preventing melted legos.

I also noticed that my tripod head should be sturdier – or that I should have the dogs in a separate room. Some of the pictures had noticeable camera shake in them. But, live and learn. That’s what I’m doing these assignments for. Alas, due to real-life butting in and the aurora during the same evening, I didn’t get a chance to make another attempt.