Tag Archives: live music

Tarot @ Sotkamon Syke 2011

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So, just when I though I’d get my pictures from Sotkamon Syke edited and published quickly, we start planning a trip to the US in late September throwing all of my internal scheduling ideas out of the window. And we did also spend several days cutting down trees in a forest. Firewood…

Anyway, on to the topic at hand, Tarot who were on the bill immediately after The Man-Eating Tree. This definitely isn’t the first time I’ve photographed Tarot and doing it this time didn’t offer any surprises.

As always, they performed a solid set and while the performance isn’t filled with huge special effects and dancing around the stage, they have good chemistry with each other and the audience.

Since they were on when daylight (even despite the rain/drizzle) was still strong enough, the light show didn’t really stand out in any of the images – except during the Pecu’s drum solo.

As always, more pictures are available in our gallery.

The Man-Eating Tree @ Sotkamon Syke

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I’m starting of my posts of the Sotkamon Syke festival with The Man-Eating Tree, which is the first band we caught. I first noticed the band when they initially announced their existence a couple of years ago. After all, I’ve been following where the members of Sentenced land and this was where the drummer Ville Ranta landed…

I’m always terrible in describing what niche of metal any given band belongs to, but comparisons to Sweden’s Opeth do come to mind. And Tuomas Tuominen’s vocals remind me of Rush. But what generally works for me is metal with doom, gloom, clean vocals and good melodies – all of which can be found in The Man-Eating Tree’s music.

They were on fairly early in the evening and the rainy day certainly didn’t help the turn out so I didn’t get any of my typical shots with lots of crowd in the foreground. When the stage front is two people deep and most of the folks are in the beer tents there isn’t much of a crowd to shoot. Luckily the lackluster audience didn’t limit the band’s playing and I was especially surprised by the energetic performance of the session (?) guitarist Antti Karhu.

As always, more pictures in our gallery.

Reckless Love @ Kerubi 12.7.2011

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As a prelude to this weekends rock festival in our area, the 40 year old Ilosaarirock we had three free evening dances that were organized at a local club. The first evening featured three bands and we only went to see the headliners, Reckless Love.

When the stage is set with a neon yellow (desert yellow was the official name IIRC) Ibanez RG in front of two Marshall half-stacks, you get a very good idea of what the music will be like. As soon as the playing starts and spandex-clad artists hit the stage, you’re taken back to 80s glam era. And not in a bad way. Reckless Love hits the same nerve as Van Halen, David Lee Roth, Mötley Crüe and the rest by offering light and fun hard rock and a great stage show.

Tuesday’s show didn’t disappoint at all and I finally got to see Pepe play his Ibanezes (sp?). And yes, we saw Olli perform more than one jump kick, alas I only caught one well enough.

If I’d been smart I would have requested a photopass to have access to the pit for the first three songs, but we got a good enough spot in front of Pepe.

Honestly, if you’ve ever liked even a bit of 80s era glam rock and find Reckless Love playing near you go see them. You won’t be disappointed I can guarantee a smile on your face when you leave the show. And most females will probably appreciate Olli’s sixpack as well :)

As always, more images in our photogallery.

Moonsorrow @ Nosturi 1.4.2011

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Although I’m not really a fan of any kind of black metal, the prospect of going to a metal gig after an evening of corporate partying in Helsinki was appealing enough to buy tickets. And I must admit that I’m glad that I went. The gig was good and the lights show was something special – special enough that I was glad that I’d obtained a photo permission.

I’m not familiar enough with Moonsorrow’s music to really comment on the mixing and such, but my friend who suggested the gig to me said it was a really good gig. I’ll take his word for it. I do know that I enjoyed the time I spent there.

Photographically speaking the gig wasn’t exactly the easiest to photograph. During the first three songs that I was shooting from the pit the lighting was either a strong backlight or consisted mostly of green/blue washes. And seeing how the opening act, Draugnim, was lit told me that ISO 3200 was a good selection. I shot the whole gig with my EF-S 17-55/2.8 IS USM.

Shooting the gig was visually interesting. The strong backlights meant that most shots were intentional silhouettes, which I’ve really grown to like. And if I wouldn’t have spent the first seconds of the gig shooting the drummer and keyboard player I really wouldn’t have gotten anything usable of them since the smoke obscured them most of the time.

After shooting in the pit I made my way back towards the mixing table were my friend was and shot some crowd photos. Since it was the first gig that I’ve been to where I’ve noticed a circle pit, I naturally had to try and get it photographed as well.

As always, more photographs of the gig in our photogallery.

Evergrey @ Jyväskylä – preview

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Just a quick preview of a few picks of the pictures I took during Evergrey’s concert in Lutakko, Jyväskylä last night. More to come once I get through making my selections and editing.

Sorry, the ones with Hannes behind his drum battery need a bit more work for a quick preview…