The Friday club on 6.12 was also falling on the Finnish independence day. We had the Wisla Band from the South up to play. This was an absolute personal highlight for me. Beautiful Finnish folk-punk music with several sprinkled fun elements like melodica, rap, a traditional turkish flute called ”Ney” and a Martin Backpacker guitar with Nashville tuning. The band leaders Antto and Heidi are our dear friends! We played together on their first gig ever in Kouvola, Finland, when their band was forming in 2019. Remember this? ->

Finland 2019

A lot of things before the show went wrong. Our sound person Oonu was not available for set up and soundcheck, leaving Taavi and Jordan to it. Taavi got us a new PA-System which we used for the first time. Sadly, the laptop had some delay in commands to the mixer, making it challenging to work with. On top of that, someone brought a baby to the pub, which made the owners tell us that we could not do a line check before the show. All that said, Wisla’s show was very heartfelt and amazing! They didn’t have a drummer with them, so Taavi jumped in on the drums and even though there was a minor fight during one of Heidi’s speeches, the gig carried on, while the bartender extinguished the fight. Nonetheless it was a very fun and sweet show!

We introduced a new song and had a collaboration with Heidi. Talking about hope and life, after a near death situation. We ended the show asking Wisla on stage to perform a well known finnish pop song, ”Ainutkertainen” together, engaging the crowd in the chorus. Afterwards “Finlandia-Hymn”, the equivalent of their national anthem, was put onto the speakers. Everyone stood up, the whole room roaring the lyrics, hand on heart and these shy quiet Finns were even singing harmonies to the song!

We hung out with Wisla the next day with slow brunch and fun feedback rounds. Sunday Midday we sent them off… until next time!

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Ari, Reetta and Oonu performed some numbers during the Sunday jam. Unfortunately no other performers showed up, so we did our set and jammed a little with our songs, entertaining the little crowd of standard guests. Some lady danced to us and we got some cheers and Eli even got handed a chocolate by an older gentleman. Establishing a new open mic with new people during a busy weekend is never easy. Where the first one had some traction, this time didn’t pick up as much.
We have to see if we can keep building those regular events. There will be some conversations happening for next year and as always: We will keep you updated on it!

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We would have performed a ColourCollide show on 14.12 at Sarvi Pubi in Rovaniemi, but unfortunately after the last weekend our guitarist got struck by the flu and some of us are still a bit under the weather. We will find another date to perform at Sarvi Pub for next year and let you know, when things become clear.

As soon as sickness subsides it will finally be time to finish recording some parts, before the end of the year. So hopefully things will go smoothly.