Belated Gig Reviews Part 4: On Volcano & Ultramariini

So, a couple of weeks ago I went out, once again, to see bands play live. The headlining act of the evening was a band called Ultramariini but at the end of the evening I couldn't help thinking that the warm-up act On Volcano was actually a lot more interesting!

Yes, I realize that I have recently been exposed to such ambitious music that it might affect my thinking and reactions quite a lot. However, this blog has never been much about objectivity..


Grandiose, epic, big sounds... Music created in the spirit of shoegaze/indie rock bands and something about it even reminds of such bands as Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Sigur Rós. Those are the ingredients of post rock – and nowadays also On Volcano's music. With classy Christmas lights illuminating the stage, the skillful musicians of On Volcano played an amazing set. This wasn't the first or even the second time I saw On Volcano but now they had really found their sound and perfected their music – I am already waiting for a full album. Almost every song of the live set was longer than five minutes and there were long instrumental periods, but the music was still perfectly balanced... It is the magic of post rock! Also, you just have to love a band that concludes the set with a ”country ballad”. Definitely the best post rock band of my hometown Tampere!

Ultramariini plays pop that could be described as indie but it also has qualities to make it appeal to wider audiences. Frontman Matti Johannes Koivu has been doing solo albums during the past years and performing as a solo artist. I have seen him live probably three times and loved every gig. Now his old band Ultramariini has returned and released a new album called Ydin. I will probably check out that album at some point – and most definitely On Volcano's new EP New Blood which the band is giving out for free!

Free download of On Volcano's New Blood EP
Ultramariini at MySpace

Tips from the Past

Lost in Music Festival was weeks ago but I want to mention some of the most interesting acts. Some of these were new to me at the moment of the live shows, and I plan to check out every one more carefully.

On Volcano impressed me once again with their amazing shoegaze-pop. It’s amazing how interesting their music is even though it’s based quite a lot on instrumental sections. No wonder the band actually started as an instrumental trio. As we know, they have a singer now, and melodies, harmonies and emotion. At the moment they are touring Russia and Baltic States. Once they get back I finally might be able to purchase their EP.

On Volcano at MySpace

Janne Laurila, one of the most talented singer-songwriters in the country, has started working on solo material – for the first time with Finnish lyrics. Laurila’s melancholy meets nicely with Finnish language, although his new direction requires some getting used to. I’ve seen him live so many times that it’s a bit strange to suddenly hear him sing in Finnish. His songs are great, of course, and the melancholic folk/country influences are present.

Janne Laurila at MySpace

Tapes, alias Jukka Salminen played a great set with his friend who played flute and guitar. Tapes songs are really good and there are a lot of influences from the 60s and 70s in them. Tapes just released his second album. I will check that out at some point, since his first album was already really good.

Tapes at MySpace

Antti Westman from the disco-rock group Brightboy has recently released an album of Finnish pop/rock classics under the name Westman. He also performed them live at Artturi. Westman has such an interesting and distinguishing singing voice, and these versions are well worth hearing. At least I liked them very much.

Westman at MySpace

Waterloo is definitely one the the most promising new powerpop bands in Finland. The band rose from the ashes of another pop group called The Dance, and it was a huge thrill to hear how excellent the band sounded even though it had only been together for half a year. Stylistically Waterloo sounded quite a lot like Teenage Fanclub, and they even had the most perfect harmonies present. I hope this band does some more gigs soon – a lot more gigs. Pop people will want to hear this beauty!

Waterloo at MySpace

The most big-sounding and emotional act of the four-day festival was Rödsögården. For a pop-rock band that good I was almost surprised I’d never heard of them before. It’s not like I follow every music media that carefully.. But Rödsögården played extremely well together, and they basically sounded like they could be the next U2. It was so beautiful.. I was in fact moved to tears. There was a whole lot of emotion and excellent, oh so excellent melodies. Gee, this band I won’t forget!

Rödsögården at MySpace

I never thought anything good would come out of the, in my opinion, very unpleasant Finnish girl duo PMMP, but it happened anyway. The members of My First Band also play in PMMP’s tour line-up, among other things. At Lost in Music Festival the group played a set of excellent power pop tunes. Their music included great melodies and cool synth sounds. A very memorable thing was also their lead singer, who was just about the most confident frontman I’d ever seen.

My First Band at MySpace

The final act of Friday’s huge 12-band cavalcade at Yo-talo was the international guest, Estonian The Sun. To me the band’s name was already intriguing, but the music was good too. It was hard-rocking rock, and it made me happy that there were also many nice melodies. The music reminded me a bit of Foo Fighters.

The Sun at MySpace

Kotoisat sävyt played a wonderful gig at Dog’s Home. Their style is a combination of blues, classic rock and influences from bands like The Who and Pink Floyd. Kotoisat sävyt released their debut album back in August.

Kotoisat sävyt at MySpace

My Own Summer 2008

Tammerfest 2008 is far behind already but I want to make some notes about what I witnessed in Vanhan kirjastotalon puisto in Tampere on Saturday 12th. As a wannabe music journalist I enjoy writing gig reviews as well as album reviews (This blog, however, is not intended to be very journalistic in style because it’s only about blabbing about things I like or find interesting).

My Own Summer is probably the most interesting thing about Tammerfest city festival. It is a one –day happening, it’s free, and there are always new, promising Finnish indie rock bands performing (and some metal bands too). This time there were definitely a bit too many glam metal bands – too little variation, too few happy, pop-rocking, melodic bands.. There was something seriously worth seeing, however.

The first band was Lob Nor, a nearly all-girls band, the winners of some rock competition for junior high students. Their music didn’t make a huge impression on me, but they played well, and they had a good singer. It was nice to see such young people playing together as a band. That’s something I’ve never accomplished, even though I surely would’ve wanted to..

On Volcano played an amazingly strong set of shoegazer rock. It was magical. I don’t know much about shoegazing yet but it sounds brilliant with all the noise, good energy and atmospheric sound. I will definitely go to see On Volcano’s next gig, too. The band has released one EP so far.

The highpoint of the day was the folk-punk duo Jaakko & Jay. Jay had a snare drum and one cymbal, Jaakko played acoustic guitar and sang. There was lots of wild energy, and the songs were very, very good. It was so great fun that I hardly recall a gig that would’ve been more fun. The extremely simple instrumentation (a drummer with a two-part drum kit – that’s crazy!) was a big part of the fun, and Jaakko’s excellent vocal expression combined with great pop punk melodies was awesome. These guys don’t seem to want to release anything official but they have some music samples on MySpace, mostly live recordings. There are also a few downloadable songs at mikseri.net. I recommend seeing them live. You won’t be disappointed – it’s fresh and extremely lo-fi.

After Jaakko & Jay started the almost unending cavalcade of glam metal bands, none of which sounded particularly interesting to me. There were T.A.P., Lines of Leaving that sounded so much like Lapko that it was quite confusing, and Renoise. These bands had many young female fans standing in front of the stage, but even they didn’t seem to be very excited about the bands. It was quite strange.. But Jaakko & Jay had already made my day.