BogFires presented at Beyond Musicology Symposium

Prof. Antti Ainamo gave a presentation titled
"Best Practices of Finnish Rock Exports: The Case of Finnish Metal"
at Beyond Musicology: The 13th Annual Symposium for Music Scholars in Finland
University of Turku, March 26-28 2009.

The event:
http://www.hum.utu.fi/oppiaineet/musiikkitiede/symposium.html

BogFires presented at Sosiologipäivät

Prof. Antti Ainamo gave a presentation titled
"Sociology of Music: Towards a Historical and Comparative Study of Finnish Metal"
at the "National sociologist days" event (Valtakunnalliset Sosiologipäivät),
Helsinki University, March 20-21 2009.

The event:
http://www.valt.helsinki.fi/sosio/sosiologipaivat09/sosio/

Lars Ulrich talks about needing a major label in L.A. Times music blog

"Without offending any of the good people from the record company in the room, no," Ulrich said. "Let's cut to the chase. . . . The primary -- not the only, but the primary -- function of a record label is to act as a bank. When you're fortunate enough to be successful and so on, you don't need to rely on record companies as the banks. . . . "

Government sponsors tours in Norway

Blabbermouth.net:

Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth comments on their government-sponsored tour of Norway:

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=116609

And more of this in the Norwegian Faro Journalen:

http://www.farojournalen.no/pages/nor/2665

New Nightwish video interviews online

The Finnish Karjalainen magazine has uploaded interviews of Nightwish before their current tour + interviews of fans and various video reports (on stage and backstage) from their current European tour, accompanied by journalist Hannu Jarva:
http://www.karjalainen.fi/Karjalainen/viihde/rokitvideot.html

Videos and English synopsis of Anette's interviews can also be found from Blabbermouth.net:
http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=116395

Nightwish @ Brussels & Rotterdam

BogFires had the honour and pleasure to appear as guests in two Nightwish gigs in their recently started European tour with Pain and Indica: Forest National in Brussels (14/3) and A’hoy in Rotterdam (15/3).

The shows were the second and third on this leg after the sold out kick-off for over 4000 people in London (Carling Academy Brixton, 11/3). The size of the audience was reportedly around 5000 in Brussels and over 6000 in Rotterdam and comprised, as generally in the case of Nightwish, a mixture of young and old, women and men, metal heads and other Nightwish fans. Our small sample of interviews and general observations (as well as various YouTube comments) suggested that many of them regarded the concert as a great experience. Brussels crowd seemed to include many Finnish visitors, and a couple of white n’ blue flags were also spotted in the audience.

The audience was surprisingly loud, especially in Brussels where we watched the show mainly from the arena floor. Indica and Pain both already got people active, and Nightwish really exploded the place. The venue with the downward floor and wide profile is excellent for this purpose – despite the large size, the arena incorporates a certain feeling of closeness. A’hoy in Rotterdam is more of a normal kind of a sport arena, but also a pretty good one for concerts like this. AC/DC played there two days before Nightwish and the venue can be checked e.g. from various concert recordings like “Live & Off the Record” By Shakira and the DVD concert in “The Katie Melua Collection” set.

Finnish Indica filled well their opening slot, and the girls were seemingly enjoying their time on the stage. Their happy mood was transmitted to the audience as well, and the band probably got a number of new friends in both countries. The sets ended with Kate Bush cover “Wuthering heights”, an apparently risky choice, but which was carried out beautifully by the band.

Swedish Pain then took the sound and visuals to the next level, using basically the same stage setting as in their recent European headline tour. Despite small technical problems in Brussels, the set was intense, ending with the catchy “Shut your mouth”.

Nightwish performed a determinate, good sounding and fancy looking set on both days. The visual appearance of the show was particularly staggering with beautiful lights, grand and precise pyros, sneaking smoke, and other eye candy. The new sea theme with the majestic anchor and the wooden boat around the keyboards of Tuomas worked as a perfect background for the story line of the set. In particular, the transition from the intro with the secretively blue-lighted cross to the blasting “7 days to the wolves” was something one can only comment with great admiration.

Two days after the Rotterdam show, we spotted a short gig review in the Rotterdams Dagblad newspaper. Quite contrary to our experience, the reviewer gave 3/5 stars for the show and seemed to complain about the empty chairs at the venue and problems with sound quality. It is also quite strange that in such a short story, more space was used for the (seemingly eternal) comparisons between Tarja and Anette, and between (yes, in Holland, of course) Nightwish and Within Temptation than for actual concert reflections.

During the trip, we also checked the local rock magazines. Nightwish appeared in the cover of Belgian/Dutch Rock Tribune with a 4 pages long article. The French edition of RockHard also included a 4 pages long interview of Tuomas.

In addition to amazing concert experience, it was also interesting to follow how smoothly the organization of such a big enterprise functions behind the coulisse before, during, and after the gig. It really comes out that this caravan has toured the globe for a long period of time. Everything was managed with high professionalism, and the atmosphere backstage was remarkably friendly and relaxed.

BogFires really look forward to the next chance to see Nightwish live, which is not a very long away. We would like to express our warm thanks to Tuomas, Ewo, Toni, Adam, Peter, and the rest of Nightwish, Pain and Indica members and crew for their hospitality and such a nice time in Brussels and Rotterdam.

TMK & LL







Nightwish setlist (both days)
1. Intro
2. 7 days to the wolves
3. Dead to the world
4. The siren
5. Amaranth
6. Romanticide
7. Dead boy’s poem / walking n the air
8. The poet and the pendulum
9. Sahara
10. Nemo (Nemo played before Sahara in Rotterdam)
11. The islander
12. Escapist
13. Dark chest of wonders
Encores:
14. Ghost love score
15. Wish I had an angel

Scroll down to the bottom of the page to find gig videos in YouTube.

Nightwish and VEEN spring water partnering

Nightwish and Finnish spring water brand VEEN are teaming up. This co-branding endeavour seems to be based on personal connections and shared values:

"... there are certainly some qualities connecting these two Finnish megabrands. They both get their inspiration from mythologies, and they are both highly respected in their own gendre. However, there is an even more obvious connection, which brings us to the small town of Kitee back in 1985. Mikko Nikkilä, Sales Director of VEEN started elementary school at the age of 7. It was an exciting day for all, including Emppu (Nightwish: guitar) and Jukka (Nightwish: drums) who also happened to be in the same classroom. After schooldays Jukka and Mikko used to play funky Finnish style baseball. They also played in the same band called Highway."

http://www.veenwaters.com/Nightwish_and_VEEN_on_world_tour_together

http://www.veenwaters.com/

Rainer Nygård of Diablo in video interview

Diablo guitarist/vocalist Rainer Nygård was interviewed by Asif Salam of SoundShock.net when they played the Forum in London, England on February 19, 2009.

New Alexi Laiho signature models from ESP

...
Children of Bodom’s Alexi Laiho has four new Signature Series models introduced at NAMM 2009 from ESP and LTD. Since 2003, Laiho has worked with ESP on all of his signature model guitars.
“We’ve been very fortunate to have a relationship with a guitarist of Alexi’s caliber for the last six years,” says Allen Steelgrave, ESP’s director of marketing and artist relations. “As is the case with all ESP and LTD signature series models, the new guitars are based on the artist’s exact specifications, and we’ve worked closely with Alexi to create these updated versions of his main guitar.”
...

http://www.espguitars.com/news/news_alexi.html

There are also two good Alexi/COB interviews available by ESP:

http://www.espguitars.com/esptv/alexi_interview_08.html
http://www.espguitars.com/esptv/cob.html

Smack, Raitsikka and Los Angeles

Helsingin sanomat (Sat 7 2009) published an interview with Rane Raitsikka, the guitarist of the 80's Finnish rock bands Smack. The band was one of the early pioneers of Finnish rock export, who tried their wings in the city of angels, reportedly caught the attention Kurt Cobain and GN'R members, missed a promising record deal at the time when Appetite for Destruction shook the world with alike street rock, and quickly vanished into the sea of lost hopes... After gone through a true survival story, Rane is currently playing in several small groups in Los Angeles, ranging from rock to blues to country.

Ville Valo writing new songs

In an interview for Kerrang! (Feb 21 2009), Ville Valo reports on his current status of mostly staying home and writing songs for the next HIM album. "I've got ideas for eight or nine songs that won't take much to finish... this time everything is very direct and straight to the point".

The same issue cover stories Lamb of God in cover story. This interesting interview proposes LOG being on the verge of becoming metal's next superstars. After hearing their new album "Wrath", I'm sort of agreeing with that...

TMK

www.kerrang.com