SAUNA OPEN AIR 2009 report

BogFires @ SAUNA OPEN AIR 2009
June 5-7
http://www.sauna-open-air.fi/

BogFires put another ethnographic precision whack into practice at the Sauna Open Air Metalfest in Tampere Finland. This three day festival at the city centre gathered lots of folk especially on Saturday (reportedly 10.000) and Sunday (8.000), even though the weather was not exactly the best possible this year.

On Friday, the day started with Amorphis at three o’clock in the afternoon. Not the best possible slot for the recent number 1 at the Finnish official chart with their brand new “Skyforger” album. As we were later told by Jouni Markkanen from King Foo, the band’s management agency, this deal was done with the organizers in order to attract more early comers to the festival area. This seemed to work, as surprisingly large crowd had gathered at the front of the main stage. The band understandably had to suffer from some technical and audio problems in the beginning, but once they were solved, vigorous sound and the nice mixture of old and new songs were well received by the audience. The band played three songs from the Skyforger album: “Sampo”, “Silver Bride” and “Majestic Beast”, from which especially the last mentioned piece of art with the Opeth-like passages, beautifully structured bridges and the melodic chorus pounded the Tavastian sky like the blacksmith Ilmarinen himself. The closing piece “House of Sleep” caused the biggest movement on the slightly muddy field of the Tampere South Park.

Of the Finnish export trumps, the day’s closer Apocalyptica played a convincing and professional show for the already a bit cold-stiffened crowd. As already familiar from many earlier Apo gigs, Tony Kakko of Sonata Arctica visited the stage to sing the few vocal pieces.

Earlier, Sauna was entertained by Duff McKagan’s Loaded whose rather monotone offering was seemingly revitalized as Michael Monroe, the perpetual motion machine of the recently docked Hanoi Rocks, vaulted onstage to sing few GN'R oldies with the band. The main stage also featured the Swedish Soilwork, whose acute yet unsurprising show was carried out with good energy.

On the second stage, the best mood was created by the good-humoured Viikate and the rigorous Medeia. Medeia was replacing Meshuggah, whose cancellation (due to Thomas Haake’s not yet healed back) was a huge disappointment to many, including the BogFires team. However, the band filled the empty hole in an excellent way. Their tight songs and precise playing must be admired. Especially the guitar mining of Samuli Peltola was impressing.

Saturday was primarily spent in anticipation of the evening’s stars, the mighty Mötley Crüe. The performances of Poisonblack, Hammerfall, and Finntroll caused some mild quiver in the constellation of erected index and little fingers, but the true wake-up surge was served by the Sunset Strip saints. The opening triple, almost a perfect one, ”Kickstart My Heart”, “Wild Side” and “Shout at the Devil”, was followed by a set of the band’s old classics and songs from the latest album. The audience, which was presumably the biggest one in Sauna’s history, went absolutely crazy in nostalgia. And the band was seemingly enjoying the atmosphere as well, not least the reckless the Duracell bunny Tommy Lee who spent considerable time in chatting with the audience. After the 1.5 hours show, the night was sealed by “Home Sweet Home” that, at least in the front part of the crowd, resembled an ecstatic community singing session.

Sunday, a day with constant sunshine, was kicked-off by Kotiteollisuus that, similarly to Amorphis, was probably placed as an early act to get people wander towards the park and populate the beer stalls early enough. Hynynen, Hongisto and Sinkkonen, as usual, were in good humour and the first mentioned spent lots of time talking (or merely bitching) to the audience about its dumbness and stupid metal manners. It was an amusing start for the day. The down-to-earth and unaffected style of Kotiteollisuus was heavily contradicted by many of the later performers. The multinational Kamelot, in turn, played a surprisingly big show with pyrotechnics and their theatrical songs, which people really seemed to like.

The newly started Finnish veterans Stratovarius were as much liked, and the new chap in the gang, guitarist Matias Kupiainen seemed to well fill the big boots of Timo Tolkki. The band supplied a standard set of its swift power metal, but brought nothing new under the Tavastian sun.

On the small stage, Omnium Gatherum served its basic but rather monotonous death metal with a bit over the top gestures. The Swedish Bullet with their AC/DC-influenced basic rock with a cheerful attitude generated lots of smiling faces at the field, but the Canadian long-term show group Thor only made an annoying impact at least on the BogFires team.

Finally, the festival was wrapped up by Nightwish. These tireless itinerants are approaching the grande finale of their massive sequence of world touring in the Dark Passion Play style, but the miles seem to show up in the bands’ stage appearance only in a positive way. The sounds and accuracy of playing was namely flawless. The band, especially Anette, was conspicuously enjoying the appearance to their Finnish fans who, reciprocally, cheered the band with lots of sympathy. Even the surprising event of Marco totally forgetting the lyrics of the “Islander”, his own offspring, turned out to be a mood lifter rather than flattener and a strong sign of the band’s deep appreciation. Marco’s blooper made the band to start the song over again, still followed by minor lyrical blackouts, this time safely backed-up by Anette. Anette, according to her own comment, had again made a misjudgment concerning her outfit. Indeed, the shorts were not a good idea in the freezing wind of Sunday evening.

Otherwise, the show with the standard DPB visual setting, beautiful pyros and other decorations did not offer any surprises, particularly after seeing the band several times recently. The set list was also quite expected, including: “7 Days To The Wolves, Dead To The World, The Siren, Amaranth, Romanticide, The Poet And The Pendulum, Nemo, Sahara, Islander, Last Of The Wilds, Dark Chest of Wonders, I Wish I Had An Angel”. The set was coloured with the guest appearance of Irish Troy Donockley whose bagpipe brought a gorgeous add-on to “Last Of The Wilds”, “Islander” and the beautifully woven opening hymn “Finlandia”. An elegant closing to the three days of sonic delight.

TMK