Metallica brought its Sonisphere caravan to their fifth spot, the city of Pori in the southwest corner of Finland. The one day festival gathered 60.000 guests to the Kirjurinluoto Arena, normally used for the annual Jazz festivals, making the day the biggest ticketed rock event ever held in Finland (a record to be broken today with Madonna’s first visit to our country) and almost doubling the population of Pori for a short time.
Because of the massive crowd in the relatively small city, visitors and habitants were told to be prepared for long queues and lack of parking places in the nearby area. I started my drive early in the morning from Vantaa, and when arriving in Pori around eleven, the place was still rather quiet. I managed to leave the car next to the area, right by the Raumansilta, and face practically no queuing at the entrance. A couple of hours later, it was already a different story.
Los Bastardos Finlandeses, the group of Finnish hard rock veterans, kicked off the festival on the second stage at the noon. The laid back set was a good start for the day, but did not arouse big movement in the still scarce audience. Right after the LBF, Mastodon opened the main stage, and the atmosphere slightly suffered from the lack of people. At the same time, it was nice to get close to the stage and enjoy the gig without any rush, which was mostly impossible with later bands on the main stage. Despite the early slot, the band performed an energetic (but short) set, but the bright daylight and big stage is not a perfect setting for their complex songs. The setlist was quite balanced with songs from the recent “Crack The Sky” album, including the opener “Oblivion”, the great title song and the majestic “Czar”, and a compilation of older tunes. After seeing Mastodon recently warming for Metallica, Slayer and Iron Maiden, which cannot provide the best conditions for the opening band, I would really like to see them playing a full set, preferably in a smaller club.
Mastodon early starting time may have come as a surprise for many visitors who consequently missed the band. And yes, the organizers’ decision not to publish a precise program on the web before the event was not only strange but also a major shortcoming. And this discomfort was further crusted by not displaying or handing out the program in the area itself, except for those “info packs” priced 5 Euros (and that version even had the cancelled Anthrax on the bill). This really looked like a desperate attempt to cash some additional revenues. Otherwise, the schedule was nicely constructed, so that it was able to see all the bands with no overlapping or major waiting times, and all the bands started their sets in time.
Back to the second stage that next hosted the Finnish group Nicole. I experienced the band live for the first time and was not very familiar with their material anyway. And what a positive surprise it was. Their powerful songs combined with technical and precise playing seemingly had reached a good body of devoted listeners. This is definitely a band worth checking out.
Lamb of God had already gathered a large crowd by the main stage. Seeing the LOG gig for the third time this year, the show did not offer any surprises and was rather mundane compared to their blasting performance in Frostbite in January. A minor extra interest was provided by Buz McGrath, a guitarist from the Boston metal band Unearth, replacing Mark Morton who had flown to Virginia for the birth of his first child. McGrath filled his shoes with no problems. While the band was barging on the stage with Randy’s typical gyrating presence and know-how of Finnish curse words, the audience in the first section played their part and performed the usual LOG rituals in the form of large circle pit and the wall of death. The latter made the policemen and security guards on their heightened platform seemingly a bit nervous.
The small stage next witnessed the Finnish Diablo who gave the audience a rather standard show with good humor and selection of headbanging songs of high quality. However, as is the case quite often with the band, the sounds were a bit scruffy and somehow mute, for instance compared to more crispy and intense Nicole.
The next large US band on the main stage, Machine Head offered nothing specific to remember. The lack of strong songs and out-of-tune singing of Flynn left somewhat empty feeling, although the band was loud and passionate as usually. The set ended earlier than intended with some dramatics as the guitarist Phil Demmel passed out after some 30 minutes of playing, which forced the band to end the set with apologies. Demmel then walked from the stage with his own feed and was reported to be fine.
The Finnish Turisas was replacing Anthrax who, due to their singer problems, have cancelled their tour including the Pori show. Although missing the representative of the legendary Big Four of the Bay Area thrash scene must have been a disappointment for many visitors, Turisas gathered a surprisingly large and active crowd for their folk/Viking/battle/whatever metal. However, this setting was not my cup of tea. It was also a bit strange that the short slot was covered with lots of speaking and courting with the audience, with the overly extended version of their “Rasputin” cover, leaving the setlist quite stump. However, credits must be given for their professional and flawless playing despite of such a short notice and little practice.
Linkin Park was a strange choice to the Sonisphere bill to start with, and their halfhearted, boring, and distant hit list may have provided the fans with some good moments, but for most of the Metallica-expecting audience the show was probably a meaningless intermission performance.
LP worked fine as background music, so it was time to test the food services in the festival area. And yes, as complained by many, they were too few, resulting in long lines and stupid waiting times. Moreover, there were no veggie options available – somebody had seen something inside the beer area where the beer desks were also reportedly plentiful. So quite likely many of the visitors went fighting their hunger with the malt soup instead of decent food. Another target of complaints was the too few female toilets with long queues, but everything worked on the men’s side. Most flaws may be excused for the large crowd, as was also the slow exit from the area, but these aspects (and the program info!) should be improved if the festival is to be arranged in Pori in the future.
Before Metallica, Saxon closed the second floor with their sortiment of new songs and old NWOBHM classics. Most of the people were already securing their places by the main stage, leaving the front of the small stage half empty. This did not prevent the Saxon fans, with the average age clearly the highest of the day, from enjoying the familiar and safe offering of Biff Byford and the gang.
And then, the Kirjurinluoto Arena transformed to a very different place, as Metallica entered the stage. The guys had already served the Finns with nice two gigs in Helsinki in June, but the response seemed and sounded like the band hadn’t played here for years. This time the stage setting was an ordinary one, instead of the clever and specific circle stage design with lasers and pyros witnessed in their inhouse arena tour. However, the pyros were high and the lights got very powerful and impressive, as the night darkened along with the show. The guys were in good humor, Hetfield made his familiar comments, Lars playing was inaccurate now and then, so nothing new under the sun. But somehow the show felt extraordinary; certainly one of the best Metallica shows, if not the best, I’ve witnessed. Big part of this great experience was made by the wonderful audience constantly making noise, keeping hands towards the sky, and singing the songs out loud. Their participation was enhanced by the well-balanced set list, giving less weight to the new songs as in Helsinki shows. Even the occasional light rain brought an extra dimension to the show, at least visually. Otherwise, weather was mostly cloudy and a bit chilly with wind throughout the day, with some short moments of sunshine however.
After spending an hour before being able to get back to the Raumansilta bridge that obviously formed the hardest bottleneck for such a mass, I was able to start driving back to South. The unbroken sand slow moving stream of cars on the normally empty roads 2 to south and 11 to east added another memorable flavor to the day. The first 24H open ABC station in Tampere was unsurprisingly packed with metal heads on their way home. I grabbed a large mug of coffee and headed south in the already lightening Finnish summer night that faded to black only few hours ago.
TMK
Because of the massive crowd in the relatively small city, visitors and habitants were told to be prepared for long queues and lack of parking places in the nearby area. I started my drive early in the morning from Vantaa, and when arriving in Pori around eleven, the place was still rather quiet. I managed to leave the car next to the area, right by the Raumansilta, and face practically no queuing at the entrance. A couple of hours later, it was already a different story.
Los Bastardos Finlandeses, the group of Finnish hard rock veterans, kicked off the festival on the second stage at the noon. The laid back set was a good start for the day, but did not arouse big movement in the still scarce audience. Right after the LBF, Mastodon opened the main stage, and the atmosphere slightly suffered from the lack of people. At the same time, it was nice to get close to the stage and enjoy the gig without any rush, which was mostly impossible with later bands on the main stage. Despite the early slot, the band performed an energetic (but short) set, but the bright daylight and big stage is not a perfect setting for their complex songs. The setlist was quite balanced with songs from the recent “Crack The Sky” album, including the opener “Oblivion”, the great title song and the majestic “Czar”, and a compilation of older tunes. After seeing Mastodon recently warming for Metallica, Slayer and Iron Maiden, which cannot provide the best conditions for the opening band, I would really like to see them playing a full set, preferably in a smaller club.
Mastodon early starting time may have come as a surprise for many visitors who consequently missed the band. And yes, the organizers’ decision not to publish a precise program on the web before the event was not only strange but also a major shortcoming. And this discomfort was further crusted by not displaying or handing out the program in the area itself, except for those “info packs” priced 5 Euros (and that version even had the cancelled Anthrax on the bill). This really looked like a desperate attempt to cash some additional revenues. Otherwise, the schedule was nicely constructed, so that it was able to see all the bands with no overlapping or major waiting times, and all the bands started their sets in time.
Back to the second stage that next hosted the Finnish group Nicole. I experienced the band live for the first time and was not very familiar with their material anyway. And what a positive surprise it was. Their powerful songs combined with technical and precise playing seemingly had reached a good body of devoted listeners. This is definitely a band worth checking out.
Lamb of God had already gathered a large crowd by the main stage. Seeing the LOG gig for the third time this year, the show did not offer any surprises and was rather mundane compared to their blasting performance in Frostbite in January. A minor extra interest was provided by Buz McGrath, a guitarist from the Boston metal band Unearth, replacing Mark Morton who had flown to Virginia for the birth of his first child. McGrath filled his shoes with no problems. While the band was barging on the stage with Randy’s typical gyrating presence and know-how of Finnish curse words, the audience in the first section played their part and performed the usual LOG rituals in the form of large circle pit and the wall of death. The latter made the policemen and security guards on their heightened platform seemingly a bit nervous.
The small stage next witnessed the Finnish Diablo who gave the audience a rather standard show with good humor and selection of headbanging songs of high quality. However, as is the case quite often with the band, the sounds were a bit scruffy and somehow mute, for instance compared to more crispy and intense Nicole.
The next large US band on the main stage, Machine Head offered nothing specific to remember. The lack of strong songs and out-of-tune singing of Flynn left somewhat empty feeling, although the band was loud and passionate as usually. The set ended earlier than intended with some dramatics as the guitarist Phil Demmel passed out after some 30 minutes of playing, which forced the band to end the set with apologies. Demmel then walked from the stage with his own feed and was reported to be fine.
The Finnish Turisas was replacing Anthrax who, due to their singer problems, have cancelled their tour including the Pori show. Although missing the representative of the legendary Big Four of the Bay Area thrash scene must have been a disappointment for many visitors, Turisas gathered a surprisingly large and active crowd for their folk/Viking/battle/whatever metal. However, this setting was not my cup of tea. It was also a bit strange that the short slot was covered with lots of speaking and courting with the audience, with the overly extended version of their “Rasputin” cover, leaving the setlist quite stump. However, credits must be given for their professional and flawless playing despite of such a short notice and little practice.
Linkin Park was a strange choice to the Sonisphere bill to start with, and their halfhearted, boring, and distant hit list may have provided the fans with some good moments, but for most of the Metallica-expecting audience the show was probably a meaningless intermission performance.
LP worked fine as background music, so it was time to test the food services in the festival area. And yes, as complained by many, they were too few, resulting in long lines and stupid waiting times. Moreover, there were no veggie options available – somebody had seen something inside the beer area where the beer desks were also reportedly plentiful. So quite likely many of the visitors went fighting their hunger with the malt soup instead of decent food. Another target of complaints was the too few female toilets with long queues, but everything worked on the men’s side. Most flaws may be excused for the large crowd, as was also the slow exit from the area, but these aspects (and the program info!) should be improved if the festival is to be arranged in Pori in the future.
Before Metallica, Saxon closed the second floor with their sortiment of new songs and old NWOBHM classics. Most of the people were already securing their places by the main stage, leaving the front of the small stage half empty. This did not prevent the Saxon fans, with the average age clearly the highest of the day, from enjoying the familiar and safe offering of Biff Byford and the gang.
And then, the Kirjurinluoto Arena transformed to a very different place, as Metallica entered the stage. The guys had already served the Finns with nice two gigs in Helsinki in June, but the response seemed and sounded like the band hadn’t played here for years. This time the stage setting was an ordinary one, instead of the clever and specific circle stage design with lasers and pyros witnessed in their inhouse arena tour. However, the pyros were high and the lights got very powerful and impressive, as the night darkened along with the show. The guys were in good humor, Hetfield made his familiar comments, Lars playing was inaccurate now and then, so nothing new under the sun. But somehow the show felt extraordinary; certainly one of the best Metallica shows, if not the best, I’ve witnessed. Big part of this great experience was made by the wonderful audience constantly making noise, keeping hands towards the sky, and singing the songs out loud. Their participation was enhanced by the well-balanced set list, giving less weight to the new songs as in Helsinki shows. Even the occasional light rain brought an extra dimension to the show, at least visually. Otherwise, weather was mostly cloudy and a bit chilly with wind throughout the day, with some short moments of sunshine however.
After spending an hour before being able to get back to the Raumansilta bridge that obviously formed the hardest bottleneck for such a mass, I was able to start driving back to South. The unbroken sand slow moving stream of cars on the normally empty roads 2 to south and 11 to east added another memorable flavor to the day. The first 24H open ABC station in Tampere was unsurprisingly packed with metal heads on their way home. I grabbed a large mug of coffee and headed south in the already lightening Finnish summer night that faded to black only few hours ago.
TMK
Photos: TMK
Metallica set list:
Battery
Creeping Death
Fuel
Harvester Of Sorrow
Fade To Black
Broken, Beat And Scarred
Cyanide
Sad But True
One
All Nightmare Long
The Day That Never Comes
Master Of Puppets
Blackened
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
Encore:
Stone Cold Crazy (Queen cover)
Motorbreath
Seek & Destroy
Battery
Creeping Death
Fuel
Harvester Of Sorrow
Fade To Black
Broken, Beat And Scarred
Cyanide
Sad But True
One
All Nightmare Long
The Day That Never Comes
Master Of Puppets
Blackened
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
Encore:
Stone Cold Crazy (Queen cover)
Motorbreath
Seek & Destroy
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