Helsinki Ice Rink the surroundings were accompanied by an Irishman on a beautiful Thursday night Róisín Murphyn When watching an insane disco show, one forgets that Finland has not seen a normal festival summer for two years.
When the three-day Sideways, which opened the Helsinki festival season, started, the conditions were almost perfect.
The temperature fluttered at its best at twenty degrees, and the sun scorched. For a fleeting moment in the early evening, it seemed that nature would surprise with a downpour anyway, but in the end it remained a few drops of effort.
The roses appeared in the early evening on the main stage of Sideways.
About everything could sense that this had been expected. In the afternoon, a queue of people heading to the festival area at four o’clock winded in front of the ice rink all the way to the side of Urheilukatu.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Sideways had to “shift its gaze to 2021” in the spring of 2020, like other events. And then until 2022.
Last summer I went to a festival in Turku Summer Peace. The experience was liberating – despite the fact that the threat of a new Corona wave hovered in the air and a large part of the festival crowd peeked behind the mask. Safety intervals were announced and hygiene instructions were emphasized. By the last day of the festival, a huge number of benches and tables were dragged in the area because the restrictions dictated so.
On Thursday in Sideways, facial masks were seen counted with the fingers of one hand. Nothing else in the arrangements for the event specifically indicated that there are two summers punished by the corona behind us.
The majority of festival-goers interviewed said it was their first time at festivals since 2019. The place had been attracted by friends, after an individual artist – or just because Sideways is the festival they have to come to every year.
Kaisu Ojala (left) and Hanna Tiilikainen had originally come to Sideways because of the Roses but had bought three-day tickets because there were interesting performers every day.
Kalle Remes (left) and Tuulia Mäntymaa had dressed for Sideways as usual for the evening.
From 2015 Sideways, which has been running since August, does not in itself seek to compete with Flow in August, for example, but it is easy to see similarities in their styles.
Both strive to attract people who listen to Spotify’s Top 50 list and Radio Suomipop’s most interesting indie artists, the hottest newcomers and cult-enjoying classics.
While Flow, which started as a small subcultural event, has grown into one of Finland’s largest festivals, it has always been the subject of similar stories. Some think it has become too mainstream. I’ve heard on a couple of occasions that Sideways has been playfully called “real Flow”.
Listening to Ruusuja with his group of friends Meri Nyman said he liked Sideways specifically about how to get to know artists he hadn’t heard of before. This year, for example, he was waiting to see the Dutch-Turkish band Altin Gün.
The spectacular attire that was strongly heard by Flow and the second tinting in more special outfits had not landed on the Sideways at least on Thursday. The vast majority of visitors seemed to trust familiar choices: shorts, jeans, t-shirts, and summer dresses.
A few exceptional outfits flickered in the audience sea during the evening, but otherwise the Sideways people looked like an adult festival, meaning that thousands of people in their thirties had gathered after a work day to listen to music.
“This is a human-sized festival where you have to have your own self,” who arrived with friends Antti Siika-aho said.
Mikko Nirkko (left), Asser Lahti, Meri Nyman and Ville Nikander had come to Sideways, among other things, because it feels like an easy festival.
Antti Siika-aho (left), Heikki Pölönen and Hannu Pitkänen said they liked Sideways that it was an event of a suitable size.
Musically the first day of Sideways’ giveaway was a great success, and the biggest star of the evening was the last to appear on the main stage Róisín Murphy.
In an interview with HS Irish artist hints that his disco stage is starting to be behind us, but in Sideways the audience was offered a full-blooded disco show show.
Too often, even the performance of festival gigs by skilled artists and bands is limited to good singing and playing. The wildest may offer pyrotechnics.
Murphy took over the stage with his total brightness. He changed his outfit between almost every song to be wilder and continued to sing as he retired from the stage at the end of the songs to change his outfit. From there, he marched back to the start of the next song.
Murphy changed outfits several times during the evening’s show.
Murphya watching, one could only admire how natural the long-career singer looked as the festival’s main performer. The dance moves were perfect, even so good that they fooled the Finnish audience on Thursday to swing and sway.
Murphy released in 2020 Pink Machine The album has been praised, but for me, the album has not managed to leave such a feeling that I would return to it regularly. Live Murphy songs, from the opening of the gig Something Moresta since, work in a completely different way. The band played great, and Murphy’s voice sounds even more amazing.
The biggest reaction Murphy caused from the audience was with songs from the pre-solo Moloko band, such as Time Is Now and Forever More. The biggest leka was, of course, one of the greatest classics of dance music Sing It Back.
Murphy, who pulled the 75-minute gig, did not spend his time in the middle, but the gig progressed from start to finish, accompanied by an almost uninterrupted play. The songs changed seamlessly. When it was time to quit, Murphy retreated behind the curtain again, thanking the audience. The band continued to play for a while, until one by one they left. Music ran out. The disco diva had left the scene.
Adrianne Lenker charmed the band Big Thief as a soloist.
Very near the theft of the first night was the American band Big Thief, who had performed a spectacular gig on the Aurora stage next to Murphy.
The indie band of about thirties from Brooklyn was also a refreshing exception to Thursday’s offering in that otherwise the biggest foreign names consisted of a veteran department, such as 48-year-old Murphy, Dinosaur Jr., who began his career in the early 1980s, and 50-year-olds. Geoff Barrow’n pulled by the band Beak.
In 2016 modestly Masterpiece Big Thief, who released their debut album, has been annealed almost from the start, and Sideways’ gig was a testament to the annealing.
With their folk rock-style music, the band from New York evoked such a strong country feel that for a moment one could imagine being deep in the southern U.S. state.
Big Thief’s greatest strength is the singer Adrianne Lenker. Her incredibly beautiful voice brings the songs to life and evokes a sensitive feel. The organizers of the Sideways clearly knew what they were doing when they posted perfect mood music to be heard at sunset.
A special mention deserves the duck harp heard at the end of the gig, which was played on stage by Lenker’s little brother. Noah. I don’t remember ever having been to a festival gig in Finland before, the main role of which is played by the wild sounds played on the harp for one song.
Dressed in full black clothes and hooded on stage, Lenker was essentially the opposite of Róisín Murphy seen after him, but there was something enchanting about the shy body. The band conveyed an atmosphere on stage that they are genuinely really having fun performing together.
Dinosaur Jr. pulled a basic safe performance on the Sideways stage. In the picture J Mascis.
On the main stage the rock band Dinosaur Jr., who performed before Róisín Murphy, didn’t play badly at all, but the gig still felt like a basic performance.
The band, which last performed in Sideways in 2017, certainly got into a rather ungrateful role when it was booked for the event just a month ago to make up for the last-minute cancellation Mac DeMarcoa.
Instead, the electronic rock music band Beak, which opened the Black Box stage on the main floor of the ice rink earlier in the evening, managed to fill its place excellently, although the band itself did not seem particularly excited about their position.
“I didn’t think anyone would have come here. Iceage is playing at the same time, and the weather is really nice outside. We don’t blame you if you go see Iceage, ”bassist Billy Fuller said before any song was heard.
Then began the artistic experience of electronic music, perfect for Sideways. The biggest star on the stage was his insane drummer Geoff Barrow, best known as the founder and power figure of Portishead.
Beak attracted people from the warm outdoor air to the interior of the Helsinki Ice Rink.
Although Beak’s songs sounded good in the middle of the darkness, at least as much as the veteran band managed to entertain with their excellent interludes. Their honors were heard, among other things Vladimir Putin, Boris Johnson (under whose leadership British politics has become a “shit shower”) and also the Finnish government.
At last, the band accused them of not being able to play loud enough because they had been given strict decibel limits on playing volume. Undeniably, the only weakness of the gig was that the playing sounded really quiet compared to, for example, The War on Drugs seen at a separate Black box gig in the spring. I got to march in the ice rink almost in front of the stage to get enough out of the playing.
The real reason for this, of course, is the city of Helsinki instead of the government, but perhaps small bugs will be allowed for the band, which has already had time to consider whether it would have been worthwhile to stay home earlier.
“But we’re glad we’re here,” they continued in the name of British humor right after.
Yves Tumor performed with his band in the Black Box of the Helsinki Ice Rink.
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