If you found yourself bored on a Thursday night with nothing better to do, On the Rocks offered a fantastic selection of bands on October 20th, 2022, when IKINÄ played a set with BLAME ME!. Naturally, we had to be there!
Starting a negligible few minutes late, BLAME ME! were first up on stage. Immediately, it looked like their drummer had some energy to let loose and vocalist Bini Silvennoinen popped out from backstage, getting the crowd to scream. It seemed there was a last-minute rush, as the floor filled out surprisingly well considering the venue was nearly empty a mere 5 minutes before showtime. After they started things up with “Don’t Save Me,” Bini asked the crowd to step closer to the stage and the crowd obliged happily.
One thing that becomes quite clear, quite quickly at a BLAME ME! show is just how much passion these guys have for their music. Bini looks very intimately dedicated to what she’s singing, like she is feeling every word on a deeply personal level. It was also nice to see bassist Juho Jokimies also sharing the frontman position at times – it wasn’t just Bini at the mic talking to the crowd, and they occasional jested together as well.
The band’s oldest hit, “Toxic,” was especially powerful, not sounding like a carbon copy of the single and they were clearly having a good time. They finished the set with their newest single, “Musket Fire,” as well as their cover of TATU‘s “All the Things She Said,” and of course, another big hit, “Infected.” Ultimately, a very fun, danceable show!
Right around 20:35, the screen behind the stage changed to read IKINÄ and the guys in the band came out to let loose a little bit before they were joined by Katariina Sorsa and Tuuli Paju. Of note, they seemed to have changed from their usual dressed-up athleisure outfits, which was a mild surprise, as they’ve had that look for some time. Katariina‘s growls only seem to get better as time goes on, and though we do still wish the two ladies would harmonize more and sing the same notes less, their vocal dynamics were working really well. Plus, there’s just something spectacular about an extremely feminine-looking women utterly roaring behind the mic.
The crowd had really filled out when their set started, but admittedly we were a bit surprised that the energy wasn’t as intense as what we were used to from them, with Tuuli being the biggest showman of the group. Perhaps the smaller stage was restricting them a bit? That all said, their music has really stepped up from the early days of “Magic Mike,” a song that I admittedly am not very fond of. Their present sound is more cohesive, less scattered, and more powerful in their newer songs, with “Maailmannapa” immediately standing out.
It’s still a little strange to see these guys without the energetic blonde head of Lauri Hämäläinen, but his replacement seems to be perfectly capable of taking his place. The gals were very chatty with the crowd between songs, surprisingly charismatic when compared to many other Finnish bands, and Katariina has an interesting pink baseball bat for a mic stand at some point, while Tuuli had a silver bat that also seemed to have a GoPro attached to it. There were some really strong moshing moments and the crowd could have stood to move around a bit more, especially during the thrashier moments in the set.
Despite not dancing enough, the crowd was making some noise, especially when “Burn” was announced, as it was one of the new singles from April of this year. “Hattara” also got a good response and we saw Bini Silvennoinen singing along and thought she should have joined them on stage – how much fun would that have been? In fact, the set included quite a few new tracks, as well as a few that seemed to have been previously unreleased, so that was a real treat for fans.
Their set wrapped up with another new single, “Tietäjät tietää,” before ending the night with, of course, “Magic Mike,” as the encore. The crowd seemed thrilled and we left the venue feeling like we had spent our night very well!
Blame Me! Setlist
- Don’t Save Me
- Fears Don’t Matter
- Traces
- Toxic
- Black Sheep
- Fire, Fuel & Scars
- Musket Fire
- All the things She Said (Tatu cover)
- Infected
Ikinä Setlist
- Lässyä tarinaa
- Maailmannapa
- Pelkääjän paikalla
- Queen
- Turbounelmii
- Burn
- Hattara
- Aarre
- Riivaaja
- Tietäjät tietää
- Magic Mike (encore)
