25.01.2019 Waltari, Profane Omen & Korpiklaani @ Nosturi, Helsinki

Korpiklaani released their latest album Kulkija a little while ago, but now finally had the chance to perform in Finland. On 25 January 2019 the band brought their companions Waltari, Profane Omen and Trollfest to Nosturi to celebrate an evening of metal.

Opening the evening was Waltari, a band that has been active for a long time in Finland. I had never heard of the band, and I have to say that I was a bit confused about their sound. Waltari, I guess, is not really my cup of tea, but they delivered an energetic and solid show, and the most important thing is that the audience seemed to enjoy the atmosphere of the peculiar band, they definitely got warmed up.

After Waltari, it was time for Profane Omen. Since vocalist Jules Näveri couldn’t make it to the concert, Tommy Tuovinen stepped in and performed with the band from Lahti. Tuovinen definitely managed to fill in his shoes and did a kick-ass job. Before the show one of my friends told me to say hello to the bass player, soon I realized he made a joke since apparently there are two of them. What it adds to the sound, I have no idea, however, the more the merrier on stage. The band is really energetic and it was a lot of fun to see them finally perform some songs from their album “Ooka”, which was one of my favorite Finnish releases of 2018!

While I once in a while had heard some songs of Trollfest, it wasn’t a band I was really all that familiar with. Don’t get me wrong, I love folk metal, but I never came to listening to them. That turned out to be a huge mistake. As I entered the photo pit, and the guys marched on stage, they turned the atmosphere in the venue immediately around. Disney On Ice, take a step back, now there is Disney On Stage. The guys dressed up as Disney Princesses and all-in-all delivered a hyper-energetic show, where often the guitarist would start partying with the audience in the crowd, we were told to start a conga line (I even joined that one), and all-in-all even though at times the show felt like standup comedy almost, they delivered a tight set, with a lot of songs I have been listening to ever since. Perhaps the best show of the evening for me that evening, and even more kudos for covering Britney Spears.

Finally, it was time for Korpiklaani, who brought Sinfonia Lahti vaskiorkesteri with them to play along on the songs. I have experienced a lot of shows of these guys, mostly back in the days of “Happy Little Boozer”, so it was quite an adjustment to see them perform their more gloomy album “Kulkija”. Perhaps the show started off less energetic, but the band gave a bombastic and climactic ending with songs such as “Wooden Pints”, “Beer Beer”, “Tequila”, “Vodka”, and “Happy Little Boozer”. Perhaps it was the uplifting sounds of the band, perhaps it was the addition of their outstanding craft beer, but all-in-all it was a successful night!