On this mid-December Thursday evening on December 12th, 2024, we paid a visit to Kuudes Linja to once again witness Patrick Walker‘s 40 WATT SUN, or rather this time just the man himself performing a solo acoustic show. To accompany him in this relaxed setting was KIMI KÄRKI, best known by many as Peter Vicar of LORD VICAR‘s fame (and of course REVEREND BIZARRE before that).
With this promising setup and a very intimate atmosphere with the audience intently listening to the music of the two, the night turned out to be very entertaining. Both artists seemed in a very nice mood, with Kimi first performing from his solo records as well as covering some material from LORD VICAR, in between the songs he entertained the audience introducing the following piece and giving some insight about his inspiration – in English, which is a bit unusual for a Finnish artists in a Finnish show. The performance lasted a few minutes short of an hour and it lifted the spirit of the crowd despite the often gloomy subjects of his work.
As the musician himself announced on multiple occasions, it was soon “Patrick’s time,” so after he thanked the audience and left the stage, with a bit of a wait in between, people gathered closer to the stage. As Patrick Walker was ready to begin his show, it became immediately clear that this would have been a unique experience, with a lot of back and forth with the audience, taking the odd request from his 40 WATT SUN repertoire, lots of laughter, and British humor. Hard to forget that “buying one CD will cost the same as having 44k listeners on Spotify,” after that’s been repeated several times during the show – with good effects given the queue at the merch desk immediately after. Or the jokes about Kimi‘s “shitty guitar pick.” Or the guy who apparently “thought he wrote a love song about marzipan.”
During the evening there was room also for some unexpected covers, for instance, IRON MAIDEN‘s “Wasted Years”, or – perfect for the season although quite weird to hear in this context – Frank Sinatra‘s “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”. While the audience was way more chatty than usual for a Finnish crowd, they were also quite respectful and polite, and mostly in awe of the music being played throughout the event. In the end, it was hard not to leave the venue with a big smile.
KIMI KÄRKI
40 WATT SUN
Photos by Marco Manzi
