As festival season begins to wind down, regardless of the state of the pandemic, everyone is sneaking in the last few possible events of the summer. One of ours was Waltikan Venetsialaiset, taking place right next to Hotel Waltikka in Valkeakoski. The festival offered the usual selection of food, like nakkiperunat [sausage and fries] and burgers, and the general organization went smoothly.
We arrived midway through the first set, which was the TEFLON BROTHERS, who put on a pretty standard show, playing all their hits.
The real band to draw the crowd that day, however, was BLIND CHANNEL, who surprised audiences all over Europe by placing surprisingly well in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Unsurprisingly, the crowd was mostly younger kids, below drinking age, with their parents, and the screaming of teenaged girls was truly overwhelming. The biggest surprise of their set was a cover of “BYOB” by SYSTEM OF A DOWN, and it was interesting to see plush toys flying onto stage from the crowd during nearly every song. One even landed in singer Niko “NC Enroe” Moilanen‘s lap, which gave him a smile. The band are known for their live energy, so naturally, that was one of the biggest parts of their show: unleashed energy.
Once the youths from Oulu finished their set, it was time for APOCALYPTICA to show the young pups in the audience what instrumental metal is all about. That said, it wasn’t completely instrumental as their recurring live vocalist, Tipe Johansson, was back again. We had first seen their recent set at the pre-festival event the night before SaariHelvetti and this featured a similar selection of songs, executed to perfection.
Petri Nygård, naturally, didn’t hold back from his normal, upbeat hip-hop show, admittedly with a crew on stage that was completely unfamiliar. This sort of scene is liable to make an old metalhead uncomfortable because of the sheer magnitude of young people in the audience. Those who stuck around for this set were graced with a short but heavy rainfall in the festival area.
TEFLON BROTHERS
BLIND CHANNEL
APOCALYPTICA
PETRI NYGÅRD
Photos by Sami Hinkkanen
