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Provinssirock 2012 - 6/15/2012 - *** - Seinäjoki

The spiritual journey that was Provinssi 2012 began already on Thursday, as I prepared mentally by watching Fear and Lothing in Las Vegas. An epic movie combining road tripping and drug tripping, its soundtrack kept us going during our 4 hour drive from Helsinki to Seinäjoki on Friday.

Friday

Ghost Brigade (Rumba-Stage): Having driven the entire way I was pretty goddamn tired once I at ten pm managed to see my first band. The moody and doomy Ghost Brigade definitely wasn’t the right band for my mood, even if it is one of my favorites. I listened to a few badly mixed songs with muddy sounds and decided to go find something better suited. I was escorted out of the tent by strange breathing sounds from the stage.
3/5

Eläkeläiset (Island Stage): “Antakaa viinaa hanuristille!” or give booze to the accordion player was one of the first things I heard from the stage as I made my way to see Eläkeläiset (The Pensioners) live for the first time. Seeing a multitude of drunken Finnish artists dressed as old people and playing humppa versions of famous rock songs was definitely what was missing from my evening. They play ranging from very well to crap, depending on the song but at no point was the act anything but entertaining. There were colossal Humppaworms going through the crowd and people were dancing. The synth player jumped on his instrument as he is almost expected to do. The surprising part was that even after a lot of kicking, the tech guys still managed to get the synth in working order in under a few minutes!
41⁄2/5

Nightwish (Mainland Stage): A brief and non-comprehensive gallup before the gig revealed that both Tarja and Anette have their fans, but the most important part was that it was still Nightwish. It was only the second time I saw them, and the first with the new vocalist.
I’m not quite sure what to call the bagpipe-like instrument played as an intro, but the guy played a flawless and spine- chilling rendition of Finlandia, which was frankly incredible. Once the band joined him I have to say this was by far the best intro to a gig I’ve ever seen, bravo!
The show in itself was just that, a show. The band and especially Anette and Marco really did their utmost to bring a the Imaginaerum experience to the festival stage. The best moments were in my opinion Anette’s at times utterly insane vocal work, which for some reason brought to mind Alice in Wonderland. The bagpipe versus guitar double solo was also wonderful, and the fireworks ending the gig were a really nice touch. All-in-all a really well done show by the pros of Finnish heavy music.
41⁄2/5

Saturday

For Saturday the YleX Stage was converted to the Renegade Stage, the biggest electronic festival in Finland inside another festival. This was a new experiment, and considering what I saw during the day, a very successful one at that. The tent itself was big enough and the air never seemed to run out like in some of these events. There were some psychedelic decorations, amongst them a huge 3D robot hanging in the ceiling made out of glowing wires.

Muffler & Proteus (Renegade Stage): The ever-trustworthy Proteus and his incredible energy was getting the still tired festival people dancing alongside Finnish dubstep act Muffler. It really did shake me awake, a achievement in itself considering how late I had gone to bed the previous evening.. No, make it morning.
This was the first time I saw a pure dubstep act live, and it was an interesting experience. Among the out-of-place “normal”-looking people there were the dubstep crowd, dancing like they were having a seizure. The duo got to play a lot longer than they were originally supposed to, due to a missed flight by Chase & Status. For some reason it seems that most electronic music events I’ve witnessed suffer from chronic schedule complications.
3+/5

Apulanta (Mainland Stage): I managed to catch a glimpse of Apulanta, they were pretty much unchanged: the vocals were seriously out of tune, but the crowd was pleased and dancing. The weather was cloudy but still warm at this point, so a nice and energetic act for a nice summer day.
3-/5

Chisu (Mainland Stage): Chisu possesses a strong and personal voice, and quite some good songs. She also has quite a few horribly boring slow songs, which made the first part of the gig almost unbearable, even if her performance is unique and very nice to look at. The melancholy of Mun koti ei ole täällä seem horribly out-of-place in the otherwise cheery festival. I watched my favorite song of hers, Baden-Baden, which is a semi-happy and quite insightful, and decided to call it quits.
slow songs: 1/5, Baden-Baden & overall show 4/5

Joey Beltram/Feed Me (Renegade Stage): I managed to catch the switch between Joey Beltram, a jumpy and electronic act, and Feed Me, a pretty much same-sounding act. There were a lot of people in the huge tent, and there was really a party mood going in the hot and sweaty crowd. The music didn’t sadly do all that much for me, I’m more a fan of psychedelia, not repetitive dance music.
21⁄2/5

Sansa (Rumba-Stage): I saw in passing this little girl with a big acoustic guitar, playing some sort of rock, standing in a flower patch. Weird..
2/5

OFF! (Island Stage): I have very little to say about these older rockers playing pretty straight punkrock. The vocalist did have a few speaks about the police state that is America, but the music in itself was pretty bland.
3/5

Rise Against (Mainland Stage): Some more punkrock, pretty melodic this time, and on a bigger stage. This one was even blander than the previous one, so I decided to keep walking. When I happened to walk past again the guy was playing some sort of acoustic ballad, what a wuss.
2+/5

Kyuss Lives! (Island Stage): Already the soundcheck was a pleasure, the bass was warbling and growling, and working people up to a frenzy. There was a LOT of people to see Kyuss, almost enough to warrant a move to the Mainland Stage. Overall the gig kicked major ass, but there were some technical problems which shadowed the perfection. For some strange reason the low end of the sound spectrum kept disappearing at random intervals, which for a band like Kyuss is damn near fatal. When everything worked, then it really worked. Definitely the best gig I’ve seen in a long while and all worth the while of coming all the way to Seinäjoki to basically see only one band. There were long instrumental breaks when the three guys were just jamming and the vocalist was off somewhere. Absolutely the coolest thing was near the end, when during a chill song almost the entire crowd more-or-less synchronously sat down! Never have I seen such a thing on a gig, and the effect was much greater than any pit or wall of death.
5-/5

Modstep (Renegade Stage): An interesting act to see, a whole band playing something combining at least rock and dubstep. They even managed to get a pit going, which was an achievement in itself. The sound was great and the atmosphere groovy, but then something broke and there was but silence. Damn technical problems!
3/5

 Billy Talent (Mainland Stage): As my friend said the second he heard them play, what annoying shit. A nasal vocalist singing and shouting all emo and bad music, it was almost incredible seeing how many people actually were there to see this utter crap.
1/5

Stam1na (Island Stage): The Finnish technical thrashers were really committed to their act, and came on stage dressed as hillbilly farmers. The set was otherwise really good, but the Island Stage was still suffering from the same vanishing basses, which really took the oomph out of their music at times. Some of the highlights were when they played 5 laukausta päähän as a horribly overtempoed version where Kaarle Viikate came to read the newsreport which belongs to the song. A solid gig from an entertaining band and the new songs from the most recent album worked well live.
4+/5

PMMP (Mainland Stage): Now there were some problems even on the main stage, with some sound problems and mic feedback, but otherwise the gals of PMMP were as good as ever. It was during their gig that the first heavy rainfall started, and I decided to retire once the rain stopped for a while. A very good decision considering that the rest of the evening it rained and it poured.
3/5

Since there was only one really good band on Sunday (Fucking Slayer!), which played way too late, I decided to skip the entire day and instead drive home during the day. To summarize, an entertaining festival with a varied setup, and a really bold move with a electro stage. A really positive experience. You are now leaving Fear and Loathing in Seinäjoki, thank you and good night.

Report a cura di Markus Karppinen