Pt3-Tug goes International!!!!

Yep! Tug My Boat has a New Years Eve gig at Pärnu, Estonia. The details are being worked out now. This is kind of a feather in the band's cap but we will not mention the fact that Pärnu is essentially a summer tourist town and a "little" slow in the winter. However there seems to be a good bunch of friends coming along from Finland, so the hotel will be busy. Will keep you posted.

Pt.2 Welcome Riku!

The search for a new keyboardist didn't take too long as Riku Lönnberg decided to take the plunge to join the band. Riku and I go a long way back being hockey dad's and when I asked him if he knew of any interested keyboardist's, I was surprised that he expressed interest himself because he's mainly a guitarist (A Kari part2.....) Did that matter? Nyah..... The important thing that he is from the greatest generation and after a jam last week, it was a done deal. Welcome aboard the sinking ship Riku!

Changes Pt.1-Good Luck Stefan!

Our friend and keyboardist Stefan has decided to leave the band to follow his musical journey in a different direction. I'd like to state that the age differences had nothing to do with it. After all, it's not his fault that he's 20 years younger than the rest of us. ;)
And if you go, you may as well go with a bang as that last gig sure did have that "bang". Anyway, onwards and when all the dust settles on these changes, I'm looking forward to having a few beers with Stefan while listening to some live jazz and reminiscing of the good old days!

October gig, Magic, pure magic!

When the new owner of Robin's says that he was concerned that there were too many people in the bar, you know that something is right! And when the packed crowd responds with a wall of positive feedback, you know everything is just fine!
The sets went great and the band had so much fun playing, the songs often went longer than planned because it felt so good. One bad point was that I got so wired up and was moving around a little too much on small stage, that I stepped on Jouni's stomp box and broke the cable. For the last few songs Jouni was playing handicapped but it didn't stop him!
It's break time again as once again everybody is moving in different directions with their work. Keep you posted on where the next gig will be.

New Owner, Old Pals Concert!

Once again we're performing at Robin's on friday, October 1st. This is going be the opening night for the new owner Tomi Kuusela and it should be a blast!
Let me use this space to lay rest to any rumours that Tug My Boat's beer tab at Robin's was one of the reasons for the ownership change. Our thirst has nothing to do with it!
Our friend Dave Rogers will be doing stand-up between sets, so hope to see you all there!

Flash!---TugMyBoat singer has LSD!!!

Yes folks, you've heard it here first. Kari has LSD...........
LEAD SINGER DISEASE....
He has lost his voice and we don't know when he will get better. See what happens with some fall gigs.
The story here is that after the Otava gig, the next day Sunday, he was saying his voice was a little weak. No wonder. One of the high points of the gig was on how Kari took command of his voice and put on a stellar performance. Then after that he went to an island with some friends for some R&R.
What happened on that island can only be speculated. But with the rumours that are coming out now, it goes something like this. Laced with Muumi Pop along with some fantastic summer weather, Kari stood up with his hands in the air and shouted "I feel FREE!!!" and then began his rarely witnessed nature boy transformation to FinnTarzan where a middle aged disrobed male begins to climb trees in an ape like fashion and proceeds to yell the Tarzan yell. You know the one "AAAAEEEEEAAAAAEEEEEIIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!!" This always happens to some degree when Kari travel to nature. The gang on the island began to laugh and enjoy watching and listening to Kari's self-proclumation of freedom with nature in a somewhat rebellious fashion.
Passing by boaters may have noticed FinnTarzan because of the way the tree he was perched on was heavily swaying because of his weight, and they probably applauded in the performance.......but.....after a reported 4 hours, the "AAAAEEEEEAAAAAEEEEEIIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!!" began to get a little tiresome and was then the performance was suddenly put to a halt when a rare Great White Owl, who wasn't getting his daytime nap, had enough, flew to our lead singer and responded with even a bigger "AAAAEEEEEAAAAAEEEEEIIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!!". Stunned back to reality, our lead singer fell off the tree and has been unable to speak since. Strange but true.
Once again falls gigs are put on hold. Will keep you posted.

What a difference another gig makes.

Having heard the recording of the Huvikumpu gig, I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't that bad. I was expecting a lot worse. At Robin's we could no wrong. This time we could do no right.
During the gig we could only hear the drums and not ourselves and needless to say mistakes were made by all of us. In fact twice the pick-up dropped off my acoustic and I couldn't hear the difference. The best thing to go wrong was when near the ending of a song, a strange ringing sound could be heard.......It was Jouni's cellular calling!
The reason for the mess that we didn't have our mixer with us and two of the members of the other band "The Mojo Band" helped with mix after a crash course by Osku, who in return mixed them. After hearing the recording I can only thank them for a great job mixing in such difficult conditions. Thanks!
The Mojo Band were great! A polished performance with true blues feel. It was fun working with them.
As for us, we have all spread out in different directions for the summer and will get back together when feeling to make some noise again calls. I've started to get the ball rolling for a gig in Rautalampi in September hopefully. We need more gig time. We know our songs well and I feel the songs are performed better than at Robin's, but we lack experience in gig performancing when the challenges change from location to location. Makes thing interesting....
And now as I go to my corner for some r&r, I look back at all we've done since last fall with the band complete and gigs performed, I can only take a breath and think that this is kind of real neat!
Or.....as our fellow Dutch Philosopher would comment "It could of been much worse"......

Otava Gig! Will be interesting.

Yes, summers here and off to the cottage and then to Otava for our gig. This will be interesting as we are sharing the stage with another band from the area. The Mojo Band. A blues band from Mikkeli. How this is going to work out is anyone's guess. Sets, mixing, drums is all up in the air and will be sorted out.
We've been practicing new material, even at yesterday's practice which is great, but the problem is that I'm still trying to remember the old stuff............. Will keep you posted!

All Dressed Up and Nowhere To Go....

  Yep, the Kaiffari gig is canceled. As the owner has had bad times of late, now he can't even afford to open the bar on a Sunday anymore. The plan was to have the bar open during the Monturock Festival. However he wants us to play in the fall on a Friday.
  I was really looking forward to this gig, and so was the band. We have 5 new songs penciled in and swear every time we play the original songs from the first gig, they sound better than ever. 
   There may be two gigs in Mikkeli in the near future and were waiting to go. Will keep you posted. Anybody out there wants to become a band manger? Booking gigs and keeping a steady supply of beer going*?

Oh Ohhhhh. Summer's coming....

  The Finnish winter is er..... lets just say character building. This last winter it seemed to stretch out for half a year and then add the perpetual darkness of the twilight zone to it, you can understand how exstatic everyone is when the magical summer appears. Because what comes around, comes around. After the darkness, its never ending sunsets and white nights. Absolutely magical and if you have never experienced the midnight sun, you must. You must. 
  Of course everyone wants to take there vacation in the summer and enjoy. And because Finland has some great vacation time (eg., workers start at getting 6 weeks paid vacation a year), it seems like the whole country shuts down because everybody is on vacation! No problem. Bus and train schedules have to be reworked for summer hours. Store opening time have to be reworked. In fact the whole country has to be reworked. Everybody is enjoying the everlasting sunshine (when its not covered by clouds).
  And our band isn't excluded from this. Kari likes to spend his summer vacation up in Lapland, howling with the wolves with Muumi pop. He's gone for a month. Stefan has to work in the salty seas with Capt. Highliner. He's gone. Jouni and Osku both go to their corners of rural Finland and you know I will too. 
So I guess the Wednesday night practice jams will have to be also reworked for summer hours because Elvis has just left the building. There is however a slight problem with this break for me. With my memory at almost full with 55 years of living, patches are being deleted so I can actively remember what I can do at the present state of mind. For example, looking for things I had just a minute ago. Then when the decreasing daylight hours mark the end of the magic time and we get back to reality and relive our musical dreams, I think I may have to relearn everything again.......... What's a Am7sus#F again?...... What do you mean we've played this song before?..............
Oh well, until then, were still going to rock and roll and see what we can get going before the great summer arrives. eg. getting ready for Crazy Kaiffari on June 6th.

No Jam This Week

This band is a musician thing, meaning all of us doing what we love to do.........make music. It's great. The weekly jams are easily the high point to my week.
But we have to do other things in life, like work and make money so we don't starve to death, meaning having a healthy supply of beer in the fridge. This sometimes conflicts with our weekly jams and sometimes a member isn't with us for a weekly jam. But we carry on regardless.
But this week Osku was unavailable and that means no jam. We are so lucky to have such a great place to jam at Osku's studio, so his importance as a band member cannot be overstated. No Osku, no jam.
This week was one of them and first the reaction is ok, time to rest because there is always is a bit of a psyche-up involved in getting ready for the jam. Kari and I take care of that by having a quickie at Robin's before the jam. Seems to get things going. Then the music, a natural high. This week nothing. This week is sort of............empty.

On the Road Again ...

  Just made an arrangement to play at a bar in Tuusula called Crazy Kaiffari on June 6th. This is a Sunday and the reason for this is that Tuusula is having its annual Montturock Festival too on Sunday.
Montturock is a free rock festival featuring top Finnish bands. Last year they featured Anna Abreau and Dingo (I know this means nothing to non-Finns and perhaps rightfully so). Crazy Kaiffari is a hop away in case anybody wants to have a drink after the Festival and listen to us.
If it rains...............watch out!!!!
  Crazy Kaiffare is one of the oldest if not the oldest bar in Tuusula and has seen better days. It's now only open 4 days a week with weekends being reserved for Karaoke. Before they used to have live bands, and I can safely assume that this trend is also happening in your neighbourhood. Live music being replaced by Karaoke. Karaoke's are a lot of fun but the problem is that it includes alcohol. At the beginning of the evening most people are too shy to sing and respond "No no no, I can't sing at all". In all honesty they are correct. Then the demon alcohol begins to take effect and suddenly the vocal chords miraciously evolve into vocal competence and presto!....A Star Is Born!!!!!!! The new star impatiently waits their turn to set the world on fire with the inevitable result being something that sounds something like a poor dying cow breathing its last breath in some muddy field................ We've all heard it before.

  Of course this isn't always case. There are rare gems, meaning karaokist's that can actually sing! Believe it or not. Then it is a pleasure to listen to and if there is any justice in life, these singers will possibly join some sort of band to showcase their talents.  But the problem arises that there is no place to sing because all the bars have karaoke instead of live music. Go figure...............

Such A Night!

Well now that I've caught my breath back, I can reflect on the world debut. It was a blast! It was a sucess! The feedback has been nothing but positive except for the fact that the first few songs we sounded like we were in casts. Well that's understandable as we all were a bit nervous. Who me? Nervous? Nahhhhhhhh.......

I really wasn't nervous before the first song but after it started, my mind went blank and my throat became like sandpaper. Classic symptoms of a PANIC ATTACK....... When the going gets tough, the tough get going and I pulled into all reserves with over 30 years experience in the construction business. Construction work you say? It's a no brainer because construction work in some circles in the world is secretely known as another form of Waterboarding and I have managed to avoid torture by the meditative zen power of blocking out reality and escaping to la la land. Thats right! You place your mind in automatic pilot as you perform you labourious duties and then you can concentrate on the finers things in life........... UMMMMMMMMM:::::::::

With the grace of god I had the music notes in front of me and it all took care of itself. After a few songs we began to ease up and started to get into the groove and it started to be fun. Too much fun because when I sang Honky Tonk Woman, I was so into the chorus I forgot when the verse started and oh oh. Time to step out of la la land and get back on the stage...........

For the second set we rocked, plain and simple and get this, when we finished the encore, there still was a big crowd dancing and cheering! Either we rocked or in a act of desparation, the bar started selling drinks at half price, I don't know, maybe I don't want to know the answer...

Also we had our friend Dave Rogers introduce the band which turned out to be a lot of fun, and we now have a sixth band member, the "Mix Man"

Another bold ground breaking step by Tug My Boat. Not since the heady days of King Crimson, was a sound guy classified as a band member, but the way Mix Man honed in the awesome sound, we all felt like family. (And after all who else can we blame if everything screws up?)

Last night had another practice and started learning new songs, getting ready for the next gig which will be at...................................................................

Watch this space!

Robin's in Kerava

  When I moved to Kerava 13 years ago, I didn't expect to be here here so long. Apart from Toronto, this is the longest I've lived in one place. And as the years go by, Kerava now feels like a an old shirt. Comfortable to wear because its been broken in to me. (except for the never ending expanding waistline......) One of the most comfortable and perhaps too comfortable aspects of Kerava is the pub Robin's... Yes it makes me thirsty just thinking about it. I now go there and know all the people there and were all friends now. Like an old shirt. Comfortable. And it's great, except for the never ending expanding waistling.
  So many times I've been there listening to the live music bands on Saturday night, and so many nights I've been thinking, damn, I could do that. 
  So many nights I've been thinking about getting together with a bunch of friends and getting a band together to play at Robin's. Damn, I could do that. 
So many nights is now 5 nights away.........Damn, maybe I shouldn't do this.......
  But no.... I more excited than ever now because I'll with a group of friends on both sides of the stage having a good time. And it just can't get better than that. Thanks Robin's!

The First Date

The first date

Since I'm not too busy at work right now I get to sleep in but still I'm tired and the coffee helps. But usually my early mornings start when I wake up with the ring of death........The alarm clock shocking me into reality with no mercy. Still.... "I'm tired"....but that doesn't really scratch the surface of the soul searching you do when try and shut the fucking alarm clock off and look around and realize you have to pull yourself together for another of day of work............
After being exposed to this form of torture now for decades, people, I'm sure you can sympathize with me and my fellow band members that our spring has sort of has gotten lost from our step. The old knees take time to get warmed up. The back refuses to find the balance point which will allow you to stand up without leaning on to something. The prostrate has been arguing since the middle of the night to take action, but dreamland is too sweet. Yes life has become lets say a "leeeetle! weary................
BUT!!!!!!!! Somehow all is not lost........ With the world debut under two weeks away, I have realized a nervous action that I have not felt for decades. Nervousness? Yes, a bit.... Nervousness like asking out a girl for a first date. You know you have to go out with the babe and you have overcome this shitty feeling to achieve the means. It's not a very pleasant feeling. But I AM FEELING IT!!! At my dreary age to achieve some of this emotion again is.......pretty neat this time around. I know what it is and this time its great to have it back.
Because it's excitement. Sure winning the hockey gold was exciting. (Who's number 1?) but that is an objective high. This date thing completely personal.
Yep, still alive and well. Now when the gig starts, will the bad part of nervousness raise its devious head? You remember your first date. The sweaty palms while holding hands. The shaking..... I doubt it though. Because on your first date you were so scared of failing and that is what triggers the negative vibes. This time around, I am so used to failure in my life....it won't be anything new. wink....and this around, the beer helps....Cheers

"Its better to burn out than to rust"

That was said by my music guru and the older I get, the more it makes sense. I mean on what do you base your life upon my friend? The end all is the inevitable end all and how we get there is our freedom choice. To rust away reminds me of a Ford Transit just sitting in the corner of a lot doing nothing, sinking into the ground and with mother nature doing its thing and rusting away into a pile of rust. Just like a couch potatoe who plants a bottle of beer on his stomach and nods out while watching tv. Rot sets in. Rust sets in. The other alternative is to burn out. Life is hard and you can spruce up that Ford Transit by sandblasting the rust out, respraying, and make it as almost as good as new. But, to maintain that newness, you always have to replace old parts, retune it etc. A labour of love to keep it from rusting but eventually that engine will burn out and that hot transit will meet the same fate as the rusting transit in the lot corner.
The lifestyle choice is yours and mine and Neil boldly stated...Its better to burn out than to rust.....
I suppose this way of thinking can somehow explain on why 5 old grown men (except for the babe magnet keyboardist) would embark on a music band project and attempt the play live gigs and bars. Burn out? Maybe. Constant practicing and only when when we can manage to meet at the same room at the same time. Trying to figure out these songs which is a lot harder than you may think because somehow the memory cells aren't as effective as before. Wouldn't it be easier just to lay on the couch and plant a beer on your stomach and watch the olympics?.......................................
....Nah............. It is better to burn out. Try something new. Learn something new. Feel something new. And ladies and gentlemen, we are doing that. We are having a blast. A real blast and in two weeks it is going to progress into that first gig. At the age of 55.
Now.....I wonder if the "Its better to burn out....." was meant at expense of making possible fool of yourself on stage? People, we will soon find out and we will have fun finding out.

Tug My Boat kicks off a blog ...

That's right.
Matti - or maybe the other guys, too - will be blogging here every now and then about a weary rock band.

Web Site : www.tugmyboat.net