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