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.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
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!
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!
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
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"......
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"......
Thursday, June 24, 2010
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!
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!
Friday, May 21, 2010
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*?
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
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.
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.
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