18.12.2005 Kuudes linja, Helsinki with Monostereo (Russia)

Kuudes Linja, a brand spanking new rock'n'roll club in Kallio. Very nice. Goody Good Good. It's a sunday night, and we are the supporting act for Monostereo, a groovy russian bunch. A reasonable (50?) amount of people watch as we play sunday night chill out music. No we don't. We play ROCK. HARD ROCK. And then some sunday night chill out. It's a cozy little happening. Mr. Heikkonen from our new Finnish record company tells us disturbing stories from his punkrock tours to russia. We get to thank mr. T-mu Korpipää first hand for mixing our upcoming album. It sounds GREAT. It's not just the best, it's the BESTEST. And so of course isTusovka ry, who are the organizing force behind this little sunday night get together in Kallio rock city. HARD ROCK; ROCK HARD.

9.12.2005 Klubi, Tampere

Strange things happen in the pre-christmas party season. We support 22-Pistepirkko in Tampere, but there's a good ol' old peoples' dance music band supporting us! Or not exactly, but there's a private party that was supposed to be over by ten p.m. when the doors are opened for the rock'n'roll crowd. But the party goes on and on. This is OK for us, but not so OK for people who have bought tickets to see us and Pistepirkko, but cannot get in before the private partee people leave the building.
Anyway, they start heading for the door when we start playing. We play a good gig, not fantastic, but good. It's all Ok, but we feel like something's missing. Propably it's just that our previous gig in here felt SO GREAT. But again people like it. A lot of them seem to even know our stuff. FANS. SO GREAT. Some dude touches our egos (and hearts) as he praises the possibility of catching "two greatests bands on earth" on the same evening. THANKS. Heavy-Ilkka (no longer spelled with two Cs, cause that's a teen fad now) gets drunk but not too scary. GREAT. Backstage, there are potato chips. We go for some nightchow Pizza. A guy is sleeping at the pizzeria table. We have a discussion about how awful it would be if we got so popular that our songs would be played on the radio in the night time in some random pizza-place. AWFUL.

10.12.2005 Klubi, Turku

No private christmas party here. GOOD. But we are supported by POCKET KNIFE. Excellent stuff by excellent guys. Mr. Pocket Knife tells us a story about the time when he beat Tony "Viikinki" Halme at armwrestling. Excellent.
We rock harder than in Tampere. Musically it's worse, but it still feels better. It's a strange business. Rock and feelings. Lots of sananmuunnosses or munansaannoses are presented to the unsuspecting audience. Pentti Hirsmäki. Viktor Hettunen. Kari Vekka. And so on. At the end of the evening 22-PP rocks the house. Thanks, guys. And thanks Pena Dassum and the Kääntö Hostel for once again providing us with everything that we can ever dream up needing.

12.11.05 Kipsari,with Aavikko

Good ol' Kipsari. Great food, not so good sounds. Again we kind of rock. But the nice audience stays in their seats. Which is always OK. We play the same set as in Tampere. It's a good short set. We are astonished by the astonishing Tomi "Leppä" Leppänen as he plays drums with us in Kalashnikov. Man, that Tomi "Leppä" Leppänen. He sure can
play those drums. That Tomi "Leppä" Leppänen! What a guy! And a drummer! We most humbly thank Tomi "Leppä" Leppänen for playing with us. Always great to work with real musicians. The fact that Simo Sisu's ears look like testicles is almost revealed to the audience. But not quite. Of course, after we get off stage, Aavikko rocks harder than anybody else. That nice Tomi "Leppä" Leppänen, that always cool Paul Staufenbiel and that grumpy Tomi Kosonen. What a band!

03.11.05 Klubi, Tampere, Jazz happening

Opening night for Tampere Jazz happening, opening of a comic art exhibition by Ville and DJ Pauli Kallio, and live shows by World Peace Orchestra and us. It was a magical night of free entrance, so the place was jampacked and a lot of people were left outside crying in the cold cold night since klubi was "sold out". This time, we ROCK. Excellent versions of new and old songs. Lots of smiling faces in the audience. People dancing. Ville AND some dude from the audience hanging from that Klubi pole for a few seconds. As always, this makes people clap their hands in furious joy. One of our best shows ever. Now we are in touch with our new computerized live-system. No mistakes are made and good improvisatin takes place. We like it, the audience likes it, Klubi's sound engineer likes it. And Jussi Niemi of the local newspaper likes it! After the show we are scared of Heavy-Ilcca who is drunk and scary. The next morning a
musical genious and photographer extraordinnaire Jukka Salminen takes some promopictures of us. Arttu is suffering from the greatest hangover of the century. At last, someone shows some rock credibility in Black Audio. Hangover Photosession. ROCK! YEAH! ROCK! YEAH! Ville still feels the warmth of a successful gig as he goes back to Klubi
the next day to pick up a box of t-shirts we left. Then he overhears a couple of guys talking. It goes something like this:
A dude: "So how was that Black Audio, my friend was really enthustiastic about their show..."
Another dude: "We'll. I guess it was OK. Not jazz by any means, more like 22-Pistepirkko. In fact, EXACTLY like 22-Pistepirkko. The singer's voice sounded EXACTLY like 22-Pistepirkko. So it was allright, but a bit useless since there already is a 22-Pistepirkko"
A dude:" Oh, well that's always pretty boring when bands try to sound like someone else..."

Ville's heart sunk in deep despair. And for those of you who weren't there, we did NOT sound like 22-Pistepirkko. And Ville's or Antti's voice has NEVER sounded anything like P.K. Keränen's voice.

17.09.05 Svengi-festivaali, Hämeenlinna

An indoor arena happening for adults and underaged alike! A few bands and a capoeira-show. Now let me just point out to you that THERE'S NO WAY THAT CAPOEIRA WILL EVER WORK. No offence, it seems like a nice hobby and good exercise, but still. IT WILL NEVER WORK. Or it will work as well as Ville's memory during the second song of our set. First we kicked the show off with a brand new punk rock song. Good opening. Then we were supposed to keep on grooving with our second song, but Ville COMPLETELY FUCKED EVERYTHING UP. The nice Hämeenlinna audience propably didn't even notice that the song wasn't supposed to be so "experimental", but it was horrible. After that it took a couple of songs to get back in track but we did. It was the first gig with our new computer-system and we didn't quite handle it yet. It was an semi-OK gig in a nice happening. Nice audience, nice people handling things nicely and Heavy-Ilcca drunk and scary backstage. We get many compliments after the show although we hardly deserve them. Better luck next time.

A Wedding Party, Kangasala

Black Audio from the past! Arttu was somewhere in Europe taking care of Giant Robot business, and the old Black Audio trio from the past played a funny set from the past to a wedding crowd. It was a wedding party of our dear friends, we don't usually do this kind of thing. We played mostly our old songs from the trio-era. People danced. The boys and the girls. The young and the old. They knew the sound of Kalashnikov. Since the party took place at an old finnish SEUROJENTALO, it was the best looking venue ever. Nice romantic paintings of the beautiful finnish summer landscape and Black Audio from the past in sharp suits. Happy marriage to Anssi and Maria!

17.07.05 Club Kasettiasema, Ilosaarirock, Kerubin kuppila/Joensuu

Let's Club Kasettiasema at Kerubin Kuppila again! Just like we did last summer! A weekend of great musical experiences preceeded our gig on Sunday night. Custom Drummer, Arttu's solo show, Anssi Kasitonni, Janne Laurila, Vectors and other wonderful bands kept the Kasettiasema spirit up through the festival. We played mostly cover versions of our favorite stuff - like Jolly Jumpers, Black Sabbath or Link Wray. First half of the gig was kind of semi-OK. Then we suddenly started to suck. It was kinda like our gigs five years ago. A lot of noisy avantgarde improvisation that isn't really going anywhere. But that didn't seem to matter too much. The drunken audience partied anyway. GOOD! Audiences everywhere: GET DRUNK! Some nights just go a wrong. This was one of those nights. Statistically, it's very likely that the next gig is a lot better. So come and see us next time. We promise to rock.

All and all, Ilosaarirock provided us with lot's of fun stuff like Heavy-Ilcca The Drunken Master sleeping outside, DJ Rennot Reiskat: Vadelma, members of Monster Magnet acting all smoochy over cute little babies, Arttu playing four (4) different gigs, AOR-heaven DJ's drunk as hell, free candy at the VIP facilities and that horrifying stench that festival sites everywhere produce. Like red wine and catshit put into a blender, swallowed and vomited out again.The sweet smell of a summer rock festival. SWEET. Onthe way home we discussed mainly about having riceporridge in number two, ”Tarkkis” TV show and theconcept of ”Nasma”. The concept of ”Nasma”. Too much.

And Timur: the two words are ”Tornio” and ”stereo”.

11.06.05 St. Petersburg, Platforma Club

A three day TRIP to Russia, courtesy of the ladies who organize theTUSOVKA cultural exchange between Finland and Russia. It's a birthdayparty for Hanna, one of the Tusovka organizers living in St. Petersburg. Boy, let me tell you, for a shy small town boy who likes quiet evenings in front of the TV, this is a HARD RIDE. But in a very good way. St. Petersburg seems like the most amazing city. Like an actual European metropol with a slavic twist. Much more so than for example, Helsinki. Not to say that Helsinki is not a nice town, but it ain't no European metropol. After we cross the border, we stop at Viipurin Veikot. It's a place that sells cheap potato chips, ALCOHOL and pirated AUDIO VIDEO GAMESCD ROM DVD 24H. And did I mention ALCOHOL?

Let the heavy drinking commence.

We arrive at St. Petersburg kinda late. We get to our living quarters,the home of the birthday girl, Hanna and her flatmate. Very soon thebirthday girl sleeps under the table. We hear disturbing things about religious mothers who teach their kids to bury their pets alive. Wellnot exactly, but it's sinister stuff. It really is. We go for some allnite russian chow. It tastes good. We watch the sunrise and realizethat Timur, the birthday girl's boyfriend is one of the nicest guysthat ever lived. He fixes everything. TIMUR - he's THE MAN. The party goes on and on and on andonandon. Not just til' the eak of dawn. The next day it's starts again. Tusovka people sure can hold their liquor. More so than the Black Audio guys, who are wimping out on the drinking all the time. One of us don't even touch alcohol. We take a walk in the city. And what a city it is. Only beautifulpre-communism buildings and lot of Russian strangeness. We even see asome kind of political demonstration by 7 young nazi communists. Those guys have really taken the time to think about their politicalidentity. We eat pizza. Then it's time to head down to the club, Platforma. Timur, who is the man, drives us and our equipment there. He also is our translator as we try to solve a problem with the sound engineer. The problem is that we can hear some russian radiostationfrom every amplifier on stage and the PA system as well. It's funny and irritating at the same time. But you can only hear it when the band is not playing, so we leave it like that. We eat super gourmet pike perch. And steaks. And garlic-cheese-tomatos. YUMMY YUMMY. Antti takes a painkiller named UPSIRIN for his headache.

The birthday party starts. The first band, KARTEL' sounds great. And they have the coolest russian POLYVOX syntheziser, which of course goes out of tune every once in a while, but sounds greatanyway. KARTEL' IS THE BAND. And then we get to witness a true RussianDIVA (Natasha Pivovarova & Sous) who knows how to demand the audience'sattention. And by this time the birthday girl is on the stage also.PARTYING HARD. People in St. Petersburg PARTY HARD. Much more so than the Black Audio guys who are constantly wimping out on the partying.But we get to party on stage. The St. Petersburg on-stage party is a HARD one. And somewhat chaotic. A few technical difficulties, Ville's handstands crashing into everybody else on stage and a lot of avantgarde improvisation make it kinda like a PUNK ROCK SHOW. But in a very nice way. And the party people like it. Afterwards we get to hearthe heartwarming compliments of the lovely Fennorussian audience. The heavy drinking continues. Again, Timur is THE MAN who fixes everythingfor everyone, with Tusovka Meri making sure everything runs smoothly with the club people. She also makes sure Black Audio doesn't go bankrupt in Russia. So thank Meri when we can get someone competent to mix our next album!!

The next day Timur does it again and helps us out a lot. It rains like a motherfucker so we don't get to go for a shopping spree ofMoscow olympics memorabilia and that kind of good stuff. Instead, we eat all kinds of super gourmet thingies. The ride back home starts ina fairly easy going fashion, as even the lovely Tusovka ladies who totallyoutpartied us seem a little tired. The Russian driver has a nice "NO HOLDS BARRED, PEDAL TO THE METAL, BITE MY DUST, KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN" -approach to driving. We like it. FASTER! HARDER! SCOOTER! This takes us back to Viipurin Veikot in no time. Ville gets to feed a stray cat.

All and all, it's a TRIP to remember. We most humbly thank the Tusovkaladies who made it all happen and of course Timur. Did I already mention that he is THE MAN? If i didn't, here it is for one more time: TIMUR IS THE MAN.

28.05.05 Turku, Pikku-Torre (with Anssi Kasitonni, L'go Pistooli).

Kääntö-Records party at Pikku-Torre! Nothing could be better. Nice people, good food, good music. Anssi Kasitonni starts the evening by rocking hard. The audience is a bunch of wide-eyed wonderers. Almostlike in that Elton John song. Anssi also tells us about a guy called Käppäri. He used to do some KICKBOOOOXING. Thank you, Anssi. Then L'go Pistooli take the stage. They have a guitar now. And they sound better than ever. And they have always sounded great. So now they sound EXTRAGODDAMN GREAT. Which is, well EXTRA GODDAMN GREAT. Then it's our turn. We do good. people like it. Some guy dances. He dances so HARD that others, especially girls who try dance have some trouble fitting themselves to the small dancefloor. He's a guy who can take up a lot of space. And invade the personal space of others. NICE GOING! YEAH! WOOOO-HOOOO! It's a nice evening of all kinds of wonderful feelings. we get sincerely heart-warming compliments from the Turku audience and the Kääntö Hostel once again provides us with everything that a man could ever ask for. We play Philips Videopac. Heavy-Ilcca is a bit grumpy. Turku is different. The color green there is greener.

27.04.05 Torvi, Lahti

Have you noticed that at least 60 percent of people seem a bit odd? Just keep your eyes open. They walk among us. Or should we say we walk among them? The odd 60 percent -they're everywhere! We arrive to the heavily urine-flavored Torvi. Dark, smelly and sticky. Very punk rock indeed. As we unload our equipment, a guy who's carrying a car stereo system wanders in and tries to buy some beer. They say the place is not open yet. COOL. It's an IKAHU club -happening, and the people arranging the whole scheme are nice and neat young artists. ARTISTIC YOUNG PEOPLE. They play smooth electro music. It's a funny contrast to the pretty sinister mood of the urine-flavored surroundings of TORVI. GREAT! The audience seem like nice young artistic people, and they are interested in our stuff when we finally start playing. We play a long set. After the support tour and 30 minute sets, it feels NICE. And it's a good show. Girls and boys dance, smile and clap their hands. A handstand is appreciated. YEAH! Arttu makes his Black Audio -vocalist debut as we play "Dimsey Naish". Ville's jokes are even worse than usual. Nobody gets it. Not even Ville. We play an extra looooong version of "Dirt Pond Dive". We like it. After the show we drive off and stop at the nearest 24-hour coffee/deisel place to wash our hands. We feel dirty. Then it's a longish drive to Helsinki and Hämeenlinna. At 4 a.m. Ville and Heavy-Ilcca the driver keep themselves awake by having conversations like ordinary people. THE ORDINARIES -They're everywhere! They're talking about strange things like ice-hockey, cars, the economy or the swedish royalty. Talking like THE ORDINARIES. THE ODD 60 PERCENT and THE ORDINARIES -you gotta love 'em! Or like Ted Nugent would put it: If you can't love 'em, LOVE 'EM!

FINNISH TOUR WITH 22 PISTEPIRKKO

Day 7 (24.4.05) - Tavastia, Helsinki

This time we have more than enough space to do our thing. Malcolm, a very nice gentleman and a huge Pistepirkko fan from England plays his first gig ever to sold-out Tavastia. It is EXCELLENT. After that we get to play our set for a full house too. GREAT. Ville's handstand is appreciated. HANDSTANDS -THEY'RE REALLY NOT THAT SPECIAL. Again we do good, but not great. It's an OK gig with some memorable moments. GOODY GOODY. And we get a warm response from the Tavastinian audience. YEAH. Again we get a lot of encouragement from various people. THANK YOU FOR YOUR KIND WORDS. THEY HELP US TO CARRY ON. Later in the evening we are more tired and happier than average. Ville gets to sing "Tokyo Tiger" in the Pistepirkko -encore. Which is nice. At least for Ville. WE MOST HUMBLY THANK THE WHOLE 22-PP ENTOURAGE FOR GIVING US THE CHANCE.

Day 6 (23.4.05) - Tavastia, Helsinki

We go on stage first, but there's already a good amount of people in the house. A GOOD AMOUNT OF PEOPLE! WHOOO! There's the 22-Pistepirkko backline AND the Sweatmaster backline on stage so we just have to fit ourselves to the very edge of the stage. That's OK, we've played shows in smaller places. But there's some monitoring problems due to the claustrophobic situation, and that makes us feel a bit uneasy on stage. UNEASY RIDERS. So it's not the best show we could have pulled off. But is goes reasonably well, people get more into it as we proceed with our set. Again we sell a lot of records. Actually we sell almost everything we have with us. We didn't really expect for anybody to buy this stuff. BUT THEY DID! They bought stuff like MOTHERFUCKERS ON FIRE. Like they had a recorder in the tailpipe. GOOD GOING, Tavastia audience! A lot of people see/ hear about us for the first time and kinda dig it. NICE. Later mr. Morningmountain stars a great alcohol-o-rama and all kinds of small time r'n'r craziness occurs.PARTA-SEPE, OTA JALLUA.

Day 5 (22.4.05) - Yo-talo, Tampere

We arrive early to check out the sounds. Too early. But it is always nicer to Not have to hurry than have to hurry. We eat super gourmet pike perch. YUMMY. It's a sold-out happening and Yo-talo is already jampacked with eager listeners as we start. We do good. People like us. The whole gig has a very enjoyable vibe and we feel it is the best show we've ever played in Tampere. Not mindblowingly extraordinary but certainly better than average. BLACK AUDIO -BETTER THAN AVERAGE. Many members of the audience come thanking us after the show and we sell a lot of records. VERY GOOD INDEED. Jussi Niemi writes in the local newspaper: "This kind of urban roots-music servers a function in modern society". RIGHT ON. We eat pizza, accomodate Arttu's homeless relatives and sleep tight for a couple of hours. In the morning we listen to Vesa's latest mixes of our next album. It sounds EXCELLENT. Next album -BETTER THAN AVERAGE AND SERVING A FUNCTION IN MODERN SOCIETY. YUMMY.

Day 4 (16.4.05) - Duuni, Seinäjoki

We wake up in Turku and go for some sandwiches. Ilkka eats one that's the size of a human head. FOR REAL. The largest sandwich in the history of the human race. A TOTAL MOTHERFUCKING MONSTER OF A SANDWICH. We start the endless drive to Seinäjoki. Between Rauma and Pori there's a somekind of marathon running competition for the elderly or otherwise not so fast runners. This slows us down quite a bit. A RUNNING COMPETITION FOR THE UNCOOL. They got the beauties. Ville tells a story about KENTTÄ-TOPI, another Kitee oldtimer. This will haunt all the members of our road crew for the rest of our lives. After driving through the boring landscape of POHOJAMMAA we arrive to Seinäjoki. We do a quick soundcheck, meet our accomodation manager Kanto, and eat some upper quality chow. We don't order any humour but get served some anyway. HUMOUR -IT IS SELDOM FUNNY. The bar opens at 10 p.m. and we go on stage 15 minutes after that. Not too many people in the audience, but a few interested ones, and that is always enough. We play a semi-good show. "ELÄ, INARII" becomes a natural part of the lyrics. Some people buy our records. But there are a lot of people who are just waiting for the disco-thing to start and are not too interested in live music. We also meet some bodybuilding pig-farmers. GOODY GOODY. After our job is done at Duuni, WE TAKE THE RUBBERFOOT UNDER OURSELVES and head for the superluxus sauna of mr. Kanto. THANKY THANKY. We also watch some Genesis videos from the 80's. We realize that they sound like Giant Robot. Arttu gets some heat about this. G-ROBOT equals GENESIS-ROBOT. The next morning we realize how bad sunday morning TV shows are. Everybody, check out SUNNUTAIVEKKARI or AIKATOHTORI. Scary stuff.

Day 3 (15.4.05) - Klubi, Turku

Klubi almost full of people. Nice. First they don't care or understand. But after a half second handstand by Ville they're like: "WHOAH, DUDE, AWESOME!" We don't play in the sharpest possible manner, but the mistakes are lucky mistakes and people like it. NICE. There's some guy in the audience who insists that we are 22-pistepirkko and makes Ville write his autograph on a pistepirkko album cover. Ville keeps telling him he's got the wrong band, and still gives the autograph. SWEET. Many people of various age groups, sexes and sizes buy our and spanking new EP "Video Store". EXCELLENT. Back in the day, when Ville was growing up in Kitee, a great oldtimer called Jukka used to say "ELÄ, INARIIN, ELÄ!" in a screeching voice. He used to do it a lot. That was his line. It would be nice to come up with a cool line like that, and then use it everywhere all the time. Dave Weckl is LAME. Ilkka gets scarier as the night grows older. We watch a demo version of a 22-Pistepirkko documentary. Them guys are pretty strange. Again we thank The Kääntö hostel for a good nights sleep and tolerance. THANKY THANKY THANKY.

Day 2 (8.4.05) - Lutakko, Jyväskylä

We wake up in Kuopio and check out the town square. BEAUTIFUL. A FOREFINGER RECORD. Touring is hard. We've been on the road for 31 long hours. Ilcca drives us to Jyväskylä. Ilcca is no longer as scary as he was the night before. Yet he says mean things to old crippled ladies. We stop for a coffee and JP. In Jyväskylä we eat a lot. We eat too much in various locations. Lutakko is not full when we start playing, but the people seem to dig it. Afterwards we get nice compliments from a vast variety of middle-aged people. We drive away fast. Vesa drinks Vita Nova. It has a foul taste. FOUL TASTE. NICE!

Day 1 (7.4.05) - Henry's Pub, Kuopio

In Kuopio people actually come to see the bands play before 10 p.m. Good going, Kuopio! so we get to play for a full house. We play a short "supporting act" -type of set. Good songs only. The Kuopio people kinda dig it. Ville's mum and dad travel 500000 miles just to see the show. MUM AND DAD. ROCK*N*ROLL! MUM and DAD like it. GOOD. Special thanks to Antti Axehill for the mixing business and Paul and Mari for superluxus accomodation, coffee and sympathy. Drunken Ilcca the driver causes fear and loathing among Kuopio nightlife-natives. And one taxi driver. We eat pizza. Some 22 -year old guy tells us a sad story. He has lost his love and alcohol. Life can be tough in Kuopio. A great guy named jakke insists that Ville has no right to wear a jacket that has the word "trucker" on it, because Ville doesn't drive trucks. Elementary school argumentation is the best. LOCK! KEY IN THE SUN! We have all the stuff you can ever think of at our Grandma's house.

13.03.05 Tusovka-festival, Gloria, Helsinki

Starting the show by fucking up the first song is NOT the best way to go. But it helps you to relax and take it easy for the rest of the show, since the only way is up. Ville's disconnected microphone cord and disconnected ain made "Headless Rooster Got No Chicken" sound like , well, as good as a headless rooster. But the few friends of russian/finnish cultural exchange that had showed up for the sunday evening show were a nice bunch and laughed with us, not so much at us. And the rest of the show was OK. Not great by any means, but not a total disaster either. Although Vesa, who did not hear guitars or vocals on stage, felt that it was. A TOTAL DISASTER. But Ville, Antti and Arttu who did hear what was going on, felt nice. A NICE DISASTER. New songs still work well. GOODY GOODY. Tusovka-organizers were good people, the russian short films great and vegetarian chow alright. YEAH! And some russian dude gave Ville a nice compliment: "Great music. You cool running master." COOL RUNNING MASTER.

25.02.05 Vastavirta Klubi, Tampere

Punk rock club in Pispala! Yeah! Nice D.I.Y. atmosphere and spicy vegan nutrition. Hardcore punk on the stereos. Time warp to 1989. First Anssi Kasitonni astonished the audience with his fierce rhytmics and deep rock'n'roll hollering. Excellent show. Anssi is the MAN. After that We relied heavily on our new, rocking numbers. It was nice to see that the new songs work live. People dug it. Pispala punk rock scene emaced our countrybluessoulrock-influences. GOODY GOODY. We were pretty damn good. Antti and Arttu improvised up a great arrangement in a new song called "DIRT POND DIVE". Pete Leppämäki dancesteps were introduced to the audience which included some cousins of Pete Leppämäki. GREAT! Spin Doctors, Hootie and The Blowfish, Maroon 5 and Xysma were mentioned. XYSMA is THE MAN. Spin doctors etc. are NOT. They are LAME. LAME ASS MOTHERFUCKERS. But, Pispala punk rock people were nice people, backstage nachos tasted fabulous, Voimaryhmä made everybody dance to their uptempo skanking and all in all it was a DYNAMITE evening. Just like I said it would be. Käpylän Jokkeri laittaa silmälasit päähänsä ja sanoo:" Ai täällä sataa vettä?"

22.01.05 Riemufestivaali, Nosturi, Helsinki

It was tough to go on stage after The Valkyrians, whose razor sharp ska stylings were JUST TOO DAMN EXCELLENT. But we, Black Audio, are not the kind of guys who shy away from tough challenges. Although maybe we should be, because we did NOT rise up to the Valkyrian challenge. We put on a NOT SO GOOD show. Sometimes it's hard to pinpoint exactly why the show is not taking off properly. It just does not take off. It wasn't our finest hour, but an OK gig. Many members of the Nosturi audience seemed to enjoy it anyway. And since Nosturi has that "dancefloor for the teenagers" -thing, we got to play for YOUNG PEOPLE. Great, YOUNG PEOPLE DANCE GOODY GOODY. YOUNG PEOPLE DO THE HAPPY FEET. YOUNG PEOPLE SHINY HAPPY PEOPLE. And the old-timers were somewhat into it too. Imagine, what would have happened, if we would have been as good as we sometimes can be. Aki Manninen and the 1992 boots -situation in Vilppula was not of any interest to anyone, but Ville started the show by telling about it anyway. The dramatical peak of the gig was reached when we trew a couple of little footballs to the kids so they could have a pair of pants. This may sound a bit strange. And STRANGE it was. But nothing compared to LÄHIRADIO, which provided the late night soundtrack for us in Kallio. Lähiradio is a local radio channel. At night time there's someone who's obviously not a musician, and most definetely has severe mental problems, playing very long improvisations on a home organ. Totally absurd 30-minute pieces of childish casio-grinding. Not for the faint-hearted, I tell you. Radio does not get better than that.