Yep, this week's post will be an unapologetically* self-indulgent one, and one delightfully free of my blog's alleged movie/TV themes. You see, my band Säätövara recently passed the 50-gig milestone, so I ranked all 50 of them! The shows were ranked based on a large combination of factors: importance to band history, memorability and subjective meaning, how well it went musically, how nice the venue was, audience energy and reception, et cetera. Let's go!
*Just kidding, I apologize for it several times throughout the post.
50. Kompassi II (August 2019)
No Säätövara gig is 100% bad, but this one takes the cake as the lamest. We concluded our 'tour' of acoustic street gigs in the summer of 2019 with this show on rainy day, with my choice of percussion being a mere snare drum with a terrible sound. Boring.
49. Ylistönmäki (October 2019)
The organization behind most of Jyväskylä's student restaurants gave many bands the chance to perform an acoustic set in one their locations in 2019, and we got the slot from the campus where physics and chemistry students reside. We felt amusingly out of place when arriving into a facility of high sciences with our instruments and long hair, and the gig itself was probably the tamest we've ever done, for it to fit the genre of 'lunch background music'.
48. Aren Aukio (August 2019)
Also a part of our acoustic 'tour' in the summer of '19, this was a pretty generic street music gig with the same old songs in the set. The highlight has to be a passer-by throwing a banana into the guitar case we had in front for money-collecting purposes (tempting fate, I ate the banana while we played our food-related Keuruun La Mel).
47. Kiljava III (July 2022)
Each year, the summer camp organization I've had as my go-to summer job for several years has a 'youth week', with slightly older campers than the other weeks, and a budget for entertainment and performances. Naturally, Säätövara played there three years in a row, and our third and last Kiljava gig was okay enough, although it started to feel like we had outgrown the place (we were also WAY too loud - sorry, kids!).
46. Kirkkopuisto (July 2019)
The grand acoustic tour of 2019 kicked off with this sweet little gig at Jyväskylä's 'church park'. Being the first acoustic street gig, it didn't feel quite as tired as some of the consequent ones - it also served as the live debut for our cult favorite Sheivaan, as well as the already-forgotten gem Liitelyä.
45. Radio Suomipop (December 2023)
During my time in the band, Säätövara has had two gigs that I didn't attend for various reasons. Those are naturally hard to rank, but despite not having experienced them firsthand, I didn't want to put them last. This radio gig came at a last-minute notice and I already had other plans, so our good friend Jukka filled in for me on percussion. It was weird as hell to listen to Säätövara on the radio instead of being there playing the songs, but the guys did an admittedly great job and I felt proud.
44. Poppari (February 2023)
This is the other gig where I wasn't present, as I had just come to Jyväskylä from a work stretch where I might have contracted norovirus (it was later revealed that I had not, in fact, contracted norovirus. But better to be safe than sorry!). Once again, I was proud as hell to follow my bandmates practicing a trio version of our set with just one day's warning, and based on the video clips I saw, they did a fantastic job.
43. Kiljava II (July 2021)
Our second Kiljava gig wasn't quite as new and memorable as our first, but still more energetic and less "oh, this again" than our third. It's naturally a fun and cool thing to gig with your band at your workplace, even when the gig isn't quite our best work in terms of sound and musicianship.
42. Matara (December (2019)
Youth Against Drugs organized this event, and playing for a good cause makes up for the fact that music-wise the gig wasn't among our most memorable or successful ones. Fun fact: this gig marks the last-ever time we played our OG classic Hei Vaan live, and it was the first of our original songs to leave the live rotation in lieu of new and better songs, meaning that no other song has been played last a longer time ago than that one. Truly the end of an era.
41. Veturitallit V (May 2022)
We've played the Veturitallit venue, home to the Jyväskylä Rock Academy that helped us get started, a total of five times. The fifth was undoubtedly the least special - it felt a bit like having outgrown one's training wheels, as we were playing the same old songs from the first album to the same old people in the crowd. Still, it's always a nice sense of coming home to be there, and the gear and sounds of Veturitallit are of a reliable quality!
40. Kiljava I (July 2020)
Our first Kiljava gig was definitely the most fun, despite (or maybe because of) our dragged-out six-song encore due to a bunch of campers who missed most of our initial set due to a scheduling conflict involving a sauna. It was a delight to just keep playing, with the teenage audience being enthusiastically on board.
39. M-Rec Streaming (May 2020)
Our first gig after the start of the Covid lockdown was this fun little streaming gig, from Jyväskylä-based M-Rec Studios. Our post-gig interview lives in infamy due to its cringeworthy awkwardness, but the gig itself was pretty neat - playing for cameras instead of a live audience was new and strange, but it definitely made the gig memorable in its unique nature.
38. Ville's Birthday (October 2019)
This one was hard to rank; music-wise, it's in our lowest tier, as it was an acoustic set we didn't really rehearse for and the venue was the living room in my parents' house. But, on an emotional level, this was one of the more heartwarming misadventures our band has gotten up to: for the birthday gathering of my big brother (and our arguably biggest fan) Ville, me and the boys made a well-coordinated surprise appearance to play a bunch of our songs. Good fun, if not a masterpiece of live music.
37. Kompassi I (July 2019)
Definitely the best out of the bunch in terms of the acoustic street gigs we did in the summer of '19, this one just hit all the spots - the songs went well, there was a good-sized crowd, and for once in my life, I had a moderate amount of fun playing the cajon (an instrument I spend most of my time passionately hating).
36. Kompassi III (May 2022)
Having previously played this area in Jyväskylä's city center in the context of acoustic street gigs, it felt like quite the glow-up to perform there with the full force of a stage put up for an annual cycling event, instruments blasting and all. On the minus side, the massive downpour of rain and news of a fire at a local factory possibly releasing dangerous fumes into the air affected the audience size. On the plus side, we got to play the song Jussilta Kahvia to THE Jussi it was written about, and now that we all got home safe, I always get a good chuckle when remembering that we omitted the song Notre Dame from our setlist as we reckoned it would be in poor taste due to the factory incident.
35. Kuopion Katusoittofestarit (May 2024)
Just last month, we travelled to the city of Kuopio to participate in an annual street music festival. It was a nice acoustic gig, with us first playing an official set on a small stage and then continuing to jam a bunch of our songs in an off-stage location. It wasn't as epic as most of our non-acoustic gigs, but we won the event's audience-voting-based band contest, so I guess we rocked pretty hard!
34. Veturitallit III (November 2020)
Our third gig in the good ol' Veturitallit served as the single release concert for Maitovara, our second-ever song to be released and our last official project as members of Jyväskylä Rock Academy. The mood was slightly dampened by the ever-changing Covid situation, which had us second-guessing whether or not we have to cancel the whole show up until the last minute. We eventually got to play the show, and while the audience was sparse and appropriately masked up, we still had a good time. The gig was also the live debut of the song Ihmisenä Ihmiselle from our new album, as well as the first and only time we've played Säätyvara (composed by yours truly; not my best work).
33. Seinäjoki (September 2023)
Quite a classic out-of-town gig, with the big challenge being playing non-acoustically as a trio, as bass maestro Riku was busy elsewhere. This made for quite a punk-ish set consisting of our most simple songs, but we rose to the challenge and had a good time with it. I remember this trip fondly because my girlfriend Martta joined us on the roadtrip, and it's always a blast when the person I'm always trying to impress with my drum shenanigans is in the audience.
32. Musica III (December 2022)
Ah, the official Christmas party of our university's music education and musicology students&staff, where Säätövara has played a total of three times. While the set list for this gig is always short due to the abundance of performers, our show has managed to be a firecracker of energy every time. We didn't exactly reinvent the wheel doing the essentially same gig for the third time, but we did have a great time and ended up live-debuting the new album's Rakastellaan Reeniksellä (you should really listen to our new album, by the way).
31. Multia (January 2022)
This one was a blast. We were hired by an acquaintance to play at a 'back to the days of our youth' party she and her friends threw, and I'd like to think we provided the youthful energy that was expected from us. C'Mon Baby Yeah by Tehosekoitin has got to be the most obscure cover song we've ever done.
30. Musica II (December 2021)
Our second time in the Musica Christmas party was just as energetic, albeit a tad less new and revolutionary, than the first. Always a good time with that crowd!
29. Mäkitorppa (April 2021)
You wouldn't expect an acoustic streaming gig, done as a part of a student event, to be ranked this highly. But as far as our acoustic sets go, this one was undoubtedly the most game-changing one we've done - not only did we perform a clever grunge-coded arrangement of our song Maitovara, this gig was also (as weird as it is to remember this bizarre fact) the LIVE DEBUT of Muut Vanhenee, which would go on to be the final track on our debut album and one of our most complimented songs.
28. Vastavirta (August 2020)
Due to a less-than-enthusiastic audience and multiple technical difficulties, my three partners-in-crime didn't enjoy this gig very much, and will likely roll their eyes at me ranking it so highly (if they bother to read this post, that is). I, however, got to borrow the drum kit of the band who played before us, with an amount of different well-tuned toms and a multitude of cymbals I had never encountered before. However badly the gig went from the POV of the other band members, I was too busy playing those drums with the enthusiasm of a little kid who found a new toy to notice. Never have I gotten to do such elaborate and sweet fills as I did in that show (the final chorus of Notre Dame was absolute mayhem).
27. Vesanto Pride (July 2019)
If the main metrics for this list were sound, gear quality and other technical aspects, our rainy gig at the Pride festival of the town of Vesanto would be ranked near the very bottom. But, a gig is always much more than that - a gig is a story, and what a story this one was. From the road trip there and back to the hilarious re-branding of "we have no idea what we're doing at this point" as "hey, this is pretty punk", this was vintage 2019 Säätövara at its purest.
26. Huuto Rock (June 2019)
When you grow up in Jyväskylä and join a band, playing the fabled venue of Poppari is the first big achievement you want unlocked. We got to do so quite early in our gigging career, and it was pretty awesome - not a particularly epic or unique gig, but certainly not a bad one either, and just the fact that it was Poppari (for the first time) makes it special.
25. Ilokivi Venue II (September 2023)
A chain of events led to this being a Säätövara concert where our longtime collaborator/producer Jaakko filled in for Riku on bass, yet Riku was present to see the gig (having never seen a Säätövara show from the audience's perspective, I'm jealous) and to take some truly kick-ass pictures. Music-wise, this was a really good gig, and between my lead vocals on Veikon Sienipiisi and my bass-playing stint whilst we switched instruments for Säätövara, I don't think I've ever played so many instruments during one Säätövara show.
24. Bar 34 (March 2024)
As far as out-of-town gigs go, this one was everything you want - the venue was nice, the other band was great, the audience was awesome. I anticipated some stiffness from the crowd as we were the out-of-town warm-up act for the local band, but the audience reacted to us with much more enthusiasm than I would've thought - and this reflected onto us, allowing us to tap into our full energy and really have a riot with it all.
23. Myllyfest I (August 2021)
Myllyfest is one of the coolest concepts I've ever stumbled upon - a couple who usually spend the summer going to rock festivals were bummed that there weren't any festivals due to Covid, and instead of doing nothing about it, they threw their own festival in their back yard, hiring random bands they found online and inviting their friends. We had a great time, and made some beloved contacts (the couple actually travelled all the way from Orivesi to see our album release gig in '22, which is something that warms my heart to this day).
22. Valon Kaupunki (September 2019)
I dunno, this one was just really memorable. Between our use of the X-Files theme as an intro track (my idea, naturally), opening with the forgotten gem Kotikulmien Julkisuus, and performing on a truck-built stage with atmospheric lighting as the gig was a part of Jyväskylä's annual 'City of light' event, the vibes were quite simply immaculate.
21. Ilokivi Venue I (March 2023)
I remember this one best for the major drama involving a snare stand (the story is too long to tell here, but ask me and I'll gladly tell you in person). The gig itself was quite nice, with our rendition of our ballad Robert Johnson being especially memorable as audience members were lying down on the floor to take it all in.
20. In Front of the Parliament House (October 2023)
In many ways, this was one of our worst shows - the horrible weather made the audience participation many times smaller than expected, and musically / sound-technically the gig was quite cruddy. But, my activist values being what they are, I can't help but feel that performing as part of a protest against Finland's current right-wing government, in front of the parliament house in true punk spirit, is one of the conceptually coolest and most important gigs we've done. Fight the power!
19. The Sauna Float (May 2020)
On the minus side, the only way to fit the drums onto the 'stage' were to put them so close to the edge that my drum stool was about a centimeter from the edge with no fence between me and the drop down to the water, so I spent the gig being extra careful due to a fear for my life. On the plus side, "Hey, are you guys Säätövara, uh, this is going to sound weird but our son is graduating and he likes rock music so we're looking to hire bands to play, we have a lakeside house and figured you could play from the roof of our sauna float?" is undoubtedly the single greatest phone call I've received in my life. The objective awesomeness of this gig overrides whatever issues I had with personal safety.
18. OKL Rocks (January 2024)
For a long time, the night club Freetime was one of the few prominent Jyväskylä gig venues we hadn't gotten to play yet. When we finally got the chance as part of this student event, we took it all in, making for one of our most musically solid and best-sounding gigs. The energy (both on the stage and in the crowd) was big, and we even got to live-debut the new album's song Naapurin Tyttö in a great manner!
17. Veturitallit IV (December 2021)
When trying to remember which Veturitallit gig was which, this one sticks out in my mind as 'the one where the band had suddenly evolved'. While every gig brings something new with it, the Säätövara seen across our first three Veturitallit gigs was in many ways the same band, young kids full of energy and talent but still finding their style and voice a bit. There was something special about this particular gig, as I remember my parents complimenting how our stage presence looked more sure and well-versed than ever before, and this complied with my personal experience of the show. If a band plays together for long enough, they develop a new level of live chemistry, and I think this was the gig when that really hit us.
16. Yläkaupungin Yö (May 2024)
After years and years of applying for Jyväskylä's iconic culture festival and missing out due to pandemics / rejections / not sending out the form on time / second waves of pandemics et cetera, we finally got the Yläkaupungin Yö gig - and our lead singer Olli was, naturally, in Denmark for a prestigious choir contest (their choir, by the way, is the one that's featured on the new album's song Säärivaha, and they won the contest in Denmark!)
Anyways, our dear and trustworthy friend Jukka filled in for Olli, leaving the bass as the only instrument he hasn't played in a Säätövara concert. The gig went well, with a few of our 'old classics' balancing out the hype of the new album's songs in the setlist.
15. Musica I (December 2019)
Our first-ever spot in the Musica Christmas party ranks way higher than a five-song number in a Christmas party has any right to. Somehow, our set just went very hard, and the crowd was the most enthusiastic we had ever had at that point, filling us with high levels of energy. This show was also the first (and last) live appearance of Säätövaran Joulu, a pop-punk Christmas anthem written by yours truly.
14. Yläkaupungin Ale Pub I (November 2023)
The release gig for Voisinpa Jäädä, the second single released to promote the Kaikki On Nyt Hyvin album, took place in the karaoke bar that has become a regular hang-out spot (and official business partner) for our student organization. Playing on such 'home turf' felt appropriate, and the venue was so agreeable that we booked the same location for our album's release concert later on. The bar even had a drink called Voisinpa Jäillä for that night!
13. Megarock (February 2020)
We've played the Megarock event, consisting of various alumni bands of the Jyväskylä Rock Academy, twice. The event takes place in Lutakko, the most prestigious and sought-after venue in Jyväskylä, so getting to play there for the first time is a dream come true for any Jyväskylä-raised rock musician. From the intro track (John Williams' Throne Room from the Star Wars soundtrack) blasting the sound systems as we walked onto the stage, all the way to the final guitar solo mayhem of Hei Taas, this gig was a memorable one.
12. Kotalampirock (May 2019)
Not to be too on-the-nose on the symbolism of a band still getting started with their career before entering the big boys' league, but our second-ever gig took place at a literal children's playground. Still, it's an extremely noteworthy gig in our lore, as it was the first-ever gig played by the full Hoffman-Montonen-Viitanen-Heikkinen lineup. Also, it had its share of legendary moments, like Aaro going down a playground slide while playing a guitar solo, and my bass drum pedal breaking during the intro of Hei Vaan, forcing me to improvise without the arguably most important part of my drum kit for the rest of the song.
11. Megarock (February 2024)
Our second time playing the Megarock event might be ranked even higher if it wasn't for the fact that we played last, after five consecutive metal bands, which means that about 1/3 of the crowd left after S.P.I.T. ended their set, 1/3 of the crowd were confused and unenthusiastic about our vibe, and just 1/3 of the crowd seemed to get into the spirit of things and have a good time. Why is this gig still ranked so highly, then?
Three words: Jaakko F**king Kiesiläinen.
Our longtime friend, producer and musical partner joined us on stage as a live keyboard player for this concert, and it was a huge payoff to finally get to play some of our songs (especially those that have piano/synth parts played by Jaakko on the record version) live with that musical addition. Finally getting to play Jämsän Uimahallin Lattiaa Pesty Eri Tavalla, Jotta Liukkaus Vähenisi with the song's objectively best part, Jaakko's insane synth solo, just felt so right, not to mention getting the piano harmonies on Voisinpa Jäädä, cool surf organs on Säärivaha, hilarious drilling sounds on Naapurit Poraa Kovaa and the so-far only live performance of the keyboard-heavy Ollin Sienibiisi.
10. Campus Invasion (September 2023)
Once again, my activist spirit soars from getting to do gigs like these. In the fall of 2023, multiple campuses in Finland were temporarily invaded by students to protest the outrageous and short-sighted cuts to housing benefits proposed by Petteri Orpo's government (basically, the combination of existing government rulings and these new proposals makes for a lovely paradox of "students can't afford to pay rent so they have to take jobs" -> "having a part-time job means that your remaining student benefits are cut off so you rely only on your wages which also isn't enough to pay rent" -> "students are forced to have FULL-TIME JOBS to pay rent while studying higher education WHICH ALREADY IS A FULL-TIME F**KING JOB YOU GODDAMN IDIOTS"). Sorry, got a little side-tracked there.
Anyways, we were proud to participate in the campus invasion, and more than happy to provide our music for the evening entertainment of one of the nights. Aaro found a way to tie pretty much all of our songs into political themes with his comments between songs, which was an impressive feat - sure, some songs like Onnen Päivä are pretty political to begin with, but others required some respectable mental gymnastics ("Ihmisenä Ihmiselle is a love song, and love and empathy belong in politics, even if our current leaders don't think so", et cetera).
9. Myllyfest II (August 2022)
Ah, the vibes were even better the second time the lovely Orivesi people organized their makeshift festival. This time they went all-out, with a truck stage and more bands and a bigger crowd. The atmosphere was immaculate, and I have a personal fondness for this show as it was the one where I drank four cups of coffee right before/during the show, as they gave coffee for all of us but no one else felt like it so they all went "give that to our drummer, he likes coffee".
I was worried that my hyper-caffeinated overdrive would screw up my playing, but according to our guitarist Aaro, I actually kept the tempo even better than usual. Took me a solid while to fall asleep that night, though!
8. Kramsu (May 2024)
This one was such a throwback - gigs of this quality were a common occurrence for us in 2019, but by the 'standard' we had reached by 2024, this was an exceptionally, well, *punk* gig. Between the ridiculous heat of this hot day, the relatively small but super-excited crowd, the night's other acts (Jesus Delorean Väisänen, Hites and Taipei Faks) all being amazing and the general art/punk vibe of Alakulttuuritalo Kramsu, this sweaty and over-energetic night was an absolute blast.
I always have fun on stage with Säätövara, but the amounts of fun have hardly ever risen to such an euphoric high - during our performance of Korkealla Corolla near the end of the set, I could almost feel my body exiting my soul in a moment of pure bliss that only the best drug of them all, live music, can offer.
7. Veturitallit II (November 2019)
This was the gig promoting the release of our first-ever single, Ammattipopisto (courtesy of the Jyväskylä Rock Academy). It's an incredible feeling to have a song you play on appear in Spotify, and the feeling of celebration culminated with the release gig.
I'm looking back at the set list, and it was a perfect moment of transition from our very early era into our Kammotuksen Kanootti era. Gone were staples like Kuoppa, Hei Vaan and Heivaan from the set, as they had to make space for material that was totally fresh and exciting back then - Säätövara, Notre Dame and Telkkarista all got their live debuts in this show.
In addition, the climactic performance of Ammattipopisto itself was a semi-spectacle, and best of all, I had saved a few of our early era's fan favorites for the encore while designing the set list, which made for what is still my favorite encore we've ever done: Keuruun La Mel (with yours truly sitting in the audience and eating vöner for the first half of the song), with a straight transition into the intro of Kuplamuovi.
6. David Hoffman 60v (April 2022)
So, my Dad turned 60, and didn't want to have a party - until he realized that he could turn his party into a rock n' roll concert. He booked Jyväskylä's legendary jazz bar Poppari for the night, in addition to booking some serious performers - Säätövara and Squealers, my two bands.
We got to play two sets, meaning that almost all of our songs that existed at that point in time made it onto the set lists. It was all a blast - opening with my piano composition Moment 3 (as per the birthday boy's request) which transitioned smoothly into Ammattipopisto, live-debuting Robert Johnson, getting to play gems like Kotikulmien Julkisuus and Liitelyä after a long break, and ending with the Telkkarista / Hei Taas / Muut Vanhenee trilogy from our first album, during which I saw my grandmother letting loose on the dance floor, which really is the most wonderful and precious thing to witness.
5. Yläkaupungin Ale Pub II (June 2024)
This was it - our landmark 50th gig, as well as the release gig for our second album Kaikki On Nyt Hyvin. The elements of danger were certainly present, as I had stayed up fo 26 straight hours at the time of the gig, due to my summer job as a summer camp's night guard. But, with the adrenaline of playing rock music live to an enthusiastic crowd (not to mention a helping hand from my dear friend caffeine), we got the job done.
The set list was a play-through of the album, with a nice Veikon Sienipiisi encore as a fun little epilogue. The crowd was filled with familiar faces from our lives, and playing for them was a joy (also, our opening act Äiti is 100% my #1 favorite out of all the bands we've gotten to perform with, and I'm dying to do more co-gigs with them).
4. Latorock (August 2019)
Some might wonder why such an obscure gig would rank so highly, but this one is a major subjective favorite for me. We had to fight all sorts of bureaucratic obstacles to make this gig happen, once the concept had been realized, and it was a big payoff to actually get there and give the audience this experience.
For many years, Jyväskylä's legendary theater organization Kulissi performed their plays in an old-school barn theater that is sadly no longer with us. In the summer of 2019, they put on a production of the obscure musical Urinetown, with Säätövara members Aaro and Olli in the cast. Hence the idea to team up with a few bands and do a rock concert in the barn, in the midst of the Urinetown set, for a night like no other. We spent the whole long-ass day putting it all together, and after Terromania and Unknown Decoy were done with their sets, Säätövara concluded the night with what was just a really fun set - our singer/guitarists bursting onstage in their Urinetown costumes, the overall theatrical feel of the gig, the set list being our so-far existing songs in the order they were conceived (a real walk down memory lane), you name it.
3. Risarock (May 2019)
I've read enough rock star biopics to know that every rock band needs to have that gig as an essential part of the "early days" chapter in their story. For us, that gig took place in a random cabin in the middle of nowhere, where we performed as part of the joint 30th birthday party of Aaro's cousin and Aaro's cousin's friend (or something like that). The 'stage' was a small corner next to the stairs, from which we had to remove a bunch of firewood in order to make room for the instruments.
Throughout the concert, everything possible from a technical standpoint went wrong, from a fuse burning and temporarily taking out all the electricity just before we were supposed to start to guitar strings getting broken mid-song. But, that didn't matter - the audience, drunk with the magic of live music (and quite a bit of alcohol) seemed to love every minute, wildly dancing and screaming to each of the songs. We all remember this one with major fondness.
2. Veturitallit I (March 2019)
My first gig with Säätövara came after over a year of practicing and practicing, while trying and failing to get gigs. When we finally scored our debut gig, Riku got leave from the army to come and play the concert, until during the week of the concert, he found out he can't come after all. This major drama was resolved by Kuisma, who back then was Aaro's fellow freshman in the university who the rest of us hadn't heard of, but who would go on to become a major figure in the band's story and a dear friend. He learned the songs with just a few days' warning, and so the first of many gigs came to be.
From the Kuplamuovi opening, through the sweet Keuruun La Mel featuring a live phone call with Riku, all the way to the chaotic Hei Taas ending and the Mato (Apulanta cover) encore, this gig will forever be etched in my mind. I was playing live with my band, with a set list of our songs (including my first Säätövara composition Maitovara), for the first time, and it felt magical. That feeling never quite went away as I still experience degrees of that during any given one of our shows, but there's still something inescapably special about the very first one.
1. Ylä-Ruth (March 2022)
While our second album is better than the first in my (and hopefully everyone's) opinion, the first album had an even more memorable release gig (not to take anything away from the second). This was just the warmest, most immaculately vibed show we've ever gotten to do - the milestone of releasing your first album is huge, and the gig was worthy of the occasion.
Friends and acquaintances from all stages of life for all four of us were there, and playing to a crowd so familiar and supportive is just the best feeling. It was moving to see how many familiar people had shown up to celebrate the album's release with us, and playing through the Säätövara Ja Kammotuksen Kanootti track list (plus a Maitovara encore!) for this enthusiastic crowd was just the best feeling. The way they were singing along the lyrics, not just the choruses but verses and all to many of our songs, was just mind-blowing, and quite a thing to breathe in.
That's my ranking of our first 50 gigs - here's to a 50 more!
Thank you for reading! Tune in next week for my list of the greatest TV cliffhangers of all time.
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