Session 31- Semifinal, Helsinki, Finland 08/4/07

9:30 People were up pretty late. The Ferry arrives in one hour. Magnus and Sebastian, who I shared a cabin with (because none of us snore. We put the 4 snoring people all together.. ), they did not come into the cabin until 3.4 in the morning. Seb was ok but Magnus pretty wasted... He is sleeping now... I did not sleep that well last night although I crashed around 12 or so after going up and hanging out with the guys near the bar. Very bad entertainment everywhere... Lots of Finnish people, mainly. People are drinking a lot everywhere... very unhealthy. anyway,. just had some juice, a tiger's milk bar and a shower. I feel pretty fresh now.

The wake up bell telling us we have to be downstairs at the van just rang. Magnus is crashed hard still. Seb and the others are up now. Mogens and Søren also look tired. Michael, Luz and I don't drink much so we are for sure the freshest..It was a really nice time just hanging out together and talking about all sorts of things last night. We are really a like kind of bunch of people who really get along on a real basic level... This is what makes for long lasting musical frienships.... I hope some years down the line we will be able to celebrate coming together and playing in Finland for the 10th time or something...

12:00 We came off the ferry with no hassles but Seb and Magnus were running up to the van as we were holding up the cue (only for 30 seconds) for letting other cars out behind us. We cruised into town and everything is pretty much closed on this easter sunday. We go to the local Subway sandwich place and hang out until Santtu comes to meet us. We will go to his rehearsal place and just hang out until we can get into the venue at 16 or so. Hidria will come at 17 to soundcheck first since they will play last. We are just chilling out and listening to the Soundtrack to the movie More by Pink Floyd. Great album... The joints and the beers are starting now...

13:30 Juha, Santtu's DJ partner for the night and a total vinyl collector has arrived. He is a really cool guy and we have a lot of laughs with him. Jarrie from Octopus Syng is here as well. He has some really cool records to play tonight like Circulus (A UK band he highly recommends), GONG, Sundial, etc..

14:06 søren is playing drums in the rehearsal room. He is joined by Michael on bass, Jarrie on sitar and Santtu on djembe. They play some pretty strange music. Santtu has recorded some of it...

Listen to a few of the jams here... Drum and Bass 1, Drum and Bass 2, Sitar Jam

14:26 People are getting really high now with everyone taking turns making joints.... Pretty much only the Finnish guys are drinking beers. I am pretty quiet just checking everyone out. Luz and Juha are talking, The others are jamming, mogens and I are just chilling.

15:25 Kalle, the guy who will do the projections and Samuel from Wasami and Inner Light Orchestra are here now. We have been playing around with these cool Owl masks that we will bring to the gig and people are in a really good mood. Juha is looking quite wasted and has opened a bottle of red wine. He and Jarrie drink most of it... Seb, Søren and Michael have returned from getting some more food. It is very smoky in here as these people smoke almost all the time. Luz and I are the only ones who don't smoke cigarettes.. awful..

17:15 All the Hidria guys are here and it is so great to see them all again. We help them to load their gear in. We came 30 minutes earlier and have all our stuff in the club. It is a small club but it has a high ceiling and a big stage. Kalle is setting up his projector and stuff.. Rob Dreamworker, who flew over with his family from England has come to take some pics at the soundcheck and stuff. Really super cool person. I wish I had more time to talk with him. There are just so many things to make sure they go right and check and people to talk to. Hemppa (old Dark SUn drummer) is here. He will do the Hidria Sound.

20:00 We just had a cool soundcheck and some food. Garlic potatoes, lamb stew and salad with juice. We only get one free beer each. Luckily we have a lot in the van. Some people are starting to show up. Lots of girls.. The visuals are going to look great. THe new Spacious Mind CD is playing now. Sounds cool... I am just chilling out getting relaxed before we will start.

20:45 Seems a lot of people are nervous. The club is pretty packed already. Everyone is getting really stoned.. Sebastian is not feeling all that well.. Nerves??

02:30 Wow.... what a fucking night. We played a very very stoned concert for about 100 minutes. Where was the energy? I felt like I played really well and Michael, Søren and Luz were way better today than in Stockholm... Our guitarist... could never let loose.. just let it go.. Very hesitant. Set yourself free and just play.... both guys are brilliant guitar players... We are very lucky to play with such talented people... They could not fly tonight... stoned in our zone.... People loved our set of laid back space groove music. Mogens and I played some cool stuff. Everyone did..

Hidria, fucking hell... they just blasted the place to pieces with a really heavy and jamming gig. I think they only play 6 songs in like 75 minutes. They played 4 songs from the new CD and a couple of old ones. I was totally blown away. What a band.. Teemu said they had not played such a heavy gig in 2-3 years.

The gig was totally sold out and they had to turn people away at the door. Amazing crowd. Sold like 5 or 6 cds.. Place to sell stuff was in a bad place and it was impossible for people to come over there. Mikko from Dark Sun video taped our set. Should look cool as I was told the visuals were really great that Kalle did. I can't wait to see the video.

Oh yeah.. there was a sort of strange jam session for like 30 minutes. I had asked the Hidria guys if they wanted to jam and it seemed like some of them did but then 5 minutes later none of them did. I set up my gear again and so did Magnus. Mogens came out to play Lokku's keys, søren on drums, Samuel on bass and Jarrie on guitar. Jarrie was playing all this blues stuff with no effects and not spacey at all. I could not figure out anything to play with him. The last 10 minutes he was playing just riffs and there was a very CAN like groove going. That wascool but I was not playing. I think it was pretty much crap, unfortunately... It turns out it was a bad idea... Sorry people...

Here are a couple of the pieces from this not so great jam.. Jam 1 Jam 2

3:30 We are back at the Dark Sun rehearsal space and some people are pretty fucked up and very stoned. Santtu is quite drunk, as is Jarrie. We will hang out here until like 5 and then we have to drive 2 hrs to the ferry in Turku.

It was a great two concerts...