10:30 I am the only one up now. I don’t know what time the gig is today or where it is yet. I need to check the mail from Tuomas and find out. There is a young guy who might drive with Jukka and play with us. We will see. I will listen to a bit of the show now.

14:02 I found out from Tuomas where the gig is and had a shower and we bought some food at store and made some nice sandwiches, etc.. Everyone is in a good mood again. I charged my camera up and checked out the recording and it sounds pretty ok. Nick seems way too low though. Tuomas said that if we arrive by 17 there will be some free food and his band will play an improvised set at 18. We are going to a few record stores like Hippie Shake and Black and White and then hitting the road.

16:30 We left a bit late but are making good time. Sebastian is driving. Mogens got a Herbie Hancock record and Pär some Pekka Pohjola CDs (that sounded really cool as this is what we are hearing in the car), Sebastian bought Buck Owens and Gene Parsons on LP. It is a really beautiful day. I am wearing shorts. I exchanged some SMS’s with Ilpa from the club in Tampere and we can arrive around 20 but I told him we want to come earlier to set up and I think it is fine.

Band list for the night. A really happy guy!

19:24 This is a punk rock party at a house on the outskirts of Turku that they have taken over and made a 4 day music festival. The large room is where all the bands play. There was nothing started or set up when we got there. A major selection of the Turku underground alternative pierced, tattooed punk rock people make up the majority. They still had some pea soup stuff and some bread but I hate peas so I went for some other food. They are running behind so it will be a late night. They need to stop around 01:00 because of some neighbors not far away. I walked into town a bit and found the Moose Café and had some pasta with smoked reindeer and wild mushrooms like what I had when I was in Helsinki in July 1997. It was delicious. It is nice out on the roof patio in the sun. Some guys played up here with guitar and snare drum.

Roof performers Seb and pâr on the roof

21:43 It is not totally dark but it has cooled off a lot now and all the people are getting drunk and the band continues to drink and smoke and they went off and had some pizza. The newspaper did an article about this festival which was pretty cool publicity for them. The people all seem pretty cool but very few come and talk to us at all. Not sure if it due to the language or they are just keeping to themselves. We are mostly hanging out at the van. We were supposed to play at 22 but there are still two bands to play. They had a punk band who were really awful, then an all instrumental band metal-stoner psych thing that was pretty complicated had some interesting songs and played quite loud.

Punk band Instrumental band

22:37 Riff Fishing.. a future title. Tuomas’s band is setting up now and they sound pretty cool. He said they will play like 30 mins. I am tired of waiting and just want to play. Tuomas’s band had him on guitar, bass, drums and Topi on sax, digi, trumpet, etc.. It was very spaced out at the beginning but then the drummer kept bringing them up a bit more than the rest of the band wanted to. Still fun. I liked his guitar playing.

Tuomas jam band

02:00 WOW.. This was the best concert of the trip so far but cut off short by the police coming. The place was really full and the people were dancing and brought so much energy into the room. We played about 70 mins or so and then made the mistake of taking a break and when we came back to play again, the police were there within like 5 mins making us stop. We did continue on for like 20 mins more and played this very relaxed night time space lullaby for the Turku people. Topi played some sax as them. Anyway, we played the most trance Hidira spacefolk like stuff we ever have and with a really high energy level. Jukka is just the perfect drummer for us to play this stuff and he is so excellent to direct the tempo of up and down and when we should kick it up again. Fantastic! I don’t think the recording will be very good but you never know. Mogens and I were too loud, I think.