Aaaah, festival season!
There's literally nothing better than summer, sun, a whole bunch of tables and booths set up seemingly at random and a couple of stages with different kinds of music. Now that'd be your average kind of festival, but obviously the people of Arabia don't just stop there, but there's all sorts of crazy exhibitions, activities and stuff I can't even begin to comprehend going on while all of the formerly mentioned is also taking place. And that's the Arabia Street Festival (Arabian Katufestivaali) for you in a nutshell. I'd've loved to linger there for longer since it was a perfect start to the festival season with the sun out with the people in the streets ready to soak in anything and everything – like our performance at the Chillilava for one – but we were all sort of on a schedule today, so I only caught a glimpse of it all.
I'd spent the morning mixing one of the tracks from the upcoming EP 'I Can't Alone' until Tuukka came around at about quarter to eleven and we packed up the car and took the drive to Arabia (not the one in the Middle-East, by the way...). Found the Chillilava easy enough and immediately started that whole "bumping-into-friends-from-back-when"-thing – Milos, was one of the guys running the stage. I'd played in a band with him for a time, a few years back. Remember playing a pretty badass rendition of the Foo Fighter's "Pretender". And so Joel – who subbed for Karza on drums (and plays keyboards at our next gig at Semifinal, psyched!!) obviously knew Milos as well, and then Matti – bass player in Tuukka's and my first band – appeared, followed by a colleague from work and Maqué – childhood friend of mine and also playing keyboards on the next EP! – showed up. Just the kind of party atmosphere you want the first gig of the summer to have.
Still, it was particularly nice to witness how many people actually stayed and listened to our set. Thing is, we were basically parked on a sidewalk with people passing by on the street going to the bigger stages (hence the title), so we had a constant flux of people but also a good amount of people who generally liked our stuff although maybe not having heard our stuff before. And that's just the best thing about these festivals really, isn't it? Making new friends through music, the sun and the overall positive vibe. Festivals – you have got to be one of humanities best inventions, if I dare say so. Sold a fair amount of CDs as well, which covered our costs for this gig, so thanks again you lovely people of Arabia!
Wish I'd been able to stay and soak in the wonderful atmosphere of you and your festival, but I had to get back home for a couple of important recording sessions for the upcoming EP. So yeah, a packed musical day! And while I'm completely exhausted having spent over 12 hours on music today; what a load of fun it has been. It was a pleasure playing for you Arabia, and we hope to see you again in the coming years!
Peace and love,
Jon
We played:
01. A Song For The Hills
02. Beggar Princess
03. Stuck With A Rhyme
04. Hurry
05. Skinny Dip
06. A Man With No Dance
07. The Funny One
08. Naive
09. Ugly