Live Shows

[Lanttu]

There was twice a second person hired for the merch booth.  One of them landed a full time job and couldn't do it, and the other person got sick at the last minute.  It took me 8 straight hours of pulling all the merch variations and getting all the stock counted out, not to mention all the effort at getting the gig exclusive stuff printed/flown in/etc.  Didn't get home until 6AM cause load out was also a bitch.  A lot of effort went into it, so that's the best we could do on the merch end.

Of course, the performances are up to the guys.  I found GosT to be about the same this year personally, no better nor worse but I thought he was great last year and same this.  For me this year was not only about performances but also crowd.  People were there early, ready to go, no hesitation, last year was a bit more "eh let's see what these guys can do," as I think everyone came for Perturbator year one, and now everyone came for all 4.  Plus, few to zero production glitches or backstage production snafus to worry about.

Nice to know you were prepared with a second guy (like a responsible organiser should). Not so nice with complications but that's life. I also realise that amount of merch must be pain in the ass to sort so kudos to you for that. I didn't want to sound too harsh or entitled but I don't want to sugar coat things either. Actually, I think this time I would probably have got more satisfaction out helping selling merchandise than watching the gigs themselves.

Yeah, crowd liked what they got and that's always nice to see. Must be so much the sweeter for as their label owner and friend. Hell, I enjoyed Cheek's (the most mainstream hip hop artist in Finland for you outsiders) live show out of all possible artists more than most metal shows I go to. I sure as hell wouldn't listen to it at home but the package with great crowd and interaction between it and the artist really made the show. (Wouldn't pay to see him either, this time I was working at bar gate so I saw everything). Too bad I was in receptive state enough in that way this time.

I too was impressed how many people there were for Tommy already when I finally managed to get out of merch at 22:20 or so. Front of the stage didn't clear either like it did almost completely after 2nd or even 3rd artist in Carpenter Brut's gig. Too bad Ääniwalli is a bit lackluster in how fast they can get people in due to cloak room being such a bottleneck. Not much they can do to it I'm afraid. (Though I know for a fact I could've worked faster there, half or even twice as fast. )  There could've been even more people.