Saturday, February 02, 2008

I AM RIVER, I AM FLAME

Olen joki, joka padotaan
olen mets
ä joka poltetaan
peto joka vangitaan rautah
äkkiin suljetaan
olen tila joka aidataan
liekki joka sammutetaan
tahdon sisimp
äni vapauttaa
ihmisyyteni nujertaa

Mokoma - Nujerra ihminen


After some weeks of constant dealing with studies, thus meaning writing essays, the time for some live music has come again. Finally! Going to a good gig was something I have really been missing for the past month.

On the first day of February, there was Mokoma playing in Lutakko. It seems Mokoma is among the most favorized Finnish metal bands at the moment. Their lyrics is intirely in Finnish, their music feels diverse, all the way from thrash and death to black metal, even some softer pieces included. Since the start of my studies in Jyväskylä, Mokoma has already visited the city once; the gig was sold out completely. So it was now, too; well, metal is a part of mainstream culture here afterall.

No matter atmospheres band features are melancholic, far from some kind of romantic stories, their rythms produce enough energy and power I sometimes really need to hear and feel. A bit masculine music, yet the band seems to have enough even sligthly hysterical female fans; at least so sounded those screams from the audience. However, frontman Marko Annala is supposed to be among the best lyric writers. Lyrics do not seem bad and Annala also seems skillful vocalist, featuring nice clear vocals as well as for my opinion proper growls. Overall, Mokoma made good performance, with lots of stage presence and flaming energy. In this case, I don't care if the band is becoming too mainstream - I will listen to them whenever I will feel like it.

Apart from the gig, some socializing happened as well. One thing was that I spoke in Finnish, and I was told I had not appear as a foreigner; my Fake Finn story kind of repeated. Whenever I get such compliments for my language skills, I am of course proud, and I try not to be too proud as I still do not master the language well enough, in my opinion. Yet it is true that I have started to learn Finnish only two years ago; I have noticed this fact sometimes seems surprising to native speakers.

I know where the power for liking and learning Finnish has come from. I know why I grasped the language so quickly that I had been able to chat, somehow, even after less than one year of learning. Some small events in life can redirect the way one walks, and all of a sudden one speak a new language. That time is over now, new things are going on, and I meet new people on my way. But whenever I see a good gig here in Finland, thus meaning Finnish music I have got to know in that particular period of my life, I am sort of happy. I guess one of the best outcomes of that particular time has been some amount of good music.

2 comments:

chobi said...

Fake Fin! THat would never happen to me :-/
Good that you keep the sourse of motivation for Finnish study, Sourse of motivation is easy to get but not so easy to keep.

kaneli said...

Sometimes even I wonder about this fact. :D Why did I continue my learning and even move to Finland? However, infection with Finnish culture was yet too strong and the only way to get well was learning further and going to Finland. ;)