Oh Lord, Oulu

...we bid farewell to Lentava Lautenen, and headed out into the midnight sunset to bed down for the night.

Raahe, here we come...

Back on the road... The venues may be getting smaller, but the crowds are getting more intense. Last night, it was the little Lentava Lautenen (“Flying Saucer”) that hosted the band. When the place was opened -- 50 years ago, by a trio of old ladies -- UFOs were big, and the ladies, who envisioned more of a restaurant than a debauchery-filled den of drink, were riding the wave. I might, here, draw the metaphor further out, expounding on how Subs, once again, were seen as just about as foreign as little green men. But in a good way.

Audience participation, as you can see, was high. The kids just love screaming the numbers between one and four, though sometimes, just a scream will do (note the difference in mouth shape between punk dude and the numbers hoisted in front of his face to help him count along).

The ladies won this round, but the boyz came through later, to wit:

White-shirt dude here felt moved to let everyone know that he is “a great kisser”, which is pretty much obvious, no? So he moved on: “I love you,” he confessed to Kang Mao between songs. “I love you, too,” the object of his affection answered. “Maybe we should get married.” Wu Hao was unavailable for comment, busy as he was, with his guitar. Meanwhile, a couple others tried to get Kang Mao’s attention...

...culminating in this you-make-the-call move: Highlight or lowlight?

And with the ritual toe-licking (same guy, still shitfaced, wish your cameraman got down in there a bit more)...

and paddycake game...

...not to mention the bedtime of the youngest member of the crowd (watching, in a similar situation to the 17-year-old bassist from Two Beats’ Off, from the kitchen/backstage so as not to be in the grown-ups’ area)...

First off: Reuters just wrote (July 18) a piece on rock in China (no news is good news; no new news to add is not such bad news, I guess, especially since they did spell Subs’ name right). Find it here. The China Daily ran it too (who knows why), with more pics (which don’t seem to be linked to the Reuters story, but are, in fact, linked to the Reuters story) here.