Meanwhile, awaiting the sales results from the merchandising tent after the show (Subs sold more CDs than just about anyone else: And all right after their set ended), Zhu Lei and I met some friendly festival staff (one of whom, a big dude in a metal band that loved the Subs’ set) who were keen to participate in cross-cultural dialogue: In exchange for Zhu Lei’s skilled handwriting (one wanted a tattoo of ‘happiness’ but didn’t want to end up having some random swear word forever emblazoned upon her body) and inside knowledge of the Chinese Scene, he was treated not only to salted licorice candy, but also to a special local black brew, the alcoholized version of the candy. “The candy on its own is ok,” he said. “The booze on its own was ok. But together.... Ack!”

 

As is the way with most people who meet the band, Zhu Lei was bombarded with musical suggestions: “You gotta check out these bands,” he was told as the list grew. It’s quite cool to see this kind of thing happen: You can tell that people really enjoy Subs’ music by the fact that they want to introduce the band to more music (of course, when fans start burning dvds-worth of mp3s, things quickly spiral out of control).

 

Hello Joensuu! Gig #1 in the bag; thousands of satisfied (drunken, wild, enthused) fans in our wake. Subs played the smallest of the festival’s five stages, but drew far more people than the area was meant to hold. People were constantly coming up to me aghast that Subs had drawn so many people despite the lack of any substantial pre-festival publicity, and how good they were. This is going to be a regular occurrence over the next two months, I assure you: The lure of a “Chinese punk band” means that people will come out for the curiosity factor alone; just so happens that they’ll hear some good tunes to boot.

 

And so, in the bright 8-pm sun, the band took to the stage and gave the festival a ferocious set.

One might chalk up the band’s onstage energy to the channelling of frustration (and hope) over Xiao Bai’s woes, but more likely, it was the four days of waiting for the first gig and the thrill of kicking of an 8-week tour with the biggest show of them all. Not to mention the thousands of screaming Finns. To say that the band played an encore isn’t saying much, since -- to let those of you who may not’ve known in on the secret -- a two-song encore was planned all along. But a second encore wasn’t in the playbook and caught the band off-guard. But the crowd wanted more, and, after a frenzied backstage huddle, the band returned, rounding out almost an hour of music.

One last image that I couldn’t help but leave you with. Because nothing says Finnish rock and roll quite like a spikey-haired dude hoisting a pineapple above his head.

 

Wednesday we’re off to Kajaani for the first of three shows in northern Finland with local act Two Beats Off.

 

Moi moi for now!