a LIFE IN HELsinki: August 2011

When there´s no more room in hell, Dead Elvis will walk the earth.

Last night the undead king of rock ´n´ roll did exactly that as he is haunting Finland at the moment. His first stroll on finnish mortal soil took him to Bar Loose and of course I was there to attend upon His Majesty.

Let me shortly explain what that guy is all about. If you haven´t heard about him before, you might think: "Oh boy, yet another Elvis impersonator. Squeezed into that horrible 70ties suit with no singing skills but a big bag full of bad song choices. No, thank you..." That is precisely what I thought when his name popped up for the first time. Luckily I checked out some of his tunes on the interrrNJET and was surprised to find no covers but some raw and raunchy originals!

Turned out that the aptly named DEAD ELVIS & HIS ONE MAN GRAVE is a one man band that has more in common with the likes of Hasil Adkins and Charlie Feathers then Mr. Presley. His gimmick is to pretend to be the resurrected Elvis Aaron, finally free from all the Priscillas and Col. Parkers. Now he´s the one calling the shots and handles all instruments (guitar, bass and snare drum) himself while crooning to the smash hits he wrote in his grave. Great stuff indeed but the real thing is to see DE perform live, because that man is outrageously funny! I have seen him at least 4 times back in Germany and everytime he had me in stitches. Very nice and humble guy, too. I met him unmasked (he was) before a show in Bonn, we had a little chat and he proved to be an overall no-rockstar-bullshit guy.

Now you can imagine that I was very thrilled when I got the info about his upcoming Finland tour and the gig in Helsinki. It´s not his first time over here, if I recall correctly it must be already the third. His link to Suomi is the two man band BLACK MAGIC SIX. I saw them with DE at the Sonic Ballroom in Köln and they kicked some serious ass. Needless to say that the two Finns are on the bill this time around, too. The unholy package is wrapped up with KAROSHI LOVERS (also from Finland) and HOLA GHOST from Denmark.

Let me now quickly drop a few words about Bar Loose, the venue where the whole spectacle went down last night. I like the place a lot and I warmly recommend it to you. If you are in Helsinki and into good rock music don´t hesitate to pay the joint a visit. Bar Loose operates on two levels, of course both of them have a bar. Upstairs you get warm food and hot turntable music, the real magic happens downstairs where the bands are playing. Sound is always good and you should just have a look on the long list of combos that performed there!

Could the similarity be a coincidence?

Daaaaamn right...

You have to show Angus your ticket before descending to R´n´R hell.

None of the bands on the Black Rainbow Tour have a conventional line-up which I think makes the whole thing even more interesting. It´s cool if you get tempted to check out the opening bands as well instead of only coming for the main act. So the only bummer of a otherwise great evening was that we missed out KAROSHI LOVERS, who started their set way earlier than announced by Bar Loose. It´s a pity because their blend of styles sounded quite interesting. As stated on their homepage they mix hard guitars with a Blondie meets PJ Harvey vibe. You actually can´t do wrong with an album called "Death Pop" either. They would have been the closest to a normal band, having three members in a drums - guitar - piano/vocals constellation.

Karoshi Lovers

So the first band we got to see was BLACK MAGIC SIX and my-o-my, it is amazing how much noise just two guys can produce when armed with a miniature drum kit and a Stratocaster, run through some mean pedals and a Marshall amp. They played a highly distorted melange of garagy, blues-infested hardrock for lack of a better descpription. High energy was the name of the game and I somehow liked them better this time, compared to the show I saw a few years back in Germany.

Black Magic Six at work. The drummer must have some serious back problems.

The crowd dug ´em as well and after 45 minutes they left behind a satisfied audience. Next up was my personal surprise act, a surprise in a way that I didn´t expect sooo much from them but they absolutely nailed it! HOLA GHOST, yet another two man band, includes guitar slinger Peter Sandorff (ex-Nekromantix and Mad Sin) and a vintage drum machine. I think Sandorff must manage damn well to alienate more than 50 % of his former following instantly with his current project, a following that he build up with the aforementioned psychobilly institutions. "No stand-up bass? Drum machine? Get outta here...", I hear them say and even I was sceptical, but let me tell you: when they hit the stage every doubt was eliminated. I think their attempt to combine Sandorff´s rockabilly-tinted punk attack with a distorted bass and this funny, eighties-sounding drum machine really worked out remarkably well.

From left to right: Drum machine, Jeppe Jessen, Peter Sandorff

Sandorff proved already in Nekromatix that he is a good songwriter and I think he´s a good singer, too. He´s making no exception with HOLA GHOST, the tunes were real catchy and that drum machine gave their spaghetti-western like "flamencore" a beat you can dance to. I especially liked that some melodies were played by that distorted bass instead of the guitar which gave the sound a nice twist. They also showed some good humor when they introduced the band and did not forget to mention the drum machine. They did that in the middle of a song and thus had programmed that thing so that it played some ridiculous fills when being mentioned by the band. Great show!

And then - finally- to the typical See, See Rider intro, he made his way to the stage, shaking (guys) and kissing (girls) hands. Like said before, I´ve seen DEAD ELVIS a couple of times before. But although every artist has a certain routine, his gigs never feel like a mere repetition of stuff you have seen already, he´s not only going through the motions. If the guy wouldn´t need to sit (bass and snare drum duties, remember) you could call a big part of his show stand-up comedy. He can go with the flow and reacts easily to the crowd or given situations. When I saw him one time in Köln, his guitar wouldn´t work. He made up a hilarious story around it that kept you so busy laughing your ass off! You just didn´t realize the little break, in which he got another guitar and then continued as if nothing had happened, almost as if it was part of the show. Last night though might have even been the best DE gig I´ve seen so far. The guy was almost sparkling when he started to take care of business.

Hit came after hit and not unlike BLACK MAGIC SIX he produced a wall of sound, just with even less means! It was one of the rare gigs that I didn´t want to end but the inevitable happened after almost an hour of killer r´n´r songs straight from the ~~garage~~ grave and a lot of fun. Unfortunately we had to leave right after the show, I would have liked to have a short chat again and tell him how cool it is to have him here in Finland. That by the way is something not all bands and artists necessarily do. Norway? Check. Sweden? Check. Denmark? Check. Finland? Hhmmm...difficult. Not so DEAD ELVIS. He has performed also in Turkey, Russia, China, Brazil and is due for a Japan tour in 2012. So if the dead man comes to a town near you, I urge you to go see him - There´s no way you will regret it!