Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät

 Yesterday proved to be even more eventful! Coming from Korkeasaari and getting of the bus at the closest station to my crib I almost stumbled over this:

The cool drawing caught my eye right away. After reading the poster I was quite stunned to realize that it announced 1.) a gig of Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät, punk rock shooting stars and hottest shit in town 2.) on that very day and 3.) I was standing directly in front of the venue. Seemed that this Utopia Klubi had opened up just recently. Great, a new club in da hood! PKN were about to share the stage with Siiri Nordin (of whom I had never heard) with all the in-betweens spiced up with DJ sets. Right on, but what else did I read there? Doors open at 6 pm? I thought "whatever", it´s so close to where I live that I decided to shake off the island trip´s cold from my bones at home, grab some food and a cup of coffee and search the net for more info on the time table. I found nothing on that but got a hunch (sites all in Finnish, mind you) that this place was actually a youth club called Happi and Utopia Klubi was the name of the event in question. What I did find out without a doubt was that tonight´s show was free of charge. Jackpot! And for the unknown schedule, I went there myself shortly past six to see what was happening when.

I can´t remember the last time these question marks were answered to so promptly without even talking to someone. Right behind the entrance I ran into this:

Ok, almost two hours until Siiri Nordin entered the stage, what to do in the meantime? I had a look around that assured me this indeed WAS a youth club. I was cool with that and I generally think that there should be way more of these places in this world. Give the kids a place to go where they can meet friends, play, do sports, make music, find some support and guidance! So much better than the local bus stop or shopping mall. But I digress... well, being just a bit closer to forty than thirty I couldn´t help myself but feeling slightly misplaced amongst the teenies. My vision of a successful saturday night didn´t include lemonade and vegan food either,  so again I went home to enjoy a different kind of menu in preparation for the mighty PKN. But let me tell you a little bit about the band.

Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät was brought to my attention by a friend of mine who knows my love for punk. He mailed me a trailer for a documentary (!) on the band due to be released in 2012 (!! -is there another Ben Hur in the making?), you will find the clip below today´s post as usual. PKN nicked their moniker from a children song called Putte Possun Nimipäivät (Putte Pig´s Name Day) and modified it to what I believe is the name of the guitar player. If he´s the one who calls the shots in the band, I don´t know. All members are...how to put this the pc way? Disabled? Challenged? Handicapped? Suffice it to say that they are not your average combo for a couple of reasons. But when you see the aforementioned trailer you learn that the Helsinki punks have been enabled to play in far away places like Germany, that they took the challenge and improved their handicap to R-O-C-K! They play a lot around Helsinki and I just recently missed one of their shows that I was keen on checking out. So this Saturday I would finally get to see them, in my hood and for free. Life can be good sometimes...

A press shot of Pertti and Kari

About 8.30 I was yet again in Happi, just to realize that I had missed Siiri Nordin. Later on I found out that she´s a singer / song writer who used to be part of a rather successful band called Killer. The place was now filled with kids and older folks (like me, sigh) and wheelchairs. I decided to wait this time around and at 21.30 sharp PKN finally entered the stage. There was a music stand on the right side and I thought that singer Kari maybe needs a little help to remember the words, but no! They had a guy performing sign language for the non-hearing in the audience and he was the one who needed to see the lyrics. He even translated the stage banter, which I though was great. I was impressed! PKN are definetely fans of the 77 UK punk sound and played really great, all things considered. I´m into this punk shit for more than 20 years now and I have to say that I´ve seen a vast number of "normal" bands (what´s normal anyway?) that would be unable to hold a candle to them, I mean it! Lots of posing in the right clothing in the world of punk, too. All style, no substance. But Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät, they were the real deal.

Pertti, Toni, Kari and Sami

 They obviously had a blast themselves and were rocking out to songs like Kallioon (to Kallio, the notorious part of Helsinki and home to yours truly), Miks ei kukaan ymmärrä? (why doesn´t anyone understand?) and Mä vihaan maailma (I hate the world), all featured on their split 7" with Kakka-hätä 77, which of course I bought. Especially bass man Sami was getting into it and drummer Toni kept the fast eighth notes coming tightly, yeah! After 30+ mins they closed the show with the PKN theme song and left behind a satisfied crowd. I still didn´t fancy lemonade, so I left Happi happily and went back to Kallio, just like they had proclaimed in their smash hit.

That´s punk! 

Here´s the trailer for the upcoming documentary on the punk gods of Helsinki. Comes with English subtitles, ain´t that sweet? Enjoy!

               

Oh, and...

Make sure to check out:

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