ROCKIN' WITH DANNY VAUGHN AND TERRY BROCK IN FINLAND - Lahti & Helsinki

The Tyketto/Waysted singer Danny Vaughn and Terry Brock (Kansas, Steve Morse band, Strangeways, Slamer) were booked for some shows around Finland, which came as a great surprise for fans of melodic rock. Finland hardly gets visited by bands like these, due to the low album sales and this type of music just don't get any airplay here, neither at clubs, so whenever an act such as this visits the country, there's always a fuzz around it in the small circles.

WINTER ROCK FEST, LAHTI 31 March 2007

Lahti was the second show on the short tour, supporting the new Vaughn album "Traveller". Even a Saturday evening didn't help to fill the place, which wasn't your average rock club, but a hotel's congress room. So sadly the band had to play for around 35 people, and 20 of them came all the way from Helsinki to see their fave musicians. This seemed funny for the band, who joked about it to the crowd. Brock even stated he's "been on the other side of the stage as well" in a similar situation, so he knew how bad the crowd felt. But after a few songs all the pity and shame was gone, as the band rocked like professionals and the crowd got in a really good mood. Lahti support bands Rogue Angel and No:status didn't do nothing for the crowd, who were sitting in the back of the room during those bands. The concert place seemed all wrong for rock music, the place would've probably been packed had it been in a local bar or rock club and all the bands would've had their share of fans.

This tour was badly organized and also had other mishaps along the way, and the band was the one to suffer from it. In a place like Grand Arena (nowhere near as grand as the name suggests) with this amount of crowd it would've been best to let the main band do their thing, while support bands could've joined the rest of the shows.

Vaughn came on stage after midnight. With Terry Brock on second guitar and vocals, Vaughn's band also introduced Finns as well. On the other guitar was Patrick Luoti, on drums Toni Paananen (Malpractise) and on bass Jari Kainulainen (Stratovarius), so such a line-up seemed interesting and worth seing. All being professionals, the show was a tight package from beginning to end, the vocal harmonies were brilliant and the show was very emotional, although the band was better warmed up after a few songs and that's when Vaughn really started rocking and using the whole space on stage. He hardly had the space he needed for his kicks and other moves, and in the middle of the show he decided to jump off stage and went to greet his few fans on the floor level. It's not often musicians do this, and to do something like this always involves risks, but the fans were only happy to have their idol come down and greet them and give the show an even more intimate touch than it had already. The stage got even more smaller, when Rogue Angel members decided to jump there too, and Vaughns band didn't see that coming. The big bunch partied together for one song. The sound was much better and less noisy later in the evening, so people could watch the band easily without earplugs from first row, which is rare.

All the songs played in the set were welcomed with loud cheers, but the noisiest cheers got Tyketto's classic rocker "Forever Young", which was predicted to end the show, but the band still played a cover song to everybodys surprise. The crowd enjoyed it all and even ended up dancing to the last song. Eventhough Danny Vaughn was concidered the leader of the band, being the lead vocalist, Terry Brock was clearly the bands voice, and people were all ears as he was an excellent joker and speaker. Finnish food seemed to be to his taste, which French President Jacques Chirac was dissing earlier, and the Finnish weather seemed odd for him too. At this time of the year Finland has been much warmer than usual and while Brocks friends were freezing in USA, he could brag them about wearing shorts over here instead of all the thick winter wear he was prepared for. It was a long and entertaining night in Lahti, and the band even met up with their fans before and after the show, and signed all the stuff people had brought with them, and the cd's the fans bought from the band directly.

ROCKTOWN, HELSINKI 18 April 2007

The night was even longer in HELSINKI, where Brock played together with ex-Urban Tale guitarist Erkka Korhonen and Patrick Luoti. The set for this evening was much longer than in Lahti, and lasted close to two and half hours, two short breaks included. The set was a bit different from Lahti, since Danny Vaughn wasn't present anymore, so instead of hearing Tyketto songs, the crowd got to hear more Brocks material and some cover songs. Brock made this night another unforgettable one, being such a showman that he is, but Korhonen also has entertainers' blood in him, and together these guys offered a great show.

Since this show was an acoustic one, "Fight Fire With Fire" and "Jaded", among other songs, weren't as magical as in Lahti, but people still loved to hear these versions too, and some were brave enough to take the dance floor between the band and the rest of the crowd. Fortunately not too many people got excited about dancing, seing the band would've been hard then, since they played on a small and low stage and also sat through the show. RockTown gathered a bit more crowd than Lahti, and members from Brother Firetribe were also present. Korhonen decided to surprise the guys, so Firetribe-singer Pekka Heino ended up on stage to his surprise, right next to Brock. He was very honoured to do a song with such a legend, and sang a beautiful duet together with Brock of The Eagles' classic "Hotel California", with some lyrical help from Brock. Eventhough the song is a classic and gets a lot of airplay in Finland, it's still not easy to go on stage and sing a song that was picked right on the scene. The crowd loved the performance. Other Eagles classics heard were "Take It Easy" and "Desperado".

Brock had his cowboy hat full of surprises. During his almost month long visit in Finland he learned an amazing amount of Finnish language, and it was in good use at the shows. The show at RockTown turned out to be very hysterical from the humour side, as Brock was mercilessly firing his vocabulary to the crowd. He also gave short song samples in Finnish about Finnish women and the climax was his version of the punk band Apulanta's hit "Anna Mulle Piiskaa". The crowd was howling hysterically and dropping off their chairs, when such a legend sang "hey baby, spank me". The Prince classic "Purple Rain" played acoustically worked brilliantly and Brock really poured his soul to it, and while Lynyrd Skynyrds "Sweet Home Alabama" is played in Finland by too many bands and radio stations, it suited well for Brocks setlist. Stevie Ray Vaughn's "House Is Rockin" was included in this show also. Helsinki was also treated with at least these songs;

Wine, Lips Of An Angel, After The Hurt Is Gone, Dust In The Wind, I Wanna Love Someone, Forever Again, Another Chance, Where Do We Go From Here, Love Lies Dying, Coming Home, My City, Hold On, Lonely Wind, Can't Get Enough, Any Way, Drift Away

Brock should be back in Finland in the Autumn to record a live DVD with his Finnish friends, so hopefully we'll manage to catch that show too.

Setlist in Lahti:

Part One; Wings, (Tyketto), Another Chance (Brock), Fearless (Vaughn), Fight Fire With Fire (Kansas), After The Hurt Is Gone (Strangeways), Warriors Way (Vaughn), Where Do We Go From Here (Strangeways), Badlands Rain (Vaughn), Jaded (Slamer), Traveller (Vaughn)

Part Two, acoustic with Brock and Vaughn; Dust In The Wind (Kansas), Standing Alone (Tyketto),

Part Three; Higher Ground (Slamer), Million Miles Of Road (Vaughn), bass and drum solo, Love Lies Dying (Strangeways), Rescue Me (Tyketto), Coming Home (Brock), Forever Young (Tyketto), House Is Rockin (Stevie Ray Vaughn)

Report by Satu Reunanen, satu [at] rockunited.com
Pictures by Satu Reunanen and Kari Helenius, carda [at] metalphotos.com
http://www.metalphotos.com/Coppermine

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