SMUGGLERROK 2024 - August 2.- 3.

SmugglerRok celebrated its’ 10th anniversary this year. The festival has been held in the middle of a small town called Lieto, on a basketball field surrounded by apartment buildings, a school and the city hall. When the line-up for this year’s festival was announced, it wasn’t very well received. The festival had gained its’ reputation as an actual rock festival with mostly rock and metal artists, yet the 10th anniversary edition featured mostly mainstream pop artists also playing at many other events. The feedback was strong, and wisely the organizers listened. Pop/Hip Hop party band Roope Salminen & Koirat and Pop artist Jannika B were replaced by Kotiteollisuus and Jarkko Ahola (ex-Teräsbetoni lead singer).

FRIDAY

We missed the festival’s opener ARTTU WISKARI. He’s been a household name here for the last few years, scoring major radio hits and generally being the ”people’s choice”, a down-to-earth performer with sarcastic/funny lyrics and catchy melodies. He could be described as a very ”Finnish” artist with fans from all age groups.

When ANSSI KELA broke through in 2001 with his multi-platinum debut ”Nummela”, I wasn’t into it at all. His songs were kind of understated and Kela’s laconic style of singing didn’t appeal to me. Some good lyrics though… the first song of his that I really liked was called ”1972”, an anthemic rock track with great storytelling and a big chorus. I also liked ”Jennifer Aniston”, another big of his from 2005.

Kela’s career went to a downward spiral, but he bounced back in 2013 with his fifth, self-titled album. He re-vamped his sound towards 80’ies pop/rock with modern influences. The two albums and the singles he has released since then have followed on the same path.

Anssi Kela is a bit of a ”musician’s musician”, a multi-instrumentalist who has created most of his later music on his own. He’s also an excellent singer. Over the years he’s grown into a great performer, and his backing group is very talented, there’s no need for backing tracks with musicians of this caliber.

Kela played several songs from his debut album, and while I’m still not that much into them, they sounded ok and the crowd loved them. My favourites were ”1972”, ”Levoton Tyttö” and the recent single ”P Niin Kuin Puukko”. Some of his songs remind me a lot of Rick Springfield’s ”hi-tech” albums such as ”Tao” and ”Rock Of Life”… if you like those, check his stuff out if the Finnish language isn’t a problem!

I wasn’t expecting much from JUHA TAPIO, a popular singer/songwriter with a lot of mainstream hits under his belt. I have to say that I enjoyed his set, he had a good backing band plus a horn section, which gave his set a bit of Springsteenish vibe. I don’t have any of his albums but I knew most of the songs, some of which sounded very good live. He also has a couple of hits which I’ve always disliked, but they were tolerable in this setting.

In between the bands on the big stage, two cover bands played on the smaller stage. ULLANLINNAN ELVIS played an eclectic selection of songs from various decades, while WHOLE LOTTA 70’S played music from… the seventies! Both were okay, although Ullanlinnan Elvis absolutely murdered ”Wind Of Change” by Scorpions… Whole Lotta 70’s had a very authentic seventies’ look and a good singer. I’m not a huge fan of the seventies stuff, but in their last set on Saturday they had some of my favourites from the era, like ”Fox On The Run” and ”Cum On Feel The Noize”.

We had to end our Friday’s festival visit a bit early due to demands from the ”real life”, so we missed MAIJA VILKKUMAA and KOTITEOLLISUUS.

SATURDAY

The second day of the festival was more of a rock day. Unfortunately UNIKLUBI had already played when we arrived to Lieto, we would have liked to see the band as they were pretty good when we saw them a few years ago.

internationally acclaimed blues guitarist ERJA LYYTINEN was finishing her set as we entered the area. I managed to get close to the front row and snap a few photos. Apparently we weren't the only "latecomers", as the field was still quite sparsely crowded. It did fill up nicely when the bigger names took the stage.

Erja is an exceptionally talented guitarist, good singer and a lively performer. What little I managed to catch of it, she put on a good show and closed her set with a rousing cover of Jimi Hendrix’ ”Crosstown Traffic”.

Finland is a small country and if you visit three festivals within few weeks, you’re  bound to see at least a couple of artists twice. We had two of these second encounters at SmugglerRok, first being MICHAEL MONROE. We saw them (as in Michael Monroe the band) just a few weeks ago at Karjurock.

Monroe’s set was pretty similar to that of Karjurock, except for a welcomed addition of a Hanoi classic ”Motorvatin’”, which I can’t recall them playing there. I could be wrong though.

Monroe himself did his usual stunts, changing his headgear for every song, playing a bit of sax and climbing the stage structure while singing. He got up, close and personal with crowd several times, so there was never a dull moment.

I felt sorry for the roadie responsible for untangling Michael’s mike cable, he really had to work for his wage! Our photographer was almost caught by the same cable during one of Michael’s trips to the barrier, only her fast reflexes saved her… Band photography, dangerous but worth the risk.

JARKKO AHOLA, best known as the lead singer of Teräsbetoni, had put together an interesting set of covers for his solo performance. 80’s pop, heavy metal and hard rock classics, a lot of Queen and a couple of Teräsbetoni songs. Jarkko had a full band backing him up, and they did a good job.

Pet Shop Boys’ ”It’s A Sin” kicked off the show, followed by ”Everybody Wants To Rule The World”, a Tears For Fears song. Rock/Metal classics included Whitesnake’s ”Here I Go Again”, Scorpions’ ”Send Me An Angel” and Priest’s ”Breaking The Law”. The biggest crowd favourites were the two Teräsbetoni songs: ”Orjatar” and ”Taivas Lyö Tulta”. 

Even though Jarkko and his played good songs and Jarkko is a tremendous singer, somehow their show had a very strong coverband vibe. It was kind of entertaining, but I wasn't blown away, far from it. Oh yeah, the winner of ”the loudest shirt of the festival” competition is Jarkko’s guitarist, I think he’s called Lauri. Jarkko’s shirt was actually louder but hidden under a vest, and Lauri’s shirt was enhanced by his choice of trousers - they weren’t loud, they were screaming!

Another ”second encounter” of this summer was with BATTLE BEAST. We saw them headlining Vauhti Kiihtyy-festival a month ago, and they were the headliners at SmugglerRok too. Having seen the band on this ”Circus Of Doom” tour 5 times before, the ”element of surprise” wasn’t there anymore, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying their show. The setlist was the same as the last few times, but since most of the songs on it are on my ”Best Of Battle Beast” playlist, I can’t complain.

Battle Beast is a band that works hard and the crowd responds to that. Their energy is infectious, and Noora’s awesome vocals on top of everything are always brilliant. I’ve yet to hear an average performance from her.

What else… yeah, Pyry Vikki was behind the drum kit again, back from his ”baby vacation”.

Review by Kimmo Toivonen
Photos by Mira Suutari-Toivonen (Jarkko Ahola, Michael Monroe, Battle Beast) & Kimmo Toivonen (Anssi Kela, Juha Tapio, Erja Lyytinen)

More photos: RockUnited.Com @ Facebook