Vauhti Kiihtyy Festival was held in Turku for the second time this year. There are actually 5 festivals under the same banner this summer, taking place in different cities but featuring mostly the same artists. The Turku event we attended was slightly more rock-oriented than the others, with internationally known rock acts such as Michael Monroe, Turmion Kätilöt, Sonata Arctica and Stratovarius in the line-up.

The VAUHTI KIIHTYY concept is rather consumer-friendly - the tickets are incredibly cheap. The early bird offer was 50 EUR for two days and two persons! No surprise that this year’s event was a success. On Saturday, there were approximately 11.000 people on the site. 

The absence of media and photographers was fairly strange, this was a big event with famous artists after all. There could be many reasons for this - the timing, the location, the lack of exclusive and foreign artists, the lack of VIP guests such as politicians or celebrities… whatever, we had the photo pit pretty much for ourselves!

The first act of the festival started at 13:30 on Friday. Not good for the working people, but thankfully it’s the holiday season so POPEDA didn’t have to play to an empty field. They opened the festival last year too, with Olli Herman making one of his first appearances as the frontman of this legendary Finnish rock band. With dozens of gigs under his belt now, Olli seems like a natural fit for the band these days. The band’s set was a straight-forward, hard rocking selection of hits and fan favourites, with two new songs spicing it up. ”Aurinkoo ja Eukonkantoo” and ”Perutaan Hautajaiset” sounded okay. Not necessarily future Popeda classics, but it was good to hear something new.

MICHAEL MONROE is one of the most well-known rock characters in Finland, and very much a cult icon around the world. He’s known for his energetic shows, and the one he gave us at VAUHTI KIIHTYY was no exception. The odds were against it, as he was seen on crutches backstage. One could hardly tell that he had some health issues when he was on stage, the crutches were left behind and he was almost as lively as usual, doing all of his trademark stage antics.

Monroe’s setlist was very good, with several Hanoi Rocks classics and a few tracks off his ”Not Fakin’ It” album, including ”The Man With No Eyes”, a long-time favourite of mine. Although I’ve seen him live quite a few times, I think this was the first time I’ve heard this track live. A slight case of cold chills!

Next up was MIKAEL GABRIEL, another ”repeat offender” of last year’s festival. We only saw the last couple of songs his set the last time, so this time we checked out the first few numbers and Mira took some quality photos. I’m not into rap music at all, but credit where credit is due, he got the crowd jumping and singing along to the choruses.

We skipped the next artist Neljä Ruusua, but I returned to see TURMION KÄTILÖT, a band that I had heard of, but never really listened to. Although the sing in Finnish, they are signed to Nuclear Blast and have a strong fanbase outside of Finland. Their early live shows were outrageous, including S/M-elements and really strange outfits. Their Vauhti Kiihtyy show was a no-frills rock gig with no theatrics, but the band did stand out among the other performers. Their look could be described as ”zombie vikings from hell” but that wouldn’t really do them justice. Just look at the photos.

Before checking the band’s material, I had always thought that their songs would be something totally extreme and super-heavy, but I quickly found out that they aren’t. Industrial metal, techno keyboards, growled vocals, pop hooks, provocative lyrics… A curious concept but it works. ”We’re not Metal, we’re Kinky Disco”, said vocalist Shag-U. Or it could have been the other vocalist MC Raaka Pee, I’m not sure. Anyway, the band has some rather catchy songs and they were very entertaining.

The last two artists of Friday, rapper Petri Nygård and punk rockers Klamydia were both returning acts from last year’s event. Had they performed at some other time, I might have checked them out, but it was getting late and I had other commitments for the next day.

I missed the first few acts of Saturday due to the above mentioned commitments, but Mira was able to catch Happoradio, Ressu Redford and Anna Eriksson. Here’s what she thought of them:

“Happoradio got the crowd going. They were surprised that so many people had showed up so early, as they had struggled to wake up in time to make it to the gig. The band leader Aki Tykki had moved to Turku a few months ago and promised that there would be more gigs in the area. He also spent some time pondering the meaning of life in a very philosphical way.

Ressu Redford (editor's note: former lead vocalist of big-haired 80ies pop group Bogart Co) performed with lots of energy and the crowd went suitably wild. His set consisted of solo material, some Sound of RELS songs and covers, not to mention a lot of jokes. Jessica Uussaari was Ressu’s “sidekick”, playing violin and singing beautifully. For me, this was the most fun set of these three.

Anna Eriksson played an understated show without a band, accompanied by only one musician, Olli Hartonen on keyboards. Anna also played the grand piano on some of the songs. She appeared to be somehow apologetic and not at her best, and it didn’t help that her much-loved songs had been re-arranged for this minimalistic setup and many of the tempos had been slowed down. Anna is a great vocalist and a talented musician, but this was a bit disappointing.”

Fast forward a couple of hours and it was time for a double-shot of Finnish Heavy Metal: first SONATA ARCTICA and then STRATOVARIUS. It was also time for occasional showers, which was rather annoying. Especially since I had been too optimistic earlier and didn’t bring a raincoat.

Both bands are regular visitors at Finnish festivals, especially those who cater to the metal fans. I guess I’m kind of spoilt, as I’ve seen them both numerous times. 

Sonata Artica played first, kicking off their set with two tracks from their most recent album “ Clear Cold Beyond”: The uptempo opener “First In Line” and the more progressive “Dark Empath”. Then it was nothing but classic Sonata material:  “I Have A Right”, “San Sebastian”, “Tallulah”, “My Land”, “Full Moon”, “Wolf And Raven” and “Don’t Say A Word”. Of Course the traditional “Vodka” singalong closed the set.

Vocalist Tony Kakko was the master of ceremony and an engaging frontman. He gave a poignant speech about the importance of supporting live music, an important matter that we can all agree with I suppose.

During the first songs of Stratovarius gig it rained, and I was in the photopit trying the get good shots and not get my camera wet. It was fairly difficult, so I tried to be fast and efficient. I think I got a few good ones and even managed to capture the pouring rain to some of photos.

The Stratovarius setlist was somewhat similar to Sonata’s one: two songs from the latest album (“Glory Days” and “Survive”)  and the rest of the set classic material. Apart from the hits “Eagleheart”, “”Black Diamond”, “Unbreakable” and so on, they also played the not-so-radiofriendly, lengthy opus “Destiny”. 

Next artist would have been the comeback of Raptori, one of the first Finnish rap groups. Nah, not my cup of tea. I chose to take a break, get some dry clothes and a dinner. With Mira back in photographer duty, we came back just in time to see the Saturday’s headliners PORTION BOYS. They were one of the biggest draws of last summer’s Vauhti Kiihtyy, and famous for their knack at getting the party started. And goddamn it, they blew off the roof, even though there wasn’t one!

The amount of energy the band has on stage is really something else, it’s like watching a bunch of squirrels on speed! The last time one of them (JaloTiina) was in a wheelchair, but she has recovered since and was like a tornado on stage, adding a big portion (...) of energy to the show. Her vocals aren’t her strength, it’s her spirit and positivity that oozes from the stage.

I am not a big fan of artists who rely strongly on pre-recorded stuff, but somehow it doesn’t bother me with this band. They do have a live drummer and a live guitarist adding some rock edge to their sound, so it’s basically bass, keys and "bells & whistles" coming from a hard disc or whatever. As they sing… “It ain’t so serious”!

Even though the band has released only one album so far, they’ve been quite prolific otherwise and released a lot of singles every now and then, about 50 of them so far!  Many of them have been hugely popular, so it was very easy for them to put together a setlist of nothing but hits. They started with the song that gave the festival its’ name, “Vauhti Kiihtyy” (“The Pace Goes Up”), followed by most of their biggest hits and a special “Summer Medley”. And the crowd seemed to love it all, they sang along to every song as if their life depended on it. As for me, a cynical, badge-wearing member of the rock police… I maybe all that but I’m also a great admirer of a catchy hook, and Portion Boys have a full tackle box of damn sharp ones. Some of them more cheesy than others, some of them are borrowed, but I can’t deny that they are real earworms.

Review by Kimmo Toivonen, except where indicated.
Photos by Mira Suutari-Toivonen (Michael Monroe, Mikael Gabriel, Happoradio, Ressu Redford, Anna Eriksson, Portion Boys) and Kimmo Toivonen (Popeda, Linda, Turmion Kätilöt, Sonata Arctica, Stratovarius)

More photos: RockUnited.Com @ Facebook