Maris S.: TALLINN MUSIC WEEK 2014

It's been a few days now since TMW ended and I've finally had my time to sleep and digest

everything this massive festival had to offer. It was a good experience as a photographer and I enjoyed most of my time. This is what i saw and felt.

PS! It's going to be a long one. If you have no interest reading about the festival,

go straight to the official galleries. For the rest of you- just scroll down.

Cheers!

[ LINK TO 27.03.14 SINILIND ]

[ LINK TO 28.03.14 ROCKSTAR'S ]

[ LINK TO 29.03.14 ROCK CAFE ]

***

THURSDAY

27.03.14

Sinilind

Awesome-as-fuck

I missed the right train from Tartu by 30 seconds (literally) and had to get my press pass

from Nordic Hotel so when I arrived at Sinilind, Damn Seagulls had just finished.

We grabbed a quick drink and headed at the stage. Second band of the evening was Junk Riot, which was kind of interesting in the beginning but was not my cup of tea nevertheless. For some reason, the singer reminded me of Erki Pärnoja and the bass player was more or less John Lennon.

Some indie tunes and a couple of beers later, it was time for The Blanko from Finland.

I had checked them out back home but what I saw onstage was completely different.

These dudes had this sick kind of energy that made EVERYONE bang their heads.

Lead-singer and drummer acted like lunatics on speed. Didn't think much of the bassist, though.

He didn't seem to have the looks to fit in with the rest of the band and his emotional atmosphere wasn't so crazy. Later we found out from The Blanko's manager that it had been his first gig with the band, so we forgave him. This guy was a great player. He'll have plenty of time to grow the hair.

Last but not least, Ziggy fucking Wild came onstage.

Since I've told everyone so much good stuff about them, I'm out of words here.

If you want to know what I mean, just go and see them play.

Shivers ARE guaranteed.

JUNK RIOT (EST)

THE BLANKO (FIN)

ZIGGY WILD (EST)

***

FRIDAY

28.03.14

Woodstock/Rockstar's

The bad vibe

Sadly, Mait had to go back to Tartu. As we woke, I sent him away and tried to see what I could do with the photos from the last night. Travelling light, I only had my laptop with me.

No calibrated monitor. No Lightroom. No cooling system.

After many useless attempts to work inside (computer switched itself off every 5 minutes) I finally found a solution on the balcony. Little did I know, I was going to spend the next two days wrapped in a blanket in a 9-storey-apartment building in Õismäe.

When I got to Rockstar's, I managed to fuck up one of the pins inside my Mark II when chaning

the CF-cards. Since this wasn't the first time, I had no fear sticking long sharp

objects in my camera to bend it back.

When Trashless started, I was good to shoot again.

In the beginning of the gig, the lead-singer managed to drop his beer.
What he said only works in Estonian, so I'm not going to translate this.

"Türa, pauk läks lahti, raisk! Putsi...
Lava ees, raisk ongi, türa, hea olla, raisk. Putsi, saab pauguga näkku, raisk!"

Usually I really don't mind if anyone uses so many swear-words.
God knows, I may even do this myself. But this was different.

Everything about it -the intonation, the look on his face, the way the audience replied- was so fake and posed, it was disgusting. I immidiately hated the band and their vibe.

When they started playing, it wasn't so bad anymore, though I didn't think anything about the music.

The whole night was not a pleasant one.

I was a girl and alone in a bar full of overly drunk heavy metal guys in leather jackets three times too small for them. Some guy introduced himself by saying he just got out from mental institute he had been 8 times during the last 3 years. A man sized 2x2 meters tried to hug me and from the odor of his breath it was easy to tell he had no idea where he was or who he was.

I was there, photographing the bands when they were playing or out smoking just to get away from the madness.

The event made me think a lot of the quality of the music.

Soul Thrower was OK, though I've heard them better.

And of course, its hard to say anything about National Napalm Syndicate who's one of the building blocks of Finnish trash. But rest of it...

Come on. There's some good metal out there. But this... This was just bad and kind of unprofessional.

Maybe it was the sound. Maybe it was the bad vibe.

Maybe it was me.

Anyways, all I wanted to go was to get back home.

TRASHLESS (EST)

Stagedive @ TRASHLESS (EST)

TRASHLESS (EST)

WOLFMARE (RUS)

SOUL THROWER (EST)

NATIONAL NAPALM SYNDICATE (FIN)

***

SATURDAY

29.03.14

Rock Cafe

Feels like home

Mait's grandmother, who I was living with these days, made me pancakes in the morning, which was really sweet. After quick breakfast I was back in my editing-on-the-balcony routine.

Working as a freelancer, I usually get to choose what I shoot.

If I like the band, something ticks in my brain and it's pure fun both photographing and shopping.
Now I had to dig myself through massive amount of pictures I really didn't like

and since it had become my job, it was harder to keep up my motivation.

(Kind of refreshing actually... Is this how most of the people feel when they get up

and go to work in the morning? If so, there's something to admire about it.

How do they do it? I couldn't... I would break in to pieces or jump off the bridge.)

I kept thinking that it was the last day of the festival and I got to shoot in Rock Cafe,

which is kind of like a home in Tallinn. (I've even slept in their office after some concert)

A tiny piece of me hoped to get back to Tartu after the show so I kept asking everyone

if they knew anyone who was going. Most of the time they looked at me like I was a complete idiot,

an alien. What on earth would someone do in Tartu?!?!

All in all, it was a fun night.

I constantly kept running into people I knew so time went by quickly.

Tommy Cash (or Cash Tomi) was the first one to perform and I must say, I was really surprised at how good it was. (The first time I heard him live was in Genklubi and it sounded so horrible,
I thought he shouldn't do music at all...)

He was using dancers onstage like Ziggy does and I started to think about the changes in Estonian music. Lately it feels the bands are thinking more of their live performances, working really hard to put out a good show. I'm not saying everybody should have dancers onstage but it's good to see a show that supports the music. Jumping, screaming, headbanging, all that stuff.

Estonians are usually rather shy and quiet. To see someone put it all out, bring their wild energy to the stage and rock the audience, is more than fine with me.

(If only the audience could reply with the same energy and support the artist instead of stepping aside when someone feels like stagediving...)

Saying all this, Elephants From Neptune was awesome. I've listened to their music a while now but this was the first time to see them play live and I didn't leave disappointed.
Same does not go for Public Service Broadcasting, which really shouldn't be a live band.

If you're just standing in one place for 45 minutes, pushing buttons on your Mac and playing stuff that sounds like one really long song, I'm not going to like it as a listener and I will not like it as a photographer. Maybe I'm just not hipster enough.

Boredom faded away as the final band of the evening, Winny Puhh, started.
They had had a fan game before and the winner was on the stage with the band. He was wearing only a tablier and was making pankcakes during the whole show.

What a nice way to end a festival.

CASH TOMI (EST)

ELEPHANTS FROM NEPTUNE (EST)

PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING (UK)

WINNY PUHH (EST)

TALLINN MUSIC WEEK 2014

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