21.5.99 Keltsu, Vaasa.           The Unadorned, Insolence We decided to have an unofficial release gig for Pooka. Pretty girls in the audience and also in the ticket-booth. What else does one want in his hometown? 14.5.99 Tulliklubi, Tampere.           Disco., Crappy Clown, Boot Camp, Corporal Feast Weīve had our problems with this city. We crossed our fingers that we could have our revenge this time. When we got to the sound check, everything seemed to be in order. The guy who organized this one was OK, The place was OK, and when a friend called me and wanted to have a couple of drinks at a local pub called Ale-pub (BTW, for those who havenīt been practicing their Finnish that good: Ale is short for discount in our native tongue), I could not refuse. We sat and talked about the state of the world address and also the situation in Kosovo, and all of a sudden it was already 23.00. I rushed to Tullikamari, because I thought that we should start soon. Little did I know about the fact that Tampere was to show itīs ugly face to us once again. When I got to the venue, the first band was still on stage and I instantly got worried...Well, instantly may be a kinda harsh way to put it after all those ginger-ales I had at Ale-pub. Anyway, the house was full, and the atmosphere was great. I had a minor shock, when I thought that I bumped into Ronnie James Dio, but to my slight disappointment it was "just" the vocalist from Two Witches. Well the schedule was fucked (actually not that much, just the usual 70 minutes ;-) ) and we just tried to relax and enjoy the other bands. Disco got my juices flowing with their razor-sharp 30 minutes of pure musical massacre. They rock. Then it was time for Corporal Feast . Their "nothing-near-a-convenient-2-minutes-of-pop-music" was maybe slightly too much for the young Tamperenians who slowly, but with large numbers drifted away from the venue. We were set to play after them. Shit. Tampere showed us by rubbing itīs backside to our noses. Once again. Well we grieved about it for maybe 2 minutes and then prepared to play for the crowd who still was there. (I hereby thank each and every one.) We played and we rocked and the audience seemed pleased. After the show we got to Mikluīs (the organizer of the gig) home where we stayed overnight. He was cool. He let us use his vcr, where we got to see "Gone with the wind" and "My Africa". (I guess you were watching these movies after I hit the sack since the flicks I saw were quite drastically different...more ummm...sensual could be one way to put it --Ove). He was a gracious host. In the morning we put Nicke in the first train to Turku, and when we got company in the form of a beautiful student who was also on her way to Vaasa, we didnīt even remember about the gig yesterday. 1.5.99 Sadankomitea, Turku.           Oheisvasara, Long Ball Pride, etc. Our return to the sunny city of Turku happened in the worst possible day for a band like us. The 1st of May is a national hangover day for the whole country, and we had to sit in the car for 348km. Not good. After we had rosted our asses of in the terribly HOT (Hotter than Hell. -Stanley/Simmons) car, and stopping at numerous parking lots and gasstations (Not forgetting the best Pehmis (Soft Ice) in Finland at Köffi) we finally reached Turku. We hadnīt met for a while, so the gig in itself, wasnīt that important. The main theme in Turku was trying to remember what we had done yesterday, and who we had talked to. Sakke won the competition with his story about two teenagers and the infamous "pippelipää"-incident, while trying to celebrate the workingclass. After the gig we visited the Cosmic Comic Café and Dynamo where we (i.e. Nicke and I) had to check the quality of the female species in Turku. And God saw that it was good. I was in my way to Helsinki, so I stayed overnight at casa de Sodoma, which was the greatest bachelor-appartment I have ever seen. The house was full of interesting details, such as stuffed penguins, road-signs from the freeway and a fungus terrarium. I heard that the 5 gentlemen who live there have only one rule in the house. "Thou shalt not purchase any kinds of toilet-paper. Thou shalt steal it." ..What can I say. 17.4.99 Nuorisokeskus, Seinäjoki. Rock -99 Contest.           Magic Wave, Pikkupaha, Pikkunalle, etc. Magic Wave was the best band. They didnīt win either. Bitter? Me? We did our best, but it seemed as if we were the only ones in the whole city who thought that it wouldīve been enough. īNuff said. 27.2.99 Club 25, Vaasa. Before Ski.           Surf Sonics, etc. We got to test new songs for a live audience for the first time. Fortunately we hit homerun. A great new experience for me was a new band called Surf Sonics . Quite surprisingly their music was a groovy mixture of Dick Dale and Sonic Youth. Unfortunately the youth of Vaasa didnīt appriciate them as much as they would have deserved. Check them out if you have a chance. 3.10.98 Club 25, Vaasa. Miumaurock.           Rotten Sound, etc. Playing a charity gig for homeless cats sounds like a bad joke, but when a friend asked us to participate, we could not refuse. At the gig I only saw Rotten Sound and their (In-) Human-beatmachine Kai Hahto. Rotten Sound plays MEAN music. And I do mean MEAN. Our gig was a little downbeat, but hell, it was for a good cause.... I think.... 29.8.98 Kasisali, Lahti. Break Down the Walls III.           No Support, etc. 8-Sali is probably one of the greatest venues in Finland. BDTW3 was a festival with mostly HC-punk acts. We played quite early, but we also sucked. Thatīs about it.        PS. The guy behind the mixer was a cool dude.        PS2. Nicke Told me that No Support had a great gig. 18.4.98 Club25, Vaasa. Ostrobothnia Underground (+ the M.A.N. incident).           atyd, The Sugarrush, Illlogic, Lipp, Myopic Pics from this gig This gig was arranged to celebrate the release of a video compilation called "Ostrobothnia Underground". This Mini-festival started already at noon with Lipp as the opening act. They kicked butt with their original liveshow where they made breakfast for themselves because they had to start so early... Illogic followed up with their definition of Real Hip-Hop. After Illogic it was The Sugarrush who made some teenager girlies rather excited with their sexy pop music. Unfortunately we didnīt catch Myopic on stage, because we had the pleasure of opening up elsewhere for two of the greatest indie-musicians in Finland - M.A. Numminen & Pedro Hietanen. After a short gig supporting M.A.N. I had to go back to Club 25, because I had a gig with And Then You Die before we could begin our show with Contrast. We had a great gig, and to top it all, we played a Twisted Sister -cover "I Wanna Rock" with some assistance from the happy popsters from The Sugarrush. Contrast + The Sugarrush = The Contrush.... A Great Evening. 14.3.98 Sadankomitea, Turku.           Tuomiopäivän Lapset, Aurinkokerho, Endstand Whoaa! A neat warehouse in the edge of the town, friendly people, a good gig and a broken exhaust pipe - our summary of the gig in Turku. When we headed home from Turku, we noticed that our exhaust pipe had fallen off our trusty bandwagon, the Eagle-nose-Datsun-cherry. We sounded like a post-mortem industrial band on stage with a bassplayer on the grrrrreatest trip of his life. We definitely weren't.. Or maybe we were. In the end everything was fine. But next time we'll probably use a different car;-) 7.3.98 Club25, Vaasa.           Illlogic, Aurinkokerho Pics from this gig This was the official release party of our new mcd. What can you say? Club 25 is "officially" capable of taking 164 persons inside. We counted that with the bands, personnel and invited people all together, we had an audience of nearly 350. As Ilkka seems to be incapable of writing more than a couple of lines on this gig, I might as well add something here. We'd really put effort in making this show really special so among other things we had special disco-style lights and a huge sound system to back up the performance. During a break between the first two bands, our video for Nevernever was premiered and people seemed pleased with it. The evening was hosted by Kiva Teatteri, a group (this time represented by only two of the main members) of young actors. The only let down of the evening was when Aurinkokerho was supposed to begin the amp their guitarplayer was using went on strike and it took about 4 unfinished songs to get it to function right. Contrast would like to thank all the people who helped us arrange this gig, especially M. Wägar and Max at Welmu. --Ove 14.11.97 Rauhanasema, Helsinki. Sixtyfive night.           Juggling Jugulars, Myopic, Fated Zone, PMV Another gig in Rauhanasema . We came by bus (full of loyal youngsters from Vaasa) to Helsinki. The whole gig was ruined by a local hero called Fallos-Tomppa . Hki-crew GangBanged him out of the building over and over again. It was Juggling Jugulars who took this one home but we had our share of support in the audience. Things didn't look that good when someone had stolen Myopic's drummer's camcorder (and Sakke's sticks) but in the end they returned his gear... bummer. ??.??.97 Club25, Vaasa.           Fated Zone, Ensemble, The Sugarrush, Wicked Clown This was the first gig we ever shared with our popster-comrades, The Sugarrush . We both rocked away like we always use to..;) The leadsinger of Ensemble , Jenni Niemi , impressed me with her singing abilities despite of her young age. 7.8.97 The Night of the Arts, Vaasa, Town Square.           Contrast with several other bands from Vaasa... This was our first gig with our new bassist, Nicklas Hägen. I was nervous as hell. When I came backstage to meet the others, everyone could sense the electricity in the air. To our surprise (not) the schedule was late and the guys from Calenture, who were the organizers of this gig, were waiting for the band before them to finish their drunken-style-punk-performance. The sound technician told that he has to pull the plug out precisely at 1am, and no music could be played after that... Calenture was just beginning and the time was already 00:20. We were disappointed and angry and frustrated and disappointed and... I started to watch Calenture perform their late 80's Flavoured Heavy Metal Extravaganza, which they played with great experience, yet showing extreme enthusiasm in their line of music. I have to tip my hat to these (from my viewpoint anyway) Grandfathers of Vaasa-Metal. All of a sudden we heard the lead-singer of Calenture announcing:"THIS IS OUR LAST SONG OF THE EVENING!" They had generously played only a 15-minute gig and we were allowed to play after all. The next thing I remember was when we were packing our instruments to Ove's car and patting each other in the back for a gig-well-played. I saw the show later on video, and if I may say, it was without a doubt our best gig yet. The audience was humongous and they supported us all the way... 19.3.97 Club 25, Vaasa This gig started with great expectations. This gig, which was arranged by Antifa-Pohjanmaa was supposed to be sumthin new for a change. There were plans for theater, hiphop performances, ethnic cuisines, us and so much more (the So Much More part was actually a tasteless commercial). In the end the guys from the theater cancelled, the hiphop performers were scared shitless by an ex-tempore punkband called DJ Kilju, the ethnic cuisines weren't that ethnic after all and we sucked (saved only by 96 chix once again, if I remember correctly --Ove). I think you could call this a disasterarea waiting to happen (it actually happened). 28.2.97 Saippis, Vaasa.           Little Ed Nurgle, PMV The Saippis Hill posse organized this one for their own kids. Saippis was a good place to play even though there weren't that many people in the audience. Almost traditionally the 65x96 posse saved our asses 1nce again. We decided to call Mehis(The boss of Saippis) the coolest biker that ever lived. (We uppose he doesn't even own a bike.) 21.2.97 Club 25, Vaasa. Before Ski Rock.           Radar man, Fated zone, Erikoisranskalaiset, PPP The gig was set to start at 8 o'clock. We arrived at 6 o'clock. It was a sad sight. The stage was empty, no PA, no drums, nothing. The organizers had fucked up. They barely made it in time, and the concert could start almost as planned. Almost 200 people showed up, and the atmoshere was quite good... till it was time for us to enter the stage. The other bands played so long, that the audience started to go home before we even started. Well, like so many times before, the 96 chicks manslaughter crew made our gig worth playing. This was the first time we recieved money for a gig. 31.1.97 Club 25. Vaasa.           Guttersnipe, Realm. Pics from this gig The first gig that felt like routine. We had new material to play, the Vaasa audience was great (as always).We didn't make that many mistakes and our new and improved stage show was a hit. Kimīs bass was injured when me and Kim bumped onto each other. (No actual harm done. ;-)) Thanks to Janza , Andy and Antifa-Pohjanmaa . 24.1.97 Peace Station, Pasila.           Endstand, 50x50, PMV We had a helluva trip going there, but when we got on location, we started getting nervous. Only HC-bands, only HC-people. - We were englishmen in New York. Then before our gig some 3 punx took over and started to play their ex-tempore show. We were nervous as hell. It turned out to be a good gig. Thanks to Jyrki, AKL , and the girl who gave me some Hubba-bubba. 2.11.96 Nuoriska, Vaasa.           Refused, Separation, Neverland, Catch 22 Pics from this gig We got the chance to support the great Refused. Organizers were great, The other bands were great, The audience was great, Our gig went great, but Refused stole the show.(I suppose that was the meaning) I think that no-one remembered that we played at the whole concert. After Refused...I didn't. 12.10.96 Tullikamari, Tampere. Rock SM96 Final.           Lowely Worm, Laura Lähde & Näkymätön Koira, etc. We arrived a couple of hours early to Tullikamari. We listened the other bands checking their sounds. Every band except Lowely Worm and Laura Lähde & Näkymätön Koira was either eighties or just plain rednecks... The guys in Nemeziz we're cool though, but their music was a little out-of-date... Then the competition began. The audience (rednecks) did not comprehend us (once again), despite the fact that we had our own support team with us (Drunk as fuck). The final standings were quite surprising. Even though the singer of Goodenough protested by showing up on the stage with his pants down, was Tarrakuva the winner of SM96. We say that Laura Lähde & Näkymätön Koira shouldīve won. Laura was (and is) a babe. 5.10.96 Keltsu, Vaasa. Eggstock II.           Bazed, Fjong, Snail, No Support, Mess, etc. Pics from this gig We got into this mini-festival in a 3 days notice. We had just heard that we had got into the finals of rock-SM96. We were pumped. (Adrenalin-wise) We were becoming RockStars. It was our faith. We couldn't have stopped it if we wanted... We threw our best gig yet. Everyone was bouncing. It was a 35 min. set, but we played it 110%. Thanks to 65 krew we waited anxiously to kick ass in the Rock SM finals. 11.9.96 Art Rock Cafe, Ilmajoki. Rock SM Semi-finals.           TarraKuva, Johnny Sulttaani Oy, Kaasupullot, etc. We never expected to get into the redneck-reputated rock-SM. Well we did, we kicked ass, but the audience stood 2 metres back from the stage. TarraKuva and us were nominated as the 2 most likely bands to get into the Final. We recieved (-especially me) a special award for our energetic stage performance - a cassette containing childrens songs. 21.7.96 Tampere, Päivä jolloin luultavasti sataa -rock.           Swearfish, Dada girl, Nine Inch Ministry, Side-effect, etc. We waited enthusiastically for our first out-of-Vaasa-gig. We got to Tampere a day early, because we wanted to see 22-pistepirkko, Y.U.P. and Larry and the Lefthanded, which were playing in Tullikamari. We overnighted at the Basement Brothers' infamous rehearsal quarters. The next day the B-Bros waked us up early in the morning and dragged us to the concert area. (BB's told us that the concert-area was a meeting point of local Satanists, Pedophiliacs and Perverts-We still waited enthusiastically.) Approximately 50 people showed up. (i.e.The bands+organizers) Again, no real responce from the crowd. Extremely shitty gig. The Basement bros still owe us 600 fim. I met a beautiful redhead, but she was taken... 15.6.96 Keltsu, Vaasa. DROP-a hip hop party.           Nuera, Celes. This was the first gig that we had with the new Contrast. Saku couldn't make it, so we had to improvise. Mikko made beats, which he recorded to a dat-tape, and we altered our songs a little. The audience was full of militant HipHopheadz, so they didn't quite understand what we were all about and the atmosphere wasn't all that hot. Overall a shitty gig.

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