LIVE REPORT: Heikki Hänninen & Johanna von Hertzen
Gig hopping in Helsinki
Black Door & Hard Rock House; December 16th, 2023
Helsinki Indie Live Underground
Do you ever have a night when all of your plans get canceled and you suddenly find yourself available to do all of the things that everyone else invited you out to do that night, which you weren’t able to do because you were promised to another party? Because that’s exactly what happened to me on December 16th, 2023: I was meant to be helping host a house party, but when the host got sick, the whole party was canceled and I suddenly found myself with a completely free evening. After attending the Musamimmit vol. 2 show at Hesari13 some weeks back, I had asked Johanna von Hertzen to let me know if she was ever performing again somewhere, because I had enjoyed her set, and she mentioned a show on this night at Hard Rock House Roihuvuori. Since I was suddenly free so, despite the show being at the gnarly hour of 23.00, I thought it’d be fun to go see them now that my evening had freed up. Then, after announcing my intention in an Instagram note, I was contacted by Heikki Hänninen, whom I discovered at the Helsinki Psych Fest’s Love Potion Pysch Fest this year with his band, Buko Shane. He said he was playing a set at Black Door and that I should come check it out too, if I was able. Thus began my night of gig-hopping around Helsinki!
So, first of all: I hate driving downtown in winter, but I am addicted to the convenience of it over taking public transit. Fortunately, I was able to find a spot to park in slushed-out winter hell downtown Helsinki that was only maybe like sixish blocks from the venue, and that felt like a victory, even if my old broken bones hate walking (especially in the slippery winter streets) and I don’t have good boots for wet or slippery conditions now that my favorite boots have become irreparable (insert first world problems sob story here).
I’d never been to Black Door before but it was a really classy British-style pub with a pretty good selection of beers on tap (not that I was drinking, being behind the wheel that night). As Heikki had pitched it to me, this would be a night of “music to drink beer to” aka “blues/Irish/country/pop” and “we try to avoid hit songs,” so he was really speaking my language (apart from the fact that I don’t generally drink much alcohol). Even better, the set time was 19.00-22.00, so I would have plenty of time to get out to Roihuvuori before 23.00, so this was the perfect pitch to convince me to come out a bit early.
I was fortunate that showing up fashionably late didn’t hurt me, as they were either between sets or just getting started before their show. Also, the only free place in the bar was right next to the performers, so that was great. The set started immediately by gettin’ some funk on, with slick southern rock guitars, groovin’ bass, and jazzy drums, all with Heikki singing like an old American blues-rock dude from the ‘70s. It’s not really a sound I expected to hear in Finland, let alone so authentically—he did a great job of Willie Nelson, for example. I recognized a few songs right away, like “I Got the Same Old Blues” and “After Midnight,” and was very much enjoying the feeling of being alone in a busy pub, as if the music was my date for the night and I was having a very good date. Everything else in the bar became a pleasant din that I ignored (at least, when I wasn’t politely letting people know that it was okay to join me at my table) and I was able to just shut my eyes and zone out and enjoy the sounds as I experienced them.
After they had a break (man, it’s been close to 20 years since I was house band of anything and I remember these long nights of performing 45 minutes with a 15 minute break… that was a little wave of nostalgia!), Heikki returned to the stage alone and mentioned what a big fan of Shane McGowan (The Pogues, RIP 1957-2023) he is, and proceeded to play several of his songs, including the only one that I knew, “Fairytale of New York” —not a track I ever expected to hear live, so that was a treat. His band eventually returned and played a few more familiar songs, like “I Put a Spell on You,” “These Boots Are Made for Walking,” something from Bob Dylan (but with better vocals, hah!), and Nick Cave’s “Jubilee Street.” He dedicated the last song to Shane McGowan and chugged a beer before playing it. I had to hop out during that final track in order to make sure I could get to Roihuvuori (and find parking in the snow in an unfamiliar neighborhood, ugh), so I was sorry that I couldn’t stick around and share my appreciation for the gig, but I guess that’s what I’m doing now, isn’t it? I clearly need to invite him out for karaoke sometime, so we can do a duet of “Where the Wild Roses Grow” or something! Or just so I can listen to him sing all night—I love his voice!
So, after leaving Black Door, I hauled myself back to my car and drove out to the east side. As suspected, there was plenty of parking, but it was in one of those 30cm-deep sludge piles where I might be able to get in but I sure as hell wouldn’t be getting out without a tow-truck, so I opted to stuff myself down a side road somewhere and hoof it again through the massive puddles in my definitely-not-waterproof boots. Wouldn’t it be nice if I ever remembered to use my inhaler before doing something?
What was interesting about this night at Hard Rock House was that there seemed to be two fully different events going on, with Saaga and Vies Vignette playing a show that ended right around 23.00. This meant that I caught the last two-ish songs of the latter of these acts and was pleasantly surprised by what I heard. Their name was totally unfamiliar to me and the venue hadn’t even tagged them in the promo, so it was an odd thing, but I was glad to have a brief chance to check them out—I might need to try and catch them again someday, as the interwebs have told me that they released an album this year.
Hard Rock House Roihuvuori was an interesting venue, in part because the guy in charge of sound was also selling tickets at the door and running the coat room and, let’s just say he seemed a bit busy, but that didn’t stop him from being very friendly (which I can’t say was the case with the bartender).
I’ve spent enough time since Musamimmit listening to Johanna von Hertzen’s music that, while I do still get a very mild cold chill on seeing her at first, I have already trained my brain away from associating her with someone who tried to ruin my life, so that’s an immediate positive progression in my brainspace that I’m happy to celebrate (also, it would be very unfair to her if I couldn’t like her just because she reminds me of someone awful, hence me doing the work to get over it). I was able to watch her performing for the whole set without having to close my eyes to calm down and all that nonsense, yay for me!
With that out of the way, much like last time, Johanna put on a vibrant set and I do want to make sure to shout out her band (or at least the two guys from the band who she’s been playing with these past two times), Taneli Rantala on guitar and Sampsa Pietilä on keyboards/backing vocals. Alongside being brilliant at what they do, the three of them just look like they’re having an amazing time together and there’s a fun, cheeky, playful energy between them, which you could see in some moments, like when Johanna took off her trademark orange hat and Taneli tried to plop it on her head later at an exact moment when she was rising up and it managed to hit just the wrong way and slide over her eyes… very entertaining to watch as they didn’t miss a beat but were chuckling about it. There’s also a consistently fun trade-off between her and Sampsa, who covers vocals for Juno in “All In,” among other songs (and does a great job of it, by the way), and also chats with the crowd from time-to-time. They’re all really fun and skilled performers and I do suggest you check them out whenever you get a chance!
It was also fun to see that all of the time I’ve spent listening to her music has paid off, because I was immediately able to recognize tunes like “Valo Joka Pelkää Pimeetä” that I had only heard live before. There was also a weird moment when I wanted to look up a song, “Riko Mut,” at which point I realized that she had an album called “Kasuaali” that was released back in 2020, that somehow I had thought was a single and thus hadn’t caught yet, so I was very excited to have more music from her to dig into, as well as to discover great tracks live like the album’s title track and “Et Saa (Mun Omaksi Omistaa),” which is one of my favorite of her songs.
I think the thing I like best about Johanna, besides the cheeky lyrics, is how wild and interesting her vocal lines are. When I first heard “Et Saa” at the previous show, I wasn’t sure if I liked it because her voice was really going all over the place. After thinking on it (and, let’s be honest, listening to it relentlessly) I realized that it made me think of the way my voice will go when I have to transition to high notes… of course, Johanna is a professional, so it sounds great when she switches into really high notes, but what she had done that really blew my mind was take a sound that I was really familiar with from my own voice, which I have never liked because I had no control over it, and she used it in a way that made it sound awesome. I’m really delighted to hear that Singa has picked up some of her material, because I’d love to try some of her songs out at karaoke sometime, just to see if, now that I’ve had some singing lessons, I could actually do what she does and not sound like three different people having a row.
From this night, “Kasuaali” was my new favorite song discovery from her selection of songs because of how powerful and dynamic it was with only guitar and keyboard accompaniment, though I really love her newest single, “Ihana lutka,” which they played to finish off the set. Naturally, she told some stories about where the songs came from and what had inspired them in between songs and generally continues to prove herself to be a fantastic stage-front and performer. Once again, I really recommend them!
Now, remember how I said this was a weird night? Well, that was because Johanna von Hertzen was actually the first of three more acts that were performing at this bar… why were they two different events? I couldn’t tell you, but I was actually rather impressed by the bar as a venue (a rarity in Finland, frankly) and would actually quite gladly attend or organize shows there because the sound quality and space were quite decent. As I decided to stay a while and socialize at least a little, I caught a few tracks from Monotonia, who were one of the bands playing afterwards. They were pretty hard rockin’ and had a really solid guitar sound that made me think that, once again, I have another band that I should look into. So, now that I’m done writing, I’m going to go see if I can find them and Vies Vignette online somewhere and see what kind of music they have out in the ether. I need to hear more of both!
What was perhaps the most precious to me from this night, however, was the feeling I had of really enjoying myself, going out alone, just kicking back and listening to music. This is what I’ve been missing from my live music, truly. I’m reaching a place where I hate the concept of seeing a show at a venue. I want to go and see troubadour shows where people are just playing music and being into it, without… trying? It’s hard to place exactly what it is that’s ruining music for me lately, but it might simply be the concept of music not being art anymore and being more of a product. I get all of my enjoyment out of seeing these deeply talented people just playing because they can and they want to and they’re good, much like the way the guys from Classless Act are always advertising bar shows, day after day, week after week, even if it’s not with the band. I love these artists who are always playing and sharing their love of music with the world, regardless of how many people are watching. I hope to spend a great deal of time being that one person who shows up to live performances just to enjoy what people are doing. I love seeing talented people show off their stuff and this was an evening of nearly 4 hours of doing just that. So, I hope all of these people continue to tell me when they have shows because I will keep going and keep writing about it, because it makes me so happy. If anything can bring back my love of live music, I’m all for it! And special thanks to Johanna and Heikki for inviting me out!
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