LIVE REPORT: Fredrika Runebergin Puutarha, Johanna von Hertzen, & Frozen Factory
Gig Hopping in Helsinki
Tenho Bar & Bar Loose; January 17th, 2024
Helsinki Indie Live Underground
Since I’ve had so much fun checking out fresh bands last year, I’ve made a point now of only going to shows that I’ve been invited to (or shows I’m really interested in). With that in mind, I heard about two events on January 17th, 2024, that just so happened to not overlap timing-wise! The first of these was Johanna von Hertzen, who was playing at Tenho in Kallio around 20.00ish, with Frozen Factory playing at 21.45 downtown at Bar Loose. That left just enough time between shows to attend them both!
The whole day was, admittedly, very hectic, because I wanted to run as many errands as I could before going to town. This meant picking up my replacement copy of The Book, which finally arrived, then dropping off some medicinal herbs (lavender, yarrow, fireweed) to a friend who’s had bronchitis for 2 weeks and is getting really sick of ginger lemon tea. Then, I had to meet my merch mistress to pick up a card reader, after which I headed into town. So I was pretty tired already, but managed to make it fashionably barely on time to catch Fredrika Runebergin Puutarha before Johanna von Hertzen.
I am making a point to check out the other indie bands that are playing, because this is how I’ve been finding more interesting people in Finland. It’s funny to come from both Canada and the metal scene, where relatively unknown opening acts are, more often than not, pretty terrible. The indie scene in Finland, however, is full of talented people, so actually checking out the other acts has thus far really paid off, which was true again on this night.
I’ve never been to Tenho Restobar before but it was an interesting place, because the bar seems to essentially split the room in two, in a weird way. That said, once you were able to get around the bar and see where the stage was, the stage itself and sound quality were actually very nice. It was weird, again, that most of the tables in front of the stage all seemed to have been smushed together, so if you didn’t want to sit with strangers, it was a bit weird, but otherwise I found the bar worked really nicely as a small venue. It even had another back room that the bands were able to use as a dressing room, etc.
Fredrika Runebergin Puutarha call themselves söpörock-pop [cuterock-pop], which was a pretty fitting description. Their vocalist has a lovely voice that combines a youthful sweetness with a bit of a cheeky, playful kick, and is backed by guitars, synths, drums, bass, and another woman rocking… well, at least the flute, but I’m sorry to say that she was behind a huge pillar, so I actually couldn’t tell if she was also playing keyboards and doing other things or what, but she sounded fantastic even if I couldn’t see her. They played the two songs that you can already find online, “Kaikkea hyvää” and “Olenkohan minä vampyyri,” which I rather enjoyed, as well as a song about a sociopath. The second last song had some gorgeous smooth jazzy parts and great synths. There were generally some good psych rock riffs from the guitarist and a fun interplay between the instrumentalists at times. I’d love to see these guys at the Love Potion Club someday, for example!
Now, you might be asking if I’m sick of seeing Johanna von Hertzen yet, since I saw her twice at the end of last year, to which I answer, no! However, what drew me out and excited me on this occasion was that she was playing with the full band this time. Before then, I’ve only seen her with Taneli Rantala (guitar) and Sampsa Pietilä (vocals & keyboards), so it was really fun to see Aki Pommelin (bass & backing vocals) and Tuukka Hanhiniemi (drums) with her. The latter looked really familiar to me and I know he also plays in Dead End Scene and Whistleblower but I’ve never listened to either of them, so I’m not sure where I might know him from, but I feel quite sure that I’ve met him before briefly.
Listening to bands live without hearing their music beforehand is a totally new experience for me but it’s been really fun. I try to figure out what the songs that stuck out to me most are called and then look them up if possible. Sometimes these artists have tracks online that I can easily fine, like JvH, and sometimes I can only listen to what’s there, like FRP, so it’s always a mixed bag. Johanna’s setlist was similar to the last show I saw, but with a few that I still didn’t recognize immediately, so it still felt like I was getting fresh material, even if that’s not strictly true.
Johanna also told a story about losing her father, which had inspired “Sä vain nukut”… okay, I’m pretty at peace with losing my cub, but nevertheless, songs that connect with that specific type of grief—especially ones with a gentle and positive outlook on death—tend to hit me in my tender spots and maybe… maybe I was crying and trying to make it look like I had something in my eye. Maybe. Also, sad-sax is the cheesiest thing in the world but it works and I love it, so y’know, points for the use of saxophone in that song. So that was a new one to get me this time. That and the full band, really, because Aki was also doing some backing vocals and dropping some funky bass, even getting a chance to chat with the crowd at one point, while Tuukka brought things to life a bit with the drums. Oh, and one more! “Seilataan” had a really nice, smooth guitar solo that I really enjoyed!
I was concerned that the small stage would not hold her and I was correct, as by “Et saa (mua omaksi omistaa)” she had hopped off the stage and started running around the venue again… truly, she’s just so much fun to watch, I could gladly go see her every night and enjoy the different outfits and everything! She finished up the show with “Ihana lutka,” naturally, which continues to be an absolute banger both on and off stage.
Their set ended at about 20.10, meaning I only had a few moments to give my regards and thank them for the show before I had to scamper off to where I had stuffed my car in the snow and get downtown. Bar Loose is legendarily one of my least-favorite bars, but I also often seem to be able to find parking by it fairly easily on weeknights, despite it being in literal parking hell, even in winter! So, being able to leave my car gloriously across the street from the bar was a nice treat.
Unfortunately, when I felt my pockets for my earplugs before, apparently I had felt my ear buds instead by accident, and Loose’s basement was loud. A rock/metal band called Rude was playing when I arrived; it looked like they were having fun up there, with a pretty gritty sound. It’s pretty far on the opposite end of what’s interesting me musically right now though, so I shan’t comment further for risk of being unobjective. They were, however, a very strange band to pair with Frozen Factory.
Frozen Factory’s set was, much like before, just friggin’ great. If my biggest complaint about Bar Loose on any given night is that the music is too loud and I forgot earplugs, that’s clearly a me problem and I should be grateful that the sound was coherently balanced. They got off to a hot start with an older track that I didn’t know, “Hammer,” which was followed by some familiar material from “Of Pearls and Perils.” After the first track, vocalist Stephen Baker wasn’t allowed to talk to the crowd, pushed to just go into the next song. We all had a good laugh as they went into “Host with the Most” and then Stephen asked if he was allowed to talk about what “Solar Windfalls” was about before playing it. I’m glad they have recognized that track, because I am of the personal opinion that it is a glorious masterpiece and they should never not play it, ever, for any reason. That said, I was really interested in their setlist, which was fairly balanced between their two albums but didn’t include any of their newer singles. I’d love to hear them play a longer set someday, which might, if I dare to dream, include “Equalize Power” (the world need to hear this one live, it’s SO relevant!) and “Break These Ties for You.” That said, this setlist included some material I didn’t know from their first album, like the aforementioned opening track and the finale, “You”—great song, by the way—so I still got that same feeling of freshness that I had from Johanna von Hertzen’s set.
Other fun moments of the night were when Stephen asked (my favorite guitarist from before, if you recall) Zsolt Szilagyi if he would tell a joke while he drank some water, but there was no joke to be summoned. I was tempted to run up and whisper the best joke in the world to him to share, but I guess I’ll have to save it for another time! So, Zsolt did not tell a joke! But he did play one hell of a solo towards the end of the night, which is possibly the same solo he was singing last time when his guitar lost connectivity… played by guitar, what is this madness!? (It was great, wink-wink).
The other exciting part was when Stephen said he was going to, for the first time ever, leave the stage and let someone else do his job for him, inviting Riina Rinkinen on stage to sing a song called “Reach Through the Waves”—hopefully this means that she’ll be doing a song with them in the (near?) future… a duet with Stephen, perhaps? If you don’t know her name, she’s currently singing for Silentium, though I have a hazy feeling that she and I possibly stopped being friends with a certain someone at the same time well over a decade ago and had discussed it briefly together at the time. Small world, eh? Also, a shout-out to EddieX on drums, who’s been subbing with them live lately, as Marianne Heikkinen isn’t always able to make it to their shows (though we should be seeing her at the next ones!).
Overall, while I was perhaps a little bit tired for such things, I still really enjoyed going out and watching all of these shows Yesterday! My recommendation, as always, is to go see all of the bands in clubs and small venues! Those are the best shows!
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Frozen Factory
