LIVE REPORT: Musamimmit vol.2 @ Hesari13, Helsinki

Nov 22

Hesari13, Helsinki; November 21st, 2023
Helsinki Indie Live Underground

Last night, I went out to a little event called Musamimmit vol. 2 at a bar in Kallio called Hesari13. This was a small event featuring four singer-songwriters: Emmy June, Helena Haaparanta, Johanna von Hertzen, and a band, Blue Impulse. Since I am so jaded and salty towards the Finnish music scene (specifically the metal scene), I had expected to go, show up, watch some music, say hello, and then head home. After all, the only one of these people that I knew personally was Helena, and even then, we’ve only quite recently become acquainted thanks to her guesting on Gathering of Geeks back in July.

First of all, I am pretty realistic about my expectations of shows like this and I’m also quite used to being treated like part of the furniture by artists, so I was already surprised when Helena invited me to scoot my butt over to her table. I had assumed that she would be very busy, but she made sure to give everyone who came out some love and attention, and was kind enough to introduce me to some other people, who I really enjoyed chatting with, like Maiju Lindell aka Bambi L, a pop singer, who was so absolutely sweet and friendly. Frankly, I’m really not accustomed to being treated so kindly by people I’ve just met in Finland, so this was very heartwarming.

Then, the shows. First of all, Emmy June is sort of a folk pop-rock indie artist, and her performance was totally solo, just her behind the keyboard, singing some of the tracks from her release from earlier this year, “The Spring.” I recognized a few songs, like “We’re Not Meant to Be” and “Me & My Mom,” which sounded fantastic live and carry a lot of soul and emotion, though it was the final song that really perked us up. I believe she had called it “La-Di-Da” (forgive me if I stylized that wrong) and said that she had only written it the day before and wasn’t even sure how it went, but it was a great track and I hope she releases it officially at some point! I also hope to see more of her live, because she was very easy to enjoy.

Next was Helena. Now, I’m sure I’ve said before that I’ve known of Helena for about as long as I’ve lived here, through her tenure with bands like Tacere, Crimfall, and songs like “Needle” by Fear of Domination (damn, that’s a great track!), but I’ve never seen her performing. This was such a wonderful experience, as… holy absolute fuck can this woman sing! I also find her solo material to be very intriguing—often moody and very atmospheric, but very impassioned and clever. There are no boring or overly-simple vocal lines with her. She also had a guitarist with her for three songs as well, and we got a sneak peak of her new song, “Harmaahaikara,” which is due for release this Friday (you can find said sneak peak on my IG account, if you are so inclined). Also, my friend Kathy Criswell did some artwork for that single, which is also super cool! Do check it out and give her a listen when it comes out, because Helena’s just amazing, both as an artist and a person!

Then came Johanna von Hertzen. I admit that I struggled a bit to watch her, because she looks quite similar to someone who has earned a great deal of hatred from me, but I was nevertheless quite captivated by her energy and sound. She was the only one of the night who wasn’t trapped behind a keyboard and as a result, was making sure to use up every inch of space in the bar that she could, dancing and jumping around as she sang. There were some great tracks like “All In” and her new single, “Ihana lutka.” Her band behind her seemed cheeky and fun and her keyboardist was singing (and rapping, surprisingly enough) with her a few times, making for a very lively, diverse, and vibrant performance! I had to close my eyes a few times when I felt a little bit overwhelmed, but fortunately, this morning, I figured out who the other person she reminded me of was, and that was someone I went to university with, so hopefully I can train my brain away from that bad association, because she seems like a really fun artist with a unique voice and I’m interested to see and hear more of her!

Lastly was an act called Blue Impulse, which is the project of Kata Samula. She was playing with a band, that included what I assumed was a drum synthesizer/percussionist, guitarist, bassist, and second vocalist, and Kata herself was behind the keyboard. They played a very interesting and eclectic selection of tracks that were very intriguing, making use of some interesting effects on the drum synthesizer, vocal effects, and other things like that. Also, like the three women who preceded her, she and her second vocalist were spectacular singers. I wasn’t able to find more than two songs from them on Spotify afterwards and I’m not sure if those were what they had played, but I really enjoyed their very creative and artistic set!

Also, each of the artists performed a song that was challenged to them by one of the others, and while I didn’t know most of them, it seemed that Helena had been challenged to a song that I did know: “Glory Box” from Portishead. My gawd, the chills (I do love the original and she really elevated it). I’m sorry that I didn’t know more of the challenge tracks as a result of this, because daaang! Jolly good show!

Beyond that, the absolute kindness of everyone present was so heartwarming to see. Emmy June and I hadn’t met before but were acquainted on Instagram, so it was really lovely to get to meet her face-to-face. Johanna was very sweet and gave me an orange bookmark—first of all, I love getting a bookmark from a singer (such an unusual thing to get), and I also enjoyed that she seems to have color-coded her style to be very orange (and if you know me, you know that I appreciate artists who design themselves so thoroughly, in the same way Helena had a greyer lipstick on that matched the theme of “Harmaahaikara”), and all of the artists gave some attention to anyone who wanted say hi and thank them for the show. The group moved on to pizza and karaoke afterwards and I didn’t stick around for the latter, but it was again, just so heartwarming and, frankly, quite therapeutic for me to feel so kindly welcomed by people I had only just met. I highly recommend you check out/keep an eye on all of these artists! They seem to be a lovely, fun, talented crowd, worthy of spending some energy on! I linked a song from each of them below, so show some indie artist love and give them a spin!