LIVE REPORT: JoJo & Friends vol.1
Featuring Emmy June & Luca Gargano
Junk Y Vegan; February 14th, 2024
Helsinki Indie Live Underground
How on earth does Johanna von Hertzen keep my attention when I am an ADHD maniac who is bored half to death with live music, you may find yourself asking. Well, probably because she and her band keep doing interesting things! The first time I saw her and her band was by coincidence, as I was checking out two other artists, Helena Haaparanta and Emmy June. The second time, I wanted to see her once I got to know her music. The third time, she had her full band with her, which was a first for me. Well, they once again had something fun and new on offer: JoJo & Friends, which is a little music club held at the Junk Y Vegan restaurant in Helsinki, and hosted by JoJo herself! Obviously I had to try to go, which did require me to hunt down the local busses once again, but it was worth it!
First up, I got completely lost. I knew that Junk Y Vegan was in Sanomatalo somewhere, but I did not know that it’s on the ass-end of the building where Painobaari used to be, so I found myself awkwardly wandering around wtf-ing as I couldn’t seem to find my way to the restaurant, despite the maps telling me I was indeed in the right building. Fortunately, Emmy June happened to be online and let me know that I had to access it from outside the building. It occurred to me that I haven’t been to Painobaari in years and years now, so sure enough, there it was!
If I’m talking about local hotspots in these reports, I really loved what they’ve done to the place. Paino was a dark, gloomy metal-ish bar that was full of big, heavy wooden tables and chairs, which were all crammed together, meaning essentially that there was no space to move anywhere, for any reason, in that bar. Now, the place is full of life, designed like one of these modern indie street food places, with graffiti art on the walls and vibrant colors everywhere. Surely, Finland doesn’t need any more doom and gloom, there’s a ton of that already, so I enjoyed the bright cheer of the place. It’s also considerably more sensibly laid-out, allowing visitors to move around comfortably. The club had a deal with the venue, so that if you used a special passcode, you’d be able to get a glass of bubbly with your table reservation (and I was pleased that they were willing to give me something alcohol-free).
The music club itself was extremely fun. After Johanna greeted the crowd and introduced the club to the audience, the course of the evening ran in 2-3-song sets, starting with three of the slower tracks from Johanna’s discography, including “Valo Joka Pelkää Pimeetä” and “Sä Vain Nukut,” before she introduced her first guest to the stage for two songs: Luca Gargano, whose name I recognized from Singa, a local karaoke company where one of my former Musicalypse journalists also works. It was thus no surprise that he’s a spectacular singer, energetic performer, and put on a good show with his guitar, even if I’m not personally much of a fan of wishy-washy love songs. One of his songs, if I caught it correctly, was called “I Am Here” and was about being alone and lonely on Valentine’s Day. Regardless of my feelings on the lyrics, he put on an impressive performance.
After his set, which was wonderfully enhanced by Johanna and her band, Taneli Rantala and Sampsa Pietilä, they played a couple more of their own songs before taking a short break. This was followed by a 2-song set from Emmy June. Unlike JvH, whose shows have always aligned in a way to allow me to see them the last four times they’ve played, I’ve been struggling to make it work to see Emmy June again after that aforementioned first show, as her gigs always seemed to line up with the days that I don’t have a car or can’t get to town for one reason or another. So even though I only got to see her perform two of her songs on this night, I was very happy to hear them: the absolutely bangin’ “Mad at You” and the sentimental and passionate “Me & My Mom.” The former is a magnificently self-aware track about getting angry with someone, while the latter is something that always tugs at my heartstrings—I’m sure you could make a reasonable guess as to why. If you like classy, indie-blues-pop, you should 100% go listen to her debut album, “The Spring,” from last year and check her out any chance you can get live!
The show wrapped up with a couple more of Johanna’s songs: “Et Saa (Mua Omaksi Omistaa)” and “Ihana Lutka,” before she brought both of her guests back to play the final song, “All In,” which also features Sampsa on vocals during the rapping part that was original done by an artist named Juno. This was exactly what I wanted to happen, so you can imagine that I was quite delighted to see everyone on stage smiling and having fun together, allowing the music to elevate to a new level. And, once more, it’s always worth mentioning what a passionate and vibrant performer Johanna is. She always puts her whole body into it, often leaving the stage to run around the audience, and she tells lovely stories about what inspired her songs that have at least once (last time) brought a tear to my eye.
Overall, I can both recommend this music club and the venue, and shout-out to Chico Muya for the excellent company—hopefully you’ll be seeing him perform at the club in the future! It was a really warm, fun night with a lot of talent on display. I hope to be able to make it again in the future! Also, I really need a better camera or to start dragging some photographers out with me…
PS: on a personal note, you may recall that the first time I saw JoJo performing, I was having a bit of a rough time because she reminded me of one of my cub’s friends, whom I consider one of the main parties responsible for his rapid decline and eventual death. I was thrilled to notice yesterday that the effort I put in to overcome this trigger has worked and now I can’t bring her face to mind anymore at all. Rather, I just see a brilliant artist and, for me, that’s a massive improvement, especially considering I could hardly look at JoJo that first show because it brought back so many upsetting memories.
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