Mokoma’s main stage thrashing
Long before H hour the front of the main stage is crowded by Mokoma fans, eagerly waiting for their idols. So how did the band’s first gig at the biggest stage in Ilosaarirock go?
Judged by the audience’s reactions - very well. Heads were banging and fists pumping though the whole gig. It was refreshing to notice that instead of the traditional black-clad heavy metallers the audience had a more heterogeneous consistency.
The band proved their worth by non-stop thrashing, only lightened by a couple of more melodic cuts (nicknamed “girlie songs” by the band). This definition is odd, by the way, given how the truest of metalheads seem to be singing along just as much.
It seems like there’s an overwhelming need to categorize music, so that the fastest thrashings are somehow more prestigious than their slower songs. Now that the band’s audiences are more mixed than ever, one would hope for such stone age attitudes to fade into extinction.
Mokoma started the gig by playing songs from their latest record, but their set included older songs as well. The band got an extraordinary chance to play a longish encore, and the singer Marko Annala ended the show by suggesting people go check out Stam1na, another hard-hitting band from Southern Carelia.
Smiles were a rare sight among the band and the audience, but that was not what this was about. For it seems certain the people got what they came here for - a tough show from a band that never seems to hold back on the stage.
And that’s how they lost their main stage virginity. It didn’t hurt much, did it now?
Text: Sanna Pikku-Pyhältö
Pictures: Sini-Tuuli Muttonen