--> Gig report - Spirit Disease at Iltatähti, Lappeenranta 13 November 2004

Setlist

01. Delusions Of Grandeur
02. Sadistic Belated Abortion
03. Annihilation
04. Torment And Pain
05. Scared To Live – Afraid To Die
06. Everyone Must Die
07. Jokainen Ihminen On Luodin Arvoinen
08. Redemption Denied
09. The Extinction Of Subhuman Kind
10. Evil Dead
11. Blinded By Fear


The long awaited day of the first ever gig of Spirit Disease had finally arrived. The previous night's rehearsal had totally sucked, so we knew that the show should go well. That's just the way we are - the more crap we play at the last rehearsal before a gig, the better we play on stage! After all, we all are very experienced live players, so I guess that we already know how things should go. Of course this gig was a bit special since it was our first one as Spirit Disease. The SD-troops gathered to the smelly old rehearsal place at 11 am to load the gear into cars. But before that it was time for the first BEER of the day. At least for me. Riikonen, that blond bastard, drank cider. How gay is that? Anyway, when all five of us had finally shown up, we loaded the gear in and started to drive towards the infamous city of Lappeenranta in southeastern Finland. The drive lasted about three hours and it was just, well, normal. Crap jokes were told and some alcoholic beverages were consumed. We arrived to Iltatähti at around 3.30 PM and had to wait for a while for the bar's staff and the gig organizer to arrive. We carried our shit in and started to wait for the sound company guys & the other bands (Dauntless and Twilight Guardians). We were told that the soundcheck's would have to be done before 8 pm. That was not to happen. Things got a bit fucked up. Anyway, when everyone involved in the proceedings had arrived, we went for a meal provided to us by the gig arrangers Pikametallimiehet. After that we returned to Iltatähti only to notice that things weren't exactly getting better. It was getting quite obvious that the schedule was totally fucked and that we were facing a long wait. "Oh well, nothing special - let's have a beer!" The bartender BITCH was all the time trying to make all of us feel very unwelcome and she was constantly whining about some shit. Come on you stupid cunt - WE, the bands were the ones that brought the audience there and they drank a fucking lot of booze during the evening, so WE paid your fucking salary! Fuck off and die.

We finally got to make our soundcheck at around 8.30 pm and we did it really quick - we just ran through a couple of songs and then we left the place to go to Mega Kuusinen's place where we would stay after the gig. It was time for sauna & some metal music. We listened to the forthcoming Kreator CD and it was really good shit. At around 10 pm we returned to Iltatähti just to notice that the showtimes had been changed and the first band would start at around 11 pm instead of 10 pm. More waiting for us. Fuck that. "Let's have some more beer then!" Twilight Guardians played their set of power metal tunes & some entirely fucked up cover version of Madonna's La Isla Bonita to an small but loud and enthusiastic audience. I felt a bit sorry for them, though - this was NOT an evening for power metal fans, this was extreme metal night. I mean, with the place half-full of people wearing Possessed and Dissection shirts, what can you expect... OK, after Twilight Guardians the Helsinki motherfuckers Dauntless started their set and now the audience woke up too. Some serious moshing and headbanging started. Dauntless was a fucking good band live, they really kicked some serious ass with their death/thrash shit.

And then all of a sudden it was 1 am and it was time for Spirit Disease's trial by fire! After the first few notes I knew that this would be a good gig and after that it all is a bit of a blur to me. That happens only on good gigs. The audience seemed to be into our music too and moshed and headbanged like maniacs. Jokainen Ihminen On Luodin Arvoinen seems to be the song that really drives audiences mad - I noticed that at least the front row was singing the chorus with us. Ha ha. What the fuck are we - Bon fucking Jovi???!!! Anyway, the show was good and we were almost dead after the set. Every god damned song on our setlist was played superfast - much faster than on CD and in the rehearsals. Must be the Rotten Sound influence or something. ;)

After the gig we dismantled our gear and started a serious boozing session. Everybody except Mattila (he doesn't drink booze at all) was totally out of control - especially Riikonen. That's what you get for pouring huge amounts of Jack Daniels down your throat. By the way, the bartender bitch kept on whining all the time about how she hates metal music and all that shit. That obviously annoyed us a lot. We carried our gear to the car and went to Mega's place where it was time for the usual "metal, booze, sauna, metal, booze, sauna, vomiting, naked men" routine.

A good gig despite all the minor fuckups and stupid bitches. Can't wait to play live again soon!


Written by Sallanen 21 November 2004. Photos by Janne Westerlund. Click the photos for larger versions of them.