A weekend with Santa Cruz and friends from Helsinki and Stockholm

Oh, what a weekend! Well, actually, the past one and a half weeks were quite active...

Amongst others, after two years of living in Turku / Finland, I finally got myself a bike... 

Turku is known for being a "bike city", so it was just about time to get my own one, especially in order to be more flexible...

As I already mentioned in my last blogspot post, I redesigned all my internet profiles.

And then, on Friday, it was time for the first gig after 3 1/2 months... Yes, that's right: Before Friday, I haven't been to a single gig, not even to a party, not to mention to any festivals this summer. Why? Well, I could say that I was too busy with other stuff, and it wouldn't be a lie, but the truth is also that basically none of the events going on this summer were appealing to me, especially not any of the summer festivals this year...

Within Finland, it's mostly the same national acts touring over and over again while some international acts apparently never include Finland in their tour schedules. And if they do, then it's usually only one show, and for that one show, one has to travel all the way to the capital of Finland which is Helsinki. Well, luckily for me, a show in Helsinki means in most cases that the tour schedule also includes a show in the capital of Sweden which is Stockholm. Living between these two capitals, I always go for the option "Stockholm". Or at least it used to be the case until March 2013. After March 2013, things changed. Either we were busy with other things or - if we had the time to go somewhere - there was simply nothing interesting going on regarding parties, concerts and festivals. Not even in my beloved Stockholm. And sometimes, one got to know about interesting events just afterwards, due to poor promotion. Well, don't get me started on those people who seem to know how to post a picture of their lunch with a hashtag and the trendy term "foodporn" but not how to create a simple facebook event with proper information - and within a reasonable time frame.

Well, things changed even more in June 2014 with the final close-down of Stockholm's biggest and most popular rock and metal club "Rocks". With that, the heart of Stockholm's rock scene is gone, making it even more likely for us to travel to other European cities such as Rome (Italy) and Berlin (Germany) in the future, in order to join the one or other event... If only gigs and tours wouldn't be postponed, preponed, re-scheduled or completely cancelled so frequently these days! In the end, we often decide just to stay in Turku instead of running the risk of losing money on flights, hotels et cetera in case of a cancelled gig / tour. And so we rather wait for the good stuff coming to town, as it was the case on Friday when Santa Cruz first had a guitar clinic at "Vimma" (Turku Rock Academy) and then played a gig at "Klubi" which was bursting at the seams. The corresponding LIVE review is going to be published soon - but here is already an audiovisual impression of the guitar clinic with Archie (Vocals / Guitar) and Johnny (Guitar) at "Vimma"... 

Also this window at "Vimma" deserves some admiration... ;o)

Santa Cruz were not the only "good stuff" coming to town on Friday as I also received another visitor from Helsinki: My friend who accompanied me to the gig at "Klubi" in order to take pictures of the event. While she is working on the pictures right now, here are two shots by me... 

Unfortunately, my friend had to return home already on Saturday in the early afternoon - but no sooner had she been on the train than I received already the next visitor. This time, it was a friend from Stockholm who also brought a friend of hers from Germany, so we were quite an international table while drinking some cappuccino at "Tintå"... ;o) 

Another thing I finally managed to do after two years of living in Turku: 

Grabbing some cappuccino at "Tintå"

So, yeah, as I said: The past one and a half weeks were quite active...

On that note: More to come very soon! ;o)