Chaos at truck stage
How to punish the festival audience in the beginning of the first festival day? By introducing the heroes of controlled schaos, Valse Triste.
Only a handful number of festival audience had arrived to receive the wild bunch from the agrarian west coast of Finland, but this quartet of men in their fourties were not discouraged by the small audience at all. With only a few lineup changes, the group has been active since 1980’s with no signs of slowing down. As a matter of fact, most likely the only change during the years has come from the fact that they’ve learnt to play their instruments. It was refreshing to notice how
rather simple-sounding songs reveal layers of complicated parts.
Among punk scene Valse Triste has been dubbed as the most handicapped band in Finland, mostly due the permanent injuries caused by frantic stage performances. Despite of this (or alternatively, because of this) the band thrashed around like a group of maniacs. A striptease performance consisting of male beauty was accompanied by a rather lightly dressed additional solo guitarist, who demonstrated his heavy metal solos with an instrument made out of a piece of wood and a cardboard plate. Punk is happiness and punk is meant for all, despite of your age or how you look - Valse Triste acts as a living proof of this.
A great starter for Saturday.
Text: Juha Ekholm
Pictures: Tomi Palsa