Cult band beyond comparison
They receive no air play, they aren’t reviewed in music magazines. They divide people in two. After hearing them you either loathe them - or are enchanted. But only at Ilosaarirock it’s possible to save this cult band beyond comparison as the last performer of Saturday evening: the champions of humppa, the impudent and indecent drunkards, Eläkeläiset (The Pensioners).
The groups 15-year career was celebrated in the final concert of the festival Saturday. The audience received what they hoped for: a selection of humppa pieces from over the years. The festival area was packed and resembled a large yet peculiar rave - everyone from the young to the old, women and men, fervently boogied away in the darkening summer evening.
An enlivening zing to the special performance were brought by impressive pyro effects. The extensive cross-section of the band’s career was followed by one encore, perhaps the biggest hit of the group, Humppaa tai kuole, which left the ecstatic festival audience to witness the display of fireworks that closed the festival Saturday.
Text: Salla Brunou
Photo: Jari Kuskelin
Translation: Hanna Laaksonen