That beardy fellow by the beach
Beardyman's extravagant one-man show takes the Rento Stage by storm.
”Minä olen Partamies. Minulla on maailman suurin penis”, Beardyman introduces himself in plain Finnish. For those readers who don’t understand Finnish, the intro speech translates, word for word, as ”I am Beardyman. I have the world’s biggest penis”. It’s clear from the word go that anything goes and anything’s possible at a Beardyman show. The man creates music on the fly, and might perform a piece he composed, as he puts it, ”five seconds in the future”. Beardyman is a genre of its own, consisting of dubstep, electro and reggae, a bit of this and a bit of that, with a delicious smattering of beefy beatboxing.
Beardyman. Photo: Samu Hintsa
– Now everybody dance around like you wanna twist your ankle!
Movement starts to spread around the crowd like a wave, starting from the front of the stage and reaching the back rows. The stoic Finns throw caution to the wind and start bouncing and dancing like there’s no tomorrow.
The Brit is extremely talented musician with a quick wit and and even quicker mouth. His instrument is his voice, enhanced and extended by Beardytron 5000, a system of his own devising. The Beardytron is his labour of love, a devilish blend of live-looping machine, producing studio and effects equipment that allows Beardyman to use his instrument to fulfill the musical visions that float in his head, on demand and on the go.
-Are you having fun? ’Cause I am enjoying myself. That sounds disgusting, but it’s true.
The crowd is obviously loving it. Somebody starts a conga line, and soon the dancing line of fun-loving festival fellows snakes in between the partying people, sucking in more and moe people. The mood kicks up a notch, and the dancing becomes even wilder. Someone’s even doing the robot.
Beardyman’ s audience. Photo: Samu Hintsa
The last ten minutes is full-on, no holds barred beatboxing. If one couldn’t see the stage, it would be easy to forget that this is just Beardyman and the microphone, with nothing in between. ”This dude’s the S**t”, I hear someone utter in amazement.
Beardyman himself sounds rather pleased with the show, which is a first of its kind in Finland.
-I love you like a brother and a girlfriend and a grandmother all combined.
Ditto, Beardyman, ditto.
Text: Johanna Mikkola
Translation: Jari Rytkönen
Photos: Samu Hintsa
