Update from Oulu II

Sorry about the formatting, this hotel computer has a crappy browser...

Anyway, day 2 of Jalometalli was real fun. A couple of interesting realizations.

1- About half a dozen people I know from Helsinki (including LotFP artist Laura Jalo) made their way up here for the fest. I also met one of my old players from Vaasa.

So I see more people that I know in Oulu at a show than I ever do in Helsinki. Bizarre.

2- What's heavy metal about? Just today, there were bands singing about philosophy, Satanism, Cthuliana, serial killers, historical events, mosh pits, alien conspiracies, marijuana, earth-air-water-fire "elements," and more I can't think of at this very moment (not to mention I don't know all the songs played today!).

Heavy metal isn't really about one thing. You can't pigeonhole it.

I think D&D is like that too. It has a very wide possibility of applications, just like metal, and sometimes I like to pursue the unusual applications... and sometimes I like the meat and potatoes.

But it all fits.

3- All weekend, we heard the same thing from the stage. "This is the first time in the 25 years we've been together that we've been to Finland!" Or 10 years or whatever. Someone at this fest really did something special, both for the fans and the bands.

And a very large portion of this crowd was kids. Not old farts (although there were plenty of us), but teenagers not old enough to drink (18 in this country). Showing up for a festival full of metal bands whose heydays were in the 19 friggin 80s before they were even born. And they weren't rejecting it, they were embracing it as their absolute music of choice, despite all the modern music out there.

I don't have to mention why that might be relevant to this blog and the subjects it usually talks about, do I?