The Soundtrack Of Our Lives (SWE)

THE SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES (SWE)

Date: Monday, 13th of December 2010
Venue: Kafe Moskova, Helsinki

For many, many years we at Off The Record have been fans of The Soundtrack Of Our Lives. Most of us found the band when they released their breakthrough album ”Behind the Music” in 2001. And of course we have been listening to Ebbot’s previous punk band Union Carbide Productions since early 90’s.

During the past years the Swedish alternative rockers have been touring several times around Europe and USA supporting bands like Oasis, were nominated in Grammy Awards and released bunch of great albums. When we heard that TSOOL is returning Helsinki, we wanted to them to be the first band outside Finland to play at Off The Record sessions.

In December 2010 terrible winter storm hit Finland. All the roads were blocked with masses of snow, dozens of flights were cancelled, trams and trains weren’t able to move at all and the freezing wind made it almost impossible to even walk outdoors. The city of Helsinki declared “operation snow war”.

One of these blizzard days we met TSOOL members at club Tavastia just before their soundcheck. Off The Record session was planned to take place few blocks away at Kafe Moskova, owned by the famous film directors Kaurismäki Brothers. Due the weather it was basically impossible to carry neither our equipments nor band’s backline and instruments from place a to b.

We waited almost an hour for the cab to come and called several times to taxi operator but the lucky stars weren’t on our side. Due the storm getting a taxi seemed to be out of question. (A note for our foreign readers: There isn’t a line of cabs waiting round every corner like in most big cities you have visited. Getting a taxi in Helsinki is always difficult. Rain or shine.)

Finally we picked TSOOL’s bandwagon and made our way to the final destination. Like we expected, the Swedish guys loved Kafe Moskova: small and cosy bar in the mood of 80’s Russia. Just few minutes after our arrival we were in full action. Band did quick soundcheck with our sound engineer Jukka, tuned their instruments and picked pints of beer. It was showtime.

About 15 minutes and three songs later we were finished. As you can see, the trip through darkness and storm was definitely worth it!

www.tsool.net/
www.myspace.com/officialtsool

Thanks:
Heli & Ramona / Warner Music Finland
Anne-Mari / Fullsteam Agency
Kafe Moskova
Timo Palomäki for fixing the pixels