Rakastatko Hirviö Miestä? Fun in Finland with Lordi and Friends

Finnish is an unusually impenetrable language. I'm lucky to know a few, and mostly can work my way around any Latinate or Germanic language, but Finnish is something else entirely. This is how, on a Saturday night in downtown Helsinki, I found myself in a room about the size of Club Soda, surrounded by many very tall people, understanding very little of what was going on. From the stage, the banter came fast and unfathomable:

"unintelligible, unintelligible, unintelligible WHO'S YOUR DADDY unintelligible", followed by the roar of the sizeable and enthusiastic crowd. 

 

I was at Lordi's show at the legendary Tavastia rock club, one of series of dates across their home country, and seeing them play to a hometown crowd was an amazing privilege. Experiencing international bands without the filter of English (or French) banter is a rarity, and while I understood very little, enjoying a metal concert is a pleasure unbounded by language.

 

Lordi shot to international fame when they won the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest with their banger "Hard Rock Hallelujah". Eurovision is traditionally the domain of overwrought, torch-y and melodramatic pop-influenced songs (our own Celine won the competition in 1988), so Lordi was an outlier by those standards. However, their appearance at the competition is a testament to the fact that European countries, particularly Nordic countries, are far more open to heavy music than other cultures. With more metal bands per capita than any other country on earth, Finland is especially open to metal and rock and the crowd at their show made that evident. From folks in elf ears and blood soaked corpse paint, to kindly grandparent types in sensible cold-weather clothing, everyone was there to enjoy the pop-metal magic of Mr. Lordi and friends. 

 

I was in Finland for over a week, visiting Helsinki, Tampere and crossing the Arctic circle in Rovaniemi, and whenever I met any Finn, I mentioned seeing Lordi and watched their reaction. I met a lot of fans. There's a sense of national pride when it comes to this band, and I felt it in the crowd that night. From an outsider's perspective, it's incredibly strange to imagine a sense of nationalism being wrapped up in musicians wearing rubber monster masks (did you know that Gwar's Dave Brockie [R.I.P.] was Canadian?), but I understood as I met and talked with more people. Finns are proud of their distinct culture, of the origins of their unparseable language and of the uniquely Finnish things that they've introduced to the world, including stunning design, sauna, and... Lordi.

 

The show was great, and heavy on showmanship despite the small stage, which was graced by a set of doors. These were alternatingly used for dramatic entrances but also as part of a conceit where each member's backstory was introduced while they did a little solo. I was deeply amused, as it was reminiscent of their 2008 film Dark Floors, where each musician's monster alter ego terrorized the film's protagonists in turn. 

 

The star, of course, is Mr. Lordi. A Renaissance man  monster whose artistic output spans a variety of media, the multi-instrumentalist is a prolific songwriter, for other musicians and his own band. Seemingly on a quest to compose every possible type of music, nowhere is this ambition more evident than on 2021's Lordiversity. A box set of seven (7!) individual albums, each reminiscent of a particular genre or era of music, it remains an incredible feat. Limited Deadition, their recently released record, continues in a synth-y vintage horror movie soundtrack inflected vein as their previous release Screem Writer's Guild. As with every Lordi record, it's all catchy and camp and extremely fun. 

 

Their show that night covered all the singles from the new record, while dipping across their discography. However, when you have 20 studio albums, it's unlikely that everyone will hear their favourites, but I respect that they play "Would You Love A Monsterman?"(the breakout single from their first record) as well as "Hard Rock Hallelujah", even after all these years. Mr. Lordi is a massive Kiss fan (I was pleased to hear "God of Thunder" and "God Gave Rock 'N' Roll To You II", two personal Kiss favourites, as their intro and outro music that night), and so perhaps that level of fan service should be expected, but I was still pleased. 

 

I also loved that there was no encore. I'm not sure if this is cultural, but it's something few bands do, yet should be a more widespread practice. As Eddie Spaghetti from notorious non-encore band The Supersuckers once said, where else is doing 90% of your job and then waiting to be begged for the last 10% acceptable? 

 

All in all, I had a great night, even (literally) rubbing elbows with Kasperi from Beast in Black (who I otherwise politely ignored, in keeping with Finnish custom). 

 

A week later, I was in Lordi's hometown of Rovaniemi. Yes, I met Santa Claus and fed reindeer while I was there, but did you know that the main square in Rovaniemi was named after Lordi? It is, and here I am, captured on webcam.

 

 

If you've ever considered visiting Finland, you should. For my part, I'm just looking forward to seeing Lordi again, maybe a bit closer to home.