Live Report: Disco Ensemble, Rubik

I haven’t had the time and energy to write here as often as I would have liked to and therefore this report comes two weeks late. On February 16th, I decided to attend a student party in one of the bigger nightclubs in Helsinki, Circus. I haven’t been interested in that sort of parties for a long time but now there was a clear reason to attend: the two Finnish bands booked there were both among my favorite bands of the past decade.

First off played Rubik. I had seen them, if I recall correctly, three times before and all those gigs within year 2009. They’re one of my favorite live bands. They’ve got 8 guys on stage each having fun with a variety of instruments. This suits well for their playful songs with big arrangements. Rubik has released two albums: Bad Conscience Patrol (2007) and Dada Bandits (2009). I enjoyed their first album which seemed to bring something fresh into the Finnish music scene, but the second album was in a whole new level. It took a while to get inside its mix of positivity and experimentalism at the same time being distracted by the fact that the results of the record’s mastering didn’t fit well in my ear. Quite soon, however, I was ready to call it the best Finnish album of 2009. Now I could expand that either to best album of 2009 anywhere or best Finnish album of the whole past ten years. Even though some like to compare Rubik to Radiohead (mostly on first album) or Animal Collective (mostly on second album), I feel they’ve really got some fresh ideas and a unique sound.

There was a huge queue outside and I missed a couple of first Rubik songs. It didn’t really matter since I had seen them so many times before. On the other hand, I must say that it’s hard to get enough of them and their live performance. They played with enthusiasm even for the drunken audience in the half empty nightclub. I love the fact that regardless of the audience they seem to play their most progressive tune, Indiana, which of course pleases us fans. Otherwise the set list, for the parts that I heard the gig, included a large number of catchy tracks from Dada Bandits and only one song from their debut, the single City and the Streets. At least one other would have been expected: the riff-driven, perhaps the heaviest song in Rubik’s catalogue, Buildings. But you can’t get it all in a short gig.

What makes Rubik such a great live band is the positive energy that the large group seems to perform at all times. Drummer and bassist are the only ones with only one instrument and I think even the bassist plays something else at times. There are three guys with both guitar and keyboards, including the lead singer Artturi Taira, and additional three guys offering horns, percussions, keyboards, vocoder, you name it. All in all, it’s a beautiful balance between chaos and order, just like on their records.

The headliner of the evening was Disco Ensemble from the same label, Fullsteam Records. DE was one of the bands to bring this fine Finnish label to surface some five, six years ago. They are currently working on their fourth album. The two previous ones were also released outside Finland and since their minor breakthrough album, First Aid Kit in 2005, they’ve done a lot of touring aboard. I found them some time after the release of First Aid Kit and became a huge fan at the time. I enjoyed their energy, how tightly their played together and especially Jussi Ylikoski’s fantastic guitar work and of course the great songs.

Disco Ensemble are known for their amazingly energetic gigs and this was no exception. They played very confidently and well together and made the audience go crazy as always. The set list comprised mostly of tracks from their latest album, Magic Recoveries. For most of the audience that was probably the most familiar material, but I was disappointed since I’ve enjoyed their first two albums a lot more. Of course they played some of the hits from First Aid Kit like Black Euro and the simply marvelous We Might Fall Apart. However, I didn’t hear any songs from their debut.

They played some new stuff including the new single White Flag For Peace. I’m a bit skeptical about their upcoming album. I don’t think I’ll ever be as excited about their music as I used to be. Nevertheless, they seem to be constantly capable of creating catchy, energetic songs and keep their own sound. With the talented Lasse Kurki as a producer they might as well make a very interesting record. At least one thing’s for sure: next summer many people will leave their festival gigs bruised, sweaty and happy.

discoensemble.com
Disco Ensemble @ Myspace
Rubik @ Myspace