Korpiklaani | Ukon Wacka North American Tour – December 15, 2011

Ukon Wacka Tour 2011
Forged in Flame, Polkadot Cadaver, Arkona, & Korpiklaani
December 15, 2011 @ Jaxx in Springfield, VA

Where do I start with this band?!! My buddies got me into Korpiklaani when I was in high school (almost in passing, though). They actually got me into a lot of folk metal, so shout out to the metal crew! Needless to say, I’m a big Korpiklaani fan. Check out their official site, and their Facebook page. I saw them for the first time back in January 16, 2010 for the Vodka Revolution Tour at Jaxx and of course, they were amazing! At the time, however, I didn’t have my wonderful baby (ahem….the Nikon D3000). I remember hanging out with Jonne behind Jaxx and he was just getting plastered. I remember he told me he wanted to take me to Finland-ha!

The funny thing is…Jonne remembered me from a year ago apparently. As a matter of fact, he pulled me onstage right before they were going to play “Tequila” and made me folk dance with him for quite a while-hahaha!! I’m sure there are videos around and some of my buddies actually took pictures, so check them out on my Facebook page. It was fun!! It was completely unexpected, but I guess now I’m famous at Jaxx for that…(apparently people thought I was Jonne’s girlfriend??? The answer is no, of course!) I will miss these guys and I hope to see them soon A HUGE thank you to Ryan from Fresno Media/Nuclear Blast for the photo pass!! CHEERS!

After the show ... (Jonne was HAMMERED)

A note on the photography: As I mentioned before in the Forged in Flame post, the lighting was quite atrocious and so I had to reconfigure my camera settings a few times. I chose to put some as black and white because they worked best with the lighting. These are definitely not my best, but here ya go nonetheless!

Korpiklaani is:

Jonne – Vocals, Guitars
Juho – Accordion
Matson – Drums
Hittavainen – Violin, Jouhikko and Woodwinds
Jarkko – Bass
Cane – Guitars

Drink and dance ’till the morning!!! -G.G. \m/

After the show :) … (Jonne was HAMMERED)

Arkona | Ukon Wacka North American Tour – December 15, 2011

Ukon Wacka North American Tour 2011
Forged in Flame, Polkadot Cadaver, Arkona, & Korpiklaani
December 15, 2011 @ Jaxx in Springfield, VA

I’ve been listening to Arkona for about 8 months, so I was more familiar with them than the opening bands. I absolutely love their sound, especially the different vocals Masha can do. It’s kind of hard to memorize Russian lyrics, though!! If you’re a folk metal fan, obviously check out this band- here’s their official site. They are absolutely killer live as well \m/

Vocalist Masha of Arkona

Arkona is:

Masha “Scream” – Vocals
Sergei “Lazar” – Guitars
Ruslan “Kniaz” – Bass
Vlad “Artist” – Drums
Vladimir “Volk” – Folk instruments

Goi, Rode, Goi! -G.G. \m/

Polkadot Cadaver | Ukon Wacka North American Tour – December 15, 2011

Ukon Wacka North American Tour 2011
Forged in Flame, Polkadot Cadaver, Arkona, & Korpiklaani
December 15, 2011 @ Jaxx in Springfield, VA

Wow! They were trippy!! So these guys are relatively local (Baltimore, MD) and their music is rather eccentric. It was a great set, though I’m not a big fan of the ‘hardcore dancing’ spasms on stage by the bassist and the guitarist. Otherwise, they were fun to watch…They actually covered Billy Jean by Michael Jackson…and it was REALLY GOOD. Check out their music on their Facebook page, though YouTube has a bigger selection of their songs, of course…

Guitarist Jasan Stepp of Polkadot Cadaver

Polkadot Cadaver is:

Todd Smith: Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards
Jasan Stepp: Guitar, keyboards, programming, cello
David Cullen: Bass, keyboards
Scott Radway: Live Drums

-G.G. \m/

Forged In Flame | Ukon Wacka North American Tour – December 15, 2011

Ukon Wacka North American Tour 2011
Forged in Flame, Polkadot Cadaver, Arkona, & Korpiklaani
December 15, 2011 @ Jaxx in Springfield, VA

These guys were very good, though they were a bit out of place! I would describe them as good ol’ Southern rock from Cleveland, Ohio and I recommend you check them out on their Myspace page or their awesome official website. The lead singer was a total sweetheart and totally friendly towards everyone. The bassist, Cyril, is from France, too…I guess I just thought I should add that (I like me some French metalheads).

A note on the photography and lighting: Jaxx is currently understaffed, so there was no one tending to the lights. As such, the lighting was terrible and my photos came out crappy using my conventional camera settings (Night setting with 800-1600 ISO). These are certainly not my best!!

Forged in Flame is:

Gary Kane – Vocals
Jay Bonnel – Guitars
Cyril Blandino – Bass
Jon Vinson – Drums

-G.G \m/