Last year we discovered a small underground event in the city of Hyvinkää, Finland. HVNK PNKRCK brings the best that Finland has to offer on the level of punk and hardcore with the occasional addition of a band from abroad. I fell in love with the festival with its camaraderie and chill yet dangerous atmosphere. So I was eagerly looking forward to the 2018 edition fittingly baptized “HVNK PNKRCK 3.0”. And I definitely had a blast…
| Overall | Friday 20th | Saturday 21st |
On Saturday local punk rock heroes Rakas Nikotus (***) had the difficult task to get the still hungover crowd going for yet another day of fun. Just like last year, quite the amount of fans showed up early on to support the band. The upbeat punk rock was again deftly played and we even got to hear a new, still to be named, song. A great start of a sold out day!
New Deadline (***1/2) was one of the bands that stuck out a little bit with their more catchy and at times almost poppy touch to their style of punk. They delivered a very energetic and powerful show though, despite being more on the “soft” side of the punk scale. We got some big jumps by all members, vocalist Jonas climbed on the fence at the front of the stage and belted out some quite impressive screams here and there. The very accessible and emotional punk rock of these guys is not for everyone, but I think there’s a bright international future for them.
Another band that came back after last year’s success, was the Welsh punk outfit Bogans (****). Last year they surprised friend and foe with an explosive show lead by the unpredictable frontman Adam. During the time between that show and this year’s edition of HVNK PNCKRCK the band played quite the amount of shows. And that showed in their performance now. We still got an explosive show with energy through the roof and a frontman who spend quite some time in the moshpit instead of on the stage, but this time it felt more like “controlled chaos” for a lack of better words.
A surprisingly sober Adam jumped and tumbled around on the floor and attacked the wall of “Punk IPA” boxes on the side ending up with one on his head while actually being on stage with the rest of the band. The Fins love this band of misfits and Bogans easily loves the Fins back just as much! One of the highlights of the show was their version of Anal Thunder‘s “Drink Myself To Death”, with some of the crowd on stage shouting along, easily being as good as the original we saw the night before. Bogans, we love you fuckers!
Kivesveto Go Go (***) was a relatively unknown band to me. I checked some of their songs out through the HVNK PNKRCK playlist on Spotify, but that was about it. Clearly I was one of the very few who didn’t know this apparently really popular punk rock outfit. As soon as the 4 guys mounted the stage and played their first notes of music, a mass of people cramped into the small area in front of the stage started moving in a never-ending boiling moshpit. At this point of the night, the amount of people present at the venue became almost uncomfortable and getting a drink at the bar started to take a bit of time. Anyway, the dirty punk rockers threw one after the other song at their fans and were met with a fiery enthusiasm.
Normally Nyrkkitappelu (****) was supposed to close the night, but due to certain circumstances they ended up switching with Satan Takes A Holiday. That actually ended up being a good thing because Kivesveto Go Go proved to be the perfect warm-up for the band. Translated the band name comes down to “fist fight” and the overall atmosphere was one that got close to it. If you thought that it couldn’t get any more wilder than with the band before, you were quickly proved wrong.
Nyrkkitappelu plays really short and aggressive old school punk songs with a feverish energy. The way frontman Horo-Hepe and his friends acted on stage showed that they all are great friends, but at the same time have a certain tension going between them in which they don’t hold back from bumping into each other or giving a quick kick. They felt violent and rebellious and by the end of their show half of the stage had to be rebuild. A remarkable gig that made me feel for the time being as if I was attending a show at the legendary CBGB from the similarly violent and unpredictable Dead Boys!
Swedish band Satan Takes A Holiday (*****) put down a show of pure and unforgiving rock ‘n’ roll that was one of the shows of the year for now in my book. Being an almost purely garage rock/rock ‘n’ roll band, it might have seemed a bit weird at first to see them at a punk and hardcore festival, but it after seeing them play from up close I have to say that the mix of old school White Stripes and Eagles Of Death Metal fit like a glove on the festival. The 3 guys came on stage in leather jackets and silver facepaint and set the remnants of the earlier destroyed room on fire with a good hour of groovy, bluesy and catchy rock.
We danced to The Beat, got us to Love Me Like I Love Me and played Good Cop Bad Cop with them. Just like they promised with their tagline “Like a kick in the gut when you’re already down”, they kicked us into an even higher gear than before after spending as good as every drip of energy on the bands that played earlier. A lot of love was going around and those who were there to behold what a rock ‘n’ roll machine Satan Takes A Holiday truly is.
