Satin Circus: Pre-Christmas Party!

Well Hello!

What do bands do besides music? Well here's a little sneak peak for you!

Last friday we had "Satin Circus pikkujoulut" (pikkujoulut = A traditional Finnish party held before Christmas. Basically just another excuse to get drunk with one's friends and co-workers). So as every self-respecting company or band, we decided to have one of our own. We chose the dress code to be black suits, white shirts, drawn back hair and too much make up.

We reserved a table from a fancy restaurant and went by the name Kielaveden poniratsastusseura (= The Kielavesi Pony Riding Club). I guess they didn't buy the name but the dress code must have made us look a lot wealthier than we were. It's truly amazing how much better service you get when the waitress thinks you're rich! She was all over us, constantly bringing more champagne, shots, wine, beer and dishes to our table. It was the most fun I've ever had in a dining restaurant.

After quite a while we felt like we needed to move on, and for the after party we knew just the place: a bar in the middle of nowhere in the suburbs of Espoo. Kind of a random choice? Well let me tell you a story...

It all started last spring after one of our rehearsals when we spontaneously decided to go have some beer. The problem was that we couldn't come up with a bar that felt worthy of the occasion. So we decided to improvise and do something different.

The plan was to take the first bus to Espoo and then get off on the eighth stop after the Nokia headquarters. It seemed like a perfect way to get somewhere one wouldn't otherwise ever find (and looking back, that it was!). So we ended up in the suburbs of Espoo with no idea of where we were. After wandering around for a while we found a bar called Viking. The plan turned out to work perfectly! This was a place that hadn't seen the daylight since the 1980's. There were mullets everywhere; people with flannel shirts and cowboy boots playing darts and drinking beer from giant pints while the loudspeakers played country music with Finnish lyrics!

It turned out to be a hell of an evening for us! After one-too-many beers it was time to get going back home, but (surprise surprise) it turned out that when you're in the middle of nowhere the busses don't really operate at two in the morning. So with no idea of our whereabouts we decided to just go to one direction until we'd get someplace familiar (it actually made a lot of sense at that moment). Lucky for us we hit the Turku highway after awhile, and we knew that it would eventually lead us back to Helsinki. So we started walking the highway to get back home (which doesn't seem like the best idea when thinking back, but then again, the fun things rarely are). So we ended up walking the whole journey (during which we i.e. jumped into the ice cold sea from a low bridge. Once again, not the best the best idea, but definitely a story worth telling one's kids someday).

So now it was more than clear that if we're going to have an after party, it has to take place in Viking! Going to a bar in a somewhat bad neighborhood wearing a black suit, speaking with a funny accent and asking for the wine list was surely a tempting idea. Anything could happen!

Since we didn't really know which bus we took the last time, we were forced to ask around if some taxi driver would know the place. Eventually we found one, and so we were on our way to the magical place.

This time they happened to have a Karaoke Night, which meant that the caliber of the people involved was somewhat different from the last time (I think the four of us brought down the average age in the bar quite a bit) but after the initial shock we ended up having a hell of a time there!