RÄHÄKKÄ BIOGRAPHY
Rähäkkä was formed in the summer of 1997 in Finnish industrial
city of Tampere.
Originally named Wave of Fear, its first line-up was: Jani Pekkanen
on drums (also played guitar in Blubberheads), Jani "Purtsi" Purola (guitar, also
vocals in Absurd Attitude), Perttu (vocals, also drums in Absurd Attitude), Miikka (vocals,
bass in A.A.), Hannu (bass, guitar in A.A.) and Joni Mänttäri (guitar,
guitar in A.A.). Some rehearsals took place and a few songs were
written, but nothing really happened, partly because of the frequent absense
of both vocalists. Miikka and Perttu left in october and the bands name
was changed to Rähäkkä (since all of the lyrics were in
finnish, there was no point in having an english name). A friend and a
co-gig organiser of Jani Pekkanen, Leo Van Aerschot was taken as a new
vocalist and was soon followed by Timo "Limppi" Lappi as another vocalist.
 With a new name
and line-up rehearsing became more frequent and bands first gig was held
in a place called Nykyaika. It wasn´t really a big success, as most
of the band were too drunk and/or stoned to play properly, and the vocalists
tried to hide their level of intoxication and lack of experience by insulting
the audience and running around like a pair of maniacs. Three or four other
gigs took place, one in Nykyaika and others in Mexas, but weren´t
really different from the first one, lots of drinking and abysmal musical
performanses. First gig outside Tampere was during may 1998 in Helsinki
in Scandinavian City of Punk -festival. It was a total fiasco. On the way
to the concertplace the engine of our van exploded and we were still 140
km away from Helsinki. Part of us hitchhiked and others took the train
and we managed to reach our destination. The organisers had, however, moved
us to play just before Diskonto, who were to be last band of the night.
So we had lots of free time before the gig, and just guess what most of
us did. That´s right, they drank like hell. By the time we were going
onstage the only relatively sober members were Pekkanen (drums) and Leo
(vocals). Only then we found out that there was only one guitar amp and
one fully functioning microfone. So we started with only one guitar and
manged to play half of our set before Jani got fed up of the mindless noise
and left the stage with Leo following him. Rest of the band soon realised
what had happened and stopped playing. Some bitter words were exchanged
afterwards, but we decided to give it another try and not to disband right
now. Few days after the gig Hannu left the band and was replaced by Ville
"Rääpäle" Asikainen.
 Around midsummer
we recorded some songs on our rehearsal pad and desided to release three
of them on a split 7" ep with Armageddon Clock through Morbid Productions,
which was run by Pekkanen and Leo. We had two gigs during the summer, another
of them being on public square called Sorinaukio. The fact that we managed
to play two and a half songs in 38 minutes tells you something about the
level of our intoxication. Two weeks after that we had a gig in Mexas which
was ok with the usual insults and exhibitionism. In small town of Forssa
on 19th of september 1998 we had the best gig we have ever had, everything
was just fucking brilliant, no one was too drunk and we played great,
but there was almost no audience. In october our split ep was released
with valuable help from Tommi Musturi of Boing Being Records. Out of the
total print of 500, 400 were sold or traded during first two months, not
bad for beginners. Right now we are rehearsing for a 7" ep of our own,
which is also being published through Morbid Productions. No gigs will
take place before we´ve recorded it, that`s for sure. We also are
looking forward to go to an european tour with Totuus sometime summer 1999.
Hope it works out fine.
Current line-up and other bands)
Jani Pekkanen/Drums (ex- Blubberheads)
Joni Mänttäri/Guitar (Absurd Attitude, ex- Hiippakunta)
Ville "Rääpäle" Asikainen/Bass (Blubberheads, Space
Rocket)
Jani "Purtsi" Purola/Guitar (Absurd Attitude, Ehtoollinen, Positive/Negative)
Timo "Limppi" Lappi/Vocals (Blubberheads, Space Rocket)
Leo Van Aerschot/Vocals (-)
[Biography] [Discography]
[News] [Contact]
|