I've been waiting so long

Sometimes they do come and fetch you for gigs from the reharsal room. Or that's at least what Bartsi thought when he got a message from M.net Operaatio: Live -crew. They had a gig for Streetcar, would we like come and play? Yeah, of course we would, but why us? But actually it turned out that we had sent an enquery about a gig in Helsinki's Operaatio: Live. In 2004! So remember kids, all good things come to those who wait long enough...

And it might have helped that Streetcar fitted nicely this occasion's more mellow line-up: Captain Cougar, a dreamy folk-pop band from Jyväskylä and Hanna Marsh, a major record label songbird. It's pretty rare that major label bands play these events but Hanna wanted to do some solo piano stuff to test out some new material and why not.

So our two car caravan parked in front of Liberte one nice spring day. Yes, "two car" because since the Captain was coming all the way from mighty Jyväskylä, we were bringing most of the gear and couldn't fit all the stuff in just Peppe's vehicle. We need a van. Or would need if we did some more gigs.

But what, there was already a nice set of Kumu drums set up onstage? A sudden flashback occured, was this another case of strange doublebookings and stuff? But no, Liberte is no Factory, it was just the drum kit from yesterday's house jam band and they soon turned up to gather that one away. Actually during our soundcheck we had the joy of witnessing some real musicians talking gibberish, sweating a lot and lying around in total hangover coma. How professional, perhaps some day we'll be like them. Must try harder.

Oh yeah, the soundcheck. Took a while for the Operaatio guys to figure out again all the secrets of Liberte sound and monitor system but after that everything sounded sweet and the band left for a brief visit to Linnanmäki while Hanna and the Captain checked their systems. Streetcar would actually be headlining, not because we we the most known band or some shit like that. It was just because we didn't need the large electric piano used by other acts and the piano had be back home at midnight because it's mother didn't like it be hanging around in sleazy bars being fingered by unknown people or something like that. Probably. Our Eko is all grown-up but sadly doesn't get to travel around a lot anymore. And it's kind of hard to imagine Hanna Marsh playing an Eko Tiger Junior, anyway.

Liberte, not death (have we used that headline already?)

And soon it was time for the first act (Captain) to start and Streetcar returned to the club to find a reasonable large crowd there. Great. And Captain Cougar was also great, really excellent in fact. Great songs, great singer, really nice. Dreamy. We liked that, yes indeed. Go check it out.

After Captain there was a short break when both Hanna Marsh and Streetcar set up their gear ready at the same time. But the were so strange collaborations in the air, Hanna played just solo next. Nice stuff, but perhaps 45 minutes of just woman-and-a-piano -music was a bit overkill. Some liked it though, so perhaps it was ok.

And next was our turn to finish up the evening. We had perhaps the ideal combination, suitably drunk frontmen and audience and a sober rhythm section (the designated drivers) and what followed was perhaps the best Streetcar gig so far. Some monitor problems and small mishaps occured but everything felt really good and sounded great. Blablabla, that's a real irritating way of saying it: "felt really good and sounded great". How do you know it? It's just from the small details: applause, general relaxed feeling, the fact that audience doesn't leave after a few songs that much (no, really) and the way people seemed listen during 'Top to bottom' (the quiet song) instead of talking. That kind of stuff. When we can do the same thing to an audience consisting of total strangers, then we'll have achieved something...

After a small cooldown period it was the time to wake up to reality and start packing the gear since we were taking it all back to the rehearsal room the same night. Luckily it was just a few blocks away and the heroic rhythm section drove the gear and some unfortunate carriers (girlfriends and such) and we piled everything up in the middle of the rehearsal room and called it a night. That was it, everything done in one night, no fetching the gear next morning, talking gibberish, sweating a lot and lying around in hangover coma. We'll never be true musicians...

Liberte with and without color:

Getting ready	B plays peek-a-boo with the audience.	"Hmph, that's not the right chord. Or song"
Streetcar concentrate on playing all the right notes in correct sequence.	Ville falls asleep during an instrumental section	Ville, the angel
Dramatic Peppe	Mara sings	Professor Brummer after a succesful lecture.

B/W photos by Teemu Hokkanen