Saturday the 16th of August 2025 was a rather grey and rainy day in Tampere, the kind of weather where you’d like to just snuggle up in bed with a cup of tee and a good book. I had absolutely no interest in getting dressed and leaving my warm and completable apartment, but Auri was calling and how could I miss the chance to see them on one of their first ever live shows.

The evening begins with a similar atmosphere as the weather outside. It’s dark, and some thunder seems to be roaring in the distance. Into this darkness steps Johanna in her long, off-white and shinning dress. She sits down in the middle of the stage and just as her soft voice fills the whole auditorium quietly, the “candle” light is also starting to fill the hall. It feels like this setup was supposed to have a slightly spooky character, maybe that’s why I was reminded about Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride while looking at Johanna.
The rest of the band entered the stage a bit later and take their seats in a half circle around Johanna. The keyboards and drums are covered behind some shimmering dark green sheets. Personally, while I get the idea behind this, I didn’t really like this choice, I found the sheets to be more distracting than any visible instruments could have been, it just made the setup look kinda messy. But I did very much like the lanterns that were arranged all over stage and gave a warm glow to the whole ambient. (Side note: while the lantern light was very pretty, it wasn’t really favourable for photographing. The fact that they put proper lights on right after we weren’t allowed to photograph any more did put me in a bit of a bad mood.) Overall thought I’m not sure about this stage layout, the fact that only Johanna is able to move makes the show feel a little stagnant, which doesn’t really fit to the music that feels very much alive.

In ‘The Duty of Dust‘ there’s a battle between Johanna’s sweet, soft voice and Troy’s slightly raspy vocals, which adds an interesting extra layer to the song. The next song ‘Night 13‘ felt uplifting, yet emotional (As this is an older song many people probably already know it, but I yet again made the decision to dive into something completely new for me and attended the show without checking out any of their material before the gig, so I heard all of their songs for the very first time). At the end of the song though, the music felt a bit too much and overwhelming.

During ‘Blakey Ridge‘ Johanna is inviting the fans to clap along and just in general the atmosphere is getting more energetic. I understand why they decided not to have a half-time break, the show is slowly growing and coming to live, the well arranged flow of the show would get unpleasantly get interrupted if there was a break.

Johanna K. is doing a great job with her performance, not only in regards to her singing and violin playing, but also in the very subtle ways she moved around the stage. I found this especially interesting during ‘Aphrodite Rising‘ where her impression keeps switching between what seems like a puppet on a string and a strong heroine.

Before ‘The Valley’ the silhouette of Snufkin (a character from the Moomins) can be seen at the back of the stage for a short moment. The song itself includes an interesting part where Troy is playing a harmonica very tenderly and precisely. In addition to this, the fans are now clapping along again.
When Johanna sat down on the stage again during, I think, ‘Museum Of Childhood’ she reminded me of a Disney princess and I wouldn’t have been surprised if some forest animals had showed up on stage to come be at her side.

Before the main set comes to an end they still played ‘Them Thar Chanterelles‘ which got the fans all happy clapping, standing and laughing along to Johanna running and dancing all around the stage. While this song is not exactly my cup of tea, the happiness was absolutely contagious, and it indeed felt like a fitting way to end this concert. 

Of course, this wasn’t the end just quite yet. After a moment, the band came back from the backstage to bless us with two more songs, including ‘Fireside Bard‘, my favourite of the evening. This song conveyed so many feelings that it got me emotional as well, in a good way.

Overall, even though the show lasted way longer then expected (30 minutes longer then the information in the email stated), the time went by in a heartbeat.