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 |
I arrived just in time to see Likaiset Pikkarit (***) warm up the already early gathered crowd for the rest of the night. These 2 gals and 2 guys call their style of music “Pikkaripunk” (or “panty punk”) and that’s the exact feeling it gave me. There was something sexy and sleazy to their brand of punk rock, which was simply great fun! With elements of hard rock added to the punky music, including nice moments that almost felt like a small jam session, a certain amount of glitter and color and big smiles of the green haired drummer Rike. A great start of the night and the pink panties hanging off the mic stand was a nice touch! And we got the first dive from the stage into the crowd by one of the musicians, promising!
Up next was Expected Boy (****), a punk rock outfit with a bunch of locals of which most were actually part of the organisation/crew and an expat Brit on vocals. Their set cranked up the energy to a new height with their blend of styles of some of the biggest punk rock bands around. A certain amount of aggression entered the stage with middle fingers flying around and the high energy quickly translated into the first proper moshpits of the night! The fact that they haven’t played in about 2 years was not noticable and with some of their catchy songs like Until Day Breaks (Misfits, anyone?), Roadkill BBQ and the cover of the always welcome Turbonegro track I Got Erection got us all shouting along very soon!
With Sininen Kondomi (***1/2) the evening kept dialing up the rowdiness. With a band called “Blue Condom” I guess that was to be expected. The lanky dreadlocked frontman shouted the lungs out of his body and was together with the hair-whipping, soloing skilled lead guitarist definitely the center of attention. The moshpit kept going and only grew bigger with every minute. Their short and violent feeling songs definitely embodied the tag I saw on their Facebook banner: “Make rock ‘n’ roll dangerous again”! Let’s all together continue shouting for “Äiti” (or mom) while still being pumped up!
Flippipuisto (***) went more the skate punk way with their music and their rebellious music kept the crowd going. I have to say that at first it seemed to me a bit as if the vocalist wasn’t really into the gig, especially compared to the rest of the band. Luckily not too far into the show he seemed to find his groove and join his mates in an energetic performance that made the crowd go wild yet again.
One of the bands that I had been looking forward to, was the hardcore punk outfit Wasted (****1/2). And I definitely ended up being really pleased. The honest and down-to-earth hardcore attitude of frustration and anger towards society brought an intense gig. Vocalist Ville walked back and forth on stage like he was walking on white-hot coals, being the perfect representation of the band’s well-known tagline “Armed with my voice, fueled by my anger”. He regularly sought connection with the steaming mass of angry people in front of him and was met with a choir of shoutalongs. A true underground hardcore show that still is one of my favorite ones that I saw that weekend!
After that rather “heavy” music considering the seriousness of it all, closing band of the night was actually a refreshing way to end the first day. Finnish punk rock band Anal Thunder (***1/2) got their gear (and beers) and set up shop to kick off a late night party to drain everyone of the last bit of energy and sweat they still had left. Their name itself promises already that they don’t take themselves too serious and that was quickly confirmed with songs like Ass Monkey, Lifelong Hangover and Drink Myself To Death. Especially that last one blew the roof off the bar and got the whole damn crowd partying and moshing like there was no tomorrow. Even Adam, vocalist of Bogans, couldn’t hold himself from jumping on stage and shouting the classic along in one of the mics. An absolute crazy party that didn’t seem to have an end, with even the guitarist ending up butt-naked with only his instrument in front of his… euhm… instrument.
