Hyena Go-Go: The Star Marcs Sound Explosion Band, The Rattlesnake Shakers, Cal Twomey

Star Marcs is the output of a Helsinki-based 26-year old musician Jaakko Mäkiniemi, blending wasteland-echoing guitars with an over-all manic lo-fi aesthetic, rollingstonesque swagger with mystical preferences, gothic imagery with acidic freakouts and psychsynths with distant screams like heard through an oil barrel. The project started with the release of a self-titled solo-recorded album in spring 2019, the fateful year of 2020 saw the rise of the double single Morningstar, and 2023 bore witness to the second Star Marcs album – Transcience. A band was put together by dear friends called The Star Marcs Sound Explosion Band, a crew of vagabond pirates from Helsinki Jam circles.
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The Rattlesnake Shakers is a Finnish blues rock band formed in Helsinki in 2003. The trio is currently celebrating their 20 years on the rocky road.

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Through the years the group has kept alive the 60s style psychedelic approach to blues standards by playing hundreds of gigs in Finland as well as México, building a reputation as an energetic live act when diving into the jam and letting the sound be the vehicle on a certain musical trip.

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Not to forget the original blues masters, the trio has done special tributes to such heroes as Jimi Hendrix, Peter Green and Cream. The RsS also performs its own material such as “Working Man’s Blues” released in January 2023, and a brand new single “Worried Woman Blues” which was released in late February 2024…

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Cal Twomey is an Irish singer-songwriter based in Helsinki. Known on the local scene as frontman in Faraway Shapes and Trio Grande & The Tex Mex restaurant, this year has seen Cal play the troubadour, performing acoustic shows in various cosy bars in Helsinki, Tampere and his native Cork.

For this show Cal will be accompanied by some familiar faces to the scene, with the lineup featuring members of Lovers Left Alive, Siivet, and Trio Grande. A slight departure from the indie rock and psychotic dance punk he’s used to, this sound aims to blend soft rock, country and folk to produce bittersweet melancholy in the heart of the listener.