Finland’s Korpiklaani was the second and final support for Sabaton on their Heroes tour when they visited Copenhagen, and a large reason for us to come out this night.
Last year, the wood clan was here on their own headlining tour, and as that had been quite successful, we gladly welcomed them back to our shore again.

“Copenhagen, damn! Tell me people, are you feeling good?!”
- Jonne Järvelä (vocals)

Just like Týr before them, Korpiklaani had both a backdrop and a large stage-banner to cover Sabaton’s large setup in the back, and also like the former, Korpiklaani’s drummer Matti ‘Matson’ Johansson was pushed out to the side where I couldn’t see him because of a speaker blocking my view.
I could hear him though, and his thundering drums, as they entered into the first song of the evening after a spectacular accordion intro played over the speakers.
The musicians all took the stage at the same time, except for Järvelä who came dancing in on his own in time for the vocals to start – like their last gig here, he didn’t wear or use a guitar throughout the show, something I have not yet completely adjusted to, but it gave him plenty of opportunity to just dance and make merriment instead, an opportunity he took full advantage of!
Guitar duties were accordingly fully in the hands of Kalle ‘Cane’ Savijärvi, something he of course handled without problems, and he was musically well backed up by his fellows Jarkko Aaltonen on bass, Tuomas Rounakari on violin, and the still pretty new guy Sami Perttula on accordion. It’s a given that I don’t know how Matson was performing as my view to him was blocked, but the rest of the guys were having one hell of a party, that’s for sure! They were dancing, posing, and teasing each other, and above all else, they had a great connection going with the crowd.

Said connection came almost completely from the performance, as Järvelä wasn’t very talkative this evening. I believe it took him six or seven songs before he even spoke his first words between songs.
As for understandability, it should also be noted that it took the band even longer to reach their first English language song, Vodka, and that they didn’t play more than two of these in total as far as my memory serves.
That didn’t stop us from having a lot of fun though, and even without words, Järvelä got the fans on his side, especially after pouring beer into the drinking horn of a guy standing in the front row!
Not surprisingly, not very many in the Copenhagen crowd were able to sing along to the many, many Finnish songs, so instead the time was spent headbanging and a bit of mosh-dancing. We didn’t have any of the large-scale dancing sessions that we have seen for earlier Korpiklaani shows, but the pressure was high anyways, and everyone seemed to love this dose of Finnish drinking music.

Not talking between songs gave Korpiklaani the chance to press several more songs into their set than Týr, even though the two bands seemed to have the same amount of time on the stage. Given this, it was odd that the Finns didn’t play more of their classics, the drinking and partying tunes that always works on the crowd. Not surprisingly, most of the songs I recognised came from their latest album, Manala, and while I won’t speak against its qualities, there were several songs from their older catalogue that I had rather spent my time listening to.
Still, Korpiklaani did their job very well, proving that they work as well as support as they do headlining, and there wasn’t anyone not warmed up for the coming Sabaton show by now. The bra thrown to Järvelä at the end of the show stands as silent testimony to the effect this band had on the Danish fans.

Setlist:

Tuonelan Tuvilla
Ruumiinmultaa
Metsämies
Juodaan Viinaa (Hector cover)
Petoelaimen Kuola
Sumussa Hämärän Aamun
Uniaika
Sahti
Kantaiso
Vodka
Ievan Polkka
Rauta
Wooden Pints