22-03-2008 Stalingrad Cowgirls

supports: The Wrecking Queens, The Leobarby, The Freza ; Venue: Gloria, Helsinki (Finland)
By: Nina Mende

Home, sweet home. Being back in Gloria really feels like that by now. I’ve been there quite a few times. Tonight I was there for Stalingrad Cowgirls but there were also three other bands playing. That was also the reason for the show to start that early: They began at 9:30 pm sharp!

I have never heard of the other three bands before so it was quite interesting to see what they would be like. According to the names of the bands I expected it to be an all-girls night, but it turned out to be only an almost-all girls night. The Leobarby were guys, but the other bands were all girls. So it was still an evening full of girl power.
Stam1na were playing at Tavastia, which might be the reason why Gloria wasn’t that crowded tonight. Or maybe it’s just that Gloria is simply never really crowded. Ok, never is too much, but hardly ever. It was still a great night.

The first band of the night was The Wrecking Queens. The band was founded in 2004. Same taste of music led them on the path of rock’n’roll. Drummer Katja and singer Näpsy knew each other through their piano teacher and met bass player Maria and guitar player Jenni in high school. First they started with playing cover-songs. Maria wasn’t a member yet but when she joined the band they really started to kick some ass with their own songs. The Wrecking Queens somehow reminded me of a mix between The Sounds and Blackmail, combined with a little bit of The Vines and The Hives. The four girls were rocking the stage with much power and energy, playing Indie-Rock. The few people that were already there watching enjoyed the girl’s show and danced along. I thought it was a really great band and I enjoyed the show a lot.

The following band was the non-girl band, although the name might let someone figure that, especially in the combination with all the other bands: The Leobarby. That are four Finnish guys who made the girls go wild. The Leobarby played rock, reminding slightly of Billy Talent. The singer just couldn’t stand still and was running around the whole entire time without a break. That made it quite hard to take pictures of him. The audience, which had grown a little bit by now, was enjoying their show as well and cheered a lot. The Leobarby had a moon projected to the very back of the stage which gave the whole show a different atmosphere. After half an hour their performance was over.

The Freza were quite young and looked quite punky. The singer had a great voice though. I didn’t expect that. The band was founded in 2004 by the four girls. It seemed like they brought some friends. The audience enjoyed it, rocked and sang with the girls. I somehow felt like being at an Emergenza show. The girls had a lot of power and were quite professional on stage, not as shy as some other bands in their age. Their music wasn’t as punky as they looked, yet was it some nice rock.

Last band of the night was The Stalingrad Cowgirls, three girls rocking big time. These three young ladies are from Salla, a small town located 60 km North of the Arctic Circle. Bored and frustrated, with nothing to do, the girls started playing ragged punk rock in the summer of 2005. Stalingrad Cowgirls was formed.
Enni is responsible for handling the Les Paul and the microphone. Riina knows how to treat drums and Henna’s job is to give the beat with her bass. With Enni in charge and others in suite you can’t claim girls don’t know how to play rock ‘n’ roll. A really great band which made everybody in Gloria move, dance, shout and simply rock. They put up an amazing performance. The girls even sang a short Finnish Easter song, since it was Easter time. It was an energetic and powerful show of three energetic and powerful ladies. I enjoyed it and surely hope that I will see them.