So. About Thursday night. ☺️
@turbo-peruna and I rocked up to the meet and greet area by the John Denver statue around 4:40 or so? There was already a large group of folks hanging around chilling.
Around 5 we all gathered into a more compact group (as opposed to being kinda spread out all around the Trading Post area). A little after 5 we could definitely faintly hear the dulcet melody of “Ruoska” coming from the direction of the amphitheater and Peruna and I were like “ope, is he soundchecking now? 💀”.
At this point there was a group of at least 50 (maybe 60ish…?) people just kinda chillin’ and chitchatting to kill time.
Probably 5 minutes later, a staff member from Red Rocks said that the meet and greet wasn’t going to happen right now, and that it was getting moved to 8PM inside the venue and that we should meet at “the barndoor” and that we should go line up for doors or whatever.
Okay.
I did cackle at this because lmao ofc, but y’know? Whatever. Not the end of the world. Peruna and I awkwardly wander towards the venue but then we’re both like “we should go piss now at the Trading Post so we don’t have to try with lines inside.”
After what would turn out to be the most Fortuitous Piss Break of All Time, we left the parking lot of the Trading Post to head up to the amphitheater.
Lo and behold you’ll never guess who was walking towards us. 💀😳🫣
In my idiot brain, I was like, “Oh how nice, he’s going on a leedle walk. I’ll just smile, nod, and keep walking because I don’t Want To Bother him.”
And that was my plan until he stops and says to me, “I like your shirt, sorry I’m late!” (I was wearing my “It’s Crazy, It’s Party” shirt and Peruna was wearing their 2024 Eurotour shirt).
Cue my mouth hanging open like a fucking fish 💀💀💀. Peruna kinda goes, “Oh! We were told the meet and greet got moved to 8!”
And Kalle (Jere’s A&R dude) was like, “Excuse me what.”
So we quickly relayed what the Red Rocks staff told us like less than 10 minutes ago. Kalle looked… Irritated 💀 (real). Jere just shrugged and was like, “It not matter, I’m here now, we do it anyway. It’s okay.” 😭😭😭
And both Peruna and I were word vomiting partially to Jere and partially to Kalle that because of what the staff had told people… and that majority of the people were gone. That there had been like 50 plus people here etc, but Jere kept repeating, “It fine! It fine! I’m here now, sorry we were late!” Gaaaaaaaaaawwwwwdddddd. Staaaaaaaahp. 🥹🥹🥹
So there were still a few folks (probably 15 or so?) milling around and they all got super stoked when he showed up still apologizing for being late but then was like “now we are here! ☺️” He kept waving people over telling them to come over and say hi.
He kept apologizing for being late. He mentioned his soundcheck was supposed to be at 3PM but it got delayed by a lot. He later mentioned he didn’t have his usual sound or light guys and that he hoped everything would go okay.
We asked him what time he was going to be on, and he said “around 8.” 😬
@clovermoonspell made him (and H) some absolutely gorgeous jackets (Jere’s said VANTAA and had a KUUMAA logo and H’s said “HHno€”) and had the chance to give them to Jere before the show (yaaaaaaaay!!!!). It looked so good on him- beautiful work yet again!!!! 🫠🥳
He asked people where they were from- there were some fans from Utah, Colorado, and ofc, 🔥Chicago🔥! Peruna and I both word vomited “Minneapolis” (💀) and he was like “Oh wow, where is that? 🤨” (real). I was like “up north, don’t worry about it” and Peruna was like “Up by Canada” and he was like “Canada? Canada!!!! On my god.” Loooool. He said he hopes to go to Canada someday and specifically mentioned Vancouver (o i c).
After that we all kinda lined up in little groups and he popped over to each group to say hi, take pictures, etc. One person asked him if he’d draw her a tattoo and he said something like, “Normally I draw thing like dick or pussy, but I draw something nice for you!”
Karim was going around filming everyone and everything. Somehow he started asking me questions like, “How often do you listen to Käärijä?” (Everyday), “What are your favorite songs?” (Takavoltti, Ruoska, and his Vain Elämää cover of Unihiekkaa) “How many times have you seen him?” (London… Paris… once in Finland- I was absolutely not going to tell the truth here jfc I wanted to die as it were💀) “Are you coming to Eurodisko?” (Unfortunately not) “Why not?” (Can’t afford it and couldn’t get the time off work because I came to Red Rocks lol). I hope none of that ever sees the light of day. 😭🙏
When I had the chance to chitchat with him… I didn’t really know what to say. I honestly can’t remember anything. I hope it was normal. I know I kept thanking him for coming here, and that we’re so happy he gets to perform here. Mostly relieved I didn’t flop to the ground like Wayne and Garth in “Wayne’s World” tbh. Peruna assures me that I was Very Normal, so I will take her word for it.
At one point he did sign someone’s sock? Or maybe their leg? 🦵 He got down on his knees to sign. 🫠
Peruna did ask him to draw him a little something on her notebook. And he was like, “For tattoo?” And she was like “yeah sure”. He seemed a bit stumped on what to draw and kept hemming and hawing (😭🥹). Finally he turns to the side and asked Alan Walker (who was just hanging out on the outskirts of the m&g with Kalle) what he should write/draw.
And ofc AW is like, “PERUNA.”
💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀
(I am not kidding he did say Peruna. She turned to look back at me like “🫣” as Jere is giggling like “heh heh potato.” 🥔… and for the record, we obviously didn’t say shit about tumblr or anything. We didn’t even mention our real names iirc).
He signed his name and drew a cute little cartoon selfie instead 🥹. He drew the little face going “😋”.
At that point Kalle decided things were Done and that it was after 5:30 and they had to get back to the venue.
And that was that. 🥲 It felt like it all happened quite quickly and unfortunately most of my memories are a bit blurry already (probably because I was On A Different Planet).
I’ll write more about the gig in a later post… this is quite long already. Kiitos ja anteeksi.
I loved every minute of it 😭🫶🏼🫶🏼🫶🏼
