Greetings those interested in the music here in Finland. Well, I'll give my take on the scene so far this year. I'd have to say it's pretty stagnant. Nothing fresh has hit my ears this year. Locally, a lot of the good bands of years past seem to have dispersed or are swimming the murky, moribund waters. Sad to say it. The summer festival calander draws little appeal (except, of course, for the Faces Ethnofestival which is constantly good). Each major festival seems to have one or two bands I'd like to see but not enough to make it worth the trouble. I think we have a problem with poor promoters, for one thing. A lot of the club touring bands go as far as Stockholm and then turn back west. It shouldn't be that hard to get them to extend a leg of their tour across the Baltic sea, especially since Finns now have the money and the willingness to pay 30-40 to catch a good gig. The variety of quality international acts that play in Stockholm has just exploded in the last 5 years and I can only hope that the same will happen in Helsinki soon so I don't have to make as many trips over to Sweden to see shows. The next one I will make the crossing for is Patti Smith in July. Here's hoping Finland gets a hit of inspiration soon, from global as well as local sources.