Steve n’ Seagulls first time live in Bonn was in front of a packed house. The room was filled wall to wall basically all ages, from kids to all the way up. With no support band the crazy Finns kicked off their compressed 90 minutes show and kept it breathless for all this time. While waiting for the show I had a small talk at stage-front, and finally my English accent had a close as possible hit ‘Are you Finnish?’. Nope I am not, but the Finnish language is the closest possible too the Hungarian one (my ‘other nationality’). They are distantly related Uralic languages but belonging to different branches, Finnic and Ungric. With that sorted, next we were delighted to some awesome music.
A few highlights from the Steve n’ Seagulls show:
- “Paradise City” (Guns N’ Roses) sounded just as good in its new bluegrass form as the original.
- “Sweet Maria” featured Luigi, the bass player, stepping forward for a harmonica solo.
- “An Irish song next,” the band announced — and “Over the Hills and Far Away” (Gary Moore) followed, turned into a high-powered, unmistakably Irish-sounding tune with a perfectly fitting banjo solo.
- “Self Esteem” hit the highest possible gear, becoming a breathless bluegrass sprint.
- Introducing “a beautiful country song from England,” the band launched into “Too Much Love Will Kill You”(Queen), reincarnated as a country tune with two harmonicas playing the rhythm. “Twice the harmonica, twice the alcohol!” Remmel exclaimed at the end.
- “Silvera” opened with a bass solo, while “You Shook Me All Night Long” (AC/DC) featured rapid-fire banjo work.
- Before “Don’t Fear the Reaper,” Remmel announced that the next song would use “a traditional instrument from Finland — the beer bottle,” and sure enough, beer bottles became wind instruments for the tune.
- “The Trooper” (Iron Maiden) closed the set with excellent alternating banjo and mandolin solos.
- We had the viral smash “Thunderstruck” with the banjo intro
- Show wrapper “Born To be Wild”
Steve n’ Seagulls can rest assured, their first show in Bonn went down as an energetic, sweaty night.
