Where You Go We’ll One Day Follow, pt. II
AKA Tears of the Front Row
Eye of Melian, Forest of Forgetting Finnish Tour 2026, March 17-21, 2026
Oh yeah, the Bear and Kathy superteam have returned! As you’re surely aware by now, we followed Eye of Melian around Finland for about 3 weeks in March. If you missed part I, you can check it out here, but now, let’s get into our road trip to the northern parts of Finland for the second leg of the tour, starting in Rovaniemi on March 18th, 2026, and ending in Raahe on the 21st.
You can listen to Kathy and I talk about Eye of Melian’s discography at length here! Gig photos are by Joanna Orchide from the show in Kitee.
The Journey Northbound
Now, if you know me, you’d know that I’ve been described as “terminally poor,” by my friends in the past, so for me to actually pull off these trips, I need to both save up and find the cheapest options possible. Fortunately, having access to cheap flights is a glorious boon, which I partook of in getting to and from Oulu. I’m not a big fan of long train rides, so Kathy, Nika, and I all found our way to Rovaniemi in different ways: Nika took a night bus, while Kathy took a train to Oulu and I flew there to meet her, where we picked up our rental car and began the 3-hour drive up to Rovaniemi from there (pro-tip: renting cars in Oulu costs a fraction of what it costs in Rovaniemi, since the latter is a tourist town).
We had a very easy ride up north, apart from there not really being any roadside stops between Oulu and Rovaniemi—surprising, because they are both major cities, but I suppose the need is not so great up north.
We had no trouble finding our apartment hotel, but the parking garage was a different story, which took us probably a solid 30+ minutes to find, so that was exciting. But it was a spacious, comfortable room. Once we were settled in, we went to meet Nika at Hook (a wing restaurant), which turned out to be kind of disappointing. I’ve had great meals at Hook in Tampere and Espoo, but the wings were really fatty and the wing sauce was 40% grease and it wasn’t actually mixed into the sauce itself, so it was a little bit gnarly. The fries and other food seemed good though.
Weird reindeer statue outside the venue
Korundi, Rovaniemi
The next day, we took Nika back to the place where were staying so they could freshen up. Kathy and I then drove over to Santa’s Village, since that’s what you’re supposed to do if you’re in Rovaniemi (and it was very nearby). I will admit that I was thoroughly disappointed by the place, but that’s largely because it was a tourist resort and I tend to like authentic places, not places that are crafted specifically for tourism. Yes, the cottages are probably cute in the winter, but while we were there, it was grey, melty, still too crowded, and there were—no exaggeration—20 cm deep ice potholes in all the parking areas, so it really wasn’t very pleasant and frankly, there wasn’t much to do except go shopping at the overpriced souvenir shops. I did buy a couple of tonttus, but everything else seemed a bit unreasonable. I’m actually sorry I didn’t get more of the little gnomes though. They’re cute gifts.
Once we got bored of looking around, we went back to pick up Nika again and headed over to the venue for the show. Korundi was a really nice music hall and because Nika’s friend had to cancel, I was able to sit with my friends up front, so the three of us were front and center for the show.
Of all of the shows that I personally saw on this tour, this was probably both the most special and memorable, in part because of where we were, who I was with, but also, it really felt like we were getting a private concert since we were the front and center of the crowd. I don’t usually have the capacity to ignore or forget the crowd around me, but this time, it seemed like it was just the three of us and no one else.
First of all, at this point I’d seen the show from a standing venue (where the sound is always mixed quality at best) and from about the 8th row in Kitee, so there was a totally different soundscape up front, as you could hear Johanna both from the mic and behind it, which is kind of a cool effect. The lights were also pretty good there—at one point, there was orange light on the smoke behind Robin, so it looked like she was on fire. It got me wondering how they put their sets together and it occurred to me that it would be really cool if it was seasonally (though I doubt that was the case). The vocal layering in the final track (pre-encore), “Rainfall,” was transcendentally perfect and this was when I realized that I felt like I was watching a band made up of J.R.R. Tolkien’s elves and their friends. Surely this isn’t too far off from what an elf band in Middle Earth would look and sound like?
After the show, we returned to our apartment hotel and I agreed to play a game called Bean-Boozled with Kathy that’s more or less the Bertie Bott’s Every Flavored Beans challenge, wherein you spin a spinner and pick a jellybean and hope you don’t get the bad one. Well, admittedly, I think I enjoyed burnt rubber more than liquorice. There were some pretty bad ones in there though, yikes. Dead fish, booger, and barf were not fun. Who invents these games? Sadists?
Kuusamotalo, Kuusamo
There ain’t no rest for the wicked, so on the 19th, we parted ways with Nika and set out to Kuusamo, which was interesting because I had forgotten to book my therapy sessions all month, which meant that I had to do them while road tripping. We pulled into Kuusamo and I had been hoping to meet up with a friend but instead I pulled out my laptop and chatted with my therapist for the better part of an hour (great timing, hah), while Kathy headed over to the local French cafe to do some homework and other online business.
Once we finished up there, we headed over to the venue so I could ensure I had a ticket and we checked out the artwork from Päivi Ollila in the display room, which was honestly fantastic and we both really enjoyed her nature pieces. By the time we were done and my ticket was confirmed, we still had an hour or so to kill before doors officially opened, so we went to take a walk around the lake. It was a pretty journey, but the paths weren’t maintained at all, which made it 10x the effort, plus the trail just sorta stopped halfway, so we opted to just come back the way we came.
The show on this night was, once again, delightful. I did find the backing tracks a bit loud in the mix, making it harder to notice the live nuances, but it was nice to be watching from a place where the full stage was visible. On that note though—and this was true of most of the sets—it was a shame that Martijn and Mikko were not well lit in many of the shows. They’re important to the sound too! Granted, we were all delighted that they had gotten rid of the pillar lights at this point, as they were distracting and didn’t really fit the overall vibe of the stage (apparently that was something the lighting tech pushed that the band wasn’t into either?).
It’s also worth saying that these shows were starting to make me feel really inspired. I haven’t played my violin much in the past 20 years, but seeing Robin up there giving it her all and hearing Johanna playing so beautifully (I was never very proficient at third position, but she makes it look so natural)… what can I say? I wanted to go home and play my violin and figure out if I could sing “Symphonia Arcana.”
It also put me in a funny mindset where I was wondering if I was a character from Lord of the Rings, who would I be. I wasn’t sure which hobbit I was in the end—maybe Frodo—but if I was Frodo, Johanna is definitely Galadriel, giving beauty and grace and mystical emotional support whenever she catches your eye as she’s singing something like, “you have all you need to find your way.” Yes, it was a lovely show yet again!
Oulun kaupunginteatteri, Oulu
The best part of the road trip from Rovaniemi to Oulu was blasting my ‘90s pop nostalgia playlist the whole way. Kathy and I sang along to Brian McKnight’s “Back at One,” obviously. There’s even a video of it online, if you want to see us be the worst cover band ever. Otherwise, it was mostly 3 hours of me and Kathy blabbing life stories at one another, which, IMO, is always a good use of one’s time with friends they don’t see as often as would be nice.
Once we arrived in Oulu, we found our way to the Lapland Hotel, which is a pretty fancy joint, and Kathy immediately befriended the lady from the front desk, because of course she did! That is how the Kathy do (yes, that’s a ZeFrank reference, for anyone wondering).
Now, due to spending several days there for the Auri tour last year, it’s quite funny that Kathy knows her way around Oulu much better than I do, having only been there once with my friends back in 2016 and then again very briefly when I was selling merch for Marko Hietala, which meant that I didn’t go outside pretty much at all once we arrived at the venue. I did, however, have a couple of recommendations for places we could eat, and we opted for the local Kauppuri5, which has the legendary teurastaja (the butcher) burger, which neither of us actually ordered. The food was pretty good though, considering my memory of the place was 10 years old.
Then, with a somewhat annoying amount of time to kill, we did the usual: walked over to the venue so I could check if I had a ticket—Oulu was darned near sold out, so this was the one show where my spot was quite uncertain, but it was also where I happened to meet their absolutely lovely booking agent in person for the first time. The funny part about this show was that Kathy had forgotten to get a ticket to it, so she wasn’t front row this time, and I ended up right behind her.
Once my ticket was confirmed, we wandered around the coastal area for a while, watching a tourism group visit all the places of interest. It was still too cold for there to be much of anything going on, and a bit late in the day for anything that was there, so we talked about the utterly gross smell in Oulu (there’s a cellulose factory nearby, so it smells like a septic truck exploded most days) and tried to keep our butts warm on the cold benches.
My favorite part of this evening, however, was when we were waiting to go into the music hall and Kathy found a young woman in a Delain shirt and decided to go befriend her (I told you that’s how the Kathy do!). Her name was Anu and we immediately all got along and since Kathy had panic-bought a second ticket to the Raahe show the next night, we casually offered to kidnap her along with us, and she consented to this kidnapping. So, we hung out with Anu until the show started, but she was up in the front row, so we parted ways with her for the set.
The Oulu show had a bit of a different vibe than the others, for sure. On one hand, that’s largely because we were both sitting back further, getting more of a birds-eye view of the venue. Another potential reason was that it was a city where the band have a lot of friends and family, so I could believe it if there was some extra jitters going around. And last but not least, this show was darned near sold out, so artists always want to be at their best when there’s only ten or so empty seats.
“Wings of the Dawn” stood out as being particularly exceptional on this night, with incredible harmonization and I felt like—perhaps due to my distance from the stage—I could hear all three vocalists equally, which had been tricky up front. It was also interesting to get a better view of what Kai was doing in the back, which often involved some really subtle dusting of cymbals, or managing to hold a rhythm with a shaker while playing drums one-handed. That guy is just super cool and talented. I’m constantly blown away.
And, of course, for whatever reason, “Vita Nova” really got to me in Oulu. I’ve always liked the song, but somehow, maybe I caught the heart and soul of it for the first time, who knows, but either way, it really hit the spot.
After the show, I went to fetch our luggage from the car (no, we didn’t do it on arrival) and Kathy went with Anu to find a snack and something to drink from the shop.
Raahesali, Raahe
We had a really chill morning in Oulu, enjoying the extremely fancy Lapland Hotels breakfast, before Kathy did some schoolwork, I did some writing, and then we watched a couple episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess, because Kathy’s been on my ass to watch that show for ages. It totally holds up, so long as you can enjoy how completely silly its physics are a lot of the time. I’ve been watching it ever since with unabashed glee—it’s like a DnD campaign with a level-20 fighter who also has many multiclass levels going on adventures with a level-1 bard, and that, conceptually, is the best thing ever!
We wandered over to Harald for dinner, one of my favorite restaurant chains, which has Viking-themed decor and meals that are usually very good quality. After, we went to pick up Anu, who was indeed ready and waiting for these two North American maniacs to spirit her away to Raahe.
We had a pleasant road trip—only 1 hour this day—but it then occurred to us that we hadn’t gassed up the entire time we’d had the car yet, so I was pretty impressed by how big the tank was in our rental. After a quick pit-stop at a cute roadside stop just outside of Raahe, we then made our way into town to find the venue.
Raahe has an interesting reputation, which was immediately proven when we drove past an older fellow who was laying on the ground next to his walker. We’d have stopped to check on him, but there were already a good seven or so people with him, so we figured it was taken care of, but that was pretty sad to see nevertheless… hopefully he was okay in the end.
I love music hall venues in Finland, simply because they’re always interesting and they’re more like cultural centers, in the end, as you can often find exhibits or sports rooms or after school programs—all sorts of things. They seem like the sort of places you’d find in big cities in North America, yet they exist in towns of all sizes (Raahe, for example, is only about 23,000 people). We were early, as per usual, so we once again came to chat with tour manager/merch rep Sam, we kept buying things (like Eye of Melian addicts, hah), and then it was time for another show.
After having been further back in the Oulu show and returning to the front row in Raahe, I noticed how different the violins sound based on where you are in the venue. For example, they come across more crisply if you’re sitting further back, but when you’re below the band in front of the stage, the sound’s a bit more muted.
Now, I may or may not have mentioned that, through most of these shows, I had a big dumb grin on my face, and the funny part about that was, at the beginning of the tour, I felt like my face was twitching. I don’t grin on a regular basis—this is Finland, after all, where smiling is illegal (I jest). But by Raahe, I felt like my smile muscles had strengthened and I was able to smile without my face falling apart. Ah, the sweet power of excellent music!
It’s also lovely to see how joyous Johanna gets when she’s performing. On this night, it was during “Child of Twilight,” and I felt like she was practically sparkling with delight and passing it along to the crowd. Also, casual shout-out that they didn’t use a backing track for Patty Gurdy’s vocals in “Dawn of Avatars,” because those are some pretty hefty wails and Johanna did a great job every time.
Other thoughts on this show? There was a perfect two-way harmony during “Everstrong,” after the first chorus. Again, finding the right sound balance between the singers wasn’t always easy, but in this case, it was flawless and Timo was fantastic. It should say, as well, that my stamina for live shows is usually three gigs before I lose interest and start drifting off and getting rather ADHD. Not this time. I was enraptured every single time.
Once it was over, we were surprised that Martijn came out to say hello to us afterwards, apparently feeling like it was due time after seeing us invading his front row for so many shows. We had a nice quick chat with him and also said hello to Timo, who had some local friends he had to run off and greet. Then, I managed to snag one of the tour posters for Anu before we headed back, returned her to her home—as good kidnappers do—and went back to our hotel.
The next morning we had to be up pretty early to return the car and get to our respective trains/flights, so we missed out on the excellent breakfast, unfortunately, but it was good timing for us to get a social break and take it easy… after all, there were still several more shows to go!
We’ll Be Back…
So, now we’ve been through the northernmost shows, we still have the gnarliest of the road trips ahead of us, as well as more enounters with familiar and new faces alike! Check back again soon (hopefully my laptop doesn’t break again before we’re finished).
❤️🐻
Setlist
Lady of Light
Child of Twilight
Wings of the Dawn
The Bell
Tears of the Dragon (Bruce Dickinson cover)
Doorway of Night
Everstrong
Ainiaan
Forest of Forgetting
Vita Nova
Intermission
The Buried Well
Blackthorn Winter
Symphonia Arcana
Elixir of Night
Of Willows and Shadows
Under the Grey Sky
Dawn of Avatars
Rainfall
Encore
Light
READ MORE:
Interviews: On the Record with Auri (2018); Off the Record with Eye of Melian (2022); Off the Record with Altamullan Road (2024); On the Record with Altamullan Road (2020); Off the Record with Timo Kurkela (2024); Guest Interview with Altamullan Road (2024); On the Record with Auri (2025); Guest Interview with Auri (2025)
Podcast Reviews: Bear & Kathy Talk “Auri III” (2025), Bear & Kathy Talk “Forest of Forgetting” (2026)
Live Reports: Altamullan Road Kitee (2024); Altamullan Road Hyvinkää (2024); Altamullan Road Porvoo (2024), Altamullan Road Dordrecht/Zwolle (2024); Auri Kitee (2025), Auri invokes imagination in Tampere (2025); Guest Live Report of Auri in Tampere (2025); Eye of Melian pt. 1 (2026)
Travel Blog: Altamullan Road in Kitee (2024); Eye of Melian in Zwolle (2025); Eye of Melian in Zwolle (2026)
Guest Travel Blog: Altamullan Road in the Netherlands (2024); Altamullan Road pt.1, pt. 2, pt. 3 (2024); Eye of Melian in Zwolle (2025); Auri in Finland pt. 1, pt. 2, pt.3 (2025)
Gathering of Geeks - Trivia Showdown ft. Eye of Melian (2024), Auri (2025)
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