The Machinae Supremacy Road Trip (April 2018)
I’m sure I’ve maybe mentioned once or twice that I believe the meaning of life is to live it and have as many weird and wonderful experiences as possible. I’ve also surely mentioned (or will in future articles, if I haven’t) that I think doing weird shit with your friends is the best thing to do with your spare time.
And what’s more fun than a good old fashioned road trip? I’ve had a few great ones in my day, but perhaps none so memorable as the Machinae Supremacy roadtrip from April 2018.
Who or what is Machinae Supremacy?
“I’m gonna do you a favor and not teabag you for your behavior...”
That’s for sure the line that introduced me to Machinae Supremacy, when my partner came prancing into a room dancing weirdly back in… gosh, 2010? MaSu had recently released “A View from the End of the World” and it was incredible.
MaSu were probably the first guys to embrace the internet as musicians back in the day, and were likewise one of the first metal bands to significantly implement chiptunes into their sound. They embraced free music streaming and even gave away one of their live recordings for free via torrents.
Once I discovered them, I was hooked. My partner and I started going to all of their shows. When I started doing more interviews as a music journalist, I met up with them for the first time in 2015 and did a weird and wonderful interview. I’ve been seeing them on every tour they’ve done ever since.
Their last album, however, was released in 2016; luckily, they’ve announced a new release at long last for 2026, as well as another tour. That’s part of why I wanted to tell this story now, in a time when I’m starting to share old tales.
It all began at a Machinae Supremacy show in Turku…
MaSu have always been more popular in Finland than in their (mostly) native country of Sweden, so regardless of whether they have any new material, they’ve been pretty dedicated to doing at least one tour throughout Finland every year or every other year at worst. However, for some reason, their 2018 tour did not bring them through Helsinki, so we went out to visit a friend, Henri, who was living in Turku.
My partner and I had a lovely, sunny winter day in Turku, exploring town (it was my first time in Turku, surprisingly), eating incredible food, and preparing for the show with a few alcoholic beverages.
The gig was fantastic — they never disappoint. After the show, we met up with some of the guys in the bar, as they pretty much always come to chat after the show for a while, and even have afterparties most nights with their fans. At some point, my partner and Henri were drunkenly chatting with Robert Stjärnström (vocals) and found out that the show on March 29th up in Oulu had included “Hubnester Rising” in the set, while it has not been played on this night.
To explain that real quick, “Hubnester Rising” is the grande finale of the “Phantom Shadow” story concept album. I happen to have the exclusive plot outline for that album over on my website if you’re curious about the whole deal, but suffice to say, it’s an epic finale to an album but doesn’t have the right energy to close out a show.
I digress, after learning that Oulu got this objectively sick as hell song and Turku didn’t, they began to drunkenly harass Rob until he said that they’d play it the next night in Jyväskylä if we came to the show.
“Haha sure, we’ll definitely do that,” we all joked enthusiastically.
The hangover…
The next morning, we awoke on Henri’s couch and began the hazy recap of the previous night’s events. Had we actually promised to go to the show in Jyväskylä?
We began to enthusiastically map out our journey only to then realize that my partner had to be at work the day after at 8 a.m. To add insult to injury, the last buses home left Jyväskylä at 7 p.m., so that simply wasn’t going to happen, with the show starting at 10 p.m.
There was a moment of doubt before I realized, wait a moment, we had friends with vehicles! We would need to enlist more help.
However, in order to get a car, we would need to get back to the general Helsinki area first, so we stopped for Chinese food (the best Chinese food I’ve had in Finland in all my time there; I’ve been back on other trips to Turku because it was that good). Our friend joined us on our return bus trip and we started planning how we’d get a car as we returned to Helsinki.
Chaos ensues…
The biggest issue we faced on the return trip was not getting a car — our friend Miika had one available — but rather, getting to the car, as it was up in Tuusula, which isn’t the easiest to get to from… well, anywhere, let’s be honest.
Miika would have just come to pick us up from Helsinki, but he was extremely hungover after having wrapped up a 5-day drinking bender. So, we called everyone we could think of to see if they wanted to help us out and maybe catch a show while they were at it. Miika’s brother was still drunk from his previous night and couldn’t help us out and Sipsi was up in Hämeenlinna for some other event. Eventually, The Major (Henri’s dad) said he could pick us up from our place, which was about halfway between Tuusula and downtown Helsinki — a fair halfway point.
We disembarked our bus and made our way to the train station that would take us to our place, when we got a text message from Miika, asking if we could come relieve him of the driver’s seat. We hadn’t told him that we found a ride, so he had taken it upon himself to drive to town to get us, hungover as shit.1
So we had to sprint off the train that we had just gotten on and went to save Miika from his altruism. He looked… pretty fucking rough. I took over as the promised designated driver for the night, and Miika took solace in the fact that he would soon be home and in bed again.
However… at that point we realized that we now had everything we needed, and because Tuusula was no longer on our route, we would simply be bringing Miika with us, regardless of whether he wanted to come.
We returned to our place, popped by the shop for road trip snacks and drinks and other essentials, and at 6 p.m. we were ready to get on the road, until we received another unexpected message…
The last-minute castaway…
“Take me with you to the Grand Line, I’m sorry!” Sipsi wailed, in reference to the above scene from One Piece.
This was the best and perhaps only way to persuade us to detour to Tuusula after all. Sipsi had originally had plans, but with his friends slowly losing interest due to hangovers and whatnot, our call to adventure had reached his heart and he decided that he wanted to join us after all.
You can imagine how Miika’s hope may have returned in that moment. After all, Sipsi lives only about a kilometer from his house. Surely we could drop him off at home. Unfortunately for him, we wanted him to join us, so all we did was pick up a few pillows (my partner would need them later, after all) and our last nakama. With the car full, it was time to start the 3-hour journey from Tuusula to Jyväskylä.
The road itself…
It is a long road from Tuusula to Jyväskylä, but we had good music, good drinks (nonalcoholic in mine and my partner’s cases), and good company.
We blasted the previous night’s setlist for Miika and Sipsi to get them hyped, since they didn’t know MaSu live and this would be their first time.
We arrived in Jyväskylä a mere 15 minutes before the show was set to start and navigated to the venue, Lutakko, only to discover that it’s a whole complex and we had gone to the wrong building, which was hosting an Antti Tuisku show. Höps.
The guy at the door pointed us in the general direction of where we might find our gig but it wasn’t until I heard drums in the distance that we thought we knew where we were going. With mere minutes until showtime, we found the entrance and dropped off our coats. Miika was finally feeling human again. Literally, Henri said, “We’re ready for the show!” right as the first notes were sounding. We darted up the stairs.
The show itself…
It was great! It always is, as I said. I was disappointed in the crowd, but that’s true at 99% of all shows I attend in Finland. The audience lacked our unhinged energy, sadly, only responding when the band asked and remaining otherwise limp.
Our excitement built up as we neared the encore though. After the first two songs, we started cheering “Hubnester” and Rob told the crowd about the three weirdos who had traveled an exorbitant distance just to hear one song, and dedicated it to us (thanks, Rob, love you😘). It was likely not the song the rest of the crowd had been dying to hear, but it was, as Henri so eloquently put it, rather empowering to make several hundred people listen to your favorite song just because.
It took a while but the crowd had warmed up to the song by the end, perhaps because we were jumping and screaming at that point. Then, to balance out the set with a more bangin’ final track, they added their usual closer to the end, “Through the Looking Glass,” and finished the show on a high note for everyone.
Alas, all good things must come to an end…
As much as we would have liked to stay and party a little bit longer, we did need to get my partner home for work. We thanked the guys for an amazing night and at midnight, we loaded back into the car for the return journey.
Miika was in good spirits at this point, so the boys had booze (I had caffeinated sodas), we wrapped Juho in a blanket and noise-cancelling headphones and gave him Miika’s pillows, and began the long and boisterous trip back home. We cranked up the music, because we needed to keep the party going so I wouldn’t get sleepy.
It was a several hour trip back, so I’m not sure why this is the only song I remember us listening to, but apparently the boys had read “Wuthering Heights” in school and were fond of the Kate Bush song as a result…
They did a great job of keeping me awake and entertained as we blasted our favorite tracks. It was nearly 4 a.m. when the boys were dropped in Tuusula — Miika and Sipsi keeping the party going and Henri returning to his parents’ place, and it was 5 a.m. by the time I had my partner in bed.
Never forget to have fun…
After our great journey, I was still able to wake up 2 hours later to drive my partner to work, still with his gig stamps visible on his hand. Sipsi was content with his life choices. Miika assured us that he had a great time but would also not be speaking to us for a while (valid, haha). No one had heard from Henri at all.
Personally, I was at home, barely able to move, making up for lost time with my foofy kitties who were clearly unimpressed with our absence.
The moral of this story? If it’s within your power, DO IT! Get weird, be spontaneous, do crazy shit, have fun. Live your life and enjoy yourself. That’s why we’re here, right?
Stay balanced, my friends! ❤️🐻
