Well, if truth be told, "renowned" might be an unsuitable term for Rain Diary at this point. Even though their excellent debut album "The Lights are violent here" has been out for about 9 months (followed by a later release on the German market in April this year), the big promotion effect has not kicked in yet. The wave of Rain Diary has not visibly grown so far. Despite one booked Germany-gig as a support act of Iconcrash-main man Jaani Peuhu (who also handled production duties for Rain Diary), the band is overall rather conducting a "policy of small steps". One step at a time, continuous growth. And that night, the step was to play an exclusive semi-unplugged show. Which, for a band toying heavily with Electronic sounds on the record, is not the most obvious choice to begin with.

Then again, if a band has such an impressive catalogue of hook line-laden songs, an unplugged gig will emphasize the melodies all the more. And, as guitarist Teemu Rantanen put it, "the singer gets to shine". The bottom line is: If you play melodic music, know how to handle your instrument, and have a decent vocalist in your ranks, unplugged gigs can easily turn into a huge success. In Rain Diary's case, all three factors apply, and so it was no surprise that the performance immediately cast a veil of silence over the small audience. No chattering, or any signs of disinterest or disrespect were uttered for as long as Rain Diary played their tunes.

With drummer Tender Rexx and guitarist Teemu Rantanen hidden in the second row, and Tommi and Tytti having more of an otherwordly Shoegaze-appearance that night, the entertaining duties fell to guitarist/ bassist Joni Bitter. In proper style with a Ville Valo-beanie, he was most visibly having a good time while performing on his barstool. Between mischievous smiles, his usual playful cocky expressions and cheeky comments he had a tendency of taking the spotlight from his front man. Especially in the culminating vocal end part of "Frail Flags in Wind" it seemed that there was a competition going on between Joni and Tommi who can shout the longest. Then again, this slight Rock'n'Roll circus cockiness is a part of Mr. Bitter's stage persona and it keeps things interesting and full of contrast within the band.

The musical performance as such was pretty much flawless and contained the best songs of 'The Lights are violent here' (such as "By the Water", "Lost" and "Mirror of your Grace") and a few promising new tunes. What surprised me is that the band had decided to include some up-tempo tunes such as "Frail Flags in Wind" and "Shame", and performed them in quite a rocky way as well. In return, obvious candidates for such a semi-unplugged gig as "In Silence", "You will die alone" and "The Lights are violent here" were not part of the set. However, it was charming, to say the least, to hear up-beat Electro Pop songs being transformed into up-beat Acoustic Pop songs. Tender Rexx had visibly most fun hitting the drums very hard, but also did a good job in playing the percussions in a more subtle manner. Unfortunately, guitarist Teemu Rantanen was quite invisible behind keyboardist Tytti, even though he had dressed up so nicely with an elegant black blazer. More importantly, he was solid as a rock in his performance and you could constantly sense the blind understanding in the guitar arrangements between the two longtime friends Teemu und Joni.

So even though the audience was relatively small and people responded not half as loudly as to the evening’s main act Dead Stones (which played some kind of Folky Acoustic Rock with a trumpet, violin and both male and female vocals), it surely was a night to remember. Not only is "The Lights are violent here" a bit of a paradoxical record, also the image and appearance of Rain Diary as such is a bit paradoxical – and that's what makes them so distinctive and lovely after all.

Whereas Joni Bitter clearly acts as the attention-hungry Rock-entertainment guy with his visual reference to Finnish Goth, Teemu Rantanen is his more quiet (yet equally dark-elegant) counterpart. Drummer Tender Rexx oozes out the genuine joy of keeping up the beat and keeping the band engine running from behind, and the front-duo Tommi Suomala and Tytti Kallioniemi comes across as quite angelic and otherworldly, and thereby more on the introvert Shoegaze-side of things.

As a bunch this versatile and down-to-earth, they have a huge air of likability about them – and, most importantly, great melodic Pop-songs to give to the world. Let alone, not many people are aware of this gem in the underground, and as an early listener one can easily get an ambivalent feeling here. On the one hand one wishes them the best of success and recognition, on the other hand it is the intimacy of watching one of Finland's best-kept musical secrets that makes Rain Diary's concerts so special – and it is hard to say how it would feel if they really made it big.

Either way: This band will most certainly pave its own path through the obstacles of nowadays' music business and it will be exciting to see where their voyage will take them next.

Text and Photos: Hendrik Behnisch – 29.05.2014