Cast your mind back to the coolest gig you’ve ever been to. Does it come anywhere close to a band playing on a gigantic igloo the length of three and a half double decker buses? Thought not.
Progressive rock band TESSERACT has landed back in the U.K., having performed the world’s first “Gigloo” — a gig on what is thought to be the world’s largest igloo. The structure in Yllas Village, Finland was transformed into an ice stage where the band played in freezing temperatures as part of the Jägermeister Ice Cold Gig series.
Snowmobiles and neighbouring igloos lit up the performance, comprising a stunning array of colors that coincided with a mesmerising display of the Northern Lights overhead. Crowds — including Sami tribesmen — were wowed as the band emerged from a tunnel carved deep within the construction, before playing to the 200-strong audience on guitars and drums lined with illuminating electro-luminescence.
Awarded 4 Ks by Kerrang! magazine for its last album, the band took time out of its jam-packed tour schedule to take up the challenge and play out its song “Nocturne”. The track, which has had huge traction amongst their U.K. fans, with over 800,000 hits on YouTube, was this time performed to a very different, but equally enthralled, audience of Lappish people, skiers and reindeer.
Prior to the performance, chief songwriter Acle Kahney, along with fellow guitarist James Monteith, bassist/producer Amos Williams, vocalist Dan Tompkins and drummer Jay Postones, invited Sami tribesmen and other residents to come and witness their unique performance.
Monteith said: “We’re great mates first and foremost, so we’ve shared some amazing moments. But even after playing the main stage at Sonisphere last year, the Jägermeister Ice Cold Gig was definitely TESSARACT’s most challenging performance to date, and what an amazing experience it was. Something we’ll remember forever!
“The final stage build was tougher going than we expected — we were shifting 150kg blocks of ice to create the steps leading up to the stage. Fortunately, we had a team of locals to help us and the effort was well worth it; we drew in spectators that lived some 20 to 50 kilometers away. It was absolutely freezing, but as soon as we saw the crowd of people adrenalin took over, the hard work was forgotten and we battled through the gig.”
Tom Carson, Jägermeister music manager, added: “For 2015 we really wanted to create something special. The Ice Cold Gigs have become such a prominent feature for our Jägermusic programme that not only do we want to challenge our artists, but we like to challenge ourselves by doing something that’s never been done before.”
When it comes to ice-cold gigs, there’s no obstacle too big for Jägermeister to overcome. In 2014, Jägermeister hosted the world’s first gig on an iceberg with U.K. metal band THE DEFILED. The band performed a special set to a host of locals from the nearby town of Kulusuk Greenland, who ventured out to the ice field to watch this once-in-a-lifetime experience from an array of fishing boats and leisure craft.
And in 2012, Charlie Simpson performed The Jägermeister Ice Cold Gig and set a new Guinness World Record for the World’s Coldest Concert. Braving brutal temperatures of minus 30 degrees Celsius, the singer, songwriter and FIGHTSTAR frontman performed to a small crowd in Oymyakon, Siberia — the coldest permanently inhabited place on the planet.