Korpiklaani in Romania 24.-25.5.2008

Last weekend we went to Romania for the first time ever. We were headlining a small festival in Iasi, I believe the name was something along the lines "Rock'n'Iasi Open Air". The flight from Helsinki was at 9.55 so I woke up at 4.30 after four hours of sleep. We got the "Tampere group" together and went to get the gear from the rehersal room. We picked up Cane from Valkeakoski and met Jonne at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport. For a change, we were there in time and didn't have the usual hurry. We had some extra stuff with us, like the guitarist's Engls, so we had plenty of overweight. Thanks to the nice ladies at the airport, we didn't have to pay for that.

Once again the person who booked the flights had forgotten to order a vegetarian meal. I ended up eating a small white bread and some frozen pasta. The meal included two chocolate candies as well. I was drinking red wine with the "meal" and thought that the combination was pretty good. I'll have to do some more testing with cocoa and red wine.

We were picked up from the airport by the bus organized by the promoter. A Portuguese(?) band ("God" I think was their name) was there as well. We were a bit surprised to hear that it was going to be a 7h drive. We weren't really expecting it to take that long, but they had brought beer with them so we were not really complaining.

Sometime during the afternoon we stopped to eat at the roadside restaurant in the middle of nowhere. No vegetarian menu, but that didn't really surprise me. Others ate crappy meat and I ate eggs. And potato chips. Reminds me of Russia where the vegetarian menu has always been just vodka and potato chips.
The other band in the bus was supposed to have their change over time starting at 21.00 and they were a bit worried because we arrived the festival site finally a bit after 21. We checked in the hotel and proceeded immediately to the festival site just to find out that the whole event was terribly late. Honestly, everything at the festival seemed to be highly unorganized and the main promoter getting extremely drunk didn't really help the things. Luckily there were some persons that got the things rolling at least somehow. At least we got our catering rider fulfilled, except, surprise surprise, vegetarian meal. So it was white bread and alcohol for me.

From the technician's point I think the festival was a bit of a nightmare as well. Except for the fact that their PA gear was entirely made up of brands like "T" and "B" that professionals try to avoid, they were also missing some key elements like a monitor desk and master EQ. Later it was decided that they will move the FOH desk from the small stage to serve as our monitor desk, but it of course turned out to be impossible since they didn't have a splitter for the signal.

So, the things didn't really look too good for the show. Our original show time was at 23.45 if I remember correctly. I guess it was around 2.00 when I told one of the promoters that: "Regardless of your idea for the schedule, we are the next band on the main stage, or we will leave." We finally started to set up our stuff after "God" and managed to start our set a bit before 4 in the morning. There was a rumour going around the audience that we have been moved to Sunday and some people had gone to sleep already. We still had a pretty good audience. And we did a pretty good show too. Some of us were not probably in their best mood because of the delay, not sleeping properly, etc. but I don't think it showed.

I had a small extra concern during the show since this was the first show with my new "amp" setup, which is in fact no amp at all. I decided to get rid of the "fridge", 8x10" cabinet, and a heavy amp setup that I have been using. Biggest reason for that was that I (and everyone else!) got tired of dragging it up and down the stairs to the rehearsal room. The second reason was Sami "Hinuri" Hinkka of Ensiferum. I really liked his sound on the Paganfest and asked him about his gear and it was only SansAmp directly to the line input. So I now have a small rack with the wireless receiver and SansAmp PSA 1.1 preamp. This of course means that we always need decent monitors for me too which was never an issue before since I always had an amp and cabinet on the stage behind me. In Iasi it was good after the first song. I said to Jonne's mike "can I please get at least a little bass on the stage" and Paukku, the FOH engineer doing also the monitors, just put all the sliders to up to 11.

I like my new sound. PSA is brilliant for guitar as well.

Anyway, the show was over a bit after 5 in the morning when the sun was already rising. There were no big changes in the set when compared to some of the previous shows. Already once dropped "Keep On Galloping" did a comeback and so did "Metsämies". I think we finished with "Beer Beer" although "Ii Lea Voibmi" definitely was on the set list.

We packed our stuff, headed back to the hotel for breakfast(!), showers and toilets and a quick nap before starting the journey back around 10.00. Some of us were actually wise enough to sleep in the bus so that they don't have to get up when we leave.
On our way back we stopped at the same restaurant again. I didn't even bother stepping out of the bus. In fact, even the meat eating members didn't go there again. The Romanian driver was the only one.

I was thinking about eating something at the airport, but for some reason all the restaurants, except one, were closed and the one that was open didn't have any vegetarian stuff. I'll eat on the plane then.

Another minor set back was that this time we had to pay for the overweight. The ladies in Romania were nice as well, since we had over 100kg extra but they only charged us for 60kg. While we were checking in, a security person came to us with his camera and asked the lady behind the counter to take pictures of him with the band.

From the tax free area I got two bottles of Romanian red wine. I can now start my experiments with the cocoa.
Return flight and the drive back home were nothing exceptional. Helsinki-Vantaa airport and the highway number 3 between Helsinki and Tampere are quite familiar already.

I was home exactly at 2.00. That means that I was on the road for 45 hours. Something like 32 hours of that I was travelling. We played about 75 minutes. I sometimes wonder if all the trips are worth doing. I guess after all they are, since I am still doing this!

Next on the band's program are the two Finnish shows with Skyclad in Turku and Helsinki. That should be nice. Markus from Moonsorrow will come to the Helsinki show. Note to self: "Remember the guestlist."

Me, a blogger?

I decided to join the magical interweb and started to write a blog. I'll try to keep this interesting and NOT write about myself so much. I'll try to write some stuff about the band I play in, Korpiklaani, like tour/gig reports etc. Or any other news that I think is interesting to someone else as well. I may also write something about the things that piss me off. And that's usually a lot.
I'll start soon with the gig in Romania.