The original schedule for the weekend of July 25-27 was Finland, Germany and Portugal but the Portugal festival got cancelled which left us with a slightly difficult flight schedule. Anyway, on Friday it was one of the few Finnish appearances at the Rockcock-festival in Kuopio. It's about 300km from Tampere so we left at noon. Not really because we had to since our showtime was at 21.00 but some of us wanted to see Popeda at 18.00.
We arrived there around 17 and the first thing I did was that I looked up this small girl from Oulu who brought me a screw from Amfisound. On Thursday evening I was changing strings at home and when I removed A-string half of the machine head fell off. Only the string tension was keeping it together. At some point one screw had fallen off. It can't have been that long ago though since I change strings in every 4 or 6 shows. So first thing was to fix the bass and then it was time for Popeda. They are one of the more popular Finnish rock bands who started already in the mid-70's. I guess they were good. I honestly think that the band is good but the lead singer has gone worse and worse during the years. But I did watch the entire set which I almost never do at the festivals.
Our own show was at the tent on the beach. The band before us had maybe 20 people watching them. Jonne for example was really worried because of that. However, during the change over people started to gather up and when we started the tent was quite full. Not packed, but full. We did once again the normal set. Orbina made a comeback but then again we left out Keep On Galloping because Jonne forgot to put this plastic thing on his broken finger and couldn't hit the djembe anymore. We also finished with Ii Lea Voibmi for a change. We had some time to hang around the area after the show but in a couple of hours we started our journey to Helsinki-Vantaa since we had an early morning flight to Frankfurt. I tried to sleep in a van which wasn't really that easy but then again the flight went quite fast since I fell a sleep immediately and don't even remember the take-off.
We arrived Frankfurt around 10 local time and packed ourselves in a van again. Distance was only something like 300km and showtime was a 20.00 so we had plenty of time and we stopped at Thomann in Burgebrach which was almost on our route. I was able to keep myself from buying anything. I spent some time testing a 5-string Fender Jazz but didn't buy that after all. Hittavainen on the other hand bought a 5-string violin. While he was testing it the others were playing double basses although we didn't really know how to. Must've been pain for the staff.
Veldensteiner Festival took place at Veldenstein Castle in Neuhaus an der Pegnitz. I believe the exact year when it was built is unknown but some sources say that it was started in 1008 so it's quite old I'd say. The festival also included a medieval market and many of the people were dressed accordingly which I always like to see. A part of a castle is nowadays a hotel and we had one of the rooms as a dressing room/backstage.
While we were waiting our showtime we checked the area, ate something, had a few drinks and met some fans. I wasn't really checking if the whole festival was late but at least the band before us, Knorkator, played 20 minutes over their time. The change over was 30 minutes and we probably could have been able catch up with the schedule slightly but we decided not to hurry. We have always been the band who does that. Catching up the schedule and even finishing a bit earlier if things are running late. Those times are over. If the other bands or the festival don't take care of that, why should we?
The show itself was not the best from us. At least I felt it that way. Personally the reason was that we hadn't really been able to sleep well and that took away some of the fun. The audience still seemed to enjoy the show which was the main point anyway. We really should tell Paukku what songs we're going to play because we still had encore to do when he already put the outro on. Then again we don't necessarily know what we're going to play until we're actually on the stage. Maybe we should do something about this. Since the outro was already playing the audience wasn't really expecting the encore but we went out and did that anyway. I believe it was Let's Drink and Ii Lea Voibmi.
We hung around the area till the end of the evening. The idea was that we could watch Schandmaul's set but I really couldn't see them. I tried but didn't really see much. You see, I am a dwarf. Basically we ended up meeting people and signing strange things, like female asscheeks. I am not complaining. This wasn't our usual crowd since it was more medieval festival than a rock concert and probably therefore people seemed to be genuinely surprised to see the band there. I guess they are more used to the bands who don't go to meet and greet their fans.
After the festival was over we drove to our hotel in another village. They seemed to have some sort of a village festival going on and some of us still went out to see what's happening. Not much. I went bed quite soon but some of us stayed out a bit longer.
On Sunday we had a whole day to spend since our flight was at late afternoon, first to Copenhagen and then Helsinki. We arrived home in Tampere around 2 in the morning so we ended up spending awfully long time on the road for just one show in Germany. Live and learn.
Next stop: Pellavarock.
Thursday 31 July 2008
Thursday 24 July 2008
On the edge
So we're late again. The bus driver was saying that he's sorry and had to sleep but we told him not to worry. We had a load-in time already quite early in the afternoon but we just called the organizer and told him that we're going to be late for about an hour and a half. No problem there.
Northeim show was a bit different show for us. Apart from the festivals we've never really played as a support band. And I don't count Paganfest either since it was like a touring festival. This time we were clearly supporting In Extremo and Die Apokalyptischen Reiter. We've met Reiter already many times but In Extremo was a new experience. We were also a bit nervous because Jonne and myself are fans of them and we had this idea that this was actually sort of a showcase thing because there's been some talk about us supporting In Extremo on several shows later this year. So we thought we should try to give a really good impression to them. Being late doesn't really help.
Being late was not really a problem after all because when we finally arrived In Extremo was still doing their soundcheck so basically everything was running late anyway. The venue was Waldbühne which is a really nice open air amphitheatre built in the 1930's. We walked in and In Extremo singer waved for "hello" from the stage. Nice gesture. We didn't really much to do so we got our keys to the nearby hotel which we were using as a dressing room. At one point I wanted to get a new In Extremo hoodie and went with Jonne to check their merchandise. I asked if the support band will get any discount and they gave Jonne and myself hoodies for free. Nice discount.
It was really interesting to do the soundcheck since we could see all the stuff that In Extremo has on the stage, pyros, flame throwers etc. Smoking was NOT allowed on stage and this time even Hittavainen agreed on that! We were wise this time and moved my rack to the center of the stage and eventually I had no wireless problems this time.
Our show was surprisingly good considering the fact that we were sort of an extra band on the bill and the audience apart from a few members was clearly there only for In Extremo. We played a good solid set and got some movement in the audience so it was a good show. Reiter played next and were really entertaining as usual. I think their vocalist is among the best performers there is. Great show. Next was the headliners. They were nice enough to pose for pictures and everything before the show. I was taking a picture of the others and accidentally stepped on their drummers feet. Sorry. Once again they were really good. I've seen them a few times already but this was the first time after Summer Breeze 2005 when I actually had time to see the entire show. Both bands should actually be bigger internationally but I guess the German language is a problem with some people. Rammstein managed to get huge internationally and they sing in German. Why not In Extremo? Finnish festivals - book them. Tuska 2009?
After the show when I was already getting quite drunk I actually had a small chat with In Extremo singer "Das letzte Einhorn". Seemed like a nice bloke and the fact that he was still talking to us was a good sign I guess! At one point he actually said that he had heard that we are going to do some shows together later this year so maybe he knows more than we do. There was also a person from the local radio trying to do some kind of an interview with him and us as well, but I don't think he really got much out of it.
That was the mini tour. Next morning we were already flying back to Finland. Now we've heard that the shows with In Extremo are "almost 100% sure" so it's going to be an interesting end of the year for us.
"Today your love, tomorrow the world." No, that wasn't right. Tomorrow: Kuopio.
Northeim show was a bit different show for us. Apart from the festivals we've never really played as a support band. And I don't count Paganfest either since it was like a touring festival. This time we were clearly supporting In Extremo and Die Apokalyptischen Reiter. We've met Reiter already many times but In Extremo was a new experience. We were also a bit nervous because Jonne and myself are fans of them and we had this idea that this was actually sort of a showcase thing because there's been some talk about us supporting In Extremo on several shows later this year. So we thought we should try to give a really good impression to them. Being late doesn't really help.
Being late was not really a problem after all because when we finally arrived In Extremo was still doing their soundcheck so basically everything was running late anyway. The venue was Waldbühne which is a really nice open air amphitheatre built in the 1930's. We walked in and In Extremo singer waved for "hello" from the stage. Nice gesture. We didn't really much to do so we got our keys to the nearby hotel which we were using as a dressing room. At one point I wanted to get a new In Extremo hoodie and went with Jonne to check their merchandise. I asked if the support band will get any discount and they gave Jonne and myself hoodies for free. Nice discount.
It was really interesting to do the soundcheck since we could see all the stuff that In Extremo has on the stage, pyros, flame throwers etc. Smoking was NOT allowed on stage and this time even Hittavainen agreed on that! We were wise this time and moved my rack to the center of the stage and eventually I had no wireless problems this time.
Our show was surprisingly good considering the fact that we were sort of an extra band on the bill and the audience apart from a few members was clearly there only for In Extremo. We played a good solid set and got some movement in the audience so it was a good show. Reiter played next and were really entertaining as usual. I think their vocalist is among the best performers there is. Great show. Next was the headliners. They were nice enough to pose for pictures and everything before the show. I was taking a picture of the others and accidentally stepped on their drummers feet. Sorry. Once again they were really good. I've seen them a few times already but this was the first time after Summer Breeze 2005 when I actually had time to see the entire show. Both bands should actually be bigger internationally but I guess the German language is a problem with some people. Rammstein managed to get huge internationally and they sing in German. Why not In Extremo? Finnish festivals - book them. Tuska 2009?
After the show when I was already getting quite drunk I actually had a small chat with In Extremo singer "Das letzte Einhorn". Seemed like a nice bloke and the fact that he was still talking to us was a good sign I guess! At one point he actually said that he had heard that we are going to do some shows together later this year so maybe he knows more than we do. There was also a person from the local radio trying to do some kind of an interview with him and us as well, but I don't think he really got much out of it.
That was the mini tour. Next morning we were already flying back to Finland. Now we've heard that the shows with In Extremo are "almost 100% sure" so it's going to be an interesting end of the year for us.
"Today your love, tomorrow the world." No, that wasn't right. Tomorrow: Kuopio.
Wednesday 23 July 2008
Evolution
So we are in Milan. Oh no we're not. We're lost. Just a little though. We're close. The promoters send a guide car to drive in front of our bus and we find to the area. It was a park-like place with one big stage and dressing rooms built behind it from these container things. Nothing spectacular but definitely ok. Especially ok when we realized that the dressing rooms were air-conditioned. Cool! Literally.
We were once again playing quite early in the afternoon. I think we were the fourth band of the festival so we didn't really have much time to waste since we were late already. The crew started to get our stuff in immediately and the driver parked the bus and went to sleep in the hotel. We started to get ready for show which meant basically a few drinks. At one point during the band before us it sounded like the audience was singing "Kooooorpiklaaaani." I heard it again a bit later and went closer to listen. Indeed the audience was singing our name. Kind of cool but not so nice for the other band.
The show was like the others before it. No big changes in anything. The audience was small but at least all of them were really into the show so it was still really nice. Once again I had a wireless problem but this time I realized the reason behind all the problems I've had lately. For some reason my wireless transmitter has lost it's range. It should work well for 100 metres but nowadays the bigger festival stages are too much for it. When I realized that I just moved closer to the receiver and stayed there for the rest of the show. I should get a new transmitter before next weekend's shows. I hope that solves it. If not it's back to square one.
After the show we had a photo shoot for Italian Metal Hammer and we also did a couple interviews with the local media. One of the interviewers was quite annoying though. He seemed to demand that we should BE everything that the bands has ever sung ABOUT. Whatever it was that we had done was wrong according to him. If a metal band sings about rape, torture and murder, does he also demand that they should go and kill someone before they are allowed to do that? What a wanker.
The bus driver had said that we will leave at 2 in the morning so we had plenty of time. We did the usual. Met friends and got drunk. Sonata Arctica was there and so was already familiar Evergrey so we had plenty of people to drink with. I tried to watch some bands as well but as usual I was not so interested in any of them. Probably the funniest thing of the evening happened during the headliner's set. Whenever they, Cavalera Conspiracy, had a break between the songs I could still hear the audience singing. "Kooooorpiklaaaani! Kooooorpiklaaaani!"
After midnight the festival was basically already over for the day and the organizers were trying to get us out from the area. I think we were the last ones to leave. We really had nowhere to go yet, so we were just hanging around the festival area and meeting old and new friends. At 2 we started our journey to Northeim, Germany. I had been counting earlier that it was too late but the driver had to sleep, so there was nothing that we could do. The tour continues. 920km to go.
We were once again playing quite early in the afternoon. I think we were the fourth band of the festival so we didn't really have much time to waste since we were late already. The crew started to get our stuff in immediately and the driver parked the bus and went to sleep in the hotel. We started to get ready for show which meant basically a few drinks. At one point during the band before us it sounded like the audience was singing "Kooooorpiklaaaani." I heard it again a bit later and went closer to listen. Indeed the audience was singing our name. Kind of cool but not so nice for the other band.
The show was like the others before it. No big changes in anything. The audience was small but at least all of them were really into the show so it was still really nice. Once again I had a wireless problem but this time I realized the reason behind all the problems I've had lately. For some reason my wireless transmitter has lost it's range. It should work well for 100 metres but nowadays the bigger festival stages are too much for it. When I realized that I just moved closer to the receiver and stayed there for the rest of the show. I should get a new transmitter before next weekend's shows. I hope that solves it. If not it's back to square one.
After the show we had a photo shoot for Italian Metal Hammer and we also did a couple interviews with the local media. One of the interviewers was quite annoying though. He seemed to demand that we should BE everything that the bands has ever sung ABOUT. Whatever it was that we had done was wrong according to him. If a metal band sings about rape, torture and murder, does he also demand that they should go and kill someone before they are allowed to do that? What a wanker.
The bus driver had said that we will leave at 2 in the morning so we had plenty of time. We did the usual. Met friends and got drunk. Sonata Arctica was there and so was already familiar Evergrey so we had plenty of people to drink with. I tried to watch some bands as well but as usual I was not so interested in any of them. Probably the funniest thing of the evening happened during the headliner's set. Whenever they, Cavalera Conspiracy, had a break between the songs I could still hear the audience singing. "Kooooorpiklaaaani! Kooooorpiklaaaani!"
After midnight the festival was basically already over for the day and the organizers were trying to get us out from the area. I think we were the last ones to leave. We really had nowhere to go yet, so we were just hanging around the festival area and meeting old and new friends. At 2 we started our journey to Northeim, Germany. I had been counting earlier that it was too late but the driver had to sleep, so there was nothing that we could do. The tour continues. 920km to go.
Friday 18 July 2008
Masters Of Rock
Back in Germany. We arrived early Wednesday morning to Laudenbach, our manager's home town. We had a hotel booked for the day so that we could sleep a few hours before hitting the road again. We had a big breakfast first and then went to bed. It was again me and Matson in the same room. We got up around noon, took a shower and generally refreshened ourselves. Some of us were already sitting around the table in the "biergarten" and we joined them for a cold beer. However, the hotel's landlady had to close the bar since she was going to buy meat for our dinner later. We finished the beers and went for a walk to find some more. We accidentally passed our manager's house. We tried to be quiet but he noticed us anyway. We were invited to their garden where his father grows all kinds of vegetables. So we ended up drinking his poor father's beers and eating his cucumbers and tomatoes. Maybe he was thinking that this is getting too expensive and decided to take us to a monastery up on the hill. They make beer up there. It was a nice trip.
After the dinner at the hotel we packed our stuff and drove to a parking lot of Lidl to meet the nightliner. We loaded ourselves in the bus and started the journey to Masters Of Rock in Czech Republic. We'd been driving like maniacs already a while and this trip didn't make any difference. 750km. Bus had two drivers so it wasn't really a problem though. The bigger problem was that although the bus had a nice back lounge with TV and surround audio system, it didn't have a CD/DVD player! We sat in the back for a while, some of us were drinking quite heavily, but I went to bed quite early only to wake up quite soon to realize that the bad luck with buses continues. This one had a leaking fuel pipe. This time I decided to not to worry and continued to sleep. Since the sleep rhythm was a bit off I woke up again at about 4.30 in the morning. My bed was in the front of the bus. The bus is quiet and I turn my head to look at the back of the bus. I was not wearing glasses so I didn't see that clearly but I was thinking "Is that a leg?". I just had to get up and take look. After just a few hours the back of the bus looked like the hurricane had struck it. There were two band members sleeping under the table. The other tried to raise his head and say something but I really couldn't understand what it was. And I have to point out that those two were not the usual suspects! I quietly moved back to my bed.
We arrived to the festival area in the morning. The area may not be as beautiful as Metal Camp but I love the people working for Masters Of Rock. Since the first time with them we've always felt welcome and I like to think that they like us too. They have to. How many times have we been there already? Winter Masters Of Rock once, Masters Of Rock Cafe three times and Masters Of Rock twice. Plus a couple shows in.. err... umm... Plzen and Pardubice. So that is... hmm... let me count... wait... yes, many times! All in less than three years. Nice.
This was the first day of the festival so everything was still very much in progress. We had plenty of time to do nothing, just watch the other people working, get some breakfast and meet friends. Martina from the festival asked us for how long can they take pictures during the show.
- "As long as you want."
- "How many songs can we film for the DVD?"
- "As many as you want."
She said that they can film it all so we agreed on the first four from which we can then select two for the festival DVD.
The first official program was the signing session at 16.20. Lots of people once again to meet us. Quite a lot of familiar faces again. I don't really remember anyone though. I always, not just with band, but always have the same problem. I meet a person who says "Hello" in this friendly way that suggests that we know each other but I have no idea who he/she is or from where I should know him. That's annoying. Probably for both. Sorry.
Photographing is usually forbidden during the signing sessions. The reason is that if everyone stops at each band member to take a picture it will take forever and in 30 minutes only a handful of people will get an autograph or whatever it is they want. Problem with us is that Jonne is too nice and can't really say no when someone asks to take a picture. Security tells people to move on, Jonne doesn't care and just poses and fans take pictures so basically everybody is annoying somebody!
The showtime was 17.45-18.45. There was a lot of extra stuff on the stage. We couldn't really for example get an eye contact to our monitor tech. On the other side of the stage there was a huge pile of road cases covered with an ugly green tarp. Later it turned out that their function was just to take space from other bands and make their stage set look worse. The cases were all empty and they were taken out of the stage just before Ministry. That's what it looked like at least. Maybe they belonged to Ministry. Or maybe they were Def Leppard's and Ministry realized that and demanded them to be taken away. Don't know.
We were waiting our intro to begin when we hear Paukku's voice in the monitors. "No intro today. No miniplug connectors here." So we walk to the stage and 1-2-3-4 Wooden Pints. Juho had problems with the accordion's wireless for the first one and a half songs until he was switched to a cable, so it was quite easy to pick the songs for the DVD. Numbers 3 and 4. Cottages and Tuli kokko. Once again it was a good show. I can never really tell if we play well or not but I can always tell when the show is good. The audience is a very good indicator and then again the audience is quite often the thing that makes a show really good. That's always been the case in Czech republic. Always. Thank you.
After the show we didn't have much time hang around. After showers and some food it was time say the goodbyes to all the nice people and hit the road again. The next stop was Evolution festival in Milan, Italy. We were there a couple of years ago as well but at that time the festival was somewhere up in north. for some reason it had been moved to Milan which meant that we had even longer drive in front of us. 1050km. It also meant that in was in the area where in the two-week period they had two big metal festivals (Gods Of Metal, Evolution) and Metallica concert. You can't get people to all of them.
In the bus it was the usual thing. Few drinks, chatting but also music from the "new" CD/DVD player that Paukku had "borrowed" from the bus company's other bus when they had stopped in their garage at night to fix the leaking fuel pipe. Cool. I was once again among the first ones to go to bed. The next morning was really nice. I woke up early and went to sit in the front lounge just to watch the scenery. We were just driving through Brenner pass. Beautiful. It was also hot. It was something like 10 in the morning and the thermometer outside said +38C. What do you in the situation like that? Stay in your underwear, get in the back lounge, set the air condition to full blast, put "Live After Death" DVD on and start drinking vodka with orange juice. That's what Tuomas and I did.
Next stop: Milan.
To be continued...
After the dinner at the hotel we packed our stuff and drove to a parking lot of Lidl to meet the nightliner. We loaded ourselves in the bus and started the journey to Masters Of Rock in Czech Republic. We'd been driving like maniacs already a while and this trip didn't make any difference. 750km. Bus had two drivers so it wasn't really a problem though. The bigger problem was that although the bus had a nice back lounge with TV and surround audio system, it didn't have a CD/DVD player! We sat in the back for a while, some of us were drinking quite heavily, but I went to bed quite early only to wake up quite soon to realize that the bad luck with buses continues. This one had a leaking fuel pipe. This time I decided to not to worry and continued to sleep. Since the sleep rhythm was a bit off I woke up again at about 4.30 in the morning. My bed was in the front of the bus. The bus is quiet and I turn my head to look at the back of the bus. I was not wearing glasses so I didn't see that clearly but I was thinking "Is that a leg?". I just had to get up and take look. After just a few hours the back of the bus looked like the hurricane had struck it. There were two band members sleeping under the table. The other tried to raise his head and say something but I really couldn't understand what it was. And I have to point out that those two were not the usual suspects! I quietly moved back to my bed.
We arrived to the festival area in the morning. The area may not be as beautiful as Metal Camp but I love the people working for Masters Of Rock. Since the first time with them we've always felt welcome and I like to think that they like us too. They have to. How many times have we been there already? Winter Masters Of Rock once, Masters Of Rock Cafe three times and Masters Of Rock twice. Plus a couple shows in.. err... umm... Plzen and Pardubice. So that is... hmm... let me count... wait... yes, many times! All in less than three years. Nice.
This was the first day of the festival so everything was still very much in progress. We had plenty of time to do nothing, just watch the other people working, get some breakfast and meet friends. Martina from the festival asked us for how long can they take pictures during the show.
- "As long as you want."
- "How many songs can we film for the DVD?"
- "As many as you want."
She said that they can film it all so we agreed on the first four from which we can then select two for the festival DVD.
The first official program was the signing session at 16.20. Lots of people once again to meet us. Quite a lot of familiar faces again. I don't really remember anyone though. I always, not just with band, but always have the same problem. I meet a person who says "Hello" in this friendly way that suggests that we know each other but I have no idea who he/she is or from where I should know him. That's annoying. Probably for both. Sorry.
Photographing is usually forbidden during the signing sessions. The reason is that if everyone stops at each band member to take a picture it will take forever and in 30 minutes only a handful of people will get an autograph or whatever it is they want. Problem with us is that Jonne is too nice and can't really say no when someone asks to take a picture. Security tells people to move on, Jonne doesn't care and just poses and fans take pictures so basically everybody is annoying somebody!
The showtime was 17.45-18.45. There was a lot of extra stuff on the stage. We couldn't really for example get an eye contact to our monitor tech. On the other side of the stage there was a huge pile of road cases covered with an ugly green tarp. Later it turned out that their function was just to take space from other bands and make their stage set look worse. The cases were all empty and they were taken out of the stage just before Ministry. That's what it looked like at least. Maybe they belonged to Ministry. Or maybe they were Def Leppard's and Ministry realized that and demanded them to be taken away. Don't know.
We were waiting our intro to begin when we hear Paukku's voice in the monitors. "No intro today. No miniplug connectors here." So we walk to the stage and 1-2-3-4 Wooden Pints. Juho had problems with the accordion's wireless for the first one and a half songs until he was switched to a cable, so it was quite easy to pick the songs for the DVD. Numbers 3 and 4. Cottages and Tuli kokko. Once again it was a good show. I can never really tell if we play well or not but I can always tell when the show is good. The audience is a very good indicator and then again the audience is quite often the thing that makes a show really good. That's always been the case in Czech republic. Always. Thank you.
After the show we didn't have much time hang around. After showers and some food it was time say the goodbyes to all the nice people and hit the road again. The next stop was Evolution festival in Milan, Italy. We were there a couple of years ago as well but at that time the festival was somewhere up in north. for some reason it had been moved to Milan which meant that we had even longer drive in front of us. 1050km. It also meant that in was in the area where in the two-week period they had two big metal festivals (Gods Of Metal, Evolution) and Metallica concert. You can't get people to all of them.
In the bus it was the usual thing. Few drinks, chatting but also music from the "new" CD/DVD player that Paukku had "borrowed" from the bus company's other bus when they had stopped in their garage at night to fix the leaking fuel pipe. Cool. I was once again among the first ones to go to bed. The next morning was really nice. I woke up early and went to sit in the front lounge just to watch the scenery. We were just driving through Brenner pass. Beautiful. It was also hot. It was something like 10 in the morning and the thermometer outside said +38C. What do you in the situation like that? Stay in your underwear, get in the back lounge, set the air condition to full blast, put "Live After Death" DVD on and start drinking vodka with orange juice. That's what Tuomas and I did.
Next stop: Milan.
To be continued...
Tuesday 15 July 2008
Camping trip
Metal Camp in Tolmin, Slovenia. The most beautiful festival site ever. We were playing on Sunday, July 6, so we left on Saturday afternoon and flew to Frankfurt. Yes, it is a strange place to go if you're going to Slovenia but you'll understand this later. We drove to Tolmin in a van through the night. It's about 850km and took about 11 hours. Matte had reserved some alcohol, 6 bottles of vodka to be precise, so we were comfortably numb after a while.
We arrived to the site early in the morning and had to wait a while before the festival manager arrived. He was by the way the same David with a difficult last name that was the tour manager for the Paganfest earlier this year. So we had about an hour or two to kill and we headed to the beach bar, shook some hands, posed for pictures, had a few beers and when the bald one finally arrived we managed to book in to the hotel. We spent the mid day hours by meeting old friends that we have a lot in Slovenia and generally just chilling out. It was hot as usual. We had a short press conference and TV interview that we did with Jonne and Cane but otherwise the real program for the day started a bit before 18. And that's when the problems started.
Our showtime was at 18.15 and the change over was supposed to start at 18.00. The previous band stopped at 18.10. At festivals you just don't do that. You do not play over time. Even if you start late you finish in time. Simple rule. Then for the next 15 minutes it seemed like nothing was going on and when I asked from the stage manager about that he said they never got our new channel list after we changed to "preamp only" setup so they didn't have cables for us. Of course I asked our manager if that's true and he said that the festival has received it but he of course can't be sure if they've read it. Back to the stage manager. "Yes we have it but we didn't know that your preamps would be behind the monitor desk so our cables are in the wrong place." Different reason this time! Our set was supposed to be 45 minutes. Then we were told that if we get started in 5 minutes we'll have time for 35 minutes. I think it took a bit more than 5 minutes but we did a 35-minute set anyway. Both band and the audience were disappointed in the situation but otherwise the show went on well except for some minor wireless problems again. Audience was excellent as always in Slovenia. They kept demanding more after the show but there was nothing that we could do.
The next band (can't remember who) on the stage again had all the time in the world. They spent at least 15 minutes just with the fucking drums and no one was rushing them. Maybe, I am not saying that this is a fact, but maybe all this has something do with the fact that both bands around us are managed by the same organization that is behind the whole festival but we haven't really been interested in their offer... Don't get me wrong, it's not the bands' fault.
After the show I walked to our hotel to take a shower, rest a bit and drink a little wine. During that a thunderstorm started and after about a two hour break in the program Helloween finally hit the stage. Can't remember much of them. It was muddy and wet and I went to bed.
Our next show was Masters Of Rock in Czech Republic but that wasn't until Thursday, July 10. At one point there was an idea that at least some of us would fly back to Finland for a couple of days but since we couldn't get any decent flights we all decided to stay in Tolmin. Around the noon on Monday when we woke up we started with some red wine and went to see our Slovenian-Croatian-Italian-whatever friends in the bar quite close to the hotel. They were already having a party and Jonne, Cane and myself joined in. We got quite drunk during the afternoon but it was a lot of fun. It was really cool to meet again the same people that we met already on our first visit to Maribor in 2005.
Back at the festival area later the same evening I actually stopped drinking. Don't know why though. Had enough perhaps. Still didn't really watch much bands. Although I managed to see or at least hear probably the worst band I've ever seen. I am not saying the name but the same band also played at the festival in Finland and I read some really good and praising reviews of them, so I was slightly interested in seeing them. In my opinion that was the biggest pile of shit ever. Then again some people surely say the same thing about us, so who am I to judge.
We met one of our Russian friends at the festival as well. He was there with his family. I don't know where his wife was then in the evening but he and his son were with us in the festival tent where they also had strippers performing in an after show party. He wouldn't let his son see them so when he looked away I showed his son naked pictures of my girlfriend. C'mon! We are a rock band! We are supposed to destroy the youth!
I was again getting tired and decided to go back to the hotel. At the hotel yard I met our FOH man Paukku talking with the festival's main promoter and some hippie. I told promoter who I already knew from the Paganfest about the biggest pile of shit ever, the band, and he, being politically correct, said that "Yes, I've seen them do better." So I wasn't alone.
We were supposed to drive back to Frankfurt area on Tuesday. Since the possible drivers had both been drinking last night we were not leaving very early. After waking up I sent a message for my Italian-Slovenian-whatever friend to ask where I could get some breakfast. She and her boyfriend were again in the same bar so they were easy to find. She escorted me to the grocery store, helped with the language and I got a big bag full of food and took it to the hotel. I thought it was a lot but me and the roommate Matson ended up eating almost all of it at once. I guess we were hungry. The rest of the day went slowly. A few occasional drinks, checking the CD booths, checking the bands. And meeting the same people again. One of the bands was quite interesting. I believe they were Slovenian and called Inmate. They were playing really interesting instrumental technical thrash. Since they don't have a singer they've probably been forced to make the music more interesting. I heard that they just signed a record deal so we will hear about them more in the future.
Once again we meet the old buddies Eluveitie again. I believe they'd driven from Switzerland to Slovenia in a van so we weren't the only ones driving insane distances. It's always nice meeting them. And we'll meet again at Summerbreeze. We can't get rid of them even if we wanted to! Well, it's more likely the other way around anyway.
Finally in the evening we started our journey back to Germany. Some people got drunk again. I didn't really. I tried to sleep which wasn't really that easy. Have you ever seen anyone sleepwalking in a van? I have.
To be continued...
We arrived to the site early in the morning and had to wait a while before the festival manager arrived. He was by the way the same David with a difficult last name that was the tour manager for the Paganfest earlier this year. So we had about an hour or two to kill and we headed to the beach bar, shook some hands, posed for pictures, had a few beers and when the bald one finally arrived we managed to book in to the hotel. We spent the mid day hours by meeting old friends that we have a lot in Slovenia and generally just chilling out. It was hot as usual. We had a short press conference and TV interview that we did with Jonne and Cane but otherwise the real program for the day started a bit before 18. And that's when the problems started.
Our showtime was at 18.15 and the change over was supposed to start at 18.00. The previous band stopped at 18.10. At festivals you just don't do that. You do not play over time. Even if you start late you finish in time. Simple rule. Then for the next 15 minutes it seemed like nothing was going on and when I asked from the stage manager about that he said they never got our new channel list after we changed to "preamp only" setup so they didn't have cables for us. Of course I asked our manager if that's true and he said that the festival has received it but he of course can't be sure if they've read it. Back to the stage manager. "Yes we have it but we didn't know that your preamps would be behind the monitor desk so our cables are in the wrong place." Different reason this time! Our set was supposed to be 45 minutes. Then we were told that if we get started in 5 minutes we'll have time for 35 minutes. I think it took a bit more than 5 minutes but we did a 35-minute set anyway. Both band and the audience were disappointed in the situation but otherwise the show went on well except for some minor wireless problems again. Audience was excellent as always in Slovenia. They kept demanding more after the show but there was nothing that we could do.
The next band (can't remember who) on the stage again had all the time in the world. They spent at least 15 minutes just with the fucking drums and no one was rushing them. Maybe, I am not saying that this is a fact, but maybe all this has something do with the fact that both bands around us are managed by the same organization that is behind the whole festival but we haven't really been interested in their offer... Don't get me wrong, it's not the bands' fault.
After the show I walked to our hotel to take a shower, rest a bit and drink a little wine. During that a thunderstorm started and after about a two hour break in the program Helloween finally hit the stage. Can't remember much of them. It was muddy and wet and I went to bed.
Our next show was Masters Of Rock in Czech Republic but that wasn't until Thursday, July 10. At one point there was an idea that at least some of us would fly back to Finland for a couple of days but since we couldn't get any decent flights we all decided to stay in Tolmin. Around the noon on Monday when we woke up we started with some red wine and went to see our Slovenian-Croatian-Italian-whatever friends in the bar quite close to the hotel. They were already having a party and Jonne, Cane and myself joined in. We got quite drunk during the afternoon but it was a lot of fun. It was really cool to meet again the same people that we met already on our first visit to Maribor in 2005.
Back at the festival area later the same evening I actually stopped drinking. Don't know why though. Had enough perhaps. Still didn't really watch much bands. Although I managed to see or at least hear probably the worst band I've ever seen. I am not saying the name but the same band also played at the festival in Finland and I read some really good and praising reviews of them, so I was slightly interested in seeing them. In my opinion that was the biggest pile of shit ever. Then again some people surely say the same thing about us, so who am I to judge.
We met one of our Russian friends at the festival as well. He was there with his family. I don't know where his wife was then in the evening but he and his son were with us in the festival tent where they also had strippers performing in an after show party. He wouldn't let his son see them so when he looked away I showed his son naked pictures of my girlfriend. C'mon! We are a rock band! We are supposed to destroy the youth!
I was again getting tired and decided to go back to the hotel. At the hotel yard I met our FOH man Paukku talking with the festival's main promoter and some hippie. I told promoter who I already knew from the Paganfest about the biggest pile of shit ever, the band, and he, being politically correct, said that "Yes, I've seen them do better." So I wasn't alone.
We were supposed to drive back to Frankfurt area on Tuesday. Since the possible drivers had both been drinking last night we were not leaving very early. After waking up I sent a message for my Italian-Slovenian-whatever friend to ask where I could get some breakfast. She and her boyfriend were again in the same bar so they were easy to find. She escorted me to the grocery store, helped with the language and I got a big bag full of food and took it to the hotel. I thought it was a lot but me and the roommate Matson ended up eating almost all of it at once. I guess we were hungry. The rest of the day went slowly. A few occasional drinks, checking the CD booths, checking the bands. And meeting the same people again. One of the bands was quite interesting. I believe they were Slovenian and called Inmate. They were playing really interesting instrumental technical thrash. Since they don't have a singer they've probably been forced to make the music more interesting. I heard that they just signed a record deal so we will hear about them more in the future.
Once again we meet the old buddies Eluveitie again. I believe they'd driven from Switzerland to Slovenia in a van so we weren't the only ones driving insane distances. It's always nice meeting them. And we'll meet again at Summerbreeze. We can't get rid of them even if we wanted to! Well, it's more likely the other way around anyway.
Finally in the evening we started our journey back to Germany. Some people got drunk again. I didn't really. I tried to sleep which wasn't really that easy. Have you ever seen anyone sleepwalking in a van? I have.
To be continued...
Friday 4 July 2008
Rock'n'roll!
A quick update:
Ensiferum, Týr and Korpiklaani all got fined for 200€ each for flooding the Bang Your Head backstage and destroying some rented exotic plants. Yeehaw! Rock and roll!
Ensiferum, Týr and Korpiklaani all got fined for 200€ each for flooding the Bang Your Head backstage and destroying some rented exotic plants. Yeehaw! Rock and roll!
Wednesday 2 July 2008
Two out of three
It was again time for three shows in a weekend, this time in Germany, Belgium and Finland. The first time we heard that we are booked on these festivals the idea was that Finland is on Saturday. Now THAT would have been strange. To fly back to Finland to do one show and fly back to Belgium again. Luckily it was changed to better order which, as it turned out on Sunday, didn't really help much in the end.
The flight on Thursday, June 26th was at 18 something so I got picked up by everyone else directly from work. We were supposed to pick up a rackmount 4-channel DI box on our way to the airport but didn't have the time so our monitor guy's mother picked that up for us and brought it to the airport. Family business. We installed that in a rack at the airports lobby bar and got some funny looks from the bypassers. The rack case included now three wireless receivers, two guitar preamps, DI and a drawer for other stuff. The weight was over 47kg. We were told that 40kg is the limit and 45kg is the "absolute limit" so we had to move some stuff to different cases at the check-in. Live and learn.
For some reason Cane and Jonne had the idea that we're gonna drink gin & tonic in the airplane. We one and half rows in the plane. We were wise enough to put Jonne, Cane and myself together. And then we started with the g&t. I think the trio managed to drown one and half bottles of gin. I think we would've done more but they ran out of tonic and we had to continue with vodka and red wine. Oh well. Nice trip.
We packed ourselves in the van again at Frankfurt airport. Once again the drive was pretty much the same as described in the previous blog entry. It wasn't that long though. We arrived to the hotel in a small town whose name I can't remember a bit after midnight. Bang Your Head festival had a pre-party at the club somewhere but it would have been another drive and everyone was getting tired so we went to bed. Most of all at least. There still seemed to be some shouting outside the hotel. Next morning we heard from our manager that he'd heard someone shouting over and over again in the middle of the night in the hotel lobby something like "Korpiklaani! Alles gut?". We were suspecting Terji from Týr, but when we asked later he didn't confess.
After the breakfast we left to the festival area. Bang Your Head is quite a big festival and probably because of that the whole thing was very nicely organized. Great backstage with restaurant, showers with warm water, swimming pool, drunk people. Quite nice. We were the fourth band on the bill with 45 minute set. I didn't see the first band but managed to see most of our old friends' Týr set. It was still early in the morning but there was already a big crowd and actually some movement in there as well. During the third band me and Matson went quickly to check out the metal market. I didn't buy anything. I was proud of myself. But that was about to change. Wait until we get to the pool part.
For the first few bands the festival had only 10 minute changeover times which really isn't much. The band before us stopped maybe 5 minutes before their time so we managed to start on time at 11.55. We had a good show. Lots of audience and quite a lot of fists up in the air despite the early stage time. The stage had a catwalk probably for Queensrÿche but our guitarist couple used it quite shamelessly to get some action in the audience! We had to drop a couple of songs that we had on the set list because we couldn't fit it all in 45 minutes. Note to self: Black stage surface in the direct sun burns bare feet.
After the show we got drunk. At least I did. Like really drunk. And we had a pool party. There was a plastic/rubber/whatever pool at the backstage and in the end there was quite a lot of Finns and a few Fareose as well. I was trying to behave and was wearing underwear but Terji decided that I didn't need them and stole them. Judging by the number of photographers around the pool we will be featured on every music magazine next month. It was really a lot of fun. Floating there in the sun, cold beer in hand. I think my sunglasses are still in that pool. Oh yeah, if you lean on a plastic pool wall it will bend and you will flood the backstage. Live and learn.
We spoke about the pool later with our record label's promotion lady and she said that the pool has been there every year and it has always been only the Finns using it. The tradition lives on! Except for the Faroese.
Like at most festivals the bands with early stage time had to leave their dressing room early and make room for other bands. We had to do that as well and we sent our gear to hotel and moved our personal stuff and alcohol to another container that was reserved for that. Our dressing room was then given to White Lion. However Jonne somehow missed the whole thing and later went to their dressing room and told quite generously that "You can sit here, I am just taking our booze." And he really got the alcohol. It definitely wasn't ours but White Lion didn't object.
The evening went quite nicely and around midnight we finally got a shuttle back to hotel. After a mere four hours of sleep we started our journey to the next festival, Graspop Metal Meeting in a small town of Dessel, Belgium.
We arrived to the festival well on time after a rough ride. Graspop is probably the best festival we've ever been. It is really nicely built up and everything works exceptionally well. And it's big. The tent we played, Marquee 1, is bigger than a normal icehockey rink. We had plenty of time to settle in and check out the area. This time we didn't go to metal market. Hooray! I got myself a new pair of sunglasses though. We also went to the Marquee 2 to say hello to the monitor tech Stijn who toured with us on the Paganfest and was now working on the festival. We met lots of other old friends as well like Sabaton and My Dying Bride. We seem to be meeting the same bands every time. No problem with that. Nice people.
At Graspop the changeover times were generous. We had about an hour for that and since we were still doing only a linecheck I was for example ready for the show over 30 minutes before show time. We had some wireless problems during the linecheck since were getting Sonata Arctica's bass on accordion's wireless. That got solved before the show though.
When I got from the backstage to the back of the stage I didn't see the audience. I started to tune my bass and when I was finishing it the intro started and I heard the crowd roar like never before. I almost fell on my ass. The noise was astounding. We hit the stage and the whole fucking tent is packed and we can see the fists up in the air all the way to the back of the area. Brilliant. Then the intro ends and Matson counts on the hi-hat 1-2-3-4 and I hit the first note. There's no sound. Shit. Suddenly there is. Phew. No. It's gone again. Then back again. Shit. Shit. Shit. I shout at Tuomas to do something about it and they check everything at the desk, receiver & preamp. Finally after 3 songs just before "Tuli kokko" they decide to change the wireless. So the drum intro starts and there should be a bass over it but there isn't. After a lot of trouble we finally get a sound out. A crap sound. They gave me a wireless suitable for guitar but not for the bass. Some wireless systems don't really transmit much lower frequencies. I hope Paukku at FOH got something out of the PA at least. There wasn't anything I could do anyway so I just started to enjoy the audience. It was a great show after all.
After the show the schedule was pretty standard. Meet friend, get drunk. When the headliner Kiss was playing I was already sleeping at our dressing room. I heard them and thought "It's Kiss. Am I interested enough to get up? No." So I got up after their show when we left in a hurry back to Frankfurt airport. We were already late from our original schedule because Kiss was about an hour late and some of us demanded that they have to see them anyway.
Our flight was at 7.30 and we arrived at the airport at about 6.20. So basically we were in a hurry but usually 70 minutes is enough. Unfortunately the combination of us being late and the check-in girl being probably quite unexperienced and at least extremely slow turned out to be fatal. Only two of us managed to get on the plane on time, Tuomas and Hittavainen. When I told the lady at the gate that maybe we were late but the girl was really slow too she immediately said "OK, I'll put you on the next flight for free", which was ok for us. We'd still be at Tuska festival on time.
The real problem was that our gear didn't follow us. The first flight had some, ours had some, but we were still missing some. The most important was the accordion. I got all my stuff, Hittis got his, Jonne got one guitar, Cane was ready to play any borrowed Les Paul but we couldn't get an accordion. We called Roland and festival organization tried to get one. No luck. 37 minutes before our showtime we were forced to cancel our show at Tuska festival. Luckily they still managed to get Before The Dawn to fill in. We were pissed. Totally. We finally get a slot at Tuska and we fucking have to cancel it. Thank you Luftwaff... hansa. The announcer Jone Nikula told us that when he went to the stage to announce the cancellation there was already a huge amount of people in a party mood packed in the front and the disappointment was easy to see and some people actually left the whole festival area.
We still did have a lot of work to do though. We had hours of interviews booked and since we now had more time our press lady Silke started to move them earlier. I don't know how many of them there exactly was but many. It was basically Jonne, Cane and myself doing them. Sometimes individually, sometimes in different combinations. At some point of the afternoon we did a signing session and met so many Finnish fans that it basically surprised us all. Thank you all for being so understanding!
When the work was done it was time to go home again. We had already received some of our missing gear delivered directly to the festival and we picked up the rest from the airport on our way home. Surprisingly we stopped also at a gas station and got some cider.
Next week: the most beautiful festival area ever, Metal Camp, Slovenia.
The flight on Thursday, June 26th was at 18 something so I got picked up by everyone else directly from work. We were supposed to pick up a rackmount 4-channel DI box on our way to the airport but didn't have the time so our monitor guy's mother picked that up for us and brought it to the airport. Family business. We installed that in a rack at the airports lobby bar and got some funny looks from the bypassers. The rack case included now three wireless receivers, two guitar preamps, DI and a drawer for other stuff. The weight was over 47kg. We were told that 40kg is the limit and 45kg is the "absolute limit" so we had to move some stuff to different cases at the check-in. Live and learn.
For some reason Cane and Jonne had the idea that we're gonna drink gin & tonic in the airplane. We one and half rows in the plane. We were wise enough to put Jonne, Cane and myself together. And then we started with the g&t. I think the trio managed to drown one and half bottles of gin. I think we would've done more but they ran out of tonic and we had to continue with vodka and red wine. Oh well. Nice trip.
We packed ourselves in the van again at Frankfurt airport. Once again the drive was pretty much the same as described in the previous blog entry. It wasn't that long though. We arrived to the hotel in a small town whose name I can't remember a bit after midnight. Bang Your Head festival had a pre-party at the club somewhere but it would have been another drive and everyone was getting tired so we went to bed. Most of all at least. There still seemed to be some shouting outside the hotel. Next morning we heard from our manager that he'd heard someone shouting over and over again in the middle of the night in the hotel lobby something like "Korpiklaani! Alles gut?". We were suspecting Terji from Týr, but when we asked later he didn't confess.
After the breakfast we left to the festival area. Bang Your Head is quite a big festival and probably because of that the whole thing was very nicely organized. Great backstage with restaurant, showers with warm water, swimming pool, drunk people. Quite nice. We were the fourth band on the bill with 45 minute set. I didn't see the first band but managed to see most of our old friends' Týr set. It was still early in the morning but there was already a big crowd and actually some movement in there as well. During the third band me and Matson went quickly to check out the metal market. I didn't buy anything. I was proud of myself. But that was about to change. Wait until we get to the pool part.
For the first few bands the festival had only 10 minute changeover times which really isn't much. The band before us stopped maybe 5 minutes before their time so we managed to start on time at 11.55. We had a good show. Lots of audience and quite a lot of fists up in the air despite the early stage time. The stage had a catwalk probably for Queensrÿche but our guitarist couple used it quite shamelessly to get some action in the audience! We had to drop a couple of songs that we had on the set list because we couldn't fit it all in 45 minutes. Note to self: Black stage surface in the direct sun burns bare feet.
After the show we got drunk. At least I did. Like really drunk. And we had a pool party. There was a plastic/rubber/whatever pool at the backstage and in the end there was quite a lot of Finns and a few Fareose as well. I was trying to behave and was wearing underwear but Terji decided that I didn't need them and stole them. Judging by the number of photographers around the pool we will be featured on every music magazine next month. It was really a lot of fun. Floating there in the sun, cold beer in hand. I think my sunglasses are still in that pool. Oh yeah, if you lean on a plastic pool wall it will bend and you will flood the backstage. Live and learn.
We spoke about the pool later with our record label's promotion lady and she said that the pool has been there every year and it has always been only the Finns using it. The tradition lives on! Except for the Faroese.
Like at most festivals the bands with early stage time had to leave their dressing room early and make room for other bands. We had to do that as well and we sent our gear to hotel and moved our personal stuff and alcohol to another container that was reserved for that. Our dressing room was then given to White Lion. However Jonne somehow missed the whole thing and later went to their dressing room and told quite generously that "You can sit here, I am just taking our booze." And he really got the alcohol. It definitely wasn't ours but White Lion didn't object.
The evening went quite nicely and around midnight we finally got a shuttle back to hotel. After a mere four hours of sleep we started our journey to the next festival, Graspop Metal Meeting in a small town of Dessel, Belgium.
We arrived to the festival well on time after a rough ride. Graspop is probably the best festival we've ever been. It is really nicely built up and everything works exceptionally well. And it's big. The tent we played, Marquee 1, is bigger than a normal icehockey rink. We had plenty of time to settle in and check out the area. This time we didn't go to metal market. Hooray! I got myself a new pair of sunglasses though. We also went to the Marquee 2 to say hello to the monitor tech Stijn who toured with us on the Paganfest and was now working on the festival. We met lots of other old friends as well like Sabaton and My Dying Bride. We seem to be meeting the same bands every time. No problem with that. Nice people.
At Graspop the changeover times were generous. We had about an hour for that and since we were still doing only a linecheck I was for example ready for the show over 30 minutes before show time. We had some wireless problems during the linecheck since were getting Sonata Arctica's bass on accordion's wireless. That got solved before the show though.
When I got from the backstage to the back of the stage I didn't see the audience. I started to tune my bass and when I was finishing it the intro started and I heard the crowd roar like never before. I almost fell on my ass. The noise was astounding. We hit the stage and the whole fucking tent is packed and we can see the fists up in the air all the way to the back of the area. Brilliant. Then the intro ends and Matson counts on the hi-hat 1-2-3-4 and I hit the first note. There's no sound. Shit. Suddenly there is. Phew. No. It's gone again. Then back again. Shit. Shit. Shit. I shout at Tuomas to do something about it and they check everything at the desk, receiver & preamp. Finally after 3 songs just before "Tuli kokko" they decide to change the wireless. So the drum intro starts and there should be a bass over it but there isn't. After a lot of trouble we finally get a sound out. A crap sound. They gave me a wireless suitable for guitar but not for the bass. Some wireless systems don't really transmit much lower frequencies. I hope Paukku at FOH got something out of the PA at least. There wasn't anything I could do anyway so I just started to enjoy the audience. It was a great show after all.
After the show the schedule was pretty standard. Meet friend, get drunk. When the headliner Kiss was playing I was already sleeping at our dressing room. I heard them and thought "It's Kiss. Am I interested enough to get up? No." So I got up after their show when we left in a hurry back to Frankfurt airport. We were already late from our original schedule because Kiss was about an hour late and some of us demanded that they have to see them anyway.
Our flight was at 7.30 and we arrived at the airport at about 6.20. So basically we were in a hurry but usually 70 minutes is enough. Unfortunately the combination of us being late and the check-in girl being probably quite unexperienced and at least extremely slow turned out to be fatal. Only two of us managed to get on the plane on time, Tuomas and Hittavainen. When I told the lady at the gate that maybe we were late but the girl was really slow too she immediately said "OK, I'll put you on the next flight for free", which was ok for us. We'd still be at Tuska festival on time.
The real problem was that our gear didn't follow us. The first flight had some, ours had some, but we were still missing some. The most important was the accordion. I got all my stuff, Hittis got his, Jonne got one guitar, Cane was ready to play any borrowed Les Paul but we couldn't get an accordion. We called Roland and festival organization tried to get one. No luck. 37 minutes before our showtime we were forced to cancel our show at Tuska festival. Luckily they still managed to get Before The Dawn to fill in. We were pissed. Totally. We finally get a slot at Tuska and we fucking have to cancel it. Thank you Luftwaff... hansa. The announcer Jone Nikula told us that when he went to the stage to announce the cancellation there was already a huge amount of people in a party mood packed in the front and the disappointment was easy to see and some people actually left the whole festival area.
We still did have a lot of work to do though. We had hours of interviews booked and since we now had more time our press lady Silke started to move them earlier. I don't know how many of them there exactly was but many. It was basically Jonne, Cane and myself doing them. Sometimes individually, sometimes in different combinations. At some point of the afternoon we did a signing session and met so many Finnish fans that it basically surprised us all. Thank you all for being so understanding!
When the work was done it was time to go home again. We had already received some of our missing gear delivered directly to the festival and we picked up the rest from the airport on our way home. Surprisingly we stopped also at a gas station and got some cider.
Next week: the most beautiful festival area ever, Metal Camp, Slovenia.
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