On Saturday, October 11, we played at Finlandia Club in Lahti, Jonne's current home town. The venue is part of Sibelius-talo concert hall, so the backstage area for example was quite luxurious with sauna and everything. The pre-sale was around 200 tickets and then a few dozen Jonne's relatives on a guest list so we knew that there was going to be people.
We were supposed to be there at the venue really early. Paukku sent a message on Friday that we're leaving Tampere at 10. The idea was that the venue was reserved for us from the noon on and we were going to set up the stage props for the forthcoming tour and rehearse the tour set two or three times so that for example the light guy Tony will know what's going on. Well, I've seen how things work at every venue and I knew that there's nothing happening at noon and decided that there's no way I'm going to get up that early. I decided to drive to Lahti myself. We left home around 1 and when we arrived there was still nothing for the band to do. Finally it was time for the soundcheck and we had time to play maybe four songs! I could have left home at 17 and still be there on time. Bollocks. The support band arrived too. It was nice to see Metsatöll again. Really nice blokes. And at least three of them know how to drink as well.
The show itself was really good. As most people know we've never had much following in Finland so we are kind of used to a slightly lamer response when compared to practically any other country. However, the show in Lahti was different. The place wasn't full, I believe they sold around 300 tickets when the capacity is 600, but it was a really good and loud audience so it was really nice to be on the stage. The only major change was that we put Jonne in the back of the stage on the drum riser during "Orbina" and "Kipumylly". I guess we'll be doing that every time there is enough room on the riser. We also dropped "Keep On Galloping" from the set but I don't think we added anything.
After the show we went to sauna for a while. Metsatöll had already started. I really wanted to have a few drinks but I couldn't since I was driving and my girlfriend won't drive my car. When I am rich enough I will take a taxi to every show.
Tuesday 21 October 2008
Friday 10 October 2008
In The Army Now
Yeah yeah, I know. I missed a few shows from the blog. Quit whining. Since the last update we've done only four shows or so. The first one was a headlining set at the indoor festival in Oostende, Belgium. There were some remarkable things. The day was too long and some band members were way past the best performing condition. That combined with the concrete tube where all the drum hits echoed around a few times made it probably the worst show we did during the entire summer. We did meet an old friend Stijn, the monitor tech from Paganfest, which was nice. We also met other old friends My Dying Bride who were on their way to Tilburg I believe. Since Finnair lost my bass I needed a replacement and was going to borrow theirs but they didn't arrive in time so I ended up borrowing a bass from one of the previous bands. Anyway, the promoter was getting a bit worried at the backstage about the bass situation and I finally told him that MDB will be there and I'll use theirs. The guy looked like he received an electric shock.
- "What? Who?"
- "My Dying Bride."
- "Why?"
- "Well, they are coming to meet us anyway and they have a suitable bass."
- "So you know them? Really?"
- "Yep."
The guy literally started shaking. "Oh my god. Oh my god. My Dying Bride. Korpiklaani. Oh my god. Both my favourite bands will be here. Oh my god."
Aaanyway, that's pretty much all I'm going to say about that show. Except that "Pine Woods" did a comeback to the set and was a total mess.
The next show was a festival in Raismes, Northern France. This time we arrived a day earlier and spent an evening as guests of the promoter at the festival.
After various things all ended up to the point where he was cancelling our appearance unless Jonne apologizes from him. And after all Jonne wasn't even the one to blame! Anyway we got it sorted out and did our set which was a lot better than in Belgium. The biggest change in the set was the opener. We started with "Kantaiso" which was it's live debut. "Pine Woods" was still in the set and a lot better than a week before. "Kantaiso" didn't really seem to work as an opener though. It seemed like the show really started with the second song "Wooden Pints". Nice show anyway.
The next show was a bit unordinary one. First of all it was set up really fast, just about a week in advance and the venue was going to be Vekaranjärvi military base (Spinal Tap anyone?). It was a conscripts' demobilization party. I personally felt already from the beginning that it wasn't going to be that spectacular and it really wasn't. We did it as well as possible anyway and there was basically nothing wrong with the show itself except the fact that the audience was basically just sitting in their tables. Only a few brave soldiers got up to dance during the last half of the show. Maybe the lack of alcohol and women was keeping them a bit quiet and the show really wasn't a party we've been used to.
The PA was provided by a local company and the sound tech of Kivimetsän Druidi who we toured with was with them. He wasn't doing anything, he only came to see us. Nice.
We did some small changes to the set. We decided to open with "Wooden Pints" again and moved "Kantaiso" to the second slot. We also dropped the djembe songs "Kipumylly" and "Keep On Galloping" from the set because we thought that they really wouldn't work in that environment.
Finally it was time for our first trip across the Atlantic. We were booked to headline "The Age Of Darkness" festival in Calgary, Canada. The trip was going to be heavy. Leaving at 3 in Friday morning to Helsinki-Vantaa, fly to Frankfurt then wait for three hours and fly 10 hours to Calgary and arrive at almost the same time Friday afternoon as we left Frankfurt. Tuomas aka Risuparta aka Risis aka Saatanan Risuparta had already left on a separate flight a few hours before. I watched "Mars Attacks!" and some sitcoms but mostly just slept during the flight.
We were picked up from the airport and taken to a really fancy downtown hotel Sheraton Suites, right next to French Maid, the titty bar. Whoopee! Some of us went immediately to sleep but I had the idea of trying to stay up until it was a bedtime in Canada. I thought that I'd be able to handle the jet lag easier that way. Of course I ended up drinking with Paukku, Risuparta and the organizer's crew in their room. I slept in a bed but as far as I know Paukku slept on the couch and Risis slept on their balcony under the table. Giving a good first impression is really important in this business!
On Saturday we were scheduled to get to the venue at 14. Manager, "julma sakemanni", was also arriving around noon. I spend most of the morning in the bed and the Irish pub downstairs drinking Strongbow with Risis. We had each received $50 for food from the promoter but we found better use for that. Cider. French Maid was also an option but it lost a competition. First things first. There's always a chance to see tits but getting decent cider can be really difficult.
The venue was called MacEwan Hall Ballroom located at the campus area of University of Calgary. I think the locals called it just "MacHall". There was nothing wrong with the venue, quite nice actually. The dressing room area was a bit too small for the number of bands involved but it was ok. We've seen worse. We did a soundcheck and since our show time was at 23 we decided to head back to the hotel. Strongbow time! At this point the pub stuff already recognized us so we basically didn't really have to order much.
- "More cider for you guys?"
- "Yes, please."
- "Should I open a tab for you?"
- "Yes, please."
Matte the evil German had stayed at the venue to take care of our merchandise. He was quite soon back at the pub with us since everything was sold out. The doors opened at 18 and according to him at 19:07 everything was gone!
We arrived to the venue finally some time after 21 and basically just waited for the show time. We met a couple of fans though. One young female was dressed exactly as our Vaari on our album covers, including the horns on her head!
The show was really good from us and the audience was brilliant. Finally we have to believe all the things that for example Ensiferum guys told us about the Canadian audience. Loud. We did basically the same set as at Vekaranjärvi. We were originally of course going to do the djembe songs as well but we were stupid enough to leave djembe home. We didn't pack it for Vekaranjärvi and since we didn't even unload the car between the shows we just forgot the drum. I think we added one or two songs though. What were they? Can't really remember. I don't thing we did Beer Beer at Vekaranjärvi but we certainly did that in Calgary.
The real action of the trip started at the hotel. All the bands and the promoter's crew were staying on the same floor. We were of course the last band to arrive to the hotel, everyone else had already been there for a while. Jonne and myself were the first ones in and we went to the check the room where all the noise was coming from. The local crew's room was packed with people. Bands, fans, whoever. I opened a wine bottle, went to the balcony to get some air and tasted the wine. The next thing I see is a hotel security officer telling everybody to leave the room and the hotel since we had been evicted because of all the complaints about the noise. So I just get out to the corridor and see all those people packed there. I walked to our room, went in and went immediately to bed and pretended to be sleeping. Quite soon I can hear a security person walking around the room and telling someone that "it's all quiet here, only someone sleeping." A bit later I hear Matte arriving and starting to argue with the staff about our eviction since we actually were not the ones causing all the trouble. Hittavainen did a good job helping him, since he had been smoking downstairs and arrived with his bag after every other band was already thrown out. "See that, our band is just arriving!" After a while we actually got the permission to stay, which was nice. Now I could finally get out of the bed and take off my shoes and pants!
On Sunday we had to check out at noon but we were leaving at around 18 so we had plenty of time to do whatever we wanted. I went to see the city centre. I even went up the Calgary Tower http://www.calgarytower.com/ and then walked around the parks and the city streets. Honestly, there wasn't much to see there. Just a normal city.
At the airport we had probably the smoothest check-in ever even though their belt for excessive luggage wasn't working at first. So far Calgary airport and Air Canada are on top of my carrier list. The flight back to Frankfurt went really easily. I started to watch "Interview With the Vampire" but after maybe 15 minutes pressed pause and decided to take a nap. It was a seven-hour nap. I was home finally around 20.30 Monday evening. I left around 3.30 Friday morning so it was almost 4 full days for just one show. This is again one of those moments when you have to ask if this is all worth it. Yes, it is.
- "What? Who?"
- "My Dying Bride."
- "Why?"
- "Well, they are coming to meet us anyway and they have a suitable bass."
- "So you know them? Really?"
- "Yep."
The guy literally started shaking. "Oh my god. Oh my god. My Dying Bride. Korpiklaani. Oh my god. Both my favourite bands will be here. Oh my god."
Aaanyway, that's pretty much all I'm going to say about that show. Except that "Pine Woods" did a comeback to the set and was a total mess.
The next show was a festival in Raismes, Northern France. This time we arrived a day earlier and spent an evening as guests of the promoter at the festival.
After various things all ended up to the point where he was cancelling our appearance unless Jonne apologizes from him. And after all Jonne wasn't even the one to blame! Anyway we got it sorted out and did our set which was a lot better than in Belgium. The biggest change in the set was the opener. We started with "Kantaiso" which was it's live debut. "Pine Woods" was still in the set and a lot better than a week before. "Kantaiso" didn't really seem to work as an opener though. It seemed like the show really started with the second song "Wooden Pints". Nice show anyway.
The next show was a bit unordinary one. First of all it was set up really fast, just about a week in advance and the venue was going to be Vekaranjärvi military base (Spinal Tap anyone?). It was a conscripts' demobilization party. I personally felt already from the beginning that it wasn't going to be that spectacular and it really wasn't. We did it as well as possible anyway and there was basically nothing wrong with the show itself except the fact that the audience was basically just sitting in their tables. Only a few brave soldiers got up to dance during the last half of the show. Maybe the lack of alcohol and women was keeping them a bit quiet and the show really wasn't a party we've been used to.
The PA was provided by a local company and the sound tech of Kivimetsän Druidi who we toured with was with them. He wasn't doing anything, he only came to see us. Nice.
We did some small changes to the set. We decided to open with "Wooden Pints" again and moved "Kantaiso" to the second slot. We also dropped the djembe songs "Kipumylly" and "Keep On Galloping" from the set because we thought that they really wouldn't work in that environment.
Finally it was time for our first trip across the Atlantic. We were booked to headline "The Age Of Darkness" festival in Calgary, Canada. The trip was going to be heavy. Leaving at 3 in Friday morning to Helsinki-Vantaa, fly to Frankfurt then wait for three hours and fly 10 hours to Calgary and arrive at almost the same time Friday afternoon as we left Frankfurt. Tuomas aka Risuparta aka Risis aka Saatanan Risuparta had already left on a separate flight a few hours before. I watched "Mars Attacks!" and some sitcoms but mostly just slept during the flight.
We were picked up from the airport and taken to a really fancy downtown hotel Sheraton Suites, right next to French Maid, the titty bar. Whoopee! Some of us went immediately to sleep but I had the idea of trying to stay up until it was a bedtime in Canada. I thought that I'd be able to handle the jet lag easier that way. Of course I ended up drinking with Paukku, Risuparta and the organizer's crew in their room. I slept in a bed but as far as I know Paukku slept on the couch and Risis slept on their balcony under the table. Giving a good first impression is really important in this business!
On Saturday we were scheduled to get to the venue at 14. Manager, "julma sakemanni", was also arriving around noon. I spend most of the morning in the bed and the Irish pub downstairs drinking Strongbow with Risis. We had each received $50 for food from the promoter but we found better use for that. Cider. French Maid was also an option but it lost a competition. First things first. There's always a chance to see tits but getting decent cider can be really difficult.
The venue was called MacEwan Hall Ballroom located at the campus area of University of Calgary. I think the locals called it just "MacHall". There was nothing wrong with the venue, quite nice actually. The dressing room area was a bit too small for the number of bands involved but it was ok. We've seen worse. We did a soundcheck and since our show time was at 23 we decided to head back to the hotel. Strongbow time! At this point the pub stuff already recognized us so we basically didn't really have to order much.
- "More cider for you guys?"
- "Yes, please."
- "Should I open a tab for you?"
- "Yes, please."
Matte the evil German had stayed at the venue to take care of our merchandise. He was quite soon back at the pub with us since everything was sold out. The doors opened at 18 and according to him at 19:07 everything was gone!
We arrived to the venue finally some time after 21 and basically just waited for the show time. We met a couple of fans though. One young female was dressed exactly as our Vaari on our album covers, including the horns on her head!
The show was really good from us and the audience was brilliant. Finally we have to believe all the things that for example Ensiferum guys told us about the Canadian audience. Loud. We did basically the same set as at Vekaranjärvi. We were originally of course going to do the djembe songs as well but we were stupid enough to leave djembe home. We didn't pack it for Vekaranjärvi and since we didn't even unload the car between the shows we just forgot the drum. I think we added one or two songs though. What were they? Can't really remember. I don't thing we did Beer Beer at Vekaranjärvi but we certainly did that in Calgary.
The real action of the trip started at the hotel. All the bands and the promoter's crew were staying on the same floor. We were of course the last band to arrive to the hotel, everyone else had already been there for a while. Jonne and myself were the first ones in and we went to the check the room where all the noise was coming from. The local crew's room was packed with people. Bands, fans, whoever. I opened a wine bottle, went to the balcony to get some air and tasted the wine. The next thing I see is a hotel security officer telling everybody to leave the room and the hotel since we had been evicted because of all the complaints about the noise. So I just get out to the corridor and see all those people packed there. I walked to our room, went in and went immediately to bed and pretended to be sleeping. Quite soon I can hear a security person walking around the room and telling someone that "it's all quiet here, only someone sleeping." A bit later I hear Matte arriving and starting to argue with the staff about our eviction since we actually were not the ones causing all the trouble. Hittavainen did a good job helping him, since he had been smoking downstairs and arrived with his bag after every other band was already thrown out. "See that, our band is just arriving!" After a while we actually got the permission to stay, which was nice. Now I could finally get out of the bed and take off my shoes and pants!
On Sunday we had to check out at noon but we were leaving at around 18 so we had plenty of time to do whatever we wanted. I went to see the city centre. I even went up the Calgary Tower http://www.calgarytower.com/ and then walked around the parks and the city streets. Honestly, there wasn't much to see there. Just a normal city.
At the airport we had probably the smoothest check-in ever even though their belt for excessive luggage wasn't working at first. So far Calgary airport and Air Canada are on top of my carrier list. The flight back to Frankfurt went really easily. I started to watch "Interview With the Vampire" but after maybe 15 minutes pressed pause and decided to take a nap. It was a seven-hour nap. I was home finally around 20.30 Monday evening. I left around 3.30 Friday morning so it was almost 4 full days for just one show. This is again one of those moments when you have to ask if this is all worth it. Yes, it is.
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