Wednesday, September 19, 0:45, in the tour bus lounge, Detroit, MI.
The second stop on our long journey across the continent wasn't in St. Louis. That was a bit disappointing. Bus driver told that he was planning to stop in Rolla, MO so I went to check what's interesting in there. Obviously the only interesting thing there is a half-size replica of Stonehenge. However, in the end we stopped a bit earlier in St. Robert, MO which had even less interesting things to see. The most interesting was an USMC memorial with an M60 tank. And that isn't seriously THAT interesting. We parked our buses on the Walmart parking lot, went shopping for vodka, ice and everyone's choice of mixer. Mine was the usual, cranberry juice.
Even though we were abandoned basically in the middle of nowhere for a few hours we still managed to have a good time. Drinking, talking, watching Big Lebowski for the umpteenth time. Some of us even took a cab and actually went somewhere. "Somewhere" is a word that will not be explained any better. This is after all a TV show for the entire family.
Today we had yet another terrible drive to Detroit, MI. As usual, I woke up really early but for some reason managed to go back to sleep. I finally got out of the bunk around 3 in the afternoon and we still had 200km to go. We arrived late and there was the usual hassle of a local promoter adding local bands to the schedule that is already too tight. Whatever. The venue was the legendary Harpo's where obviously everyone has played. However, it has gone through the same demise as the actual city of Detroit. The place is huge though. PA is from the 70's. Huge. Like physically huge. And the stage was so high that the audience was standing at the back of the venue to see the bands. One part of the hall had a dance floor with lovely colour lights under it. I was watching Moonsorrow's show there when someone turned the lights on. Suddenly it was "Saturday Night Fever" allover again!
The area is bad. We were explicitly told not to go anywhere. "Don't walk anywhere, do not cross the street, do not stand on the street corner. You will get shot." In fact, the area is so bad that people do not go to the shows anymore. There was more people in than in Billings, MT but not much more. During the other bands quite a big part of them were actually even sitting on their seats. Jonne managed to get them up on their feet and at least come down in front of the stage so it didn't feel so empty. We played a decent set except Tuomas' wireless problems. We were cut short though. We didn't know that there was a curfew. If we had known that, there wouldn't have been local openers like that. We skipped two songs so it wasn't that bad, but still annoying.
And now you're up to date again.
Wednesday 19 September 2012
Monday 17 September 2012
Off days and stuff
Sunday, September 16, 2am, on the tour bus lounge.
I am trying another approach tonight. Not typing in my bunk, but in the front lounge. Let's see if I can stay up long enough to finish a blog entry this way.
Once in the middle of nowhere, aka Ramona, CA, I had nothing to do. As said before, there is a music store, so after about an hours pondering I finally got someone to go out as well. Those were Markus and Tuomas. Tuomas was a mistake. A fucking antique poof in a small old village full of antique shops. The other two trying to find beer and food and the third one going through every antique shop on the Main Street. The only street. Anyway not a good match. We finally got to eat something anyway and then returning to the venue we did indeed got rid of Tuomas. No offence. We had more important things to do. Laundry. Well, not really but there was a laundry next to the venue and we had dirty clothes. We equipped ourselves with dirty clothes and a 12-pack of Lime-a-ritas. I know, terrible stuff, but 8% of alcohol and sort of a decent taste is good enough for the poor people of Finland. Anyway, we were doing the laundry and getting drunk. Not bad.
The show wasn't bad after all. Of course we had to quit the alcohol at some point just to be able to play the show. In my humble opinion, Ramona was probably the best show we've played so far on the tour. The audience was not the biggest, but a good one, but the main thing was that we played a fucking tight set. We finally made the first "big" change to the set and changed "Ievan polkka" and "Ruumiinmultaa" with each other. Set was better this way.
This really isn't helping. I am falling asleep here too.
Monday, September 17, 1am, in the tour bus bunk.
Let's try this again now. Back to Ramona. The show was indeed nice and as promised the venue had a nice new shower. Like pretty much always and everywhere in the USA, the venue has nothing around it, no bars or any place else to spend the 2-3 hours between the show and bus call. I asked one girl where do people usually go in Ramona to spend their Friday evening. Her reply was: "Well, usually we go to Denny's." Not really a good option for us. For those of you who don't know what Denny's is: http://www.dennys.com
So it was once again a standard evening. I had a few cranberry-vodkas, but not much. I've pretty much managed to quit drinking beer. Had one with lunch in Ramona, today no beer at all. I am a boring old man. Went to bed early.
The next show was in Tempe, AZ. We've been there at least twice before. Every time in a crappy bar and honestly this place wasn't much different. Rocky Point Cantina. Outside looks like whatever Mexican/Southern USA building but it in fact is an open air bar. The stage was located in the only non open air room. Not the smallest of the venues we've ever been to. Not the worst, but the lack of shower... well, you know me and my venue categories already. I think I wrote earlier about showering with the kitchen dish washing thing in Joliet, IL. I noticed that this place had the similar thing in their kitchen so Markus and myself went to check the place. There was something cooking on the stove so clearly the kitchen was being used. Chef walks in while we're there and we ask if we can use the sinks and stuff to wash ourselves after the show and he says "Sure, I don't care". I went to check how things were working out for Moonsorrow guys washing themselves there after their show and the chef comes shouting at us "You can not do that while I'm cooking, you were supposed to come after the show." Obviously he hadn't realized that "after the show" means a different time for each band. Once we were finished and I was going to wash myself he had locked the door. Thanks.
Anyway, the day. We had a few friends visiting, some local Finns and some who just like Finns. They spent their day driving most of us around the place. Including record stores. Seriously, I will not buy another LP on this tour. Enough is enough. We even got some Finnish style buns as gifts, so once Marko made the coffee we were able to treat ourselves with traditional "pullakahvit".
Monday, September 17, 9:30am, in the tour bus lounge.
I obviously can not write much stuff in the evenings without falling asleep with my face on the keyboard filling the screen with "i"s like it did last night. And on the other hand I obviously can not sleep in the mornings. Woke up at 7 again.
Someone told us that the Tempe show was sold out. It most certainly did not look that way, but maybe they limit the number of tickets sold for the shows. I mean, it would make no sense to fill the bar area with people who wouldn't be able to see the stage anyway. The show was quite good I'd say. Stage was a bit too small for us but not too bad. I can only hope that our sound was better than with for example Tyr. That seriously lacked some balls.
Afterparty was as usual. A few drinks in and around the buses. The security actually cleared the parking lot too, so basically there wasn't anyone except touring personnel left 30 minutes after the show. We left quite soon as well. We had a long ride ahead.
I am seriously pissed off at how this tour was set up. There are several reasons. I won't list them all here since they are not really for the general public to know anyway. However, one of them is the off days. I do not mind having an off day every now and then, when there is a good reason for it. How come the first off they was a Friday? With Saturday the easiest day to sell a show? Boise, Idaho was on our way anyway, but no show for some reason. And now we're having TWO off days in a row. We're driving from from Tempe, AZ to Detroit, MI. That is 2000 miles, 3200 kilometres. Why no shows in between? Amarillo, TX? Austin, TX? St. Louis, MO?
So yesterday was an off day. That means a long day on the bus that then later is parked outside of a motel where the drivers go to sleep and rest of us are left to entertain ourselves which ever way we can. If you're ten kilometres from the city centre (Amarillo, TX) like us yesterday, there's not much to do.
Mitja had a brilliant idea to take the birthday girl Melanie for a dinner with all or at least most of us. It was indeed a brilliant idea. Or would have been if he had picked some other place than The Hooters. I tried to warn him. Mel didn't appreciate his choice of a dining place, so we actually decided to move the entourage to a nearby Mexican. That is basically worth another blog. Shortly, food was good, but hardly worth the 3 hours it took!
I seriously was trying to stay up last night. We had a bus call at 3am. I thought again that if I manage to stay up until we leave I will be able to sleep longer and thus have a shorter suffering during the long drive. Well, I failed. Let's see where we end up spending an evening today. There was some talk about St. Louis, MO, but according to our driver it is too far.
Funny name for the day: Kickapoo.
I am trying another approach tonight. Not typing in my bunk, but in the front lounge. Let's see if I can stay up long enough to finish a blog entry this way.
Once in the middle of nowhere, aka Ramona, CA, I had nothing to do. As said before, there is a music store, so after about an hours pondering I finally got someone to go out as well. Those were Markus and Tuomas. Tuomas was a mistake. A fucking antique poof in a small old village full of antique shops. The other two trying to find beer and food and the third one going through every antique shop on the Main Street. The only street. Anyway not a good match. We finally got to eat something anyway and then returning to the venue we did indeed got rid of Tuomas. No offence. We had more important things to do. Laundry. Well, not really but there was a laundry next to the venue and we had dirty clothes. We equipped ourselves with dirty clothes and a 12-pack of Lime-a-ritas. I know, terrible stuff, but 8% of alcohol and sort of a decent taste is good enough for the poor people of Finland. Anyway, we were doing the laundry and getting drunk. Not bad.
The show wasn't bad after all. Of course we had to quit the alcohol at some point just to be able to play the show. In my humble opinion, Ramona was probably the best show we've played so far on the tour. The audience was not the biggest, but a good one, but the main thing was that we played a fucking tight set. We finally made the first "big" change to the set and changed "Ievan polkka" and "Ruumiinmultaa" with each other. Set was better this way.
This really isn't helping. I am falling asleep here too.
Monday, September 17, 1am, in the tour bus bunk.
Let's try this again now. Back to Ramona. The show was indeed nice and as promised the venue had a nice new shower. Like pretty much always and everywhere in the USA, the venue has nothing around it, no bars or any place else to spend the 2-3 hours between the show and bus call. I asked one girl where do people usually go in Ramona to spend their Friday evening. Her reply was: "Well, usually we go to Denny's." Not really a good option for us. For those of you who don't know what Denny's is: http://www.dennys.com
So it was once again a standard evening. I had a few cranberry-vodkas, but not much. I've pretty much managed to quit drinking beer. Had one with lunch in Ramona, today no beer at all. I am a boring old man. Went to bed early.
The next show was in Tempe, AZ. We've been there at least twice before. Every time in a crappy bar and honestly this place wasn't much different. Rocky Point Cantina. Outside looks like whatever Mexican/Southern USA building but it in fact is an open air bar. The stage was located in the only non open air room. Not the smallest of the venues we've ever been to. Not the worst, but the lack of shower... well, you know me and my venue categories already. I think I wrote earlier about showering with the kitchen dish washing thing in Joliet, IL. I noticed that this place had the similar thing in their kitchen so Markus and myself went to check the place. There was something cooking on the stove so clearly the kitchen was being used. Chef walks in while we're there and we ask if we can use the sinks and stuff to wash ourselves after the show and he says "Sure, I don't care". I went to check how things were working out for Moonsorrow guys washing themselves there after their show and the chef comes shouting at us "You can not do that while I'm cooking, you were supposed to come after the show." Obviously he hadn't realized that "after the show" means a different time for each band. Once we were finished and I was going to wash myself he had locked the door. Thanks.
Anyway, the day. We had a few friends visiting, some local Finns and some who just like Finns. They spent their day driving most of us around the place. Including record stores. Seriously, I will not buy another LP on this tour. Enough is enough. We even got some Finnish style buns as gifts, so once Marko made the coffee we were able to treat ourselves with traditional "pullakahvit".
Monday, September 17, 9:30am, in the tour bus lounge.
I obviously can not write much stuff in the evenings without falling asleep with my face on the keyboard filling the screen with "i"s like it did last night. And on the other hand I obviously can not sleep in the mornings. Woke up at 7 again.
Someone told us that the Tempe show was sold out. It most certainly did not look that way, but maybe they limit the number of tickets sold for the shows. I mean, it would make no sense to fill the bar area with people who wouldn't be able to see the stage anyway. The show was quite good I'd say. Stage was a bit too small for us but not too bad. I can only hope that our sound was better than with for example Tyr. That seriously lacked some balls.
Afterparty was as usual. A few drinks in and around the buses. The security actually cleared the parking lot too, so basically there wasn't anyone except touring personnel left 30 minutes after the show. We left quite soon as well. We had a long ride ahead.
I am seriously pissed off at how this tour was set up. There are several reasons. I won't list them all here since they are not really for the general public to know anyway. However, one of them is the off days. I do not mind having an off day every now and then, when there is a good reason for it. How come the first off they was a Friday? With Saturday the easiest day to sell a show? Boise, Idaho was on our way anyway, but no show for some reason. And now we're having TWO off days in a row. We're driving from from Tempe, AZ to Detroit, MI. That is 2000 miles, 3200 kilometres. Why no shows in between? Amarillo, TX? Austin, TX? St. Louis, MO?
So yesterday was an off day. That means a long day on the bus that then later is parked outside of a motel where the drivers go to sleep and rest of us are left to entertain ourselves which ever way we can. If you're ten kilometres from the city centre (Amarillo, TX) like us yesterday, there's not much to do.
 |
| View from where the buses were parked. Mitja Harvilahti in the centre. |
Mitja had a brilliant idea to take the birthday girl Melanie for a dinner with all or at least most of us. It was indeed a brilliant idea. Or would have been if he had picked some other place than The Hooters. I tried to warn him. Mel didn't appreciate his choice of a dining place, so we actually decided to move the entourage to a nearby Mexican. That is basically worth another blog. Shortly, food was good, but hardly worth the 3 hours it took!
I seriously was trying to stay up last night. We had a bus call at 3am. I thought again that if I manage to stay up until we leave I will be able to sleep longer and thus have a shorter suffering during the long drive. Well, I failed. Let's see where we end up spending an evening today. There was some talk about St. Louis, MO, but according to our driver it is too far.
Funny name for the day: Kickapoo.
Friday 14 September 2012
Californication
Friday, September 14, 2:15am in the tour bus bunk, back of the venue in Santa Ana, CA, Thin Lizzy in the headphones.
We have a late bus call today. And I mean late. 9am. So we basically would have a perfect opportunity to get wasted and go crawling at the local bars. If there were any. There is nothing around here. Anyway, back to business again = San Francisco.
DNA Lounge is sort of a nice venue. A bit strange perhaps with all the stairs and a drum riser so high that the bass drum is next to your head. Although I have to admit that I am a dwarf. With a normal classification of mine the venue would fall into the category "Shithole" since it has no shower. However, it has a nice toilet with a big sink and warm water, so I can live with it.
I often write that "I didn't really go anywhere" and I still did go somewhere. In San Francisco I seriously didn't go anywhere. Some of our guys were going shopping and I walked with them to the nearest street corner but felt that the shop was too far and returned back to the bus. So the furthest I left the bus/venue combination was 30 metres or so. Don't get me wrong. I love walking around the foreign cities. San Francisco is even one of the more interesting ones. Sometimes I just feel too lazy. And having been there already 3 times before this one sort of makes think "Naah, seen it already."
San Francisco show was one of the really good ones. The audience was amazing. We were good too, but they were crazy. More action than I've seen in a while. Ville did again his now sort of usual appearance during "Happy Little Boozer". He joined the chorus, then stagedived and the audience got him back on the stage in time for the next chorus. Excellent.
Afterparty? I do not know. I sat 2 hours till the bus call in the pizza place next to the venue chatting with a friend. It was a good party.
And this spot right here is where I fell asleep last night
Friday, September 14, 10:45am in the tour bus at the Walmart parking lot, eating self made tofu-cheddar-avocado burger for breakfast.
From San Francisco it was another sort of a long drive to West Hollywood, CA. We've been to West Hollywood/Los Angeles now four times and every time at a different venue. This time we were at one of the legends, Whiskey-a-Go-Go aka The Whiskey. I didn't really know what to expect. I guess I wasn't expecting much nothing and therefore I wasn't really that disappointed either. No showers though.
Every time we've been in the area we've also went to Rainbow Bar & Grill. Never before seen Lemmy there, but always Ron Jeremy. This time they were both there. Anyway, there probably is a lot to see in the area, but the day was mostly spent at Rainbow. Even if it has a such legendary status that probably draws in lot of tourists too they still have really reasonable prices and good food. At least during the day. "Going somewhere" part wasn't much different to San Francisco. Whiskey, Rainbow and the bus parking were all within the radius of 300 metres. Even if I didn't go anywhere I probably still didn't miss much.
The venue wasn't sold out. That was a bit disappointing. The capacity is 450, with all the guests we had 475 people in but you could still buy a ticket from the door so technically it wasn't sold out. Close to at least. Sadly, the show wasn't as good as San Francisco. I guess the audience never really sees it the same way we do. What is "worse than yesterday" for us may be the best they've ever seen. Differences are marginal anyway. Ville was on stage again. No stagediving this time. The sign on the wall said something like "You stagedive and you go home". However, he did a dance with Jonne with both falling on the mic stand. My first thought was "And now there goes a rib or two." Both survived.
Afterparty was at Rainbow. Once again meeting some old friends and making a few new ones. And drinking awfully strong gin & tonics. I am trying to quit drinking beer. An occasional cold beer is always good, but beer as a main liquid for several days really messes up my stomach. So hard liqueur it is. Just bought 3 litres of cranberry juice from Walmart. Perfect mixer for vodka.
Santa Ana, CA is only an hour's drive away from West Hollywood. It is strange to have shows so close to each other, especially when today's show is just 2 hours from Santa Ana in Ramona, CA. We always tend to think that there will be no one to see us. Santa Ana proved us wrong. Really nice venue with two(!) showers and in house catering! Technically it was good too, big stage and all. The place is also quite big so it was definitely not full, but a good crowd anyway. Moonsorrow guys complained after their set that the sound on the stage was terrible, lots of echo and boomy low frequencies. We had none of those problems. We had a nice stage sound. Afterwards we were talking about that with the tour damager... I mean manager, and he said that it is easily understandable since Moonsorrow is awfully loud on stage. I've always thought that we're loud! Well, live and learn.
Afterparty was at a local bar. No wait, it wasn't! Why not? Because there was fucking nothing around there. So we ended up sitting in Moonsorrow/Metsatöll bus. Moonsorries had two female guests, Finns, obviously old friends, and they had brought them for example a bottle of cake flavoured vodka. That was strange. Anyway, as you can see from the beginning of this blog entry, I didn't stay long.
Today we're playing in Ramona, CA. We met the promoter at The Whiskey. We spoke about the venue, "The Main Stage", and I mentioned that it is once again one of the venues that fall into the category "Shithole", since it has no shower. His reply was "We have now!". Nice. Glad that I could insult him anyway.
Other than the venue there's not much in Ramona. One street town. There is a small guitar store though. We'll see what we end up doing there. Probably nothing.
We have a late bus call today. And I mean late. 9am. So we basically would have a perfect opportunity to get wasted and go crawling at the local bars. If there were any. There is nothing around here. Anyway, back to business again = San Francisco.
DNA Lounge is sort of a nice venue. A bit strange perhaps with all the stairs and a drum riser so high that the bass drum is next to your head. Although I have to admit that I am a dwarf. With a normal classification of mine the venue would fall into the category "Shithole" since it has no shower. However, it has a nice toilet with a big sink and warm water, so I can live with it.
I often write that "I didn't really go anywhere" and I still did go somewhere. In San Francisco I seriously didn't go anywhere. Some of our guys were going shopping and I walked with them to the nearest street corner but felt that the shop was too far and returned back to the bus. So the furthest I left the bus/venue combination was 30 metres or so. Don't get me wrong. I love walking around the foreign cities. San Francisco is even one of the more interesting ones. Sometimes I just feel too lazy. And having been there already 3 times before this one sort of makes think "Naah, seen it already."
San Francisco show was one of the really good ones. The audience was amazing. We were good too, but they were crazy. More action than I've seen in a while. Ville did again his now sort of usual appearance during "Happy Little Boozer". He joined the chorus, then stagedived and the audience got him back on the stage in time for the next chorus. Excellent.
Afterparty? I do not know. I sat 2 hours till the bus call in the pizza place next to the venue chatting with a friend. It was a good party.
And this spot right here is where I fell asleep last night
Friday, September 14, 10:45am in the tour bus at the Walmart parking lot, eating self made tofu-cheddar-avocado burger for breakfast.
From San Francisco it was another sort of a long drive to West Hollywood, CA. We've been to West Hollywood/Los Angeles now four times and every time at a different venue. This time we were at one of the legends, Whiskey-a-Go-Go aka The Whiskey. I didn't really know what to expect. I guess I wasn't expecting much nothing and therefore I wasn't really that disappointed either. No showers though.
Every time we've been in the area we've also went to Rainbow Bar & Grill. Never before seen Lemmy there, but always Ron Jeremy. This time they were both there. Anyway, there probably is a lot to see in the area, but the day was mostly spent at Rainbow. Even if it has a such legendary status that probably draws in lot of tourists too they still have really reasonable prices and good food. At least during the day. "Going somewhere" part wasn't much different to San Francisco. Whiskey, Rainbow and the bus parking were all within the radius of 300 metres. Even if I didn't go anywhere I probably still didn't miss much.
The venue wasn't sold out. That was a bit disappointing. The capacity is 450, with all the guests we had 475 people in but you could still buy a ticket from the door so technically it wasn't sold out. Close to at least. Sadly, the show wasn't as good as San Francisco. I guess the audience never really sees it the same way we do. What is "worse than yesterday" for us may be the best they've ever seen. Differences are marginal anyway. Ville was on stage again. No stagediving this time. The sign on the wall said something like "You stagedive and you go home". However, he did a dance with Jonne with both falling on the mic stand. My first thought was "And now there goes a rib or two." Both survived.
Afterparty was at Rainbow. Once again meeting some old friends and making a few new ones. And drinking awfully strong gin & tonics. I am trying to quit drinking beer. An occasional cold beer is always good, but beer as a main liquid for several days really messes up my stomach. So hard liqueur it is. Just bought 3 litres of cranberry juice from Walmart. Perfect mixer for vodka.
Santa Ana, CA is only an hour's drive away from West Hollywood. It is strange to have shows so close to each other, especially when today's show is just 2 hours from Santa Ana in Ramona, CA. We always tend to think that there will be no one to see us. Santa Ana proved us wrong. Really nice venue with two(!) showers and in house catering! Technically it was good too, big stage and all. The place is also quite big so it was definitely not full, but a good crowd anyway. Moonsorrow guys complained after their set that the sound on the stage was terrible, lots of echo and boomy low frequencies. We had none of those problems. We had a nice stage sound. Afterwards we were talking about that with the tour damager... I mean manager, and he said that it is easily understandable since Moonsorrow is awfully loud on stage. I've always thought that we're loud! Well, live and learn.
Afterparty was at a local bar. No wait, it wasn't! Why not? Because there was fucking nothing around there. So we ended up sitting in Moonsorrow/Metsatöll bus. Moonsorries had two female guests, Finns, obviously old friends, and they had brought them for example a bottle of cake flavoured vodka. That was strange. Anyway, as you can see from the beginning of this blog entry, I didn't stay long.
Today we're playing in Ramona, CA. We met the promoter at The Whiskey. We spoke about the venue, "The Main Stage", and I mentioned that it is once again one of the venues that fall into the category "Shithole", since it has no shower. His reply was "We have now!". Nice. Glad that I could insult him anyway.
Other than the venue there's not much in Ramona. One street town. There is a small guitar store though. We'll see what we end up doing there. Probably nothing.
Wednesday 12 September 2012
Hippieville, OR
Tuesday, September 11, 13:00 in the bus somewhere in Northern California.
Northern California. One of the most beautiful places I've ever driven through. Already on our first tour here I fell in love with the scenery. This morning that also had a nice smokey flavour since there was a forest fire up on the mountains.
Last night we played the Hawthorne Theatre in Portland, OR. Venue's not even close to the downtown area. I guess the area is indeed called Hawthorne. Hawthorne Boulevard is another one of my favourite areas in the USA. Sort of a hippy village with a rather European feel to it. Or should I say Canadian. Nice bars, coffee places, little shops and first and foremost: Crossroads Music. A used vinyl record store that hosts several sellers under the same roof. We've been there every time we've visited the area and every time I've also found something interesting to buy. This time was no different. Prices are rather reasonable as well. I had a big pile of LPs and 12" singles with only $70. As regular customers we do get a discount nowadays too! Blackfoot, The Johnny Van Zant Band, Blackfoot, etc.
I didn't wander far from the venue. There is pretty much everything you need really close. In Vancouver I didn't have a single drop of alcohol and right next to the venue in Hawthorne was a Fred Meyers store with probably the beverage section you'll find in the USA I decided to reward myself with Blackthorne cider. Nice. And later also some Strongbow. It was a sort of a long day again, waiting for the showtime, but not that bad. Nice sunny weather and cider.
Venue again is not the best possible. It is sort of a nice and comfy for others, except the bands. Basically no backstage at all. No private toilet, let alone a shower. Still I sort of like the venue, probably mainly because of the surroundings though. If there is one venue that I am willing to forgive it's showerlessness it is Hawthorne Theatre.
We did indeed play a tighter set yesterday. Songs had quicker starts and we sort of kicked ass in general too. Audience was great too. Lots of crowdsurfing and stagediving. There was a minor fuckup with Kalle's wireless and my monitor's cable was broken as well. Other than that, all was good. Except for the bottle shower of course.
We had a sort of an early bus call at 1:30. We did have some old friends sitting with us till then. Rather relaxed evening. Since the drive to San Francisco is rather long and the long days sitting in the bus lounge are slowly eating you from inside I tried to stay up late so that I would sleep late too. I sort of managed. I did stay up late, so that went well, but I still woke up after 5h of sleep. Seriously annoying. We're still at least an hour and a half away from San Francisco and I've already been up for almost 5 hours. This is getting rather boring.
Anyway. We're on our way.
Northern California. One of the most beautiful places I've ever driven through. Already on our first tour here I fell in love with the scenery. This morning that also had a nice smokey flavour since there was a forest fire up on the mountains.
Last night we played the Hawthorne Theatre in Portland, OR. Venue's not even close to the downtown area. I guess the area is indeed called Hawthorne. Hawthorne Boulevard is another one of my favourite areas in the USA. Sort of a hippy village with a rather European feel to it. Or should I say Canadian. Nice bars, coffee places, little shops and first and foremost: Crossroads Music. A used vinyl record store that hosts several sellers under the same roof. We've been there every time we've visited the area and every time I've also found something interesting to buy. This time was no different. Prices are rather reasonable as well. I had a big pile of LPs and 12" singles with only $70. As regular customers we do get a discount nowadays too! Blackfoot, The Johnny Van Zant Band, Blackfoot, etc.
I didn't wander far from the venue. There is pretty much everything you need really close. In Vancouver I didn't have a single drop of alcohol and right next to the venue in Hawthorne was a Fred Meyers store with probably the beverage section you'll find in the USA I decided to reward myself with Blackthorne cider. Nice. And later also some Strongbow. It was a sort of a long day again, waiting for the showtime, but not that bad. Nice sunny weather and cider.
Venue again is not the best possible. It is sort of a nice and comfy for others, except the bands. Basically no backstage at all. No private toilet, let alone a shower. Still I sort of like the venue, probably mainly because of the surroundings though. If there is one venue that I am willing to forgive it's showerlessness it is Hawthorne Theatre.
We did indeed play a tighter set yesterday. Songs had quicker starts and we sort of kicked ass in general too. Audience was great too. Lots of crowdsurfing and stagediving. There was a minor fuckup with Kalle's wireless and my monitor's cable was broken as well. Other than that, all was good. Except for the bottle shower of course.
We had a sort of an early bus call at 1:30. We did have some old friends sitting with us till then. Rather relaxed evening. Since the drive to San Francisco is rather long and the long days sitting in the bus lounge are slowly eating you from inside I tried to stay up late so that I would sleep late too. I sort of managed. I did stay up late, so that went well, but I still woke up after 5h of sleep. Seriously annoying. We're still at least an hour and a half away from San Francisco and I've already been up for almost 5 hours. This is getting rather boring.
Anyway. We're on our way.
Monday 10 September 2012
Violators will be ventilated
Monday, September 10, 1:40 at night.
We're sitting on the tour bus waiting us to depart "lovely" Vancouver, BC. I guess the city is nice, but the area where Rickshaw Theatre is located must be the worst area I've ever been to. I guess there is a reason why Vancouver is sometimes called a drug capitol of the North America.
Anyway. It's been a while since I wrote anything. I've been just too lazy and on tours it so often happens that these little things like opening your laptop become just too huge tasks.
Day off in Ontario, OR. Ontario has a Walmart and several little stores and restaurants around it so it wasn't that bad! Mitja, Matson and myself packed some drinks and food for a picnic down to the riverside. However, this (or that, since we're in Canada right now) is the USA and you just don't walk to places like that. "Private property. No trespassing. Violators will be prosecuted." So we decided to walk to Idaho and try that side of the river. We had a little more luck there but not much. Basically all we could access was the little dusty area under the highway bridge. Still, it was a picnic so we did have beers there.
Rest off the day was spent mostly in and around the buses. And in the motel pool. And every now and then popping back in Walmart to get more drinks. However, that particular Walmart had no hard liqueurs so I had a brilliant idea and posted our location and problem on our Facebook page. Some of us also took a cab to an actual liqueur store and returned with several bottles of vodka and whiskey. A bit later a man shows up with 5 bottles of vodka. Facebook worked. However, later the dude turned out to a bit of a... well... not a person I'd like to be associated with. Then a while later a young couple showed up with some more vodka, so we really had more than we needed. Oh well, it is better to have too much than to run out at a critical moment. Oh yeah, I did manage to do some laundry too!
At midnight we continued again towards Seattle and arrived there rather early. Seattle's Studio 7 is not my most favourite venue, but it is actually at least decent. Mainly because it has a shower. It is located several kilometres from the actual city in a rather scruffy sort of industrial area, or at least a former industrial area. We've been there now on all of our North American tours and I have to admit that area is changing. More and more nice little shops and coffee places. And a Starbucks Headquarters where I went to have my breakfast. I am a sucker for their blueberry muffin. Muffin sucker. EEeheehehhehehhee! Eehhe! Eeh! Eh?
Once again I spent the day just around the venue. It was a nice sunny day, so I set myself outside in a chair with a Neal Peart book and Rush on my headphones. I have to admit that during the day I took a drink or two too much and wasn't really playing that well. Nothing serious, but didn't really feel comfortable. Show was good though. 450 people in that venue. That was quite a lot. Really cool. And also one of the "all ages" shows so it was good to see younger people in there too. We had plenty of time to do whatever we wanted after the show. Bus call was at 6 in the morning. As usual, once the audience was gone the upstairs bar was open for the bands and the crew. I had the worst ever gin&tonic there. How can you mess up a gin&tonic? I quite quickly lost my interest in that party and went to bed.
I woke up this morning when we were approaching the Canadian border. Crossing was surprisingly painless. Let's see how it will be this time. We should be at the border any minute now. Today was a boring day. Being tired and mostly just watching TV most of the day. It was rainy too and that always takes my mood down. Crew/band entrance to Rickshaw Theatre is in an alley behind the venue. I really wish I'd have a "smell-o-cam" with me so that I could share the stench with you. That was bad. On top all was urine. Then all the waste from the surrounding buildings. And then something that I don't even want to know of.
Rickshaw Theatre itself is quite nice venue. Not a decent backstage behind or even close to the stage but a sort of a nice one in the old projector room up in the back of the hall. And there also is a shower downstairs so it is indeed a decent venue. I didn't watch other bands today except a bit of Moonsorrow. They always deliver the goods. Brilliant band. We did a decent set today. The breaks between the songs have started to stretch again but I already gave Matson a lecture on that. Let's see how that will be tomorrow.
Border now.
We're sitting on the tour bus waiting us to depart "lovely" Vancouver, BC. I guess the city is nice, but the area where Rickshaw Theatre is located must be the worst area I've ever been to. I guess there is a reason why Vancouver is sometimes called a drug capitol of the North America.
Anyway. It's been a while since I wrote anything. I've been just too lazy and on tours it so often happens that these little things like opening your laptop become just too huge tasks.
Day off in Ontario, OR. Ontario has a Walmart and several little stores and restaurants around it so it wasn't that bad! Mitja, Matson and myself packed some drinks and food for a picnic down to the riverside. However, this (or that, since we're in Canada right now) is the USA and you just don't walk to places like that. "Private property. No trespassing. Violators will be prosecuted." So we decided to walk to Idaho and try that side of the river. We had a little more luck there but not much. Basically all we could access was the little dusty area under the highway bridge. Still, it was a picnic so we did have beers there.
Rest off the day was spent mostly in and around the buses. And in the motel pool. And every now and then popping back in Walmart to get more drinks. However, that particular Walmart had no hard liqueurs so I had a brilliant idea and posted our location and problem on our Facebook page. Some of us also took a cab to an actual liqueur store and returned with several bottles of vodka and whiskey. A bit later a man shows up with 5 bottles of vodka. Facebook worked. However, later the dude turned out to a bit of a... well... not a person I'd like to be associated with. Then a while later a young couple showed up with some more vodka, so we really had more than we needed. Oh well, it is better to have too much than to run out at a critical moment. Oh yeah, I did manage to do some laundry too!
At midnight we continued again towards Seattle and arrived there rather early. Seattle's Studio 7 is not my most favourite venue, but it is actually at least decent. Mainly because it has a shower. It is located several kilometres from the actual city in a rather scruffy sort of industrial area, or at least a former industrial area. We've been there now on all of our North American tours and I have to admit that area is changing. More and more nice little shops and coffee places. And a Starbucks Headquarters where I went to have my breakfast. I am a sucker for their blueberry muffin. Muffin sucker. EEeheehehhehehhee! Eehhe! Eeh! Eh?
Once again I spent the day just around the venue. It was a nice sunny day, so I set myself outside in a chair with a Neal Peart book and Rush on my headphones. I have to admit that during the day I took a drink or two too much and wasn't really playing that well. Nothing serious, but didn't really feel comfortable. Show was good though. 450 people in that venue. That was quite a lot. Really cool. And also one of the "all ages" shows so it was good to see younger people in there too. We had plenty of time to do whatever we wanted after the show. Bus call was at 6 in the morning. As usual, once the audience was gone the upstairs bar was open for the bands and the crew. I had the worst ever gin&tonic there. How can you mess up a gin&tonic? I quite quickly lost my interest in that party and went to bed.
I woke up this morning when we were approaching the Canadian border. Crossing was surprisingly painless. Let's see how it will be this time. We should be at the border any minute now. Today was a boring day. Being tired and mostly just watching TV most of the day. It was rainy too and that always takes my mood down. Crew/band entrance to Rickshaw Theatre is in an alley behind the venue. I really wish I'd have a "smell-o-cam" with me so that I could share the stench with you. That was bad. On top all was urine. Then all the waste from the surrounding buildings. And then something that I don't even want to know of.
Rickshaw Theatre itself is quite nice venue. Not a decent backstage behind or even close to the stage but a sort of a nice one in the old projector room up in the back of the hall. And there also is a shower downstairs so it is indeed a decent venue. I didn't watch other bands today except a bit of Moonsorrow. They always deliver the goods. Brilliant band. We did a decent set today. The breaks between the songs have started to stretch again but I already gave Matson a lecture on that. Let's see how that will be tomorrow.
Border now.
Friday 7 September 2012
Montaña del Norte
September 5, 13:00, outside of Manny's, Billings, Montana.
I will be extremely surprised if there will be an audience today. This place is in the middle of nowhere. Sorry to say this, but I am so not looking forward to today's show. I really wish that this place's proves me wrong. I wouldn't mind being wrong this time.
September 7, 1:30, on the bus in Salt Lake City, Utah.
We just started our 2-day journey to Seattle, WA. That means a day-off tomorrow. That will be spent in Ontario, Oregon. Lovely place. Hankasalmi of US of A. Anyway, back to business = Billings, MT.
Billings is the biggest town in the state of Montana with just over 100000 people. The entire state has just a bit under a million people. Funny place. Manny's is located at the outskirts of the city. Not really much around it. Some of us decided to walk to centre or whatever that was. They were away for 4 hours so I guess it was quite far. Or they found a bar. I didn't do much. Tried to read a bit out in the sun. And a bit later walked with some Moonsorrow guys to get some pizzas for the evening.
Pre-sale was 60. Not much. But then again, it was more than I expected. Venue had nothing for the bands except the stage. Not even a dressing room, let alone private toilet or a shower. The other end of the building had a casino and they were sharing the restrooms so at least they were ok. Surprisingly the show was at least decent. There was maybe 100 people in the end, which is not that much, but all of them were really appreciating what was going on on the stage. Not my favourite show, but not the worst either. Although it seems that someone stole Jonne's stage shirt at some point...
Afterparty? Well, it was a standard one. Next to the buses with some extremely drunk/high local people. Not much to write home about really. I went to bed early. Way before bus call.
Today, which was actually yesterday, Thursday, I woke up early. Not unexpected since I went to bed early and never really sleep that much on tours. I've taken a habit to sit with our driver during those morning hours when no one else is up yet. Interesting chats, lovely landscapes. This morning we for example passed a really interesting looking Hell's Half Acre, a lava field. Slowly others were getting up as well and started to demand a toilet stop. Easier said than done. The first possible place was closed. The entire town was. At least the only highway exit was and we had to look for the next option. We finally found a place and a certain member of our band who'd been quite wasted the night before was also up now and wanted to drink more. I don't usually say no to early morning excess alcohol consumption so I joined him shopping for alcohol. At least we were out from the states with max. 3,2% alcohol in standard grocery store beers and stuff.
Even though these long drives on the bus usually turn into a bit of a drag, this morning went rather nicely. Drinking alcohol, listening country music and enjoying scenery. And honestly, I did fall asleep every now and then too. Around 13:30 we finally arrived at the venue, The Complex. Really nice venue. Korpiklaani Venue Review Department recommends. Internet told me about the state's biggest used vinyl store but is was a bit too far and I again had to do some testing with my wirelesses.
Side note - Details about wirelesses. For years I've been using Shure wireless systems. Not the cheapest, but extremely reliable. Now the rules are changing and the old analog systems around 800-820MHz are becoming illegal and we're all supposed to move our shit to new 2,4GHz area. I got myself 2 sets of the state of the art Line6 XD-V75. The first few shows were fine. And since then, the last 30 or so, they've been cutting. More or less, but always. Finally, during the show in Billing, MT I came to a conclusion that that it is the vocal mike that is conflicting with me. Which actually fits the time line since that thing arrived a bit after my Line6s. Once I came to this conclusion we tested this thing yesterday and lo and behold! It was the vocal mike. There were no channels that wouldn't overlap on those two devices. I was sort of furious at Line6. Who the fuck makes a system like that? But then:
Revelation, part 1 - Reading a manual CAN help. Once I actually read my Line6 manual, it clearly says that mine is a next generation version and it should never be used in it's RF2 mode if there are older units, like Jonne's XD-V30, still being used in old RF1 mode. Manual also mentions that a computer connected to my XD-V75 via it's USB link can be used to update the firmwares of the older version to comply with the the RF2 mode. However, V30 can not be updated. Bummer. Further reading reveals that I should be able to switch my transmitters to work in the old RF1 mode and the problem should be solved. We'll work on that today. RTFM.
Back to Salt Lake City. I didn't go far from the venue, only to the shopping/restaurant area nearby to eat a veggie burger and drink sangria. That may sound gay (no offence), but the others were drinking margaritas! Even though the venue was nice, we didn't really hang out there. We spent most of the day in and around the buses, having an occasional beer every now and then.
Once again I had no idea of what to expect audience wise. It is a sort of big city, at least if you count in the metropolitan area, but still, I had no idea if folk/pagan metal or actually any metal would draw a crowd there. Well, it did. It was a nice crowd. Not packed, but decent. A very responsive and appreciative audience for every band. Although I didn't see the local opener. Our set is becoming stabile or as some would say stagnant. It is a tight package nowadays.
Afterparty was hilarious. For some. We had a quick bus call, but still managed to fill the other bus with people and dance so that the bus was bouncing up and down.
And here we are now. Up to date again.
I will be extremely surprised if there will be an audience today. This place is in the middle of nowhere. Sorry to say this, but I am so not looking forward to today's show. I really wish that this place's proves me wrong. I wouldn't mind being wrong this time.
September 7, 1:30, on the bus in Salt Lake City, Utah.
We just started our 2-day journey to Seattle, WA. That means a day-off tomorrow. That will be spent in Ontario, Oregon. Lovely place. Hankasalmi of US of A. Anyway, back to business = Billings, MT.
Billings is the biggest town in the state of Montana with just over 100000 people. The entire state has just a bit under a million people. Funny place. Manny's is located at the outskirts of the city. Not really much around it. Some of us decided to walk to centre or whatever that was. They were away for 4 hours so I guess it was quite far. Or they found a bar. I didn't do much. Tried to read a bit out in the sun. And a bit later walked with some Moonsorrow guys to get some pizzas for the evening.
Pre-sale was 60. Not much. But then again, it was more than I expected. Venue had nothing for the bands except the stage. Not even a dressing room, let alone private toilet or a shower. The other end of the building had a casino and they were sharing the restrooms so at least they were ok. Surprisingly the show was at least decent. There was maybe 100 people in the end, which is not that much, but all of them were really appreciating what was going on on the stage. Not my favourite show, but not the worst either. Although it seems that someone stole Jonne's stage shirt at some point...
Afterparty? Well, it was a standard one. Next to the buses with some extremely drunk/high local people. Not much to write home about really. I went to bed early. Way before bus call.
Today, which was actually yesterday, Thursday, I woke up early. Not unexpected since I went to bed early and never really sleep that much on tours. I've taken a habit to sit with our driver during those morning hours when no one else is up yet. Interesting chats, lovely landscapes. This morning we for example passed a really interesting looking Hell's Half Acre, a lava field. Slowly others were getting up as well and started to demand a toilet stop. Easier said than done. The first possible place was closed. The entire town was. At least the only highway exit was and we had to look for the next option. We finally found a place and a certain member of our band who'd been quite wasted the night before was also up now and wanted to drink more. I don't usually say no to early morning excess alcohol consumption so I joined him shopping for alcohol. At least we were out from the states with max. 3,2% alcohol in standard grocery store beers and stuff.
Even though these long drives on the bus usually turn into a bit of a drag, this morning went rather nicely. Drinking alcohol, listening country music and enjoying scenery. And honestly, I did fall asleep every now and then too. Around 13:30 we finally arrived at the venue, The Complex. Really nice venue. Korpiklaani Venue Review Department recommends. Internet told me about the state's biggest used vinyl store but is was a bit too far and I again had to do some testing with my wirelesses.
Side note - Details about wirelesses. For years I've been using Shure wireless systems. Not the cheapest, but extremely reliable. Now the rules are changing and the old analog systems around 800-820MHz are becoming illegal and we're all supposed to move our shit to new 2,4GHz area. I got myself 2 sets of the state of the art Line6 XD-V75. The first few shows were fine. And since then, the last 30 or so, they've been cutting. More or less, but always. Finally, during the show in Billing, MT I came to a conclusion that that it is the vocal mike that is conflicting with me. Which actually fits the time line since that thing arrived a bit after my Line6s. Once I came to this conclusion we tested this thing yesterday and lo and behold! It was the vocal mike. There were no channels that wouldn't overlap on those two devices. I was sort of furious at Line6. Who the fuck makes a system like that? But then:
Revelation, part 1 - Reading a manual CAN help. Once I actually read my Line6 manual, it clearly says that mine is a next generation version and it should never be used in it's RF2 mode if there are older units, like Jonne's XD-V30, still being used in old RF1 mode. Manual also mentions that a computer connected to my XD-V75 via it's USB link can be used to update the firmwares of the older version to comply with the the RF2 mode. However, V30 can not be updated. Bummer. Further reading reveals that I should be able to switch my transmitters to work in the old RF1 mode and the problem should be solved. We'll work on that today. RTFM.
Back to Salt Lake City. I didn't go far from the venue, only to the shopping/restaurant area nearby to eat a veggie burger and drink sangria. That may sound gay (no offence), but the others were drinking margaritas! Even though the venue was nice, we didn't really hang out there. We spent most of the day in and around the buses, having an occasional beer every now and then.
Once again I had no idea of what to expect audience wise. It is a sort of big city, at least if you count in the metropolitan area, but still, I had no idea if folk/pagan metal or actually any metal would draw a crowd there. Well, it did. It was a nice crowd. Not packed, but decent. A very responsive and appreciative audience for every band. Although I didn't see the local opener. Our set is becoming stabile or as some would say stagnant. It is a tight package nowadays.
Afterparty was hilarious. For some. We had a quick bus call, but still managed to fill the other bus with people and dance so that the bus was bouncing up and down.
And here we are now. Up to date again.
Wednesday 5 September 2012
Lyötiin mustaa kepillä
Wednesday, September 5, 3:33AM, tour bus bunk.
Been either too tired or lazy to write anything during the day so I'll use the night for that instead. Let's see how long I can stay awake. First, let's go back to Lawrence, Kansas. The venue, Granada Theatre, was better than I expected. Big stage and a shower! Didn't have to build our own. The day was hot again. Like really hot. Matson had gone out with whoever and found a record store. Marko and myself go out to visit that too. We ended up walking a few extra miles and still didn't find it. We return to the bus, sweaty as hell, to ask better directions and it turns out that we indeed had passed the shop TWICE and still hadn't seen that. Well, we found it eventually. Got myself couple of old Lynyrd Skynyrd compilation albums. Nothing spectacular, but still nice.
Honestly, I wasn't expecting much from the show. I mean the attendance. However, it turned out to be a good one after all. Even in Lawrence, Kansas there are people who are willing to pay to see us. Nice. However, there also was the stupidest woman/girl ever attending. Standing in the front row and filming 2/3 of the show with iPad. Seriously. I mean. Seriously.
After the show we were sort of trying to find a place to have a drink. Some did, I didn't. Well, I did, but not in a bar. Luckily we have a good stock of beer on the bus and always nice people around.
Well, I can't really stay up now.
Back. 11:30. Somewhere in Montana. Internet doesn't work. What a surprise.
Yesterday we were at Marquis Theater, Denver, Colorado. That was a nice venue even though the stage was too small and low. Right across the street there was a bar/pool hall that had a 24h happy hour. So of course I ended up drinking cider and shooting 9-ball with Ville for several hours. I won $9. Whoohoo! Doubled my tour budget!
I did manage to do a couple of interviews too though and even went to Cheesecake Factory with Melanie when she had a break from her work. I am a big cheesecake enthusiast but for some reason I've never been to one. It's good that I went now. Their cheesecakes are almost as good as those I make... And definitely just as filling. I ate one slice and was done for the day.
Our set was a decent one. Audience was crazy. Especially some chicks screaming the whole time. But I am of course so used to THAT. Because of the new regulations on the allowed frequencies I was forced to change my old reliable Shure wirelesses. So far the Line6s have been nothing but trouble. Cutting like hell. There's been probably a handful of shows when they've been ok. Yesterday finally after changing bass and transmitter I had to finally switch to cable. And Kalle had to do the same a bit later. Well done Line6! There were also all kinds of other problems through the entire show. Nothing huge, but annoying nonetheless.
Afterparty was at the same bar we were earlier and it was like earlier, cider and pool. Bus call was at 2 and surprisingly we actually had everyone on the bus at 2. Or close at least. I had a couple of beers, went to bed and now you're up to date.
Been either too tired or lazy to write anything during the day so I'll use the night for that instead. Let's see how long I can stay awake. First, let's go back to Lawrence, Kansas. The venue, Granada Theatre, was better than I expected. Big stage and a shower! Didn't have to build our own. The day was hot again. Like really hot. Matson had gone out with whoever and found a record store. Marko and myself go out to visit that too. We ended up walking a few extra miles and still didn't find it. We return to the bus, sweaty as hell, to ask better directions and it turns out that we indeed had passed the shop TWICE and still hadn't seen that. Well, we found it eventually. Got myself couple of old Lynyrd Skynyrd compilation albums. Nothing spectacular, but still nice.
Honestly, I wasn't expecting much from the show. I mean the attendance. However, it turned out to be a good one after all. Even in Lawrence, Kansas there are people who are willing to pay to see us. Nice. However, there also was the stupidest woman/girl ever attending. Standing in the front row and filming 2/3 of the show with iPad. Seriously. I mean. Seriously.
After the show we were sort of trying to find a place to have a drink. Some did, I didn't. Well, I did, but not in a bar. Luckily we have a good stock of beer on the bus and always nice people around.
Well, I can't really stay up now.
Back. 11:30. Somewhere in Montana. Internet doesn't work. What a surprise.
Yesterday we were at Marquis Theater, Denver, Colorado. That was a nice venue even though the stage was too small and low. Right across the street there was a bar/pool hall that had a 24h happy hour. So of course I ended up drinking cider and shooting 9-ball with Ville for several hours. I won $9. Whoohoo! Doubled my tour budget!
I did manage to do a couple of interviews too though and even went to Cheesecake Factory with Melanie when she had a break from her work. I am a big cheesecake enthusiast but for some reason I've never been to one. It's good that I went now. Their cheesecakes are almost as good as those I make... And definitely just as filling. I ate one slice and was done for the day.
Our set was a decent one. Audience was crazy. Especially some chicks screaming the whole time. But I am of course so used to THAT. Because of the new regulations on the allowed frequencies I was forced to change my old reliable Shure wirelesses. So far the Line6s have been nothing but trouble. Cutting like hell. There's been probably a handful of shows when they've been ok. Yesterday finally after changing bass and transmitter I had to finally switch to cable. And Kalle had to do the same a bit later. Well done Line6! There were also all kinds of other problems through the entire show. Nothing huge, but annoying nonetheless.
Afterparty was at the same bar we were earlier and it was like earlier, cider and pool. Bus call was at 2 and surprisingly we actually had everyone on the bus at 2. Or close at least. I had a couple of beers, went to bed and now you're up to date.
Monday 3 September 2012
No shower? What do you mean "no showers"?
Monday, September 3, on the bus passing Eagleville, Missouri.
Back to Joliet, IL. It was an awfully long day. It either raining or just awfully hot and moist, so I ended up spending an entire day in and around the bus. That definitely makes the days long. I didn't know what to expect audience wise since we've never been to Joliet before. Although as far I understood it is a sort of a suburb of Chicago and there we've been several times. During the afternoon I heard that the pre-sale was 120. Not THAT bad after all I thought. Later I heard that it had gotten up to 260 couple of days before the show and the promoter was expecting 400. Nice.
Side note: Everybody of course knows (or should know!) the city from the Blues Brothers movie where the brothers we're called Joliet-Jake and Elwood Blues. "Joliet" because Jake had been doing some time in Joliet prison. But how many of you knew that 20km south of Joliet is a place called Elwood? And being a big Blues Brothers buff myself I was of course happy to see us passing Rock Island, IL. "So tonight, ladies and gentlemen, while we still can, let us welcome, from Rock Island, Illinois, the blues band of Joliet-Jake and Elwood Blues, the Blues Brothers!"
Back to Joliet. I didn't watch anyone's show. Quite often on tours even simplest of the tasks becomes a Mount Everest to climb. Sometimes it is replying a text message. This time I just couldn't drag my ass out of the bus. Our show was above average, I'd say. Solid set, no mistakes and the venue wasn't so damn hot so it was also quite comfortable. The audience was nice too. At the end of the Jonne did jump on the drum riser and dragged down half of the drum set. There's something for the audience to remember. We still managed to do the encore though. Thanks to a quick crew.
I did mention earlier that there wasn't backstage or shower. That wasn't exactly true. There sort of was. We were using a kitchen as dressing room and that high pressure dish washing hand held hose thing was a decent shower! The bar staff getting the ice every now and then probably didn't appreciate the naked Finns showering in their kitchen that much though. Whatever. See us caring.
Afterparty was interesting. It was just basically hanging out and drinking beer with local people, which is nice if you happen to find someone interesting to talk to. Well, on this tour you'll always find someone like that if you're ready to settle for non-locals too! I have no idea how did it originally happen, but at some point I heard that the other bus is completely packed, like 30 people in. I wasn't even going to go and see that. Later there seemed to some sort of commotion and people were flying out from the bus. Apparently one of the guests had hit Ville. Didn't really damage him or anything, but still. So the idiot was thrown out. Completely drunk. A bit later he was abusing his girlfriend in front of the venue and Mitja called 911. Almost immediately 3 police cars show up. The idiot then attacks the police officers too. You can guess the rest. Yep, he's soon tazed, cuffed and dragged away. Interesting. Gotta love America.
Yesterday was a Sunday show. On every tour the shows from Sunday to Tuesday are always mysteries. Often in strange places and with a possibility of only 35 people showing up. Yesterday we were in St. Paul, MN. The venue is called Station 4. I don't know which one is a bigger shithole, Station 4 or Peabody's. At least Station 4 had a sort of a decent backstage this time, since they had acquired the premises next to them as well. It was a construction site basically but still it was a room! And a big one that is. It even had a huge basement which we of course explored and found for example a lovely old heating system that I first thought said "Eros" on it but then I took a loser look and saw that it was actually "Bros". Anyway, Markus and me found a water hose. Dirty as hell, but water was good. So we first washed a part of the dirty concrete floor and then threw the hose over some pipes and beams in the ceiling and lo and and behold: Station 4 had a shower!
I decided earlier that this time I will not spend an entire day on the bus. I checked online if there's anything to see and decided that the ancient Native American burial mounds were the thing to see. They were only 3.5km from the venue anyway which is a nice walking distance. After our nice breakfast/lunch at the local pub I managed to get Ville and Marko interested in joining me. We started to walk but right around the corner bumped into a bicycle rental station. "Well why the hell not", we thought. Suddenly we were on wheel. MC Hell's Satans. So we rode to the mounds. Not much to see there though, except these grassy hills of course. 6 of them are left. Something like 16 has been destroyed while "developing" the city. Way to go, us!
The day was probably the hottest so far. At least the venue was. It was quite nicely full. Not packed, but a nice crowd. I watched part of the Metsatöll show, mainly because Ville was taking care of their merchandise while they were on stage and I had to smuggle in some cold beers from the bus for him. I also watched the beginning of Moonsorrow's set. For the first few notes bass was earbreakingly loud. Apparently Ville had changed something on stage after the line check and had added something like +20dB to his signal. Definitely sounded like that!
We did a standard set, sans "Tequila" that dehydrated Jonne just simply forgot. It was too hot on stage. But it was a decent show again. "Ievan polkka" was a bit of a hit and miss since Jonne missed some verses or did them in wrong order and at some point no one knew where we were. Meh. You want to hear an album version perfectly performed you'd better listen to the album then! Actually "Wooden Pints" missed one verse as well. Jonne couldn't really breathe or sing anymore and he just mumbled in the mic "Rounakari, vedä soolo."
Afterparty was as usual, on the street next to our buses. Once the party moved in to the bus, I went to bed. And got up once the bus stopped in Eagleville, Missouri. Which is where I started this blog entry, but since this usually takes really long to write with all the pauses for chats, drinks, coffee breaks, etc, we are now actually next to Kansas City, KS. Kensington, says the GPS actually. Will post this now.
Back to Joliet, IL. It was an awfully long day. It either raining or just awfully hot and moist, so I ended up spending an entire day in and around the bus. That definitely makes the days long. I didn't know what to expect audience wise since we've never been to Joliet before. Although as far I understood it is a sort of a suburb of Chicago and there we've been several times. During the afternoon I heard that the pre-sale was 120. Not THAT bad after all I thought. Later I heard that it had gotten up to 260 couple of days before the show and the promoter was expecting 400. Nice.
Side note: Everybody of course knows (or should know!) the city from the Blues Brothers movie where the brothers we're called Joliet-Jake and Elwood Blues. "Joliet" because Jake had been doing some time in Joliet prison. But how many of you knew that 20km south of Joliet is a place called Elwood? And being a big Blues Brothers buff myself I was of course happy to see us passing Rock Island, IL. "So tonight, ladies and gentlemen, while we still can, let us welcome, from Rock Island, Illinois, the blues band of Joliet-Jake and Elwood Blues, the Blues Brothers!"
Back to Joliet. I didn't watch anyone's show. Quite often on tours even simplest of the tasks becomes a Mount Everest to climb. Sometimes it is replying a text message. This time I just couldn't drag my ass out of the bus. Our show was above average, I'd say. Solid set, no mistakes and the venue wasn't so damn hot so it was also quite comfortable. The audience was nice too. At the end of the Jonne did jump on the drum riser and dragged down half of the drum set. There's something for the audience to remember. We still managed to do the encore though. Thanks to a quick crew.
I did mention earlier that there wasn't backstage or shower. That wasn't exactly true. There sort of was. We were using a kitchen as dressing room and that high pressure dish washing hand held hose thing was a decent shower! The bar staff getting the ice every now and then probably didn't appreciate the naked Finns showering in their kitchen that much though. Whatever. See us caring.
Afterparty was interesting. It was just basically hanging out and drinking beer with local people, which is nice if you happen to find someone interesting to talk to. Well, on this tour you'll always find someone like that if you're ready to settle for non-locals too! I have no idea how did it originally happen, but at some point I heard that the other bus is completely packed, like 30 people in. I wasn't even going to go and see that. Later there seemed to some sort of commotion and people were flying out from the bus. Apparently one of the guests had hit Ville. Didn't really damage him or anything, but still. So the idiot was thrown out. Completely drunk. A bit later he was abusing his girlfriend in front of the venue and Mitja called 911. Almost immediately 3 police cars show up. The idiot then attacks the police officers too. You can guess the rest. Yep, he's soon tazed, cuffed and dragged away. Interesting. Gotta love America.
Yesterday was a Sunday show. On every tour the shows from Sunday to Tuesday are always mysteries. Often in strange places and with a possibility of only 35 people showing up. Yesterday we were in St. Paul, MN. The venue is called Station 4. I don't know which one is a bigger shithole, Station 4 or Peabody's. At least Station 4 had a sort of a decent backstage this time, since they had acquired the premises next to them as well. It was a construction site basically but still it was a room! And a big one that is. It even had a huge basement which we of course explored and found for example a lovely old heating system that I first thought said "Eros" on it but then I took a loser look and saw that it was actually "Bros". Anyway, Markus and me found a water hose. Dirty as hell, but water was good. So we first washed a part of the dirty concrete floor and then threw the hose over some pipes and beams in the ceiling and lo and and behold: Station 4 had a shower!
I decided earlier that this time I will not spend an entire day on the bus. I checked online if there's anything to see and decided that the ancient Native American burial mounds were the thing to see. They were only 3.5km from the venue anyway which is a nice walking distance. After our nice breakfast/lunch at the local pub I managed to get Ville and Marko interested in joining me. We started to walk but right around the corner bumped into a bicycle rental station. "Well why the hell not", we thought. Suddenly we were on wheel. MC Hell's Satans. So we rode to the mounds. Not much to see there though, except these grassy hills of course. 6 of them are left. Something like 16 has been destroyed while "developing" the city. Way to go, us!
The day was probably the hottest so far. At least the venue was. It was quite nicely full. Not packed, but a nice crowd. I watched part of the Metsatöll show, mainly because Ville was taking care of their merchandise while they were on stage and I had to smuggle in some cold beers from the bus for him. I also watched the beginning of Moonsorrow's set. For the first few notes bass was earbreakingly loud. Apparently Ville had changed something on stage after the line check and had added something like +20dB to his signal. Definitely sounded like that!
We did a standard set, sans "Tequila" that dehydrated Jonne just simply forgot. It was too hot on stage. But it was a decent show again. "Ievan polkka" was a bit of a hit and miss since Jonne missed some verses or did them in wrong order and at some point no one knew where we were. Meh. You want to hear an album version perfectly performed you'd better listen to the album then! Actually "Wooden Pints" missed one verse as well. Jonne couldn't really breathe or sing anymore and he just mumbled in the mic "Rounakari, vedä soolo."
Afterparty was as usual, on the street next to our buses. Once the party moved in to the bus, I went to bed. And got up once the bus stopped in Eagleville, Missouri. Which is where I started this blog entry, but since this usually takes really long to write with all the pauses for chats, drinks, coffee breaks, etc, we are now actually next to Kansas City, KS. Kensington, says the GPS actually. Will post this now.
Saturday 1 September 2012
A witty headline
Saturday, September 1, in the bus behind the venue in Joliet, IL.
It is raining. We now have all the ingredients for mojitos but the weather is not a mojito weather.
Opera House in Toronto, is still an ok venue. Not as lovely as the previous two, but still decent. The biggest problem is the complaining neighbours which means that you can only enter backstage during the changeovers or through the audience. It was painfully hot day and the backstage was like a Swedish sauna so we weren't really sitting there anyway. I hung my stage clothes to dry outside of the venue earlier in the day. When they were dry I carried them to backstage and they got wet again. Moist.
Audience was great. 620 attending. Nice. The set was the same but this time with the encore of "Wooden Pints" and "Pellonpekko". We didn't do any encores on the first two shows, but that doesn't mean that there was something wrong with the audiences. Basically it all goes back to the hand injury...
Aftershow party wasn't that much of a party. Some fans were buying alcohol for Moonsorrow and us in the nearest possibly bar. At least it was good to meet some old friends. We had a border crossing ahead after like a 2-hour drive or so. I wasn't sure if I should stay up drinking till that or go to bed. I did half and half. Had some drinks and then went to sleep closer to the border. That's idiocy for you, kids. Waking up after an hour like that is terrible. Border crossing was sort of smooth anyway. However, they did lose my immigration paper that was between my passport. Good thing that I checked my passport before we left. I had to go back to the immigration to get a new one issued. The officer tried to charge us money for re-issue until one of the other officers said to him: "Isn't that a bit wrong so it was actually us who lost it?" We didn't pay.
If Toronto was hot, Cleveland, OH was a fucking inferno. It was so hot outside that you actually WANTED to get in Peabody's. Peabody's is a shithole that should be blown up. Usually the smelly basement has been the backstage but now the whole basement was closed so there wasn't even a toilet for the bands available! What a dump. Again it was one those days spent everywhere else except at the venue.
We had a radio interview with Mitja and Heri. We were picked up from the venue and driven to the WRUW studio where we learn that it is not just an interview but a 2-hour show we're guesting. Metal Meltdown with Dr. Metal. "Dr. Metal, eh? And from which university is your degree again?" Not that bad for Mitja and myself but Heri had a show to catch. It was a rather relaxed event and Heri managed to get to his show on time. All good there.
The show was as usual, including the encore. Not big fuckups except that in the beginning Kalle couldn't really hear himself at all. That was soon fixed though. In general I'd say that the show was a routine show. Luckily our routine shows are still rather good.
At least the venue had booked a hotel room for us for the after show showers, which was nice. The aftershow party was pretty much standing on the sidewalk next to the buses with some local people. I drowned at least a million Bud Lights. I will never ever again try to get drunk with that shit. It is impossible. Just makes you full as hell.
In general I'd say that it was a pretty standard Peabody's show. Bands are good, audience is good, venue both sucks AND blows. Yes, it IS physically possible to suck and blow at the same time. But it was definitely good to see old friends, especially half of Forged In Flame with whom we toured earlier. Nice blokes, brilliant band.
I went to bed pretty much as soon as we left Cleveland. The excess amount of that horrible Bud Light had it's side effects so I had to get up 3 times in the next 2 hours or so. Every time there was the same person sleeping in the front lounge. First time, he was sitting on the couch, second time lying on the couch and third time lying on the floor with several full beer cans around him. I would like to hear THAT story.
And now we are at MoJoes in Joliet, IL. No backstage, no shower. Nothing. Gotta love America.
It is raining. We now have all the ingredients for mojitos but the weather is not a mojito weather.
Opera House in Toronto, is still an ok venue. Not as lovely as the previous two, but still decent. The biggest problem is the complaining neighbours which means that you can only enter backstage during the changeovers or through the audience. It was painfully hot day and the backstage was like a Swedish sauna so we weren't really sitting there anyway. I hung my stage clothes to dry outside of the venue earlier in the day. When they were dry I carried them to backstage and they got wet again. Moist.
Audience was great. 620 attending. Nice. The set was the same but this time with the encore of "Wooden Pints" and "Pellonpekko". We didn't do any encores on the first two shows, but that doesn't mean that there was something wrong with the audiences. Basically it all goes back to the hand injury...
Aftershow party wasn't that much of a party. Some fans were buying alcohol for Moonsorrow and us in the nearest possibly bar. At least it was good to meet some old friends. We had a border crossing ahead after like a 2-hour drive or so. I wasn't sure if I should stay up drinking till that or go to bed. I did half and half. Had some drinks and then went to sleep closer to the border. That's idiocy for you, kids. Waking up after an hour like that is terrible. Border crossing was sort of smooth anyway. However, they did lose my immigration paper that was between my passport. Good thing that I checked my passport before we left. I had to go back to the immigration to get a new one issued. The officer tried to charge us money for re-issue until one of the other officers said to him: "Isn't that a bit wrong so it was actually us who lost it?" We didn't pay.
If Toronto was hot, Cleveland, OH was a fucking inferno. It was so hot outside that you actually WANTED to get in Peabody's. Peabody's is a shithole that should be blown up. Usually the smelly basement has been the backstage but now the whole basement was closed so there wasn't even a toilet for the bands available! What a dump. Again it was one those days spent everywhere else except at the venue.
We had a radio interview with Mitja and Heri. We were picked up from the venue and driven to the WRUW studio where we learn that it is not just an interview but a 2-hour show we're guesting. Metal Meltdown with Dr. Metal. "Dr. Metal, eh? And from which university is your degree again?" Not that bad for Mitja and myself but Heri had a show to catch. It was a rather relaxed event and Heri managed to get to his show on time. All good there.
The show was as usual, including the encore. Not big fuckups except that in the beginning Kalle couldn't really hear himself at all. That was soon fixed though. In general I'd say that the show was a routine show. Luckily our routine shows are still rather good.
At least the venue had booked a hotel room for us for the after show showers, which was nice. The aftershow party was pretty much standing on the sidewalk next to the buses with some local people. I drowned at least a million Bud Lights. I will never ever again try to get drunk with that shit. It is impossible. Just makes you full as hell.
In general I'd say that it was a pretty standard Peabody's show. Bands are good, audience is good, venue both sucks AND blows. Yes, it IS physically possible to suck and blow at the same time. But it was definitely good to see old friends, especially half of Forged In Flame with whom we toured earlier. Nice blokes, brilliant band.
I went to bed pretty much as soon as we left Cleveland. The excess amount of that horrible Bud Light had it's side effects so I had to get up 3 times in the next 2 hours or so. Every time there was the same person sleeping in the front lounge. First time, he was sitting on the couch, second time lying on the couch and third time lying on the floor with several full beer cans around him. I would like to hear THAT story.
And now we are at MoJoes in Joliet, IL. No backstage, no shower. Nothing. Gotta love America.
Friday 31 August 2012
Oravia. Oravia kaikkialla.
Thursday, August 30, 7:55, tour bus between Montreal and Toronto.
Had to get up from the bunk since the AC had stopped working. No air at all. And hot as hell.
Back to Quebec City. So found the venue finally. It was the Impérial as usual. It is one of the nice venues that we usually go. Even it was the first show on the tour there still were no fuck ups or any bigger delays while setting up the circus. Strange.
I went to see at least a bit of all bands from the audience (sans the local opener). Everyone had a nice audience. To me it seemed that they were a bit reserved and slightly coldish in the beginning of Metsatöll's set but soon warmed up. However Markus, their lead singer, said afterwards that he was happy with how the audience was fully into the show right from the beginning. Things look different from stage.
Tyr was as usual. Solid set. I think that they've actually changed their set so that there is a row of these faster songs like "Hold The Heathen Hammer High" at the end of their set. Seemed to work quite well.
Moonsorrow was definitely as usual. One of my favourite bands, never fail to deliver the goods. I've seen them countless times, many times also with one or more members completely wasted on stage, and they never played a bad show. Quebec was no exception. "Taistelu Pohjolasta" was a nice addition. A song from their first cassette demo in 1998 or something. Not my favourite song of theirs but a nice thing to dig up, polish a bit and play live.
Nervous people at the backstage before our set. Jonne worried if he can actually perform without a guitar or will just end up looking like a complete twat, Kalle worried if he will able play a flawless set, since there was now only one guitar in the band and all the mistakes would be only his and me worrying 'cause the other two were worrying. We have nice set lists printed out. However they were meant for the Mexico City show that was supposed to be long. On this tour our set time is supposed to be 75 minutes so we were already forced to drop some songs and now with no second guitar we have to drop some certain. We went through the set list and agreed on what to drop. Didn't print out new lists though. So we hit the stage with "Tuonelan tuvilla", a great opener by the way, Jonne runs up there a few seconds after the others, grabs his new mic stand, makes a few rock'n'roll moves and there it was. I knew that we were going to do well. All those years watching Popeda's now world famous Ratina Live 2008 DVD on our buses and dressing rooms finally payed off.
We did have a few awkward moments because of the set list changes though. Especially when Jonne skipped "Kipumylly" that wasn't supposed to be skipped. So Kalle didn't know that we were supposed to play "Metsälle". After that he was expecting "Kipumylly" again but instead Jonne announced "Sumussa hämärän aamun" which Kalle didn't hear. So he missed the beginning again. Nice.
Side note: Just passed the other bus parked at the side of the highway, called them, and now we're going back to pick all people from that bus since it obviously broke down. Nice. Have to pack this computer away now.
Outside of the venue on the bus, 18:00, Popeda on the stereo, Ville Sorvali on the beer.
It is hot. It is fucking hot. Inside the bus it is ok though.
Anyway, back to the Quebec's set. As I said, it had a few flaws but it was a good set. I think we sounded really good. We skipped the encore entirely since there was supposed to an instrumental and an almost instrumental, so not much to do for a guitarless Jonne.
After the Quebec show we tried to find ourselves a bar. Bus call was as late as 9 in the morning so we had plenty of time. We found one bar and it sucked. It had karaoke. I left early and went to bed and pretty much got up when we started to drive to Montreal.
It is a short drive and we arrived early at the lovely Club Soda. Seriously, the venue is really nice. The alley where the crew entrance and bus parking are hosts a bunch of crack houses and related lovely characters. Drug dealers and whores. Drug dealers don't really bother you, but the whores are a bit... straight forward. Whatever. I went online and searched for used record stores and found "The biggest vinyl store in Montreal". It was 3km away so I decided to have a nice walk in sunny Montreal. I passed through a nice park with lots of people enjoying the day, but the most striking feature were the squirrels. Squirrels, squirrels everywhere. Honestly, the record store wasn't THAT big. Poor Montrealiens. <- I just invented a new word there. And I did manage to find some decent vinyls as anyway. Two Ozzy 12" singles, one from Lynyrd Skynyrd, one from W.A.S.P. and also a W.A.S.P. shaped picture disc 7". Not bad.
I didn't watch any of the bands except part of Metsatöll's with Ville. They sounded really good and had a brilliant audience. The most strangest thing happened during Moonsorrow's set. I was sitting on the toilet at the backstage when they started "Sankaritarina". They made a mistake in the beginning! Moonsorrow! A mistake. Unbelievable. What next? You tell me that Elvis is dead?
We played the same set as the day before. Actually the same songs, this time in correct order. We had a lot of fun during the show. Paul from Blackguard had a good show. His stage diving was remarkable. Speed and somersaults. Gotta love the guy. Terje and Paul actually did some vocals on "Boozer" too.
Ville and myself actually founded a band during Metsatöll's show. Not with ourselves in it though. We were listening to Lauri's vocals and decided to found an acapella boy band with Lauri, Terje, Juho and Mitja. We would be the managers, producers, songwriters and those to get rich. This morning we came up with the name and the title for the first hit single. Hammer Boys: "I'd like to nail you with my hammer, sir". Can not fail.
Bus call was earlier in Montreal, at 3, but we still had time to visit the traditional Cafe Chaos. Didn't like that place either and left early. So did most of the others too. It was another early bed time. So now you're pretty much up to date since I started this entry from waking up this morning. Except for the stuff I've done today. First of all, we did a bit drunk early in the afternoon since we had a bus full of people and lots of beer. Later we (Matson, Ville, Marko, self) walked to a book store in the centre of Toronto, which is about 2,5km from venue. I got myself two Neil Peart books. I think that's the thing to do in Toronto. Now I'll go inside the venue and see if I can post this.
Had to get up from the bunk since the AC had stopped working. No air at all. And hot as hell.
Back to Quebec City. So found the venue finally. It was the Impérial as usual. It is one of the nice venues that we usually go. Even it was the first show on the tour there still were no fuck ups or any bigger delays while setting up the circus. Strange.
I went to see at least a bit of all bands from the audience (sans the local opener). Everyone had a nice audience. To me it seemed that they were a bit reserved and slightly coldish in the beginning of Metsatöll's set but soon warmed up. However Markus, their lead singer, said afterwards that he was happy with how the audience was fully into the show right from the beginning. Things look different from stage.
Tyr was as usual. Solid set. I think that they've actually changed their set so that there is a row of these faster songs like "Hold The Heathen Hammer High" at the end of their set. Seemed to work quite well.
Moonsorrow was definitely as usual. One of my favourite bands, never fail to deliver the goods. I've seen them countless times, many times also with one or more members completely wasted on stage, and they never played a bad show. Quebec was no exception. "Taistelu Pohjolasta" was a nice addition. A song from their first cassette demo in 1998 or something. Not my favourite song of theirs but a nice thing to dig up, polish a bit and play live.
Nervous people at the backstage before our set. Jonne worried if he can actually perform without a guitar or will just end up looking like a complete twat, Kalle worried if he will able play a flawless set, since there was now only one guitar in the band and all the mistakes would be only his and me worrying 'cause the other two were worrying. We have nice set lists printed out. However they were meant for the Mexico City show that was supposed to be long. On this tour our set time is supposed to be 75 minutes so we were already forced to drop some songs and now with no second guitar we have to drop some certain. We went through the set list and agreed on what to drop. Didn't print out new lists though. So we hit the stage with "Tuonelan tuvilla", a great opener by the way, Jonne runs up there a few seconds after the others, grabs his new mic stand, makes a few rock'n'roll moves and there it was. I knew that we were going to do well. All those years watching Popeda's now world famous Ratina Live 2008 DVD on our buses and dressing rooms finally payed off.
We did have a few awkward moments because of the set list changes though. Especially when Jonne skipped "Kipumylly" that wasn't supposed to be skipped. So Kalle didn't know that we were supposed to play "Metsälle". After that he was expecting "Kipumylly" again but instead Jonne announced "Sumussa hämärän aamun" which Kalle didn't hear. So he missed the beginning again. Nice.
Side note: Just passed the other bus parked at the side of the highway, called them, and now we're going back to pick all people from that bus since it obviously broke down. Nice. Have to pack this computer away now.
Outside of the venue on the bus, 18:00, Popeda on the stereo, Ville Sorvali on the beer.
It is hot. It is fucking hot. Inside the bus it is ok though.
Anyway, back to the Quebec's set. As I said, it had a few flaws but it was a good set. I think we sounded really good. We skipped the encore entirely since there was supposed to an instrumental and an almost instrumental, so not much to do for a guitarless Jonne.
After the Quebec show we tried to find ourselves a bar. Bus call was as late as 9 in the morning so we had plenty of time. We found one bar and it sucked. It had karaoke. I left early and went to bed and pretty much got up when we started to drive to Montreal.
It is a short drive and we arrived early at the lovely Club Soda. Seriously, the venue is really nice. The alley where the crew entrance and bus parking are hosts a bunch of crack houses and related lovely characters. Drug dealers and whores. Drug dealers don't really bother you, but the whores are a bit... straight forward. Whatever. I went online and searched for used record stores and found "The biggest vinyl store in Montreal". It was 3km away so I decided to have a nice walk in sunny Montreal. I passed through a nice park with lots of people enjoying the day, but the most striking feature were the squirrels. Squirrels, squirrels everywhere. Honestly, the record store wasn't THAT big. Poor Montrealiens. <- I just invented a new word there. And I did manage to find some decent vinyls as anyway. Two Ozzy 12" singles, one from Lynyrd Skynyrd, one from W.A.S.P. and also a W.A.S.P. shaped picture disc 7". Not bad.
I didn't watch any of the bands except part of Metsatöll's with Ville. They sounded really good and had a brilliant audience. The most strangest thing happened during Moonsorrow's set. I was sitting on the toilet at the backstage when they started "Sankaritarina". They made a mistake in the beginning! Moonsorrow! A mistake. Unbelievable. What next? You tell me that Elvis is dead?
We played the same set as the day before. Actually the same songs, this time in correct order. We had a lot of fun during the show. Paul from Blackguard had a good show. His stage diving was remarkable. Speed and somersaults. Gotta love the guy. Terje and Paul actually did some vocals on "Boozer" too.
Ville and myself actually founded a band during Metsatöll's show. Not with ourselves in it though. We were listening to Lauri's vocals and decided to found an acapella boy band with Lauri, Terje, Juho and Mitja. We would be the managers, producers, songwriters and those to get rich. This morning we came up with the name and the title for the first hit single. Hammer Boys: "I'd like to nail you with my hammer, sir". Can not fail.
Bus call was earlier in Montreal, at 3, but we still had time to visit the traditional Cafe Chaos. Didn't like that place either and left early. So did most of the others too. It was another early bed time. So now you're pretty much up to date since I started this entry from waking up this morning. Except for the stuff I've done today. First of all, we did a bit drunk early in the afternoon since we had a bus full of people and lots of beer. Later we (Matson, Ville, Marko, self) walked to a book store in the centre of Toronto, which is about 2,5km from venue. I got myself two Neil Peart books. I think that's the thing to do in Toronto. Now I'll go inside the venue and see if I can post this.
Wednesday 29 August 2012
Fingers to the bone
Wednesday, August 29, morning, tour bus between Quebec City and Montreal.
The last update was written on Sunday on the plane. Where did I lose the days between?
Well, we finally arrived to Newark with all our gear and even managed to drag all that and our asses to the other side of New York, that being Best Western of Jamaica, NY. This was already late evening, but luckily the nearby gas station was still open and we managed to get some beer and food. Pizzeria was closed though so the evening's menu consisted of beer and potato chips.
At the hotel we finally find all the other bands. Some of the guys are already asleep (or passed out, I couldn't tell the difference) but some were still up drinking. We joined them. It was a nice evening of course had to end badly. Later when I was already in bed there were still some people in our room drunk, and of course start hearing these loud voices saying "shit it's hurting!" and "I can see the bones!". Jonne had somehow managed to land on his own hand and broken a bone which then had pushed through the skin. Nice. They drunk horde then walked to a nearby hospital to get it fixed. Jonne ended up staying there till 10 next morning. Later Jonne told us about the moment when it hurt the most, so much that he almost passed out. It was when they were walking to the hospital and lovely caring Terje of Tyr grabbed his broken finger and said "You should keep it above your heart level."
Schedule for Tuesday said that buses will arrive at 10, we'll then go pick up the backline and then head to Canada. No one expected the buses to arrive on time. They never do. So we were prepared to leave around 11. They didn't arrive. We managed to leave sometime in the afternoon. I think it was somewhere between 14-15. Travel day, gas station, cold beer. No one was really complaining. The first complaints were heard at the Canadian border. People were getting awfully drunk and the immigration was getting awfully slow. Finally in Canada we drive to lovely little town of St. Hubert, park at the motel driveway and let the drivers sleep. Everyone else went to bed at some point, but Matti and myself were staying up late and drinking. It was a hilarious night. Blasting out Manowar and Iron Maiden. Not much detailed memories from that night.
Soon it was Tuesday, the first actual tour day with a show and all. While we were approaching Quebec City I was sitting up in front with the driver. His GPS was telling us that we're 1/4 mile away from the venue and we were driving in some suburb. I told him that I've been at the venue before and it is in the city. This has to be a wrong address. I end up checking the address with my phone's GPS. I took as a while to figure out what was the problem. It was the same so many times before: the French. In the 15km radius from the Quebec City centre there are 3 different Rue Saint-Josephs! And for example my GPS gives a different street if searching for "St Joseph" or "Saint Joseph". Only the French.
Will continue later. Arrived in Montreal.
The last update was written on Sunday on the plane. Where did I lose the days between?
Well, we finally arrived to Newark with all our gear and even managed to drag all that and our asses to the other side of New York, that being Best Western of Jamaica, NY. This was already late evening, but luckily the nearby gas station was still open and we managed to get some beer and food. Pizzeria was closed though so the evening's menu consisted of beer and potato chips.
At the hotel we finally find all the other bands. Some of the guys are already asleep (or passed out, I couldn't tell the difference) but some were still up drinking. We joined them. It was a nice evening of course had to end badly. Later when I was already in bed there were still some people in our room drunk, and of course start hearing these loud voices saying "shit it's hurting!" and "I can see the bones!". Jonne had somehow managed to land on his own hand and broken a bone which then had pushed through the skin. Nice. They drunk horde then walked to a nearby hospital to get it fixed. Jonne ended up staying there till 10 next morning. Later Jonne told us about the moment when it hurt the most, so much that he almost passed out. It was when they were walking to the hospital and lovely caring Terje of Tyr grabbed his broken finger and said "You should keep it above your heart level."
Schedule for Tuesday said that buses will arrive at 10, we'll then go pick up the backline and then head to Canada. No one expected the buses to arrive on time. They never do. So we were prepared to leave around 11. They didn't arrive. We managed to leave sometime in the afternoon. I think it was somewhere between 14-15. Travel day, gas station, cold beer. No one was really complaining. The first complaints were heard at the Canadian border. People were getting awfully drunk and the immigration was getting awfully slow. Finally in Canada we drive to lovely little town of St. Hubert, park at the motel driveway and let the drivers sleep. Everyone else went to bed at some point, but Matti and myself were staying up late and drinking. It was a hilarious night. Blasting out Manowar and Iron Maiden. Not much detailed memories from that night.
Soon it was Tuesday, the first actual tour day with a show and all. While we were approaching Quebec City I was sitting up in front with the driver. His GPS was telling us that we're 1/4 mile away from the venue and we were driving in some suburb. I told him that I've been at the venue before and it is in the city. This has to be a wrong address. I end up checking the address with my phone's GPS. I took as a while to figure out what was the problem. It was the same so many times before: the French. In the 15km radius from the Quebec City centre there are 3 different Rue Saint-Josephs! And for example my GPS gives a different street if searching for "St Joseph" or "Saint Joseph". Only the French.
Will continue later. Arrived in Montreal.
Monday 27 August 2012
Mexico City
Sunday 26th, afternoon, on a plane from Mexico City to Newark.
What's been going on since the last entry on Saturday morning. Well, we went for a long breakfast at the hotel with Juho and Tuomas. Seriously, we sat there for almost two hours, ate well and even played a game of Scrabble (in English) at which I beat up Juho badly, as usual. Since all three were sort of jet lagged, up early and not a thing to do before the lost gear was due to arrive we decided to head for the old city centre. I had of course earlier already been online trying to figure out where to go in Mexico City to find more rare items for my already vast Black Sabbath vinyl collection. I found a blog about the street market on Avenida Balderas being the best option so I added that location to our itinerary for the day. Both were about 5km away from our hotel but we decided to walk anyway, since we had nothing but time to kill anyway.
So around 11 we step out of the hotel and as usual in Mexico we find two young female fans waiting outside for signatures and photos. We change a few words with them and in the end I tell them that since all other band members are sleeping and probably will be doing so for several hours more you have nothing to do here so you might as well join us for a walk and act as the tour guides as well. They said "Ok, why not. Let's go." So we went. Although after 20 metres the girls asked if we were serious about walking since the area ain't the safest possible. They suggested a subway and who were we to say no. They were even paying. Although I think the subway in Mexico City is terribly cheap, at least by European standards. Well, thank you anyway.
We ended up next to some museum. Nice looking building. Didn't go in though. Instead we decided to go the top of the high rise next to that. View was supposed to be nice. It was, if you like a huge city till horizon. From there we took a walk to the actual old centre with presidential palace and such. We even visited a cathedral. Eventually we found our way to Avenida Balderas as well and lo and behold there were Mexican pressings of Black Sabbath for sale. I spent all my pesos on them and even had to borrow some more from our guides. There was also several Iron Maiden vinyls that I really wanted but couldn't really borrow any more pesos from the poor girl. And of course that being a street market a credit card was definitely not an option. Not even dollars, which was a bit surprising. In the area there was also this huge shopping area that Tuomas dragged us in, but to be honest, it all looked like any terrible tourist trap. Which was sort of strange since we were definitely not in the area where standard tourists are flooding in. Or maybe everything that we think is just stereotypical Mexican crap made for the tourists is actually genuine Mexican crap. We returned again to the centre for lunch. I got myself a beer and the worst ever Pasta Quattro Formaggi. Or whatever Quattro Quesos that was. That was crap. Didn't cost much and I was still disappointed. Almost as disappointed as when I bought the first solo album by Mantas (Venom guitarist) for 9 Finnish markkas = 1,40€. Worst 9FIM I ever spent. I did just write "the first solo album". I seriously hope he never released any more.
It was time to head back to the hotel since Juho being the one who's name is on the Korpiklaani Oy Ltd's ATA Carnet had to be at the airport declaring our gear at the customs. Girls were nice enough to escort us back too. Since it was only part of our crew and Juho picking up the gear, the rest of us were just lazying around in the hotel waiting for a pick up. The girls joined us up in our room (Cane and myself sharing a room). And no, it was nothing like what you'd expect. We were being complete gentlemen aka boring old farts. I was lying on the bed checking my emails and stuff and the girls were borrowing the hotel network and checking theirs or whatever they were doing. Geeks all the way.
Side note: While writing this I have Primordial on my headphones. I've said this many times, I've even said this to Alan Averill himself, but I will say it again. "Empire Falls" is one of the greatest songs ever written and performed. By any band.
Anyway, the gear had finally arrived and the pick up time was approaching so we gathered at the lobby bar for beers and soon were driven to the venue. We had the girls write down their names and put them on the guest list, so they were able to sell their tickets and this way get a little compensation for all their troubles. Or maybe they were just happy to hang around with huge international rock stars and would have done it for free. I just said "it". Eehehheheheheheehe. Eehhe. Eh?
We were actually playing in the smaller venue of Circo Volador. I didn't even know it had a smaller venue. It wasn't that small after all. Quite nice in fact, except that the stage lights were too low. So. Fucking. Hot. The last time there with Arkona the venue wasn't even nearly full so I guess playing in the smaller venue was a good idea. At least it was packed.
The original info that we got about the evening's schedule was that the doors were supposed to open at 20:00, band will start around 21:00 with a strict curfew at 23:00. When we arrived to the venue was it already almost 19. And then we learn that doors were supposed to open at 18:00 and the show was supposed to start at 20:00. Well, we were basically able to do that but then Juho's accordion started acting up. It had the same problem as once before. It wouldn't turn on. It has some sort of safety feature that if the battery cover screws are not tight enough it won't turn on. Tightening them didn't help this time. We were already ready to do a show with Juho playing a standard keyboard. We did a quick one song soundcheck without the accordion. Then the audience was let in. While the others were at the dressing room being annoyed by the wayward accordion Juho was doing something to that. I don't know what. Probably dropping it from the roof. Whatever it was, it worked, the accordion started to work.
After all the hassle we started our show at 20:30. Close enough. We played a really tight set in front of a really enthusiastic audience. It was Mexico, so I wouldn't expect anything less. We played pretty much the same set as we've done now a few times after the album release. Slight changes in the order, like starting with "Tuonelan tuvilla" for the first time ever. It was a good show. Not much talking, just blasting out a song after another so it was a music packed 95 minutes.
After the show I took the first possible ride back to the hotel. Was tired as hell. I know it was a bit rude but at the hotel I just quickly jumped out of the van and into the hotel avoiding the vast crowd of fans standing outside. I knew I was coming back out anyway. After a quick shower I got dressed, popped open a beer and headed down to meet the crowd. Our tour guide chicks had arrived there too to say goodbye since they were going home. After signing lots of pictures of myself and posing for some more, I headed back in and took the girls with me to the hotel restaurant where I just saw Juho and Tuomas enter for a late night dinner since the girls wanted to say goodbye to them as well. The rest started to arrive there too with some beers so we had a nice little dinner with close friends. I was seriously tired so it was an early bed time for me.
Lobby call today was at 10. I got up early and packed my stuff wondering how the hell had I managed to fit all that stuff in the suitcase at home. I guess it was heat expansion. Finland vs. Mexico. Morning was a standard morning until we got to the airport where it all went down to hell from the beginning. First the customs. It took a fucking hour to get the same gear checked again a day after. Then the checkin desk was being one of the slowest ever. Not as slow as the Asian chick working for Finnair at Helsinki-Vantaa though... And then these wankers have a funny way of deciding the overweight prices. First of all, you have to pay 40USD for each extra piece of luggage. Unless it is over 25kg, when it is logically 40+200USD. Unless it is also longer than 62inches, when it is 40+200+200USD. So my bass case just cost us 440USD. Which is sort of funny, since we have also heavier and longer cases, but for some reason they were all ok. They'd better fucking deliver it the Newark too!
Of course there was also the problem of Cane and myself being put on the waiting list since the flight was overbooked as they so often on this continent are. Anyway, we're on the plane now. Just passed through a long section of clear air turbulence. Nice, starts to be cheaper than the entrance to the local amusement park in Tampere...
Today we're meeting the rest of the bands in Jamaica, NY. I expect heavy drinking. Moonsorrow guys are terrible.
What's been going on since the last entry on Saturday morning. Well, we went for a long breakfast at the hotel with Juho and Tuomas. Seriously, we sat there for almost two hours, ate well and even played a game of Scrabble (in English) at which I beat up Juho badly, as usual. Since all three were sort of jet lagged, up early and not a thing to do before the lost gear was due to arrive we decided to head for the old city centre. I had of course earlier already been online trying to figure out where to go in Mexico City to find more rare items for my already vast Black Sabbath vinyl collection. I found a blog about the street market on Avenida Balderas being the best option so I added that location to our itinerary for the day. Both were about 5km away from our hotel but we decided to walk anyway, since we had nothing but time to kill anyway.
So around 11 we step out of the hotel and as usual in Mexico we find two young female fans waiting outside for signatures and photos. We change a few words with them and in the end I tell them that since all other band members are sleeping and probably will be doing so for several hours more you have nothing to do here so you might as well join us for a walk and act as the tour guides as well. They said "Ok, why not. Let's go." So we went. Although after 20 metres the girls asked if we were serious about walking since the area ain't the safest possible. They suggested a subway and who were we to say no. They were even paying. Although I think the subway in Mexico City is terribly cheap, at least by European standards. Well, thank you anyway.
We ended up next to some museum. Nice looking building. Didn't go in though. Instead we decided to go the top of the high rise next to that. View was supposed to be nice. It was, if you like a huge city till horizon. From there we took a walk to the actual old centre with presidential palace and such. We even visited a cathedral. Eventually we found our way to Avenida Balderas as well and lo and behold there were Mexican pressings of Black Sabbath for sale. I spent all my pesos on them and even had to borrow some more from our guides. There was also several Iron Maiden vinyls that I really wanted but couldn't really borrow any more pesos from the poor girl. And of course that being a street market a credit card was definitely not an option. Not even dollars, which was a bit surprising. In the area there was also this huge shopping area that Tuomas dragged us in, but to be honest, it all looked like any terrible tourist trap. Which was sort of strange since we were definitely not in the area where standard tourists are flooding in. Or maybe everything that we think is just stereotypical Mexican crap made for the tourists is actually genuine Mexican crap. We returned again to the centre for lunch. I got myself a beer and the worst ever Pasta Quattro Formaggi. Or whatever Quattro Quesos that was. That was crap. Didn't cost much and I was still disappointed. Almost as disappointed as when I bought the first solo album by Mantas (Venom guitarist) for 9 Finnish markkas = 1,40€. Worst 9FIM I ever spent. I did just write "the first solo album". I seriously hope he never released any more.
It was time to head back to the hotel since Juho being the one who's name is on the Korpiklaani Oy Ltd's ATA Carnet had to be at the airport declaring our gear at the customs. Girls were nice enough to escort us back too. Since it was only part of our crew and Juho picking up the gear, the rest of us were just lazying around in the hotel waiting for a pick up. The girls joined us up in our room (Cane and myself sharing a room). And no, it was nothing like what you'd expect. We were being complete gentlemen aka boring old farts. I was lying on the bed checking my emails and stuff and the girls were borrowing the hotel network and checking theirs or whatever they were doing. Geeks all the way.
Side note: While writing this I have Primordial on my headphones. I've said this many times, I've even said this to Alan Averill himself, but I will say it again. "Empire Falls" is one of the greatest songs ever written and performed. By any band.
Anyway, the gear had finally arrived and the pick up time was approaching so we gathered at the lobby bar for beers and soon were driven to the venue. We had the girls write down their names and put them on the guest list, so they were able to sell their tickets and this way get a little compensation for all their troubles. Or maybe they were just happy to hang around with huge international rock stars and would have done it for free. I just said "it". Eehehheheheheheehe. Eehhe. Eh?
We were actually playing in the smaller venue of Circo Volador. I didn't even know it had a smaller venue. It wasn't that small after all. Quite nice in fact, except that the stage lights were too low. So. Fucking. Hot. The last time there with Arkona the venue wasn't even nearly full so I guess playing in the smaller venue was a good idea. At least it was packed.
The original info that we got about the evening's schedule was that the doors were supposed to open at 20:00, band will start around 21:00 with a strict curfew at 23:00. When we arrived to the venue was it already almost 19. And then we learn that doors were supposed to open at 18:00 and the show was supposed to start at 20:00. Well, we were basically able to do that but then Juho's accordion started acting up. It had the same problem as once before. It wouldn't turn on. It has some sort of safety feature that if the battery cover screws are not tight enough it won't turn on. Tightening them didn't help this time. We were already ready to do a show with Juho playing a standard keyboard. We did a quick one song soundcheck without the accordion. Then the audience was let in. While the others were at the dressing room being annoyed by the wayward accordion Juho was doing something to that. I don't know what. Probably dropping it from the roof. Whatever it was, it worked, the accordion started to work.
After all the hassle we started our show at 20:30. Close enough. We played a really tight set in front of a really enthusiastic audience. It was Mexico, so I wouldn't expect anything less. We played pretty much the same set as we've done now a few times after the album release. Slight changes in the order, like starting with "Tuonelan tuvilla" for the first time ever. It was a good show. Not much talking, just blasting out a song after another so it was a music packed 95 minutes.
After the show I took the first possible ride back to the hotel. Was tired as hell. I know it was a bit rude but at the hotel I just quickly jumped out of the van and into the hotel avoiding the vast crowd of fans standing outside. I knew I was coming back out anyway. After a quick shower I got dressed, popped open a beer and headed down to meet the crowd. Our tour guide chicks had arrived there too to say goodbye since they were going home. After signing lots of pictures of myself and posing for some more, I headed back in and took the girls with me to the hotel restaurant where I just saw Juho and Tuomas enter for a late night dinner since the girls wanted to say goodbye to them as well. The rest started to arrive there too with some beers so we had a nice little dinner with close friends. I was seriously tired so it was an early bed time for me.
Lobby call today was at 10. I got up early and packed my stuff wondering how the hell had I managed to fit all that stuff in the suitcase at home. I guess it was heat expansion. Finland vs. Mexico. Morning was a standard morning until we got to the airport where it all went down to hell from the beginning. First the customs. It took a fucking hour to get the same gear checked again a day after. Then the checkin desk was being one of the slowest ever. Not as slow as the Asian chick working for Finnair at Helsinki-Vantaa though... And then these wankers have a funny way of deciding the overweight prices. First of all, you have to pay 40USD for each extra piece of luggage. Unless it is over 25kg, when it is logically 40+200USD. Unless it is also longer than 62inches, when it is 40+200+200USD. So my bass case just cost us 440USD. Which is sort of funny, since we have also heavier and longer cases, but for some reason they were all ok. They'd better fucking deliver it the Newark too!
Of course there was also the problem of Cane and myself being put on the waiting list since the flight was overbooked as they so often on this continent are. Anyway, we're on the plane now. Just passed through a long section of clear air turbulence. Nice, starts to be cheaper than the entrance to the local amusement park in Tampere...
Today we're meeting the rest of the bands in Jamaica, NY. I expect heavy drinking. Moonsorrow guys are terrible.
Saturday 25 August 2012
To blog or not to blog
It is 5am in Mexico City and I am wide awake. Was U2's "Wide Awake in America" about jet lag too? I haven't been writing this blog for ages. Mainly because I've been too lazy. I won't promise the return of the blog now either but since I've got nothing else to do right now...
Anyway. We're in Mexico City. Today we're supposed to start the North American "Manala" tour at Circo Volador, the venue we've played already twice in the past. Nice place and usually a lot of people there too. This is sort of a pre-tour show though, since the rest of the touring bands will join us in a couple of days in New York. Actually it will be in Jamaica, NY. Whatever.
We left Tampere at 3:30am, had a flight from Helsinki-Vantaa to Heathrow at 8:00. Arrived a bit after 9 local time. Since the connection was at 14 we had plenty of time which Cane, Masa and myself spent drinking ice cold Magner's cider at the local boozer. We were a bit drunk when boarding the plane. On the plane we had a bit of vodka left and as soon as the service started we got ourselves a few gin&tonics, had the meal and fell asleep. I remember seeing the screen saying "Flight time to destination: 9:15". Next time I saw that it said 3:00. And the second I woke up we were pretty much preparing for landing. Mission accomplished.
To accomplish something is however not the phrase I would use for British Airways. The wankers left all our gear in Heathrow. Before we took off a flight attendant even came to ask to see my luggage tags to check if someone seriously had 7 pieces of luggage. I said to the guy "So there is a chance that our luggage will actually arrive to Mexico City today?" to which he sarcastically replied "Yes, there is a small chance." Nice. Little did we know.
Since 1 of the 7 pieces arrived, that being my standard suitcase, I assume that British Airways deliberately left all the flight cases in London. Six that were on me, and the two on Juho and Tuomas. And we even had to pay extra for the "service". The current information we have says that they will arrive today on an Iberia flight about 3h before the doors of Circo Volador open. We'll see. I am not counting on it. After all, it is Iberia.
And to add to the insult, while our row of Masa, Cane and myself was loudly snoring, someone had been smoking in the lavatory and the asswipe of a flight attendant comes to shout at the other three that "Smoking in the lavatories is a crime!" Shouting that to two guys who do not even smoke and one with fucking snus in his mouth to ease the pain of a smoker on a long flight. What a fucking cunt that guy was. Seriously. Should be fired, but then again maybe he is exactly a person British Airways like to have on their payroll.
Anyway, we're in Mexico city and still hoping to be able to play a show tonight.
Anyway. We're in Mexico City. Today we're supposed to start the North American "Manala" tour at Circo Volador, the venue we've played already twice in the past. Nice place and usually a lot of people there too. This is sort of a pre-tour show though, since the rest of the touring bands will join us in a couple of days in New York. Actually it will be in Jamaica, NY. Whatever.
We left Tampere at 3:30am, had a flight from Helsinki-Vantaa to Heathrow at 8:00. Arrived a bit after 9 local time. Since the connection was at 14 we had plenty of time which Cane, Masa and myself spent drinking ice cold Magner's cider at the local boozer. We were a bit drunk when boarding the plane. On the plane we had a bit of vodka left and as soon as the service started we got ourselves a few gin&tonics, had the meal and fell asleep. I remember seeing the screen saying "Flight time to destination: 9:15". Next time I saw that it said 3:00. And the second I woke up we were pretty much preparing for landing. Mission accomplished.
To accomplish something is however not the phrase I would use for British Airways. The wankers left all our gear in Heathrow. Before we took off a flight attendant even came to ask to see my luggage tags to check if someone seriously had 7 pieces of luggage. I said to the guy "So there is a chance that our luggage will actually arrive to Mexico City today?" to which he sarcastically replied "Yes, there is a small chance." Nice. Little did we know.
Since 1 of the 7 pieces arrived, that being my standard suitcase, I assume that British Airways deliberately left all the flight cases in London. Six that were on me, and the two on Juho and Tuomas. And we even had to pay extra for the "service". The current information we have says that they will arrive today on an Iberia flight about 3h before the doors of Circo Volador open. We'll see. I am not counting on it. After all, it is Iberia.
And to add to the insult, while our row of Masa, Cane and myself was loudly snoring, someone had been smoking in the lavatory and the asswipe of a flight attendant comes to shout at the other three that "Smoking in the lavatories is a crime!" Shouting that to two guys who do not even smoke and one with fucking snus in his mouth to ease the pain of a smoker on a long flight. What a fucking cunt that guy was. Seriously. Should be fired, but then again maybe he is exactly a person British Airways like to have on their payroll.
Anyway, we're in Mexico city and still hoping to be able to play a show tonight.
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