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.