14.15 in the bus at Mokena, IL, suburb of Chicago. Beautiful hot weather, just been laying on the grass with some MSorrow guys. Really nice way to leave behind all the shit that went down last night. If Cleveland was bad, yesterday was just disaster. We did something that we've never done before, and hopefully never ever will. We walked off the stage after 5 songs. It was just waste of time playing there without any monitors. They were fine for a minute, then their power amp clipped and was cooling down for the next 2 minutes and the monitors were totally silent. You just can't sing or play a fretless instrument like violin like that. Since the crew didn't do anything about that we thought that why should we be there pretending that all is well and we're having a good time when everything is shit. So we left the stage. After about 15 minutes of screaming and shouting and everyone calling everyone with every possible bad name they managed to fix the problem. Why couldn't they do that during the show? I don't get it. We finished the set after all. So the audience in Covington got a really short set but an extra long encore.
As I said, today's a different thing. Beautiful weather, nice venue and showers. Don't have to wash myself in a bar's kitchen sink like last night. Let's just forget that there was yesterday.
No post without idiots though. During Groomborrow's set we suddenly noticed about 20 police cars rushing past us and stopping about 200 meters from the venue. A bit later we heard that someone had shot a police officer. Some of us decided to walk there to see what's going on. Quite idiotic, if you ask me.
Thursday, 7 May 2009
Wednesday, 6 May 2009
Idiots
10.00 in the bus. Just visited Wal-Mart. I was going to get some vodka because last time I went to Wal-mart they had that but once I was inside I realized that it was in Mexico. No vodka, but they had Strongbow.
No showers yesterday after all. The hotel didn't allow us to use a room just as a shower. Well, they did allow that for five persons per room but that felt too expensive. So after the show I dived in a tub. The venue had a huge old metallic bath tub at the backstage full of ice and beer. of course at that point it was only ice and water. And I took a bath in that.
Back to the show. It was shit. The crew, ours or the local, don't know which one, did a shit job. Linecheck before the show was complete except for the bass, since they couldn't get any sound out of it. I finally ended up walking to the stage myself. I turned the master volume knob from 0 to 5 and there was sound. Idiots. Once we finally start all we can hear on stage is Jonne's guitar so loud that it was hurting my ears. Once we get to chorus we also realize that Cane's vocals are on Juho's monitor and vice versa. And of course so loud that it hurts. On Matson's monitor there's nothing. Except Jonne's guitar painfully loud. We got through the first two songs but then just stopped the show for a moment and started fixing it up. It got better, still not good but less bad. We continued the show but I couldn't really hear the drums so I walked to the monitor desk and asked if I can get some snare in front. The idiot started with "Yeah, but then..." and I just walked away. Idiot. That was actually our tour manager. The one who is always calling others idiots. I was sure that he would come up with an explanation or an excuse for all that. Only about a minute after we got back to the backstage he walks in and turns to me. Before he says anything I told him that "If you are going to explain your way out of that shit, I don't want to hear that." So he says nothing and just walks out again. Idiot.
Now to Covington, KY.
No showers yesterday after all. The hotel didn't allow us to use a room just as a shower. Well, they did allow that for five persons per room but that felt too expensive. So after the show I dived in a tub. The venue had a huge old metallic bath tub at the backstage full of ice and beer. of course at that point it was only ice and water. And I took a bath in that.
Back to the show. It was shit. The crew, ours or the local, don't know which one, did a shit job. Linecheck before the show was complete except for the bass, since they couldn't get any sound out of it. I finally ended up walking to the stage myself. I turned the master volume knob from 0 to 5 and there was sound. Idiots. Once we finally start all we can hear on stage is Jonne's guitar so loud that it was hurting my ears. Once we get to chorus we also realize that Cane's vocals are on Juho's monitor and vice versa. And of course so loud that it hurts. On Matson's monitor there's nothing. Except Jonne's guitar painfully loud. We got through the first two songs but then just stopped the show for a moment and started fixing it up. It got better, still not good but less bad. We continued the show but I couldn't really hear the drums so I walked to the monitor desk and asked if I can get some snare in front. The idiot started with "Yeah, but then..." and I just walked away. Idiot. That was actually our tour manager. The one who is always calling others idiots. I was sure that he would come up with an explanation or an excuse for all that. Only about a minute after we got back to the backstage he walks in and turns to me. Before he says anything I told him that "If you are going to explain your way out of that shit, I don't want to hear that." So he says nothing and just walks out again. Idiot.
Now to Covington, KY.
Vesilahtelaiset New Yorkissa
Oh, how I hate this fucking Windows Vista! Yesterday it lost it's connection to the bus network and just can not connect anymore at all.
Now it's 11.30 and we're on our way to Cleveland, Ohio. Yesterday we were in New York City. That was brilliant. Once we got to the city we went out with Matson and three Moonsorrow guys. Janne, a fellow vegetarian and New York expert, took us to a place where they prepared amazing thick cold drinks from fresh fruits and vegetables. Maybe the place was called Jamba Juice. I can't fucking check because of the fucking Windows Vista. Fuck.
Anyway, Janne had to go to the Guitar World interview and we were left alone in the big city. We decided to act like tourists and walked to Empire state Building and went up even though the $20 price felt a bit high. Well, it's only like $0,05 per metre. They take picture of every entering person in front of a green background and later add a night photo of the building to it. We went there all four together. When we were leaving we checked the photo and we actually decided to buy that since the picture was so good that we even decided to form a new band because we already had our first promo picture! That band has two drummers
and no guitarist. It will probably be better than most bands just because of that.
The venue was called Blender Theater. Why do the Americans always misspell the word "theatre"? Anyway, one of the nicest venues except that still no shower. After the show I washed my hair in the sink and actually I washed myself entirely in the sink. That worked pretty well although the floor was a bit wet after that. Build yourself a shower and it won't happen again. The show itself was a blast. We're tighter show by show. We were in New York City so did a bit of Kiss as well... The venue had signs "Moshing & crowdsurfing are prohibited" which really didn't stop the audience. There was a huge moshpit and even some crowdsurfing. Good show. Two kids from Vesilahti playing in New York City.
17.45 in Cleveland. Masa, Juho and myself just returned from the city. It's a couple of kilometres away but worth going. We went to Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame & Museum and for example bought Cane a gift since it's his birthday today. The man is sixteen. Again. We brought him a guitar puzzle. Maybe 50 pieces so I think he can manage that.
Today's venue is again a shit hole. Peabody's. No showers but we're taking a hotel room so that everyone can take a shower if they want. I guess I'll survive this tour after all.
Now it's 11.30 and we're on our way to Cleveland, Ohio. Yesterday we were in New York City. That was brilliant. Once we got to the city we went out with Matson and three Moonsorrow guys. Janne, a fellow vegetarian and New York expert, took us to a place where they prepared amazing thick cold drinks from fresh fruits and vegetables. Maybe the place was called Jamba Juice. I can't fucking check because of the fucking Windows Vista. Fuck.
Anyway, Janne had to go to the Guitar World interview and we were left alone in the big city. We decided to act like tourists and walked to Empire state Building and went up even though the $20 price felt a bit high. Well, it's only like $0,05 per metre. They take picture of every entering person in front of a green background and later add a night photo of the building to it. We went there all four together. When we were leaving we checked the photo and we actually decided to buy that since the picture was so good that we even decided to form a new band because we already had our first promo picture! That band has two drummers
and no guitarist. It will probably be better than most bands just because of that.
The venue was called Blender Theater. Why do the Americans always misspell the word "theatre"? Anyway, one of the nicest venues except that still no shower. After the show I washed my hair in the sink and actually I washed myself entirely in the sink. That worked pretty well although the floor was a bit wet after that. Build yourself a shower and it won't happen again. The show itself was a blast. We're tighter show by show. We were in New York City so did a bit of Kiss as well... The venue had signs "Moshing & crowdsurfing are prohibited" which really didn't stop the audience. There was a huge moshpit and even some crowdsurfing. Good show. Two kids from Vesilahti playing in New York City.
17.45 in Cleveland. Masa, Juho and myself just returned from the city. It's a couple of kilometres away but worth going. We went to Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame & Museum and for example bought Cane a gift since it's his birthday today. The man is sixteen. Again. We brought him a guitar puzzle. Maybe 50 pieces so I think he can manage that.
Today's venue is again a shit hole. Peabody's. No showers but we're taking a hotel room so that everyone can take a shower if they want. I guess I'll survive this tour after all.
Monday, 4 May 2009
Statler and Waldorf
Monday morning at 8.30. We're parked somewhere outside of New York City just waiting for the traffic to clear. The venue for today is in the heart of Manhattan so I would have wanted to be there earlier and go sightseeing.
Yesterday we played at Jaxx, in West Springfield, VA. The venue didn't have any kind of backstage, dressing room, shower or toilets. Well, of course they had toilets but we had to share them with the customers. All this usually gives me the right to call a venue a shithole. Jaxx just was otherwise so nice that I can't do that this time. For the first time ever I heard our sound tech say: "Well, the PA-system is so fucking powerful for the venue of this size that it just has to sound good." The venue's monitor tech was a true professional as well. And we saw one of the venue's own guys shouting to our tour manager and basically telling him to fuck off. "I work here every fucking day of the year and you come here for one day. You really think you this better?" Serves him right. He's a good tour manager but needs to be told to fuck off every now and then. He does that to everybody else anyway.
Jaxx was in the middle of nowhere about half an ride from Washington D.C. but there was still plenty of things around like Starbucks and this mall called Whole Foods that actually sells lots of different vegan, vegetarian and organic foods. I went there and filled the fridge and freezer. That was nice.
Yesterday we did a soundcheck again as well. Not really for the sound but we rehearsed Pine Woods (ie. played it once). We dropped Metsämies from the set and added Pine Woods and changed things around a bit as well. In my opinion all this made a better set. We also played our best show so far last night. As usual, we are getting so much tighter show by show when we're on tour. The venue had a sort of a balcony for the staff and bands where they could sit and watch the show. Ville and Markus of Goonmorrow sat there the whole show and looked exactly like those two owls on The Muppet Show. Were they Statler and Waldorf? Can't even check since the internet is not working here. It works with the telephone network and apparently this parking lot doesn't have the connection. Anyway, they looked like those two who always ridicule everything:
- "Did the band finish?"
- "No, but someone should finish the band!"
I am not really sure if they were owls. I thought that they were something called "huuhkaja" in Finnish and now I found out that it is Eurasian Eagle-owl in English and they only live in Europe and Asia (hence the name) so I doubt that they had them on an American TV-show. Whatever.
After all, the venue did have a shower. It was raining like hell when we finished so I just stood naked behind the bus for 10 minutes and washed myself. Didn't even get arrested.
Yesterday I again did some interviews. One for the radio and one for Washington Post. I thought that the Washington Post thing was brillian. A really long, deep interview for a fucking Washington Post. C'mon, how cool is that!
Now I'll make myself a nice vegetarian breakfast.
Yesterday we played at Jaxx, in West Springfield, VA. The venue didn't have any kind of backstage, dressing room, shower or toilets. Well, of course they had toilets but we had to share them with the customers. All this usually gives me the right to call a venue a shithole. Jaxx just was otherwise so nice that I can't do that this time. For the first time ever I heard our sound tech say: "Well, the PA-system is so fucking powerful for the venue of this size that it just has to sound good." The venue's monitor tech was a true professional as well. And we saw one of the venue's own guys shouting to our tour manager and basically telling him to fuck off. "I work here every fucking day of the year and you come here for one day. You really think you this better?" Serves him right. He's a good tour manager but needs to be told to fuck off every now and then. He does that to everybody else anyway.
Jaxx was in the middle of nowhere about half an ride from Washington D.C. but there was still plenty of things around like Starbucks and this mall called Whole Foods that actually sells lots of different vegan, vegetarian and organic foods. I went there and filled the fridge and freezer. That was nice.
Yesterday we did a soundcheck again as well. Not really for the sound but we rehearsed Pine Woods (ie. played it once). We dropped Metsämies from the set and added Pine Woods and changed things around a bit as well. In my opinion all this made a better set. We also played our best show so far last night. As usual, we are getting so much tighter show by show when we're on tour. The venue had a sort of a balcony for the staff and bands where they could sit and watch the show. Ville and Markus of Goonmorrow sat there the whole show and looked exactly like those two owls on The Muppet Show. Were they Statler and Waldorf? Can't even check since the internet is not working here. It works with the telephone network and apparently this parking lot doesn't have the connection. Anyway, they looked like those two who always ridicule everything:
- "Did the band finish?"
- "No, but someone should finish the band!"
I am not really sure if they were owls. I thought that they were something called "huuhkaja" in Finnish and now I found out that it is Eurasian Eagle-owl in English and they only live in Europe and Asia (hence the name) so I doubt that they had them on an American TV-show. Whatever.
After all, the venue did have a shower. It was raining like hell when we finished so I just stood naked behind the bus for 10 minutes and washed myself. Didn't even get arrested.
Yesterday I again did some interviews. One for the radio and one for Washington Post. I thought that the Washington Post thing was brillian. A really long, deep interview for a fucking Washington Post. C'mon, how cool is that!
Now I'll make myself a nice vegetarian breakfast.
Sunday, 3 May 2009
Cold showers
Sunday at 9.00 in a bus on the road to somewhere. Yesterday I thought that the show in New York was on Sunday but then learned that it's on Monday so now I don't know where were going today. Somewhere in Virginia I guess.
Yesterday we were in Allentown, PA, a bit of a depressing place I'd say with all the rehab centers, homeless shelters and pawn shops. The venue was the worst so far on the tour but still it wasn't even near the worst we've ever been to. It even had a shower. The water was cold though. We played probably our best set so far even though the sound on the stage was horrible. The stuff coming out from Juho's wedge was so loud it was hurting my ears. I thought it was mostly his background vocals I asked that down. It didn't help. Then I asked the accordion down several times with no audible change. The venue's monitor guy wasn't even behind his most of the time so I was talking to the tour's stage technician Dave the whole time. He then walked to the monitor desk got the local guy do something. Finally around like fourth or fifth song he came back to me and told that the local guy was an idiot. He had mixed all the connections entirely and all the monitors were just one group. This meant that he basically had a nice mixing console with all the buttons and sliders but he could only use one: master volume. If he put accordion down from Juho he also put vocals down from Jonne. "Everything louder than everything else."
We spent most of the day just hanging around the venue. The venue was connected to pizzeria that had the same owner. At one point he came to us and asked to pose for his pizzeria so Jonne, Matson and myself ended up posing with pizza slices and funny faces. Great. Not.
And now I tried to post this but the internet connection in the bus seems to be broken. Later then. Oh, it works now.
Yesterday we were in Allentown, PA, a bit of a depressing place I'd say with all the rehab centers, homeless shelters and pawn shops. The venue was the worst so far on the tour but still it wasn't even near the worst we've ever been to. It even had a shower. The water was cold though. We played probably our best set so far even though the sound on the stage was horrible. The stuff coming out from Juho's wedge was so loud it was hurting my ears. I thought it was mostly his background vocals I asked that down. It didn't help. Then I asked the accordion down several times with no audible change. The venue's monitor guy wasn't even behind his most of the time so I was talking to the tour's stage technician Dave the whole time. He then walked to the monitor desk got the local guy do something. Finally around like fourth or fifth song he came back to me and told that the local guy was an idiot. He had mixed all the connections entirely and all the monitors were just one group. This meant that he basically had a nice mixing console with all the buttons and sliders but he could only use one: master volume. If he put accordion down from Juho he also put vocals down from Jonne. "Everything louder than everything else."
We spent most of the day just hanging around the venue. The venue was connected to pizzeria that had the same owner. At one point he came to us and asked to pose for his pizzeria so Jonne, Matson and myself ended up posing with pizza slices and funny faces. Great. Not.
And now I tried to post this but the internet connection in the bus seems to be broken. Later then. Oh, it works now.
Saturday, 2 May 2009
Irish Bathory
20.45. Just got back from the Irish pub. I've been sitting there with Alan from Primordial drinking cider and doing interviews. That was nice. Now I am sitting in the bus and waiting the next interviewer to arrive. The pub was better.
11.45 Saturday, in a bus about 15 kilometres from the venue in Allentown, PA. Yesterday was our first US show ever. It was good, really good. The audience wasn't as wild as they were in Canada but still very enjoyable.
We have played basically the same set every night. Only encores have varied a bit. Sometimes we've been doing "Erämään ärjyt" and sometimes "Palovana" and like yesterday, neither of them since we ran out of time.
Yesterday I watched Primordial with new eyes and ears. After speaking earlier with Alan about our influences and roots and where we generally come from I decided to give them another chance and I realized that they are actually an Irish version of Bathory!
11.45 Saturday, in a bus about 15 kilometres from the venue in Allentown, PA. Yesterday was our first US show ever. It was good, really good. The audience wasn't as wild as they were in Canada but still very enjoyable.
We have played basically the same set every night. Only encores have varied a bit. Sometimes we've been doing "Erämään ärjyt" and sometimes "Palovana" and like yesterday, neither of them since we ran out of time.
Yesterday I watched Primordial with new eyes and ears. After speaking earlier with Alan about our influences and roots and where we generally come from I decided to give them another chance and I realized that they are actually an Irish version of Bathory!
Vegetarian adventures
Friday afternoon in Worcester, MA. How the fuck it can be so difficult for some people to understand the meaning of the word vegetarian? We went to eat Chinese. I ordered noodles with vegetables, which I thought would be vegetarian but the morons added rice to it and their rice comes with fucking pork. After I complained and explained that I am a vegetarian they promised me a new dish. After a few minutes they brought me chicken. I just went to Subway to get a foot long Veggie Delite.
Otherwise the tour's been really good. Venues have been really nice and today's Palladium is no exception. That will change though. Tomorrow will be the last venue with shower and next shower will be available next Thursday in Chicago. We've had brilliant audiences so far. Canadian crowds are really something. Let's see how it goes in the USA.
Yesterday there was actually a possibility of cancellation. The local promoter was refusing the full payment because Eluveitie was not with the tour. Everybody knew that months before the tour but I guess he had ignored the fact and just tried to save a few bucks. Anyway, the show started a bit later because of all that, but after all turned out to be a brilliant evening. I was totally sober by the way. Didn't have a single drink the whole day. However, after the show I started drinking vodka with Primordial's guitarist and then later continued that with Janne of Moosehollow. He was still trying to cope with the loss of his belowed guitar and needed someone to lean on. Yeah right. Like we need an excuse.
We crossed a border again in the middle of the night. No one of us could get Hittavainen out of the bed so actually the border control came in and dragged him out. Nice.
Today we even did a soundcheck. We don't really want to and if the tour had the same guy doing the monitors every night we would never do soundchecks. However, we are relying on the venues' own men or women and it is not so easy with them since they don't get to do a band with violin and accordion that often. Ok, now I have to post this while I still have some battery left.
Otherwise the tour's been really good. Venues have been really nice and today's Palladium is no exception. That will change though. Tomorrow will be the last venue with shower and next shower will be available next Thursday in Chicago. We've had brilliant audiences so far. Canadian crowds are really something. Let's see how it goes in the USA.
Yesterday there was actually a possibility of cancellation. The local promoter was refusing the full payment because Eluveitie was not with the tour. Everybody knew that months before the tour but I guess he had ignored the fact and just tried to save a few bucks. Anyway, the show started a bit later because of all that, but after all turned out to be a brilliant evening. I was totally sober by the way. Didn't have a single drink the whole day. However, after the show I started drinking vodka with Primordial's guitarist and then later continued that with Janne of Moosehollow. He was still trying to cope with the loss of his belowed guitar and needed someone to lean on. Yeah right. Like we need an excuse.
We crossed a border again in the middle of the night. No one of us could get Hittavainen out of the bed so actually the border control came in and dragged him out. Nice.
Today we even did a soundcheck. We don't really want to and if the tour had the same guy doing the monitors every night we would never do soundchecks. However, we are relying on the venues' own men or women and it is not so easy with them since they don't get to do a band with violin and accordion that often. Ok, now I have to post this while I still have some battery left.
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