October 11, venue in Bratislava, Slovakia, 16:00
At 13:45 I was ready to go out to see the city. I asked the crew when is our soundcheck. The answer was "In 30 minutes, if I were you I wouldn't go anywhere before that." It's now been almost two and half hours and we haven't even started. From now on I demand an exact time and if it's not happening then then it's not happening at all. I fucking hate this part of the job.
Monday, 11 October 2010
Poland, part II
October 11, on the tour bus in Slovakia, 10:45
Yep, this is turning into another episode of Jarkko-does-not-sleep-on-tour -series. Not fun. Went to bed early after the show but also woke up early. Tried to stay in the bed and see if the Sandman would show up again, but no. Got up and downstairs and have now been having a long business conversation with the booking agent and manager. Productive! Whoohoo! Talking for example about the forthcoming shows in Russia in December and the shit quality of some shirts we have here for sale.
The Poland section is over. Three shows, three success stories. Everybody's been really happy with the attendances. Yesterday the capacity was 1100 and according to the Polish promoter he sold "over 1000 tickets." The place seemed full too.
I think we did our best show so far too so this tour follows the same path as the previous ones. The fact that we do not rehearse the old songs means that after a longer break between the shows the first couple of shows are a bit shaky. Yesterday we definitely felt tighter. The set list has been different everyday. Or technically the list on the floor has been the same on every show but we have just played different songs from the list. Yesterday's changes included for example dropping "Let's Drink" and adding "Midsummer Night". I actually liked those changes. I like "Midsummer Night". It is good song and it is also fun to play. And fans love that. It is always nice to hear the roar after the first few accordion notes of the intro.
The local opener as strange. Three guy with painted faces, small black angel wings on their backs playing a strange mix of metal. I could hear lot of Primus in them. At one I heard them do Deep Purple's "Child In Time" too. Not entirely though, just the cool screaming part.
Kristof just read through the pre-sales for the remaining shows and it looks quite nice. Even the southern France shows have decent figures already. At least compared to the capacities. I am always a bit skeptical about the French shows. Especially the shows anywhere except Paris which have always been good. Elsewhere you never know what you're going to get. "France is like a box of chocolate…"
Yep, this is turning into another episode of Jarkko-does-not-sleep-on-tour -series. Not fun. Went to bed early after the show but also woke up early. Tried to stay in the bed and see if the Sandman would show up again, but no. Got up and downstairs and have now been having a long business conversation with the booking agent and manager. Productive! Whoohoo! Talking for example about the forthcoming shows in Russia in December and the shit quality of some shirts we have here for sale.
The Poland section is over. Three shows, three success stories. Everybody's been really happy with the attendances. Yesterday the capacity was 1100 and according to the Polish promoter he sold "over 1000 tickets." The place seemed full too.
I think we did our best show so far too so this tour follows the same path as the previous ones. The fact that we do not rehearse the old songs means that after a longer break between the shows the first couple of shows are a bit shaky. Yesterday we definitely felt tighter. The set list has been different everyday. Or technically the list on the floor has been the same on every show but we have just played different songs from the list. Yesterday's changes included for example dropping "Let's Drink" and adding "Midsummer Night". I actually liked those changes. I like "Midsummer Night". It is good song and it is also fun to play. And fans love that. It is always nice to hear the roar after the first few accordion notes of the intro.
The local opener as strange. Three guy with painted faces, small black angel wings on their backs playing a strange mix of metal. I could hear lot of Primus in them. At one I heard them do Deep Purple's "Child In Time" too. Not entirely though, just the cool screaming part.
Kristof just read through the pre-sales for the remaining shows and it looks quite nice. Even the southern France shows have decent figures already. At least compared to the capacities. I am always a bit skeptical about the French shows. Especially the shows anywhere except Paris which have always been good. Elsewhere you never know what you're going to get. "France is like a box of chocolate…"
Sunday, 10 October 2010
Poland
October 9, dressing room in Lodz, Poland, 13:35
We finally found our way to yesterday's venue. The club was at the university area of Torun, I think the club was called "Od Nowa" or something like that anyway. It was a nice venue. Stage was not really that big though, at least it wasn't really deep enough. We were maybe 2km away from the city centre. I was thinking about taking a walk there with Matson, but it was the first day of the tour and we basically had to stay at the venue the whole just in case we were needed. It was again a bit boring day. Just sitting at the dressing room waiting for something to happen. We did the soundcheck though. So did Eluveitie after us. I don't think the local opener had much time for their check since we were running really late. Doors were supposed to open at 18:00 and Eluveitie check was still going on at 18:15 when I checked the time.
The local opener was not half bad, they were half good! They even did a Nightwish cover. You can judge yourself if that was good or bad…
The second band was godnr.universe. Eluveitie chicks backed up by a couple of Eluveitie dudes. The audience clearly didn't know what to think of them. Honestly, me neither. Maybe I should really give their CD a listen or two.
I didn't really watch Eluveitie. Judging by the noise the audience liked them a lot. Our show was decent. Not the best we've played but decent. The audience was really nice too. Lately we've been playing mostly festivals with short or really short sets so it was nice to play a bit longer set and not to worry about exceeding a time limit. It still wasn't very long but way over an hour, maybe 80 minutes. We did some some songs that haven't really been played that much during the summer, like "Huppiaan aarre".
The place was pretty full. Not sold out but full. I don't know the final figures but the pre-sale was 550 so in that sense the tour started on a positive mood.
The bus call was at 5 so we had a lot of time after the show. Some local Finns took us to a bar in the centre but I wasn't really in the mood to enjoy that. Too tired. Basically started to fall asleep there at the bar. Time to get back to the bus.
This is an excellent venue. Modern, big (capacity 2000), clean. Excellent. Just had some breakfast. That is nice too. Oh yes, yesterday the vegetarian food had tuna in it… not nice.
Now I will have to finish an interview for a Polish magazine that I was supposed to do before these shows in Poland.
October 9, dressing room in Lodz, Poland, 20:00
We're running late again. No strict curfew though so not a big problem. It is a bit sleepy atmosphere here. I am playing the six Johnny Cash's "American" albums on random on the speakers, Kalle is sleeping on the sofa and Jonne on the floor next to the sofa. Rock'n'roll!
Jonne, Kalle and myself did a TV interview earlier. The journalist had a brilliant idea to do that at the venue's bar. Interview was short and went well, but the aftermath wasn't that easy. The fans attacked with their pens and papers as soon as the journalist said "Thanks for the interview guys!" It took a while to get out of there. Not that I complain about meeting fans but I'd rather pick the place and time myself.
Earlier we went to see the city. There was nothing to see. Or maybe we went to a wrong place. We took the tram and got off at the stop closest to the place where my GPS said was the centre. We managed to find a shopping centre though so Juho got his shampoo. We really didn't spend much time there. And now that I start to think about it I am sure that we were in the wrong place. It is just not possible that that place was the city centre. Damn you Nokia Maps!
We committed a crime too. We didn't pay for the tram. It was nice to see the always law abiding Juho getting nervous. "What if we get caught? Are you really doing that? I'm not following you guys!" He did anyway.
No network today. I hope I can post these tomorrow.
October 10, on the bus near Krakow Poland, 9:10
I really hope that this morning is not a sign of the future. I only slept perhaps 5 hours and woke up really fresh as if I had a good rest. On one of the US tours I for some reason slept only maybe 4 hours a night on average and that was definitely too little. Every morning was just like this. I woke up a few hours before anyone else and just couldn't sleep anymore. It was ok for a few days, after that I really started to feel like a zombie.
Yesterday was a good day after all. The show was really good. That band was in a good shape and we had an excellent audience. David the manager didn't have the final figures's either but he said that the attendance was a bit over 1000. Excellent. The success of the first two shows has surprised our booking agent too. He's a bit pissed because he made a flat fee deal on all of the Polish shows…
It was only the second show but Gump who's doing the monitors already seems to know exactly what to do. The stage sound was close to perfect already from the beginning. Why is the man called Gump? No idea. I think his real name is Philip. What was really surprising yesterday was the fact we were not just on time but we were ahead of the schedule! We started 5 minutes before our time! Even Hittis was ready on time even though the got lost on his way to the stage. Tour manager just happened to find him from the dressing room.
- "Shouldn't you be on stage already?"
- "Yes, but I couldn't find it!"
The set was a bit different than the day before. I wrote earlier that we played maybe 80 minutes on the first show. Yesterday we heard that it was over 90 and that is unacceptable since this is a co-headlining tour and none of the bands should exceed their 75 minutes. Yesterday we tried to keep the show tighter and shorter. We left our some songs but also added at least one song that hasn't been done for a while. At one point during the show I went to ask Gump how much time we had left since I thought that we must be close to the end already and we were close to the end our set list.
- "You have 40 minutes left."
So the last part of the show was spent figuring out what to play next. We finished the main set with "Beer Beer" that we've been lately using to finish the entire show, so once we got back on stage to do the encore we actually finished with "Ii Lea Voibmi", a song that used to be regular in the set but hasn't really been played for months now. Not even at the rehearsals. "What rehearsals?" one might ask… Anyway, the beginning was funny. Jonne played the first note that didn't really sound right to me so I go talk to Juho:
- "What key is this one in?"
- "A minor."
- "Is that what Jonne is playing in A minor?"
- "Not even close."
- "Ok."
We finally found our way to yesterday's venue. The club was at the university area of Torun, I think the club was called "Od Nowa" or something like that anyway. It was a nice venue. Stage was not really that big though, at least it wasn't really deep enough. We were maybe 2km away from the city centre. I was thinking about taking a walk there with Matson, but it was the first day of the tour and we basically had to stay at the venue the whole just in case we were needed. It was again a bit boring day. Just sitting at the dressing room waiting for something to happen. We did the soundcheck though. So did Eluveitie after us. I don't think the local opener had much time for their check since we were running really late. Doors were supposed to open at 18:00 and Eluveitie check was still going on at 18:15 when I checked the time.
The local opener was not half bad, they were half good! They even did a Nightwish cover. You can judge yourself if that was good or bad…
The second band was godnr.universe. Eluveitie chicks backed up by a couple of Eluveitie dudes. The audience clearly didn't know what to think of them. Honestly, me neither. Maybe I should really give their CD a listen or two.
I didn't really watch Eluveitie. Judging by the noise the audience liked them a lot. Our show was decent. Not the best we've played but decent. The audience was really nice too. Lately we've been playing mostly festivals with short or really short sets so it was nice to play a bit longer set and not to worry about exceeding a time limit. It still wasn't very long but way over an hour, maybe 80 minutes. We did some some songs that haven't really been played that much during the summer, like "Huppiaan aarre".
The place was pretty full. Not sold out but full. I don't know the final figures but the pre-sale was 550 so in that sense the tour started on a positive mood.
The bus call was at 5 so we had a lot of time after the show. Some local Finns took us to a bar in the centre but I wasn't really in the mood to enjoy that. Too tired. Basically started to fall asleep there at the bar. Time to get back to the bus.
This is an excellent venue. Modern, big (capacity 2000), clean. Excellent. Just had some breakfast. That is nice too. Oh yes, yesterday the vegetarian food had tuna in it… not nice.
Now I will have to finish an interview for a Polish magazine that I was supposed to do before these shows in Poland.
October 9, dressing room in Lodz, Poland, 20:00
We're running late again. No strict curfew though so not a big problem. It is a bit sleepy atmosphere here. I am playing the six Johnny Cash's "American" albums on random on the speakers, Kalle is sleeping on the sofa and Jonne on the floor next to the sofa. Rock'n'roll!
Jonne, Kalle and myself did a TV interview earlier. The journalist had a brilliant idea to do that at the venue's bar. Interview was short and went well, but the aftermath wasn't that easy. The fans attacked with their pens and papers as soon as the journalist said "Thanks for the interview guys!" It took a while to get out of there. Not that I complain about meeting fans but I'd rather pick the place and time myself.
Earlier we went to see the city. There was nothing to see. Or maybe we went to a wrong place. We took the tram and got off at the stop closest to the place where my GPS said was the centre. We managed to find a shopping centre though so Juho got his shampoo. We really didn't spend much time there. And now that I start to think about it I am sure that we were in the wrong place. It is just not possible that that place was the city centre. Damn you Nokia Maps!
We committed a crime too. We didn't pay for the tram. It was nice to see the always law abiding Juho getting nervous. "What if we get caught? Are you really doing that? I'm not following you guys!" He did anyway.
No network today. I hope I can post these tomorrow.
October 10, on the bus near Krakow Poland, 9:10
I really hope that this morning is not a sign of the future. I only slept perhaps 5 hours and woke up really fresh as if I had a good rest. On one of the US tours I for some reason slept only maybe 4 hours a night on average and that was definitely too little. Every morning was just like this. I woke up a few hours before anyone else and just couldn't sleep anymore. It was ok for a few days, after that I really started to feel like a zombie.
Yesterday was a good day after all. The show was really good. That band was in a good shape and we had an excellent audience. David the manager didn't have the final figures's either but he said that the attendance was a bit over 1000. Excellent. The success of the first two shows has surprised our booking agent too. He's a bit pissed because he made a flat fee deal on all of the Polish shows…
It was only the second show but Gump who's doing the monitors already seems to know exactly what to do. The stage sound was close to perfect already from the beginning. Why is the man called Gump? No idea. I think his real name is Philip. What was really surprising yesterday was the fact we were not just on time but we were ahead of the schedule! We started 5 minutes before our time! Even Hittis was ready on time even though the got lost on his way to the stage. Tour manager just happened to find him from the dressing room.
- "Shouldn't you be on stage already?"
- "Yes, but I couldn't find it!"
The set was a bit different than the day before. I wrote earlier that we played maybe 80 minutes on the first show. Yesterday we heard that it was over 90 and that is unacceptable since this is a co-headlining tour and none of the bands should exceed their 75 minutes. Yesterday we tried to keep the show tighter and shorter. We left our some songs but also added at least one song that hasn't been done for a while. At one point during the show I went to ask Gump how much time we had left since I thought that we must be close to the end already and we were close to the end our set list.
- "You have 40 minutes left."
So the last part of the show was spent figuring out what to play next. We finished the main set with "Beer Beer" that we've been lately using to finish the entire show, so once we got back on stage to do the encore we actually finished with "Ii Lea Voibmi", a song that used to be regular in the set but hasn't really been played for months now. Not even at the rehearsals. "What rehearsals?" one might ask… Anyway, the beginning was funny. Jonne played the first note that didn't really sound right to me so I go talk to Juho:
- "What key is this one in?"
- "A minor."
- "Is that what Jonne is playing in A minor?"
- "Not even close."
- "Ok."
Friday, 8 October 2010
Tour with the Swiss, Part 1
October 7, on board of Air Berlin.
So the tour is starting. I am definitely looking forward to it. It'll be our first tour with Eluveitie for a long time. We've known them for a long time. They were supporting us in Switzerland on our first ever European tour in August 2005. Since then we've met them so many times that I've lost count years ago. And they've lost so many members during that time that I've lost count on that too. If I remember correctly they had 11 member when we first met them. Now they are down to eight.
Anyway, this should a nice tour. The week and a half tour we did in May this year was a nice change since we toured in places that we haven't been that often and this tour seems to continue from there. We're starting with three shows in Poland and from there we continue south to Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary and then to Spain through Italy and France. Spain will be interesting. We've had a few nice festival shows there but the only club shows we did there didn't go down so well. Well, Madrid did, but the others sucked. Although that tour was so badly organized anyway so I am quite confident that this time it will be better. With southern France it is actually quite the same situation. We'll see.
October 8, on tour bus somewhere in Poland, 7:45.
I already spent the last few hours awake in the bunk so once the bus seemed to stop I was already ready to get up anyway. We are parked in front of a small gas station in Poland. No idea where. I could check with my phone GPS though but that would require me climbing back upstairs and I am too lazy to do that. And I just put Leonard Cohen on so I really can't leave this seat now.
What did we do yesterday? Well, we landed at Tegel, Berlin a bit after 14 and the tour bus finally arrived at 23:30 so we indeed had to do something in between. I actually had agreed to take care of the support bands business. The band is called godnr.universe or something like that. It is actually a band of the two Eluveitie chicks so we don't really have any extra persons on tour because of the support bands. The chicks had thought that they'd be in Berlin and have time to pick up their CDs from there but since in the end they didn't have time to do that they asked me to pick them up. I did that. What else?
We had to buy new speaker system. We've had different active speaker systems with us on tour and festivals for 3 years or so. We need them to play Topi Sorsakoski & Agents and Popeda everywhere. We jumped on the bus and drove to the city. Went to take care of the speakers first at Saturn. Saturn is a great store for many reasons. One of them is the fact that you can test all the speaker system. There's a "Play" button next to each set. We followed the cables, unplugged them and plugged in my phone and tested them all with Popeda's "Elän itselleni". Lovely! We got ourselves a new set now.
Alexanderplatz was full of beer huts. Seemed like some sort of Oktoberfest thing. So we sat there for a while, changed to a more convenient location, went to eat Chinese, went back for a beer and finally took a cab back to Tegel. We were trying to take a bus back too but the wanker just pulled off in front of us. We were standing next to the bus when the driver arrived. He stepped in, started the bus, but didn't allow us in. He just drove it forward maybe 50m to another bus stop, waited there 3 seconds, left again, stopped at the red lights 10m away where we caught the bus and tried to get on board. The wanker didn't allow us in. Germans. "I hate Illinois nazis."
October 8, on tour bus somewhere in Poland, 9:55
We're still in the middle of nowhere. Where the hell are we going to?
So the tour is starting. I am definitely looking forward to it. It'll be our first tour with Eluveitie for a long time. We've known them for a long time. They were supporting us in Switzerland on our first ever European tour in August 2005. Since then we've met them so many times that I've lost count years ago. And they've lost so many members during that time that I've lost count on that too. If I remember correctly they had 11 member when we first met them. Now they are down to eight.
Anyway, this should a nice tour. The week and a half tour we did in May this year was a nice change since we toured in places that we haven't been that often and this tour seems to continue from there. We're starting with three shows in Poland and from there we continue south to Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary and then to Spain through Italy and France. Spain will be interesting. We've had a few nice festival shows there but the only club shows we did there didn't go down so well. Well, Madrid did, but the others sucked. Although that tour was so badly organized anyway so I am quite confident that this time it will be better. With southern France it is actually quite the same situation. We'll see.
October 8, on tour bus somewhere in Poland, 7:45.
I already spent the last few hours awake in the bunk so once the bus seemed to stop I was already ready to get up anyway. We are parked in front of a small gas station in Poland. No idea where. I could check with my phone GPS though but that would require me climbing back upstairs and I am too lazy to do that. And I just put Leonard Cohen on so I really can't leave this seat now.
What did we do yesterday? Well, we landed at Tegel, Berlin a bit after 14 and the tour bus finally arrived at 23:30 so we indeed had to do something in between. I actually had agreed to take care of the support bands business. The band is called godnr.universe or something like that. It is actually a band of the two Eluveitie chicks so we don't really have any extra persons on tour because of the support bands. The chicks had thought that they'd be in Berlin and have time to pick up their CDs from there but since in the end they didn't have time to do that they asked me to pick them up. I did that. What else?
We had to buy new speaker system. We've had different active speaker systems with us on tour and festivals for 3 years or so. We need them to play Topi Sorsakoski & Agents and Popeda everywhere. We jumped on the bus and drove to the city. Went to take care of the speakers first at Saturn. Saturn is a great store for many reasons. One of them is the fact that you can test all the speaker system. There's a "Play" button next to each set. We followed the cables, unplugged them and plugged in my phone and tested them all with Popeda's "Elän itselleni". Lovely! We got ourselves a new set now.
Alexanderplatz was full of beer huts. Seemed like some sort of Oktoberfest thing. So we sat there for a while, changed to a more convenient location, went to eat Chinese, went back for a beer and finally took a cab back to Tegel. We were trying to take a bus back too but the wanker just pulled off in front of us. We were standing next to the bus when the driver arrived. He stepped in, started the bus, but didn't allow us in. He just drove it forward maybe 50m to another bus stop, waited there 3 seconds, left again, stopped at the red lights 10m away where we caught the bus and tried to get on board. The wanker didn't allow us in. Germans. "I hate Illinois nazis."
October 8, on tour bus somewhere in Poland, 9:55
We're still in the middle of nowhere. Where the hell are we going to?
Metalheim
October 7, on board of Air Berlin.
Last weekend we did the Metalheim festival in Finland. The festival was put together by the booking agency Metalheim with whom we were for a while. Now Rock the Nation is taking care of our business in Finland too. Basically everywhere except the Americas. Anyway, it was a 2-day festival in the different cities, Oulu and Helsinki. The bands who played in Oulu on Friday played in Helsinki on Saturday and vice versa. Nice concept although I would have preferred cities a bit closer to each other…
We started in Oulu on Friday. Our crew and gear had left already on Thursday evening, the band started the journey on Friday morning. We did the trip with Jonne's car where we could easily fit the whole band. We had decided to leave Tampere at 10 and to save Jonne's time I did the round in Tampere and gathered everybody to the local bus station. We had a soundcheck waiting at 16 and that where we were aiming. The trip went as planned. Until Pyhäsalmi, Pyhäjärvi whatever that was. We stopped for break at the local gas station and when we got back to the car we noticed that the right back tire was almost empty!
- "Where's your spare tire?"
- "I don't know. Do I have one?"
We asked some locals if there was any chance of finding a tire repair shop there. We got lucky. Even though we were basically in the middle of nowhere, there was a local branch of one of the biggest tire chains only maybe 3km away! We filled the tire and drove there.
- "Hello! We have a flat tire, can you help?"
- "You will have to wait until I've finished shoveling this."
The guy was eating.
Since the summer tire season is basically over the place was full of winter tires but no summer tires of the size we needed. Nothing even close.
- "But you guys do really need a tire. Let's see what I can do."
We finally left there with one used tire that was actually in a better shape than the other three…
We even managed to get to the soundcheck in time. Almost at least. The first song we played at the check was a song from the forthcoming album (February 4, 2011). Jonne had an idea that we'd do that in the evening too. It didn't go that well. I for example recorded that in the studio with a bass down tuned a full step and live I am on standard tuning. I am just not good enough to transpose on the fly!
Otherwise it was a loooooong evening. We were headlining and our showtime was at 0.35. We finished the soundcheck a bit after 17 and we had nothing else to do except to listen to Popeda and wait. Me and Jonne at least took his car to the hotel, checked in and walked back to the venue, Teatria. That took half an hour. We still had 6 hours to go. We really just sat at the venue. Boring as hell. Had a few beers and some wine though.
Teatria always has a tight curfew at 1:30. So we were schedule to play 55 minutes. The band before us whose name I can't remember now, maybe Sólstafir or something like that, played too long and our change over took too long because of a too drunk violinist so in the end we played maybe a 45 minute set. In my opinion not even a real show. That put together with the fact that the attendance was a huge disappointment, I'd say that it wasn't really worth going through all the trouble to play that show. Although the audience that there was was a good one, as is always the case in Oulu.
After the show the local guys were taking us to a bar. Or trying to. We ended up in the upstairs pub of some nightclub. I guess it was ok although it had been a terribly long day and another one was ahead.
We had parked our car in front of the hotel where you have to pay for parking. I had put 2€ to the machine which gave us time till 9:16. That's when we left then. I was really surprised how Jonne actually managed to drive since he hadn't had that much sleep either and everyone else in the car was sleeping and snoring anyway. We did stop for breakfast after about 80km. A place starting with "P". Pulkkila?
Since Jonne was going to leave right after the show in Helsinki and would not be driving us back to Tampere we stopped in Tampere to take my car too. I drove alone to Helsinki, found a parking place near Omenahotelli at Lönnrotinkatu and walked to Nosturi. A small side note: The journalists' listening session for the last album Karkelo was held at a small studio on Bulevardi. Afterwards we were taken for a dinner at the close by Thai restaurant. We were already then wondering that. Why are we, a really Finnish band, taken to a Thai restaurant? Now when I was walking down Bulevardi I even noticed a fucking Lappi restaurant maybe a 100m away! Why didn't we go there?
Now to my favourite topic: food. Nosturi had excellent vegetarian food and more importantly it had a sign telling that it's strictly for vegetarians. Usually the veggie food is gone before I get to eat even if I was the only vegetarian of the tour. Anyway, the food was excellent. Lots of lovely fried tofu cubes!
The day in general was the same as the day before, long and boring. We really had nothing to do. We had decided to skip the soundcheck anyway so there indeed was literally nothing to do. Some guys like Jonne tried to get some sleep where ever possible. Kalle and myself just sat at the backstage listening to Popeda. While doing that we even finished a bottle of Koskenkorva just to have something to do. It didn't really work that well. The other bands at the same backstage even liked Popeda so we couldn't even annoy them.
The show itself was better than in Oulu. The place was not even close to being full but still better than the day before. Honestly I think that with better timing Metalheim in general would have been a bigger success. There were also two other metal festivals in Helsinki that weekend. Anyway, the band was tight and the audience was nice. We played a slightly longer set since there was no curfew and since the violin player was way more sober than in Oulu it was after all a nice show.
Afterwards it was a bedtime immediately. We walked back to the hotel via a kebab kiosk and went to bed. I was sharing a double bed with Kalle. He snored. Got up around 10 in the morning and drove home. Actually we did make an extra stop. We stopped at the retail hell of Ideapark in Lempäälä since there was a record fair. Hittavainen stayed in the car and slept but Matson and myself went shopping. I got myself some 7" and 12" singles. I am indeed a sucker for vinyl singles. Excellent stuff.
Last weekend we did the Metalheim festival in Finland. The festival was put together by the booking agency Metalheim with whom we were for a while. Now Rock the Nation is taking care of our business in Finland too. Basically everywhere except the Americas. Anyway, it was a 2-day festival in the different cities, Oulu and Helsinki. The bands who played in Oulu on Friday played in Helsinki on Saturday and vice versa. Nice concept although I would have preferred cities a bit closer to each other…
We started in Oulu on Friday. Our crew and gear had left already on Thursday evening, the band started the journey on Friday morning. We did the trip with Jonne's car where we could easily fit the whole band. We had decided to leave Tampere at 10 and to save Jonne's time I did the round in Tampere and gathered everybody to the local bus station. We had a soundcheck waiting at 16 and that where we were aiming. The trip went as planned. Until Pyhäsalmi, Pyhäjärvi whatever that was. We stopped for break at the local gas station and when we got back to the car we noticed that the right back tire was almost empty!
- "Where's your spare tire?"
- "I don't know. Do I have one?"
We asked some locals if there was any chance of finding a tire repair shop there. We got lucky. Even though we were basically in the middle of nowhere, there was a local branch of one of the biggest tire chains only maybe 3km away! We filled the tire and drove there.
- "Hello! We have a flat tire, can you help?"
- "You will have to wait until I've finished shoveling this."
The guy was eating.
Since the summer tire season is basically over the place was full of winter tires but no summer tires of the size we needed. Nothing even close.
- "But you guys do really need a tire. Let's see what I can do."
We finally left there with one used tire that was actually in a better shape than the other three…
We even managed to get to the soundcheck in time. Almost at least. The first song we played at the check was a song from the forthcoming album (February 4, 2011). Jonne had an idea that we'd do that in the evening too. It didn't go that well. I for example recorded that in the studio with a bass down tuned a full step and live I am on standard tuning. I am just not good enough to transpose on the fly!
Otherwise it was a loooooong evening. We were headlining and our showtime was at 0.35. We finished the soundcheck a bit after 17 and we had nothing else to do except to listen to Popeda and wait. Me and Jonne at least took his car to the hotel, checked in and walked back to the venue, Teatria. That took half an hour. We still had 6 hours to go. We really just sat at the venue. Boring as hell. Had a few beers and some wine though.
Teatria always has a tight curfew at 1:30. So we were schedule to play 55 minutes. The band before us whose name I can't remember now, maybe Sólstafir or something like that, played too long and our change over took too long because of a too drunk violinist so in the end we played maybe a 45 minute set. In my opinion not even a real show. That put together with the fact that the attendance was a huge disappointment, I'd say that it wasn't really worth going through all the trouble to play that show. Although the audience that there was was a good one, as is always the case in Oulu.
After the show the local guys were taking us to a bar. Or trying to. We ended up in the upstairs pub of some nightclub. I guess it was ok although it had been a terribly long day and another one was ahead.
We had parked our car in front of the hotel where you have to pay for parking. I had put 2€ to the machine which gave us time till 9:16. That's when we left then. I was really surprised how Jonne actually managed to drive since he hadn't had that much sleep either and everyone else in the car was sleeping and snoring anyway. We did stop for breakfast after about 80km. A place starting with "P". Pulkkila?
Since Jonne was going to leave right after the show in Helsinki and would not be driving us back to Tampere we stopped in Tampere to take my car too. I drove alone to Helsinki, found a parking place near Omenahotelli at Lönnrotinkatu and walked to Nosturi. A small side note: The journalists' listening session for the last album Karkelo was held at a small studio on Bulevardi. Afterwards we were taken for a dinner at the close by Thai restaurant. We were already then wondering that. Why are we, a really Finnish band, taken to a Thai restaurant? Now when I was walking down Bulevardi I even noticed a fucking Lappi restaurant maybe a 100m away! Why didn't we go there?
Now to my favourite topic: food. Nosturi had excellent vegetarian food and more importantly it had a sign telling that it's strictly for vegetarians. Usually the veggie food is gone before I get to eat even if I was the only vegetarian of the tour. Anyway, the food was excellent. Lots of lovely fried tofu cubes!
The day in general was the same as the day before, long and boring. We really had nothing to do. We had decided to skip the soundcheck anyway so there indeed was literally nothing to do. Some guys like Jonne tried to get some sleep where ever possible. Kalle and myself just sat at the backstage listening to Popeda. While doing that we even finished a bottle of Koskenkorva just to have something to do. It didn't really work that well. The other bands at the same backstage even liked Popeda so we couldn't even annoy them.
The show itself was better than in Oulu. The place was not even close to being full but still better than the day before. Honestly I think that with better timing Metalheim in general would have been a bigger success. There were also two other metal festivals in Helsinki that weekend. Anyway, the band was tight and the audience was nice. We played a slightly longer set since there was no curfew and since the violin player was way more sober than in Oulu it was after all a nice show.
Afterwards it was a bedtime immediately. We walked back to the hotel via a kebab kiosk and went to bed. I was sharing a double bed with Kalle. He snored. Got up around 10 in the morning and drove home. Actually we did make an extra stop. We stopped at the retail hell of Ideapark in Lempäälä since there was a record fair. Hittavainen stayed in the car and slept but Matson and myself went shopping. I got myself some 7" and 12" singles. I am indeed a sucker for vinyl singles. Excellent stuff.
Saturday, 18 September 2010
Return of the comeback of the vengeance of the blog's son! Part II
Ok, this blog's been dead for about a year. Sorry. A few weeks ago a French website asked if I was willing to write them a sort a of diary about the French dates on the forthcoming tour with Eluveitie. I said yes, since I thought that it would be a good way to kick myself in the ass and do something. So I can now promise that this blog will be updated in the future. I am not good in keeping promises though.
What's new with the band? Not much. Except that the new album is coming out quite nicely. At this point drums, guitars and bass are done. In the beginning of the last week Jonne did the last baritone and 7-string guitars and at the end of the week we did the bass parts. We are recording it again with the same producer than the last album. Aksu has been his usual self. Demanding to a point of annoying the shit out of us. Which is good in the end of course.
On Monday will start the vocal sessions. On Wednesday our guest vocalist for the album will arrive to Petrax Studios to do his part. I am not saying who he is but by saying "him" I already ruled out half of the population. You figure out the rest. I am sure that once the identity is public some jaws are going to drop on the floor.
Vocals should be done by the end of the week and then it's time for the accordion, violin and whatever. I think we're still missing some mandolin parts too. Some people have complained that on the last album the folk instruments were buried under the guitar wall. Well, the guitar wall will be there this time too. I've heard it and it sounds good! I can also promise that we're going to have way more prominent folk instruments this time too. There was a reason why the last album was the way it was and we're doing that differently this time.
Anyway, stay tuned. Same bat-time, same bat-channel. (For the younger readers: that was a funny (yes, funny!) reference to the old Batman episodes)
What's new with the band? Not much. Except that the new album is coming out quite nicely. At this point drums, guitars and bass are done. In the beginning of the last week Jonne did the last baritone and 7-string guitars and at the end of the week we did the bass parts. We are recording it again with the same producer than the last album. Aksu has been his usual self. Demanding to a point of annoying the shit out of us. Which is good in the end of course.
On Monday will start the vocal sessions. On Wednesday our guest vocalist for the album will arrive to Petrax Studios to do his part. I am not saying who he is but by saying "him" I already ruled out half of the population. You figure out the rest. I am sure that once the identity is public some jaws are going to drop on the floor.
Vocals should be done by the end of the week and then it's time for the accordion, violin and whatever. I think we're still missing some mandolin parts too. Some people have complained that on the last album the folk instruments were buried under the guitar wall. Well, the guitar wall will be there this time too. I've heard it and it sounds good! I can also promise that we're going to have way more prominent folk instruments this time too. There was a reason why the last album was the way it was and we're doing that differently this time.
Anyway, stay tuned. Same bat-time, same bat-channel. (For the younger readers: that was a funny (yes, funny!) reference to the old Batman episodes)
Thursday, 22 October 2009
In the promised land
What is the first things that comes to your mind when you hear the name Israel? Except the constant war, I mean. For me it is the orthodox jews with their black suits, hats, beards and strange hair curls. Well, it was nothing like that.
When we were first approached by an Israeli promoter and asked to play in Tel Aviv I immediately went to check the travel notices on the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Lots of warnings and "don't dos" and "don't gos" and "not recommendeds". The promoter however didn't give up but told us that "Yes, but Tel Aviv is different. It's far from any dangerous areas." So we finally said "yes". Should've checked the map though. In a country of that size, nothing is far from anything.
The show was on Friday, October 16. Our flight was with Air Baltic via Riga, Latvia. Air Baltic means shitty luggage rules, one luggage per passenger, max. weight 20kg. And the most annoying thing: you can't count the weights together. It is 20kg per passenger, not 140kg per 7 passengers. This means that we duct taped together for example 2 guitars to make it one piece of luggage weighting 18kg. Is that now better for someone? It weights more, it has an annoying shape and it's more difficult to lift and carry.
Note to self: from now on Korpiklaani flies only with Luftwaffe, Finnair, SAS, Air France, British Airways or KLM. Preferably Luftwaffe.
Anyway, the flight was at 20:45 on Thursday 15th. This time the luggage rules were once again different. This time it was possible to sum the weights together. Not that it mattered anymore though. So, Air Baltic sucks. The Riga airport is not the nicest one either but on the other hand it does have Lulu. A cheap and surprisingly good pizzeria with vegetarian pizza on the menu as well. And of course Latvian long drinks called Safari. Whoohoo!
The schedule meant that we arrived to Tel Aviv in the middle of the night at 3AM. I switched my telephone on as soon as I walked in the terminal and it rang immediately. The promoter was asking if we've landed. Getting into country wasn't that easy and he managed to call me a couple of times more before we finally got out of the terminal. It wasn't really that difficult to get in. Just slow. And lots of idiots from one certain country that we Finns know so well. And I couldn't really understand why the immigration officers allowed them to go to the passport check the whole family at the same time. Do that in any other country and they'll start shouting at you "One at a time!"
We finally arrived our quite nice hotel at 5AM. The hotel was only 5 minutes walk away from the beach and we basically had a free day but we really weren't in the mood of enjoying that. Everybody went to bed and for example Cane and myself got up a bit before the breakfast time ended, went to eat and returned to bed!
Once we managed to finally get up we were taken to the restaurant next door for a lunch. For some it was breakfast though. From there we were taken to a signing session at a local record store. It was a bit chaotic happening. Lots of people crammed in a too small space. That was us behind the counter! Ok, the place was too crowded anyway until the organizers started to control the amount of people inside the store. There were lots of people and lots of stuff to sign but not a drop of alcohol to drink. Badly, badly organized! I also found some CDs and a Phil Lynott solo LP that I decided to buy. I got them all for free. I guess that made up for the missing alcohol.
Soundcheck was at 17. Or it was scheduled at 17 but Israel proved to be no different to any other country. We were at the venue at 17 but everything on the stage was still a mess. And the beer. It was warm! So, we were waiting for something to happen and trying to drink warm beer. Not good.
Ok, this is a point in this entry where I stopped writing originally and now I am continuing it after a year or so!. I'll try to remember as much as I can.
At the venue there was a girl who came to talk to us as if she knew us. We were being friendly and at the same time trying to figure out who the hell she was. Once we finally got to soundcheck she was there as well with her violin and Jonne remembered that she was the Russian violinist who had asked permission to join us on stage and Jonne, the nice person he is, had said "Yes, of course!"
As said, I can't remember all the little details any more. After the soundcheck we were taken back to the hotel to get ready. I can't really remember what I did to get ready but I'd guess it had something to do with alcohol.
Anyway, the support band was Iron Maiden cover band. We were actually half seriously trying to change the playing order so that we could after our show have a few beers and watch Iron Maiden. In the end that didn't happen though. They were good anyway. And played the songs that originally made me a Maiden fan in the 80's unlike the shit Maiden cover band I saw a while ago here in Tampere who played only the newer (post-92) stuff. Wankers.
I guess our show was good too. At least I can not remember it being bad so I guess it wasn't. The lady violinist was definitely on stage too. That I remember. The place was packed.
I think it is also safe now to tell the following story:
The place was full. We were "smuggled" in from the back alley. It was that full. If I remember correctly the promoter said something about 800 tickets sold. I have no idea what the actual capacity was. Apparently way less. A couple of weeks after returning to Finland I received a phone call from the promoter. "I don't want to worry you or anything but all hell broke loose here after your show. Some people have started to blame the venue because they now have a swine flu. They are blaming us for overselling the place and making people stand too close to each other. On top of that a local tabloid has started to write stories about that too. This is not your problem but if the journalist calls you and asks something about this tell him that as far as you know we sold 450 tickets." The journalist never called.
Still. What the fuck? "I have a swine flu. I know exactly where I got that from." Fuck you.
Ok, that was about all I can now write about that trip. Sorry for all the readers that there was a break like this. No excuses. Lazy bastard.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)