On Friday morning we had a flight booked to Germany and we had to be at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport around 7.00-7.30. So we had rented an old Finnish tour bus to take us to Nummirock and back so that we could have some sleep in the bus during the night instead of just sitting is our usual van. The bus with Jonne left helsinki at 14.00 so it was expected in Tampere around 16.00. Cane came to my place by "proletarian tube" and we drove to Pirkkala to wait the bus. We bought some alcohol on our way there. A bit before 17 we were finally on our way to Kauhajoki.
At Nummirock we parked the bus near the venue and spent the evening by meeting friends, enjoying the weather and whatever. We didn't have much to do before the show since Heavy Metal Perse had done the soundcheck and the audience was already in so we basically just waited our showtime which was 23.30. We started quite close to that time I think. The set list was basically the same that we've been doing the whole summer. This time we did all the songs though since we had all the time in the world and didn't have to drop anything. The running order was a bit strange though since Jonne was his usual self and accidentally skipped a song or two and decided to just add them in the end of the set. At some point of the show Jonne broke a string and did the rest of the show with a spare guitar. Not a big problem.
The main thing on Thursday was not the band though, it was the audience. The tent was packed and the response we got was overwhelming. Possibly the best audience we've ever had in Finland. The previous Nummirock was great but this was even more. Maybe the slightly more intimate tent did it. Anyway, excellent. Thank you.
We were using partially HMP's backline. I think we were supposed to help them with that after the show. I guess we didn't. I never do that, but I expected someone else from us to do that. I guess no one showed up. Sorry.
I went to swim after the show. It was cold. Freezing cold. Something like 2 centimetres cold. I mean, it isn't a big one to start with but that was already ridiculous.
In the middle of the night we started our journey to Helsinki. We seemed to have some problems finding our way. I was drunk and tired and decided to get some sleep on the couch. I wake after a few hours only to notice that once again our bus is broken. This time on a highway a few kilometres before Hämeenlinna, still about 100km to Helsinki-Vantaa. We are in a real hurry this time. The driver manages to reach a friend of his who drives from Hämeenlinna to pick us up with a van that someone said was Turisas'. We managed to get to the airport in time, barely. At least we didn't have to wait long.
For some reason the flight was quite unpleasant. I am usually so tired in the planes that I fall asleep immediately after boarding but this time I couldn't sleep at all. Juho was complaining the same. There was something wrong with the plane.
Anyway, once again Luftwaff... hansa brought us to Frankfurt, Germany. That airport is almost as familiar as Helsinki-Vantaa already. We packed ourselves in a van where Matte had reserved some beer and liquer but I wanted Fiskeman so we stopped at Esso to get some Vodka and Fisherman's Friends. They had a beautiful 1974-75 Ford Granada Coupé Ghia on display. I used to have even more beautiful 1973 model myself. Nostalgic.
The drive to the festival was as usual. Matte driving, Paukku sitting next to him and others in the back complaining.
- "Turn the music up!"
- "It's too fucking hot in here!"
- "Turn the music up!"
- "Open the window, they are smoking again!"
- "Turn the music up!"
We drove to the festival area from the main gate, passed the camping site and started wondering where the hell is the festival. We were in the middle of the field with no sign of Queens Of Metal. It turned out that we should have taken tight left turn right after the entrance. We found the festival after all. It was quite nice location. An open field in the middle of a small forest. Only one stage, beer tent area, some merchandise booths, some discount CDs which I of course had to buy. Some Glenn Hughes and Chris Caffery.
We were already hungry so we went to get some food. They told us not to come there. They just presented us with some options and asked what we'd like to get and then in a few minutes they brought big trays of food to our backstage room. Great service and good food for all the meat eaters and myself.
We were the headliners, show time at 23.40, so we had plenty of time to do nothing. Jonne was of course changing strings and Paukku was fixing the broken cables, checking out the guitarist's new Engl preamps and other stuff and I was getting bored. We couldn't really drink because it was still hours till show time, so I went through all the CD shops, merchandise booths and even tried to watch some other bands which I don't really do that often. At least one of them was quite memorable: Grail Knights. They were dressed, let's say interestingly, they had some extra actors on the stage and a 30 centimetres high green castle. Talk about Spinal Tap. But honestly, they were good. Good melodies and great vocal harmonies.
Finally we decided to head to the hotel that was about 15 minutes drive away. Some of us went to get some sleep but most of us were there just to escape the constant noise that you always have in the background at the festivals. We basically just sat in the backyard's terrace and had a few cold beers. Sabaton was there also for a while until they had to leave to play their show. We got back to the festival area at 22.15.
The show itself went quite smoothly. Same set as the day before, but this time in the "correct" order. Probably the longest "Ii Lea Voibmi" ever. The audience seemed a bit tired after over 12 hours of festival but it was still really nice to be on the stage.
After the show I gave some of our red wine to Sabaton. We have 8 bottles of it on our catering rider and I am the only one who drinks that. Well, Hittavainen does too. And others too if that's all there is left. Anyway, share the wealth.
After a short rest we heard Manowar's "Hail And Kill" from somewhere and then some Accept and decided to check that out. It turned out that there was still a party going on in the beer tent so we headed there for a while. Had a few drinks, signed some autographs, posed for pictures and left back to the hotel. There most of us went already to bed but Hittis and Cane came to our room for a nightcap. Matson started snoring almost immediately but we stayed up for a while chatting.
We got up at 9.00, Matson went for breakfast which I decided to skip. I took a shower instead and at 10.00 we started our journey back to Frankfurt. We decided to leave some of our heavier stuff to Matte since we are going back in 5 days anyway. Would be stupid to pay for the overweight and not even use that stuff at home!
I finally got home in Tampere at 20.15 on Saturday. I took a quick shower and guess what. I went back to Nummirock with the girlfriend, got extremely drunk and annoyed everybody.
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