Lyon, Niort, Barcelona

Thursday, 9.30, on our way to Barcelona. We're still in France but the mountain range and the border obviously are already in the sight. I haven't written anything for two days now. What have we been doing? Yes, Lyon. Things really didn't go the way I wrote earlier. The other bus was already at the venue when we arrived and the gear was already in. No problem there. The venue was nowhere even near the city centre or anything so we spent the day around the poker table. We've been doing that quite a lot. So far the biggest losers are Henkka and Jussi of Battlelore and Simo Kuassimo and Rinksa of KmD. And merch-Jani.

For some reason the promoter of Lyon wanted us all to play a shorter set. First bands played only maybe 35 minutes each, Battlelore 45 and we had an hour. This was the first show where we made changes to a normal set and dropped a few songs but then we also added Pellonpekko which was not in the day's set. Otherwise I'd say it was a normal evening. Except that there wasn't much warm water left when I hit the shower. If you ask me, that's the biggest disadvantage in being the headliner. What kind of a person builds a shower for a backstage and uses a boiler that has warm water for only two persons?

The next show was in Niort, still in France. The venue was underground in the old renovated dungeons that someone said are originally from the 12th century. It was really beutiful venue. The only problem was that it smelled like a cellar. And that the buses could not stay there for the evening.
Once all was set and the poker played me and the light tech Valohomo went to see the city which turned out to be quite nice. Seemed like a really old town. A castle, few gothic churches, canal, wine store. We were sitting on a park bench drinking cider and thinking about returning to the venue when a beautiful girl walked to us and asked us to join her. We of course agreed. We didn't have to pay for her company or anything which was nice. That was of course Kaisa of Battlelore. We spend a bit longer on the town with her and got back to the venue at dinner time.
The show was a bit strange. It started a bit slowly but the audience got into it quite fast after all. Strangest thing was that they behaved like the Japanese audince: a big dancing party during the songs but totally quiet in between. Really strange. And then there was a girl with huge boobs right in front of the stage and
during Northern Fall I was just thinking about those twins and missed the chorus until Juho tapped me on the shoulder and woke me up. Funny in a not funny way.

Now I am at the backstage in sunny Barcelona. We just got back from the beach. Quite nice since I heard that there's already a few inches of snow in Tampere. As Nelson Muntz would say: "Haa haa!"