Principality of Transylvania

So, last weekend it was time for Romania again. Our last time there wasn't really that successful trip. That was the kind of festival that you just want to forget. This time time it was more promising already from the start since they had bands like In Extremo and Stratovarius which meant that it just can't be anything like the previous time.

We left Tampere already around 5 in the Friday morning and flew to Bucharest. We were playing on Saturday so we were able to drink lots of free alcohol while in the air. Well, not that much since they weren't bringing it to us fast enough, but some at least. We arrived to Romania some time after noon and managed to be on the road in a local van by 13. The distance was less than 300km but remembering the last time driving to Iasi we knew that it was going to take long. The roads in Romania are not exactly German autobahns and especially around Bucharest they seem to be extremely congested as well. We stopped a few times to buy more alcohol and I think the whole trip took about 6 hours.

The hotel was really nice and conveniently located only 200m from the venue, Stadionul Municipal. The local promoter had organized a pre-party/dinner/whatever in the restaurant on the top floor. I think we were basically the first ones to arrive there. We ate too much and drank at least enough. There were even enough choices for vegetarians. Nice. In Extremo arrived a bit later. It was really nice to see them again and they seemed generally happy to meet us again as well so I guess our small tour with them went well. After eating too much and drinking a bit of red wine I decided to call it a day and hit the bed. According to the stories I heard next morning some of the others had an interesting night though. Including a local karaoke bar. And someone trying to get others to go to the local pub that he knew. Of course he didn't know any local pubs but he was really convinced that he was still back home in Finland...

Saturday morning I still met most of us at the breakfast so I guess the previous night wasn't that bad after all. We decided to head for some sightseeing in the city centre that was about 15 minutes walk away. We went to the old main square, took some pictures and decided that it's enough of tourism and went for a beer. We ended up spending the next two-three hours in the beer garden of a local bar. Everyone else stayed in the shade except me. Now my nose is loosing it's skin.

The festival was supposed to open it's doors at 13 and the Wacken Open Air Metal Battle thing whatever was supposed to start at 13.30. We had to take our merch there anyway so we decided to go check the place out quite early. I guess it was like 14.30 when we arrived and the stadium was empty. I'd say there was like 20-30 people. And there were no bands playing yet, so the signs were not good. The thing was like an hour and a half late already in the beginning. Nice.

We basically ended up hanging around at the venue for the entire afternoon. Not much to do. They did fill our catering rider exactly so we at least had a lot to drink. We were getting a bit bored there and after about an hour of planning Cane and myself finally did something. There was a huge amount of extra fences next to the stage and we went and built a giant pussy on the lawn.

When we finally started our show the festival was late only like 45 minutes. For the whole afternoon the local promoter kept telling us that the "audience will come" but they never did. I'd guess there was perhaps 300-400 people. Nice amount for a club but not for a football stadium. Because of the wind we couldn't use our side or back drops and since the stage was also open on all four sides we must have looked a bit strange. After we got through the first couple songs with just horrible stage sound it got better and we actually did a pretty good show. The audience was small but good and the band was quite good as well. The sound was definitely not perfect on the stage and sometimes it was really hard to follow where we actually were. I think we messed up the last section of Pine Woods but I don't think anyone in the audience really cared or even noticed.

I watched the entire In Extremo show from the stage. They were good as usual. Seemed to have lots of problems with bass gear though. And the show started a bit strangely because they were already all on stage but left again since there were some problems with the drummer's gear as well. I asked them earlier if they're going to have the full German production with all the pyros and stuff but they told me that they'll only have some local Romanian pyros. I of course saw that stuff while we were on stage and though that they looked a bit "home made". The funniest moment of the show was when the first ones went off. It was not a bang. It was not a boom. It was more like "pfffffffst". The guys on stage were looking at each other and their monitor guy was laughing his ass off. That WAS funny.

After the show we headed back to the hotel for showers and stuff and finally later in the evening ended up in the local metal bar in a cellar. Smoking was also allowed there so the "atmosphere" was quite dense. I didn't really like that and when I realized that there basically was only us left in the bar I decide to get back to the hotel.

We left Sibiu around noon. The drive back to Bucharest was faster since we didn't have to stop for the drinks that often. Once again we had overweight over 50kg. I was dealing with the airport personnel as usual and was as charming as ever. When she said that "You'll have to pay, you know that?" I replied "Yes, we know and we're prepared to do that, but usually the nice people of Finnair give us quite a good discount..." She did one phone call and said "OK, you don't have to pay anything." That was nice.

Now I guess it's time for the Midsummer celebrations. And next weekend it's going to be Tuska and Ukraine. I guess we'll be able to play Tuska this time. Ukraine? Who knows.

The final results

Düsseldorf airport at around 11. The short InEx tour is over. It was a really nice one. I wish all the tours we'll ever do will be like that. I had already lost my trust that there actually is that thing called German punctuality, but I guess I have just been working with wrong Germans. Everything worked like a clock. We only had to take care that we start on time and especially finish on time and all the rest was someone else's problem.

The last show was in Leipzig in a venue called Haus Auensee.
I have no idea when it was originally built and what for, but it was a really interesting building. The stage for example had a really beautiful ornamented arc above it. It was quite nice except that at one point there was terrible smell of shit around the entire building but I can honestly say that it wasn't me!

Our show was like the others. The audience
was apart from a few members quite unaware of us. Every time when we started our set we got this blank stare for a while, then they started tapping their feet, later they start even clapping their hands and finally they are smiling and dancing. New fans! Yeehaw! Yesterday I even managed to see the start of InEx set so it was a success in that sense as well.

We were leaving quite soon after InEx set since we had a long drive to Düsseldorf. I didn't want to go InEx's dressing room right after they had finished so I couldn't really say thank you or goodbye, but their lead singer was leaving quite soon as well and he came to our bus to say goodbye and also said something about the plans for the next summer. We'll see what happens. Now the boarding is about to start. To the Batmobile!

Hangover

Yesterday was a strange day for me. I didn't go out. I spent the whole day inside the venue. The venue was Thüringenhalle in Erfurt or close at least. InEx's lead singer is originally from that area so the place was full of his friends and relatives. Of course the venue was full anyway as they have all been. It has been really nice to be an opening act on this tour since the people arrive in time and the places are packed already when we are playing and the audience generally seems to like us as well. We are quite sure that we've got some new fans on these few gigs already. We've for example sold out our CDs already. Depends on the point of view if that's good or bad though.

We again did a small change to the set yesterday. It was the same as the day before except that we replaced Boozer with Norhern Fall. I guess we'll do it like that today as well. Here's the current set:
- Journey Man
- Wooden Pints
- Korpiklaani
- Viima
- Tulikokko
- Pellonpekko
- Paljon on koskessa kiviä
- Northern Fall
- Cottages and Saunas
- Beer Beer

I've missed all InEx starts. I watched the entire show in Hannover except the first song. Yesterday I was really looking forward to finally seeing the beginning because our dressing room was on balcony on the side of the hall so we had a perfect view to the stage. Did I get to see that? No, we had to do a fucking interview!

Afterwards we got a bit drunk. Ok, really drunk. Like totally wasted. The entire crew and bands were having a party afterwards and since we had been having a party already during InEx we were already drunk when we entered that party. I don't remember much. I woke up normally from the bus with all my stuff still with me, including the contact lenses still on my eyes, so I guess all went well last night.

Hannover

Sunday morning at the dressing room. I think this is Sunday. Last night I watched the entire In Extremo show. They were really good. I'd love to see them in Finland one day as well. Not at Tuska on a crappy afternoon slot but indoor somewhere headlining with their full production. They even said some really nice things about us on the stage which felt quite nice. Ok, honestly, it felt really good. I got that warm feeling that we're doing something right.

Our own show was better than the day before. Since we're only playing 45-minute sets we first decided to drop some of the harder stuff since we were thinking that maybe that'll suite better the In Extremo audience but we realized that the first set wasn't working that well after all, so yesterday we did the opposite and dropped the slower, softer ones and replaced them with the hard stuff. And we even opened with Journey Man. Yesterday's show was a good one. I guess we'll stick to that set list. It even was exactly 45 minutes.

I didn't buy any ABBA yesterday. And now while I am writing this I am listening to Frank Sinatra. His old albums were probably put together and recorded in a day or something but they are still brilliant. I am a big fan of big band swing and Frank did a lot of that stuff. Anyway, I went to the music store to get some strings since there wasn't any in my bass case. Don't know where they all went on the last tour. I got two sets and while I was changing them I realized that the ball in the end was too big and they didn't fit my bass. Bollocks. Jonne found himself a new guitar strap that matches his cow-like boots and Matson got himself a new double bass drum pedal thing whatever.

And now I'll head for breakfast.

Another town, another place...

So, here we are in the tourbus again. We just packed ourselves in the bus at the Düsseldorf airport and started our journey to Fürth. That's about 400km I believe. At the same time I am ripping to the hard drive the 9 album ABBA box set that I bought a few hours ago at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport. I've been thinking about byuing that and for 35,95€ it was a bargain. All the studio albums they ever released and a bonus disc full of B-sides etc. Now if I only could find the "Live" album. Seems to be out of print and since it was the poorest selling ABBA album ever I doubt that there's ever going to be a re-release.

Anyway, back to the bus. This is a 4-day mini tour where we are supporting In Extremo on some of their German dates. Venues are supposed to be big and good at least. I just hope that our music works for their audience as well, because I think that even though we're both quite of often labeled under the same genre we're still really different bands and the audiences are not really that much same. We did one show with them in the summer which I believe was some sort of a show case thing so that they could decide whether we're suitable for the support slot or not. I guess we were since we're now here.

This thing goes on now for 26.12.-29.12. We fly back to Finland on 30th and play at Nosturi's new years happening on the 31st, the new years eve with Kiuas and then Moonsorrow headlining. That should be a nice show. And now we have an extra day reserved for Finnair so we hopefully have all the stuff back in Finland by the show time!

Whoa! The soundcheck is finally done at 19. We are 45 minutes late and it was not entirely our fault. We were late though, but then in the end we spend lots of time figuring out the problems with our monitor desk because bass was coming to ALL monitor on full blast and we couldn't turn it down. We thought at first that our desk is broken but it turned out after all that the problem was in InEx's desk that our signal goes through. Oh well. We're done now and the show time is in 40 minutes or so. Maybe some more vodka-Red Bull to cure the head ache.

Ok, the first show is over. I guess it was good. We haven't played a note together after the last tour but all went well. The set was only 45 minutes and I think we also finished a bit too early but we'll fix that tomorrow. We'll change the set list a bit as well. Drop the slow ones and add a couple of faster ones. Full speed ahead from the beginning to the end. But that's tomorrow.

On the edge

So we're late again. The bus driver was saying that he's sorry and had to sleep but we told him not to worry. We had a load-in time already quite early in the afternoon but we just called the organizer and told him that we're going to be late for about an hour and a half. No problem there.

Northeim show was a bit different show for us. Apart from the festivals we've never really played as a support band. And I don't count Paganfest either since it was like a touring festival. This time we were clearly supporting In Extremo and Die Apokalyptischen Reiter. We've met Reiter already many times but In Extremo was a new experience. We were also a bit nervous because Jonne and myself are fans of them and we had this idea that this was actually sort of a showcase thing because there's been some talk about us supporting In Extremo on several shows later this year. So we thought we should try to give a really good impression to them. Being late doesn't really help.

Being late was not really a problem after all because when we finally arrived In Extremo was still doing their soundcheck so basically everything was running late anyway. The venue was Waldbühne which is a really nice open air amphitheatre built in the 1930's. We walked in and In Extremo singer waved for "hello" from the stage. Nice gesture. We didn't really much to do so we got our keys to the nearby hotel which we were using as a dressing room. At one point I wanted to get a new In Extremo hoodie and went with Jonne to check their merchandise. I asked if the support band will get any discount and they gave Jonne and myself hoodies for free. Nice discount.

It was really interesting to do the soundcheck since we could see all the stuff that In Extremo has on the stage, pyros, flame throwers etc. Smoking was NOT allowed on stage and this time even Hittavainen agreed on that! We were wise this time and moved my rack to the center of the stage and eventually I had no wireless problems this time.

Our show was surprisingly good considering the fact that we were sort of an extra band on the bill and the audience apart from a few members was clearly there only for In Extremo. We played a good solid set and got some movement in the audience so it was a good show. Reiter played next and were really entertaining as usual. I think their vocalist is among the best performers there is. Great show. Next was the headliners. They were nice enough to pose for pictures and everything before the show. I was taking a picture of the others and accidentally stepped on their drummers feet. Sorry. Once again they were really good. I've seen them a few times already but this was the first time after Summer Breeze 2005 when I actually had time to see the entire show. Both bands should actually be bigger internationally but I guess the German language is a problem with some people. Rammstein managed to get huge internationally and they sing in German. Why not In Extremo? Finnish festivals - book them. Tuska 2009?

After the show when I was already getting quite drunk I actually had a small chat with In Extremo singer "Das letzte Einhorn". Seemed like a nice bloke and the fact that he was still talking to us was a good sign I guess! At one point he actually said that he had heard that we are going to do some shows together later this year so maybe he knows more than we do. There was also a person from the local radio trying to do some kind of an interview with him and us as well, but I don't think he really got much out of it.

That was the mini tour. Next morning we were already flying back to Finland. Now we've heard that the shows with In Extremo are "almost 100% sure" so it's going to be an interesting end of the year for us.

"Today your love, tomorrow the world." No, that wasn't right. Tomorrow: Kuopio.