Wednesday, September 5, 3:33AM, tour bus bunk.
Been either too tired or lazy to write anything during the day so I'll use the night for that instead. Let's see how long I can stay awake. First, let's go back to Lawrence, Kansas. The venue, Granada Theatre, was better than I expected. Big stage and a shower! Didn't have to build our own. The day was hot again. Like really hot. Matson had gone out with whoever and found a record store. Marko and myself go out to visit that too. We ended up walking a few extra miles and still didn't find it. We return to the bus, sweaty as hell, to ask better directions and it turns out that we indeed had passed the shop TWICE and still hadn't seen that. Well, we found it eventually. Got myself couple of old Lynyrd Skynyrd compilation albums. Nothing spectacular, but still nice.
Honestly, I wasn't expecting much from the show. I mean the attendance. However, it turned out to be a good one after all. Even in Lawrence, Kansas there are people who are willing to pay to see us. Nice. However, there also was the stupidest woman/girl ever attending. Standing in the front row and filming 2/3 of the show with iPad. Seriously. I mean. Seriously.
After the show we were sort of trying to find a place to have a drink. Some did, I didn't. Well, I did, but not in a bar. Luckily we have a good stock of beer on the bus and always nice people around.
Well, I can't really stay up now.
Back. 11:30. Somewhere in Montana. Internet doesn't work. What a surprise.
Yesterday we were at Marquis Theater, Denver, Colorado. That was a nice venue even though the stage was too small and low. Right across the street there was a bar/pool hall that had a 24h happy hour. So of course I ended up drinking cider and shooting 9-ball with Ville for several hours. I won $9. Whoohoo! Doubled my tour budget!
I did manage to do a couple of interviews too though and even went to Cheesecake Factory with Melanie when she had a break from her work. I am a big cheesecake enthusiast but for some reason I've never been to one. It's good that I went now. Their cheesecakes are almost as good as those I make... And definitely just as filling. I ate one slice and was done for the day.
Our set was a decent one. Audience was crazy. Especially some chicks screaming the whole time. But I am of course so used to THAT. Because of the new regulations on the allowed frequencies I was forced to change my old reliable Shure wirelesses. So far the Line6s have been nothing but trouble. Cutting like hell. There's been probably a handful of shows when they've been ok. Yesterday finally after changing bass and transmitter I had to finally switch to cable. And Kalle had to do the same a bit later. Well done Line6! There were also all kinds of other problems through the entire show. Nothing huge, but annoying nonetheless.
Afterparty was at the same bar we were earlier and it was like earlier, cider and pool. Bus call was at 2 and surprisingly we actually had everyone on the bus at 2. Or close at least. I had a couple of beers, went to bed and now you're up to date.
Wednesday, 5 September 2012
Monday, 3 September 2012
No shower? What do you mean "no showers"?
Monday, September 3, on the bus passing Eagleville, Missouri.
Back to Joliet, IL. It was an awfully long day. It either raining or just awfully hot and moist, so I ended up spending an entire day in and around the bus. That definitely makes the days long. I didn't know what to expect audience wise since we've never been to Joliet before. Although as far I understood it is a sort of a suburb of Chicago and there we've been several times. During the afternoon I heard that the pre-sale was 120. Not THAT bad after all I thought. Later I heard that it had gotten up to 260 couple of days before the show and the promoter was expecting 400. Nice.
Side note: Everybody of course knows (or should know!) the city from the Blues Brothers movie where the brothers we're called Joliet-Jake and Elwood Blues. "Joliet" because Jake had been doing some time in Joliet prison. But how many of you knew that 20km south of Joliet is a place called Elwood? And being a big Blues Brothers buff myself I was of course happy to see us passing Rock Island, IL. "So tonight, ladies and gentlemen, while we still can, let us welcome, from Rock Island, Illinois, the blues band of Joliet-Jake and Elwood Blues, the Blues Brothers!"
Back to Joliet. I didn't watch anyone's show. Quite often on tours even simplest of the tasks becomes a Mount Everest to climb. Sometimes it is replying a text message. This time I just couldn't drag my ass out of the bus. Our show was above average, I'd say. Solid set, no mistakes and the venue wasn't so damn hot so it was also quite comfortable. The audience was nice too. At the end of the Jonne did jump on the drum riser and dragged down half of the drum set. There's something for the audience to remember. We still managed to do the encore though. Thanks to a quick crew.
I did mention earlier that there wasn't backstage or shower. That wasn't exactly true. There sort of was. We were using a kitchen as dressing room and that high pressure dish washing hand held hose thing was a decent shower! The bar staff getting the ice every now and then probably didn't appreciate the naked Finns showering in their kitchen that much though. Whatever. See us caring.
Afterparty was interesting. It was just basically hanging out and drinking beer with local people, which is nice if you happen to find someone interesting to talk to. Well, on this tour you'll always find someone like that if you're ready to settle for non-locals too! I have no idea how did it originally happen, but at some point I heard that the other bus is completely packed, like 30 people in. I wasn't even going to go and see that. Later there seemed to some sort of commotion and people were flying out from the bus. Apparently one of the guests had hit Ville. Didn't really damage him or anything, but still. So the idiot was thrown out. Completely drunk. A bit later he was abusing his girlfriend in front of the venue and Mitja called 911. Almost immediately 3 police cars show up. The idiot then attacks the police officers too. You can guess the rest. Yep, he's soon tazed, cuffed and dragged away. Interesting. Gotta love America.
Yesterday was a Sunday show. On every tour the shows from Sunday to Tuesday are always mysteries. Often in strange places and with a possibility of only 35 people showing up. Yesterday we were in St. Paul, MN. The venue is called Station 4. I don't know which one is a bigger shithole, Station 4 or Peabody's. At least Station 4 had a sort of a decent backstage this time, since they had acquired the premises next to them as well. It was a construction site basically but still it was a room! And a big one that is. It even had a huge basement which we of course explored and found for example a lovely old heating system that I first thought said "Eros" on it but then I took a loser look and saw that it was actually "Bros". Anyway, Markus and me found a water hose. Dirty as hell, but water was good. So we first washed a part of the dirty concrete floor and then threw the hose over some pipes and beams in the ceiling and lo and and behold: Station 4 had a shower!
I decided earlier that this time I will not spend an entire day on the bus. I checked online if there's anything to see and decided that the ancient Native American burial mounds were the thing to see. They were only 3.5km from the venue anyway which is a nice walking distance. After our nice breakfast/lunch at the local pub I managed to get Ville and Marko interested in joining me. We started to walk but right around the corner bumped into a bicycle rental station. "Well why the hell not", we thought. Suddenly we were on wheel. MC Hell's Satans. So we rode to the mounds. Not much to see there though, except these grassy hills of course. 6 of them are left. Something like 16 has been destroyed while "developing" the city. Way to go, us!
The day was probably the hottest so far. At least the venue was. It was quite nicely full. Not packed, but a nice crowd. I watched part of the Metsatöll show, mainly because Ville was taking care of their merchandise while they were on stage and I had to smuggle in some cold beers from the bus for him. I also watched the beginning of Moonsorrow's set. For the first few notes bass was earbreakingly loud. Apparently Ville had changed something on stage after the line check and had added something like +20dB to his signal. Definitely sounded like that!
We did a standard set, sans "Tequila" that dehydrated Jonne just simply forgot. It was too hot on stage. But it was a decent show again. "Ievan polkka" was a bit of a hit and miss since Jonne missed some verses or did them in wrong order and at some point no one knew where we were. Meh. You want to hear an album version perfectly performed you'd better listen to the album then! Actually "Wooden Pints" missed one verse as well. Jonne couldn't really breathe or sing anymore and he just mumbled in the mic "Rounakari, vedä soolo."
Afterparty was as usual, on the street next to our buses. Once the party moved in to the bus, I went to bed. And got up once the bus stopped in Eagleville, Missouri. Which is where I started this blog entry, but since this usually takes really long to write with all the pauses for chats, drinks, coffee breaks, etc, we are now actually next to Kansas City, KS. Kensington, says the GPS actually. Will post this now.
Back to Joliet, IL. It was an awfully long day. It either raining or just awfully hot and moist, so I ended up spending an entire day in and around the bus. That definitely makes the days long. I didn't know what to expect audience wise since we've never been to Joliet before. Although as far I understood it is a sort of a suburb of Chicago and there we've been several times. During the afternoon I heard that the pre-sale was 120. Not THAT bad after all I thought. Later I heard that it had gotten up to 260 couple of days before the show and the promoter was expecting 400. Nice.
Side note: Everybody of course knows (or should know!) the city from the Blues Brothers movie where the brothers we're called Joliet-Jake and Elwood Blues. "Joliet" because Jake had been doing some time in Joliet prison. But how many of you knew that 20km south of Joliet is a place called Elwood? And being a big Blues Brothers buff myself I was of course happy to see us passing Rock Island, IL. "So tonight, ladies and gentlemen, while we still can, let us welcome, from Rock Island, Illinois, the blues band of Joliet-Jake and Elwood Blues, the Blues Brothers!"
Back to Joliet. I didn't watch anyone's show. Quite often on tours even simplest of the tasks becomes a Mount Everest to climb. Sometimes it is replying a text message. This time I just couldn't drag my ass out of the bus. Our show was above average, I'd say. Solid set, no mistakes and the venue wasn't so damn hot so it was also quite comfortable. The audience was nice too. At the end of the Jonne did jump on the drum riser and dragged down half of the drum set. There's something for the audience to remember. We still managed to do the encore though. Thanks to a quick crew.
I did mention earlier that there wasn't backstage or shower. That wasn't exactly true. There sort of was. We were using a kitchen as dressing room and that high pressure dish washing hand held hose thing was a decent shower! The bar staff getting the ice every now and then probably didn't appreciate the naked Finns showering in their kitchen that much though. Whatever. See us caring.
Afterparty was interesting. It was just basically hanging out and drinking beer with local people, which is nice if you happen to find someone interesting to talk to. Well, on this tour you'll always find someone like that if you're ready to settle for non-locals too! I have no idea how did it originally happen, but at some point I heard that the other bus is completely packed, like 30 people in. I wasn't even going to go and see that. Later there seemed to some sort of commotion and people were flying out from the bus. Apparently one of the guests had hit Ville. Didn't really damage him or anything, but still. So the idiot was thrown out. Completely drunk. A bit later he was abusing his girlfriend in front of the venue and Mitja called 911. Almost immediately 3 police cars show up. The idiot then attacks the police officers too. You can guess the rest. Yep, he's soon tazed, cuffed and dragged away. Interesting. Gotta love America.
Yesterday was a Sunday show. On every tour the shows from Sunday to Tuesday are always mysteries. Often in strange places and with a possibility of only 35 people showing up. Yesterday we were in St. Paul, MN. The venue is called Station 4. I don't know which one is a bigger shithole, Station 4 or Peabody's. At least Station 4 had a sort of a decent backstage this time, since they had acquired the premises next to them as well. It was a construction site basically but still it was a room! And a big one that is. It even had a huge basement which we of course explored and found for example a lovely old heating system that I first thought said "Eros" on it but then I took a loser look and saw that it was actually "Bros". Anyway, Markus and me found a water hose. Dirty as hell, but water was good. So we first washed a part of the dirty concrete floor and then threw the hose over some pipes and beams in the ceiling and lo and and behold: Station 4 had a shower!
I decided earlier that this time I will not spend an entire day on the bus. I checked online if there's anything to see and decided that the ancient Native American burial mounds were the thing to see. They were only 3.5km from the venue anyway which is a nice walking distance. After our nice breakfast/lunch at the local pub I managed to get Ville and Marko interested in joining me. We started to walk but right around the corner bumped into a bicycle rental station. "Well why the hell not", we thought. Suddenly we were on wheel. MC Hell's Satans. So we rode to the mounds. Not much to see there though, except these grassy hills of course. 6 of them are left. Something like 16 has been destroyed while "developing" the city. Way to go, us!
The day was probably the hottest so far. At least the venue was. It was quite nicely full. Not packed, but a nice crowd. I watched part of the Metsatöll show, mainly because Ville was taking care of their merchandise while they were on stage and I had to smuggle in some cold beers from the bus for him. I also watched the beginning of Moonsorrow's set. For the first few notes bass was earbreakingly loud. Apparently Ville had changed something on stage after the line check and had added something like +20dB to his signal. Definitely sounded like that!
We did a standard set, sans "Tequila" that dehydrated Jonne just simply forgot. It was too hot on stage. But it was a decent show again. "Ievan polkka" was a bit of a hit and miss since Jonne missed some verses or did them in wrong order and at some point no one knew where we were. Meh. You want to hear an album version perfectly performed you'd better listen to the album then! Actually "Wooden Pints" missed one verse as well. Jonne couldn't really breathe or sing anymore and he just mumbled in the mic "Rounakari, vedä soolo."
Afterparty was as usual, on the street next to our buses. Once the party moved in to the bus, I went to bed. And got up once the bus stopped in Eagleville, Missouri. Which is where I started this blog entry, but since this usually takes really long to write with all the pauses for chats, drinks, coffee breaks, etc, we are now actually next to Kansas City, KS. Kensington, says the GPS actually. Will post this now.
Saturday, 1 September 2012
A witty headline
Saturday, September 1, in the bus behind the venue in Joliet, IL.
It is raining. We now have all the ingredients for mojitos but the weather is not a mojito weather.
Opera House in Toronto, is still an ok venue. Not as lovely as the previous two, but still decent. The biggest problem is the complaining neighbours which means that you can only enter backstage during the changeovers or through the audience. It was painfully hot day and the backstage was like a Swedish sauna so we weren't really sitting there anyway. I hung my stage clothes to dry outside of the venue earlier in the day. When they were dry I carried them to backstage and they got wet again. Moist.
Audience was great. 620 attending. Nice. The set was the same but this time with the encore of "Wooden Pints" and "Pellonpekko". We didn't do any encores on the first two shows, but that doesn't mean that there was something wrong with the audiences. Basically it all goes back to the hand injury...
Aftershow party wasn't that much of a party. Some fans were buying alcohol for Moonsorrow and us in the nearest possibly bar. At least it was good to meet some old friends. We had a border crossing ahead after like a 2-hour drive or so. I wasn't sure if I should stay up drinking till that or go to bed. I did half and half. Had some drinks and then went to sleep closer to the border. That's idiocy for you, kids. Waking up after an hour like that is terrible. Border crossing was sort of smooth anyway. However, they did lose my immigration paper that was between my passport. Good thing that I checked my passport before we left. I had to go back to the immigration to get a new one issued. The officer tried to charge us money for re-issue until one of the other officers said to him: "Isn't that a bit wrong so it was actually us who lost it?" We didn't pay.
If Toronto was hot, Cleveland, OH was a fucking inferno. It was so hot outside that you actually WANTED to get in Peabody's. Peabody's is a shithole that should be blown up. Usually the smelly basement has been the backstage but now the whole basement was closed so there wasn't even a toilet for the bands available! What a dump. Again it was one those days spent everywhere else except at the venue.
We had a radio interview with Mitja and Heri. We were picked up from the venue and driven to the WRUW studio where we learn that it is not just an interview but a 2-hour show we're guesting. Metal Meltdown with Dr. Metal. "Dr. Metal, eh? And from which university is your degree again?" Not that bad for Mitja and myself but Heri had a show to catch. It was a rather relaxed event and Heri managed to get to his show on time. All good there.
The show was as usual, including the encore. Not big fuckups except that in the beginning Kalle couldn't really hear himself at all. That was soon fixed though. In general I'd say that the show was a routine show. Luckily our routine shows are still rather good.
At least the venue had booked a hotel room for us for the after show showers, which was nice. The aftershow party was pretty much standing on the sidewalk next to the buses with some local people. I drowned at least a million Bud Lights. I will never ever again try to get drunk with that shit. It is impossible. Just makes you full as hell.
In general I'd say that it was a pretty standard Peabody's show. Bands are good, audience is good, venue both sucks AND blows. Yes, it IS physically possible to suck and blow at the same time. But it was definitely good to see old friends, especially half of Forged In Flame with whom we toured earlier. Nice blokes, brilliant band.
I went to bed pretty much as soon as we left Cleveland. The excess amount of that horrible Bud Light had it's side effects so I had to get up 3 times in the next 2 hours or so. Every time there was the same person sleeping in the front lounge. First time, he was sitting on the couch, second time lying on the couch and third time lying on the floor with several full beer cans around him. I would like to hear THAT story.
And now we are at MoJoes in Joliet, IL. No backstage, no shower. Nothing. Gotta love America.
It is raining. We now have all the ingredients for mojitos but the weather is not a mojito weather.
Opera House in Toronto, is still an ok venue. Not as lovely as the previous two, but still decent. The biggest problem is the complaining neighbours which means that you can only enter backstage during the changeovers or through the audience. It was painfully hot day and the backstage was like a Swedish sauna so we weren't really sitting there anyway. I hung my stage clothes to dry outside of the venue earlier in the day. When they were dry I carried them to backstage and they got wet again. Moist.
Audience was great. 620 attending. Nice. The set was the same but this time with the encore of "Wooden Pints" and "Pellonpekko". We didn't do any encores on the first two shows, but that doesn't mean that there was something wrong with the audiences. Basically it all goes back to the hand injury...
Aftershow party wasn't that much of a party. Some fans were buying alcohol for Moonsorrow and us in the nearest possibly bar. At least it was good to meet some old friends. We had a border crossing ahead after like a 2-hour drive or so. I wasn't sure if I should stay up drinking till that or go to bed. I did half and half. Had some drinks and then went to sleep closer to the border. That's idiocy for you, kids. Waking up after an hour like that is terrible. Border crossing was sort of smooth anyway. However, they did lose my immigration paper that was between my passport. Good thing that I checked my passport before we left. I had to go back to the immigration to get a new one issued. The officer tried to charge us money for re-issue until one of the other officers said to him: "Isn't that a bit wrong so it was actually us who lost it?" We didn't pay.
If Toronto was hot, Cleveland, OH was a fucking inferno. It was so hot outside that you actually WANTED to get in Peabody's. Peabody's is a shithole that should be blown up. Usually the smelly basement has been the backstage but now the whole basement was closed so there wasn't even a toilet for the bands available! What a dump. Again it was one those days spent everywhere else except at the venue.
We had a radio interview with Mitja and Heri. We were picked up from the venue and driven to the WRUW studio where we learn that it is not just an interview but a 2-hour show we're guesting. Metal Meltdown with Dr. Metal. "Dr. Metal, eh? And from which university is your degree again?" Not that bad for Mitja and myself but Heri had a show to catch. It was a rather relaxed event and Heri managed to get to his show on time. All good there.
The show was as usual, including the encore. Not big fuckups except that in the beginning Kalle couldn't really hear himself at all. That was soon fixed though. In general I'd say that the show was a routine show. Luckily our routine shows are still rather good.
At least the venue had booked a hotel room for us for the after show showers, which was nice. The aftershow party was pretty much standing on the sidewalk next to the buses with some local people. I drowned at least a million Bud Lights. I will never ever again try to get drunk with that shit. It is impossible. Just makes you full as hell.
In general I'd say that it was a pretty standard Peabody's show. Bands are good, audience is good, venue both sucks AND blows. Yes, it IS physically possible to suck and blow at the same time. But it was definitely good to see old friends, especially half of Forged In Flame with whom we toured earlier. Nice blokes, brilliant band.
I went to bed pretty much as soon as we left Cleveland. The excess amount of that horrible Bud Light had it's side effects so I had to get up 3 times in the next 2 hours or so. Every time there was the same person sleeping in the front lounge. First time, he was sitting on the couch, second time lying on the couch and third time lying on the floor with several full beer cans around him. I would like to hear THAT story.
And now we are at MoJoes in Joliet, IL. No backstage, no shower. Nothing. Gotta love America.
Friday, 31 August 2012
Oravia. Oravia kaikkialla.
Thursday, August 30, 7:55, tour bus between Montreal and Toronto.
Had to get up from the bunk since the AC had stopped working. No air at all. And hot as hell.
Back to Quebec City. So found the venue finally. It was the Impérial as usual. It is one of the nice venues that we usually go. Even it was the first show on the tour there still were no fuck ups or any bigger delays while setting up the circus. Strange.
I went to see at least a bit of all bands from the audience (sans the local opener). Everyone had a nice audience. To me it seemed that they were a bit reserved and slightly coldish in the beginning of Metsatöll's set but soon warmed up. However Markus, their lead singer, said afterwards that he was happy with how the audience was fully into the show right from the beginning. Things look different from stage.
Tyr was as usual. Solid set. I think that they've actually changed their set so that there is a row of these faster songs like "Hold The Heathen Hammer High" at the end of their set. Seemed to work quite well.
Moonsorrow was definitely as usual. One of my favourite bands, never fail to deliver the goods. I've seen them countless times, many times also with one or more members completely wasted on stage, and they never played a bad show. Quebec was no exception. "Taistelu Pohjolasta" was a nice addition. A song from their first cassette demo in 1998 or something. Not my favourite song of theirs but a nice thing to dig up, polish a bit and play live.
Nervous people at the backstage before our set. Jonne worried if he can actually perform without a guitar or will just end up looking like a complete twat, Kalle worried if he will able play a flawless set, since there was now only one guitar in the band and all the mistakes would be only his and me worrying 'cause the other two were worrying. We have nice set lists printed out. However they were meant for the Mexico City show that was supposed to be long. On this tour our set time is supposed to be 75 minutes so we were already forced to drop some songs and now with no second guitar we have to drop some certain. We went through the set list and agreed on what to drop. Didn't print out new lists though. So we hit the stage with "Tuonelan tuvilla", a great opener by the way, Jonne runs up there a few seconds after the others, grabs his new mic stand, makes a few rock'n'roll moves and there it was. I knew that we were going to do well. All those years watching Popeda's now world famous Ratina Live 2008 DVD on our buses and dressing rooms finally payed off.
We did have a few awkward moments because of the set list changes though. Especially when Jonne skipped "Kipumylly" that wasn't supposed to be skipped. So Kalle didn't know that we were supposed to play "Metsälle". After that he was expecting "Kipumylly" again but instead Jonne announced "Sumussa hämärän aamun" which Kalle didn't hear. So he missed the beginning again. Nice.
Side note: Just passed the other bus parked at the side of the highway, called them, and now we're going back to pick all people from that bus since it obviously broke down. Nice. Have to pack this computer away now.
Outside of the venue on the bus, 18:00, Popeda on the stereo, Ville Sorvali on the beer.
It is hot. It is fucking hot. Inside the bus it is ok though.
Anyway, back to the Quebec's set. As I said, it had a few flaws but it was a good set. I think we sounded really good. We skipped the encore entirely since there was supposed to an instrumental and an almost instrumental, so not much to do for a guitarless Jonne.
After the Quebec show we tried to find ourselves a bar. Bus call was as late as 9 in the morning so we had plenty of time. We found one bar and it sucked. It had karaoke. I left early and went to bed and pretty much got up when we started to drive to Montreal.
It is a short drive and we arrived early at the lovely Club Soda. Seriously, the venue is really nice. The alley where the crew entrance and bus parking are hosts a bunch of crack houses and related lovely characters. Drug dealers and whores. Drug dealers don't really bother you, but the whores are a bit... straight forward. Whatever. I went online and searched for used record stores and found "The biggest vinyl store in Montreal". It was 3km away so I decided to have a nice walk in sunny Montreal. I passed through a nice park with lots of people enjoying the day, but the most striking feature were the squirrels. Squirrels, squirrels everywhere. Honestly, the record store wasn't THAT big. Poor Montrealiens. <- I just invented a new word there. And I did manage to find some decent vinyls as anyway. Two Ozzy 12" singles, one from Lynyrd Skynyrd, one from W.A.S.P. and also a W.A.S.P. shaped picture disc 7". Not bad.
I didn't watch any of the bands except part of Metsatöll's with Ville. They sounded really good and had a brilliant audience. The most strangest thing happened during Moonsorrow's set. I was sitting on the toilet at the backstage when they started "Sankaritarina". They made a mistake in the beginning! Moonsorrow! A mistake. Unbelievable. What next? You tell me that Elvis is dead?
We played the same set as the day before. Actually the same songs, this time in correct order. We had a lot of fun during the show. Paul from Blackguard had a good show. His stage diving was remarkable. Speed and somersaults. Gotta love the guy. Terje and Paul actually did some vocals on "Boozer" too.
Ville and myself actually founded a band during Metsatöll's show. Not with ourselves in it though. We were listening to Lauri's vocals and decided to found an acapella boy band with Lauri, Terje, Juho and Mitja. We would be the managers, producers, songwriters and those to get rich. This morning we came up with the name and the title for the first hit single. Hammer Boys: "I'd like to nail you with my hammer, sir". Can not fail.
Bus call was earlier in Montreal, at 3, but we still had time to visit the traditional Cafe Chaos. Didn't like that place either and left early. So did most of the others too. It was another early bed time. So now you're pretty much up to date since I started this entry from waking up this morning. Except for the stuff I've done today. First of all, we did a bit drunk early in the afternoon since we had a bus full of people and lots of beer. Later we (Matson, Ville, Marko, self) walked to a book store in the centre of Toronto, which is about 2,5km from venue. I got myself two Neil Peart books. I think that's the thing to do in Toronto. Now I'll go inside the venue and see if I can post this.
Had to get up from the bunk since the AC had stopped working. No air at all. And hot as hell.
Back to Quebec City. So found the venue finally. It was the Impérial as usual. It is one of the nice venues that we usually go. Even it was the first show on the tour there still were no fuck ups or any bigger delays while setting up the circus. Strange.
I went to see at least a bit of all bands from the audience (sans the local opener). Everyone had a nice audience. To me it seemed that they were a bit reserved and slightly coldish in the beginning of Metsatöll's set but soon warmed up. However Markus, their lead singer, said afterwards that he was happy with how the audience was fully into the show right from the beginning. Things look different from stage.
Tyr was as usual. Solid set. I think that they've actually changed their set so that there is a row of these faster songs like "Hold The Heathen Hammer High" at the end of their set. Seemed to work quite well.
Moonsorrow was definitely as usual. One of my favourite bands, never fail to deliver the goods. I've seen them countless times, many times also with one or more members completely wasted on stage, and they never played a bad show. Quebec was no exception. "Taistelu Pohjolasta" was a nice addition. A song from their first cassette demo in 1998 or something. Not my favourite song of theirs but a nice thing to dig up, polish a bit and play live.
Nervous people at the backstage before our set. Jonne worried if he can actually perform without a guitar or will just end up looking like a complete twat, Kalle worried if he will able play a flawless set, since there was now only one guitar in the band and all the mistakes would be only his and me worrying 'cause the other two were worrying. We have nice set lists printed out. However they were meant for the Mexico City show that was supposed to be long. On this tour our set time is supposed to be 75 minutes so we were already forced to drop some songs and now with no second guitar we have to drop some certain. We went through the set list and agreed on what to drop. Didn't print out new lists though. So we hit the stage with "Tuonelan tuvilla", a great opener by the way, Jonne runs up there a few seconds after the others, grabs his new mic stand, makes a few rock'n'roll moves and there it was. I knew that we were going to do well. All those years watching Popeda's now world famous Ratina Live 2008 DVD on our buses and dressing rooms finally payed off.
We did have a few awkward moments because of the set list changes though. Especially when Jonne skipped "Kipumylly" that wasn't supposed to be skipped. So Kalle didn't know that we were supposed to play "Metsälle". After that he was expecting "Kipumylly" again but instead Jonne announced "Sumussa hämärän aamun" which Kalle didn't hear. So he missed the beginning again. Nice.
Side note: Just passed the other bus parked at the side of the highway, called them, and now we're going back to pick all people from that bus since it obviously broke down. Nice. Have to pack this computer away now.
Outside of the venue on the bus, 18:00, Popeda on the stereo, Ville Sorvali on the beer.
It is hot. It is fucking hot. Inside the bus it is ok though.
Anyway, back to the Quebec's set. As I said, it had a few flaws but it was a good set. I think we sounded really good. We skipped the encore entirely since there was supposed to an instrumental and an almost instrumental, so not much to do for a guitarless Jonne.
After the Quebec show we tried to find ourselves a bar. Bus call was as late as 9 in the morning so we had plenty of time. We found one bar and it sucked. It had karaoke. I left early and went to bed and pretty much got up when we started to drive to Montreal.
It is a short drive and we arrived early at the lovely Club Soda. Seriously, the venue is really nice. The alley where the crew entrance and bus parking are hosts a bunch of crack houses and related lovely characters. Drug dealers and whores. Drug dealers don't really bother you, but the whores are a bit... straight forward. Whatever. I went online and searched for used record stores and found "The biggest vinyl store in Montreal". It was 3km away so I decided to have a nice walk in sunny Montreal. I passed through a nice park with lots of people enjoying the day, but the most striking feature were the squirrels. Squirrels, squirrels everywhere. Honestly, the record store wasn't THAT big. Poor Montrealiens. <- I just invented a new word there. And I did manage to find some decent vinyls as anyway. Two Ozzy 12" singles, one from Lynyrd Skynyrd, one from W.A.S.P. and also a W.A.S.P. shaped picture disc 7". Not bad.
I didn't watch any of the bands except part of Metsatöll's with Ville. They sounded really good and had a brilliant audience. The most strangest thing happened during Moonsorrow's set. I was sitting on the toilet at the backstage when they started "Sankaritarina". They made a mistake in the beginning! Moonsorrow! A mistake. Unbelievable. What next? You tell me that Elvis is dead?
We played the same set as the day before. Actually the same songs, this time in correct order. We had a lot of fun during the show. Paul from Blackguard had a good show. His stage diving was remarkable. Speed and somersaults. Gotta love the guy. Terje and Paul actually did some vocals on "Boozer" too.
Ville and myself actually founded a band during Metsatöll's show. Not with ourselves in it though. We were listening to Lauri's vocals and decided to found an acapella boy band with Lauri, Terje, Juho and Mitja. We would be the managers, producers, songwriters and those to get rich. This morning we came up with the name and the title for the first hit single. Hammer Boys: "I'd like to nail you with my hammer, sir". Can not fail.
Bus call was earlier in Montreal, at 3, but we still had time to visit the traditional Cafe Chaos. Didn't like that place either and left early. So did most of the others too. It was another early bed time. So now you're pretty much up to date since I started this entry from waking up this morning. Except for the stuff I've done today. First of all, we did a bit drunk early in the afternoon since we had a bus full of people and lots of beer. Later we (Matson, Ville, Marko, self) walked to a book store in the centre of Toronto, which is about 2,5km from venue. I got myself two Neil Peart books. I think that's the thing to do in Toronto. Now I'll go inside the venue and see if I can post this.
Wednesday, 29 August 2012
Fingers to the bone
Wednesday, August 29, morning, tour bus between Quebec City and Montreal.
The last update was written on Sunday on the plane. Where did I lose the days between?
Well, we finally arrived to Newark with all our gear and even managed to drag all that and our asses to the other side of New York, that being Best Western of Jamaica, NY. This was already late evening, but luckily the nearby gas station was still open and we managed to get some beer and food. Pizzeria was closed though so the evening's menu consisted of beer and potato chips.
At the hotel we finally find all the other bands. Some of the guys are already asleep (or passed out, I couldn't tell the difference) but some were still up drinking. We joined them. It was a nice evening of course had to end badly. Later when I was already in bed there were still some people in our room drunk, and of course start hearing these loud voices saying "shit it's hurting!" and "I can see the bones!". Jonne had somehow managed to land on his own hand and broken a bone which then had pushed through the skin. Nice. They drunk horde then walked to a nearby hospital to get it fixed. Jonne ended up staying there till 10 next morning. Later Jonne told us about the moment when it hurt the most, so much that he almost passed out. It was when they were walking to the hospital and lovely caring Terje of Tyr grabbed his broken finger and said "You should keep it above your heart level."
Schedule for Tuesday said that buses will arrive at 10, we'll then go pick up the backline and then head to Canada. No one expected the buses to arrive on time. They never do. So we were prepared to leave around 11. They didn't arrive. We managed to leave sometime in the afternoon. I think it was somewhere between 14-15. Travel day, gas station, cold beer. No one was really complaining. The first complaints were heard at the Canadian border. People were getting awfully drunk and the immigration was getting awfully slow. Finally in Canada we drive to lovely little town of St. Hubert, park at the motel driveway and let the drivers sleep. Everyone else went to bed at some point, but Matti and myself were staying up late and drinking. It was a hilarious night. Blasting out Manowar and Iron Maiden. Not much detailed memories from that night.
Soon it was Tuesday, the first actual tour day with a show and all. While we were approaching Quebec City I was sitting up in front with the driver. His GPS was telling us that we're 1/4 mile away from the venue and we were driving in some suburb. I told him that I've been at the venue before and it is in the city. This has to be a wrong address. I end up checking the address with my phone's GPS. I took as a while to figure out what was the problem. It was the same so many times before: the French. In the 15km radius from the Quebec City centre there are 3 different Rue Saint-Josephs! And for example my GPS gives a different street if searching for "St Joseph" or "Saint Joseph". Only the French.
Will continue later. Arrived in Montreal.
The last update was written on Sunday on the plane. Where did I lose the days between?
Well, we finally arrived to Newark with all our gear and even managed to drag all that and our asses to the other side of New York, that being Best Western of Jamaica, NY. This was already late evening, but luckily the nearby gas station was still open and we managed to get some beer and food. Pizzeria was closed though so the evening's menu consisted of beer and potato chips.
At the hotel we finally find all the other bands. Some of the guys are already asleep (or passed out, I couldn't tell the difference) but some were still up drinking. We joined them. It was a nice evening of course had to end badly. Later when I was already in bed there were still some people in our room drunk, and of course start hearing these loud voices saying "shit it's hurting!" and "I can see the bones!". Jonne had somehow managed to land on his own hand and broken a bone which then had pushed through the skin. Nice. They drunk horde then walked to a nearby hospital to get it fixed. Jonne ended up staying there till 10 next morning. Later Jonne told us about the moment when it hurt the most, so much that he almost passed out. It was when they were walking to the hospital and lovely caring Terje of Tyr grabbed his broken finger and said "You should keep it above your heart level."
Schedule for Tuesday said that buses will arrive at 10, we'll then go pick up the backline and then head to Canada. No one expected the buses to arrive on time. They never do. So we were prepared to leave around 11. They didn't arrive. We managed to leave sometime in the afternoon. I think it was somewhere between 14-15. Travel day, gas station, cold beer. No one was really complaining. The first complaints were heard at the Canadian border. People were getting awfully drunk and the immigration was getting awfully slow. Finally in Canada we drive to lovely little town of St. Hubert, park at the motel driveway and let the drivers sleep. Everyone else went to bed at some point, but Matti and myself were staying up late and drinking. It was a hilarious night. Blasting out Manowar and Iron Maiden. Not much detailed memories from that night.
Soon it was Tuesday, the first actual tour day with a show and all. While we were approaching Quebec City I was sitting up in front with the driver. His GPS was telling us that we're 1/4 mile away from the venue and we were driving in some suburb. I told him that I've been at the venue before and it is in the city. This has to be a wrong address. I end up checking the address with my phone's GPS. I took as a while to figure out what was the problem. It was the same so many times before: the French. In the 15km radius from the Quebec City centre there are 3 different Rue Saint-Josephs! And for example my GPS gives a different street if searching for "St Joseph" or "Saint Joseph". Only the French.
Will continue later. Arrived in Montreal.
Monday, 27 August 2012
Mexico City
Sunday 26th, afternoon, on a plane from Mexico City to Newark.
What's been going on since the last entry on Saturday morning. Well, we went for a long breakfast at the hotel with Juho and Tuomas. Seriously, we sat there for almost two hours, ate well and even played a game of Scrabble (in English) at which I beat up Juho badly, as usual. Since all three were sort of jet lagged, up early and not a thing to do before the lost gear was due to arrive we decided to head for the old city centre. I had of course earlier already been online trying to figure out where to go in Mexico City to find more rare items for my already vast Black Sabbath vinyl collection. I found a blog about the street market on Avenida Balderas being the best option so I added that location to our itinerary for the day. Both were about 5km away from our hotel but we decided to walk anyway, since we had nothing but time to kill anyway.
So around 11 we step out of the hotel and as usual in Mexico we find two young female fans waiting outside for signatures and photos. We change a few words with them and in the end I tell them that since all other band members are sleeping and probably will be doing so for several hours more you have nothing to do here so you might as well join us for a walk and act as the tour guides as well. They said "Ok, why not. Let's go." So we went. Although after 20 metres the girls asked if we were serious about walking since the area ain't the safest possible. They suggested a subway and who were we to say no. They were even paying. Although I think the subway in Mexico City is terribly cheap, at least by European standards. Well, thank you anyway.
We ended up next to some museum. Nice looking building. Didn't go in though. Instead we decided to go the top of the high rise next to that. View was supposed to be nice. It was, if you like a huge city till horizon. From there we took a walk to the actual old centre with presidential palace and such. We even visited a cathedral. Eventually we found our way to Avenida Balderas as well and lo and behold there were Mexican pressings of Black Sabbath for sale. I spent all my pesos on them and even had to borrow some more from our guides. There was also several Iron Maiden vinyls that I really wanted but couldn't really borrow any more pesos from the poor girl. And of course that being a street market a credit card was definitely not an option. Not even dollars, which was a bit surprising. In the area there was also this huge shopping area that Tuomas dragged us in, but to be honest, it all looked like any terrible tourist trap. Which was sort of strange since we were definitely not in the area where standard tourists are flooding in. Or maybe everything that we think is just stereotypical Mexican crap made for the tourists is actually genuine Mexican crap. We returned again to the centre for lunch. I got myself a beer and the worst ever Pasta Quattro Formaggi. Or whatever Quattro Quesos that was. That was crap. Didn't cost much and I was still disappointed. Almost as disappointed as when I bought the first solo album by Mantas (Venom guitarist) for 9 Finnish markkas = 1,40€. Worst 9FIM I ever spent. I did just write "the first solo album". I seriously hope he never released any more.
It was time to head back to the hotel since Juho being the one who's name is on the Korpiklaani Oy Ltd's ATA Carnet had to be at the airport declaring our gear at the customs. Girls were nice enough to escort us back too. Since it was only part of our crew and Juho picking up the gear, the rest of us were just lazying around in the hotel waiting for a pick up. The girls joined us up in our room (Cane and myself sharing a room). And no, it was nothing like what you'd expect. We were being complete gentlemen aka boring old farts. I was lying on the bed checking my emails and stuff and the girls were borrowing the hotel network and checking theirs or whatever they were doing. Geeks all the way.
Side note: While writing this I have Primordial on my headphones. I've said this many times, I've even said this to Alan Averill himself, but I will say it again. "Empire Falls" is one of the greatest songs ever written and performed. By any band.
Anyway, the gear had finally arrived and the pick up time was approaching so we gathered at the lobby bar for beers and soon were driven to the venue. We had the girls write down their names and put them on the guest list, so they were able to sell their tickets and this way get a little compensation for all their troubles. Or maybe they were just happy to hang around with huge international rock stars and would have done it for free. I just said "it". Eehehheheheheheehe. Eehhe. Eh?
We were actually playing in the smaller venue of Circo Volador. I didn't even know it had a smaller venue. It wasn't that small after all. Quite nice in fact, except that the stage lights were too low. So. Fucking. Hot. The last time there with Arkona the venue wasn't even nearly full so I guess playing in the smaller venue was a good idea. At least it was packed.
The original info that we got about the evening's schedule was that the doors were supposed to open at 20:00, band will start around 21:00 with a strict curfew at 23:00. When we arrived to the venue was it already almost 19. And then we learn that doors were supposed to open at 18:00 and the show was supposed to start at 20:00. Well, we were basically able to do that but then Juho's accordion started acting up. It had the same problem as once before. It wouldn't turn on. It has some sort of safety feature that if the battery cover screws are not tight enough it won't turn on. Tightening them didn't help this time. We were already ready to do a show with Juho playing a standard keyboard. We did a quick one song soundcheck without the accordion. Then the audience was let in. While the others were at the dressing room being annoyed by the wayward accordion Juho was doing something to that. I don't know what. Probably dropping it from the roof. Whatever it was, it worked, the accordion started to work.
After all the hassle we started our show at 20:30. Close enough. We played a really tight set in front of a really enthusiastic audience. It was Mexico, so I wouldn't expect anything less. We played pretty much the same set as we've done now a few times after the album release. Slight changes in the order, like starting with "Tuonelan tuvilla" for the first time ever. It was a good show. Not much talking, just blasting out a song after another so it was a music packed 95 minutes.
After the show I took the first possible ride back to the hotel. Was tired as hell. I know it was a bit rude but at the hotel I just quickly jumped out of the van and into the hotel avoiding the vast crowd of fans standing outside. I knew I was coming back out anyway. After a quick shower I got dressed, popped open a beer and headed down to meet the crowd. Our tour guide chicks had arrived there too to say goodbye since they were going home. After signing lots of pictures of myself and posing for some more, I headed back in and took the girls with me to the hotel restaurant where I just saw Juho and Tuomas enter for a late night dinner since the girls wanted to say goodbye to them as well. The rest started to arrive there too with some beers so we had a nice little dinner with close friends. I was seriously tired so it was an early bed time for me.
Lobby call today was at 10. I got up early and packed my stuff wondering how the hell had I managed to fit all that stuff in the suitcase at home. I guess it was heat expansion. Finland vs. Mexico. Morning was a standard morning until we got to the airport where it all went down to hell from the beginning. First the customs. It took a fucking hour to get the same gear checked again a day after. Then the checkin desk was being one of the slowest ever. Not as slow as the Asian chick working for Finnair at Helsinki-Vantaa though... And then these wankers have a funny way of deciding the overweight prices. First of all, you have to pay 40USD for each extra piece of luggage. Unless it is over 25kg, when it is logically 40+200USD. Unless it is also longer than 62inches, when it is 40+200+200USD. So my bass case just cost us 440USD. Which is sort of funny, since we have also heavier and longer cases, but for some reason they were all ok. They'd better fucking deliver it the Newark too!
Of course there was also the problem of Cane and myself being put on the waiting list since the flight was overbooked as they so often on this continent are. Anyway, we're on the plane now. Just passed through a long section of clear air turbulence. Nice, starts to be cheaper than the entrance to the local amusement park in Tampere...
Today we're meeting the rest of the bands in Jamaica, NY. I expect heavy drinking. Moonsorrow guys are terrible.
What's been going on since the last entry on Saturday morning. Well, we went for a long breakfast at the hotel with Juho and Tuomas. Seriously, we sat there for almost two hours, ate well and even played a game of Scrabble (in English) at which I beat up Juho badly, as usual. Since all three were sort of jet lagged, up early and not a thing to do before the lost gear was due to arrive we decided to head for the old city centre. I had of course earlier already been online trying to figure out where to go in Mexico City to find more rare items for my already vast Black Sabbath vinyl collection. I found a blog about the street market on Avenida Balderas being the best option so I added that location to our itinerary for the day. Both were about 5km away from our hotel but we decided to walk anyway, since we had nothing but time to kill anyway.
So around 11 we step out of the hotel and as usual in Mexico we find two young female fans waiting outside for signatures and photos. We change a few words with them and in the end I tell them that since all other band members are sleeping and probably will be doing so for several hours more you have nothing to do here so you might as well join us for a walk and act as the tour guides as well. They said "Ok, why not. Let's go." So we went. Although after 20 metres the girls asked if we were serious about walking since the area ain't the safest possible. They suggested a subway and who were we to say no. They were even paying. Although I think the subway in Mexico City is terribly cheap, at least by European standards. Well, thank you anyway.
We ended up next to some museum. Nice looking building. Didn't go in though. Instead we decided to go the top of the high rise next to that. View was supposed to be nice. It was, if you like a huge city till horizon. From there we took a walk to the actual old centre with presidential palace and such. We even visited a cathedral. Eventually we found our way to Avenida Balderas as well and lo and behold there were Mexican pressings of Black Sabbath for sale. I spent all my pesos on them and even had to borrow some more from our guides. There was also several Iron Maiden vinyls that I really wanted but couldn't really borrow any more pesos from the poor girl. And of course that being a street market a credit card was definitely not an option. Not even dollars, which was a bit surprising. In the area there was also this huge shopping area that Tuomas dragged us in, but to be honest, it all looked like any terrible tourist trap. Which was sort of strange since we were definitely not in the area where standard tourists are flooding in. Or maybe everything that we think is just stereotypical Mexican crap made for the tourists is actually genuine Mexican crap. We returned again to the centre for lunch. I got myself a beer and the worst ever Pasta Quattro Formaggi. Or whatever Quattro Quesos that was. That was crap. Didn't cost much and I was still disappointed. Almost as disappointed as when I bought the first solo album by Mantas (Venom guitarist) for 9 Finnish markkas = 1,40€. Worst 9FIM I ever spent. I did just write "the first solo album". I seriously hope he never released any more.
It was time to head back to the hotel since Juho being the one who's name is on the Korpiklaani Oy Ltd's ATA Carnet had to be at the airport declaring our gear at the customs. Girls were nice enough to escort us back too. Since it was only part of our crew and Juho picking up the gear, the rest of us were just lazying around in the hotel waiting for a pick up. The girls joined us up in our room (Cane and myself sharing a room). And no, it was nothing like what you'd expect. We were being complete gentlemen aka boring old farts. I was lying on the bed checking my emails and stuff and the girls were borrowing the hotel network and checking theirs or whatever they were doing. Geeks all the way.
Side note: While writing this I have Primordial on my headphones. I've said this many times, I've even said this to Alan Averill himself, but I will say it again. "Empire Falls" is one of the greatest songs ever written and performed. By any band.
Anyway, the gear had finally arrived and the pick up time was approaching so we gathered at the lobby bar for beers and soon were driven to the venue. We had the girls write down their names and put them on the guest list, so they were able to sell their tickets and this way get a little compensation for all their troubles. Or maybe they were just happy to hang around with huge international rock stars and would have done it for free. I just said "it". Eehehheheheheheehe. Eehhe. Eh?
We were actually playing in the smaller venue of Circo Volador. I didn't even know it had a smaller venue. It wasn't that small after all. Quite nice in fact, except that the stage lights were too low. So. Fucking. Hot. The last time there with Arkona the venue wasn't even nearly full so I guess playing in the smaller venue was a good idea. At least it was packed.
The original info that we got about the evening's schedule was that the doors were supposed to open at 20:00, band will start around 21:00 with a strict curfew at 23:00. When we arrived to the venue was it already almost 19. And then we learn that doors were supposed to open at 18:00 and the show was supposed to start at 20:00. Well, we were basically able to do that but then Juho's accordion started acting up. It had the same problem as once before. It wouldn't turn on. It has some sort of safety feature that if the battery cover screws are not tight enough it won't turn on. Tightening them didn't help this time. We were already ready to do a show with Juho playing a standard keyboard. We did a quick one song soundcheck without the accordion. Then the audience was let in. While the others were at the dressing room being annoyed by the wayward accordion Juho was doing something to that. I don't know what. Probably dropping it from the roof. Whatever it was, it worked, the accordion started to work.
After all the hassle we started our show at 20:30. Close enough. We played a really tight set in front of a really enthusiastic audience. It was Mexico, so I wouldn't expect anything less. We played pretty much the same set as we've done now a few times after the album release. Slight changes in the order, like starting with "Tuonelan tuvilla" for the first time ever. It was a good show. Not much talking, just blasting out a song after another so it was a music packed 95 minutes.
After the show I took the first possible ride back to the hotel. Was tired as hell. I know it was a bit rude but at the hotel I just quickly jumped out of the van and into the hotel avoiding the vast crowd of fans standing outside. I knew I was coming back out anyway. After a quick shower I got dressed, popped open a beer and headed down to meet the crowd. Our tour guide chicks had arrived there too to say goodbye since they were going home. After signing lots of pictures of myself and posing for some more, I headed back in and took the girls with me to the hotel restaurant where I just saw Juho and Tuomas enter for a late night dinner since the girls wanted to say goodbye to them as well. The rest started to arrive there too with some beers so we had a nice little dinner with close friends. I was seriously tired so it was an early bed time for me.
Lobby call today was at 10. I got up early and packed my stuff wondering how the hell had I managed to fit all that stuff in the suitcase at home. I guess it was heat expansion. Finland vs. Mexico. Morning was a standard morning until we got to the airport where it all went down to hell from the beginning. First the customs. It took a fucking hour to get the same gear checked again a day after. Then the checkin desk was being one of the slowest ever. Not as slow as the Asian chick working for Finnair at Helsinki-Vantaa though... And then these wankers have a funny way of deciding the overweight prices. First of all, you have to pay 40USD for each extra piece of luggage. Unless it is over 25kg, when it is logically 40+200USD. Unless it is also longer than 62inches, when it is 40+200+200USD. So my bass case just cost us 440USD. Which is sort of funny, since we have also heavier and longer cases, but for some reason they were all ok. They'd better fucking deliver it the Newark too!
Of course there was also the problem of Cane and myself being put on the waiting list since the flight was overbooked as they so often on this continent are. Anyway, we're on the plane now. Just passed through a long section of clear air turbulence. Nice, starts to be cheaper than the entrance to the local amusement park in Tampere...
Today we're meeting the rest of the bands in Jamaica, NY. I expect heavy drinking. Moonsorrow guys are terrible.
Saturday, 25 August 2012
To blog or not to blog
It is 5am in Mexico City and I am wide awake. Was U2's "Wide Awake in America" about jet lag too? I haven't been writing this blog for ages. Mainly because I've been too lazy. I won't promise the return of the blog now either but since I've got nothing else to do right now...
Anyway. We're in Mexico City. Today we're supposed to start the North American "Manala" tour at Circo Volador, the venue we've played already twice in the past. Nice place and usually a lot of people there too. This is sort of a pre-tour show though, since the rest of the touring bands will join us in a couple of days in New York. Actually it will be in Jamaica, NY. Whatever.
We left Tampere at 3:30am, had a flight from Helsinki-Vantaa to Heathrow at 8:00. Arrived a bit after 9 local time. Since the connection was at 14 we had plenty of time which Cane, Masa and myself spent drinking ice cold Magner's cider at the local boozer. We were a bit drunk when boarding the plane. On the plane we had a bit of vodka left and as soon as the service started we got ourselves a few gin&tonics, had the meal and fell asleep. I remember seeing the screen saying "Flight time to destination: 9:15". Next time I saw that it said 3:00. And the second I woke up we were pretty much preparing for landing. Mission accomplished.
To accomplish something is however not the phrase I would use for British Airways. The wankers left all our gear in Heathrow. Before we took off a flight attendant even came to ask to see my luggage tags to check if someone seriously had 7 pieces of luggage. I said to the guy "So there is a chance that our luggage will actually arrive to Mexico City today?" to which he sarcastically replied "Yes, there is a small chance." Nice. Little did we know.
Since 1 of the 7 pieces arrived, that being my standard suitcase, I assume that British Airways deliberately left all the flight cases in London. Six that were on me, and the two on Juho and Tuomas. And we even had to pay extra for the "service". The current information we have says that they will arrive today on an Iberia flight about 3h before the doors of Circo Volador open. We'll see. I am not counting on it. After all, it is Iberia.
And to add to the insult, while our row of Masa, Cane and myself was loudly snoring, someone had been smoking in the lavatory and the asswipe of a flight attendant comes to shout at the other three that "Smoking in the lavatories is a crime!" Shouting that to two guys who do not even smoke and one with fucking snus in his mouth to ease the pain of a smoker on a long flight. What a fucking cunt that guy was. Seriously. Should be fired, but then again maybe he is exactly a person British Airways like to have on their payroll.
Anyway, we're in Mexico city and still hoping to be able to play a show tonight.
Anyway. We're in Mexico City. Today we're supposed to start the North American "Manala" tour at Circo Volador, the venue we've played already twice in the past. Nice place and usually a lot of people there too. This is sort of a pre-tour show though, since the rest of the touring bands will join us in a couple of days in New York. Actually it will be in Jamaica, NY. Whatever.
We left Tampere at 3:30am, had a flight from Helsinki-Vantaa to Heathrow at 8:00. Arrived a bit after 9 local time. Since the connection was at 14 we had plenty of time which Cane, Masa and myself spent drinking ice cold Magner's cider at the local boozer. We were a bit drunk when boarding the plane. On the plane we had a bit of vodka left and as soon as the service started we got ourselves a few gin&tonics, had the meal and fell asleep. I remember seeing the screen saying "Flight time to destination: 9:15". Next time I saw that it said 3:00. And the second I woke up we were pretty much preparing for landing. Mission accomplished.
To accomplish something is however not the phrase I would use for British Airways. The wankers left all our gear in Heathrow. Before we took off a flight attendant even came to ask to see my luggage tags to check if someone seriously had 7 pieces of luggage. I said to the guy "So there is a chance that our luggage will actually arrive to Mexico City today?" to which he sarcastically replied "Yes, there is a small chance." Nice. Little did we know.
Since 1 of the 7 pieces arrived, that being my standard suitcase, I assume that British Airways deliberately left all the flight cases in London. Six that were on me, and the two on Juho and Tuomas. And we even had to pay extra for the "service". The current information we have says that they will arrive today on an Iberia flight about 3h before the doors of Circo Volador open. We'll see. I am not counting on it. After all, it is Iberia.
And to add to the insult, while our row of Masa, Cane and myself was loudly snoring, someone had been smoking in the lavatory and the asswipe of a flight attendant comes to shout at the other three that "Smoking in the lavatories is a crime!" Shouting that to two guys who do not even smoke and one with fucking snus in his mouth to ease the pain of a smoker on a long flight. What a fucking cunt that guy was. Seriously. Should be fired, but then again maybe he is exactly a person British Airways like to have on their payroll.
Anyway, we're in Mexico city and still hoping to be able to play a show tonight.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)