The summer is about to end. You know that because the festival bookings are getting fever and fever. And from the calendar too. I am not absolutely sure but I think Summer Breeze and Lowlands were the last open air festivals this year so the summer is officially over. We had a pretty shitty schedule since we were flying from Helsinki-Vantaa really early on Friday morning which meant that we had to leave around 2 in the night. Nö sleep at all. Both me and and Jonne were by the way at the Motörhead show where they recorded their Nö Sleep At All live album. The show was brilliant, the album sucked then and still does. Aaaanyway, really early at the airport on Friday. We had some new lighter guitar cases and for the first time in some time we were way under our weight limit.
We were in Frankfurt a bit before the bus. We had a meeting at McDonalds. Why don't they have veggie burgers? They should. And the same goes to Burger King. The bus arrived. The best tour bus we've ever had. Really cool double decker with two lounges, two TV/Stereo/DVD-systems and everything. Really nice. Looks like we're doing the Finnish Fire tour with the same bus which is more than fine with me.
I really have to admit that my memories from Summer Breeze are a bit vague. I do remember the area and the show but the rest is a bit blurry. I remember some people though, like Emmi from Enska with whom I was watching Eluveitie and drinking her vodka. It's so nice that she's finally old enough to buy that herself. Then I remember later meeting Eluveitie people at the backstage including the two new members. I also remember talking to them. No idea what though. Probably insulted them: "You'll never be able to replace the Kirder brothers!" or something like that. And then there was this German female bassist we've met several times through the years. I think she was with Pain at some point. And I believe I have a picture of her boobs. At least they look like hers.
I remember that at one point of the night Cane and myself were telling Jonne that "No, we can't do a TV interview now, we're way too drunk for that", but Jonne just said that "C'mon, it will be even better like that!" Next morning when I wake up in the bus on our way to the next festival I check my messages and see that there's a message from Matte, the manager: "TV interview @ 21.30. Press tent." Paukku was also awake at that point and we had a small conversation:
- "Oh, we must have missed that one."
- "What do you mean?! You did the interview. Jonne, Cane and yourself."
- "Really? I have no recollection of that."
- "No wonder, you were a bit drunk. All of you. Luckily I have some video material from that."
- "Great."
It appears that there happened quite a lot of things during the interview. Not exactly the interview though. I was talking most of the time to someone else, Cane passed out during the interview but Jonne did his best with the interviewer. Or so I heard. And it only went downhill from there. You'll get to see the video when all persons involved are dead and gone. And with the life style like this, it won't take that long.
On Saturday we were playing in the Netherlands at Lowlands festival. I had not checked anything about that festival before and it really surprised me with it's size. It was a really big festival with several stages which were all in tents of different sizes. It was also nicely diverse. There were many different musical styles represented which was really nice for a change after all the metal festivals. That doesn't really mean that I watched them but still. At least it was a nice change to maybe get some new fans since the main portion of the crowd was definitely not metal crowd. I think we did that. We did a good solid show with no big problems. The tent was full, not packed though. It looked like there indeed was quite many people who probably saw us for the first time and they seemed to enjoy the show as well as the more familiar people, so I guess it did some good to us.
After the show we once again had plenty of time do whatever we wanted. It included alcohol. I had a lot of fun with the bus driver and Hittis during and after the dinner since they were serving free alcohol and we started using the straws as weapons, meaning that we were blowing pieces of napkins through them. The floor was covered with the paper mass when we left.
During the evening I went to see only two bands, Nightwish and Sex Pistols. I think I watched maybe three songs from Nightwish until I understood that I honestly really don't like their music. Later it was time for Sex Pistols. I went to see them from the beginning and ended up waiting an extra 25 minutes since they just decided to let people wait. I was a bit skeptical about the whole thing. They finally started and four songs was enough for me. Tired, uninspired, boring. Good sound though. They released one album in 1977. Nothing more. 31 years ago. It is a good solid rock album. But still. They are touring around the world playing the entire album and a few covers. I guess they are still doing "The Great Rock'n'roll Swindle".
I guess that was basically our summer. Now we have a few one-offs to do and then another tour starting on November 13. See you then!
Thursday, 28 August 2008
Thursday, 14 August 2008
Pellavarock and rehearsals
Pellavarock, Lammi, Finland. Nice little one-day festival at the lake side. Last time we played there was in 2005 and from there we left for our first although short European tour which included Summerbreeze festival as well. Three years later it happens again, first Pellavarock and a week later Summerbreeze. Coincidence? Yes.
Anyway, I drove to Pellavarock myself. It's only about an hour drive from my home and we left around 14.30 which felt a bit strange since we were supposed to play in like three hours or so and it didn't feel like a festival at all. It was nice to meet some Finnish friends for a change, like Janne from Rytmihäiriö/Moonsorrow and the festival guys. The festival itself had two stages, we were on the small one. The basic idea was that there were no big gaps between the bands. When one band finishes the other one starts on another stage. This also meant that the change over times were really long. I think we had something like 1 hour 20 minutes or so. And still we manage to be ready just in the last minute. That wasn't entirely our fault though. There seemed to be quite a lot wrong on the stage and for example the bass setup which usually is the fastest took really long. And we didn't have our own stage guys either. Paukku was giving a hard time for the festival crew and the stage tech got so pissed off that he walked off the stage. FOH tech brought him back and together they managed to get the stage done.
We played our normal set once again. No changes whatsoever. From the stage I noticed some familiar faces in the front row. Of course there were the "local guys" as usual but also some old friends from Italy and UK which was a nice surprise. I hope they had a good time in Finland. After the show we spent a while sitting at the backstage but quite soon left and drove back home. So nothing spectacular in this festival trip.
We've been playing basically the same set from the Paganfest till now. Only small changes every now and then, mostly when we have had to adapt to shorter sets. However we've been talking about changing the set a bit and it's finally happening. We've been rehearsing quite well in the past few weeks. I guess we're going to continue with the same set through the festival season but later this year there's going to be some changes. We've been rehearsing four songs that have never been on the set list and three songs that haven't been there for a while. One of them is so old that Juho and myself have never played that live. Oooooh, the excitement!
Anyway, we're leaving tomorrow morning at 2 to Germany again. Maybe I should get drunk today. Paukku can pick me up from a bar. Hmm. Interesting.
Anyway, I drove to Pellavarock myself. It's only about an hour drive from my home and we left around 14.30 which felt a bit strange since we were supposed to play in like three hours or so and it didn't feel like a festival at all. It was nice to meet some Finnish friends for a change, like Janne from Rytmihäiriö/Moonsorrow and the festival guys. The festival itself had two stages, we were on the small one. The basic idea was that there were no big gaps between the bands. When one band finishes the other one starts on another stage. This also meant that the change over times were really long. I think we had something like 1 hour 20 minutes or so. And still we manage to be ready just in the last minute. That wasn't entirely our fault though. There seemed to be quite a lot wrong on the stage and for example the bass setup which usually is the fastest took really long. And we didn't have our own stage guys either. Paukku was giving a hard time for the festival crew and the stage tech got so pissed off that he walked off the stage. FOH tech brought him back and together they managed to get the stage done.
We played our normal set once again. No changes whatsoever. From the stage I noticed some familiar faces in the front row. Of course there were the "local guys" as usual but also some old friends from Italy and UK which was a nice surprise. I hope they had a good time in Finland. After the show we spent a while sitting at the backstage but quite soon left and drove back home. So nothing spectacular in this festival trip.
We've been playing basically the same set from the Paganfest till now. Only small changes every now and then, mostly when we have had to adapt to shorter sets. However we've been talking about changing the set a bit and it's finally happening. We've been rehearsing quite well in the past few weeks. I guess we're going to continue with the same set through the festival season but later this year there's going to be some changes. We've been rehearsing four songs that have never been on the set list and three songs that haven't been there for a while. One of them is so old that Juho and myself have never played that live. Oooooh, the excitement!
Anyway, we're leaving tomorrow morning at 2 to Germany again. Maybe I should get drunk today. Paukku can pick me up from a bar. Hmm. Interesting.
Thursday, 31 July 2008
From Kuopio to Neuhaus an der Pegnitz
The original schedule for the weekend of July 25-27 was Finland, Germany and Portugal but the Portugal festival got cancelled which left us with a slightly difficult flight schedule. Anyway, on Friday it was one of the few Finnish appearances at the Rockcock-festival in Kuopio. It's about 300km from Tampere so we left at noon. Not really because we had to since our showtime was at 21.00 but some of us wanted to see Popeda at 18.00.
We arrived there around 17 and the first thing I did was that I looked up this small girl from Oulu who brought me a screw from Amfisound. On Thursday evening I was changing strings at home and when I removed A-string half of the machine head fell off. Only the string tension was keeping it together. At some point one screw had fallen off. It can't have been that long ago though since I change strings in every 4 or 6 shows. So first thing was to fix the bass and then it was time for Popeda. They are one of the more popular Finnish rock bands who started already in the mid-70's. I guess they were good. I honestly think that the band is good but the lead singer has gone worse and worse during the years. But I did watch the entire set which I almost never do at the festivals.
Our own show was at the tent on the beach. The band before us had maybe 20 people watching them. Jonne for example was really worried because of that. However, during the change over people started to gather up and when we started the tent was quite full. Not packed, but full. We did once again the normal set. Orbina made a comeback but then again we left out Keep On Galloping because Jonne forgot to put this plastic thing on his broken finger and couldn't hit the djembe anymore. We also finished with Ii Lea Voibmi for a change. We had some time to hang around the area after the show but in a couple of hours we started our journey to Helsinki-Vantaa since we had an early morning flight to Frankfurt. I tried to sleep in a van which wasn't really that easy but then again the flight went quite fast since I fell a sleep immediately and don't even remember the take-off.
We arrived Frankfurt around 10 local time and packed ourselves in a van again. Distance was only something like 300km and showtime was a 20.00 so we had plenty of time and we stopped at Thomann in Burgebrach which was almost on our route. I was able to keep myself from buying anything. I spent some time testing a 5-string Fender Jazz but didn't buy that after all. Hittavainen on the other hand bought a 5-string violin. While he was testing it the others were playing double basses although we didn't really know how to. Must've been pain for the staff.
Veldensteiner Festival took place at Veldenstein Castle in Neuhaus an der Pegnitz. I believe the exact year when it was built is unknown but some sources say that it was started in 1008 so it's quite old I'd say. The festival also included a medieval market and many of the people were dressed accordingly which I always like to see. A part of a castle is nowadays a hotel and we had one of the rooms as a dressing room/backstage.
While we were waiting our showtime we checked the area, ate something, had a few drinks and met some fans. I wasn't really checking if the whole festival was late but at least the band before us, Knorkator, played 20 minutes over their time. The change over was 30 minutes and we probably could have been able catch up with the schedule slightly but we decided not to hurry. We have always been the band who does that. Catching up the schedule and even finishing a bit earlier if things are running late. Those times are over. If the other bands or the festival don't take care of that, why should we?
The show itself was not the best from us. At least I felt it that way. Personally the reason was that we hadn't really been able to sleep well and that took away some of the fun. The audience still seemed to enjoy the show which was the main point anyway. We really should tell Paukku what songs we're going to play because we still had encore to do when he already put the outro on. Then again we don't necessarily know what we're going to play until we're actually on the stage. Maybe we should do something about this. Since the outro was already playing the audience wasn't really expecting the encore but we went out and did that anyway. I believe it was Let's Drink and Ii Lea Voibmi.
We hung around the area till the end of the evening. The idea was that we could watch Schandmaul's set but I really couldn't see them. I tried but didn't really see much. You see, I am a dwarf. Basically we ended up meeting people and signing strange things, like female asscheeks. I am not complaining. This wasn't our usual crowd since it was more medieval festival than a rock concert and probably therefore people seemed to be genuinely surprised to see the band there. I guess they are more used to the bands who don't go to meet and greet their fans.
After the festival was over we drove to our hotel in another village. They seemed to have some sort of a village festival going on and some of us still went out to see what's happening. Not much. I went bed quite soon but some of us stayed out a bit longer.
On Sunday we had a whole day to spend since our flight was at late afternoon, first to Copenhagen and then Helsinki. We arrived home in Tampere around 2 in the morning so we ended up spending awfully long time on the road for just one show in Germany. Live and learn.
Next stop: Pellavarock.
We arrived there around 17 and the first thing I did was that I looked up this small girl from Oulu who brought me a screw from Amfisound. On Thursday evening I was changing strings at home and when I removed A-string half of the machine head fell off. Only the string tension was keeping it together. At some point one screw had fallen off. It can't have been that long ago though since I change strings in every 4 or 6 shows. So first thing was to fix the bass and then it was time for Popeda. They are one of the more popular Finnish rock bands who started already in the mid-70's. I guess they were good. I honestly think that the band is good but the lead singer has gone worse and worse during the years. But I did watch the entire set which I almost never do at the festivals.
Our own show was at the tent on the beach. The band before us had maybe 20 people watching them. Jonne for example was really worried because of that. However, during the change over people started to gather up and when we started the tent was quite full. Not packed, but full. We did once again the normal set. Orbina made a comeback but then again we left out Keep On Galloping because Jonne forgot to put this plastic thing on his broken finger and couldn't hit the djembe anymore. We also finished with Ii Lea Voibmi for a change. We had some time to hang around the area after the show but in a couple of hours we started our journey to Helsinki-Vantaa since we had an early morning flight to Frankfurt. I tried to sleep in a van which wasn't really that easy but then again the flight went quite fast since I fell a sleep immediately and don't even remember the take-off.
We arrived Frankfurt around 10 local time and packed ourselves in a van again. Distance was only something like 300km and showtime was a 20.00 so we had plenty of time and we stopped at Thomann in Burgebrach which was almost on our route. I was able to keep myself from buying anything. I spent some time testing a 5-string Fender Jazz but didn't buy that after all. Hittavainen on the other hand bought a 5-string violin. While he was testing it the others were playing double basses although we didn't really know how to. Must've been pain for the staff.
Veldensteiner Festival took place at Veldenstein Castle in Neuhaus an der Pegnitz. I believe the exact year when it was built is unknown but some sources say that it was started in 1008 so it's quite old I'd say. The festival also included a medieval market and many of the people were dressed accordingly which I always like to see. A part of a castle is nowadays a hotel and we had one of the rooms as a dressing room/backstage.
While we were waiting our showtime we checked the area, ate something, had a few drinks and met some fans. I wasn't really checking if the whole festival was late but at least the band before us, Knorkator, played 20 minutes over their time. The change over was 30 minutes and we probably could have been able catch up with the schedule slightly but we decided not to hurry. We have always been the band who does that. Catching up the schedule and even finishing a bit earlier if things are running late. Those times are over. If the other bands or the festival don't take care of that, why should we?
The show itself was not the best from us. At least I felt it that way. Personally the reason was that we hadn't really been able to sleep well and that took away some of the fun. The audience still seemed to enjoy the show which was the main point anyway. We really should tell Paukku what songs we're going to play because we still had encore to do when he already put the outro on. Then again we don't necessarily know what we're going to play until we're actually on the stage. Maybe we should do something about this. Since the outro was already playing the audience wasn't really expecting the encore but we went out and did that anyway. I believe it was Let's Drink and Ii Lea Voibmi.
We hung around the area till the end of the evening. The idea was that we could watch Schandmaul's set but I really couldn't see them. I tried but didn't really see much. You see, I am a dwarf. Basically we ended up meeting people and signing strange things, like female asscheeks. I am not complaining. This wasn't our usual crowd since it was more medieval festival than a rock concert and probably therefore people seemed to be genuinely surprised to see the band there. I guess they are more used to the bands who don't go to meet and greet their fans.
After the festival was over we drove to our hotel in another village. They seemed to have some sort of a village festival going on and some of us still went out to see what's happening. Not much. I went bed quite soon but some of us stayed out a bit longer.
On Sunday we had a whole day to spend since our flight was at late afternoon, first to Copenhagen and then Helsinki. We arrived home in Tampere around 2 in the morning so we ended up spending awfully long time on the road for just one show in Germany. Live and learn.
Next stop: Pellavarock.
Thursday, 24 July 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, 23 July 2008
Evolution
So we are in Milan. Oh no we're not. We're lost. Just a little though. We're close. The promoters send a guide car to drive in front of our bus and we find to the area. It was a park-like place with one big stage and dressing rooms built behind it from these container things. Nothing spectacular but definitely ok. Especially ok when we realized that the dressing rooms were air-conditioned. Cool! Literally.
We were once again playing quite early in the afternoon. I think we were the fourth band of the festival so we didn't really have much time to waste since we were late already. The crew started to get our stuff in immediately and the driver parked the bus and went to sleep in the hotel. We started to get ready for show which meant basically a few drinks. At one point during the band before us it sounded like the audience was singing "Kooooorpiklaaaani." I heard it again a bit later and went closer to listen. Indeed the audience was singing our name. Kind of cool but not so nice for the other band.
The show was like the others before it. No big changes in anything. The audience was small but at least all of them were really into the show so it was still really nice. Once again I had a wireless problem but this time I realized the reason behind all the problems I've had lately. For some reason my wireless transmitter has lost it's range. It should work well for 100 metres but nowadays the bigger festival stages are too much for it. When I realized that I just moved closer to the receiver and stayed there for the rest of the show. I should get a new transmitter before next weekend's shows. I hope that solves it. If not it's back to square one.
After the show we had a photo shoot for Italian Metal Hammer and we also did a couple interviews with the local media. One of the interviewers was quite annoying though. He seemed to demand that we should BE everything that the bands has ever sung ABOUT. Whatever it was that we had done was wrong according to him. If a metal band sings about rape, torture and murder, does he also demand that they should go and kill someone before they are allowed to do that? What a wanker.
The bus driver had said that we will leave at 2 in the morning so we had plenty of time. We did the usual. Met friends and got drunk. Sonata Arctica was there and so was already familiar Evergrey so we had plenty of people to drink with. I tried to watch some bands as well but as usual I was not so interested in any of them. Probably the funniest thing of the evening happened during the headliner's set. Whenever they, Cavalera Conspiracy, had a break between the songs I could still hear the audience singing. "Kooooorpiklaaaani! Kooooorpiklaaaani!"
After midnight the festival was basically already over for the day and the organizers were trying to get us out from the area. I think we were the last ones to leave. We really had nowhere to go yet, so we were just hanging around the festival area and meeting old and new friends. At 2 we started our journey to Northeim, Germany. I had been counting earlier that it was too late but the driver had to sleep, so there was nothing that we could do. The tour continues. 920km to go.
We were once again playing quite early in the afternoon. I think we were the fourth band of the festival so we didn't really have much time to waste since we were late already. The crew started to get our stuff in immediately and the driver parked the bus and went to sleep in the hotel. We started to get ready for show which meant basically a few drinks. At one point during the band before us it sounded like the audience was singing "Kooooorpiklaaaani." I heard it again a bit later and went closer to listen. Indeed the audience was singing our name. Kind of cool but not so nice for the other band.
The show was like the others before it. No big changes in anything. The audience was small but at least all of them were really into the show so it was still really nice. Once again I had a wireless problem but this time I realized the reason behind all the problems I've had lately. For some reason my wireless transmitter has lost it's range. It should work well for 100 metres but nowadays the bigger festival stages are too much for it. When I realized that I just moved closer to the receiver and stayed there for the rest of the show. I should get a new transmitter before next weekend's shows. I hope that solves it. If not it's back to square one.
After the show we had a photo shoot for Italian Metal Hammer and we also did a couple interviews with the local media. One of the interviewers was quite annoying though. He seemed to demand that we should BE everything that the bands has ever sung ABOUT. Whatever it was that we had done was wrong according to him. If a metal band sings about rape, torture and murder, does he also demand that they should go and kill someone before they are allowed to do that? What a wanker.
The bus driver had said that we will leave at 2 in the morning so we had plenty of time. We did the usual. Met friends and got drunk. Sonata Arctica was there and so was already familiar Evergrey so we had plenty of people to drink with. I tried to watch some bands as well but as usual I was not so interested in any of them. Probably the funniest thing of the evening happened during the headliner's set. Whenever they, Cavalera Conspiracy, had a break between the songs I could still hear the audience singing. "Kooooorpiklaaaani! Kooooorpiklaaaani!"
After midnight the festival was basically already over for the day and the organizers were trying to get us out from the area. I think we were the last ones to leave. We really had nowhere to go yet, so we were just hanging around the festival area and meeting old and new friends. At 2 we started our journey to Northeim, Germany. I had been counting earlier that it was too late but the driver had to sleep, so there was nothing that we could do. The tour continues. 920km to go.
Friday, 18 July 2008
Masters Of Rock
Back in Germany. We arrived early Wednesday morning to Laudenbach, our manager's home town. We had a hotel booked for the day so that we could sleep a few hours before hitting the road again. We had a big breakfast first and then went to bed. It was again me and Matson in the same room. We got up around noon, took a shower and generally refreshened ourselves. Some of us were already sitting around the table in the "biergarten" and we joined them for a cold beer. However, the hotel's landlady had to close the bar since she was going to buy meat for our dinner later. We finished the beers and went for a walk to find some more. We accidentally passed our manager's house. We tried to be quiet but he noticed us anyway. We were invited to their garden where his father grows all kinds of vegetables. So we ended up drinking his poor father's beers and eating his cucumbers and tomatoes. Maybe he was thinking that this is getting too expensive and decided to take us to a monastery up on the hill. They make beer up there. It was a nice trip.
After the dinner at the hotel we packed our stuff and drove to a parking lot of Lidl to meet the nightliner. We loaded ourselves in the bus and started the journey to Masters Of Rock in Czech Republic. We'd been driving like maniacs already a while and this trip didn't make any difference. 750km. Bus had two drivers so it wasn't really a problem though. The bigger problem was that although the bus had a nice back lounge with TV and surround audio system, it didn't have a CD/DVD player! We sat in the back for a while, some of us were drinking quite heavily, but I went to bed quite early only to wake up quite soon to realize that the bad luck with buses continues. This one had a leaking fuel pipe. This time I decided to not to worry and continued to sleep. Since the sleep rhythm was a bit off I woke up again at about 4.30 in the morning. My bed was in the front of the bus. The bus is quiet and I turn my head to look at the back of the bus. I was not wearing glasses so I didn't see that clearly but I was thinking "Is that a leg?". I just had to get up and take look. After just a few hours the back of the bus looked like the hurricane had struck it. There were two band members sleeping under the table. The other tried to raise his head and say something but I really couldn't understand what it was. And I have to point out that those two were not the usual suspects! I quietly moved back to my bed.
We arrived to the festival area in the morning. The area may not be as beautiful as Metal Camp but I love the people working for Masters Of Rock. Since the first time with them we've always felt welcome and I like to think that they like us too. They have to. How many times have we been there already? Winter Masters Of Rock once, Masters Of Rock Cafe three times and Masters Of Rock twice. Plus a couple shows in.. err... umm... Plzen and Pardubice. So that is... hmm... let me count... wait... yes, many times! All in less than three years. Nice.
This was the first day of the festival so everything was still very much in progress. We had plenty of time to do nothing, just watch the other people working, get some breakfast and meet friends. Martina from the festival asked us for how long can they take pictures during the show.
- "As long as you want."
- "How many songs can we film for the DVD?"
- "As many as you want."
She said that they can film it all so we agreed on the first four from which we can then select two for the festival DVD.
The first official program was the signing session at 16.20. Lots of people once again to meet us. Quite a lot of familiar faces again. I don't really remember anyone though. I always, not just with band, but always have the same problem. I meet a person who says "Hello" in this friendly way that suggests that we know each other but I have no idea who he/she is or from where I should know him. That's annoying. Probably for both. Sorry.
Photographing is usually forbidden during the signing sessions. The reason is that if everyone stops at each band member to take a picture it will take forever and in 30 minutes only a handful of people will get an autograph or whatever it is they want. Problem with us is that Jonne is too nice and can't really say no when someone asks to take a picture. Security tells people to move on, Jonne doesn't care and just poses and fans take pictures so basically everybody is annoying somebody!
The showtime was 17.45-18.45. There was a lot of extra stuff on the stage. We couldn't really for example get an eye contact to our monitor tech. On the other side of the stage there was a huge pile of road cases covered with an ugly green tarp. Later it turned out that their function was just to take space from other bands and make their stage set look worse. The cases were all empty and they were taken out of the stage just before Ministry. That's what it looked like at least. Maybe they belonged to Ministry. Or maybe they were Def Leppard's and Ministry realized that and demanded them to be taken away. Don't know.
We were waiting our intro to begin when we hear Paukku's voice in the monitors. "No intro today. No miniplug connectors here." So we walk to the stage and 1-2-3-4 Wooden Pints. Juho had problems with the accordion's wireless for the first one and a half songs until he was switched to a cable, so it was quite easy to pick the songs for the DVD. Numbers 3 and 4. Cottages and Tuli kokko. Once again it was a good show. I can never really tell if we play well or not but I can always tell when the show is good. The audience is a very good indicator and then again the audience is quite often the thing that makes a show really good. That's always been the case in Czech republic. Always. Thank you.
After the show we didn't have much time hang around. After showers and some food it was time say the goodbyes to all the nice people and hit the road again. The next stop was Evolution festival in Milan, Italy. We were there a couple of years ago as well but at that time the festival was somewhere up in north. for some reason it had been moved to Milan which meant that we had even longer drive in front of us. 1050km. It also meant that in was in the area where in the two-week period they had two big metal festivals (Gods Of Metal, Evolution) and Metallica concert. You can't get people to all of them.
In the bus it was the usual thing. Few drinks, chatting but also music from the "new" CD/DVD player that Paukku had "borrowed" from the bus company's other bus when they had stopped in their garage at night to fix the leaking fuel pipe. Cool. I was once again among the first ones to go to bed. The next morning was really nice. I woke up early and went to sit in the front lounge just to watch the scenery. We were just driving through Brenner pass. Beautiful. It was also hot. It was something like 10 in the morning and the thermometer outside said +38C. What do you in the situation like that? Stay in your underwear, get in the back lounge, set the air condition to full blast, put "Live After Death" DVD on and start drinking vodka with orange juice. That's what Tuomas and I did.
Next stop: Milan.
To be continued...
After the dinner at the hotel we packed our stuff and drove to a parking lot of Lidl to meet the nightliner. We loaded ourselves in the bus and started the journey to Masters Of Rock in Czech Republic. We'd been driving like maniacs already a while and this trip didn't make any difference. 750km. Bus had two drivers so it wasn't really a problem though. The bigger problem was that although the bus had a nice back lounge with TV and surround audio system, it didn't have a CD/DVD player! We sat in the back for a while, some of us were drinking quite heavily, but I went to bed quite early only to wake up quite soon to realize that the bad luck with buses continues. This one had a leaking fuel pipe. This time I decided to not to worry and continued to sleep. Since the sleep rhythm was a bit off I woke up again at about 4.30 in the morning. My bed was in the front of the bus. The bus is quiet and I turn my head to look at the back of the bus. I was not wearing glasses so I didn't see that clearly but I was thinking "Is that a leg?". I just had to get up and take look. After just a few hours the back of the bus looked like the hurricane had struck it. There were two band members sleeping under the table. The other tried to raise his head and say something but I really couldn't understand what it was. And I have to point out that those two were not the usual suspects! I quietly moved back to my bed.
We arrived to the festival area in the morning. The area may not be as beautiful as Metal Camp but I love the people working for Masters Of Rock. Since the first time with them we've always felt welcome and I like to think that they like us too. They have to. How many times have we been there already? Winter Masters Of Rock once, Masters Of Rock Cafe three times and Masters Of Rock twice. Plus a couple shows in.. err... umm... Plzen and Pardubice. So that is... hmm... let me count... wait... yes, many times! All in less than three years. Nice.
This was the first day of the festival so everything was still very much in progress. We had plenty of time to do nothing, just watch the other people working, get some breakfast and meet friends. Martina from the festival asked us for how long can they take pictures during the show.
- "As long as you want."
- "How many songs can we film for the DVD?"
- "As many as you want."
She said that they can film it all so we agreed on the first four from which we can then select two for the festival DVD.
The first official program was the signing session at 16.20. Lots of people once again to meet us. Quite a lot of familiar faces again. I don't really remember anyone though. I always, not just with band, but always have the same problem. I meet a person who says "Hello" in this friendly way that suggests that we know each other but I have no idea who he/she is or from where I should know him. That's annoying. Probably for both. Sorry.
Photographing is usually forbidden during the signing sessions. The reason is that if everyone stops at each band member to take a picture it will take forever and in 30 minutes only a handful of people will get an autograph or whatever it is they want. Problem with us is that Jonne is too nice and can't really say no when someone asks to take a picture. Security tells people to move on, Jonne doesn't care and just poses and fans take pictures so basically everybody is annoying somebody!
The showtime was 17.45-18.45. There was a lot of extra stuff on the stage. We couldn't really for example get an eye contact to our monitor tech. On the other side of the stage there was a huge pile of road cases covered with an ugly green tarp. Later it turned out that their function was just to take space from other bands and make their stage set look worse. The cases were all empty and they were taken out of the stage just before Ministry. That's what it looked like at least. Maybe they belonged to Ministry. Or maybe they were Def Leppard's and Ministry realized that and demanded them to be taken away. Don't know.
We were waiting our intro to begin when we hear Paukku's voice in the monitors. "No intro today. No miniplug connectors here." So we walk to the stage and 1-2-3-4 Wooden Pints. Juho had problems with the accordion's wireless for the first one and a half songs until he was switched to a cable, so it was quite easy to pick the songs for the DVD. Numbers 3 and 4. Cottages and Tuli kokko. Once again it was a good show. I can never really tell if we play well or not but I can always tell when the show is good. The audience is a very good indicator and then again the audience is quite often the thing that makes a show really good. That's always been the case in Czech republic. Always. Thank you.
After the show we didn't have much time hang around. After showers and some food it was time say the goodbyes to all the nice people and hit the road again. The next stop was Evolution festival in Milan, Italy. We were there a couple of years ago as well but at that time the festival was somewhere up in north. for some reason it had been moved to Milan which meant that we had even longer drive in front of us. 1050km. It also meant that in was in the area where in the two-week period they had two big metal festivals (Gods Of Metal, Evolution) and Metallica concert. You can't get people to all of them.
In the bus it was the usual thing. Few drinks, chatting but also music from the "new" CD/DVD player that Paukku had "borrowed" from the bus company's other bus when they had stopped in their garage at night to fix the leaking fuel pipe. Cool. I was once again among the first ones to go to bed. The next morning was really nice. I woke up early and went to sit in the front lounge just to watch the scenery. We were just driving through Brenner pass. Beautiful. It was also hot. It was something like 10 in the morning and the thermometer outside said +38C. What do you in the situation like that? Stay in your underwear, get in the back lounge, set the air condition to full blast, put "Live After Death" DVD on and start drinking vodka with orange juice. That's what Tuomas and I did.
Next stop: Milan.
To be continued...
Tuesday, 15 July 2008
Camping trip
Metal Camp in Tolmin, Slovenia. The most beautiful festival site ever. We were playing on Sunday, July 6, so we left on Saturday afternoon and flew to Frankfurt. Yes, it is a strange place to go if you're going to Slovenia but you'll understand this later. We drove to Tolmin in a van through the night. It's about 850km and took about 11 hours. Matte had reserved some alcohol, 6 bottles of vodka to be precise, so we were comfortably numb after a while.
We arrived to the site early in the morning and had to wait a while before the festival manager arrived. He was by the way the same David with a difficult last name that was the tour manager for the Paganfest earlier this year. So we had about an hour or two to kill and we headed to the beach bar, shook some hands, posed for pictures, had a few beers and when the bald one finally arrived we managed to book in to the hotel. We spent the mid day hours by meeting old friends that we have a lot in Slovenia and generally just chilling out. It was hot as usual. We had a short press conference and TV interview that we did with Jonne and Cane but otherwise the real program for the day started a bit before 18. And that's when the problems started.
Our showtime was at 18.15 and the change over was supposed to start at 18.00. The previous band stopped at 18.10. At festivals you just don't do that. You do not play over time. Even if you start late you finish in time. Simple rule. Then for the next 15 minutes it seemed like nothing was going on and when I asked from the stage manager about that he said they never got our new channel list after we changed to "preamp only" setup so they didn't have cables for us. Of course I asked our manager if that's true and he said that the festival has received it but he of course can't be sure if they've read it. Back to the stage manager. "Yes we have it but we didn't know that your preamps would be behind the monitor desk so our cables are in the wrong place." Different reason this time! Our set was supposed to be 45 minutes. Then we were told that if we get started in 5 minutes we'll have time for 35 minutes. I think it took a bit more than 5 minutes but we did a 35-minute set anyway. Both band and the audience were disappointed in the situation but otherwise the show went on well except for some minor wireless problems again. Audience was excellent as always in Slovenia. They kept demanding more after the show but there was nothing that we could do.
The next band (can't remember who) on the stage again had all the time in the world. They spent at least 15 minutes just with the fucking drums and no one was rushing them. Maybe, I am not saying that this is a fact, but maybe all this has something do with the fact that both bands around us are managed by the same organization that is behind the whole festival but we haven't really been interested in their offer... Don't get me wrong, it's not the bands' fault.
After the show I walked to our hotel to take a shower, rest a bit and drink a little wine. During that a thunderstorm started and after about a two hour break in the program Helloween finally hit the stage. Can't remember much of them. It was muddy and wet and I went to bed.
Our next show was Masters Of Rock in Czech Republic but that wasn't until Thursday, July 10. At one point there was an idea that at least some of us would fly back to Finland for a couple of days but since we couldn't get any decent flights we all decided to stay in Tolmin. Around the noon on Monday when we woke up we started with some red wine and went to see our Slovenian-Croatian-Italian-whatever friends in the bar quite close to the hotel. They were already having a party and Jonne, Cane and myself joined in. We got quite drunk during the afternoon but it was a lot of fun. It was really cool to meet again the same people that we met already on our first visit to Maribor in 2005.
Back at the festival area later the same evening I actually stopped drinking. Don't know why though. Had enough perhaps. Still didn't really watch much bands. Although I managed to see or at least hear probably the worst band I've ever seen. I am not saying the name but the same band also played at the festival in Finland and I read some really good and praising reviews of them, so I was slightly interested in seeing them. In my opinion that was the biggest pile of shit ever. Then again some people surely say the same thing about us, so who am I to judge.
We met one of our Russian friends at the festival as well. He was there with his family. I don't know where his wife was then in the evening but he and his son were with us in the festival tent where they also had strippers performing in an after show party. He wouldn't let his son see them so when he looked away I showed his son naked pictures of my girlfriend. C'mon! We are a rock band! We are supposed to destroy the youth!
I was again getting tired and decided to go back to the hotel. At the hotel yard I met our FOH man Paukku talking with the festival's main promoter and some hippie. I told promoter who I already knew from the Paganfest about the biggest pile of shit ever, the band, and he, being politically correct, said that "Yes, I've seen them do better." So I wasn't alone.
We were supposed to drive back to Frankfurt area on Tuesday. Since the possible drivers had both been drinking last night we were not leaving very early. After waking up I sent a message for my Italian-Slovenian-whatever friend to ask where I could get some breakfast. She and her boyfriend were again in the same bar so they were easy to find. She escorted me to the grocery store, helped with the language and I got a big bag full of food and took it to the hotel. I thought it was a lot but me and the roommate Matson ended up eating almost all of it at once. I guess we were hungry. The rest of the day went slowly. A few occasional drinks, checking the CD booths, checking the bands. And meeting the same people again. One of the bands was quite interesting. I believe they were Slovenian and called Inmate. They were playing really interesting instrumental technical thrash. Since they don't have a singer they've probably been forced to make the music more interesting. I heard that they just signed a record deal so we will hear about them more in the future.
Once again we meet the old buddies Eluveitie again. I believe they'd driven from Switzerland to Slovenia in a van so we weren't the only ones driving insane distances. It's always nice meeting them. And we'll meet again at Summerbreeze. We can't get rid of them even if we wanted to! Well, it's more likely the other way around anyway.
Finally in the evening we started our journey back to Germany. Some people got drunk again. I didn't really. I tried to sleep which wasn't really that easy. Have you ever seen anyone sleepwalking in a van? I have.
To be continued...
We arrived to the site early in the morning and had to wait a while before the festival manager arrived. He was by the way the same David with a difficult last name that was the tour manager for the Paganfest earlier this year. So we had about an hour or two to kill and we headed to the beach bar, shook some hands, posed for pictures, had a few beers and when the bald one finally arrived we managed to book in to the hotel. We spent the mid day hours by meeting old friends that we have a lot in Slovenia and generally just chilling out. It was hot as usual. We had a short press conference and TV interview that we did with Jonne and Cane but otherwise the real program for the day started a bit before 18. And that's when the problems started.
Our showtime was at 18.15 and the change over was supposed to start at 18.00. The previous band stopped at 18.10. At festivals you just don't do that. You do not play over time. Even if you start late you finish in time. Simple rule. Then for the next 15 minutes it seemed like nothing was going on and when I asked from the stage manager about that he said they never got our new channel list after we changed to "preamp only" setup so they didn't have cables for us. Of course I asked our manager if that's true and he said that the festival has received it but he of course can't be sure if they've read it. Back to the stage manager. "Yes we have it but we didn't know that your preamps would be behind the monitor desk so our cables are in the wrong place." Different reason this time! Our set was supposed to be 45 minutes. Then we were told that if we get started in 5 minutes we'll have time for 35 minutes. I think it took a bit more than 5 minutes but we did a 35-minute set anyway. Both band and the audience were disappointed in the situation but otherwise the show went on well except for some minor wireless problems again. Audience was excellent as always in Slovenia. They kept demanding more after the show but there was nothing that we could do.
The next band (can't remember who) on the stage again had all the time in the world. They spent at least 15 minutes just with the fucking drums and no one was rushing them. Maybe, I am not saying that this is a fact, but maybe all this has something do with the fact that both bands around us are managed by the same organization that is behind the whole festival but we haven't really been interested in their offer... Don't get me wrong, it's not the bands' fault.
After the show I walked to our hotel to take a shower, rest a bit and drink a little wine. During that a thunderstorm started and after about a two hour break in the program Helloween finally hit the stage. Can't remember much of them. It was muddy and wet and I went to bed.
Our next show was Masters Of Rock in Czech Republic but that wasn't until Thursday, July 10. At one point there was an idea that at least some of us would fly back to Finland for a couple of days but since we couldn't get any decent flights we all decided to stay in Tolmin. Around the noon on Monday when we woke up we started with some red wine and went to see our Slovenian-Croatian-Italian-whatever friends in the bar quite close to the hotel. They were already having a party and Jonne, Cane and myself joined in. We got quite drunk during the afternoon but it was a lot of fun. It was really cool to meet again the same people that we met already on our first visit to Maribor in 2005.
Back at the festival area later the same evening I actually stopped drinking. Don't know why though. Had enough perhaps. Still didn't really watch much bands. Although I managed to see or at least hear probably the worst band I've ever seen. I am not saying the name but the same band also played at the festival in Finland and I read some really good and praising reviews of them, so I was slightly interested in seeing them. In my opinion that was the biggest pile of shit ever. Then again some people surely say the same thing about us, so who am I to judge.
We met one of our Russian friends at the festival as well. He was there with his family. I don't know where his wife was then in the evening but he and his son were with us in the festival tent where they also had strippers performing in an after show party. He wouldn't let his son see them so when he looked away I showed his son naked pictures of my girlfriend. C'mon! We are a rock band! We are supposed to destroy the youth!
I was again getting tired and decided to go back to the hotel. At the hotel yard I met our FOH man Paukku talking with the festival's main promoter and some hippie. I told promoter who I already knew from the Paganfest about the biggest pile of shit ever, the band, and he, being politically correct, said that "Yes, I've seen them do better." So I wasn't alone.
We were supposed to drive back to Frankfurt area on Tuesday. Since the possible drivers had both been drinking last night we were not leaving very early. After waking up I sent a message for my Italian-Slovenian-whatever friend to ask where I could get some breakfast. She and her boyfriend were again in the same bar so they were easy to find. She escorted me to the grocery store, helped with the language and I got a big bag full of food and took it to the hotel. I thought it was a lot but me and the roommate Matson ended up eating almost all of it at once. I guess we were hungry. The rest of the day went slowly. A few occasional drinks, checking the CD booths, checking the bands. And meeting the same people again. One of the bands was quite interesting. I believe they were Slovenian and called Inmate. They were playing really interesting instrumental technical thrash. Since they don't have a singer they've probably been forced to make the music more interesting. I heard that they just signed a record deal so we will hear about them more in the future.
Once again we meet the old buddies Eluveitie again. I believe they'd driven from Switzerland to Slovenia in a van so we weren't the only ones driving insane distances. It's always nice meeting them. And we'll meet again at Summerbreeze. We can't get rid of them even if we wanted to! Well, it's more likely the other way around anyway.
Finally in the evening we started our journey back to Germany. Some people got drunk again. I didn't really. I tried to sleep which wasn't really that easy. Have you ever seen anyone sleepwalking in a van? I have.
To be continued...
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