October 31, Zürich airport, 13:15
So, the tour is over. Almost, at least. Still stupid flights to Helsinki via Copenhagen, including 4 hours of waiting there. Will be home at 2 or 3 in the morning.
After Nantes it was London. We've never had a bad show in London. Our band has been fortunate to gain moderate success also in the UK. We've read and heard many times that it will be really difficult or almost impossible for bands not originally from the UK or the USA. We've been lucky.
I was looking forward the ferry trip. They've always had Strongbow cider. 24 cans for 9,99£. A bargain. I was getting ready to fill the trailer with that. Those fuckers had no Strongbow in the shop. I was pissed. I was ready to go downstairs, pull out the plug and sink the entire godforsaken boat.
The venue was originally going to be The Underworld at the heart of Camden which I really like. Not the club but the area. It was later changed to a slightly bigger one next to Highbury-Islington station called The Relentless Garage. I liked this venue more. Not the area. We arrived really late and I had four interviews to do so it was no worth really going anywhere. I am in London and I have to spend the day at the stupid venue. That is one of the downsides of the job. You actually have to work every now and then. Working was the theme for the day anyway. Eluveitie couldn't play in London. They will be playing in London and in the UK in general in a couple of weeks supporting someone, I can't remember who, but they told that Eluveitie can't play in London just so little before that. Bollocks. I thought that only festivals did that. Anyway, Ivo, guitarist for both Eluveitie and Godnr.Universe! had to leave the tour for a few days ago, so Godnr. wasn't playing either. We were asked to do a 2-hour set. We promised that we'll do our best. In the end we played 1h 55min. We did basically all the songs we've been playing during the last year or and a drum solo. And a small "Juokse sinä humma" version with just accordion and violin.
The show was quite an early one in the normal UK style. Our bus call was at 1.30. I didn't understand why, since we were heading back to the continent anyway and Highbury-Islington area is definitely not the heart of the London nightlife! The next day we found ourselves in trouble. In two different troubles. First one was that we missed one ferry and one was cancelled so we ended up losing three hours at the Dover harbour. That added to the fact that the tour book aka "The Book of Lies" proved to be just that telling us that the distance was 550km when it in fact was around 800km meant that if we had been late earlier on the tour that was still nothing like the delay we had this time. We arrived to Colmar, France around 18.30. Pretty late when the doors were supposed to open at 19.00. Yes, the other problem. Hittavainen missed all the ferries too. Even the one the others were on. He had managed to spend three hours at Burger King. Well, he took the next ferry and then a train via Paris to Colmar and arrived pretty much at the same time with us .
I needed to check my email and since the venue had no wi-fi I had to walk a few hundred metres to the closest McDonald's to use their wi-fi. Colmar is a strange place. It is really close to the German border. Looked really German. The names were German. It was really strange to see a street sign saying for example "Rue de Landwasser".
October 31, Copenhagen airport, 16:15
Yes, Colmar. The venue was sold out as so many times on this tour. It wasn't a big venue but a good sized anyway. Way too little backstage though. Not enough for one band let alone us both. We still managed. We're flexible. The audience was one of those strange ones. Just like in Japan. A huge dance party while the music's playing but a complete silence between the songs. It feels really weird on stage. I guess the show was good anyway.
Our booking agent wasn't really happy with the guy who booked all the French shows. One of the reasons was that he kept changing the cities and venues and messing up our routing. The last two shows were a perfect example of that. We flew home from Zürich, Switzerland. Colmar was like 2h away from Zürich but after Colmar we drove to Paris, 550km to completely opposite direction and after Paris back to Zürich. Over a thousand extra kilometres. Not that I was driving but it felt stupid anyway. And in the end I am definitely paying.
Same place 16:45. I just ate and had a Strongbow. And ordered another one. Blog continues.
Yes, Paris, one of my favourite cities. I know many people who disagree with that, but I like Paris. France is perhaps not my favourite country but Paris is different. It has this unexplainable beautiful decadence that no other city has. Like the contrast with Sacre Coeur cathedral on the hill and all the sex shops on Boulevard de Clichy and whores in the alleys between them. I like that.
We've played in Paris a few time and at least two of them at La Locomotive right next to Moulin Rouge which means that we were right in the middle of action. It was always cool but on the other hand the place sucked since you couldn't park a bus there so you had to take all that you needed during the day out from the bus once you arrived. Anyway, this time we were definitely not in the centre. The venue was called Trabendo and it was located next to the huge concert hall Le Zenith in the north-eastern Paris. I tried to find a record store for Matson and myself. We got on the metro and after two changes we found the address with no sign of Master of Metal shop. Damn you internet!
The venue was really strangely shaped. The architect must have been on something. The stage was basically ok, but on my side, stage left, the audience was a actually higher than the stage. Really storage to play like that. And of course this area with a better view on a stage was filled with photographers who are not the nicest audience to play for. They are only looking at you through the camera lens or otherwise just looking like you're boring the shit out of them. The show went smoothly though. The audience was pretty much like in Colmar. Bigger though. 800 capacity and sold out. Some scalper was actually trying to sell us a ticket when we were returning from the city.
Even though it was the last show there were no usual gimmicks or tricks from Eluveitie during our show. Our guys did something during theirs though. Can't remember the name of the song, something that Anna sings in the mid-show anyway. Three of our guys in sunglasses, t-shirts and underwear suddenly appear on stage with violins. Looked really cool. They were even synchronized like ZZ Top!
Not much party after the show. Tried to find a place to get some food. Found one but they threw me out because I tried to take a picture of their menu on the wall! C'mon! Why do you write names like "Ass. plate" on your menu if you don't allow people to take pictures of them and laugh at them?
Anyway, this is it for this tour. Nice tour. I enjoyed it a lot and mostly sober. No one will believe that but that is how it was.
The next thing to do is go back to the studio to record one more song to be used as a bonus track on some album versions. Then we're playing in Russia in December and probably in Switzerland too closer to Christmas. Ja niin edelleen.
Sunday, 31 October 2010
Friday, 29 October 2010
Mother of all updates
October 29, on the bus somewhere in France, 12:00
A long time without any writing again. No excuses, just laziness.
The last entry was added near La Coruna, so I'll continue from there. The first impression of the venue wasn't that good. "We're playing in a bar?!" It didn't get much better later either. The venue was a some sort of night club with a really small stage with a low ceiling. One part of the club served as our back stage. The local promoter seemed to be just some local metal dude who had decided to put up a show. However, all was not bad. The guy kept repeating that he wants us to be happy and that he has for example completely fulfilled our riders. Which he probably had done at least for the catering rider since there was plenty of food and drinks. I am not so sure about technical rider though. The venue had no showers but he had booked rooms from the nearby hotel for us. So basically that side was ok too.
The city of La Coruna is located in the north-western corner of "Spain", but if you ask locals they'll tell you that it's Galicia, not Spain. The city looked really nice, at least the part I managed to see. The venue was by the sea, the local main beach was just a stone throw away. Of course it is not a beach season anymore but I still had a walk on the beach when the sun was going down and the city light s were coming up. It was beautiful. But I got sand in my shoes. I hate that. Shoes suck, flip-flops rule!
Once I returned from the city I returned to the scene I didn't want to see. The promoter was wasted, walking around with his bottles of shit (an educated guess) local alcohol and shouting at everybody how well he's done everything. The backstage was full of his friends, sidekicks or whatever. We ask the tour manager to take care of that and after a lot of hassle and shouting the extra people leave. The promoter returns in 2 minutes telling everybody that "I have to be here, I'm the promoter." Then the other started to slowly return there too. The whole thing quickly grew to the point of a fistfight being a second away. I love our (tour) manager. He doesn't care if the guy is 20cm taller and 30kg heavier. He stands up and does everything for his bands even if the guy is threatening to punch him in the face. After all I wasn't really sure what will go on there while we play so I gathered all my stuff and carried them back to the bus so that all I had was just my stage clothes.
The show itself was our worst of the tour. We sucked. The audience didn't seem to care though. I had the worst monitor ever and the front row kept pushing and turning that all the time. During the first few songs it was either too silent or too fucking loud. I asked Gump many times "more bass!" or "less bass!" and kept wondering if there is only an on/off switch for my channel and no slider until I realized that there was some sort of a switch behind the monitor that the audience kept pushing. Hence the silent/loud problem. Once I realized that I shouted at them something like "Ja nyt jumalauta ne sormet irti siitä monitorista tai lävähtää turpaan!" Seemed to do the trick. I would have never guessed that they actually speak Finnish there! After the show I just quickly got my stuff from the bus, had a shower in the hotel and packed myself for the night. I was glad to leave that place.
The next day in Madrid included something that no one expected from anyone in our band and I definitely didn't expect it from myself. I went to an art museum. Prado that is. And I liked it. I had this strange idea in the morning that I should do something different that just wander pointlessly around the city looking for record shops with Matson. I didn't even ask anyone of the other guys to join me because I knew that the answer would have been just these blank faces with empty looks. Anyway, after a breakfast in the city and a few stops to find a new pair of flip-flops (with no luck) I was in an art museum. I have to admit that I don't really know much about visual arts. I have my own favourites of course but when it comes to understanding different styles or eras I am an ignoramus. I got myself a guide booklet of the museum. It had some examples of what is located where. I was totally surprised a few times: "That is here?! Wow!" Actually my favourite painting ever is in Prado, Madrid. Of course I had to see that.
As I said, I am not an expert in visual arts. I like to think that I know at least something about music as an art form. I am able to analyze music. I can pick up different instrument from the recordings. I know how some things are done when it comes to music and therefore I can appreciate it on levels that not all can. A confession time: I don't cry much. Or at least when I do I do it in strange occasions. I didn't cry when I was carrying my own father to his grave. I cry when I hear music beautiful or powerful enough. Happy tears. There is music that can move me more than the death of my own father. Call me cold if you will. See if I care. And there I was in an art museum standing in front of that one painting with tears filling my eyes. Actually just thinking about that moment brings tears to my eyes again.
Oh yes. It is "El Triumfo de la Muerte" by Brueghel.
The museum was eye-opening in many ways. I understood that I can actually enjoy that stuff even without really understanding the process behind the works. And I also found some artists whose works seemed too interesting to just pass. Like the local man, Goya. Really weird stuff. He must have been on something while painting them.
Back to the sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. The venue was Sala Heineken. I liked the venue. The only downside was that the actual backstage was really small, even for just one band, but we were using the huge catering area as a backstage so it wasn't really a big problem. I think the place was sold-out. At least it was packed and the crowd was amazing. Reminded me of some of the South-American dates. Pure mayhem. We were having such good time on stage as well. I have become a rock star too. A cocky rock star. Put your foot on the monitor and let it rip. For the past ten or so days I haven't even been drinking. Just a a glass of wine and an occasional beer every now and then. Sober shows. Nice.
The next stop was Toulouse. Another really long drive. Toulouse show was the last one to be confirmed and our tour book had basically a blank page on that. No information of any kind. Just a hand written address of the venue. I tried to find that from my GPS but I couldn't. There was no such street in Toulouse. However, I realized that the place is not necessarily in Toulouse but in one of it's suburbs so I started going through them. I didn't really have to but I generally want to know where I am and I definitely had time. The street was found in Tournefeuille. The biggest suburb of Toulouse. This didn't really put my hopes up. I have lots of experiences of these venues at suburbs. However this one proved to be different. A real concert hall! Excellent catering, nice backstage. Really good. Le Phare I think it was called.
I wanted to see Toulouse but we arrived too late, were too far away to walk there and even with the local bus it would have taken almost an hour to get there. Instead of Toulouse I enjoyed a nice walk around Tournefeuille. There wasn't much to see. A cemetery was perhaps the most interesting sight. And that wasn't much.
We were in France so Eluveitie was headlining. As I've mentioned earlier this order suits me fine. This was another addition to the list of great shows. We were not using the entire hall. We were actually using only the third of it. It was still quite big and as far as I understood it was sold out. Lots of people and all crazy. It is good to see that things are moving that way for us also in France. Ok, Paris has always been really good anyway, but the other parts, especially the south, have been difficult. Not anymore it seems. Me likes. I honestly have trouble remembering which show was which or how did the actual show go since they all blend together after a while. Sorry.
The next stop was Lyon. I think we've been there before on Paganfest. This time the venue was called Ninkasikao or something like that. Don't ask me why. Again one of those nicer venues. I went earlier to the city too since the subway station was only 50 metres away from the venue and managed to see a really interesting
looking theatre building but the combination of October weather in Lyon and my shorts didn't really work that well. At least I was wearing proper shoes and not just flip-flops.
As I mentioned earlier, I haven't been drinking, yet I have problems remembering the venue in Lyon. I remember that backstage easily but the stage is difficult. Anyway, it was again sold-out or at least close to that and the good shows just kept coming. I don't really know what has happened to me, but I've felt good on stage, totally sober just feeling like I guess a musician should, proud of the band and sure of yourself. Nice.
Now I remember! The place sucked! Not because of not having a shower or anything but because the only access to the backstage was through the audience so once you got in and the doors were open you were stuck! There was an exit to backyard though. That is how they took us to a dinner to a restaurant at the other end of the building. And now that we're on the subject of food, I'll use the opportunity to complain. Again. Not about the food but about organizing a tour meal in general.
If doors open let's say at 19.00 and the first band starts at 19.30, you do not schedule a dinner at 19.00 at a normal restaurant! First of all, it takes for ages for 20 people to select their food and in the end you get your food 15 minutes after you stepped on stage! Buffet is your answer. Buffet from 18.30 till 21.00 is the answer! Or if you want to keep your bands really really happy, it's buffet till the band leaves the venue. Learn this!
Then it was a time for Nantes. We have played there before a few years ago. I remember that we sold the place out then. It was a small club with the capacity of maybe 200 but still it was good. This time we played at l'Olympique with the capacity of 800. We sold that out too. Or actually there is now a confusion if it was sold out or not since there were no tickets left for all who wanted to get in yet the promoter keeps telling us that 17 tickets were not sold. Go figure.
Nantes is s lovely town. It was founded by some Gaulish tribes over 2000 years ago, then later invaded by the Romans led by Julius Caesar. The city has a history, you could say. I guess the main attraction is the castle of the dukes of Bretagne or whatever that was called and the main cathedral. I went to both. Weather was nice too, sunny and sort of warm. Warm for the season anyway. I even found a real irish pub that had Magner's cider on tap! Nice town.
The venue was an old movie theatre I think. Basically a good venue, a bit complex but nice. And again on of those good shows to remember and tell stories to grandchildren. Our set has remained pretty much the same lately there's been some variation like an occasional "Palovana" every now and then. The most memorable moment of Nantes show was the huge spontaneous circle pit during the latter part of "Pine Woods". Excellent. Great audience.
A long time without any writing again. No excuses, just laziness.
The last entry was added near La Coruna, so I'll continue from there. The first impression of the venue wasn't that good. "We're playing in a bar?!" It didn't get much better later either. The venue was a some sort of night club with a really small stage with a low ceiling. One part of the club served as our back stage. The local promoter seemed to be just some local metal dude who had decided to put up a show. However, all was not bad. The guy kept repeating that he wants us to be happy and that he has for example completely fulfilled our riders. Which he probably had done at least for the catering rider since there was plenty of food and drinks. I am not so sure about technical rider though. The venue had no showers but he had booked rooms from the nearby hotel for us. So basically that side was ok too.
The city of La Coruna is located in the north-western corner of "Spain", but if you ask locals they'll tell you that it's Galicia, not Spain. The city looked really nice, at least the part I managed to see. The venue was by the sea, the local main beach was just a stone throw away. Of course it is not a beach season anymore but I still had a walk on the beach when the sun was going down and the city light s were coming up. It was beautiful. But I got sand in my shoes. I hate that. Shoes suck, flip-flops rule!
Once I returned from the city I returned to the scene I didn't want to see. The promoter was wasted, walking around with his bottles of shit (an educated guess) local alcohol and shouting at everybody how well he's done everything. The backstage was full of his friends, sidekicks or whatever. We ask the tour manager to take care of that and after a lot of hassle and shouting the extra people leave. The promoter returns in 2 minutes telling everybody that "I have to be here, I'm the promoter." Then the other started to slowly return there too. The whole thing quickly grew to the point of a fistfight being a second away. I love our (tour) manager. He doesn't care if the guy is 20cm taller and 30kg heavier. He stands up and does everything for his bands even if the guy is threatening to punch him in the face. After all I wasn't really sure what will go on there while we play so I gathered all my stuff and carried them back to the bus so that all I had was just my stage clothes.
The show itself was our worst of the tour. We sucked. The audience didn't seem to care though. I had the worst monitor ever and the front row kept pushing and turning that all the time. During the first few songs it was either too silent or too fucking loud. I asked Gump many times "more bass!" or "less bass!" and kept wondering if there is only an on/off switch for my channel and no slider until I realized that there was some sort of a switch behind the monitor that the audience kept pushing. Hence the silent/loud problem. Once I realized that I shouted at them something like "Ja nyt jumalauta ne sormet irti siitä monitorista tai lävähtää turpaan!" Seemed to do the trick. I would have never guessed that they actually speak Finnish there! After the show I just quickly got my stuff from the bus, had a shower in the hotel and packed myself for the night. I was glad to leave that place.
The next day in Madrid included something that no one expected from anyone in our band and I definitely didn't expect it from myself. I went to an art museum. Prado that is. And I liked it. I had this strange idea in the morning that I should do something different that just wander pointlessly around the city looking for record shops with Matson. I didn't even ask anyone of the other guys to join me because I knew that the answer would have been just these blank faces with empty looks. Anyway, after a breakfast in the city and a few stops to find a new pair of flip-flops (with no luck) I was in an art museum. I have to admit that I don't really know much about visual arts. I have my own favourites of course but when it comes to understanding different styles or eras I am an ignoramus. I got myself a guide booklet of the museum. It had some examples of what is located where. I was totally surprised a few times: "That is here?! Wow!" Actually my favourite painting ever is in Prado, Madrid. Of course I had to see that.
As I said, I am not an expert in visual arts. I like to think that I know at least something about music as an art form. I am able to analyze music. I can pick up different instrument from the recordings. I know how some things are done when it comes to music and therefore I can appreciate it on levels that not all can. A confession time: I don't cry much. Or at least when I do I do it in strange occasions. I didn't cry when I was carrying my own father to his grave. I cry when I hear music beautiful or powerful enough. Happy tears. There is music that can move me more than the death of my own father. Call me cold if you will. See if I care. And there I was in an art museum standing in front of that one painting with tears filling my eyes. Actually just thinking about that moment brings tears to my eyes again.
Oh yes. It is "El Triumfo de la Muerte" by Brueghel.
The museum was eye-opening in many ways. I understood that I can actually enjoy that stuff even without really understanding the process behind the works. And I also found some artists whose works seemed too interesting to just pass. Like the local man, Goya. Really weird stuff. He must have been on something while painting them.
Back to the sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. The venue was Sala Heineken. I liked the venue. The only downside was that the actual backstage was really small, even for just one band, but we were using the huge catering area as a backstage so it wasn't really a big problem. I think the place was sold-out. At least it was packed and the crowd was amazing. Reminded me of some of the South-American dates. Pure mayhem. We were having such good time on stage as well. I have become a rock star too. A cocky rock star. Put your foot on the monitor and let it rip. For the past ten or so days I haven't even been drinking. Just a a glass of wine and an occasional beer every now and then. Sober shows. Nice.
The next stop was Toulouse. Another really long drive. Toulouse show was the last one to be confirmed and our tour book had basically a blank page on that. No information of any kind. Just a hand written address of the venue. I tried to find that from my GPS but I couldn't. There was no such street in Toulouse. However, I realized that the place is not necessarily in Toulouse but in one of it's suburbs so I started going through them. I didn't really have to but I generally want to know where I am and I definitely had time. The street was found in Tournefeuille. The biggest suburb of Toulouse. This didn't really put my hopes up. I have lots of experiences of these venues at suburbs. However this one proved to be different. A real concert hall! Excellent catering, nice backstage. Really good. Le Phare I think it was called.
I wanted to see Toulouse but we arrived too late, were too far away to walk there and even with the local bus it would have taken almost an hour to get there. Instead of Toulouse I enjoyed a nice walk around Tournefeuille. There wasn't much to see. A cemetery was perhaps the most interesting sight. And that wasn't much.
We were in France so Eluveitie was headlining. As I've mentioned earlier this order suits me fine. This was another addition to the list of great shows. We were not using the entire hall. We were actually using only the third of it. It was still quite big and as far as I understood it was sold out. Lots of people and all crazy. It is good to see that things are moving that way for us also in France. Ok, Paris has always been really good anyway, but the other parts, especially the south, have been difficult. Not anymore it seems. Me likes. I honestly have trouble remembering which show was which or how did the actual show go since they all blend together after a while. Sorry.
The next stop was Lyon. I think we've been there before on Paganfest. This time the venue was called Ninkasikao or something like that. Don't ask me why. Again one of those nicer venues. I went earlier to the city too since the subway station was only 50 metres away from the venue and managed to see a really interesting
looking theatre building but the combination of October weather in Lyon and my shorts didn't really work that well. At least I was wearing proper shoes and not just flip-flops.
As I mentioned earlier, I haven't been drinking, yet I have problems remembering the venue in Lyon. I remember that backstage easily but the stage is difficult. Anyway, it was again sold-out or at least close to that and the good shows just kept coming. I don't really know what has happened to me, but I've felt good on stage, totally sober just feeling like I guess a musician should, proud of the band and sure of yourself. Nice.
Now I remember! The place sucked! Not because of not having a shower or anything but because the only access to the backstage was through the audience so once you got in and the doors were open you were stuck! There was an exit to backyard though. That is how they took us to a dinner to a restaurant at the other end of the building. And now that we're on the subject of food, I'll use the opportunity to complain. Again. Not about the food but about organizing a tour meal in general.
If doors open let's say at 19.00 and the first band starts at 19.30, you do not schedule a dinner at 19.00 at a normal restaurant! First of all, it takes for ages for 20 people to select their food and in the end you get your food 15 minutes after you stepped on stage! Buffet is your answer. Buffet from 18.30 till 21.00 is the answer! Or if you want to keep your bands really really happy, it's buffet till the band leaves the venue. Learn this!
Then it was a time for Nantes. We have played there before a few years ago. I remember that we sold the place out then. It was a small club with the capacity of maybe 200 but still it was good. This time we played at l'Olympique with the capacity of 800. We sold that out too. Or actually there is now a confusion if it was sold out or not since there were no tickets left for all who wanted to get in yet the promoter keeps telling us that 17 tickets were not sold. Go figure.
Nantes is s lovely town. It was founded by some Gaulish tribes over 2000 years ago, then later invaded by the Romans led by Julius Caesar. The city has a history, you could say. I guess the main attraction is the castle of the dukes of Bretagne or whatever that was called and the main cathedral. I went to both. Weather was nice too, sunny and sort of warm. Warm for the season anyway. I even found a real irish pub that had Magner's cider on tap! Nice town.
The venue was an old movie theatre I think. Basically a good venue, a bit complex but nice. And again on of those good shows to remember and tell stories to grandchildren. Our set has remained pretty much the same lately there's been some variation like an occasional "Palovana" every now and then. The most memorable moment of Nantes show was the huge spontaneous circle pit during the latter part of "Pine Woods". Excellent. Great audience.
Monday, 25 October 2010
Even more stuff!
October 22, on the bus at the truck stop close to Pamplona, 13:15
Long time, no writing. I haven't really been able to get myself to do that. For a couple of reasons. First of all, I haven't been able to sleep for a few days since my back has been a total wreck. If I was on my back I wasn't able to lift my head. If I managed to find a position where it didn't hurt and fell asleep I woke up after 15 minutes in terrible pain again. No fun. The other reason is that after Dornbirn, Austria we've moved to warm places and there is no fucking way that I am going to spend my day in for example Barcelona by just sitting at the backstage typing down my stupid ramblings for 20 people who are after all only mildly interested!
What have we been doing since Austria? The next show was in Milano, Italy. I Sometimes think of myself as a wise person although there have been many occasions where I've proven that wrong. The day in Milano was one of them. I hadn't packed any shorts, the day was hot, perhaps not in an Italian scale but in a Finnish scale at least and I was wearing fucking leather pants! Time to go shorts shopping. Not easy easy since the season was over. Found one pair that looks a bit too goth. And some of here keep telling me that they are women's model. Show me a goth chick with a 36" waist line! No, wait. Please, don't.
We played at Magazzini Generali. We were there also on the last Paganfest and that time we managed to get our bus in the yard. This time with a bigger bus it was impossible so we had to park outside of the premises. Mr. T told us that it's right behind the corner. After all it was not behind a corner and over a kilometre away! Bollocks. Venue itself is nice. Backstage area is bit too small, especially for a Paganfest, but we managed to fit in well.
We had received a preliminary questions from an Italian journalists for an interview. Sounds scary. Interview is about asking things so what kind of an interview requires preliminary questions sent via email. Yep, a difficult one. I am especially on tours doing most of the interviews so I read those through and realized that they are definitely directed to Jonne. So we decided that he'll do that. He never even read the preliminary questions and on the day of the show was nowhere to be found so I ended up doing an interview about the things that were done before I joined the band and that were in the vein of "What did you mean when you wrote this sentence in that song?" I did my best and once we were finished Jonne showed up for 2 minutes to fill in the gaps.
Now back to my favourite topic. Complaining about the Italians. I wrote earlier about the merchandise prices. Here's the final result. We've been to the countries that can not really boast with their vast amounts of cash. Still in Italia after all the extra payments and taxes we were getting the least money to ourselves even though the prices for the paying customers were the highest of the tour! So if you people think that bands are robbing you, think again. From the 25€ we had to ask the first 11 go to the taxes and the venue!
This is probably a reason why bootleg t-shirts are so popular in Italy too. There was at least 3 or 4 t-shirt sellers outside of the venue. Some of their prints were ok but some of them were total crap. The stolen designs were of course alright although the print quality sucked especially with some Eluveitie stuff. It was just too funny to see a purple Korpiklaani shirt. "Start wearing purple!" Through the afternoon we were figuring out different schemes to boot the bootleggers. The best one was probably this: get some native Italian on stage to tell the audience that if they can not afford the official prices they don't have to worry. The t-shirts sold outside of the venue will be free after the show. But be quick since there's not enough for everyone!
The Finnish girl who makes Jonne's stage clothes lives in Italy. Jonne got his new stage pants in Milano. The leather for those actually came from an old sofa owned by her Italian boyfriend's grandmother. It has survived a huge amount of sweat and farts already so that pants should be good for the stage use.
The show got mixed feelings from band members. Kalle said it was a really good one, I on the other hand couldn't really get into that so well. Maybe because in that venue the audience is really far away considering that it is after all a club. Most except me seemed to be happy so I guess it was good.
October 23, on the bus in Galicia, 12:30
We're on our way from Pamplona to La Coruna and we're running late again. Like me. It seems like I can not update the blog as fast as the things keep happening.
Anyway, after Milano we drove to Montpellier, France. This was a show that we already feared beforehand. Our manager called me a few months ago and asked if we want to do the show since the place is really small with the capacity of 280 and the stage is really small even for a club this small. The another option was to have a day off and since that is usually the worst option I said that we'll do it if Eluveitie will do it.
So there we were. In a club called "Secret Place". They had signs pointing to this venue so I guess it was not so secret after all. French! It was indeed small. Not the smallest we've been to but smallest in the last couple of years. The crew managed to get our gear on stage by leaving the bass amp out. I never used that anyway and Kay borrowed my preamp setup for this show. Eluveitie is the headliner on all French shows. We like the idea. The stage was so small and the audience was so close that there was no way we could move. I actually had keep my bass is such position that my left wrist started to cramp in the middle of the show. I guess it was a really good show after all. Sold out show and a really enthusiastic audience. Eluveitie had some problems there though since during their set there was a power cut. Everything went dark and silent. It was just a few seconds but it was enough to mess their computer/effects rack/whatever so that it took a while before they could continue. I think they were actually missing some of that for the rest of the show. Not sure though. Impossible to get in to hear them and never managed to ask them.
The next stop was Barcelona. I got up early, around 10:30. The bus was parked in front of the venue but the get in time was still hours away, so I check the location of the nearest subway station, figured out from the subway map which is a centre station, realized that "hey, I've been here before, twice!" and hopped on the train. Got off at the main square, Plaza whatever, crossed the square and found my way directly to La Rambla and the close-by network of alleys full of record stores. Paradise for a vinyl geek like Matson and myself, so I sent him a detailed message on how to get there once he wakes up.
I got some excellent breakfast at the local cafeteria. I didn't know before that the combination of coffee and pasta with pesto was acceptable and that it was actually really good. As was the Italian style pie with lots of cheese and these green things, herbs. Chicory, spinach, whatever. Excellent. I had an idea of being a tourist and seeing some places like the Sacrada Familia cathedral (or how ever it is spelled) but after all I ended up spending the whole day in that area. The other's joined me later, went to more record stores, a music store where Jonne almost bought this whatever local guitar kind of instrument it was, had a beer or two and returned to the venue.
Some bands have really loyal fans. We have at least one of those too. We've found the girl or the young woman to be precise in front of the venue for example in the freezing Moscow, Russia and now she was in Barcelona with an intention to see 3 out of the 4 Spanish shows. We've told her many times already that she does not have to buy tickets to our shows, we can always put her on the guest list if you just tell us in advance that you're coming. She's learning. This time she did inform us beforehand. On the day of the show. "I'm in Barcelona. Can you put me on the guest list?"
I myself liked the Barcelona show a lot. I had had a brilliant day in a sunny city starting from the early morning and the day ended up on a high note in front of an excellent audience. Although before the show I forgot to tell Jonne that we're not really in Spain so please don't say "Thank you, Spain!" Once I heard him mentioning Spain already in the first sentence of the show I remembered that. Well our set starts the way that I had no way of telling that to him except after the third song. Before that I could already hear someone from the audience shouting: "Catalunya!"
Yesterday I did remember that though. "Jonne, this is Navarra, not Spain." We were in a small village of Villava only a few kilometers away from Pamplona that is of course known to most people of their brutal, inhuman, barbaric treatment of animals. Bullfighting and the fucking bull run. At least some fucking idiots manage to remove their genes from the world's gene pool at the same time.
The city itself is nice and it was a walking distance away so why not go there too. I spent most of the day just walking around the small alleys of the old town. Actually when walking towards the city I tried to be clever and find a short cut since the road goes around half of the city centre before actually entering the city but instead of that I ended up ion a construction site, had to climb over a fence and jump down from a metro and a half cliff just to find out that I was back on the same fucking road I was originally on!
In the city I even went to two churches! I loved the words "proto-goth" when they were describing the style of the older one. I was now just a minutes ago listening to "Endemoniada" by Fields Of The Nephilim and that definitely is proto-goth too! The most of the guiding texts were of course in the language that no one except the locals understand so I had some hard times figuring out what the hell (pun intended!) had been going on in that church. I could read about the numerous renovations throughout the centuries but I still couldn't figure out the function of the extra arcs and pilasters. It even looked like they had changed the shape of the ceiling/roof in a really strange fashion. Couldn't get that. And I have a masters degree in construction technology!
Yesterday was a good one for me again. I liked the the show. I was having fun on the stage just like in Barcelona. The back has been better, the knee is not that bad and my mood has been just generally better. I haven't even been drinking that much. Not like being drunk, just some wine and maybe a beer or two. And really crappy local cider in the Irish pub in Pamplona.
Anyway, we're still at least on hour away from La Coruna, so I guess I'll just go and take a nap.
Long time, no writing. I haven't really been able to get myself to do that. For a couple of reasons. First of all, I haven't been able to sleep for a few days since my back has been a total wreck. If I was on my back I wasn't able to lift my head. If I managed to find a position where it didn't hurt and fell asleep I woke up after 15 minutes in terrible pain again. No fun. The other reason is that after Dornbirn, Austria we've moved to warm places and there is no fucking way that I am going to spend my day in for example Barcelona by just sitting at the backstage typing down my stupid ramblings for 20 people who are after all only mildly interested!
What have we been doing since Austria? The next show was in Milano, Italy. I Sometimes think of myself as a wise person although there have been many occasions where I've proven that wrong. The day in Milano was one of them. I hadn't packed any shorts, the day was hot, perhaps not in an Italian scale but in a Finnish scale at least and I was wearing fucking leather pants! Time to go shorts shopping. Not easy easy since the season was over. Found one pair that looks a bit too goth. And some of here keep telling me that they are women's model. Show me a goth chick with a 36" waist line! No, wait. Please, don't.
We played at Magazzini Generali. We were there also on the last Paganfest and that time we managed to get our bus in the yard. This time with a bigger bus it was impossible so we had to park outside of the premises. Mr. T told us that it's right behind the corner. After all it was not behind a corner and over a kilometre away! Bollocks. Venue itself is nice. Backstage area is bit too small, especially for a Paganfest, but we managed to fit in well.
We had received a preliminary questions from an Italian journalists for an interview. Sounds scary. Interview is about asking things so what kind of an interview requires preliminary questions sent via email. Yep, a difficult one. I am especially on tours doing most of the interviews so I read those through and realized that they are definitely directed to Jonne. So we decided that he'll do that. He never even read the preliminary questions and on the day of the show was nowhere to be found so I ended up doing an interview about the things that were done before I joined the band and that were in the vein of "What did you mean when you wrote this sentence in that song?" I did my best and once we were finished Jonne showed up for 2 minutes to fill in the gaps.
Now back to my favourite topic. Complaining about the Italians. I wrote earlier about the merchandise prices. Here's the final result. We've been to the countries that can not really boast with their vast amounts of cash. Still in Italia after all the extra payments and taxes we were getting the least money to ourselves even though the prices for the paying customers were the highest of the tour! So if you people think that bands are robbing you, think again. From the 25€ we had to ask the first 11 go to the taxes and the venue!
This is probably a reason why bootleg t-shirts are so popular in Italy too. There was at least 3 or 4 t-shirt sellers outside of the venue. Some of their prints were ok but some of them were total crap. The stolen designs were of course alright although the print quality sucked especially with some Eluveitie stuff. It was just too funny to see a purple Korpiklaani shirt. "Start wearing purple!" Through the afternoon we were figuring out different schemes to boot the bootleggers. The best one was probably this: get some native Italian on stage to tell the audience that if they can not afford the official prices they don't have to worry. The t-shirts sold outside of the venue will be free after the show. But be quick since there's not enough for everyone!
The Finnish girl who makes Jonne's stage clothes lives in Italy. Jonne got his new stage pants in Milano. The leather for those actually came from an old sofa owned by her Italian boyfriend's grandmother. It has survived a huge amount of sweat and farts already so that pants should be good for the stage use.
The show got mixed feelings from band members. Kalle said it was a really good one, I on the other hand couldn't really get into that so well. Maybe because in that venue the audience is really far away considering that it is after all a club. Most except me seemed to be happy so I guess it was good.
October 23, on the bus in Galicia, 12:30
We're on our way from Pamplona to La Coruna and we're running late again. Like me. It seems like I can not update the blog as fast as the things keep happening.
Anyway, after Milano we drove to Montpellier, France. This was a show that we already feared beforehand. Our manager called me a few months ago and asked if we want to do the show since the place is really small with the capacity of 280 and the stage is really small even for a club this small. The another option was to have a day off and since that is usually the worst option I said that we'll do it if Eluveitie will do it.
So there we were. In a club called "Secret Place". They had signs pointing to this venue so I guess it was not so secret after all. French! It was indeed small. Not the smallest we've been to but smallest in the last couple of years. The crew managed to get our gear on stage by leaving the bass amp out. I never used that anyway and Kay borrowed my preamp setup for this show. Eluveitie is the headliner on all French shows. We like the idea. The stage was so small and the audience was so close that there was no way we could move. I actually had keep my bass is such position that my left wrist started to cramp in the middle of the show. I guess it was a really good show after all. Sold out show and a really enthusiastic audience. Eluveitie had some problems there though since during their set there was a power cut. Everything went dark and silent. It was just a few seconds but it was enough to mess their computer/effects rack/whatever so that it took a while before they could continue. I think they were actually missing some of that for the rest of the show. Not sure though. Impossible to get in to hear them and never managed to ask them.
The next stop was Barcelona. I got up early, around 10:30. The bus was parked in front of the venue but the get in time was still hours away, so I check the location of the nearest subway station, figured out from the subway map which is a centre station, realized that "hey, I've been here before, twice!" and hopped on the train. Got off at the main square, Plaza whatever, crossed the square and found my way directly to La Rambla and the close-by network of alleys full of record stores. Paradise for a vinyl geek like Matson and myself, so I sent him a detailed message on how to get there once he wakes up.
I got some excellent breakfast at the local cafeteria. I didn't know before that the combination of coffee and pasta with pesto was acceptable and that it was actually really good. As was the Italian style pie with lots of cheese and these green things, herbs. Chicory, spinach, whatever. Excellent. I had an idea of being a tourist and seeing some places like the Sacrada Familia cathedral (or how ever it is spelled) but after all I ended up spending the whole day in that area. The other's joined me later, went to more record stores, a music store where Jonne almost bought this whatever local guitar kind of instrument it was, had a beer or two and returned to the venue.
Some bands have really loyal fans. We have at least one of those too. We've found the girl or the young woman to be precise in front of the venue for example in the freezing Moscow, Russia and now she was in Barcelona with an intention to see 3 out of the 4 Spanish shows. We've told her many times already that she does not have to buy tickets to our shows, we can always put her on the guest list if you just tell us in advance that you're coming. She's learning. This time she did inform us beforehand. On the day of the show. "I'm in Barcelona. Can you put me on the guest list?"
I myself liked the Barcelona show a lot. I had had a brilliant day in a sunny city starting from the early morning and the day ended up on a high note in front of an excellent audience. Although before the show I forgot to tell Jonne that we're not really in Spain so please don't say "Thank you, Spain!" Once I heard him mentioning Spain already in the first sentence of the show I remembered that. Well our set starts the way that I had no way of telling that to him except after the third song. Before that I could already hear someone from the audience shouting: "Catalunya!"
Yesterday I did remember that though. "Jonne, this is Navarra, not Spain." We were in a small village of Villava only a few kilometers away from Pamplona that is of course known to most people of their brutal, inhuman, barbaric treatment of animals. Bullfighting and the fucking bull run. At least some fucking idiots manage to remove their genes from the world's gene pool at the same time.
The city itself is nice and it was a walking distance away so why not go there too. I spent most of the day just walking around the small alleys of the old town. Actually when walking towards the city I tried to be clever and find a short cut since the road goes around half of the city centre before actually entering the city but instead of that I ended up ion a construction site, had to climb over a fence and jump down from a metro and a half cliff just to find out that I was back on the same fucking road I was originally on!
In the city I even went to two churches! I loved the words "proto-goth" when they were describing the style of the older one. I was now just a minutes ago listening to "Endemoniada" by Fields Of The Nephilim and that definitely is proto-goth too! The most of the guiding texts were of course in the language that no one except the locals understand so I had some hard times figuring out what the hell (pun intended!) had been going on in that church. I could read about the numerous renovations throughout the centuries but I still couldn't figure out the function of the extra arcs and pilasters. It even looked like they had changed the shape of the ceiling/roof in a really strange fashion. Couldn't get that. And I have a masters degree in construction technology!
Yesterday was a good one for me again. I liked the the show. I was having fun on the stage just like in Barcelona. The back has been better, the knee is not that bad and my mood has been just generally better. I haven't even been drinking that much. Not like being drunk, just some wine and maybe a beer or two. And really crappy local cider in the Irish pub in Pamplona.
Anyway, we're still at least on hour away from La Coruna, so I guess I'll just go and take a nap.
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
Loads of places
October 19, in the bunk of the new bus in Austria, 1:15
Ok, I admit, it's been a while since I've written anything. I can explain that though. I had a really shit day on 17th. Before, during and after the show in Passau I drank so much Red Bull and the local substitute that I didn't sleep that night. The next day we played in Master Of Rock Cafe in Zlin, Czech Republic and I spent most of the day trying to sleep on the backstage sofa with no luck. I was so fucking tired and I still couldn't sleep. And my hands were shaking. And my stomach was hurting. It was terrible. The people of Pragoconcert are the coolest you can find in the business, we are basically their house band and I probably came out really rude since I just wasn't in the mood of talking to anyone. At least earlier during the day. It got easier once I managed to rest a bit and eat something. An old dog will not learn new tricks but I am really quitting Red Bull forever. Why haven't I written anything today (or yesterday the 18th to be precise) then? I'll get back to that later.
Anyway, the shows. We have been pretty good and constant. The sets have been varying a bit but nothing new to write home about. The Passau show wasn't that nice. We were ok, but we were headlining a really long festival day in front of an audience that was not there to see us. I think bands like Belphegor were more to their liking. The only three bands to have decent dressing rooms were actually Eluveitie, Belphegor and us. We were sharing the dressing rooms. We had Juho's accordion inside there being charged and one of the Belphegor guys came to ask if it was possible to move that since it'll be covered in (real) blood when they start preparing for their show. I asked if it was possible that they would not spill the blood around and he smiled at me and said "no". Our tour manager took care that they were not allowed in the dressing room anymore and that the stage was cleaned after their show. Although I still had to pull some glass out of my foot on stage… Not our best shows anyway. We were ok, it is just not that easy to suck the energy out of a yawning audience.
Czech was different as usual. We've never had a bad show there and we still haven't. The place was sold out and it was hot like hell. Oh yes, Eluveitie was actually headlining. We were good and the audience too. I personally wasn't at my best since my hands were still shaking and I was sweating so much that my hands were slipping on the bass. Damn you Red Bull. And just for those in doubt, I haven't been drinking alcohol much at all. In Czech not a drop and today for example a glass of wine and a beer or two.
Once I got myself to a certain working condition I did spend some time chatting with the Pragoconcert people. They seemed happy to see us again there. We were comparing about this tour and the last time we were there which was the Paganfest with Die Apokalyptischen Reiter, Unleashed, etc. That time we sold only 350 tickets and this time we filled the venue with 600. Why? George and I figured out a few reasons. First of all, on packages like Paganfest there are the first two bands that don't real draw any people in. The bigger names work for their favour and not vice versa. The headliner plays 60 minutes and the rest something varying from 30 to 50 minutes which means that if there is only one you like you just don't really want to pay 25-30€ for 45 minutes of your favourite band. Now we have two bands both playing 75 minutes and with at least partially a common audience. And we're cheaper. Simple. Or then we were just plain wrong and the real reason was the star positions. Or the fact that some of the Paganfest bands like us had just a few months before played at the Masters Of Rock festival in front of 20000 Czechs…
What about today then? Last night I really tried to stay up late since I knew we had a terribly long drive in front of us again. It's better to sleep late those days. Since I hadn't really been sleeping much I couldn't stay up that long but still managed to sit a while downstairs with Matson, Kalle & Paukku. All four of us totally sober. Something that you wouldn't have really expected to hear about this band! Anyway, I still woke up too early. Too much time to just sit downstairs. And when we finally got into the venue I really didn't like what I saw. Or smelled. Definitely not my favourite venue. And the fucking weather. Inside it was too hot and moist. Outside it was too cold and moist. Terrible. I hated everything today. The pre-sale was only 87 tickets so I wasn't expecting much from that side either.
During the day Matson and myself walked to see the city. Or a town. Or a village. Small anyway. Not much to see but at least we got some fresh air and walked about 6-7km. On our way back we took the whatever it is to the mountain. The lift/elevator/whatever that is hanging from the wires. The view was beautiful until the clouds surrounded us. Up there we could see perhaps 10 metres. There was a restaurant though so we got coffee and the glass of red wine I mentioned earlier.
After all the show was surprisingly nice. In the end around 200 people showed up. Not much compared to the over 1000 shows we've had on the tour but still decent for a Monday in the middle of nowhere.
One last thing before the sleep walks in. We changed our bus today. We had lots of problems with the electrics of the previous one and now we have a luxurious huge bus from the same company. Way bigger bus but still the same number of bunks = plenty more room!
Ok, I admit, it's been a while since I've written anything. I can explain that though. I had a really shit day on 17th. Before, during and after the show in Passau I drank so much Red Bull and the local substitute that I didn't sleep that night. The next day we played in Master Of Rock Cafe in Zlin, Czech Republic and I spent most of the day trying to sleep on the backstage sofa with no luck. I was so fucking tired and I still couldn't sleep. And my hands were shaking. And my stomach was hurting. It was terrible. The people of Pragoconcert are the coolest you can find in the business, we are basically their house band and I probably came out really rude since I just wasn't in the mood of talking to anyone. At least earlier during the day. It got easier once I managed to rest a bit and eat something. An old dog will not learn new tricks but I am really quitting Red Bull forever. Why haven't I written anything today (or yesterday the 18th to be precise) then? I'll get back to that later.
Anyway, the shows. We have been pretty good and constant. The sets have been varying a bit but nothing new to write home about. The Passau show wasn't that nice. We were ok, but we were headlining a really long festival day in front of an audience that was not there to see us. I think bands like Belphegor were more to their liking. The only three bands to have decent dressing rooms were actually Eluveitie, Belphegor and us. We were sharing the dressing rooms. We had Juho's accordion inside there being charged and one of the Belphegor guys came to ask if it was possible to move that since it'll be covered in (real) blood when they start preparing for their show. I asked if it was possible that they would not spill the blood around and he smiled at me and said "no". Our tour manager took care that they were not allowed in the dressing room anymore and that the stage was cleaned after their show. Although I still had to pull some glass out of my foot on stage… Not our best shows anyway. We were ok, it is just not that easy to suck the energy out of a yawning audience.
Czech was different as usual. We've never had a bad show there and we still haven't. The place was sold out and it was hot like hell. Oh yes, Eluveitie was actually headlining. We were good and the audience too. I personally wasn't at my best since my hands were still shaking and I was sweating so much that my hands were slipping on the bass. Damn you Red Bull. And just for those in doubt, I haven't been drinking alcohol much at all. In Czech not a drop and today for example a glass of wine and a beer or two.
Once I got myself to a certain working condition I did spend some time chatting with the Pragoconcert people. They seemed happy to see us again there. We were comparing about this tour and the last time we were there which was the Paganfest with Die Apokalyptischen Reiter, Unleashed, etc. That time we sold only 350 tickets and this time we filled the venue with 600. Why? George and I figured out a few reasons. First of all, on packages like Paganfest there are the first two bands that don't real draw any people in. The bigger names work for their favour and not vice versa. The headliner plays 60 minutes and the rest something varying from 30 to 50 minutes which means that if there is only one you like you just don't really want to pay 25-30€ for 45 minutes of your favourite band. Now we have two bands both playing 75 minutes and with at least partially a common audience. And we're cheaper. Simple. Or then we were just plain wrong and the real reason was the star positions. Or the fact that some of the Paganfest bands like us had just a few months before played at the Masters Of Rock festival in front of 20000 Czechs…
What about today then? Last night I really tried to stay up late since I knew we had a terribly long drive in front of us again. It's better to sleep late those days. Since I hadn't really been sleeping much I couldn't stay up that long but still managed to sit a while downstairs with Matson, Kalle & Paukku. All four of us totally sober. Something that you wouldn't have really expected to hear about this band! Anyway, I still woke up too early. Too much time to just sit downstairs. And when we finally got into the venue I really didn't like what I saw. Or smelled. Definitely not my favourite venue. And the fucking weather. Inside it was too hot and moist. Outside it was too cold and moist. Terrible. I hated everything today. The pre-sale was only 87 tickets so I wasn't expecting much from that side either.
During the day Matson and myself walked to see the city. Or a town. Or a village. Small anyway. Not much to see but at least we got some fresh air and walked about 6-7km. On our way back we took the whatever it is to the mountain. The lift/elevator/whatever that is hanging from the wires. The view was beautiful until the clouds surrounded us. Up there we could see perhaps 10 metres. There was a restaurant though so we got coffee and the glass of red wine I mentioned earlier.
After all the show was surprisingly nice. In the end around 200 people showed up. Not much compared to the over 1000 shows we've had on the tour but still decent for a Monday in the middle of nowhere.
One last thing before the sleep walks in. We changed our bus today. We had lots of problems with the electrics of the previous one and now we have a luxurious huge bus from the same company. Way bigger bus but still the same number of bunks = plenty more room!
Saturday, 16 October 2010
Klagenfurt & Passau
October 16, at the backstage in Passau, Germany, 14:30
This is a 2-day festival and we're headlining the second day. The venue is a part of a convention complex and surrounded by car dealers. Therefore there is basically no place to escape from the noise. Yep. Noise. All bands seem to operate on a death/black/whatever subgenre of metal.
We had a good evening yesterday. The venue sucked in so many ways, one of which was that the stage was way too small. There was no way we could move on the stage so there really wasn't show there, but we kicked ass otherwise. This was the first day on the tour when we played before Eluveitie. I like that order. We don't have to sit and wait the whole evening and don't have to hurry out from the venue after the show.
Oh yeah, Pete from Ensiferum came to see us and brought us some alcohol. As if we needed any more. Nice bloke.
This is a 2-day festival and we're headlining the second day. The venue is a part of a convention complex and surrounded by car dealers. Therefore there is basically no place to escape from the noise. Yep. Noise. All bands seem to operate on a death/black/whatever subgenre of metal.
We had a good evening yesterday. The venue sucked in so many ways, one of which was that the stage was way too small. There was no way we could move on the stage so there really wasn't show there, but we kicked ass otherwise. This was the first day on the tour when we played before Eluveitie. I like that order. We don't have to sit and wait the whole evening and don't have to hurry out from the venue after the show.
Oh yeah, Pete from Ensiferum came to see us and brought us some alcohol. As if we needed any more. Nice bloke.
Friday, 15 October 2010
Zagreb & Klagenfurt
October 15, at the backstage in Klagenfurt, Austria, 15:30
The show yesterday was a good one. The venue basically sucked but it was still ok. There was just not enough space for anything. Bands, crew, gear or audience. While setting up we decided to leave all the cases and the extra drum set outside. Until it started to rain. Which meant that the drums soon filled half of the dressing room etc.
The place was sold out and there were many fans outside without a ticket. The capacity was 600. The two previous times we've been to Zagreb we played at Boogaloo that holds maybe 900 people and we've had there 7-800 people basically on our own and now we even had another band pulling people in. So this venue felt like a stupid idea to begin with. Later I accidentally bumped into the local promoter who had booked the previous Boogaloo shows. He explained me why this show wasn't there and it all comes down to the same stupid reason that we see so often. Personal relationships. Some people just can not work with some other people.
We did pretty much the same set that we've been doing the whole tour, but again with some minor changes. "Metsämies" was out and "Palovana" was back in. I have to admit that it didn't go that well. I can't remember the last time we have played that. The show sounded better than the previous ones for one clear reason. Juho and myself have been listening to some of Jonne's solos being really out of tune but then his playing being in tune otherwise. I suspected the day before after the show that there is something wrong with the guitar, the fine tuning basically. They checked it yesterday and that was indeed the case. The guitar is guilty. So yesterday was played with the spare and it sounded better immediately. Still have to check if the reason is just the fine tuning or if the neck is faulty.
Today we're playing in a youth club run by the Austrian Communist Party. I am in so wrong place right now.
The show yesterday was a good one. The venue basically sucked but it was still ok. There was just not enough space for anything. Bands, crew, gear or audience. While setting up we decided to leave all the cases and the extra drum set outside. Until it started to rain. Which meant that the drums soon filled half of the dressing room etc.
The place was sold out and there were many fans outside without a ticket. The capacity was 600. The two previous times we've been to Zagreb we played at Boogaloo that holds maybe 900 people and we've had there 7-800 people basically on our own and now we even had another band pulling people in. So this venue felt like a stupid idea to begin with. Later I accidentally bumped into the local promoter who had booked the previous Boogaloo shows. He explained me why this show wasn't there and it all comes down to the same stupid reason that we see so often. Personal relationships. Some people just can not work with some other people.
We did pretty much the same set that we've been doing the whole tour, but again with some minor changes. "Metsämies" was out and "Palovana" was back in. I have to admit that it didn't go that well. I can't remember the last time we have played that. The show sounded better than the previous ones for one clear reason. Juho and myself have been listening to some of Jonne's solos being really out of tune but then his playing being in tune otherwise. I suspected the day before after the show that there is something wrong with the guitar, the fine tuning basically. They checked it yesterday and that was indeed the case. The guitar is guilty. So yesterday was played with the spare and it sounded better immediately. Still have to check if the reason is just the fine tuning or if the neck is faulty.
Today we're playing in a youth club run by the Austrian Communist Party. I am in so wrong place right now.
Thursday, 14 October 2010
Budapest, Sofia, Serbia & Zagreb
October 12, at the venue in Budapest, Hungary, 18:05
Just returned from the city to see that the local opener is actually the same band that we toured with in May this year. Virraszok or something like that.
We went to the city to meet Cane's brother who lives here. Took a tram and tried to change to a different one to get to our meeting place. There was no tram line 16. The signs meant that it was a bus line. The symbol looked too similar to a tram symbol. Damn you graphic designers! Anyway, we managed to meet him about 200 metres away from his home after he had already traveled 3km to find us… We actually got off the tram on the wrong side of the river and crossed the river by foot. No, we were not acting like Jesus, there was a bridge. While on the bridge we saw the river boats and said "Why don't we take a romantic boat cruise on Danube?" Well, there was only four males present so our little chat turned into a really dirty talk about things what four males could actually do together. The family walking in front of us turned around and the father said in Finnish: "We are a little shamed of your language boys." They were cool though. Told us how they had just been robbed. Nice scheme the criminals had. Man came to them with a map asking for help and suddenly another man shows up dressed like Columbo introducing himself as a police officer and quickly showing the Finns some sort of official looking piece of paper. "The police" says that he suspects that they have been illegally exchanging money and needs to see and count their money. The stupid Finns let him and only later realize that some of it is gone. Idiots.
We just basically sat there on the terrace of a restaurant, ate something and had a couple of drinks. Budapest is a lovely town but I've seen it already. Wasn't really interested in sightseeing today.
Oh yes. We're criminals. It is always a pain in the ass to figure out the tram tickets etc in different towns where there's no English guide's available, so we just don't pay. On our way back to the venue we were thrown out from a tram by a ticket inspector. The lady said wanted 6000HUF from each of us but since we didn't have that money she threw us out. She could have also written us a bill to pay later but I guess she knew that the local public transport company would never see that money.
I don't like this venue. Too complex, not enough tables or seats. And no internet access.
October 13, on the bus somewhere in Serbia, 11:30
We are on our way to Sofia, Bulgaria. This is the longest drive so far on the tour, almost 800km, and we're driving through Serbia which is not a member of the European Union. We crossed the border at 5 in the morning and everybody had to get out of the bus. The officers ordered Matson and myself back in to put some pants on.
The show yesterday had a bad start. The first five or so songs were partly ruined because of Jonne's guitar not working properly. Although I am pretty sure that the problem was not the guitar but the shit new wireless the guitarists are using. They simply suck. My old Shure system works and will work after the World War III too. Technical problems suck. They just take all the fun out of the show even if they happen to someone else and are eventually sorted out.
Attendance yesterday was 741. Just had a little chat with the manager and the booking agent. It seems that with this package we're actually beating the recent Heidenfest in every city that are the same. The shows we've already done sold better and the forthcoming shows have better pre-sale numbers already. In your face, Flanders! We were actually thinking that maybe people actually like this kind of package just better because the bands are playing longer sets. The headliner on those 5-band festivals like Heidenfest or Paganfest plays 60 minutes the others way less, starting from the first band's 30 minutes. Now were both doing a 75-minute set so for an Eluveitie or Korpiklaani fan this is a better deal. And of course the ticket prices are a bit lower on this tour. A few euros can make a big difference especially in the eastern Europe. The ticket price in Budapest was about 18€ when Heidenfest about 4€ more expensive.
Now that we're on the subject of money, I can start complaining about the Italy. Most of the Italian venues like the one we're going to play on this tour take a huge commission of merchandise sales, 25% and they are also being quite strict with the VAT of 20%. So that means that from a 20€ t-shirt they are taking 9€ from the top! The bands are only left with two bad options basically. Sell with higher prices than elsewhere or just not sell anything.
October 14, on the bus behind the venue in Sofia, Bulgaria, 1:15
Ok, a confession, we sucked yesterday. A certain member basically fell asleep during the show. It wasn't even funny anymore. Today we were a different band. We were ALL sober and were so tight and kicked so much ass that it was just excellent. The venue had a strict curfew at 23:30. The venue was a sports hall that had a huge clock on the wall so it was easy to follow the time. We finished at 23:29. After the final salutes we head to the dressing room and get ready for the showers. At least myself and Kalle were already fully naked when the tour manager runs in and tell us that "They need more, get back on the stage." I guess the curfew was not so strict. We did two more songs. This was basically wrong. This is a co-headlining tour which means that neither us or Eluveitie should play over 75 minutes. Sorry guys. And gals.
The venue for today was supposed to be a club whose name I cannot really remember. The capacity of the club was 800. The pre-sale was around 750 a week ago so they moved the show to this sports hall whose name I can't remember either. The other reason may be that the ceiling of the original venue had collapsed… Welcome to Bulgaria!
Today was a rough day after all. The drive took longer than planned and when we already thought that we were close we ended up in the traffic jam and the last 10km took almost an hour. Or maybe it was just normal local traffic. Anyway we were here really late and tomorrow is not going to be any better. There is a strange law that I learned today. Even though we have now two drivers on board we still have to have a 9-hour break tonight. So we are just basically sitting here till 3. Then we start the journey to Zagreb, Croatia which will be even longer than the trip here and with a border crossing and smaller roads will take even longer. Easily 15 hours which means that we'll arrive around 17 counting in the hour we're saving with the different time zone. Today we lost an hour, tomorrow or today actually we'll gain one.
Back to the important topics. Food. Today we were given the papers with lists of appetizers, starters, main courses and desserts to choose from. I chose a greek salad, "breaded yellow cheese", and grilled vegetables skipping the dessert. Seemed like a very well organized dinner for a change. After about an hour and half we were taken to a restaurant near the venue to eat. The whole thing was so badly organized in the end that some Eluveitie guys left without eating since they just lost their temper with that. It was really bad. I can not understand why the fuck they asked what we wanted to eat if it didn't matter in the end. An example: the first thing they did was that they asked Juho to change his choice of schnitzel to something else since they didn't have them. After 2 minutes they started carrying us schnitzels that no one had even ordered. Idiots.
After all the day was good. A good show in front of an excellent audience makes up for a lot of shit. In the end that is the reason why we are here. I guess it is time to call it a day and wish that I will sleep late tomorrow. Waking up at 7 in the morning with 10 hours to go is terrible.
October 14, on the bus somewhere in Serbia, 12:20
The good things for today is that I did manage to sleep longer than I thought. Just got up a while ago went to ask driver if we can stop for a real toilet. We stopped almost immediately, I paid 50 cents to see the toilet that I didn't want to use. Good thing was it also scared my system and I don't need to go to the toilet anymore.
Every tour has something wrong the routing. The only exception has been the North american tours. They've always been logical. Here we are now doing 800+ km drives and twice(!) through Serbia that is not part of the European Union so we even have to get up in the middle of the night for border control. Of course first to exit the EU and then to enter Serbia and of course the other way around at the other end of the country. Twice. Remember.
The border control is really thorough with our equipment. It takes ages to get through the customs and still we don't even know what we're supposed to do. Language problem too. Luckily we have Meri of Eluveitie who speaks the local language. She's originally Croatian me thinks. Anyway, the customs are worried that we're going to sell some of our stuff in Serbia so they put an extra man on board to make sure that we don't do that. We have to pay him. We're pretty sure that this is just their clever money making scheme. I just don't think that the old fart sitting there in front is any kind of an official. If they are worried about that we're going to sell or get rid of some our equipment why isn't he sitting in the trailer with the equipment then? Another thing is that this bus is full. It is highly illegal to have more than the legal number of passengers on board. The fine for the driver would be several thousands of euros. Maybe that was 5000€. But that is the EU. Maybe these third world countries are different.
Hmm. It seems that we're passing the capital now and just crossed a river. Was that again Danube? Probably not. My knowledge of this part of the world is a bit hazy. You see, I was born and raised with Yugoslavia. I was already way pass my European geography studies when the split happened… Perhaps I should update my data.
Will Zagreb provide a web access? Hopefully.
October 14, on the bus about 70km from Zagreb, Croatia, 18:30
We are so fucking late and this day has been so fucking looooooooong! It'll still take at least an hour until we're at the venue. The doors were supposed to open at 20:00 but we're postponing that for at least an hour. We were really late yesterday too but the crew managed to set up the stage in about an hour. I just fucking hate being awake in the bus for 7-8 hours. This is so boooooring. Haven't even been really able to concentrate on reading. The book is excellent but requires a good amount of concentration to stay focused. Adrian Goldsworth's "In the Name of Rome: The men who won the Empire."
Just returned from the city to see that the local opener is actually the same band that we toured with in May this year. Virraszok or something like that.
We went to the city to meet Cane's brother who lives here. Took a tram and tried to change to a different one to get to our meeting place. There was no tram line 16. The signs meant that it was a bus line. The symbol looked too similar to a tram symbol. Damn you graphic designers! Anyway, we managed to meet him about 200 metres away from his home after he had already traveled 3km to find us… We actually got off the tram on the wrong side of the river and crossed the river by foot. No, we were not acting like Jesus, there was a bridge. While on the bridge we saw the river boats and said "Why don't we take a romantic boat cruise on Danube?" Well, there was only four males present so our little chat turned into a really dirty talk about things what four males could actually do together. The family walking in front of us turned around and the father said in Finnish: "We are a little shamed of your language boys." They were cool though. Told us how they had just been robbed. Nice scheme the criminals had. Man came to them with a map asking for help and suddenly another man shows up dressed like Columbo introducing himself as a police officer and quickly showing the Finns some sort of official looking piece of paper. "The police" says that he suspects that they have been illegally exchanging money and needs to see and count their money. The stupid Finns let him and only later realize that some of it is gone. Idiots.
We just basically sat there on the terrace of a restaurant, ate something and had a couple of drinks. Budapest is a lovely town but I've seen it already. Wasn't really interested in sightseeing today.
Oh yes. We're criminals. It is always a pain in the ass to figure out the tram tickets etc in different towns where there's no English guide's available, so we just don't pay. On our way back to the venue we were thrown out from a tram by a ticket inspector. The lady said wanted 6000HUF from each of us but since we didn't have that money she threw us out. She could have also written us a bill to pay later but I guess she knew that the local public transport company would never see that money.
I don't like this venue. Too complex, not enough tables or seats. And no internet access.
October 13, on the bus somewhere in Serbia, 11:30
We are on our way to Sofia, Bulgaria. This is the longest drive so far on the tour, almost 800km, and we're driving through Serbia which is not a member of the European Union. We crossed the border at 5 in the morning and everybody had to get out of the bus. The officers ordered Matson and myself back in to put some pants on.
The show yesterday had a bad start. The first five or so songs were partly ruined because of Jonne's guitar not working properly. Although I am pretty sure that the problem was not the guitar but the shit new wireless the guitarists are using. They simply suck. My old Shure system works and will work after the World War III too. Technical problems suck. They just take all the fun out of the show even if they happen to someone else and are eventually sorted out.
Attendance yesterday was 741. Just had a little chat with the manager and the booking agent. It seems that with this package we're actually beating the recent Heidenfest in every city that are the same. The shows we've already done sold better and the forthcoming shows have better pre-sale numbers already. In your face, Flanders! We were actually thinking that maybe people actually like this kind of package just better because the bands are playing longer sets. The headliner on those 5-band festivals like Heidenfest or Paganfest plays 60 minutes the others way less, starting from the first band's 30 minutes. Now were both doing a 75-minute set so for an Eluveitie or Korpiklaani fan this is a better deal. And of course the ticket prices are a bit lower on this tour. A few euros can make a big difference especially in the eastern Europe. The ticket price in Budapest was about 18€ when Heidenfest about 4€ more expensive.
Now that we're on the subject of money, I can start complaining about the Italy. Most of the Italian venues like the one we're going to play on this tour take a huge commission of merchandise sales, 25% and they are also being quite strict with the VAT of 20%. So that means that from a 20€ t-shirt they are taking 9€ from the top! The bands are only left with two bad options basically. Sell with higher prices than elsewhere or just not sell anything.
October 14, on the bus behind the venue in Sofia, Bulgaria, 1:15
Ok, a confession, we sucked yesterday. A certain member basically fell asleep during the show. It wasn't even funny anymore. Today we were a different band. We were ALL sober and were so tight and kicked so much ass that it was just excellent. The venue had a strict curfew at 23:30. The venue was a sports hall that had a huge clock on the wall so it was easy to follow the time. We finished at 23:29. After the final salutes we head to the dressing room and get ready for the showers. At least myself and Kalle were already fully naked when the tour manager runs in and tell us that "They need more, get back on the stage." I guess the curfew was not so strict. We did two more songs. This was basically wrong. This is a co-headlining tour which means that neither us or Eluveitie should play over 75 minutes. Sorry guys. And gals.
The venue for today was supposed to be a club whose name I cannot really remember. The capacity of the club was 800. The pre-sale was around 750 a week ago so they moved the show to this sports hall whose name I can't remember either. The other reason may be that the ceiling of the original venue had collapsed… Welcome to Bulgaria!
Today was a rough day after all. The drive took longer than planned and when we already thought that we were close we ended up in the traffic jam and the last 10km took almost an hour. Or maybe it was just normal local traffic. Anyway we were here really late and tomorrow is not going to be any better. There is a strange law that I learned today. Even though we have now two drivers on board we still have to have a 9-hour break tonight. So we are just basically sitting here till 3. Then we start the journey to Zagreb, Croatia which will be even longer than the trip here and with a border crossing and smaller roads will take even longer. Easily 15 hours which means that we'll arrive around 17 counting in the hour we're saving with the different time zone. Today we lost an hour, tomorrow or today actually we'll gain one.
Back to the important topics. Food. Today we were given the papers with lists of appetizers, starters, main courses and desserts to choose from. I chose a greek salad, "breaded yellow cheese", and grilled vegetables skipping the dessert. Seemed like a very well organized dinner for a change. After about an hour and half we were taken to a restaurant near the venue to eat. The whole thing was so badly organized in the end that some Eluveitie guys left without eating since they just lost their temper with that. It was really bad. I can not understand why the fuck they asked what we wanted to eat if it didn't matter in the end. An example: the first thing they did was that they asked Juho to change his choice of schnitzel to something else since they didn't have them. After 2 minutes they started carrying us schnitzels that no one had even ordered. Idiots.
After all the day was good. A good show in front of an excellent audience makes up for a lot of shit. In the end that is the reason why we are here. I guess it is time to call it a day and wish that I will sleep late tomorrow. Waking up at 7 in the morning with 10 hours to go is terrible.
October 14, on the bus somewhere in Serbia, 12:20
The good things for today is that I did manage to sleep longer than I thought. Just got up a while ago went to ask driver if we can stop for a real toilet. We stopped almost immediately, I paid 50 cents to see the toilet that I didn't want to use. Good thing was it also scared my system and I don't need to go to the toilet anymore.
Every tour has something wrong the routing. The only exception has been the North american tours. They've always been logical. Here we are now doing 800+ km drives and twice(!) through Serbia that is not part of the European Union so we even have to get up in the middle of the night for border control. Of course first to exit the EU and then to enter Serbia and of course the other way around at the other end of the country. Twice. Remember.
The border control is really thorough with our equipment. It takes ages to get through the customs and still we don't even know what we're supposed to do. Language problem too. Luckily we have Meri of Eluveitie who speaks the local language. She's originally Croatian me thinks. Anyway, the customs are worried that we're going to sell some of our stuff in Serbia so they put an extra man on board to make sure that we don't do that. We have to pay him. We're pretty sure that this is just their clever money making scheme. I just don't think that the old fart sitting there in front is any kind of an official. If they are worried about that we're going to sell or get rid of some our equipment why isn't he sitting in the trailer with the equipment then? Another thing is that this bus is full. It is highly illegal to have more than the legal number of passengers on board. The fine for the driver would be several thousands of euros. Maybe that was 5000€. But that is the EU. Maybe these third world countries are different.
Hmm. It seems that we're passing the capital now and just crossed a river. Was that again Danube? Probably not. My knowledge of this part of the world is a bit hazy. You see, I was born and raised with Yugoslavia. I was already way pass my European geography studies when the split happened… Perhaps I should update my data.
Will Zagreb provide a web access? Hopefully.
October 14, on the bus about 70km from Zagreb, Croatia, 18:30
We are so fucking late and this day has been so fucking looooooooong! It'll still take at least an hour until we're at the venue. The doors were supposed to open at 20:00 but we're postponing that for at least an hour. We were really late yesterday too but the crew managed to set up the stage in about an hour. I just fucking hate being awake in the bus for 7-8 hours. This is so boooooring. Haven't even been really able to concentrate on reading. The book is excellent but requires a good amount of concentration to stay focused. Adrian Goldsworth's "In the Name of Rome: The men who won the Empire."
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