Scandinavia: Copenhagen 26.1.

The "let's be idiots on stage" -thing continued yesterday and once again we had a really good time. Thanks a lot Sweden....and today it's time for the last show on this leg. Yesterday I didn't join the bar patrol but stayed at the hotel instead and watched some NHL games until the early morning hours. Nice change of pace but I think I'll have to go out a bit tonight, to make up for it ;-)

Right now we're driving towards Denmark with some hours still to go. Next week we'll be doing Helsinki and Russia before we head over to Japan....and as you've probably seen we'll be enjoying the warm weather of South-America next month. After that it's time for the festival season and come fall the plan is to get back into the studio and hammer out another album...we'll see how everything works out but at least this is the rough plan.

...as I didn't post this before I got home: The show and the party in Copenhagen were awesome and we'll try our very best to be back a bit sooner than last time (If I recall correctly we played in Denmark back in 2004 and now in 2013...so let's narrow the gap in the future). Thank you all for last week and

we'll be back on the road, starting tomorrow in Helsinki !!!

cheers,

Henkka

Scandinavia: Göterborg 25.1.

What a hangover, it's just after 1600 and I just got up from my bunk. Last nights show was really a lot of fun and Tony started to try to do some of the speaks in Swedish which of course was totaly out there. Well, it made me and the guys laugh...let's see if he keeps it up tonight. During the show Elias guitaramp started to do some crap at one point but other than that everything went smootly as expected. Since we had no opening band and it was in the middle of the week, the show started already at 2000 so just after 2300 we were at the hotel. A quick shower and some drinks later some of us decided to go to the Pub Anchor for some more drinking.... it was fun and we ended up with hangovers for today. During the ride here to Göteborg we stopped at a Burger King so I managed to down a Bacon & Cheese Whopper  before I went back to sleep in my bunk. At the moment I'm getting myself and my stuff together and thinking about going in to the venue, our soundcheck should be in an hour or so, I have no clue about when the show is or what else in in store for us.....dinner at some point I guess...and if I get to go online inside the venue I'll post this and maybe even bug Tommy for a couple of pics...I know he must have something. See you all tonight and I'll start working on this goddamn hangover....I'm sure it'll be gone before the show.

...yeah I got a couple of pics from Tommy...of myself ;-) I'll put them below..and I also just found out that my spare M3 is with us so buying the amazing piano was just a stupid mistake....well...so fucking what.

cheers,

Henkka

Starting the meal....hungry and hangover...

...and now it's getting better...King Henrik is happy :-)

Finally managed to get to the venue and backstage.....and online.....

Scandinavia: Stockholm 24.1.

So, Oslo was nice, spent the day watching crap on youtube at the hotel. For the show we went with the same setlist as in the US, somehow it seems to work. So instead of the acoustic thing that we did in Europe we're playing The Last Amazing Grays and Last Drop Falls....Elias has a short solo spot and....hmm...what else ? You probably know the setlist better than I do :-) Anyways we had a really good time on stage and it's definately great to be back doing what we do best, which is playing rock'n'roll. Afterwards we had some drinks at the Revolver bar next to the hotel before getting to bed...after all the wake-up call was at 0600.

I managed to get up and transfer myself to my bunk in the bus. The next time I woke up it was at a gas station with a Mac D next to it so I had a Big Mac meal as my breakfast....healthy shit.... While driving

to Stockholm we had to stop for a couple of hours in the middle of the highway, appeareantly a truck had broke down in the middle of the road and there was a huge line of cars just waiting 'til the towtruck came and cleared the way. I don't mind waiting when we have internet on the bus, so I spent the time talking about NHL with Ville and checking out cool goals from this season. I'm very happy that the lock-out is finally over and we can enjoy some fucking hockey. Hell Yeah !!!

When we finally managed to get to Stockholm we had some soup and sandwitches :-) At the moment

I'm waiting for dinner,soundcheck and an interview...the order still to be determined. Time to watch some NHL highlights from yesterday.

cheers,

Henkka

Scandinavia: Kemi-Oslo 22.1.

Hiya,

So it's a brand new year, nevertheless the tour will still go on :-) Right now we're on our way towards Oslo and the first of the four scandinavian shows. Driving through the beautiful snowy landscape while the sun shines is actually not a bad working day at all. A bit of white wine helps as well.... the drive is about 1400km 

So for about 24 hours it looks like this:

We're excited to be back out and getting to play some killer shows for you guys....but for the moment it's snow, wine and occasional naps...  actually we forgot all of the keyboard gear back at the warehouse so the morning was spent sorting that out....I'll get my rack and Ax-7 but the piano is a bit too big to howl around

when flying....so instead of spending more money on renting a piano for the shows, we decided to go shopping...the band is now  a proud owner of this amazing piano:

It'll be interesting to find out how it will sound through the PA system, interesting and scary at the same 

time. See you at the shows :-)

cheers,

Henkka

PS. While we were home, appeareantly Tony's starting to go mad, check this out: http://bit.ly/VWRL7b

...the dance at the end is killer, cracks me up every time.

North-America: A couple of pics from Las Vegas

Hola, got a couple of pics from Tommy.......Vegas baby :-)

As seen on facebook, just wanted to make sure EVERYONE gets to see this !!!

No, nobody won big :-( ....still had to try, right ?

Vinnie and Tommy after the Sin City Sinners show......

On the way to check out the Cirque du Soleil show, which I heard was totally

amazing....got to check it out next time.

....and that's about all I have to say about the North-American Tour, you'll find more stuff in Tony's tourdocumentaries at youtube.com/sonataarctica  We'll be back as soon as the Scandinavian shows start at the end of the month, with Russia and Japan to follow. 

Cheers,

Henkka