Some summer photos part 1/3: Slovenia

Hola, at least I found something...yeah I promise to try to be a bit more on the gun with these on the next world tour....

Why do you have a bottle and I just got a can ?

Elias new stage face...or hopefully not.

A palm tree in the dressing room, always a nice touch ;-)

Can you see the mountains reflecting from my glasses ? ..didn't think so...

On the way to the festival....

...still on the way.....

...and the last one of the: look at the view series...at least for now.

The pic is a bit dark but you might see that this is a lapland-style hands free device....

..and finally Ville and his amazing Eastbound & Down t-shirt, I'm gonna steal it from 

him some day...

cheers,

Henkka

Satama Open Air, Kemi, Finland & Wacken Open Air, Germany 1.8.-3.8.2013

Thursday 01.08. - Show day- Kemi

Hometown gigs are always difficult, if not for anything else, trying to relax around the house while waiting for the show doesn't work for me. Anyways, we did a soundcheck in the afternoon and then went home for some hours before getting together about 2 hours before the show. You'll find some nice pics of the show here: https://www.facebook.com/satamaopenair

Being that we had to be at the airport just after 0700 the next morning, I left the partying up to some of the  other dudes and jumpend in the car with Tony, pretty much straight after the show.

Friday 02.08. - Travel Day

Got to the airport just about the same time as the rest of our guys. Basically the whole day was pretty much uneventful. Flew down to Helsinki for about 8 hours of sitting on our asses drinking beer, then another 2 hour flight to Hamburg, were we stayed at the Radisson next to the airport. Still managed to hang out a bit on the patio before it was time to get some sleep. Tomorrow was gonna be a long day.

Saturday 03.08- Show Day, Wacken.

It's always nice to play at the world's  biggest metal festival...and naturally you meet all your friends that you never see elsewhere. Bands, Drivers, Techs etc etc... We headed out from the hotel just after a late breakfast, and 1,5 hours later we were at the site. Just got settled in the dressingroom before it was time to do a signing session. Heard that Sabaton had signed stuff for 5 hours last night...crazy dudes. Also found out that Mötörhead had to cut their show short. Bummer, hope Lemmy is fine. 

I got a bunch of pics, but it'll have to wait for the next post...to lazy right now. Meanwhile you'll find our show here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0Ia7aZBQWI

..haven't had the time to check it out myself yet. Anyways, after the show we did some press, beers and a lot of talking to a lot of people before it was time to check out Nightwish. Actually me & Tony went and saw a couple of songs of Alice Cooper...somehow I think it would have been better if we'd have a darker sky. Done with NW, which we of course enjoyed it was shuttle-time and back to the hotel for a few last beers. Goodnight.

Sunday 04.08 - Travel Day

Time to go home. An afternoon flight to Helsinki and then a couple of hours at the airport before we got up north. Most of us were tired and mellow so it was easy....until next week.

cheers,

Henkka

Metal Days, Tolmin, Slovenia & Lieksa, Finland 23.7.-29.7.2013

Tuesday 23.7. - Travel Day

Ok, so what do we have here, a show at the Metal Fest, some off-days at my friends summer cottage and another show in the east of Finland....but it all started with a major fuck-up. Here we go:

We were supposed to leave for Helsinki in the evening on Tuesday....but when I got a phone call from our manager around noon, with him asking why we weren't on the morning flight the day took an unexpected turn. Just for the record and as a greeting to flybe, if you change our departure to be 9 hours earlier, fucking tell us you idiiots !! Being that there were no other flights from Kemi that day, and we had an early flight from Helsinki to Ljubljana (correct spelling ? ) on Wednesday morning...it was time to make quick decisions and get myself, Tony & Tommy to Helsinki asap....our options: get to Oulu or Rovaniemi and fly from there, with Finnair we'd  get up to over 1000e for 3 persons to fly to Helsinki so luckily I found a flight with Norwegian which was a lot less. I had about an hour (and so did the rest of the dudes) to get my shit together and haul my ass to the trainstation, 1 hour by train to Oulu and then a 20min cabdrive to the airport and we made it in time for the last flight of the day. Hopefully the rest of the travel will be a bit less stressful ;-) 

Upon arrival it was time to get some evening-food & drinks from the alepa (local supermarket) at the airport before checking into the Hilton and trying to find out if Elias also wanted some beer ;-)...and while doing that I checked out the rest of the youtube crop. Granted we've seen the dog vs cat stuff and how animal eat their food...funny shit...also the not give a fuck was nice...but the winner today is The Loner....and just so you don't get to tell me I never give anything back,  a bit of music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6mZvsWHs4M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQsK4P8OpE0

btw some of the videos in the comments were really crazy...and some were boring...maybe this

will make you laugh a bit though (not for too sensitive ppl):

Hah: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNMq8XS4LhE

...and there's a lot more in that well ;-)

Wednesday 24.7. - Travel & Show Day, Tolmin

Gedappa, at around 0530 for a 0600 lobby call, this will be awesome ;-) Took a nap on the plane,

and tried again in the car...it worked...almost. It took us about 140min to drive to the hotel. Upon arrival

we had some late lunch and went to bed for an hour or so. At 1830 it was time to drive to the festival, eat dinner and have a signing session. So far so good ;-)

Be that as it may, the show was great (hate to repeat myself but whaddayado when you rule haha ). Back at the hotel just before 3 and leaving at 0445 means that you pretend to sleep or you're just honest and have another drink. During the 120min (note the difference of early hour travel) ride to the airport some of us shared a van with some of the Messhuggah guys. Some drank some didn't. Cheers Mr.H.

We also got some nice wine with Sonata Arctica-labels on it...had to taste it right away ;-)

Thursday 25.7. - Travel Day

Got to Helsinki somewhat ok and jumped into our pyroguy Ari's truck, heading for his islands. Somehow the dude owns 3 Islands somewhere around Jyväskylä and we decided to spend a few days there since being  at home doesn't really constitute as a holiday. Loaded up on drinks and food and got to the main island.

Friday 26.7. - Summer Island Day

Beer, Sauna, Sun, Swimming, BBQ (repeat several times in no particular order). We got blessed with an incredible summer weather, sunshine and whatnot. Total bliss.

Saturday 27.7. - Summer Island Day & Drive to Iisalmi

Started off the day with the same formula as yesterday. However since we used the sauna next to the sleeping room for the whole day, last night we had 27 degrees celcius in our bedroom. Well, shit happends. ..eventually we got off the island and went to a friends mansion for some more sauna, excellent food and a sleepover. Thanks Mika.

Sunday 28.7.-  Showday, Lieksa

After a sturdy breakfast it was time to head towards our show in Lieksa. Upon arrival (the first ones to get there from our party btw) it was just about waiting for the other dudes to arrive. Met up with the Battle Beast guys since they were already there. Janne had broke his wireless midi at Q-stock so I borrowed him mine for their show. He also had the Alesis keytar which I'll have to check out some day. It's kinda cheap and I usually brake my keyboards, even by accident so it might be a good idea to step down if I can play our stuff on one of those. Anyways, later as our guys arrived me, Tony, Marko and the pyro dudes went to play fresbee (spell check ?) golf. It was kinda fun but I'm not sure if this is my thing or not. Eventually we got around to actually play the show (kinda the reason why we where in Lieksa anyhow). Our hotel for the night was a local villagehouse or whatever it could be called in english. Basically this ment that I could hear the snoring from 3 rooms down, nevertheless we had beer.

Monday 29.7. - Travel Day

Spent most of the day in a van driving home....technically speaking riding home since Punky was driving. Well, that's about it and we still have 4 more shows to go. Kemi & Wacken...plus a trip to Portugal and the last show in France.

cheers,

Henkka

Torin Rytmit, Hyvinkää, Finland, 10.7.-11.7.

Ahoy !

After our summer holiday it's time to once again do a quick, "grab the beers & run"- show. Wonder why it seems to be like this all the time these days. Be that as it may, we're up for the last 7 shows on this world tour. 3 in July and 4 in August. Flew down to Helsinki in the morning, got picked up for a lunch  at a local Greek restaurant, which was very good indeed, later we had a meeting with our manager and around 1500 it was time to drive to Hyvinkää and try to find the venue, which was going to be a big tent.  Found it and spent the day lurking around the backstage. We had one more business meeting set up and we also chatted a bit with some friends of our and so on... Had some nice festival-meatballs, watched Rockstar perform for awhile (good band but really shitty sound) and at 2100 we hit the stage with a short 70min set. Basically we did the same set as in Sweden Rock. 

I actually managed to fuck up in the beginning of Last Amazing Grays. In the song before (The Gun) I looked at the setlist to see what was up next and it said The Day (we have been doing those songs back to back for quite some time now). I put the sounds on for the day and then Tony says: This song is a wolf song, or something like that and when the count-off started I checked the setlist again and there was no The Day marked on there. So, after realizing that my eyes played a trick on me, I quickly switched the setup to the right one and joined the band halfway through the intro....well, shit happends ;-) After the show we had to retreat really quickly since our train left from Riihimäki (some 10km away) about an hour after we got off stage. Changed our shirts, grabbed some drinks from the backstage and headed for the train. So much for that

....now it's again a couple of weeks off before the final 6 shows of this tour, and in case someone still wonders, unless something really special comes along, there will be no more shows added to this tour and the next time you'll be able to see us it with the new album in 2014.

until Slovenia,

cheers,

Henkka

Ps.Didn't have the time to check all youtube clips yet, but I'll give it a shot next time, also didn't take any pics from this run...better luck next time.

Sweden Rock, Sölvesborg, Sweden, 5.6.-7.6.

Fast and effective, it's what this short trip is all about. After just two days at home it was time to head out again. With the looming 4 weeks off after this, it was absolutely no problem at all to get my stuff together and head towards the Kemi-Tornio airport. In the morning I made a quick visit to the rehersal place to pick up our spare soundcard, just in case. This first day would be all about travel and trying not to get bored. At 1350 our flight to Helsinki left, and at 21:45 we continued to Copenhagen...after which there was still a 190km drive to the hotel in...well, ok I admit, I have no idea. A good nights sleep...well of course I stayed up and watched the PIT-BOS game...anyways up it was at 0800 and to breakfast in order to get going for what would prove

to a long but interesting day.

A quick 45min drive to the festival and then it was time to start the work. We all did some interviews and the highlight of the morning for me was when me & Tony did an interview with Ian the drummer of Europe. I didn't know that he works at a radio station. Nevertheless it was a lot of fun. Soon enough it was time to hit the stage and since we were the first band on the main stage I was a bit worried that nobody would show up, after all the showtime was at 1330 or something. No need to worry though, the field was full of people and I think a lot of them didn't know us, which of course is always cool. So for 75min and under a really hot  sun we did our set.  Afterwards we had some massages and did a signing session, dinner and then we were kicked out of our backstage (since we were using the one reserved for Kiss during the day) and it was time for the 2h vanride to Copenhagen airport. This time it was a bit more fun 'cause we still had some beers left from the backstage.....eventually we got to the airport, found our terminal and check-in, security check, a quick drink and then off to Helsinki to which were we arrived at around 0130 in the morning. 

Wake up at 0800 again...almost missed the flight back home because our tickets said that it would leave at 0900, then those fuckers moved the flight to 0835 and didn' t inform us about it. I think Tony's bag was left behind but otherwise we managed got get on the flight, get home and start our summer vacation (of which we haven't had a proper version since...I don't know...ever). So now we're off for 4 weeks and then it's time to play the final shows on this World Tour.

cheers,

Henkka

btw almost forgot, this was the last show for the time being for Mehtis our drumtech. He'll be off with Leningrad Cowboys and whatnot so....arrivederci dude and for the rest of the summer Masi will be back,

see you in a couple of weeks mate !!

thanks for all the youtube-clips, I'll get back to them when I get out on the road again with lots of time to kill, and I'll be sure to comment on them as well....and here are a couple of stupid pics again: 

So much for linearety, on the bridge from Malmö to Copenhagen, driving

back....

Elias being happy @Helsinki-Vantaa airport just before leaving for the show...

Ville being happy in the Van on our way back towards Copenhagen...

Our backstage part 1: Marko's tent

Our backstage part 2: My half of the trailer I shared with Tommy

The setlist with a suspicious card....ei oo rahasta kii !!

Our backstage part 3: Tony's and Elias trailer...this was as close

as I was allowed to get to it.... :-)

Metal Fest, Plzen, The Czech Republic, 31.5.-2.6.

The trip started with the now traditional evening flight to Helsinki and a night at the Hilton. Had a couple of beers with Elias but nothing majestic, so to speak. In the morning we got up at around 0700 for breakfast before heading to the airport and the 0935 flight to Prague. I somehow have come to realize, after all these years, that sleeping makes the flight go faster so I did just that and voilá we were about to land. Naturally we had to wait for about an hour or so for the shuttle to arrive and then it was off to Plzen. As the crew went to the festival to check out the gear etc...basically do their job ;-) The band went straight to the hotel for some R & R. Since I was hungry at this point, I convinced Marko that he also was...and so we had a nice lunch at the hotel wine restaurant. Drink, soup and pasta for around 10e/head was really cheap and on top of all the food was excellent. At the moment I'm just browsing the internet for NHL news and stupid youtube clips and waiting for the clock to turn 1800 and then it's off to the festival. We have a signing session lined up as well as the headliner show later.....let's see if we remember the songs anymore ;-) btw if you have any entertaining = stupid comedy clips please post them in the comment section so we have something to watch. Don't bother with the standup-things since there are too many of them anyway. Thanks in advance !!

I'll be back, just have to listen to some Yngwie Malmsteen right now because he fucking rules !!

..before long it was time to head to the festival. It was still raining like hell. The signing session was ok but just before the show we had some problems with the soundcard for the laptop. Appeareantly the firewire connectors on the card are not too sturdy but Ville managed to get it to work. Personal reminder: pick up the spare motu from the rehersal place before the next show. Anyways, despite having a few weeks off we managed to play a good show, and with a big stage it was really fun to run around for a change. Even to the point that I missed one soundchange because I was on the "wrong" side of the stage when I should have been changing the sound.Minor details so whatta hell. Afterwards I took some beers and cider and headed for the hotel where it was time to watch some NHL. We got there just in time to see the last 10min of LA-CHI and I even managed to stay awake for the first two periods of the BOS-PIT game, in the beginning of the third I fell asleep.

In the morning I had a quick breakfast before it was time for the 1 hour vanride, a couple of hours of waiting at the airport, check-in, lunch, a flight to Helsinki (slept the whole time again, way to go me :-) ) and some 4 hours of waiting in Helsinki, including dinner with the guys. Just after 2230 I was in the cab on my way home. This was a rainy festival but we had a good time, come to think of it we also played at the first Metal Fest in 2010...that time with a hellish sunshine and during a really hot day. Well, things change.

next up: Sweden Rock, before we have around 4 weeks of summer holiday !!

cheers,

Henkka

yeah yeah, I'll get some pics for the next entry...

Headbangers weeked, Istanbul, Turkey 2.5.-5.5.

I'm on a Nightrain :-) So, it was time for the second festival this year and our first trip to Turkey. For starters our train from Kemi was about 45min late so we had a quick Crowmore at the Hölmölä bar in Kemi. Watched some tv-series in the train and fell asleep....the next morning we woke up around 0600 in Helsinki and went straight to the airport for breakfast. As soon as everyone had arrived we checked in and headed to our 13:05 flight to Istanbul. Upon arrival we got to experience first hand, what rush hour mean over here. It took forever to get to the hotel and once there we had just 20min to get ready before heading out to dinner. Unfortunately our dinner clashed with the FIN-GER hockey game but Ville was smart enough to bring his laptop along and the place had Wi-Fi so we managed to watch some parts of the game....and the answer is yes, ice-hockey is really important for us. Tonight's gonna be another game against Slovakia and if we're lucky it will end before our show :-)

After the show which should end around midnight we'll probably be back at the hotel by 0200 if we're lucky and at 0600 it's time to leave for the airport and fly home.....and still people wonder why we look tired sometimes...well to be honest, we're not 16 anymore.

...of course we had to make the leaving part a bit earlier so...back at the hotel just after 0100 and we left at 0500. Be that as it may, our first time in Turkey was a great experience and at the moment we're at the airport in Helsinki waiting for our flight back home. The next show will be in June so I have some time to program the sounds and learn the songs for the upcoming Silent Voices UK tour.

cheers,

Henkka