Latin-America: Leaving Colombia, Sao Paolo & Rio de Janeiro 9.3.-13.3.

The last of the Colombians :-)

So, the Medellin show was really hot and nice. Afterwards the awesomes ruled the night for awhile before getting to bed. In the morning we had to go through the usual airport hassles and bullshit before bording the very short flight to Bogota. Well back at the hotel we had a quick dinner before taking a really good and long nap, actually the first time on this tour that I managed to sleep during the day. It was nice. While heading to soundcheck we were made aware of a whole bunch of interesting things regarding the setup of the show.At the end of the day everything was sorted out and we were ready as well.It was with big interest that we approached the show, because of the altitude it was a bit hard to breathe....nevertheless the crowd helped us through and we had an amazing time....this was the perfect way to end the Colombian leg of this tour. Naturally we had to go out afterwards and check out some bars. Nothing to crazy though so it was not a problem at all to get up in the morning and get my shit together for the travel to Brazil and Sao Paolo. The usual hassles and blah blah....before finally making it to the 6 hour flight. I had a breakfast burger at some local type of joint at the airport....the best burger I have had in ages. During the flight I watched Skyfall and some comedy bits as well as took a nap.....I'm looking forward for tomorrow... Upon arrival me & Marko of course had to go out and see if the local metal bar was still up. It was, and it even featured the same Pantera cover band that we watched 2 years ago. Beautiful. We met a finnish speaking guy Rafael and some other people and continued our quest to take on Sao Paolo. Standing on the balcony of a local bar  with Marko and drinking Jack & Coke with a smoke in my hand, watching the sun rise, I realized it was time to call it a day. You live, you learn, you grow, your wither and then... there will be another day.

Brazil, Sao Paolo 10.3.

No big surprise here, spent the day sleeping :-) ...and by the time we left for soundcheck I was back to normal, alive and well....and of course excited about the show to come. For us this was a venue that we hadn't played before but it was very nice. Since we've met the production guy the night before at the bar we knew everything should be quite ok and our crew confirmed that the day had went along smoothly. With all the signs being nice and good circumstances it was very easy to put on a good show for out excited friends and this was a real blast I must say. Thank you all a lot. Later we met up with a bunch of people and somehow ended up having a garden party in front of the hotel with friends, fans and strangers. Cheers Daniel ;-) ....anyways that led to the issue of not getting to sleep before we had to leave in the morning.

Brazil, Rio de Janeiro 11.3.

I managed to get my stuff together somehow (guess the time of miracles isn't over yet) and headed towards the airport. Slept in the car, slept on the plane and finally in Rio I basically crashed immediately when I got to the hotel. As the crew went to the venue the rest of the guys had a late lunch and checked out Copacabana Beach......while I was totally out...at the hotel. I woke up when Marko came back in to the room (during these three weeks this was the first and last night of double rooms so y'all know with whom I would be staying didn't ya ?) Anyway, got up, showered, packed my shit and then it was time to go to the venue and do the soundcheck. The venue looked more like a large cafe from the 60's, suitable for jazz music. Well, it had a stage and was sold out  so...let's see. This show was the hottest one on this tour, actually I think it was the hottest one on any of the shows with this album...and apart from Tommy's drumkit falling into pieces (Mehtis Olari our drumtech had to fix something every other song at least, cymbals falling down and whatnot.) it was a lot of fun. Some fucking balloons on stage and what not....and I actually got a blackout during the beginning of Tallulah....while playing the intro I started to think about some musical theory stuff related to what I was doing.....resulting in me dropping the ball. Well, that's a first...at least on this song. Luckily Tony got the hang of it and bailed me out :-) After the show and a minor signing session it was time to decided what to focus on....which ended up being me, Tommy & Elias having some red whine in  the hotel room....and later ordering a late night dinner for all of us. An easy relaxing night so to speak and finally I actually got to sleep a bit....like 3 hours before having to get up.

Leaving Brazil 12.3.

Feeling somewhat rested, I lounged to the lobby with Marko a couple of minutes before 0800 when our lobby call was. A short drive to the airport, basic hassles, 45min flight to Sao Paolo, a company lunch, keimobaari and then it was time to board the flight to Paraguay....we made some stop somewhere to leave and pick up some people...(yeah, I know it sounds like some drugbust or kidnapping, and franky , it felt a bit like that as well) we arrived to Ascuncion...(spellcheck anyone ?)... ... A nice late night dinner with the promotor before we headed out to a local irish bar with real leprechauns. Tomorrow will be interesting, since it's our first time over here.

cheers,

Henkka