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...