Hi all! We'll be continuing to post new adventures from our forthcoming gigs in Finland and abroad to this same blog. It's fun for us and fun for you, or at least that's the impression we have got so far. Take a peek here regularly and you're able to keep on track of all INSOMNIUM activities more carefully. We will also post some other stories covering other band related topics (e.g. about building the Amfisound guitar or about writing new songs etc.) here as well in the future. Enjoy!
-VF/INSOMNIUM
tiistai 16. lokakuuta 2007
keskiviikko 3. lokakuuta 2007
27.9.07
We got to Houston airport terminal at dawn. We had total of zero hours of sleep tonight. Somehow we got the whole pack through the customs and the sadistic journey was about to begin. 24 hours of flying, queuing, security checks and waiting at the airports. The routing was from Houston to Newark via Charlotte, and from Newark to Helsinki via Frankfurt. We had a meeting with Paula (from Candlelight) at Newark. We summed up some financial affairs and made initial plans for tours to come. All in all this tour went way better than anyone expected financially and playing wise. Never mind all the hard conditions and merciless miles in the van.
StS boys had different flights from Newark, so our ways with them parted there. We had the last supper at a Thai restaurant and said goodbyes. Everybody was weary from travelling and more than ready to go home. Still goodbyes meant the final closure of this ride, and parting ways with such close friends made me feel leave with misty eyes. Well, only six weeks and we’ll mayhem Europe with those guys.
Rest of the journey went without trouble. We slept through the flight to Frankfurt, and laughed through the flight to Helsinki. Then there was still the 600 km road trip to Joensuu via Jyväskylä and Kuopio. “Menee huikalla”. Finland is beautiful, and I’m glad to be home. Thank you America, we’ll be back.
Quote of the day:
“Huomenna pääsee metälle, ihan juhlaa! Tekis mieli hommata koira…”
“Vittu siun mitään tarvii hommata. Kato peiliin!” –anonymous but polite drummer
Good friends or bit gay?
Make your own mind...
In Charlotte
Fourth of flight behind
Flying in the air
Niilo tried his luck with cards
And failed...
Back in Finland, no words are needed...
Ville V.&F./INSOMNIUM
StS boys had different flights from Newark, so our ways with them parted there. We had the last supper at a Thai restaurant and said goodbyes. Everybody was weary from travelling and more than ready to go home. Still goodbyes meant the final closure of this ride, and parting ways with such close friends made me feel leave with misty eyes. Well, only six weeks and we’ll mayhem Europe with those guys.
Rest of the journey went without trouble. We slept through the flight to Frankfurt, and laughed through the flight to Helsinki. Then there was still the 600 km road trip to Joensuu via Jyväskylä and Kuopio. “Menee huikalla”. Finland is beautiful, and I’m glad to be home. Thank you America, we’ll be back.
Quote of the day:
“Huomenna pääsee metälle, ihan juhlaa! Tekis mieli hommata koira…”
“Vittu siun mitään tarvii hommata. Kato peiliin!” –anonymous but polite drummer
Good friends or bit gay?
Make your own mind...
In Charlotte
Fourth of flight behind
Flying in the air
Niilo tried his luck with cards
And failed...
Back in Finland, no words are needed...
Ville V.&F./INSOMNIUM
26.9.07
Alarm clock went off at 8:15. Next time I’m going to wake up in a bed it will happen in Joensuu, Finland. One more show left to go. We took showers and hit the road for Houston before 9 nine o’clock. Journey went relatively easily. We spent time surfing different satellite radio channels and one channel played In Flames song Moonshield. It felt almost like home.
We had some difficulties in finding tonight’s venue. First time we encountered this kind of troubles on this tour. Well, we found the place after some searching. Good place to have a concert. Katatonia and StS were doing sound checks, so that left some vacant time for us. Alpha-Villes mastered the situation once again: we cleaned the van thoroughly with Nick, visited post office and took care of some financial issues. And most importantly made some purchases for the evening: four cans of funny spray, 30 balloons and four packages of shaving foam.
I went to have lunch with Aleksi to a sushi buffet near the venue. Katatonia’s guitar league joined us soon. The others chose Pizza Hut. They chose wrong, that buffet was the best food I’ve had on this tour. Well, it’s a matter of taste I guess.
Apparently we weren’t the only ones who had troubles finding the venue. Doors opened and only a dozen of people showed up. I think our promoter hadn’t done his job well for the ending of this tour, after Corona crowds have been relatively small and there has been an absence of catering. Well, last show to go, so it doesn’t matter.
There was a slight atmosphere of uncertainty and anxiety before the show. The other one of Randall heads blew the last fuse we had left just ten minutes before the doors opened. Brian fixed the thing with aluminium paper. He just stuffed the fuse holder full of it and got the amp working. Three weeks on the road had made two Randall heads ready for retirement. Not very convincing quality…
StS pulled an awesome show, and Jonas joined them in “Justice of Suffering”. What a great track with diverse vocal works. We were loyal to our land mates and did only few practical jokes to Kai during the show. After StS it was our turn. Half of our audience consisted of the other musicians on this tour. Still we had really fun on stage and played the gig with as much energy that we had in us. Daniel from Katatonia joined us during the Bereavement, dancing and head banging all the way. He had customized his outfit to match Insomnium style: just some black gaffa tape wrapped around his dick. Beautiful. StS boys also appeared on stage taping some porn pictures to our amplifiers. I didn’t even notice that in the heat, and despite the obscenity everybody seemed to have great time. Or maybe it was just because of that.
Scar Symmetry was next in line. They also poured all the remaining energy to the show, and kept running around the bar with their wireless instruments. We joined the party during “The Illusionist” and covered their heads with shaving foam. The routine “we like you” gesture.
Katatonia entered the stage with mixed feelings. I think they already expected some practical jokes to come up. One curiosity of the night was that Christian (SS) sang “Sweet Nurse”. Well, he is a nurse after all. Jonas remarked that I should have to learn to sing if they ever decide to record “Sweet Surgeon” in the future. I agreed.
We held our horses till Katatonia reached their last song. Raivio only changed Katatonia’s interlude music (when they change their guitars) from some atmospheric stuff to funny sounding, traditional Swedish polka song at some point. Served Swedes well. In the end the demons were unleashed. Stage was filled with balloons, serpentine and dozen of hippies running amok. “July” and “Brave Murder Day” were just one big carnival, even the venue staff enjoyed the party that went on and off stage.
Rest of the evening was spent with sorting our gear and hanging all together. All the bands and musicians were praising and giving thanks to each other. Venue closed its doors and we packed our stuff to Katatonia’s bus. The backline went to our van, and Nick hit the road for Philadelphia. Poor road dog.
There was some kind of technical failure with the bus’s trailer, and Walter (the driver) spent few hours fixing it. I spent those hours outdoors hanging with Kai, Daniel and Ville F. Some dim-witted groupie girls tried to join our company by offering blowjobs. We refused impolitely and drank their beers as a punishment for fornication. They got offended and drove off with their pick-up, shit faced as monkeys. DUI, the Texas way.
Walter got the bus fixed at 4 am and we hit the road for airport.
Quote of the day: “Masters of fart” –Hippi, Mikko and Sukram
What's on bassist's mind?
The last show
Old drumskin which we signed and gave to audience
Daniel and Brian joining with Scar Symmetry
Henrik got it first
And Per followed soon
Actually they all got it
Christian (working as a nurse in his normal day job, seriously!) doing vocals to My Sweet Nurse by Katatonia
They're in love, seriously!
grrr
Preparing for the joke for Katatonia
Ville V.&F./INSOMNIUM
We had some difficulties in finding tonight’s venue. First time we encountered this kind of troubles on this tour. Well, we found the place after some searching. Good place to have a concert. Katatonia and StS were doing sound checks, so that left some vacant time for us. Alpha-Villes mastered the situation once again: we cleaned the van thoroughly with Nick, visited post office and took care of some financial issues. And most importantly made some purchases for the evening: four cans of funny spray, 30 balloons and four packages of shaving foam.
I went to have lunch with Aleksi to a sushi buffet near the venue. Katatonia’s guitar league joined us soon. The others chose Pizza Hut. They chose wrong, that buffet was the best food I’ve had on this tour. Well, it’s a matter of taste I guess.
Apparently we weren’t the only ones who had troubles finding the venue. Doors opened and only a dozen of people showed up. I think our promoter hadn’t done his job well for the ending of this tour, after Corona crowds have been relatively small and there has been an absence of catering. Well, last show to go, so it doesn’t matter.
There was a slight atmosphere of uncertainty and anxiety before the show. The other one of Randall heads blew the last fuse we had left just ten minutes before the doors opened. Brian fixed the thing with aluminium paper. He just stuffed the fuse holder full of it and got the amp working. Three weeks on the road had made two Randall heads ready for retirement. Not very convincing quality…
StS pulled an awesome show, and Jonas joined them in “Justice of Suffering”. What a great track with diverse vocal works. We were loyal to our land mates and did only few practical jokes to Kai during the show. After StS it was our turn. Half of our audience consisted of the other musicians on this tour. Still we had really fun on stage and played the gig with as much energy that we had in us. Daniel from Katatonia joined us during the Bereavement, dancing and head banging all the way. He had customized his outfit to match Insomnium style: just some black gaffa tape wrapped around his dick. Beautiful. StS boys also appeared on stage taping some porn pictures to our amplifiers. I didn’t even notice that in the heat, and despite the obscenity everybody seemed to have great time. Or maybe it was just because of that.
Scar Symmetry was next in line. They also poured all the remaining energy to the show, and kept running around the bar with their wireless instruments. We joined the party during “The Illusionist” and covered their heads with shaving foam. The routine “we like you” gesture.
Katatonia entered the stage with mixed feelings. I think they already expected some practical jokes to come up. One curiosity of the night was that Christian (SS) sang “Sweet Nurse”. Well, he is a nurse after all. Jonas remarked that I should have to learn to sing if they ever decide to record “Sweet Surgeon” in the future. I agreed.
We held our horses till Katatonia reached their last song. Raivio only changed Katatonia’s interlude music (when they change their guitars) from some atmospheric stuff to funny sounding, traditional Swedish polka song at some point. Served Swedes well. In the end the demons were unleashed. Stage was filled with balloons, serpentine and dozen of hippies running amok. “July” and “Brave Murder Day” were just one big carnival, even the venue staff enjoyed the party that went on and off stage.
Rest of the evening was spent with sorting our gear and hanging all together. All the bands and musicians were praising and giving thanks to each other. Venue closed its doors and we packed our stuff to Katatonia’s bus. The backline went to our van, and Nick hit the road for Philadelphia. Poor road dog.
There was some kind of technical failure with the bus’s trailer, and Walter (the driver) spent few hours fixing it. I spent those hours outdoors hanging with Kai, Daniel and Ville F. Some dim-witted groupie girls tried to join our company by offering blowjobs. We refused impolitely and drank their beers as a punishment for fornication. They got offended and drove off with their pick-up, shit faced as monkeys. DUI, the Texas way.
Walter got the bus fixed at 4 am and we hit the road for airport.
Quote of the day: “Masters of fart” –Hippi, Mikko and Sukram
What's on bassist's mind?
The last show
Old drumskin which we signed and gave to audience
Daniel and Brian joining with Scar Symmetry
Henrik got it first
And Per followed soon
Actually they all got it
Christian (working as a nurse in his normal day job, seriously!) doing vocals to My Sweet Nurse by Katatonia
They're in love, seriously!
grrr
Preparing for the joke for Katatonia
Ville V.&F./INSOMNIUM
25.9.07
We woke up at Ft. Worth and checked into a motel near the venue. Cheapest motel on this trip, and you really could tell that. Well, it served our needs. Few hours of sleep in the morning and then we headed to breakfast. Some of our sternest party animals were still in recovery phase and had some troubles in keeping Wendy’s burgers in their stomachs.
The venue was good, really big and classy. We had some time to kill before Katatonia arrived, so we just sat at the gigantic backstage and had our assembly once again. Katatonia arrived ninety minutes before the doors opened, but that was just enough to set up the gear and do a line check.
Crowd wasn’t too big tonight, at least when compared to the size of the venue. We had good shows though, big stage gave us plenty of room to run around and put all our energy to playing. Daniel from Katatonia appeared on stage at some point, just cheering and taking pictures. We finished the show with Devoid of Caring and left the stage in good mood.
For me the rest of the evening went just chilling out at the backstage, having some dinner and chatting with the others. Some Pantera fanatics of us made a trip to visit Dimebag’s grave. They got back just as Katatonia finished, and we did the load out. There were some stage-hands to help us, so it went quickly. All the staff at the venue was really friendly and helpful. Group of funny, pirate looking middle aged metal heads. Something you wouldn’t see anywhere else than Texas.
We knew that this would be the last night in bed before flying home, so we headed straight to bed. Well, most of us did. Kai was in the party mood again and went to terrorize the Swedes to their bus. Let the chaos prevail!
Quote of the day:
“Ois se kyllä hienoa käydä katsomassa Dimebagia…”
“Vittu minuu ei nuo montut kiinnosta. Samanlaisia ne on kaikki.”
- anonymous guitar hero
Venue from inside
Martti in awe
Martti is so awed that he can't move
Shark is awed as well
Ville V.&F./INSOMNIUM
The venue was good, really big and classy. We had some time to kill before Katatonia arrived, so we just sat at the gigantic backstage and had our assembly once again. Katatonia arrived ninety minutes before the doors opened, but that was just enough to set up the gear and do a line check.
Crowd wasn’t too big tonight, at least when compared to the size of the venue. We had good shows though, big stage gave us plenty of room to run around and put all our energy to playing. Daniel from Katatonia appeared on stage at some point, just cheering and taking pictures. We finished the show with Devoid of Caring and left the stage in good mood.
For me the rest of the evening went just chilling out at the backstage, having some dinner and chatting with the others. Some Pantera fanatics of us made a trip to visit Dimebag’s grave. They got back just as Katatonia finished, and we did the load out. There were some stage-hands to help us, so it went quickly. All the staff at the venue was really friendly and helpful. Group of funny, pirate looking middle aged metal heads. Something you wouldn’t see anywhere else than Texas.
We knew that this would be the last night in bed before flying home, so we headed straight to bed. Well, most of us did. Kai was in the party mood again and went to terrorize the Swedes to their bus. Let the chaos prevail!
Quote of the day:
“Ois se kyllä hienoa käydä katsomassa Dimebagia…”
“Vittu minuu ei nuo montut kiinnosta. Samanlaisia ne on kaikki.”
- anonymous guitar hero
Venue from inside
Martti in awe
Martti is so awed that he can't move
Shark is awed as well
Ville V.&F./INSOMNIUM
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