24.11.07

We woke up at 11 o’clock just to realize that four hours of sleep was not enough for this morning. So we extended our stay at the hotel and recovered from last night till afternoon. Then we took the short drive to Dordrecht. Tonight’s venue was an old church which had been turned into a club. Quite exotic place, but functioned really well despite the odd concept. We set up our gear and had dinner. We had even time to do a nice Saturday afternoon stroll in the city. It turned out to be beautiful old town. We did some window shopping and just enjoyed the walk in the winding alleys.

The day passed quickly and smoothly. We shared the backstage with StS boys and killed time by playing a band name game – someone names a band and the next guy has to name tell the next band that starts with the last letter of the previous band. Amorphis-Sentenced-Down-Nile and so forth. The game went on for hours, we jus visited the stage in the middle to play the show. Playing-wise this was one of the best shows we have done on this tour, the playing went fluently and we had fun. The crowd reaction was pretty good too, so we left the stage with good vibes and carried on with our band name game. Pasanen turned out to be the master in this one.

After three liters of vodka and few crates of beer all possible band names we knew had been used, so we decided to quit. By then everybody were drunk enough that conversation had turned into chaotic screaming. Everybody seemed to have something to say at the same time. Amorphis boys joined us after their show and the party went on. Everybody was on the loose, I remember doing some disco dancing with Amorphis guys on the stage.

This “controlled chaos” went on till our designated driver Matti ran out of patience. We loaded out in amazingly organized manner (considering our condition) and headed back to Amsterdam. Niilo entertained us with various vomiting performances during the journey and we were polite enough to document it all on tape. The final test for the evening was to get Urski to the hotel, for some reason he had lost his co-operation and ability to move. Along with his eyeglasses, id and credit card. Some of them were found later, some not. Good night Holland.

Ville Vänni/INSOMNIUM



Scenery 1



River



Dordrecht



Das hippi!



Urski sends some postcards...



Kebab place to be!



Nightsky



Gig place



From inside



Different angle



Aftershow analysis



PARTYTIME!



Finnish way to party!



Sukram loves Niilo and Niilo loves Sukram



Gay lovers



Fight club!



DAs mEtalpartiii!



Jaaa!



End of MetaL PaRtY!

23.11.07

We had an early wake-up call at 9am. Our spiderman’s cave looked quite funny, small room full of clothes and tape running from wall to wall. We realized that our clothes weren’t dry yet, actually quite the opposite. But we didn’t let that bother us, we just put wet underwear on and the rest to plastic bags. Breakfast at Mac Donald’s and hit the road. I had the pleasure of driving us out of Germany, 450 km of Tetris on autobahn in stormy weather was a pain in the ass, but we got to Holland without trouble.

We arrived to Utrecht in time and did the load in. We visited this venue before a year ago with Satyricon, so we knew the neighborhood. This time the venue seemed much larger, last time we weren’t allowed to the back stage premises at all but now we got to enjoy the luxury and hospitality of Netherlands. Looking back to that Satyricon tour made us realize how well we’re doing now, and how nice it is to tour with such good band as Amorphis. Everything works now way better than with those Norwegian penguins. They won’t be missed, cheers to that! We chilled out at the backstage and did a brief walk in the city. And we were even able to dry our clothes with the venue’s dryer. So now the underwear situation is solved for now.

Tivoli’s stage was smallest this far on tour, so we agreed that every band uses the same drum kit tonight. That gave us some more room on stage, and saved also lots of grief and trouble during the change over. Markus fitted well behind those drums and we played a good show. We had good time on stage and the audience seemed to enjoy their time also. The cultural difference to German metal heads was still obvious – there was hardly any head banging, but instead the sweet scent of marihuana flowing in the air and people watching the show with “high” expression on their faces. We didn’t let that bother us though.

Few vodka drinks and hanging out with Amorphis guys at the backstage after our show set up the right mood for the evening. We loaded out after StS set and Markus drove us to Amsterdam for the night. He got the van parked and joined our party soon. We had few warm-up rounds at the hotel and then to the vivid nightlife of Amsterdam. The detailed events of that night shall remain obscure. Let’s just say that it was a “normipäivä”.

Quote of the day: “What did I do wrong? In Finland all the rivers go to lakes…”

Ville Vänni/INSOMNIUM



Helling



From inside



Vaaran Martti



Backstage



Hippi in Tivoli



Soundchecking....



Technicians...



Vittu mie rakastan kaikiii!



Nibyyyyy!



Picture says it all...

22.11.07

I spent most of the night on hotel floor sweating and listening to other’s snoring. Ville F. wasn’t snoring though, so I guess he suffered from insomnia also. Single person room’s ventilation system couldn’t stand up for six sweating hippies, so by the morning the air was so thick that I couldn’t see the opposite wall anymore even with binoculars. I got fed of to attempting to sleep by 8am. We had showers (one by one this time) and hit the road.

We had some vacant time in our hands, so we decided to do some tourist stuff. Tourist guide Urski picked up the destination or us, Dachau concentration camp. Sad place to see, but still that trip was worth doing.

I spent the road trip to Aschaffenburg trying to get some sleep. I failed and ended up reading “Eläkeläiset - Suuri suomalainen juopottelukirja” tour manual. They have a totally different concept in music, but frighteningly similar leisure time activities and sense of humor… Markus was driving and took us to Aschaffenburg in no time. This time we were wise enough to book the hotel rooms beforehand and also make sure that we could check in at night.

The venue was very nice, a cozy and luxurious club in middle of shopping district in the downtown. We enjoyed a gourmet meal at the back stage and did the sound checks. After that we encountered a task we had been waiting to do for several days – doing laundry. This was the proper time for it, as I had already been running low on clean clothes. Markus was able to do some laundry in Switzerland, but we had no time then for it, there I always a queue when there is a washing machine available. We even tried to avoid making more laundry by staying naked the whole Monday, but obviously that doesn’t work very well in Central Europe… Well, now we had the chance to do get our clothes clean. There was only one setback though. The queue for the dryer was even longer, so we had no time to dry those clothes…

We had a god show, the presales had been the best ones on this tour and the audience was wild. We had fun on stage, as usually. I noted that we’re developing some kind of standard in our performance, with enough shown under the belt things just become easier and easier. Of course there are small things we’re never satisfied with small things, but in general we’re feeling confident with our package on stage now. Which is nice.

We did a quick load out after the show and I drove us to Frankfurt for the hotel. This time the check in went smoothly. We used some gaffa tape to decorate our hotel room like Spiderman’s cave and hanged our wet clothes to dry. After that I didn’t have to wait sleep for long, I guess I was already asleep when my head touched the pillow.

Ville Vänni/INSOMNIUM



Drive to Aschaffenburg



Designated driver



Hippies



Impola



Colos-saal



Votkatime!



Dear friend alcohol



And how well it works!



We got our laundry washed and the motel room served as drying room...

21.11.07

We had the wake-up call at 9am. I finally felt that the ghost of Monday had left me. Breakfast at hotel lobby provided some nutritional values but hardly anything gastronomic pleasures. Well, what the hell, we didn’t come here to eat anyway…

We were on the road by ten o’clock. Nice German countryside scenery passed by as we had our few hour ride to Munich. I spent the whole journey on laptop doing some writing and listening to music. Nice and relaxing.

We arrived to Munich in time. The venue was great, big place in a complex block of bars and nightclubs. The same laid back feeling we had during the journey carried through the whole afternoon, everybody were just lazy and hanged at the backstage taking care of small things. We were supposed to have a shipment of merchandise there to fill our supplies, but the shipment was displaced somehow. UPS had delivered the package 24 hours earlier than agreed, and someone had just signed the delivery. We spent few hours trying to find out who that mystery man was and where he had placed our merchandise, but we were out of luck. Matti had run out of luck too, he had lost his front teeth in a strange roll eating accident last night. So Volkmar was busy tracking both teeth and merchandise around the Munich. Well, Matti visited dentist and got his legos to order again. Way to go.

The show was good, big and enthusiastic crowd. We had fun on stage and our 40-minute set went just in a blast. Our set has now become quite stable we vary only few songs now and then. A faster set with many keyboard passages seems to work the best, and its fun to play too. So I think we’ll going to stick to that on this tour. A strange thing occurred during the last song though. There was a really beautiful girl standing in the front row during the whole show. I just happened to notice that she just stood still with neutral face observing while we were running amok all over the stage. That tranquil expression on her face lasted almost the whole show, but when we reached the ending passage of last song (Devoid of Caring), she just broke into tears and stood there weeping till we left the stage, tears washing her make-up off her face. It felt a bit strange to me, but I like to think hat we impressed her somehow...

We met some fans after the show and had a business meeting with a German promoter. It seems now that we’ll be coming back here soon, but all the details shall remain concealed for now. Anyway, the outcome of that evening turned to be very good, and we were content with ourselves.

We loaded out and headed for the hotel. We happened to stop by at Mac Donald’s on the way to get something to eat, and run into three Insomnium fans there. We had burgers, chatted for a while and posed at some photos. It seems that we’re gaining some ground even on hamburger chains now ☺

There was one setback when we reached the hotel. Our Check-in code didn’t work, and Visa card ceased to work too after we had booked one single room. That same applied for all credit cards, so there must have been some malfunction with the check-in machine. Well, at least we had one room we had paid for, so we experienced the luxury of six hippies sleeping in one single room. Cozy and comfortable as hell. I guess we’re used to the lack of intimacy now…

Quote of the day: “Ansiosidonnainen??? …Kuulostaa bondagelta.”

Ville Vänni/INSOMNIUM

On our way to Munchen we visited the Dachau concentration camp











In Munich



niinpä...



Stage before...



And after...



Setlist



Backstage fun = internet



Good people from Germany, Cheers!

20.11.07

I woke up at Saarbrücken’s Etap Hotel. Surprisingly I was feeling little weary, even though we had just rested last night. My roommate Ville F. didn’t look too fresh either, his eyes had mystically disappeared somewhere between the swollen cheeks and the forehead. Or was that foreskin, hard to tell just by the looks… Anyway, we fought our way out of the bed and to the door past the mountains of empty beer bottles. The lady downstairs was kind enough to serve us some breakfast, even though we had slept past the morning service. We sat down for a while, gazing to nothingness while stirring the nauseating bowls of serials in front of us. The absence of appetite led us to the conclusion that we need some more rest. This time it meant sleep. Brief negotiations with the other hippies lead to the decision of another night in Saarbrücken. No driving tonight.

We booked our rooms for the following night and headed back to bed. At some point a cleaning lady by dropped by at our door to inquire if we needed any of her services. We refused her entry. The lady would have undergone lethal visual shock if she had seen our room then. Satchel-charge Hirvonen had visited us last night and decorated the room with his post-nuclear war fallout style. We decided to do some pre-cleaning ourselves. Lots of it.

At noon I left to the venue with Matti and Niilo. Amorphis was still loading in, so we just accommodated ourselves to the backstage and chilled out. I met my cousin at the afternoon (she lives in Luxemburg and had come here to see our show) and went to have dinner dining with her ad her husband. That was a welcome change to the normal tour routines.

I got back by the sound check time. This venue was the smallest one on this tour, and equipped with under-sized PA system. But we did the best we could under those circumstances. That was no “Rock in Rio”, but still ok. Both in sound check and on stage during the gig. The crowd was all right, so I will rate this gig as “good minus”.

After our show we just chilled out and watched Amorphis and StS do their job. Mikko joined Amorphis to do the vocals on “Drowned Maid”, worked like an axe! The atmosphere was relaxed, people just hanging around and chatting at the big back stage area. Danny from Anathema joined us at the backstage and we exchanged some medical opinions. A true spiritual hippie.

The bus call was at 2am. We did our load out just before that and drove back to the hotel. A thought of Jägermeister shots with Urski crossed my mind upon arrival, but I decided stay sober and head to bed instead. Good call. Good night.

Quote of the day: “My Winter Storm voi vittu… Kuka näitä kansia oikein suunnittelee? Ei toimi!!!”

Ville Vänni/INSOMNIUM



Scenery 1



Scenery 2



Scenery3



Scenery 4



Roxy



Backstage at Roxy



Gathering yesterday's photo material



Matti is manly man!



Amo guys



Urski checks out the material



Hannu, Amo Sound engineer



We're rich!



Impola, Miasman levypalloarvostelija



Jämy's injury from Pratteln



Show in Saarbrucken!