“Nythän tää viina vasta alkaa maistuun!!!” – Markus Jämsen 06:30 am
Ville Friman/INSOMNIUM
maanantai 30. marraskuuta 2009
29.11.2009 Sunday
We woke up in Vosselaar Belgium somewhere around 2 pm. We have been playing in this venue before with Amorphis tour and knew what to expect. The place is nice but only access to the backstage is through the stage. In addition, the air is very damp and full of mould and other microbes. Anyway, they had put up pretty nice breakfast for us so it was all good! They also had wlan so I was able to update blog for you guys. We had pretty easy Sunday afternoon, paid a visit to the nearby metal shop, got some booze from grocery across the road and started to prepare for gig. The gig itself was ok. We were bit tired from yesterday and of course the crowd is bit easygoing on Sundays. However, I really enjoyed playing and felt lot better after the show. StS and OG had also very good shows and naturally this meant of course more serious metal partying. After the shows we had to pack our stuff rather quickly as we would head to UK for the next show. So we moved the party to the bus and what a party it was…We got more booze from the ferry during the night and I think the last people stayed awake until 9 am.
“Nythän tää viina vasta alkaa maistuun!!!” – Markus Jämsen 06:30 am
Ville Friman/INSOMNIUM
“Nythän tää viina vasta alkaa maistuun!!!” – Markus Jämsen 06:30 am
Ville Friman/INSOMNIUM
sunnuntai 29. marraskuuta 2009
28.11.2009 Saturday
When I woke up we were already in Essen, Germany. We had to wait for a while to get in for breakfast after we loaded in our stuff quickly. We are sharing the backline among all bands, which makes practical things very easy. We have very short change over time and there is plenty of room on stage. Kai (Hahto, drummer of StS) was able to get us endorsement kit very cheaply and he’s kind of enough to loan it to everyone. And of course when there are 18 guys carrying the stuff in and out the job is done in no time.
People were bit hangoverish from yesterday’s success. To cheer us up we decided to take short walk to the Christmas streets of Essen. Lots of people and carnival like feeling. We actually was looking for shampoo but ended up to drinking gluchwein mit rum oder Amaretto. Great success! After few warming drinks we returned to the Turock (venue) empty handed but spiritually newborn. We are actually getting easy this time as we don’t do sound check at all. Everything works still fine with only fast line check before the gig. We are just so professional (or lazy bastards) ;) After few hours wait we were ready to go again. Surprisingly the house was packed and the people were really into us. They even shouted for encore 5 minutes but we were not able to deliver one more song because of the schedules. Next time Essen, next time! As it was Saturday we partied like beasts. Normal order from the bar was something like two jägermeister shots and pint of beer. Eventually people just passed out on several different locations, some were carried to the bus and some went to get some evening kebab. Actually, our drummer had small (wet) accident with his bunk during the first night and did some extra laundry at the venue. In Finland we have this thing called “reilu kerho” and naturally he stole sheets from our tour manager and blanket from OG’s bass player. Good sport!
Breakfast at Turock (Essen)
Heading to the center
Christmas streets
Hippi!
Metal God!
Aapo
Gluchwein mit rum!
Any shampoo sponsors interested?
Markus
StS soundchecking
Druidi's laundry day
Ville Friman/INSOMNIUM
People were bit hangoverish from yesterday’s success. To cheer us up we decided to take short walk to the Christmas streets of Essen. Lots of people and carnival like feeling. We actually was looking for shampoo but ended up to drinking gluchwein mit rum oder Amaretto. Great success! After few warming drinks we returned to the Turock (venue) empty handed but spiritually newborn. We are actually getting easy this time as we don’t do sound check at all. Everything works still fine with only fast line check before the gig. We are just so professional (or lazy bastards) ;) After few hours wait we were ready to go again. Surprisingly the house was packed and the people were really into us. They even shouted for encore 5 minutes but we were not able to deliver one more song because of the schedules. Next time Essen, next time! As it was Saturday we partied like beasts. Normal order from the bar was something like two jägermeister shots and pint of beer. Eventually people just passed out on several different locations, some were carried to the bus and some went to get some evening kebab. Actually, our drummer had small (wet) accident with his bunk during the first night and did some extra laundry at the venue. In Finland we have this thing called “reilu kerho” and naturally he stole sheets from our tour manager and blanket from OG’s bass player. Good sport!
Breakfast at Turock (Essen)
Heading to the center
Christmas streets
Hippi!
Metal God!
Aapo
Gluchwein mit rum!
Any shampoo sponsors interested?
Markus
StS soundchecking
Druidi's laundry day
Ville Friman/INSOMNIUM
27.11.2009 Friday
So here’s a story how it all started. The clock was 01:00 am when Vänni and Markus came to pick me on the way to the airport. It took about 3 hours to drive through darkness to get there, but we took it like good soldiers. We parked the car, headed to terminal one to meet rest of the bunch, checked in and passed the security in no time. Soon we were at the Frankfurt airport. The turbulence was pretty hard during the landing but otherwise all was good. Most of us slept the whole flight while I made acquaintance with fellow seat passengers.
In Frankfurt we navigated for a while before we found our tour bus. Luckily our driver speaks rather good English and seems to be nice guy. This will make all practical things lot easier for us. It will be pretty crowded though as there are eighteen guys of us in total. However, the mood is really good and after getting our gear from DHL we hit the road. I went to sleep for 4-5 hours as we had been up for whole last night. When I woke up we were almost in Rotterdam. We were of course late as hell but managed to pull out sound checks in time. The venue is bit similar to one Finnish venue called Lutakko as it is run by volunteer work. Pretty small, bit awkward but also very nice place. Omnium Gatherum played really good show and the crowd was really enthusiastic. This promised good show for us as well. And yeah, it was really great opening show. Thank you Baroeg Rotterdam, you were amazing! I was bit nervous because I did not have my own guitar amp with me. However, Markus form OG helped me to set up the sound from his amp and everything went fine. After the show we got naturally wasted and made some acquaintance with local refreshments. I think I went to sleep somewhere 4 am whereas some of us stayed up until the buss call 6 am. Great start!
Two great minds collide
Vanhala
Varmon Jukka, the tour manager/sound engineer
Production office
In Frankfurt we navigated for a while before we found our tour bus. Luckily our driver speaks rather good English and seems to be nice guy. This will make all practical things lot easier for us. It will be pretty crowded though as there are eighteen guys of us in total. However, the mood is really good and after getting our gear from DHL we hit the road. I went to sleep for 4-5 hours as we had been up for whole last night. When I woke up we were almost in Rotterdam. We were of course late as hell but managed to pull out sound checks in time. The venue is bit similar to one Finnish venue called Lutakko as it is run by volunteer work. Pretty small, bit awkward but also very nice place. Omnium Gatherum played really good show and the crowd was really enthusiastic. This promised good show for us as well. And yeah, it was really great opening show. Thank you Baroeg Rotterdam, you were amazing! I was bit nervous because I did not have my own guitar amp with me. However, Markus form OG helped me to set up the sound from his amp and everything went fine. After the show we got naturally wasted and made some acquaintance with local refreshments. I think I went to sleep somewhere 4 am whereas some of us stayed up until the buss call 6 am. Great start!
Two great minds collide
Vanhala
Varmon Jukka, the tour manager/sound engineer
Production office
torstai 26. marraskuuta 2009
The art of touring…
Hello people,
It’s again time to gather our earthly belongings, pick up our instruments and hit the rainy roads of Europe. Yes, it’s touring time all right. It’s funny what kind of ideas people really have about touring. Person coming outside the music industry often views it as fun ride in limousine, 5 stars hotels, screaming fans, money and fame. In contrast, when you mention the upcoming tour to you fellow mates in other bands the topics often take turn to things like how to avoid getting diarrhea, where to find spare parts to your amp or how to fix singer’s sore throat. The truth lies perhaps somewhere between these two worlds. Yes, touring is a bitch but you still love to do one once and a while…
Nevertheless, here’s one version how it all begins. I’ve been sick already three days even before the start of the tour. Yippee!!! Luckily, I don’t have fever anymore and even though I felt rather weak yesterday I now feel that my strengths are coming back. So, this day has been spent with preparing all the stuff. I went to get some medicine, clothes (mainly boxers and socks), new backpack, UK adapter and whole lot of everything else. Basically you need lots of underwear as you seldom have opportunity to find laundry on road. You can imagine how this bunch smells like when you put 18 of us to same bus for three weeks. Another thing is that there are seldom showers at the venues. This means that you need to go to some service station and have a nice relaxing shower with truck drivers when possible. Remember not to drop your soap…Another thing is that you need to keep your belly in order, as you cannot have the relieving number two in the bus toilet (I guess you just end up destructing the plumbing). One good way to prevent this is get some lacto bacteria from pharmacy to keep you nice and tidy. In addition, there’s no harm in taking few pills of vitamin c as the tour diet consist mostly from greasy, salty staff. All in all, this is basics for the men beginning their thirties like us. Of course, if you’re planning to smoke crack or shoot up heroin for whole time you can forget all above.
After health issues comes the entertainment. Laptop full of por…classic movies, good books and magazines keep you fresh. Another good option is to get some board games. But beware it might get cruel! I’ve heard a story where two band members gave each other silent treatment from Germany to Finland (in van) after a nice play of Yatzy…In reality, you just end up farting and telling the same bad jokes over and over for three weeks. Luckily, the bad jokes turn to really worse ones after one week and you reach the blissful mental state of a banana fly. You just sleep, shit and hunt down your next meal and beverages from the nearest backstage.
Sorry, I got bit carried away here. Back to this evening for a moment before the all fun starts. I have already packed almost everything and I should soon call to Vänni and Markus to find out what time they come and pick me up from Jyväskylä. The leaving time from here is probably around 01:30-02:00 am EARLY Friday morning…After that we head up to the airport, meet the other guys and take plane to Frankfurt where our bus waits. Before that I have luckily still few hours, which I plan spend by going to Sauna, drinking one sauna beer and enjoying the tranquility with my wife. See you soon on tour!
Ville Friman/INSOMNIUM
It’s again time to gather our earthly belongings, pick up our instruments and hit the rainy roads of Europe. Yes, it’s touring time all right. It’s funny what kind of ideas people really have about touring. Person coming outside the music industry often views it as fun ride in limousine, 5 stars hotels, screaming fans, money and fame. In contrast, when you mention the upcoming tour to you fellow mates in other bands the topics often take turn to things like how to avoid getting diarrhea, where to find spare parts to your amp or how to fix singer’s sore throat. The truth lies perhaps somewhere between these two worlds. Yes, touring is a bitch but you still love to do one once and a while…
Nevertheless, here’s one version how it all begins. I’ve been sick already three days even before the start of the tour. Yippee!!! Luckily, I don’t have fever anymore and even though I felt rather weak yesterday I now feel that my strengths are coming back. So, this day has been spent with preparing all the stuff. I went to get some medicine, clothes (mainly boxers and socks), new backpack, UK adapter and whole lot of everything else. Basically you need lots of underwear as you seldom have opportunity to find laundry on road. You can imagine how this bunch smells like when you put 18 of us to same bus for three weeks. Another thing is that there are seldom showers at the venues. This means that you need to go to some service station and have a nice relaxing shower with truck drivers when possible. Remember not to drop your soap…Another thing is that you need to keep your belly in order, as you cannot have the relieving number two in the bus toilet (I guess you just end up destructing the plumbing). One good way to prevent this is get some lacto bacteria from pharmacy to keep you nice and tidy. In addition, there’s no harm in taking few pills of vitamin c as the tour diet consist mostly from greasy, salty staff. All in all, this is basics for the men beginning their thirties like us. Of course, if you’re planning to smoke crack or shoot up heroin for whole time you can forget all above.
After health issues comes the entertainment. Laptop full of por…classic movies, good books and magazines keep you fresh. Another good option is to get some board games. But beware it might get cruel! I’ve heard a story where two band members gave each other silent treatment from Germany to Finland (in van) after a nice play of Yatzy…In reality, you just end up farting and telling the same bad jokes over and over for three weeks. Luckily, the bad jokes turn to really worse ones after one week and you reach the blissful mental state of a banana fly. You just sleep, shit and hunt down your next meal and beverages from the nearest backstage.
Sorry, I got bit carried away here. Back to this evening for a moment before the all fun starts. I have already packed almost everything and I should soon call to Vänni and Markus to find out what time they come and pick me up from Jyväskylä. The leaving time from here is probably around 01:30-02:00 am EARLY Friday morning…After that we head up to the airport, meet the other guys and take plane to Frankfurt where our bus waits. Before that I have luckily still few hours, which I plan spend by going to Sauna, drinking one sauna beer and enjoying the tranquility with my wife. See you soon on tour!
Ville Friman/INSOMNIUM
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