26.9.2010 Cologne

New day and a new venue. i usually sleep the longest from our bunch so I'm always last on the venue. Entering the club and finding a backstage area can be bit of a challenge, since usually all doors are locked and Dark Tranquillity is already doing their soundcheck. This happened also in Cologne where I ended up circling the building and calling people on their cells to get inside. We had some time to kill so we headed to down town Cologne to do some sightseeing. The most fitted ones of us climbed all the way to the top of the Cologne Cathedral, that used to be the world's tallest building back in the 19th century. Although the weather was kind a crappy the scenery was just mind blowing! Naturally when we started decending from the tower it stopped the rain and the sun came out. Well at least we didn't get all wet on the way back to the venue like the other guys who didn't come to the tower.

The show was good and the crowd was great! After the show we got to meet some nice people from Century Media. Eventually the evening turned into a usual metal party since the bus call was untill the next morning. Overall the day was one of nicest days on this tour so far.

Markus

25.9.2010 Munster

Uurgh…Some vitamins, painkillers, immodium and rennie and I was ready to crawl out of my bunk into the bright daylight: hello Munster! We had absolutely fantastic breakfast served upstairs and the fridge was filled with beer, booze, cider and wine. Stagehands were doing the load in and we went online in facebook. Great success!

We spent the afternoon pretty much lying on sofas, eating and telling bad jokes. The mood was good. Everything sounded again good in the sound check and we were starting to get our shit together musically. The show was great and the audience was again very supportive. I think most of the people were DT fans and did not know us before hand. Perfect opportunity for us to steal some of their fans ☺ The venue turned into a metal disco after the shows and that meant of course Das Metal Party!

We also met Stefan and Dario from Century Media in backstage and had few laughs and beers. Otherwise the night included wrestling, loads of Absolut Vodka and general fucked up madness. Thank you Munster, we’ll be definitely back!















Ville F./INSOMNIUM

24.9.2010 Leipzig

Good morning Leipzig! Unlike many others, I didn’t party last night but went to bed early instead. Therefore I woke up early, actually I was the first person up. We had one hour break at a shopping mall parking lot. I went to wander about a bit and found some nice sushi for breakfast. Then some extra batteries for the wirelesses and some power cables to be able to use my laptop in my bunk. Due to all power cables the bus aisle is looking like a web of an LSD-spider. Or a trap to trip down some drunken hippies on their way to their bunks. And the trap works, I can tell you.

We arrived at the venue early. Familiar place, we were here last time in December with Swallow the Sun. Then it was minus seventeen degrees in centigrade, now it was +20. Pleasant. I had a second breakfast with the others like a good hobbit does. We had the whole afternoon off, so we decided to kill time and do some sports. We went for a hike in the nearby parks with Niilo and Urski. On the way back we saw a canoe-rental place by the river, and that naturally dictated the rest of the afternoon. We all are into outdoor life, so canoeing suit us well. We rented a decent old-school Indian canoe and paddled down the river for a good hour. We found a clear-watered side branch and explored it for a mile or so.

After the Indian experience it was time to do what we came here to do. We did our sound check and rehearsed few songs. DT tour staff is all very professional, and we get along really well. It feels almost unnatural to walk into a served table every night. We have been the roadies on every previous tour, but now it’s different. Can’t complain!

We were not very satisfied in our performance on the opening night, so we spent the hours before the gig just preparing and rehearsing. That paid off, the rust was gone when we hit the stage. The crowd was really good, and we weren’t that bad either. We poured all the energy we had in us to that fifty minute set we had and left the stage happy and confident. We’re back with the vengeance!

Vengeance was served hot as hell, but beer was served cold. So was vodka and Jägermeister for that matter. DT played a killer show, and everybody was celebrating. We loaded out somehow during the nocturnal hours and then had our first buss party. The rest is history. Leipzig, good night and thank you!

Quote of the day:
“Pitäiskö tätä drinkkiä vähän sekoittaa? No vitut, meneehän se sekaisin päässäkin” -Anonymous bass hero

-Ville Vänni

23.9.2010 Hamburg

Boys and girls, it’s not an easy task to perform a 5 week European tour, I tell you. The planning phase takes half a year and there are thousands of little details you need to take care of. Then you try to organize your own little life so that things go smoothly back home while you are spending quality time with a bunch of sweaty hippies.

For my own part the adventure began 3am in Thursday morning when the rest of the guys picked me up with a van. I had slept about an hour. Others had left from Joensuu around 10 pm, some of them had some sleep, others not. So when we hit the airport around 5am we were a bit, you know, tired. Amazingly we didn’t have to pay anything for the near 80kg overweight and extra luggage – so huge thanks to Blue1! Our favourite airline for sure. I think we all slept the whole flight from Helsinki to Copenhagen. The other flight to Hamburg was so short that you couldn’t get a proper sleep.

We landed Hamburg around 10am and found out that the wet and dark Finnish autumn had changed to a warm and sunny German atmosphere. Ville F. arrived from London about the same time so the happy bunch was whole again. We found the tour bus already waiting for us. Big red nightliner with 18 bunks and a pretty nice interior. Dark Tranquillity and the crew had been driving from Göteborg through the night. Now we finally had all the people in the same place and the tour could really start.

Uebel & Gefaerlich venue was in a 4th floor of a huge cement building. We did the load in and basically just waited the whole afternoon. First day of a tour is always a special case since you don’t yet know how all the things should work and what all the people should do and so on. After a few days it gets a lot easier and after that it’s usually a smooth ride. Crew on this tour seems to be very professional so I expect everything to go fine.

Local opener did their 30 min show and then it was our turn to hit the stage. Venue was really full, maybe 700-800 people in the house. Lot of Insomnium shirts in the crowd and a very good response right from the beginning. The crowd was very good but we were not in the top shape yet. Blame it on tiredness or the fact that it was the first show of the tour or whatever but we clearly felt that we should’ve been better.

DT hit the stage and we had time to take showers (luckily German venues usually have good facilities) and a have a few drinks. I became so tired that I felt it was better to go to bed right away and not partyparty at all. There are about 31 other chances to party on this tour. Some still had the energy to keep on going and I woke up about 5am in the night when the bus started moving and found some anonymous guitar hero crawling on the bus aisle and vomiting in a plastic bag. Apparently there was a legendary bar near the venue where they had served some exciting and very strong drinks.

Danke schön Hamburg, we will return!

Niilo