Tuesday, March 11, 2014

SA:On the road:Latin-America 15th anniversary part 2

Thursday 6.3.2014-Travel Day + Chihuahua,Mexico
…so upon arrival in Chihuahua we had some early lunch @wendy’s next door before I updated this blog and then I took a nap. Which was necessary to survive, I’d say. After some time Tony called to wake me up for the soundcheck. The basic drills, then back to the hotel for around two hours before we headed to the venue and the 1900 meet & greet. Signed stuff and took photos, people seemed to be really excited ;-) At 2100 we took the stage and our audience joined us for one sweaty 2 hour party…afterwards everyone was pretty much half dead and of course we got the great news from our Tour Manager that our morning flight to Mexico City had been moved to even earlier that it was supposed to. It was only 30 min but it means that we have to get up at 0500 for the 0545 Lobby Call and drive to the airport. We got to the hotel just before midnight so by the time I’d take a shower and packed my stuff it was around 0100 and to try to get some sleep just 2 hours after you get off stage is something I can’t do….nevertheless I did fall asleep before the wake up call :-) A bow and a thank you goes to netflix and old action movies.

Friday 7.3.2014-Travel Day + Mexico City, Mexico
Tired tired tired ;-) Woke up, skyped home and grabbed my bags and off to the airport we went. Then everything went a bit sideways ;-) We did have a nice breakfast while our TM checked in our stuff and sorted out the overweight-cost-thing-hassle. Then our flight which was supposed to be 30min earlier than announced, was actually 50min late from the original departure time, confusing eh ? Anyways we got to Mexico City and drove to the hotel, had some steaks for lunch and almost managed to sleep a bit. Before the show it was time for a meet & greet session and I also did an interview with Pasi. The show was awesome, we’re finally getting it ON again ;-) Aftershow some of us went out to a bar but being tired as hell it was a shortlived party.

Saturday 8.3.2014-Travel Day
Had some pizza with Tommy before it was time to leave for the airport, we had a late checkout so 
we finally got to SLEEP properly. After the usual hassle with the check-in at the airport we had a 2
hour flight to Obregon.I took a nap on the plane but was still really tired when we got there. Appeareantly there is some drug-cartel-things going on here so some army guys checked through all our stuff when we landed. Dropped our bags to the hotel and went for a dinner with the promotor, had some traditinal tacos and a couple of beers. The crew went to check out the venue, since we’re playing outdoors tomorrow and we want to avoid the hassle we had in Paraguay last year where they wanted us to play outside on a stage without a roof. Back at the hotel I tried to Skype home but the connection was really shitty so shower and nighty night. Let’s see what tomorrow will bring.

Sunday 9.3.2014-Obregon,Mexico
Got a good nights sleep which I appreciate highly. Spent the morning on netflix and then had breakfast with Tommy,Pasi & Tero. Found out they have a pool so some of us decided to take a quick swim and enjoy the sun. Tomorrow it’s been one week since we left home, and I’m finally starting to get over the jetlag. Of course we’ll be changing time zones still but nothing as extreme as coming over from Europe. Be that as it may, while we were still chilling out at the hotel the rain and thunderstorm started…of course it did since we’re supposed to play an outdoor show tonight :-)

The funny thing about this was that someone told me that there had been no rain for the past 9 months and no ice-flake-things (that also came down at some point) for the past 20 years, greetings
from Finland, I guess. Nevertheless, the weather cleared up and we played our show in front of
several thousands of people, who would have guessed it’ll all work out? After the show we left
for the hotel as soon as possible because we had to leave from the hotel at 0600 in the morning.
..and of course there was some noisy party going on next door when I tried to sleep….all night long…
..luckily I’m not a light sleeper and I guess that in some way it was Karma kicking back at me for all those times I’ve been the one making the noise.

Monday 10.3.2014-Travel Day
I hate Mondays….not really just don’t like to get up early. Drive to the airport fly for about 2 hours to Mexico City. Say goodbye to Mexico for around 4 hours before the flight to Peru leaves and then it’s just a 5+ hour flight, some immigration hassle + the drive to the hotel. That’s pretty much how this day is gonna be….unless some unexpected hassles come up. Fuck these long travel days are boring, I’ll have a drink…or two….

Well, eveything went as I thought except for a whole bunch of fans waiting for us at the airport, nice
job guys !!! Since we are so shy I took awhile for us to get the ok to sign stuff and take photos.
At the hotel we went straight to the lobby bar for a few beers and pizza before it was time to hit the sack.

cheers,

Henkka

13 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for your concert in Mexico City, it was awesome as usual. :D Hope to see you guys soon.

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  2. Hi Henkka, Can't wait to see you here in Chile, me & my gf will travel about 6 hours to watch your show, the first one for both of us. I just hope you all won't be too tired by the time you get here, i know the show will be great anyway. So please have as much fun as you can and enjoy the audiences here in Latin America. Quick question, will you have a meet & greet session in Santiago? ...What do you know about it?

    Cheers from Concepción, Chile
    (I think Sonata payed here on their first trip to Chile, back in 2002, i'm not sure if you were part of the band yet)

    PS. Enjoy the wine here, we have some amazing red wines

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    1. I have no idea about meet & greets, if we have one, I'll be there :-)

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  3. daaaamn. And people say touring is like going on holiday...yeah, a holiday from hell!

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  4. You were awesome here in Obregón, I hope to see you in San Antonio Texas in October :D by the way... Did you like Tacos?

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    1. Yeah I do like tacos ;-) In fact I like most foods...not a big fan of fish but otherwise almost anything goes.

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  5. Hi! Nice travel so far. Waiting for Argentina, Buenos Aires show.
    Actually I won a Meet And Greet with you guys and Henrik, I will ask you to sign my japonese edition of ..The Weird Turned Pro, so... be there haha!

    Cheers!

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  6. i hope you come back to paraguay and things would be better :3 you have a lot of fans that want to see you live :c . lml

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  7. Henric! I want to thank you, the band and Eric for giving us the chance to produce a show for you guys here in Chihuahua. I didn't had the chance to talk that much with you but I hoped you felt comfortable here in Chihuauha.

    See you soon in El Paso, Texas. But this time I'm gonna enJoy the show as a fan. I hope we can talk a bit there.
    Take care and I hoped you enjoyed the pizzas after the show :)
    Arturo Lozano

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    1. Hi dude, yeah we did enjoy our brief stay in Chihuahua and I see you in the fall, cheers !

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  8. We wanna see you too... *sigh* I'm kinda sorry though, that we're not so good an audience...

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    1. No idea what you mean, the only audience that sucks are the ones that don't come to the show ! Some people like to scream while another prefer to take it more easy, after all you bought the ticket so you should be able to enjoy the show anyway you want. 'nuff said.

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    2. Ok, everything's fine then. I always enjoy your shows anyway whenever I can go.

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