SA:On the Road:Festivals ’14:Q-stock

Friday 25.7.2014-Q-stock, Oulu, Finland

The second of the quick ones close to home. This time I went by car with my family since Oulu is only a 120km from where we live. I got there roughly a couple of hours before the show and tried to eat and drink as much as possible since it was really hot as hell at the festival. Once we got the show going it wasn’t too much of a deal and of course playing in front of a sold out festival always gives you the energy you need to plow through a 60min set….which felt far too short. We had pyros for this show, as we will have on the last Finnish show in Pori as well. Pretty much directly after the show I grabbed my stuff, a few sodas and jumped in the car and rode home. Not too much of an adventure this time but I’m sure there’ll be a lot more to write about next weekend when we leave for the Czech Republic and Ostrava. Let’s see how much bitching I’ll do about airports and flights this time ;-) Until then…

cheers,

Henkka

SA:On the Road:Festivals ’14:Sotkamon Syke

Saturday 19.7.2014-Sotkamon Syke, Sotkamo, Finland

Since Sotkamo is pretty much in the middle of Finland (and the middle of nowhere, sorry folks) our means to get there this weekend was a nice vanride. Since the only dude coming from the north with a valid C-license was Punky, he won the designated driver position ;-) We’re playing Oulu next weekend so we can take our gear with us tomorrow when we leave. I won’t go into the logistics of our live setup at this moment (actually I won’t probably ever do that here) but there’s a fair amount of arranging to do in order to have our instruments and what have you’s at the right place at the right time.

Anyways we’ve played this festival once before and it was fun so I think this will be as well.A nice afternoon drive of a tad over 300km…and we were at the site. A quick dinner, some rest at the hotel and to the backstage.Lots of friends from other bands etc so it was nice to hang out for awhile. The show itself went very well and afterwards we enjoyed Sabaton from the balcony of the hotel, whilst going to the sauna in between.A truly enjoyable evening.

Sunday 20.7.2014-Travel Day

Up in the morning and more or less straight to the van and back home. I slept for the most part of the ride since the previous evening was a bit hard. Now we only have 3 more show this summe before it’s time to head out to America. Next Friday is Q-stock so until then….more Ecliptica recordings, we should start mixing any day now so once again we’re in a hurry…well that’s how it goes.

cheers,

Henkka

SA:On the Road:Festivals ’14:Pioneerifestivaali

Saturday 12.7.2014-Pioneerirock, Koria, Finland

Oh yeah another hot summer day here in Finland and what better way to enjoy it than in the train ? Left from Kemi at 0746 and we’ll be in Kouvola at 1622, you do the math ;-) We’ll be going on stage at 2300 which would be perfect but the bronze medal game in the World Cup is starting at the same time so I’m gonna miss the Brazil-Holland game, or at least the first 60 minutes…other than that I think tonight will be great. Spent the time on the train with books,magazines and noodling with the computer and my phone….upon arrival we went to the hotel for a nap and a rest and at around 1900 the bus picked us up to the festival. As we had around 4 hours to kill before the show I focused on playing games on my phone and eating chips ;-) At some point our time was up (luckily) and during the show there were no accidents so all was well…during our final bow a massive firework started….it was a bit (=totally) of a surprise since nobody told us there would be one, nevertheless it was of course very cool and a couple of us (guess who?) decided to go out for a couple of drinks afterwards….since we arrived into the city quite late we didn’t have that much time…which in retrospect might have been for the better.Oh, and of course I watched the recap of the bronze medal game @ World Cup….. :-(

Sunday 13.7.2014-Travel Day

Up at 0700 and to the train via breakfast. Another 9 hours to kill before getting home and starting to prepare for the World Cup final….see you next weekend in Sotkamo.

cheers,

Henkka

SA:On the Road:Festivals ’14:Ruisrock & Toranda Parkfest

Thursday 3.7.2014 Travel Day

Oh the glory of the finnish night-train ;-) So, we (Tony, Tommy & I ) had the option to take the morning train from Kemi to Turku and be at the Turku railway station around 5 minutes before our stage time….needless to say that wouldn’t work so we had to leave the previous night and of course get up at 0550 in Tampere to switch trains and then again at around 8 in Turku…go to the hotel….sleep another 4 hours and then get to the festival ;-) Well, even if it might not sound like that, this is a really easy ride with plenty of nap opportunites and I’m sure we’ll do a helluva show in Ruisrock this year. At the moment me & Tommy had a couple of nightcaps in the restaurant car and now it’s time to watch netfli…no I mean sleep :-) see ya tomorrow. Trailer Park Boys FYI.

Friday 4.7.2014-Ruisrock, Turku, Finland

We actually did wake up in Tampere and switched trains…and then…we got to Turku…and managed to get to the hotel just in time for breakfast ;-) A short nap and a shower later we were ready to leave for the festival. Our bus for this weekend picked us up just after noon. During the day the weather was really nice and we also had the chance to do a soundcheck which is really rare for festivals. We started to play just an hour after the gates were opened so in the beginning it wasn’t too crowded but toward the end of our set a decent amount of people had showed up. After the show we watched the France-Germany football game before we left for our busride up north. During the ride we checked out the Brazil-Colombia game as well…in the morning I was at home so this was rather quick and painless and on top of it all we had a blast playing in Turku.

Saturday 5.7.2014.-Parkfest, Tornio, Finland

This was probably one of the quickest festivals this summer counting travel time etc The show was about 20min from my house so ;-) Got there by car about one hour before the show and left pretty much straight after to get home in time to watch the Holland-Costa Rica football game. During the show the sun was blazing straight into our eyes so it was impossible to see anything….oh the horror and madness…we went on at 2100 so I thought that the sun would have set at least a little bit but since we’re up north that wasn’t the case. Anyways we still have 5 more festivals this summer and Sotkamon Syke will be my 700th show with SA but for now I’m out.

cheers,

Henkka