SA:The promo trip to Helsinki 24-26.10.2014

Friday 24.10.-Radio Rock acoustic show

Well rested (not really) from the North-American tour it was time to get going again, 4 days after we got home. The 0445 wake up call was not really a problem, since I was more or less on US time anyway…Flew to Helsinki where we got picked up and then it was time to go and get a SV-1 for me and a boombox for Tommy. More or less straight from that we went to Radio Rock. At around 12 we were on air and did some chatting and played a few songs ( The Wolves die young, Tallulah and Cloud Factory), during the wolves die young my sustain pedal broke so I had to take it apart and fix it on the fly…grrr. After that we had the rest of the day off so we had some drinks, chilled at the hotel and checked out our new book (just got our own copys) and in the evening we went to dinner with our publisher.

Saturday 25.10.-Book fair

After breakfast and checking out of the hotel we went to the Helsinki book fair to do some promo. At 14:00 we had a signing session at the Paasilinna-booth (our publisher).

…and at 15:00 we played our acoustic set and did an short interview/chat with the author of the book Mape, on stage. We played Cloud Factory, The wolves die young, Tallulah, Love and Fullmoon. I don’t thing there have been any sing alongs before at any book fair but this time it happened…after a quick bite to eat we had one more intie/chat session at the Suomalainen Kirjakauppa booth and then we were done. A nice day and a bit different from our usual work day. We went straight to the train from the fair and headed home.

I’ll be back with more stories from our next adventure which will be in Russia, starting next Saturday.

cheers,

Henkka

Here are some pics from the trip:

A different looking backstage pass this time...

The Helsinki book fair.

My breakfast view on Saturday morning...

...more of the same...

..and a last one.

Tried to take a nap on Friday afternoon but there was some protest

march-thing whatever going on.

Try to play with this one, as said it broke down in the middle of a song, I did

however develop a new tecnique where you keep the pedal in place with one foot

and operate it with the other....

SA:The Last pics from the North-American Tour

Hola,

here are the last pics from the US/CAN-tour...and in no particular order once again...

Cheers,

Henkka

Tasting new beers part 1...

...and part 2

Delain rocking out @ the HOB in Orlando.

Elias rocking out in the bus before the show in Tampa.

Graceland pics...

Elvis grave.

Elvis piano room.

One of Elvis planes..the bigger one.

Elvis poolroom.

Elvis clothes.

In the garden of Graceland.

Elvis mediaroom.

Tero & Mikko spending an off day fixing the gear.

Pasi and me splitting a pizza in Houston...it was really great.

What I ate in Puerto Rico ;-) Killer.

Scandinavian food in Arizona...yummy.

Selfie with Mikko.

Hank says goodbye America !!

Rubberband keytars...a nice gift.

Woke up in sunny Los Angeles.

Off-day in Kamloops for the 100th or something time...

it's still a wonderful place !!

Backstage in Puerto Rico.

The view from the stage in PR.

Pasi doing line-check in PR.

More backstage in PR.

Tero adding monitor engineering to his resume with us at

the last show of the tour in PR.

Tommy doing line-check in PR.

Tony being a tourist onstage in PR.

Hotel room window view in PR.

The support bands bus had some problems, this was one of them.

More cool SA tats...part 1.

..part 2...

...and part 3.

Tony went on stage during Xandria's set on the last show together in Tampa,

brushing his teeth of all things.

..and this was his costume when entering the stage during Delains show.

Night view of Albuquerque...

Went up with the Sandia Peak Tramway..

My double Bailey's came in a weird glass...

Thanks for the Birthday wishes !!

Hi again,
yeah, I'm getting older...as we all are ;-) I'd just like to drop a quick note to all of you who sent me congrats via e-mail, facebook etc etc. THANK YOU ALL A LOT, I APPRECIATE IT !!!

..and in closing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo3ZsQZln5Q&feature=youtu.be

Cheers,
Henkka

SA:On the road:Pariah’s Child World Tour / North-America part 5

Saturday 4.10.2014- Denver, CO

Back in business !! Great crowd tonight and we pulled of a decent show I believe. Nothing spectacular or even interesting happened during the day. Soundcheck,

dinner, meet & greet etc…It was a bit hard to breathe because of the altitude but

we survived…anyway nowhere near as bad as in Bogota or Mexico City so…

Sunday 5.10.2014- Lawrence, KS

I don’t think we’ve played here before. Had some pizza and chilled out in the bus for most parts of the day. At this point it’s all about surviving and sticking to the routine. The show was a bit weird, hard to tell if people were really into it or not…nevertheless tomorrow is another dreaded off-day and then we have a couple of decent stretches before the final show in Puerto Rico.

Monday 6.10.2014-Off-day, Amarillo, TX

My highlight today were walking to the mall and getting cigarettes, eating at Outback

and watching Rock of Ages with the boys…don’t ask why ;-)

Tuesday 7.10.2014- El Paso, TX

Woke up rather late again ;-) After the soundcheck we just hung in the bus, got some food at MC and then started to prepare for the show.Hot, Sweaty and fun. There really wasn’t anything to do around the venue…appeareantly the Blue Men Group where playing down the street…

Wednesday 8.10.2014-San Antonio, TX

Met up with a finnish guitar player dude during the day and evening, other than that nothing really happened, we did get some good pasta in the afternoon at a place where it was really difficult to understand what the waitresses where saying….maybe it was the accent. As you can see from the entrys getting shorter, the tour is taking it’s toll and

near the end.

Thursday 9.10.2014- Dallas, TX

My highlight apart from the show was some really good slices of Pizza ;-) During the day it was too hot, at least for me so I didn’t go walking around anywhere. One of our managers flew out from Finland and he’ll be with us for a couple of days. Of course he brought some candy with him ;-) Went to the bar across the street after the show, just for the hell of it. We were only there for like 20min and then it was closing time. During the afternoon we did an interview which then turned into a surprise for us.  A bunch of fans had made a really cool book with a lot of pictures, thank you very much !! We also got some home made karjalan piirakka (translation anyone? ) which tasted awesome and I got a new orange shirt, also hand made !!! Jiihaa !!! A good a fun day, just what we needed at this point of the tour.

Friday 10.10.2014- Houston, TX

..and the Finns keep on rolling in. Today some more of our friends from back home showed up for the show, we hang a bit in the afternoon and then it was time to get something to eat…found a nice mexican restaurant with some decent burritos.

Had a good time at the show tonight and it was of course great to hang out with our friends from back home as well.

Saturday 11.10.2014-Graceland

We decided to pay the King a visit during our off-day, it almost took the whole day but it was well worth it…more in the last picture update…whever I get around to do it. Afterwards all the bands went to dinner together since it was our last off-day on the North-American part of the tour.Good times.

Sunday 12.10.2014-Luisville,KY 

Some friends of ours showed up and we hang around for a while both before and after the show. Me & Elias had some killer Chicken Ranch pizza.My highlight of the day ;-) The tour is about to end as you can see from the ever shortening entrys…

Monday 13.10.2014-Atlanta,GA 

More or less chilled at the bus all day while waiting for the show to happend.Oh, btw the food at the venue was abysmal ;-)

Tuesday 14.10.2014-Orlando, FL

We played the House of Blues which is always nice no matter where it is, this one of course more or less in the middle of Disneyland. I wouldn’t know since it was raining and I got up too late to actually walk around so… The food was a lot better than yesterday….yay !!. The show was ok, good stage, good lights etc, etc…

Wednesday 15.10.2014-Tampa, FL

The Last show on this tour with Xandria & Delain, so of course we did a lot of pranks on each other. It was a bit hard to focus but we all had a good time together. It’s nice to be heading towards Puerto Rico and then home but on the other hand, this tour has been really awesome so it’s a bit sad that it’s coming to an end.

Thursday 16.10.2014 - Travel Day Tampa-Miami-San Juan

Slept a few hours on both of the flights and some more @ the hotel.

We went for dinner with the promotor in the evening, which was really

good, after that I fell asleep and woke up in the middle of the night, no worries

though I spent some time packing my stuff for the show tomorrow and for the

travel home. Went for breakfast in the morning and then back to bed.

Friday 17.10.2014- San Juan, Puerto Rico

First time here ever, the sun is shining and it’s really hot. We played an outdoor stage in the evening and everything worked perfectly. After that a few glasses of wine by the hotel pool and then to bed before it was time to go HOME…finally.

Saturday & Sunday 18.-19.10.2014 Travel Home

First a flight to NYC then to Helsinki and then a 7+ hour wait in Helsinki before flying home. Everyone was more or less tired and tried to sleep as much as possible. Bought some cigarettes from the airport and that was about it.

A big thank you to all our American fans for making this tour a blast !!! …and of course a big hell yeah to our friends in Delain & Xandria…see you down the road…

...and yeah I still have some pics from the tour I'll do a separate post when I get the time, kinda busy getting the acoustic stuff ready for Friday & Saturday...and I'll check through the comments as well...asap.

cheers & beers,

Henkka

Ps.In a couple of days we’ll go to Helsinki to promote our book, I bet that will be a hoot,

I’ll tell ya more about that after I know how it turned out.

SA:On the road:Pariah’s Child World Tour / North-America part 4

Thursday 25.9.2014 - Seattle, WA

The show last night went really well and after that it was time to say goodbye to Canada for now. It was also the midway of the tour so now we only have half of it

left ;-) The bordercrossing went without any hassles and later we stopped at a Walmart for some late night shopping. I was trying to find a couple of movies but they didn’t have the ones I looked for so I just ended up buying a bunch of other stuff. In Seattle the morning started out with us being bribed into playing In the Dark. We got a bunch of rhye bread and salmiakki from Finland. That’s how easily you can buy our integrity.

Nevertheless the day went by as usual. We found a Mexican restaurant after the soundcheck and the food was really good. The usual meet & greet, a short nap and a kick-ass show to round up the night….ended my night by watching Semi-pro…a really funny movie.I like’d it.

Friday 26.9.2014-Portland, OR

Another day, another show. I went to the convenience store to get some white wine and then it was time for the usual drill of soundcheck and meet & greet etc. I met up with my cousing for dinner and we hung out for awhile before I had to get ready for the show. Rock’n’roll…afterwards I hung out outside for awhile and then it was time to drive into the night and towards our next off day….in the middle of nowhere.

Saturday 27.9.2014-Off day, Medford, OR

Spent the day just loitering around and in the evening me & Tony joined the some of the peeps from Xandria & Delain and went bowling. I didn’t do too well but at least I wasn’t last ;-) We shot some pool afterwards and that went considerably better. At the end of the night I was pretty much wasted and slept really well in my bunk until the afternoon the next day.

Sunday 28.9.2014-San Fransisco, CA

Woke up really late and still a bit hungover…well…after the soundcheck me, Tommy & Elias went to dinner and a big pasta bowl later I felt a lot better. A nap later I was back to normal ;-). The show was a fun one with a big stage for a change but the stagesound was kinda weird for some reason…we hammered it out anyways. When Pasi made some coffe in the morning he looked out the window and saw some dudes smoking crack…later Mikko saw someone shooting up across the street…just thought you should now, really different from back home over here. Met up with some friends afterwards and then we had to leave. Watched the Broad Street Bullies documentary for the 140th time or something.

Monday 29.9.2014-Los Angeles, CA

Woke up at around 0800 when my ears started popping as we crossed some mountains or hills or whatever. Managed to sleep a bit longer before finally giving up and starting the day. Did a short workout with our dumbell. Well at the House of Blues we started our morning by watching how the support bands bus tried to drive into the parking lot and managed to get stuck with the trailer scraping holes in the street. Nice and smart driving ;-) Eventually the got it sorted out but for awhile it looked really hopeless. Had breakfast with the boys at the Saddle Ranch. Good stuff. For the show tonight we had a bunch of friends showing up from our hometown and it was really nice to hang out after the show…and of course they brought us more finnish ruisleipä and some candy from back home.

Tuesday 30.9.2014-Anaheim, CA

Never played here before but the venue was really nice. Big stage etc etc. I slept really late since I stayed up a bit too late last night talking to our FOH Mikko and destroying some white wine….we also stopped in front of a Wal-mart so I managed to find a couple of movies for the bus. In the afternoon we all went to dinner after the soundcheck, however the in house dinner was appeareantly one of the best on this tour so far so I felt a bit bummed about missing that. Anyways, no use to whine about that…maybe next time I’ll hit it. The show in the evening was a bit blaah since my keytar wireless was acting funny, just like in Montreal. It’ll be better tomorrow, I’m sure. Weird stuff. It was however fun to have a big stage to run around on. Our Finnish friends came to this one as well and we had a short hangout before they had to leave. Managed to meet some other peoples outside after the show as well. Fell asleep watching NHL highlights.

Wednesday 1.10.2014-Mesa,AZ

Back in Arizona ;-) Our friends took us to dinner at a scandinavian restaurant (and yeah I know that Finland is actually not part of scandinavia..) anyways it was really great to get some food that was pretty close to what we eat at home. I could hardly keep my eyes open during the meet and greet but luckily there was time to take a nap before the show. The show itself was quite smooth, there air was really weird for some reason, maybe because the place was not quite finished yet. After the show we had a couple of beers but nothing spectacular. Getting ready for the long drive to Denver and 2 days off.

Thursday 2.10.2014- Albuquerque, NM - Off day

Went to the mall with Tony and bought a nice belt and then me & Tero had dinner together. Later in the bus I found out that there’s a tramway called Seguia Peak Tramway or something to that effect so we quickly ordered a cab and when there. Well, not quickly enough so it was really dark when we took the ride. The city did look great though and Tony managed to get some cool pics…I tried as well but I guess there’s a reason why people buy proper cameras and don’t rely on their smartphones for everything. In addition this was advertised as the world’s longest tramway, which of course it’s not so….in the evening we watched a couple of movies and ended the night with making white russians without kahlua…wasn’t too bad though and we needed the drinks for our screening of the Big Lebowski.

Friday 3.10.2014-Colorado Springs, CO, Off day

Didn’t really feel like doing anything or seing anyone so I just spent the whole day in my bunk….with the occasional smoking break. I did however finish the Dave Grohl book I borrowed from Pasi earlier on the tour so the day wasn’t a complete waste. Did I mention that I hate off-days ?

...anyways we got 10 shows left + 1 in Puerto Rico...grinding it out ;-)

cheers,

Henrik