Saturday, December 6, 2014

SA:On the Road:Pariah’s Child World Tour Finland 3.12-7.12.2014

Wednesday 3.12.2014. - Verkatehdas, Hämeenlinna
As the master planner I am, I realized that it’ll be a lot faster and cost roughly the same to fly to Helsinki and then take a train to Hämeenlinna, instead of sitting in the train for 7-8 hours from Kemi. Tony & Tommy agreed so that’s just what we did. A merciful morning flight at 10:15 from Kemi took us to Helsinki in about 1,5 hours. Upon arrival we then went to the Tikkurila trainstation, jumped on the train and about 40min later we were in Hämeenlinna and headed for the Hotel. The Restaurant was closed but fortunately the chef was kind enough to make us some burgers anyway so  a big thumbs up ….and they we’re delicious !!!

Got some time to just chill before the soundcheck which of course always is nice. We haven’t played together since Russia which was about a month ago so it’ll be exciting to see if we remember the songs when we get onstage tonight. If I’m not completely mistaken we’ve only song from Pariah’s Child that we’ve played on club shows in Finland is The wolves die young apart from that we’ve also not played Letter to Dana in Finland at all so it’ll be nice to see if our fans like it or not. 

Anyways, the show was ok, it took awhile to get it on but we managed to do it after all, didn’t make too many mistakes and it felt really good to be back on stage. Afterwards we had some drinks and checked out a bit of the Hämeenlinna nightlife, which was rather crappy.

Thursday 4.12.2014. - The Circus, Helsinki
At 11:00 we left towards Helsinki and probably the busiest day of this tour. (As always). For today we got some meetings setup as well as a book signing session in addition to the usual soundcheck, show etc stuff. I slept in the bus and some more at the hotel before it was time to head to the book-signing-thing. We also got the news that our book is now available in English as an e-book. The signing went well and the whole day actually just swung past really quick. The show was better than last night, at least for me and I think it was better for the other guys as well. Afterwards we had some drinks….went to a bar for awhile as well….maybe I’ll take it easy tomorrow ;-)

Friday 5.12.2014. - Lutakko, Jyväskylä
Was a bit tired after last night so I took a nap in the bus….before long we were back in this cozy hellhole (said with affection) with nice people and usually we’ve had great shows here so I’ll bet tonight will be another one of those. Didn’t do too much today since yesterday was a bit busy, it was time to get my powers back for the show….and yes, get over the fucking hangover ;-) Elias, Pasi & I had some late lunch at the hotel which pretty much got me back to life. Chilled a bit in the room after that and then it was time for our soundcheck. Since the setlist last night was good we decided not to change anything for the first time this year ;-) I guess we’re getting lazy. The Show was a hot one and the last one with our FOH Mikko for this year since he has previous commitment to attend to tomorrow. Ended the night at a bar across the street from the hotel, playing some table football….

Saturday 6.12.2014 - Rytmikorjaamo, Seinäjoki 
What better than to end the short stint in Seinäjoki on the Finnish Independence Day ? I don’t actually know, probably a lot of things are better but for now this is cool enough.  Spent the day sleeping, first in the bus and later at the hotel. After the soundcheck we had a nice dinner at the venue and then it was time to get ready for the show, our last
for this year….and number 99 if I counted correctly. Damn it, we would have wanted to get to 100 but maybe it’ll happend somewhere down the line. For now this will have to do. So close.

After getting home tomorrow we’ll be done for this year and the next SA activity will be the show in Oulu on January the 14th, 2015. So we have a decent Christmas Holiday this year. To wrap it up, we did 99 shows this year and released 2 studio albums & 3 music videos and some singles. I’d say we did our share of work ;-) Now I’ll focus on finishing my solo album as well as the Silent Voices single. It’s nice to do some studio work for a change. On behalf of the Sonata gang, thank you all very much for this year and I’ll be back with more news about other projects before Christmas. Now I still have 2 hours until showtime so I’m gonna listen to some music for awhile and see y’all at the show here in Seinäjoki….and happy Independence Day !!!

cheers,

Henkka

20 comments:

  1. Happy independence day to you too! :) and have a good Christmas holiday :)

    Thank you so much for the part of those 99 shows I managed to catch (well...11/99 is not too shabby, huh?), they were the highlight of a seriously crappy year. I'd be in deep shit if I didn't have you guys to torment (and attempt to feed) every couple of months, ahah

    Also to bring a bit of cringe: have you heard what happened to poor Otto from Delain? Got shot with one of their stage streamers and literally bust a nut! D: poor dude. You boys be careful when pyro season starts, okay? ;)

    Will be waiting for more news :)

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    1. Yeah I heard about Otto, hopefully he'll be alright asap.

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  2. ah so, kinda a while ago I told a friend I'd ask (and i'm curious myself), would SA ever release the instrumentals of albums, even as a download only type of thing? Just curious, hope you don't mind me asking.
    and happy Independence Day :)

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    1. Well, never say never but AFAIK releasing instrumental versions of our albums is not something we'll do, occasional songs here and there might happend but not the whole album, at least not for now.

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  3. Hey Henkka, happy Independence Day!...ok well, it's a little belated but...I think it's cool that you got to celebrate it, so to speak, by playing to your many adoring fans. I'm sure they were very happy!...seems like you celebrated a little early in Helsinki. :-P
    So very nice of the chef to let you guys in and feed you. :-)

    I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little disappointed that the e-book is only available for download. Though I've read books electronically, I do prefer to hold, feel, smell one in my hands...having said that, your e-book is on my Christmas list(Santa, I've been a good girl, I promise!) and I'm looking forward to reading all the juicy details of your stories!...A part of me is still hoping a hard copy will come to fruition in the future...even if it's ten years from now, hehe. Hey, anything is possible, right? ;-)

    Oooh, missed the 100th mark...by that much! Ah, well congrats on surviving your longest tour to date so far, and thank YOU guys very much for your great music, hard work, dedication and awesome shows! Looking forward to the next one!

    Btw, Reveal The Change is friggen AWESOME!!!

    Cheers,
    T

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  4. I'm not surprised to hear you didn't find much from Hml nightlife, since I didn't find anything during those 18 years I used to live there. But of course it is the home town of the world's best hockey team, so that kind of compensates it ;)

    I'm glad to hear your "mini Finland tour" went smoothly and the Finns got what they deserve. Happy Independence Day to you (although it is technically the next day already over there, but I don't care, we'll just continue celebrating here)!

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  5. Mites onko tulossa muissakin kaupungeissa kirjanimmarointia vai oliko Helsinki (ja Kemi ja Tornio) ainokaiset? :)

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    1. Toistaiseksi nämä olivat ainoat, ilmoitamme heti jos näitä tulee lisää. Nimmaroituja kirjoja pyrimme mahdollisuuksien mukaan myymään vielä suomen keikoilla, ei tosin festareilla.

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  6. Awww, and here we have the first sappy end-of-the year post of this year... Or probably it's just me getting sappy with that stuff ;-)
    But damn, that sure is one impressive list, considering it's all been done in one year. Other bands don't even deliver that much in 5 years, and I'm ever grateful for your way of working and hope you can still keep it up for a while without getting burned out. Please take care of that, we don't want that to happen!

    Considering the English eBook... I might have bought it not even one minute after I opened my eyes on Friday morning. Someone should hide my phone until I had my first coffee ;-)
    And for the printed version... I'm sure there's a reason for that, which might be nice to know. I might have ranted at Mape a bit (not sure if he's read that, but if he has and you talk to him, please tell him I'm sorry...), and if I went out of line, it's just my way of trying to help, to get some clearance for all the fans, so YOU don't get all the hate. You guys are the least ones responsible for it, I guess...
    Nevermind, I'm still not giving up hope on the printed version, some day it'll be possible and if there's any way I can help, I'll do it :-)

    Now, enjoy your well-earned Christmas break! Really looking forward to new SV and KS, you're spoiling us ;-)

    Cheers and take care!
    Maria

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  7. Congratulations on a great year! Pariah's and Ecliptica Revisited are awesome, the I Can't Dance video is super funny and the Silent Voices album is really cool. Also I don't think it's every day that you get a book out about your band right? So, well done.

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  8. Well, first book ever written about any band that I'm in so....yeah not really everyday ;-)

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  9. are sonata arctica planning on coming to Scotland next year, you guys usually play at the garage.

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    1. No, unfortunately we're not coming to Scotland next year...

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  10. Hyvää Joulua sulle, kaikille pojille, ja teidän perheille <3

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  11. I may or may not have just woken up from a dream in which you announced the new Klingenberg Syndrome was going to be sung by a star-studded ensemble of female singers (ok I made up all of them in the dream aside from Floor but....FLOOR, y'know?). It was kinda weird. Prophetic or not? ;)

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  12. Haha, never say never but I seriously doubt that will ever happend ;-) No female singer(s) on the 2nd KS album that's for sure...

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  13. ok I hope this isn't a weird question, but how do you feel when people draw fanart of you? like is it just flattering or does it feel weird?

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  14. Sometimes they turn out flattering and sometimes... :-) Well, all kidding aside I think it's cool.

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