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

Bottle Message 18.11.2014

We’re at home, but there’s still some work stuff going on, as always.Here we go:

Sonata Arctica:

Me, Tony & Tommy are going to do a couple of book signing sessions up here in the north, here are the details:

24.11.2014 - Suomalainen Kirjakauppa Kemi,Valtakatu 6 starting at 1630

24.11.2014 - Suomalainen Kirjakauppa Tornio, Kauppakeskus Rajalla starting at 1830

We also released our latest video, a Kakkoslaatu Production filmed during the North-American Tour…and the song of course is our cover of I can’t Dance. Not to be taken too seriously…we sure don’t. I think it turned out great. Check it out here:

http://youtu.be/nukof-nzdXA

Silent Voices:

at the moment we’re laying down tracks for a new single, which will probably see the light of day before Christmas, if we’re lucky.

Klingenberg Syndrome:

Jari just played the drumtracks so we’re still missing bass & vocals as well as

some solos…despite our hectic schedules, I’m sure we’ll get this ready before the summer.Keep your thumbs up ;-)

…and that’s about it for now, I’ll be back when the Pariah’s Child World Tour resumes.

cheers,

SA:On the road:Pariah’s Child World Tour / Russia 31.10.-4.11.2014

Friday 31.10. - Travel Night

Took a cab and picked up Tony in the evening, then it was off to

the overnight train to Helsinki.Had a few beers with Tommy and

the I watched some HIMYM on netflix.

Saturday 1.11.-Travel Day

Since our train to Moscow wasn’t going to leave until the evening, we had a dayroom in Helsinki. Spent most of the day just chilling out, our allaround dude Masi stopped by for a couple of beers. In the evening we boarded the train, had a few more beers and then went to bed.It was nice to catch up with some of the crew guys who weren’t on the North-American leg of the tour.

Sunday 2.11.-Moscow, Russia

Upon arrival we went straight to the hotel, and I managed to sleep a couple of hours more before it was time to do the soundcheck. Some dude called Elias room from the reception and asked him to come down and sign some stuff.Not that we mind signing our albums and taking photos with our fans but come on, Elias was trying to sleep damn it. The dudes also provided us with a list of around 10 names that they wanted us to put on the guestlist….really confusing in my opinion. Just for the sake of clarity, we do not give away tickets to people we don’t know, it just doesn’t work like that, sorry. At the venue it felt good to play through a couple of songs and Joonas did a great job with our monitors so I’m sure the show will be awesome. Our fans here in Russia are really crazy so everything is set up for having and awesome show tonight…let’s see how it goes…we’re kinda nervous since we haven’t played together for 2 weeks, if you’re not counting the acoustic stuff last weekend. 

The show went really well I think, once we got started it went really smoothly and it was a lot of fun. The crowd was really into it and we had a blast. My Vortex is starting to give up, the volume slider is broken and now the pitch wheel is acting weird at times, I hope it’ll still last through tomorrows show, then I’ll have some time to order a new one before our Finnish shows. Appeareantly those things don’t last for an entire World Tour :-( Good that they’re cheap though. Anyways after the show we had some pizza and some wine and then had to leave rather quickly for the overnight train to St.Petersburg. Had a few beers and chatted with my roomie Mikko before it was time to sleep.

Monday 3.11.-St.Petersburg, Russia

Woke up just before 0900 when we were arriving…straight to the hotel and after a nice breakfast I slept a couple of hours more. Some fans met us at the station, we took some pics and signed some stuff…and again I was asked to put names on the guestlist…well…see above, not gonna happen ;-) Spent the day at the hotel chilling out and in the afternoon we headed to the venue. Got the soundcheck done and then we had a really nice dinner which always puts you in a good mood. The show tonight went well, it was a bit cold on stage at first but it got better as we went ahead with the show.

Afterwards we had to celebrate the end of the Russian part of the tour with a couple of beers but we took it really easy since it was time to go home tomorrow. Btw we got some really cool gifts, pics of them are on our twitter account….check it out.

Tuesday 4.11.-Travel Day

Got up for breakfast just before 10:00 and at 10:15 we already left for the trainstation and our 3,5h drive towards Helsinki, the airport and then the flight home. The day was mainly uneventful….as these travel days usually are. Got home ok, which of course was nice.

Now we have 4 weeks off before doing the final 4 shows for this year. We’ve done around 100 shows so it’s been our busiest year to date and it will be nice to have some time at home with my family. Next year will also be quite busy since the tour continues until the fall. More shows are being added all the time so check our homepage or facebook for the latest dates. Next up a couple of Finnish shows in about a month, see you all then.

cheers,

Henkka

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

SA:On the road:Pariah’s Child World Tour / North-America part 3

Wednesday 17.9.2014-Joliet, IL

The show last night in Cleveland went well…as it usually does. I had a weird moment with Tony during the beginning of Sing in Silence but that was about it. Woke up in Joliet, feeling more or less back to normal so the flu is over for me ;-) . We went for dinner with the guys and a fan dude who was at the restaurant paid our first round of drinks which was really nicely done. Thanks man ! Did the usual soundcheck/meet&gree etc stuff and I recorded a couple of radio jingles for our show in Puerto Rico. The show was ok, did a bit more mistakes than usual and wasn’t too happy about it but whatta hell, tomorrow is a new day. Hang out with a bunch of friends after the show and had some beers. Good times.

Thursday 18.9.2014- Off / Travel Day

We spent the off-day at Mall of America…wherever that is. In the early afternoon we all went to the mall and spent the whole day there. Eating, drinking and buying stuff to bring home. I even went to this flight simulator thing with Tony and we battled with P-51 Mustangs. First we killed all enemy aircraft and then we ended up in a dogfight. I managed to drop him a couple of times but most of the time he was whipping my butt. That’s how it goes when someone has playd flying games (Tony) and someone else has no experience in the matter (me). Nevertheless it was really fun. We checked out the aquarium thing with sharks and whatnot…and also played minigolf. Whenever I play my only goal is to not finish last because I suck at it…so imagine the surprise when I won the damn thing !!! Yeah, that just happend !! Ended the night by watching Anchorman 2 in the bus while sipping on some Ron Burgundy whisky. This was a loooong but fun day.

Friday 19.9.2014-Winnipeg, Canada

We actually had a couple of invitations to do stuff today, one was to check out a sauna that one of our fans had built in his backyard and another was to go enjoy a swimming pool….we arrived in the afternoon and it was raining so the pool thing was out, as for the sauna I really like to take my time and enjoy it without a hurry so we had to skip that one as well. Too much work… We once again rehearsed the next song that will emerge in the set and I think we’ll play it tomorrow…and then the surprise is ruined. The show went without any hickups…except Tero forgot to put up my little ”lamp” so of course I had to tease him a bit about it. Didn’t have an effect on the show though. Afterwards I watched Friends re-runs on the TV and had a couple of glasses of white wine before it was time to go to sleep.

Saturday 20.9.2014-Regina, Canada

Somehow I didn’t really get going until the soundcheck on this day. I finally managed to get out of my PJ’s and flipflops around 3:30 in the afternoon just before the soundcheck. Spent the afternoon on the computer trying to catch up with the everlasting pile of e-mails etc…and got a lot done. For dinner some of the guys ordered chinese but me and Pasi went to the MD…had a big mac, and it was shit.Well I wasn’t hungry any more or perhaps I just lost my appetite…nevertheless it did the trick ;-) The whos itself was a smooth one and afterwards we watched some TV on the bus before heading to bed. Actually we spent most of the day watching Pawn Stars or watever the show is called….trying to guess what kind of deal the people selling stuff to the shop were going to get. Very intellectually challenging…at least by tour standards.

Sunday 21.9.2014-Edmonton, Canada

Go Oilers !! I was probably the last dude to wake up….papa needs his sleep. Some of us went to the mall and had breakfast before the usual routine started.After the afternoon obligations were fulfilled Elias, Pasi and I ordered some Pizza from the next door shop which was actually really good. I tried not to take a nap before the show but fell asleep for awhile in the front lounge while me & Pasi were watching Beverly Hills Cop…for those of you who attended the show, that’s why I played the theme song during one of Tony’s speaks…just couldn’t resist. We also played Letter to Dana for the first time since…maybe 2000 or something. At least it was the first time I’ve played the electric version with SA…we did do it acoustically during the Days of Grays World Tour but that’s about it… Let’s see if it will bee a keeper or not. After the show we hung out a bit outside the bus as usual and then it was time for movies and rest…..see y’all tomorrow.

Monday 22.9.2014-Calgary, Canada

I might have forgotten to mention that the new Silent Voices video is out, the one which we filmed ourselves ;-) here’s the link to that:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mIUt6K0fPQ&feature=youtu.be

Anyways, well up in Calgary my day was more or less the usual thing. We went to a nearby Casino for dinner which was good actually. In the setlist we switched In the Dark to Sing in Silence and Love for Tallulah. So the ever changing setlist is still in motion :-)

We’re gonna start practising something new now since Letter to Dana made the setlist. Let’s see what it’ll be this time… After the show we met some fans and talked about the hockey game that we did outside in Calgary some years ago.Also made the promise that if we’re ever back here in the winter we’ll have a re-match. The show itself was hot as hell but that’s the way we like it so no bitchin’ here.

Tuesday 23.9.2014-Off day, Canada

Spent the off-day in Kamloops like so many times before. I didn’t really do anything but eat, drink and laundry. Had to spin the dryer some extra rounds since it was totally shit and that was the highlight of my day. I tried to launch one of the rockets I got at walmart earlier in the tour but I didn’t have enough battery power to trigger it. I’ll get some new batteries from Tero and give it another go at some point. We were all really tired for some reason so just after midnight it was a quiet bus.

Wednesday 24.9.2014-Vancouver,Canada

Slept about 10 hours or so and I feel goood. We couldn’t park at the venue so the bus is a few blocks away. Let’s see what kinda setlist we come up with tonight. After the show we’ll have the last bordercrossing so I hope all goes well. I think I’m gonna head out to town…see ya !!!

cheers,

Henkka

SA:Pictures from North-America part 2

More random pics in random order ;-)

Enjoy !!

Backstage in Winnipeg there's a vending machine and in addition to snacks you can actually

also buy guitar strings...great idea !!

A small aquarium in the outdoor/hunting store during the off day somewhere in PA.

Elias posing in that same store....

What I ate part 21: Cobb salad at the Mall of America.

What I ate part 20:Breakfast in PA, still don't know in what town we were...

What I ate part 19:Breakfast in Toronto a few blocks from the venue.

At the aquarium in the Mall of America, jellyfish eating my brains...

My special lamp so that I can change sound even if the houselights are down. High tech stuff.

Trying to take pics of the Niagara Falls in the middle of the night....

...still trying.....

Got a NYR watch as a present, thanks a lot !!

In front of the Orbit Room (Alex Lifeson of Rush owns this bar) in Toronto.

Pasi having a crazy hair day !!

Our merch guy Ryan managed to find this Ron Burgundy scotch, which we drank while watching

Achorman 2 after a long day at the Mall of America.

..and here is Ryan presenting his electric cigarette case with all the bells and whistles.

Scary looking beer !! ( I think it was in Montreal)

Selfie in front of Rock'n'Roll hall of fame in Cleveland...and no I still haven't been there just got out

of the bus in the morning to take this pic.

Some ground rules at the Altar Bar in Pittsburgh, PA.

More gifts and the first time we tasted the spice jäger....still prefer the original (which we also got btw) and by now the bottles are far gone...thank you !!

Cool SA tattoo...

and more cool tattoos...

..and one more, great job guys !!

A nice self-made vase, thank you very much !!!

cheers,

Henkka