SA:On the Road: Pariah’s Child World Tour Latin-America 2015 part 4

Sunday 15.3.2015 - La Paz, Bolivia

Hell whatta night, respiratory problems, headache etc etc…basically the same trouble most of our posse got. It was to be expected and in the morning I finally got a pill for altitude sickness and managed to sleep an hour or two. Met up with the other guys from the band at around 1400 to eat a bit. The food was really good but we’re all feeling really weird with this high altitude. Appeareantly La Paz is around 3600m above sea level, so tonight will be an interesting challenge. Our previous ”high” shows have been in Quito, Bogota and Mexico City and although it’s been a bit hard at times, this is something else…I’ll tell you that. Better get some more rest before we go to the venue at 1700 for the soundcheck, I hope the crew are all alive still. Our TM just came back from there and said that everything is more or less perfect, equipment wise so at least that’s not gonna be a problem……Later on we went to the soundcheck, and indeed everything was working great, nice stage, nice lights, good PA etc… Continued drinking Coke Tea and chewing leaves etc stuff to try to stay alive. A quick stop at the hotel picking up some stuff…for some reason it bacame quite the confusion with 2 crewguys left behind etc etc…I won’t go into that but eventually we all made it back to the venue. The show wasn’t too hard but we had to move around ourselves a bit easier than usual. Of course Tommy had the hardest job but he did really well…we didn’t switch from song to song as fast as usually and we had extra oxygen on stage for Tony & Tommy so all in all it went really well. I’m really proud that we managed to pull it off  !!! ..and yeah it was also very cold like around 12-14 degrees. None of us ever though that we’d freeze on a South-American Show (yeah, we’re idiots and didn’t think it through, I know). After the show it was time to go back to the hotel and try to sleep for a couple of hours. I couldn’ t get to sleep because of the altitude…really weird. At 0500 we left the hotel for the airport and the flight out.

Monday 16.3.2015 - Travel Day (La Paz - Lima)

Not too many hassles and as soon as we got on the plane and the door closed, it became a lot easier to breath…so I fell asleep. Just woke up for 5min to eat whatever little cute sandwhich (crap) they were serving before passing out again. It feels great to be able to breathe again. Upon arrival there was the usual customs hassle, last time it took us 3 hours to get through this time a lot less ;-) Met up with a whole bunch of fans when we came out, signed stuff and took pics and then got everyone inside the van and the suitcases and gear on the truck….at the hotel we realized that the hotel manager was someone we knew from years ago in Buenos Aires (we’d previously stayed at a hotel that he was managing there) which was really nice. Meaning that since we were hungry he opened the restaurant 1,5 hours earlier so we could eat right away….and the food was fucking awesome. This is probably the one of the nicest hotels on this tour so far !! After dinner we had time for a nap before we did some interviews…still tired it was a bit harder than usual to do station ID’s etc but we got everything done….then it was time for the first Hard Rock Cafe of this tour ( I guess you have to do dinner there once a tour or something…for some reason which is beyond me ). Anyways there was some confusion how to get there so it took like forever but eventually we found the place. Had a nice dinner and enjoyed a local talent competition (or at least that’s how we percieved it )….back to the hotel, a couple of autographs and pics and we got Peru soccer jerseys with our names and numbers on them !! Really cool and FUCK now I realized that I forgot to mention that in the Chile post since we got jerseys there as well (you probably saw them on FB or something anyway). So far (including the last tour) we now have Colombia, Chile and Peru, thank you all !!! And for the rest of you…try to keep up ;-) hahaha just kidding. Anyways, I went up to the swimming pool at the top of the hotel to have a smoke and a drink with Tommy before going to bed and by the second smoke a security guy came and told us to go to our rooms…didn’t really understand all of it but he got his message through. He was very nice though so no harm, no faul. Goodnight.

Tuesday 17.3.2015 - Day off no 2 (Lima, Peru)

It’s nice to have the luxury of another day of in the 5 week tour.(irony remark btw) We went to the Inca market in the afternoon and bought a bunch of stuff for our families back home, and some stuff for ourselves as well. After that we had dinner at the hotel, or at least some of us did. In the evening we all went out to….(drumroll) dinner again but some of us just had a couple of beers because we then continued to the Smashing Pumpking show. It’s was nice to go out and just party but I’ll have to say that Kasabian, the support band was waaaay better. Never really got the idea of SP. Just wanted to check it out for myself and I’m still not a fan. Anyways, we had a good time and eventually we got back to the hotel and went to bed.

Wednesday 18.3.2015 - Lima, Peru

Woke up feeling a bit ”shaky” luckily we had all day to rest before it was time to get to the venue. Allready at the soundcheck we felt that this was gonna be one hot motherfucker. The backstage was even hotter…Tero measured 34 degrees celcius on stage. Fuck. The show went quite allright, we even played Picturing the Past for the first time since 2000, so for most of us it was the first time ever. It went kinda ok, not great but not a total disaster. Of the Ecliptica songs we now only have Blank File and Destruction Preventer left to do live. BF we’ve done on the Days of Grays World Tour but DP is new for most of us. Let’s see if we get one or both practised before the tour ends. Tomorrow we’re playing Bogota which is quite high in altitude so I doubt we’ll practise too much at the soundcheck. Nevertheless, today was a nice show but really hot and everyone was more or less exhausted after it. Tomorrow we’ll have to get up at 0600 to go to the airport and fly to Bogota and in the evening we’ll play the show…the day after is a travel day, lobby call at 0530 and we’ll be at the hotel in Monterrey around 20-21 in the evening so this is by no means an easy finish….I better go to bed now, it’s 2:30 in the morning so I still have a couple of hours to sleep….getting old, I guess.

Thursday 19.3.2015 - Travel Day & Bogota, Colombia

Woke up really tired but that seems to be the norm these days, we got howled to the airport and well onboard the plane I slept the whole 2,5h flight. In Bogota we went straight to the hotel, had a late lunch and the band went to sleep for a few hours while the crew went to set up the show. Soundcheck, meet & greet etc the usual drills…after the show we found out that in the middle of it the cops closed all the exits and didn’t let anybody in or out, accusing the venue of letting in minors and not having the right permits to arrange our show. They wanted to cut the show short but for some reason that didn’t happend. Weird shit. Our monitor desk crashed as well which was a bit confusing, since we use in-ear monitors, if the desk crashes we can’t hear anything on stage so it’s impossible to play,…our monitor guy Joonas managed to fix it rather quickly so we could go on with the show….this was in the beginning of the encore btw. Anyways, straight from the show to the hotel since tomorrow we get to enjoy another beautiful day traveling…starting with the 0530 lobby call…meaning that’s when we leave the hotel.

Friday 20.3.2015 - Travel Day (Bogota- Mexico City- Monterrey)

A long and boring Travel Day. First we took the flight to Mexico City, then did another check-in and had some food before flying to Monterrey. That’s basically it. 2 more shows to go and then we get some time off back home.

Saturday 21.3.2015 - Monterrey, Mexico

Familiar hotel, familiar venue. Great to be back. Spent the day sleeping and in the evening we had a really kick ass show with a great crowd. This was so awesome that we had to celebrate, even though we have and early flight tomorrow.

Sunday 22.3.2015 - Travel Day & Mexico City, Mexico

Of course I didn’t wake up until our TM came into my room, shit. Well I guess this happends once on every South American Tour so this was it. Slept the whole flight as well as the whole day at the hotel. In the evening we had our grand finale, the last show of this tour, once again Mexico City didn’t disappoint us and we had a really good time, goofing around a bit but definately not the most crazy tourending show ever. I guess we’re getting old and/or tired. Afterwards we took it really easy, just a few beers and then back to the hotel to rest and get our stuff packed for the long travel home. This has been an awesome tour even though it was quite long.Thank you all for showing up !!!

Monday 23.3. - Wednesday 25.3. Travel Days (Mexico City - Kemi)

Got kicked out of our rooms at 1400, left for the airport at 1700, the flight started at 2100 and lasted for around 12 hours, during which I watched Foxcatcher and parts of Horrible Bosses 2 or something (I fell asleep during it and woke up around 1,5 hours before we landed. 6 hours of enjoying Heathrow and then after a short 3 hour flight we hit the Hilton Airport at Helsinki-Vantaa. Some the bunch got to go home though, good for them ;-) …Of course the Wednesday morning flight wasn’t a direct one, we flew to Jyväskylä first but eventually we all got home. Thank you, good night, I’ll be back from the European Tour in a few weeks.

cheers,

Henkka

PS.yeah I have a bunch of pictures and I’ll upload them when I get the time.

SA:On the Road: Pariah’s Child World Tour Latin-America 2015 part 3

Monday 2.3.2015- Travel Day (Belo Horizonte- Rio de Janeiro)

It was nice to get a good night sleep and we sent the gear to Rio after the show last night so we did only have our own luggage to howl around which made the trip really easy. Upon arrival we decided to all go to the beach in a couple of hours. The evening was spent relaxing, eating and drinking. Good times !

Tuesday 3.3.2015- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

OMG, the first hangover of the tour ;-) Well, since we’re almost 2 weeks in, it kinda makes sense that this would happend. Anyways we decided to do the soundcheck just before doors in order to stay at the hotel longer and not waste time to go back and forth. I slept most of the day, had  a club sandwich and by the time we headed for the venue I felt ok. We started to rehearse another song from Ecliptica that we haven’t played…what a fucking chaos ;-) Did manage to play it through a couple of times but I think this one needs some work before it’s ready to be played during the show. We changed our song order a bit for tonight since there were a couple of things that we didn’t think was working perfectly. After the show we realized some more changes that we want to try…anyways, we had the usual meet & greet and the usual few drinks (actually just a few this time)…and ended the night watching movies.

Wednesday 4.3.2015- Travel Day ( Rio de Janeiro- Curitiba)

Tried to get up for breakfast but somehow I felt too tired to actually care so I slept until it was time to leave in the afternoon. Our gear is still riding with the van and our Tourmanager Eric already did the check-in online in advance to this was one of the easiest airport ”hassles” so far….but no worries, I’m sure it’ll become more difficult. Hehe and just having written that and jumped on the plane, we got delayed since there was something wrong with the aircraft…eventually we got to leave and managed to get our asses to the hotel in Curitiba. Tonight we have a dinner and then it’s off to a signing session at a local rock bar…I spent the hour we had before going out, doing e-mail work, we’re setting up the European Tour etc etc, there’s always something going on that needs to be attended to.

The signing session was a lot of fun since we met some of our friends from Dragonforce later on, they’re on tour with Epica here and of course we had to share some drinks.

Thursday 5.3.2015 - Curitiba, Brazil

Spent the whole day sleeping….wonder why ? At around 1500 the band went out to look for dinner but since nothing interesting was open nearby, we decided to return to the hotel and eat there. Some of the boys who had attended breakfast weren’t too optimistic about the food but luckily it was quite good and everyone was happy. When we arrived at the venue our guys weren’t ready still so we had to wait around for about an hour…they’ve seemed to have had a hard day (they were also at the bar last night ;-)) ….as soon as we got everything done most of the pack went back to the hotel for a couple of hours, me & Pasi & Tero stayed at the venue….too lazy to go anywhere. When it was time for the show we were all back to life and ready to rock. It was a nice one, really hot but who cares. Elias in ears broke just before the encore so we had to take a little longer to get back on stage while he changed earpieces. Tony did a bass solo at that time which was…hmm…entertaining ;-) It actually sounded a bit like Primus regardless of the fact that he really can’t play bass…or hardly can… Anyways, all was well and dandy and we did our signing session etc before heading back to the hotel. Tomorrow the lobby call is at 0715 to fly to Porto Alegre and we have a show in the evening so I better get to sleep. It’s just impossible to go straight to bed after a show since you’re so worked up so I’ll start watching something on netflix and hope to pass out as soon as possible.

Friday 6.3.2015 - Travel Day & Porto Alegre, Brazil

Got up and away, towards the last show of the Brazilian part of the tour. I’m writing this a few days later and can hardly remember anything from this day. Was it so ”normal” ? Sleep deprivation kicking in ? I have no idea…I guess it went well….Anyways I’ll write some more if I remember something later on…(edit:appeareantly I didn’t)

Saturday 7.3.2015 - Travel Day ( Porto Alegre - Sao Paulo - Buenos Aires)

12 hours of traveling pretty much sums the day. Slept a bunch on the first flight but for some reason (karma?) we had been bumped up to business class on the second flight which of course was very nice. I watched the Stephen Hawkings movie, whatever it was called and it was really interesting. We pretty much jumped into a couple of cabs straight from the airport and went to Slash concert…even saw 4-5 songs which was cool. It was a pre-arranged thing by our promoter Christian. Thanks man !!

When we came back to the hotel in Buenos Aires we met some crew guys from Ministry and went out to a metal bar. Really nice guys and one of them is actually from Finland so we had a lot to talk about….and a lot of friends in common.

Sunday 8.3.2015 - Buenos Aires, Argentina

The day started out pretty basic, sleeping as much as possible, eating etc. By the time

we headed for the venue and the show, everything was right on track. Our show tonight was really hot, 30-32 degrees Celcius on stage, it was a lot of fun but damn it was tiresome. After the show we did the usual signed poster meet & greet thing with 200 people so it was really late when we finally got to leave the venue and go back to the hotel. At the hotel we met up with some of the Ministry guys (who also had a show tonight) and spent some time hanging by the pool and drinking.

Monday 9.3.2015 - Day off no 1 (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

I spent most of the day resting since last nights show & party was a bit much to handle. In the evening our friend Tarja Turunen and her husband Marcelo had invited us for some BBQ at their home. It was a truly nice evening, excellent food, some red wine and a really laid back atmosphere. A really welcomed break from the usual touring routine and all that goes with it.

Tuesday 10.3.2015 - Travel Day (Buenos Aires - Santiago)

Was a bit tired in the morning since we got ”home” at around 1-2 in the night. No problem though, we got our shit together and flew to Santiago. Met up with our friend Eddie, our host from last year and had a few drinks at the hotel. Quite tiresome day all in all , I guess the traveling is starting to take it’s toll since we really haven’t party that much on this tour. Only a few drinks here and there most of the time.

Wednesday 11.3.2015- Santiago, Chile

This time we got to play a venue we haven’t played before. Our crew had a hell of a day since nothing was really working but in the end they managed to get everything close enough to do the show. Did a meet & greet etc etc some intie stuff for our fanclub here and whatnot. The show itself went quite well. I think it was here that Elias pre-amp broke down so from now on it’ll be interesting to hear what kind of sounds he’ll get.

Thursday 12.3.2015- Travel Day (Santiago- Antofagasta)

Wake up, flight, normal hassles, arrived to the hotel.Dinner. Then some of us went out walking to the beach and ….yeah had a couple of coctails. As you can see the days start to become more or less the same as the previous ones. Either we travel or we play or we do both.

Friday 13.3.2015 - Antofagasta, Chile

This was one of the new cities for us on this tour….but the showday was as the ones so far ;-) Got up in the afternoon (in fact I woke up around 9 since someone started doing some renovation work in the hotel, banging and shit) , headed to the venue for soundcheck. Did a meet & greet and got ready for the show. The stage today was downright dangerous with big gaps in between raisers etc. and on top of that it was Friday the 13th, luckily nobody got hurt and we pulled through. Decided to go to bed asap after the show since tomorrow was gonna be around 12 hours of traveling + we’re on our way to La Paz which is the highest place I’ve ever been. I remember the times in Bogota and having a bit of a problem to breathe so I wanted to be extra careful since this was gonna be around 1km higher. Still jumped up from the show I fell asleep at just after 0400…

Saturday 14.3.2015 - Travel Day (Antofagasta- Iquique - La Paz)

….and woke up at 0830 for some reason…spent an hour trying to sleep some more but it didn’t really work out. Well, I don’t mind being overly tired on airplanes since it sucks anyway so it doesn’t matter. Last night I got the internet working, finally…they’ve mispelled my name Klingerberg so no wonder I couldn’t log in. Well, that’s life I guess. At least my phone was working ;-) Anyways, off we go. The first flight to Iguigue wasn’t too bad but then it started to get interesting. We had a ticket that said Iguigue-La Paz but it turned out that we had to make 2 stops on the way that weren’t mentioned anywhere….interesting. The first stop was in Santa Cruz and we had to go out of the plane and sit for awhile and then we could go back in….they also took our luggage…of course why not ? It was however the same plane since we had the same seats and I did fold one of the magazines just to make sure. The second stop was in …actually I forgot that one, but there we could remain in the plane for around 20min before it was time to take off again. Talk about random selection. I’m sure there’s a logical explanation to why this is the best way to do it but at the moment it doesn’t seem to clear to me…be that as it may we had a lot of people waiting at the airport and of course it bacame more or less a chaos…eventually we got in to the van and headed for the hotel. Had a late night dinner and then it was time to get to sleep after midnight. They had some kinda band playing underneath my window at a plaza and that party took awhile but eventually it was quiet enough, or I was tired enough to fall asleep.

SA:On the Road: Pariah’s Child World Tour Latin-America 2015 part 2

Monday 23.2.2015 - Travel Day (Recife-Fortaleza-Manaus)

The show last night went quite ok, we’re starting to get over the jetlag, little by little. We put In the Dark in the setlist instead of Replica but people kept yelling it out throughout the show so we had to put it back in on the fly. Well, you got your replica my friends ;-)

Today we had most of the day off, went eating and drinking at the beach etc etc. At around 1900 we left from the hotel and a couple of flights later we were in Manaus. Most of us were really tired so the flights went by really quick in sleeping mode. Got to the hotel in Manaus around 0300 in the morning so it was straight to bed as soon as we got ourselves checked in.

Tuesday 24.2.2015 - Manaus, Brazil

Got up in the morning around 0930 and went for breakfast with Tony and Pasi. Most of the crew guys where there eating already. I was supposed to do a live TV interview with Pasi but unfortunately it was cancelled. Well, anyways at around 1500 the band was picked up and taken to dinner and then soundcheck, we tried to play through a  song that we haven’t played live since 2003 and apart from a few parts it went quite ok, I think with a few more practise runs we can perform it live. After the soundcheck Tony did a short intie and we did some station ID’s before heading back to the hotel for some R & R. At 2100 we were again picked up and taken to the show. Although the heat wasn’t too bad, I think the moist air did it’s thing and we were all sweating like hell during the show, other than that it was the usual great time on stage. Elias managed to break a string during 8th commandment (he breaks a string about once a year) but no other mishaps happened ;-) A short meet & greet after the show and then off to the hotel and bed. We were back around 0130 and the wake up is at 0700 so, shower and bed it is.

Wednesday 25.2.2015- Travel Day (Manaus-Sao Paulo-Limeira)

Up at 0700 as planned, breakfast and off to the airport, naturally we had a slight delay with the flight but other than that no major setbacks. In Sao Paulo we jumped in the van and headed for limeira, which with piss breaks and food stops etc took us around 4 hours. Upon arrival some of us headed to the bar around the corner. It was quite empty but the owner treated us very well with free drinks and food so it was a happy bunch that headed to bed just around midnight.

Thursday 26.2.2015 - Limeira, Brazil

Slept rather long and then went to the shopping mall with Tommy, Elias and our manager. I found a new backpack since my old one is broken and a pair of sandals. At 1500 we had dinner at the hotel, then went for the soundcheck. The venue here is quite…how shall one say…hmm…interesting. Small stage and a lot of different stonewalls to make the sound bounce around and make the whole place rather noisy, on top of that the PA system seems to be from the 80’s and I doubt that it will be loud enough when the crowd goes crazy. Nevertheless, the place will be packed tonight and this will be one sweaty show for everybody, that I’m sure of. We went for another round of food after the soundcheck, just to make sure we have enough energy to play hard tonight. We decided to change the order of a couple of songs in the set but nothing major since we haven’t played here before. For the places that we went last year, we’ll try to mix it up a bit more so our fans don’t have to watch the same songs 2 years in a row. 

Our show tonight was as sweaty as expected and afterwards we more or less went straight to the van and to the hotel since the backstage was really small. Ended the night in a bar close by and then it was time for bed since we had to get up quite early to drive to Sao Paulo and Osasco.

Friday 27.2.2015 - Travel Day & Osasco, Brazil

This time our vanride went a lot faster and about 2 hours in we arrived at the hotel around 11 or something. Just as I said out loud: This went really smooth…it became interesting. Our Tourmanager had set it up the usual way: when we arrive at the hotel the check in is done. Of course it wasn’t, which isn’t really a big deal, it just takes awhile and we’re not THAT spoiled…..but their system was down so they couldn’t make us any keys….hmm….some dude let us into our rooms but of course we had no chance to leave in case we wanted to get back in. Well, some hours later we did get our keys and went to the venue. Soundcheck and sandwiches etc…a short meet & greet and before we knew it, it was showtime. Since we’re playing two show quite close to each other we decided to have a hotel in the middle. So it’s a 45min drive to both shows which means we’ll stay at the venue after the soundcheck until the show is over. Hit the Unopened song for the first time in like 12 years or something, did the new version on WPBO and tomorrow we’ll change even more of the setlist. Nevetheless, survived the show, did the aftershow meet and greet and even managed to get the bar open at the hotel ”no sir we don’t serve anything anymore, have a beer from the minibar”….when you have enough people they might even re-think that. :-) Ended the night with the trusty old netflix !!

Saturday 28.2.2015- Sao Paulo, Brazil

Finally getting into the right sleeping pattern, I slept until noon and woke up a lot more refreshed than for the last few days. Went for a swim with the guys and then I ordered some food from the room service….and tried to check my mails but the internet is unbeliavable slow here….The show tonight was an absolute killer, I think it was the best one so far on this tour. We had a lot of people and the band clicked together really well. Afterwards we had some farewell drinks with our manager who went home the next day after hanging with us for a week.

Sunday 1.3.2015 - Travel Day & Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Woke up just after 8 feeling a bit weird….wonder why ? Anyways I slept on the flight and felt much better after that. When we got to the hotel and were waiting for the lunch a nasty flashback from last year came to mind, wasn’t the foor here quite awful ? Unfortunately we remembered it correctly and it was really crap. My apologies to the chef but really ?? I took a nap after lunch and we had to go to the soundcheck and show quite soon after that. Our show tonight went rather well, no big mishaps or anything…the sound on stage was a bit weird but that’s of course just our problem so I’ll keep it to myself…oh actually Elias broke another string !!! and one of the mics on the guitar amp broke down…In the evening we met up at the roof of the hotel but nobody really had the energy to actually make it a party so it was bedtime instead. I watched some CNN stuff and fell asleep.

Until later, 

cheers,

Henkka