SA:On the Road: Ecliptica over Europe 2015 29.4.-15.5.

Wednesday 29.4.2015 - Flying out

Kemi-Helsinki and then Helsinki-Brussels and with the layovers it took the whole day, of course it did ;-) In the evening we were picked up by the bus and our support band Freedom Call from the airport. Had a bunch of beers to get the tour started on a proper note.

Thursday 30.4.2015 - Lille, France

The first day of the tour starts with a hangover, of course, how else ? Always a bit of a hassle to set up the stuff for the first time, etc etc but by the time we go on , everything is working properly and we get to play the entire Ecliptica album for the first time ever. The order of the songs feels a bit weird since we usually build our setlists differently but

I’m sure we get used to it in a few shows. All in all a good tourstart and it’ll only get better from here.

Friday 1.5.2015 - London, UK 

We had to get up at 0500 to get off the bus at the ferry which of course is nice, especially if you get to bed at 0430. Tonights show is sold out, which is really great !! We spent the afternoon doing interviews and soon enough it was showtime. We did some editing to the backing tracks before the show…with the result that most of the stuff was all fucked up so this show went on more or less without any digital help ;-) Luckily we know our shit so we had a good time and it all panned out in the end.

Saturday 2.5. Eindhoven, The Netherlands

We got to enjoy the ferry once again, this time I didn’t go to sleep until afterwards, at like 7 in the morning or something. Easier this way and for the rest of the tour we get to sleep, which is always appreciated. Today we had the comfort of one of the better backstages on this tour, nice venue, good food and we managed to figure out the hassle with the computer as well. The show was allright and we’re starting to get used to the setlist by now. Afterwards we left at around 0600 in the morning so there was plenty of time to hang around….Jamie from Anathema popped in for a beer, hadn’t seen the dude in like 10 years or so…awesome to meet again and what a great guy !!

Sunday 3.5. Utrecht, The Netherlands

The 2nd Sold Out show so far on this tour. The venue was only one year old so naturally everything was top notch. Spent the afternoon chilling and eventually we also could watch Finland play against Denmark in the Ice-Hockey World Championship. We had to hit the stage just after the second goal from Finland. A few days ago we checked out a bit of the game against US but it was also cut short since we had to go onstage. Maybe we’ll be able to watch some more games later on….

Monday 4.5. - Day off, Hamburg, Germany

Went for breakfast at our ”usual” place close to the railwaystation. The breakfast was so nice that I had to take a nap afterwards. Later on I had a couple of beers with Larry & John (our driver) before heading out to eat with the boys. We missed the Finland-Norway game but appeareantly they did just fine without us. If you ever need to check out the best burgers in the world then I’d suggest The Bird in Hamburg. Truly amazing and I’m not even really a burger kinda guy…or maybe I am… Anyways I had to take Pekka out to town in the evening because we were bored. Great idea ;-)

Tuesday 5.5.- Hamburg, Germany

Markthalle for the xxx time, as usual it was a lack of oxygen on the stage that was the biggest issue…and even that wasn’t too bad. Our agent showed up as well so it was nice to have a solid gig and enjoy ourselves. Afterwards we couldn’t leave before after 6 in the morning because of the drivers break but I was too tired to ”get it on”. Well asleep before the bus left and had a really good nights sleep.

Wednesday 6.5. Aschaffenburg, Germany

The only drop and go on this tour. That means that the bus can’t park in front of the venue so you have to take all your shit with you in the morning and spend the day walking around or at the venue. I went for the latter but since my brother showed up it went by rather quickly. We’ve been here before a couple of times and as remembered it was one hot gig and a loud crowd. We did have a great time and will probably come back again, that’s how this works ;-) Afterwards we had to leave more or less straight away…I took another ”off” night with the partying, just having a few with Tommy and Elias before heading to bed and towards Berlin.

Thursday 7.5. Berlin, Germany

I just realized that I haven’t seen the Berlin wall despite being here quite a few times and now we found out that there was a piece of it just around 200m from the venue so we went to check it out. It looked like a wall. The dinner today was a buy out so we hit the close by sports bar, decent food, no problem here. Our show was also quite allright and the fans seemed to enjoy it so all is well, jumped on the bus and headed for Bochum.

Friday 8.5. Bochum, Germany

Last time we had an off-day here after the show, and made a hell of a party as well. Nevertheless this time around we didn’t. After the setup we enjoyed a great dinner, rested on the couch and the usual hanging out before a show kinda things. The show was pretty much in line with the last time, in the sense that it was hot as hell and the place was packed ;-) Tommy managed to stop playing during Kingdom for a heart, just after the intro and that kinda confused us all…anyways, sometimes funny things like these happend ;-) Afterwards we didn’t have too much time to hang around before it was time to leave. Life on the road, it ain’t for everyone.

Saturday 9.5. Pratteln, Switzerland

I think this was my 9th or 10th time here and as always the food is excellent, the local crew are great and everything is just fantastic ;-) This time around we had more people than last time and all in all this was a really great day. Yesterday we got some booze called Killepiltsch so in the morning (=my morning which is basically around 2 or 3 in the afternoon here on the road)….I felt it a bit but by showtime it was of course long gone. A great night indeed…and then it was off towards Bologna and the 2nd & last off-day on this short European Trek.

Sunday 10.5. - Day off, Bologna, Italy

Mother’s Day, and Sunday, and off day. Well, this was more or less hamburger day for me (for some reason). Started the day (afternoon) by going to a MC D with some of the crew guys and tested the 1955 burger which was kinda ok. Afterwards we took a pic in a photobooth….which I’ll update later. After that me & Pekka my room mate took a nap, after all we’d been awake for almost 5 hours already ;-) Woke up around 9 in the evenin g and went to the local steak house for another burger…after that we had a few drinks at the hotel bar before heading out to do some sight-seeing in the city center but that’s another story.

Monday 11.5. Bologna, Italy

In the afternoon we took a cab from the hotel to the venue and started to enjoy the long and hot day. Something was a bit off with the AC in the bus so there was no chance to take a nap in the afternoon because it was just too fucking hot. The line to the venue went by the buses and we had to walk past that everytime we needed to go to the catering area or to the bus, tried to take stops and sign stuff etc whenever there wasn’t too many people there at the same time, after all we had some interviews and a bunch of other things to take care of….so some got lucky and some didn’t, unfortunately that’s how it goes sometimes. We did sign a buch of stuff after the show as well. Anyways, just watching Twilight Force having a blast on stage with the amazing Italian crowd, I knew that we were going to have a blast and as always Italy didn’t fail. Thank you very much this was amazing…and on top of all this was our first time in Bologna…or at least my first time. After the show we met up with our buddies from Trick or Treat and Alex from Labyrinth & Vision Divine also showed up. It was nice to catch up over a few beers before heading out towards Munich.

Tuesday 12.5. Munich, Germany

A nice sunny day and it was nice to get back to Munich. Before soundcheck I  played a couple of games of NHL14 with the Twilight Force guys…got my ass kicked btw. I have to remember to get a rematch or two before the tour is over. The show in Munich was quite hot with not too much oxygen on stage, before the show we watched some hockey, which of course always is nice. Afterwards we had a few and headed towards Budapest.

Wednesday 13.5. Budapest, Hungary

NIce surprise tonight that the venue is actually outdoors, so it’s more like a festival. Tony’s voice was a bit down so we asked Christian from Twilight Force to help out and sing Kingdom for a heart which he did and it went great !!! Afterwards we of course had some Palinka (which I always say, never again) and eventually got ourselves into the bus and on the way towards Poland.

Thursday 14.5. Cracow, Poland

Slept almost all day, just got up for breakfast & soundcheck and then back to bed. Tonight show was a lot of fun but unfortunately Tony’s voice is not there, it’s really weird since he’s no sick otherwise. Christian helped us out again on several parts / songs and we pulled through….at the backstage we had a disco for awhile since we found out there was a stereo system.

Friday 15.5. Warsaw, Poland

Tony went to the doctor this morning and was forbidden to sing. We decided to do a meet & greet anyway but this truly sucks ass. According to the specialist he’s not supposed to strain his voice at all so….let’s see how things are when we get to Japan but right now the mood is not really the best. This was about it for the European Tour, 

and tomorrow we’ll fly straight to Japan. I’ll upload the pics in a separate post.

cheers,

Henkka