Sunday, May 17, 2015

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

21 comments:

  1. Awww, what a way to end this tour tho :( it's sweet that you still did the M&G, I'm sure it was appreciated. Hopefully this Japanese tour will go smoothly. You're almost done!

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  2. Hope everything is okay and stays that way and Japan goes smoothly for you! Guess who's counting days now for TWO awesome events btw? With which you m i g h t have something to do with...

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  3. Sounds like you are having fun in the European Tour. Nice! Hope Tony gets better.

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  4. Geez, I wrote the whole comment just to delete it, because of stupidness...

    Okay, try it the second time *sigh*
    I can't imagine how it feels to live on the road for over 3 weeks, away from family and your beloved ones, but just to make it sure - you made so many people very, very happy! Don't forget that ever! :)

    I was one of the lucky ones, who saw everyone of you twice this year - first in hamburg and second in munich. I had to say munich was better, even if both gigs were awesome! But in munich the crowd was better (and besides that I was standing right in front of the stage in the first line, so I couldn't be happier ;) ). The music in hamburg was very loud, sometimes I couldn't understand what Tony was actually singing and I couldn't hear for nearly 1 hour after the gig (but I was standing next to the speakers, so that's my fault ;) ).
    Munich was also my favourite one, because I got the chance to meet everyone of you after the show :D And before I'll forget it (I'll never forget it, because I already spamed everywhere I could, how awesome you guys are after meeting you in person...) I wanted to say a big THANK YOU! Thank you for taking photos with us and signing our stuff and talking to us even if everyone of you looked reaaally tired :( I am so sorry that we catched you up. After we left I was a bit ashamed, that we hold you back from your rest. But I will never forget that night, even if I was really excited and shy and nervous (I know you're just normal people, but since 10 years until now you're my all time heroes, because to be honest, you saved my life ;) ). I was a bit surprised how sweet and kind and lovely all of you are. I was so nervous, that I missed the chance of meeting Tommy and Elias (even if they are still on the photo together with Tony, Pasi, you and me <3) and I was also really excited of speaking to Tony in real (jesus christ I LOVE his voice! Also I heard he should smell really good, hahahah ;D ... I didn't check that out, because I was respecting his personal space).
    But you, Henkka, already broke the ice inside of me while standing in front of you, just because you commented that the black pen is nice (nicer than silver ;P) for an autograph. Everyone else just smiled in the beginning and you were the first one talking (I don't count Tony's "Hey ladies"). Thank you again for breaking the ice and being such a cuty :D
    I hope I can meet everyone of you next year in germany again and I also hope I can take a better picture with everyone of you (the nights in munich are really dark... ;) ). Maybe next year will bring me a little luck again.

    Oh and because of the last passage - what was with Tony's voice? All of his fans were really worried after reading you have to cancel the gig in Warsaw and to offer a meet and greet (If I had the money, I would have travelled to Warsaw for the meet and greet xD) and I can truly understand that you all had not the best mood :( But just remember - even if you can't play live, you made many fans really happy with the meet and greet and with the offer of taking photos and signing stuff. You could have also canceled the whole show in Warsaw, but you didn't. I wasn't there, but thank you in the name of everyone who was there actually :) Meeting you in person is a really special gift for a true Sonata fan and that's totally not the normal way how it goes when someone went for a live show.

    Oh geez I write to much, haha. I am sorry ;) Nice to hear your gigs in japan are great until now and I hope the last two (are there only two left?) shows will be as amazing as the gigs in europe :)

    Stay heavy and lots of love from germany! Jessi

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  5. So bad that I couldn't see the Hungarian show, ironic, that I even had a ticket but during the time I moved to Finland and couldn't manage to visit back for the gig. Anyway hopefully I can make it to Kuopio at summer and maybe there's a chance that you can keep some Ecliptica song for the festival season too :)
    Have a nice time in Japan and greeting to all of you guys!

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  6. Yeah, it sucks that Tony lost his voice and you had to cancel that show. So nice you still had the meet and greet, though! Hope he's following doctors orders as much as possible and not straining the voice.
    I'm sure it was a welcomed treat having your brother show up(surprise?). Would be nice to see a pic of you two together. Always nice to hear you talk about your family. :-)
    Keep your spirits up and I hope things go well for your last two shows in Japan. Just two more and you're on your way...home sweet home!;-)
    ~Hugs~

    Btw, looks like your vortex got a little makover? It looked really good the way it did before, but this looks cool too!

    Ciao!

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    1. That's actually a new vortex, my 2nd one since the first one is really not reliable anymore...cheap pieces of crap ;-)

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    2. So you finally got a new one! :-) I just thought you painted (or taped?) the first one. You did paint the first one, didn't you?
      Those cheap pieces of crap do get you through your shows...until they decide to crap out on you, lol. Hopefully this one will be nice and last much longer...there's gotta be something better out there.

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  7. Could you post the japanese sets once you are done with tour? would like to see how you mixed things up after Ecliptica over Europe. If you don't mind of course. Cheers!!

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    1. Maybe you'll find them on setlist.fm , I think they were quite close to what we did in Latin-America....on the last show however we opened with Don't say a word ;-)

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    2. I saw the one from last show, it was crazy. First time you guys open with Don't Say Word.
      Anyway, yep they're there, besides of Hiroshima and Nagoya. Thanks for the answer anyway! :)

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  8. Oh wait, so the "sorry, we almost forgot Mary-Lou" was not legit, but the "Uh, we kinda got confused which version of the song to play" was? Yay, I experienced something unique! :D
    And the Killepitsch made it into your blog ;) Next time I'll bring more! Dunno if anyone of you guys is into sweeter stuff, but do you know "Krumme"? Maybe that's too girly :)
    I really enjoyed the show in Bochum, despite the crappy venue (no, I'll never get tired of ranting against it ;) ).

    I got really worried when I heard about Tony in Warsaw, and I can totally imagine how pissed off you were. Especially when you probably didn't know if he'd make it for Japan... But hey, everything went well in the end, and I think that your solution (support bands play longer sets, m&g for everyone) was perfect! So cheer up ;) And Tony was really cute reassuring his fans on instagram :D

    Are you glad touring is almost over now? Only two shows left, then it's just the festivals :)

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    1. Back home already, resting and doing other stuff ;-) It's always a paradox when a tour comes to an end, on the other hand you want to go home and on the other you don't want it to end so...lose lose situation ;-)

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    2. Mmhhh.... how about rather calling it win-win? :) You get awesome shows in places all over the world most of us will probably never see, and can enjoy peaceful family life in between? I mean, it's not like it was your last tour ever, you'll be back on the road soon enough, so enjoy and be happy :-)
      Great, now I'm jealous and sad I can't catch you on any of the festivals this year. Here, have the Happy song in different styles :-P https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiUmhl8sNu0 (Just something I found yesterday... I think they did a pretty good job!)

      Take care and get some sleep, old man! ;-)

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  9. Yo, I'm hearing some rumors that you're not showing up on the Nightwish US tour lineup like you should? Do you know what's up? Is everything ok?

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    1. Don't freak out, we'll tell you how it'll be done when we have everything sorted out....no reason to panic and everything is totally ok.

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    2. I swear to god you tell me not to worry more than my mother sometimes. I'm so sorry, you're so patient with me, lol.

      It's okay, I just heard some friends freaking out because they'd already spent a fortune on a ticket so I thought I'd ask. I'll let them know to hold on to their horses for the time being, thanks :)

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    3. (i'm not sure but) I think she's asking because of a mutual friend that got tickets and made some plans around one of those shows, and they're just trying to figure out if it's happening or not now

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    4. Yep, it's because of that ;)

      But I guess the poor man is just too used to me freaking out at him at this point lol

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  10. Okay, I also want to say some words but I take it with the KISS principle :
    Keep
    It
    Simple and
    Short (not stupid in this case!) :)

    Thank you for the great Ecliptica Revisited Tour in Germany and all the other places! I've seen you in Hamburg, Berlin and Bochum and it was always amazing. To see, with which fun and power you thrilled the audience every night was awesome. The spark ignites every time, at least I can say that of me :D Now it's time to wait until the next party. I'll be there, you can count on me!


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  11. ups, one more forgotten:
    Also a big thanks, that you and Elias have taken time for the interview with the Fanclub in Bochum. It's the best Fanclub for the best band. They make a great job :D
    Although I still don't know if you ever got a speed ticket in your life :P

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