Silent Voices & E.Vil On the Road: Darkest Night EU tour 2015

Here are some notes from the EU tour we just did. Since we were doing

everything ourselves I didn’t really have the time to write this on the road,

let’s see how much I can remember now that the tour is over. We had

two bands, 7 guys stuck in a van. Here is the cast for this trip:

Teemu - Vocals & driving & DJ & hotels, SV

Timo - guitars, SV

Pasi - bass & driving, SV & E.VIL

Hurtsi - drums, SV

Henkka - keys & tourmanager, SV & E.VIL

Elias - guitars, E.VIL

Tomi - drums, E.VIL

We all sold, or tried to sell merch as well ;-) Anyways, here we go:

Tuesday 20.10. - Travel / Rehersal , Kemi-Kokkola

We were supposed to rehearse with Silent Voices before the tour

but we couldn’t get everyone together I decided to go to Kokkola

anyway and check through some parts with Timo our guitar player.

We spent some hours going throught the stuff and I then proceeded

to check out some of the E.VIL songs as well. The Trainride to Kokkola

was the same as always = boring ;-)

Wednesday 21.10. - Rehersal / Travel Kokkola-Helsinki

Played through some more stuff with Timo in the afternoon and

then it was time to pack the van for the drive to the Helsinki airport.

We started in the evening and picked up Tomi & Elias in Tampere,

at around 0400 or something we arrived in Helsinki, dropped off

the van and checked in for our morning flight at 0635. We had a 

a couple of hours at the Frankfurt airport before hitting our connecting

flight to Amsterdam where we picked up our van for the tour.

Thursday 22.10. - Travel Day - Helsinki-Dusseldorf

…after checking out the van and putting all the guys and gear inside

we headed for Dusseldorf where I had managed to find a relatively

cheap hotel. The rest of the night/evening was spent just chilling and

going through the paperworks and info for this tour, Tomi, Elias and I

went out for a nice dinner while the other boys opted for the nearby

kebab place.

Friday 23.10.- Parkhaus-Meiderich, Duisburg, Germany

In the afternoon we checked out and headed for Obehausen to pick up our

merch from Kapanen. We met some of the Korpiklaani guys who were playing

there that night. Back to Duisburg and to the venue, which was quite nice. Great

people and a very good dinner. We did the sounchecks for both of the bands rather

quickly. We also had a support band there which was quite ok actually. Later it was

time for the first shows of this tour. I think we all were a bit nervous since we hadn’t practised with SV or E.VIl for that matter…managed to do the shows, sold some shirts

and had a few beers. I think this might actually work out allright ;-) At the hotel bar there was time to have a couple of more drinks before hitting the bed.

Saturday 24.10. Travel Day: Duisburg, Germany - Wroclav, Poland

Got up in time for breakfast, which is of course something I don’t always do.

This was the first really long driving day, spent the day in the backseat of the

van drinking beer and listening to music. In Wroclav there was a wedding

next door, tried to crash it but was turned away at the door. Well, good luck

anyways ;-)

Sunday 25.10. Travel Day / Bielsko-Biala, Poland

Some more driving and the we had our second show of the tour. By now the

worst nervousness was gone and we did a more solid job than on the first show.

Managed to find the hotel afterwards, which was an apartment somewhere not too

far from the club. We also got a recording of the shows tonight, they where however

only 2-track versions so nothing much we can do to make some use of them. Some of

the boys went to the nearby gas-station to pick up some beer but I decided to go straight to bed since I was really tired.

Monday 26.10. Travel Day / Bielsko-Biala, Poland - Graz, Austria

Part of the boys went to the MCD to get some breakfast and were

kind enough to bring back some stuff for the rest of us as well. The

rest of the day was spent….driving…again.

Tuesday 27.10. Travel Day / Graz, Austria - Bologna, Italy

Another long day in the car. We had trouble finding the hotel in Bologna,

drove around and ended up on a hill. Eventually we found the place and

went out for dinner, all together. Got some really excellent food and that

pretty much knocked us out for the night.

Wednesday 28.10. Travel / Borderline Club, Pisa, Italy

Some more driving for a change, we did get to Pisa quite

fast, checked in at the hotel and got some chips and salsa. Later we managed

to find our way to the club and to the soundcheck. My friend Alex from Vision

Divine (amongst another 100 bands) showed up as well since he helped us set

up these Italian shows. In the evening we checked out the support band before it

was time for us to hit the stage. Sold some merch, signed some stuff, had some nice

pasta at the club…a pretty good day I’d say. Except the only beer we had left over after

the show was some weissbeer…which is quite horrible in my opinion. Maybe it was all for the best in the end since I couldn’t down more than one of them ;-)

Thursday 29.10. Travel Day , Pisa-Parma, Italy

We opted to stay in Pisa but had some trouble finding a cheap enough hotel so we just went to check out the leaning tower and then decided to hit the road again. In Parma we threw our stuff into the rooms and went out for some pizza & pasta (naturally) with the whole gang. Once again Italy did not disappoint and the food in the nearby restaurant was really excellent. Had a few drinks in the hotel bar before going to bed,

but I guess you knew that already….

Friday 30.10. Titty Twister, Parma, Italy

What a great name for a bar ;-) In the afternoon we switched hotels to the one that was provided by the promotor. Again it was a bit of a challenge to find the place but eventually we did. Later in the afternoon it was time to go to the venue and do the soundcheck. We had the support band from Pisa as well as a local support band. Great 

stuff. Had a good time, the venue was at street level so the roading was really easy. Had some pasta at the venue again and sold some shirts and tourcd’s so everything

went really great !! More or less went to bed upon arrival to the hotel. Thank you

Italy !!

Saturday 31.10, Travel Day, Parma-Munich, Germany

Another driving day, Teemu managed to find a really cheap hotel for two

nights which was of course really nice.

Sunday 1.11. Off-day - Munich

Spent the off-day watching youtube and drinking ;-) Later me & Tomi went

to an irish bar somewhere and got some mashed potatoes and sausages.

According to the rest of the bunch we got back before 23 and hit the sack.

Monday 2.11.Travel Day, Munich - Prague, Czech Republic

More driving…Teemu again managed to get a 4 star hotel for around 120e

for all 7 people. I have no idea how he does it. The hotel was in some sports

arena, I have no idea where. We went to the nearby shopping mall for awhile

and then to yet another Irish bar and had some burgers. I guess this time we

were out pretty late ;-)

Tuesday 3.11. Exit-us , Prague, Czech Republic

Woke up and went for the next hotel. The sunshine hostel or something. What

a truly horrible place, haha. Now we’re starting the end run for the shows. 4 in

a row, with some driving every morning. It will be a nice change of pace since

the amount of off-days so far has been a bit much for some of us ;-) The venue

tonight was a basement with a bunch of stairs (like 3 floors down from ground

level or something. Had some nice gulash at the backstage and we had a local

support band as well. The shows went quite ok and we enjoyed ourselves. Took

a bunch of pics afterwards and then went back to enjoy the confort of the bates

motel…uh, sorry, sunshine hostel.

Wednesday 4.11. Travel / Viper Room, Vienna, Austria

Got woken up at around 10 by some dude yelling we had to check out. Appeareantly

the same thing had happend in Hurtsis and Teemus room at around 9. Nice people

I must say :-) Well whatta hell, we had to get going anyways. The day swung by rather

quickly, sitting in the car and eventually we found our way to the Viper Room. Again a couple of floors down from ground level. Not really a problem when you load in but after

having played 2 shows it’s not that fun to run up those stairs with the equipment ;-) Everything else was really great though, after the soundcheck we went to the hotel to check-in and then back to the venue for dinner. A friend of ours from back home showed up and we had a few beers, enjoyed the show and eventually ended up in back in the hotel, tired as hell but happy, having completed a full days work ;-)

Thursday 5.11. Travel / Legends Lounge, Olching, Germany

This time nobody woke us up yelling, so that’s a plus in my book. We had a quick breakfast before hitting the road towards the next stop on our itinenary. Another day in

the van and in the late afternoon we arrived at the Legends Lounge. Once again nice people and a really good atmosphere. We were in kind of a hurry so we did a quick check and then went to find our hotel for the night, a nice little gasthaus. Just managed to check in and throw our bags in our rooms before heading back and going to the nearby Italian restaurant for dinner. The food was of course superb but if you have the choice, I’d recommend not to eat a full meal just 10min before going on stage…Somehow we did survive anyhow…unfortunately we missed the support band because of this, I just heard the last chord…based on that they seemed alright ;-) Our shows went by really fast and after that it was time to get the gang in the van and back to the

gasthaus. A friend of Tomi’s showed up and tried to convince us to take a cab to munich and party but we had to decline this time.

Friday 6.11. Travel / Hall of Fame, Wetzikon, Switzerland

Birds are singing and the sun is shining, what a good decision to got straight to bed last

night. After a very nice breakfast it was once again….you guessed it…time to spend some hours in the van. We had a ”food” stop at a MCD at some point but other than 

that it was a basic ride. At the Hall of Fame we got treated like rojalty. Great people, good food…a proper backstage. Everything was really excellent, hell, the hotel was probably the best one on this tour. We had an Italian support band today, really interesting music actually and great players as well. As we were saying goodbye in the evening it turns out that they will be playing with us at the last show as well. Anyways,

by now the shows are running very well, Teemu has been having a cold for a few days now and I guess everyone else have been sick at one point or another, except for yours

truly.

Saturday 7.11. Travel Day / Wetzikon, Switzerland - somewhere in Germany

The last of the long driving days. Everything went quite ok until we realized that

our navigation program had thrown us off by about 250km. Well, shit happends and

as we were driving back there was a river with no bridges in our way….finally we managed to cross it by boat and ended up at the hotel for the night a lot later than

planned. Everything worked out and nobody was in a bad mood so no worries,

we like driving around ;-)

Sunday 8.11. Travel / De Bosuil, Weert, Netherlands

Once again Holland didn’t disappoint. After a short 160km drive in the morning we arrived just in time for the load-in and soundcheck. One of the nicest venues on the tour, with professional crew and excellent food. The weird thing was that since it was Sunday we played really early and had dinner after the show. Elise from the SA fanclub picked up a bunch of shirts to sell on their site since we couldn’t fit all the stuff in our luggage for the flight in the morning. The E.Vil set went great but during the first song of

the SV set, Hurtsi broke the snare…so for the rest of the show the sound was a bit comic = shitty…actually it was truly horrible but whatta hell, he did it anyway !! After the show Timo & I drove to Eindhoven to pay for the van before returning to the hotel and

ending the night with some youtube and beers.

Monday 9.11. Travel Home / Amsterdam-Kemi

In the morning we had to leave the hotel at 0500 in order to make it to the airport in time. A tired but happy bunch jumped into the van and drove to a gas station close to Shiphol. At 0800 we went to the airport and left the van to a dude who picked it up. Did the check in, paid for the overweight and off we went. Since we’re on a budget we had a few hours in Oslo on the way to Helsinki. Elias, Tomi & I went to the sports bar where I ordered a hamburger and a cider….for the price of 38e !!! Fuckin’ hell, that was expensive. I guess the burger was ok but really not worth that much money. Be that as it may, in Helsinki our trusty pal Masi (yes the drumtech in SA amongst other things) brought us our Finnish van and the guys headed up north. Hurtsi and I had decided to

fly to Oulu with Norwegian since it was really cheap. Our g/f’s picked us up there and

then a short 1,5 hour drive later we were home in Kemi. Thank you Europe, two more

shows to go on this tour !!

Tuesday 10.11.-Thursday 12.11.

Off-days at home. Oh, the bliss ;-)

Friday 13.11. Travel / Calle, Kokkola, Finland

Drove down to Kokkola with my g/f and straight to the soundcheck. Had dinner at

the hotel, which took forever (for the food to arrive that is) and eventually got about

20min to chill in the room before it was time to hit the stage. I’d already forgotten how

drunk people are in my hometown when they go out on a Friday night. We had a good turnout at the show but I’m not sure all of them knew what was going on ;-) It was however nice to meet some of our old friends that I haven’t seen in a long time and

it got pretty later before we got to bed.

Saturday 14.11. Travel / Bar Bäkkäri, Helsinki, Finland

Went to breakfast, which was excellent and then it was off to the SV rehersal place to

re-load the van and head for Helsinki and the last drive (at least for me) on this tour.

Some 500km later we’re at the Bäkkäri Bar, loading in. Unfortunately our friends from 

Amoral were playing on the same day at On the Rocks so I guess we could have had a better turnout otherwise. However this was by no means a disaster and everything worked out really well. We had a nice dinner at Hotel Helka before the show btw. Afterwards we celebrated the end of the EU tour in a proper manner…to the point

where leaving for the train at 0900 in the morning wasn’t the easiest thing to do but I

did it anyway. Slept until Kokkola where I switched to a bus for a couple of hours before

getting back on the train in Oulu….one hour later I was home.

——

So, how did it all go ? We played 11 shows in 8 countries, technically Pasi and I played 22 shows ;-)  ..at some places we got good turnouts and at some places not so much. It was a shitload of fun, no fights, the promotors payed up and despite some minor hassles that always occur on tour I think we managed pretty well. It was a lot different from my ”day-job” since we only had the addresses of the venues and the fees that we were supposed to get payed…and did everything else ourselves. Nevertheless, we met a whole bunch of great people, devoted fans and yelling hostelkeepers. Drove over 6000km and I only lost one set of headphones + one setlist that someone stole from the stage. Thank you everyone !! See you next time, whenever that is !!!

The rest of the year will be spent doing some studio work, more on that later and in

January the SA stuff resumes so….no holidays here ;-)

cheers,

Henkka

ps.yeah I post some pics when I get around to it…

btw there’s been some questions about the setlists so before you spam the comment field about it here are the setlists as I remember them, feel free to correct if I fucked up.

We changed them around a bit but these are the ”master lists”.

Silent Voices Darkest Night EU Tour 2015 setlist

(Some part from the Rambo soundtrack as intro)

1.End of Days

2.Glassheart

3.Darkest Night

4.Blood of Eden

5.Black Water

6.Cross of Thorns (Black Sabbath)

7.Burning Shine

8.Cross my Path

9.No Turning back

10.On the wings of Rage

——

11.Through my prison walls

we also played The Fear of Emptiness, Separate Ways (Journey), and

Once lost life…maybe something else as well, I can’t remember.

E.VIL Shred the nations EU Tour 2015 setlist

1.Lord of the Strings (intro)

2.Fire-Hearted

3.Evil Rock

4.High-Powered

5.Beyond Twilight

6.Touching The Sky

7.Instrumental Exhibition

8.I go solo

9.The Axemaster

10.Head up High

11.Northern Breeze

12. Surfin with the alien (satriani cover, I didn’t play on this one)