9.6. Thursday - Travel Day
We flew to Helsinki in the afternoon, just swung by the hotel to get the rooms and then we proceeded towards Kultuuritalo and Steve Vai. We had a quick pizza before the show and managed to get there just in time. Vai was on his Passion & Warfare 25th anniversary tour so we got the chance to experiance the whole album live. The sound however was really crap and loud as hell, other than that the show was great. Afterwards we went to the hotel and the lobby bar for a few before heading to bed.
10.6. Friday - Rockfels Open Air, Loreley, Germany
Have I ever told you I love early mornings ? Got up at around 0400 since our lobby call was at 0430. The Flight went by rather quickly since most of us were sleeping and upon arrival we went straight to the hotel, had some breakfast and took a nap. At around noon we headed towards the festival site. I did some programming for my new Vortex and loaded the sounds into the rental Kronos before the show. As usual the first summer show(s) are always a bit nervous but this one went down rather well. After the show it was time to head towards the hotel and get some sleep.
11.6. Saturday - Vaakuna Piknik, Kouvola, Finland
We had the chance to sleep a bit longer this morning which of course was nice since we had our first acoustic show later this day. After flying to Helsinki we boarded the bus and headed towards Kouvola. Because of scheduling conflicts we didn’t have the chance to practise with our additional member Masi for the acoustic stuff so once again, nervous dudes coming in ;-) The acoustic show went really well though and the audience was really into it. On our way towards the festival we did a live FB thing and we might do more in the future…funny stuff. After the show we left more or less right away in order to make it in time for the train from Tampere at 0115. We did make it in time and woke up the next day in our hometown Kemi.
17.6. Friday - Tuiskula, Nivala, Finland
Drove down to Nivala to play some metal ;-) We all came a bit from different directions since Tommy had been in the studio etc etc . The album is nearly done btw… Anyways in Nivala we had a headliner show, nice to play a full show in the middle of the festival season….usually on festivals we play for an hour or so, which is really short. We rehearsed some “new” older songs that we’ll be playing in Kemi during the soundcheck. Other than that the show went well and we had a good (and hot) time on stage. Afterwards we drove to Ylivieska and went to sleep. This show was really late so we didn’t get to the hotel until 3 or something in the morning….
18.6. Saturday - JääliCityRock, Jääli, Finland
Spent the day in Oulu, dining and chilling at the hotel. During the day there was a really heavy rainstorm in Jääli which ripped up some tents etc but luckily the weather settled down before our show. This was quite the typical weather for finnish festivals, a bit rainy and a bit cold ;-) Nevertheless we did the show and then got our stuff together and headed home. Some of the crew and band stayed in Oulu overnight and drove down
south the next morning. Now we got a few weeks without festivals so that we can finish the album.
cheers,
Henkka
