Hi There,
since I was to lazy to write on a day to day basis on this tour, I’ll have to pick up the pieces and try to remember at least something ;-) I try to be more, on it during the US tour…but let’s see…I guess old age is kicking in…haha…nevertheless, let’s see what I can remember:
We left from home on the 6th of October, despite the afternoon flight from Kemi we didn’t have to stay the night in Helsinki but continued straight to Oslo, Norway, where we got ourselves and our stuff on the bus and headed towards Trondheim and our first show of the tour, actually the first two shows: 7.10. & 8.10. in Trondheim and Borlänge, Sweden were sold out so it was a very nice way to start the tour. As always it’s really exciting to start a new tour with lots of new songs in the setlist but thanks to the tour rehersals the beginning was really kinda smooth. After our next show 9.10. in Huskvarna we headed to Copenhagen, Denmark for our first off-day. It was pretty much the usual, hanging around and going to eat and drink, as well as trying to beat the support band guys at NHL hockey. On this tour we were sharing a but with our friends from Sweden: Twilight Force which was of course a lot of fun. Anyways, after the off-day we played in Copenhage on 11.10. and from there it was 12.10. Hamburg, Germany and 2 shows in Holland: 13.10. Haarlem and 14.10. Tilburg, which was Sold Out no.3 on this tour. So far so good. At some point we dropped a couple of songs from the setlist, let’s see if they make a comeback, as always our setlists seems to have a life of their own to some extent even if we try to keep it static sometimes.
After the Sold Out show in Tilburg, we had to get up in the middle of the night to get out from the bus when we crossed over from Calais, France to Dover, UK. A few hours of sleep on the bus and then it was time to get dropped off at the 02 Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London. I really don’t like the drop and go’s , those are the ones where the bus can’t park close to the venue so it has to go away. That always means that we don’t have a chance to go and take a nap in the bus if we’re tired…and when you have to cut your sleep into pieces like last night (getting off the bus at the ferry)…that sucks. Well, whiny whiny…and on with it. The show in London on 15.10. was allright and then it was time to do the whole ferry-thing again….and once in Paris we had another drop-off ;-) . We have played the Machine du Moulin Rouge before but I think it was called La Locomotive at that time, the crowd was really loud and we sold the place out so it was a great night. For the off-day on the 17.10. the bus picked up the rest of the guys and headed for Strasbourg. I stayed behind in Paris with my gf but that’s a whole other story. On the Strasbourg showday I took the TGV from Paris and arrived there a bit before soundcheck.The show on the 18.10. there and the next day in Pratteln went on without any troubles. In Alcatraz, Milano on the 20.10. we had a signing session at a record store during the day, the crowd was as always, loud and after midnight I could start to celebrate by birthday a little bit. In Mannheim on the 21.10. we continued the celebration after our show. Our TM Merle had arranged to get a cake and the guys got me a nice little gift that you’ve probably seen on instagram already. We didn’t really go that crazy since we had the last show of this tour coming up in Zeche, Bocum the next day. As I remembered the food was excellent there and of course it was nice to end the tour with another Sold out show. We pranked each other a bit with Twilight Force since it was the last show of the tour, if you find some pics you’ll get it, i’m not gonna try to explain it in words…I simply just can’t…
On the 23.10. we were dropped off at the airport in Dusseldorf, Germany to fly home. This was a nice little run to start The 9th Hour World Tour which I have a feeling, will be a long one. Now next up is some time back home before we head out again in little over a week. Keep your thumbs up that we get our equipment back in time and our visas to the US delivered without a hitch. I’ll post some pics when I get around to it….as usual.
Thank you all for a great bunch of shows !! It was fun, we’ll do it again in the spring of 2017 !!
cheers,
Henkka
