So... the Great Grand Road Trip of Late April 2006.
Four hour car ride to Jyväskylä...
Left about noon, got there around 4pm.
Note to all of you travelers. I know it is customary in road trip situations for one person to drive, and the other person to navigate and hold the map. When your navigator can't pronounce the names of any of the places on the map or the road signs, they really aren't much help. I mean seriously, who names these places? Who came up with Finnish?
I can't pronounce a single vowel correctly. Let alone know what to do when you have letter combinations like yy and ää showing up all over the place. fffuuuccckkk
The club looked like it was in some old factory building, nowhere near anything. Good place for a club, actually.
There's the tour bus. I'd already emailed Carmelo from Novembre about showing up early and doing an interview. But, ah... yeah. I really don't know what anybody from Novembre looks like. I haven't seen clear pictures of guys from Katatonia... EVER. Bugging foreign roadies is just... *gets the weird shivers*
heh.
So me and Sanna stand around outside the club ffor about half an hour trying to decide how to get things done without doing anything. The solution is going to eat. There's a sign that says "Hesburger 100m thataways!" and it is lying. Maybe 300m.
Across a pedestrian bridge, we find out that the train station is RIGHT THERE. Why'd we drive?
For the ROAD TRIP experience, of course!
And as a little taste of home, at the Hesburger inside the train station, I got approached by a homeless person! For money! In Finland! Social democracy at work. He had to ask twice since the first time I had to tell him I only spoke English. Now, In Atlanta, I'd get hassled two or three or many times whenever I walked from my house to ANYWHERE (seriously, going a half mile to the grocery store would find at least two beggars on the way there, and the way back, and it's not like I recognized any of them). It's always been my policy not the give anything, ever (unless they are really creative, like this one time where this guy just kept reading me poetry he had scribbled on sheets of notebook paper... he was providing a service!). I always thought that the Atlanta homeless had some sort of networking system, like a Lankhmar guild or something, where if I gave to one, I'd be considered a mark for the rest of them and my two or three every trip would increase to five or six.
Anyway. This time, we were actually broke. The gas for the trip (Finns would be AMAZED and OVERJOYED to get $4 a gallon) and eating at a fast food place ($8 for the standard bacon cheeseburger combo... Finland has problems. heh) was the last of our fun money til the end of May. Couldn't even afford Novembre stickers.
So after eating, we decided that we were going to stand between the tour bus and the door. Whoever came out of the bus or the club would be accosted by us and asked "Yeah, where's Novembre?"
So eventually somebody did come out of the club, towards the tour bus.
I pounce! "Excuse me! I'm looking for somebody in Novembre, I was supposed to do an interview?"
Of COURSE the guy ends up being Carmelo Orlando, lead guy in Novembre. heh. But he knew my name at that point (I was sportin' the LotFP T!), blah blah. We got invited on the tour bus while he uploaded stuff from his camera to his laptop. First thing he asks us, "How do you pronounce the name of this town?" HAH! The tour bus was NICE, not one of those dumps I've seen on US metal tours. Their DVD collection had Eurotrip! I recommended it! Fuckin awesome movie, the best ever.
Sound checks hadn't started yet, (it's 5pm by this point) and doors don't open til 9.
We are led into the club by Carmelo. So much for the tickets we bought, there was 34 unnecessary expenditure. Of course interviews can't happen in a soundcheck situation. Katatonia was already starting. Took FOREVER. agghhh. Then Novembre, took slightly less than forever. After watching Devin Townsend check for ProgPower 2002 (it took literally five minutes for the whole band, less time than most bands take on their kick drums, and the crew was AMAZED when Devy just said "OK, everybody happy? We're done," and their sound was pretty much the most faithful to the recorded work that happened that weekend), every soundcheck is too long.
Sanna's never been to a soundcheck before!
I made sure she realized the power of being a famous music journalist.
They had Novembre thongs on sale. yeesh.
Turns out the rest of Novembre had no fucking clue who I was, haha. Not that they should, Carmelo's always the guy I've had contact with.
At 8pm, everything was done and ready and we did the interview. The entire band sat in on it. Carmelo was really the main guy talking, Giuseppe chimed in with some comments, and Massimiliano said about two sentences for the 50 or so minute interview. Touring (new member? oops should have asked) bassist, uh, Roberto? (I was told, I forgot) said nothing.
The interview was good, especially the stuff about Century Media, and entertaining when talking about Silvio Berlusconi.
Doors opened at 9pm. There are a lot of fucking goths that show up to see Katatonia. ay ay ay. Creative haircuts are not so attractive.
On stage, Novembre rocked. We made the mistake of being directly up front against the rail, center. With my earplugs in, the guitars completely disappeared. (they were being pumped out the main speakers which were to the sides of us pointing behind us...) Without them, they were pretty weak and buried in the mix. Sanna says she heard them perfectly. Makes me wonder if I have specific range hearing loss, which makes my whole effort doing this pretty... strange. The bass player was fuckin' PHENOMINAL though, and I can't recall a single bassline just from listening to the albums. heh.
Must remember. No matter the band nor the opportunity to do so, NEVER be all fanboyish and be right up front. Learn the lesson you already know and always ignore: STAND BY THE MIXING DESK. Best sound in the house is always there.
Novembre rocked. They had some backing tapes for keyboard parts (no keyboards on stage) and vocal harmonies for Carmelo (nobody else had a mic), but aside from that it was cool. Very few people seemed to know the band when they took the stage. No applause for "and this one's from our new album...", a good roar for "this one's from Novembrine Waltz...", and even a good raucous cheer for "this one's called The Dream of the Old Boats." Wow.
You should have seen the mad rush to the merch table after Novembre finished.
After seeing Manitou in concert in Vaasa, I really appreciated seeing an Italian band and a Swedish band playing Finland. Stage banter in ENGLISH! I wouldn't have known I was in a foreign country if the exit signs looked like they were designed to help nobody find an exit in case of a fire.
How the fuck does this thing mean "this is the way out"?
Katatonia was fuckin awful. Really. I haven't heard the new album so had no opinion of it. LOVE Brave Murder Day through LFDGD. I was actively interested in seeing Katatonia play. Problem. First few songs were newer songs. Boring as all get-out. Nothing to see here. Renkse pretty much just stood there, hair COMPLETELY covering his face like Cousin It (cliche I know, but... really), singing. Nyström was rocking the Morbid Angel T but that was about as interesting as the first few songs got.
So then they did some old stuff. Discouraged Ones is my wife's favorite Katatonia and she was happy when they announced Deadhouse. I was happy because the wash of guitars I always associate with Katatonia (I came in during the Brave Murder Day time period) finally showed up. Renkse sang it like a song he didn't know the words to, but knew key words. "mumble mumble mumble mumble DEAD - HOUSE! mumble mumble mumble" I know that part of the appeal of Katatonia on record is the despondent feel, but the detached feel that comes across as desperate on record comes across as "detached from caring about this music and this performance" on stage.
He tried to make up for it with stage banter between songs. At one point he told us that "he was happy to be here." At another point he thanked us for spending our Friday night with him. We were also a great crowd, we are also loved by the band, etc etc.
Teargas was next. Fucking hell! I really like this song! BUTCHERED IT. Renkse is a horrible, horrible singer.
After that song, I mentioned to Sanna that this was destroying my will to live in a way entirely unintended. She was overjoyed to hear it, so we left, getting out on the road before midnight.
Drive home was dreadful. Four hours of being able to see nothing but the road since the countryside is not lit up. It's fucking dark out there!
Four hour car ride to Jyväskylä...
Left about noon, got there around 4pm.
Note to all of you travelers. I know it is customary in road trip situations for one person to drive, and the other person to navigate and hold the map. When your navigator can't pronounce the names of any of the places on the map or the road signs, they really aren't much help. I mean seriously, who names these places? Who came up with Finnish?
I can't pronounce a single vowel correctly. Let alone know what to do when you have letter combinations like yy and ää showing up all over the place. fffuuuccckkk
The club looked like it was in some old factory building, nowhere near anything. Good place for a club, actually.
There's the tour bus. I'd already emailed Carmelo from Novembre about showing up early and doing an interview. But, ah... yeah. I really don't know what anybody from Novembre looks like. I haven't seen clear pictures of guys from Katatonia... EVER. Bugging foreign roadies is just... *gets the weird shivers*
heh.
So me and Sanna stand around outside the club ffor about half an hour trying to decide how to get things done without doing anything. The solution is going to eat. There's a sign that says "Hesburger 100m thataways!" and it is lying. Maybe 300m.
Across a pedestrian bridge, we find out that the train station is RIGHT THERE. Why'd we drive? For the ROAD TRIP experience, of course!
And as a little taste of home, at the Hesburger inside the train station, I got approached by a homeless person! For money! In Finland! Social democracy at work.
He had to ask twice since the first time I had to tell him I only spoke English. Now, In Atlanta, I'd get hassled two or three or many times whenever I walked from my house to ANYWHERE (seriously, going a half mile to the grocery store would find at least two beggars on the way there, and the way back, and it's not like I recognized any of them). It's always been my policy not the give anything, ever (unless they are really creative, like this one time where this guy just kept reading me poetry he had scribbled on sheets of notebook paper... he was providing a service!). I always thought that the Atlanta homeless had some sort of networking system, like a Lankhmar guild or something, where if I gave to one, I'd be considered a mark for the rest of them and my two or three every trip would increase to five or six.Anyway. This time, we were actually broke. The gas for the trip (Finns would be AMAZED and OVERJOYED to get $4 a gallon) and eating at a fast food place ($8 for the standard bacon cheeseburger combo... Finland has problems. heh) was the last of our fun money til the end of May. Couldn't even afford Novembre stickers.
So after eating, we decided that we were going to stand between the tour bus and the door. Whoever came out of the bus or the club would be accosted by us and asked "Yeah, where's Novembre?"
So eventually somebody did come out of the club, towards the tour bus.
I pounce! "Excuse me! I'm looking for somebody in Novembre, I was supposed to do an interview?"
Of COURSE the guy ends up being Carmelo Orlando, lead guy in Novembre. heh. But he knew my name at that point (I was sportin' the LotFP T!), blah blah. We got invited on the tour bus while he uploaded stuff from his camera to his laptop. First thing he asks us, "How do you pronounce the name of this town?" HAH! The tour bus was NICE, not one of those dumps I've seen on US metal tours. Their DVD collection had Eurotrip! I recommended it! Fuckin awesome movie, the best ever.
Sound checks hadn't started yet, (it's 5pm by this point) and doors don't open til 9.
We are led into the club by Carmelo. So much for the tickets we bought, there was 34 unnecessary expenditure.
Of course interviews can't happen in a soundcheck situation. Katatonia was already starting. Took FOREVER. agghhh. Then Novembre, took slightly less than forever. After watching Devin Townsend check for ProgPower 2002 (it took literally five minutes for the whole band, less time than most bands take on their kick drums, and the crew was AMAZED when Devy just said "OK, everybody happy? We're done," and their sound was pretty much the most faithful to the recorded work that happened that weekend), every soundcheck is too long.Sanna's never been to a soundcheck before!
I made sure she realized the power of being a famous music journalist.
They had Novembre thongs on sale. yeesh.
Turns out the rest of Novembre had no fucking clue who I was, haha. Not that they should, Carmelo's always the guy I've had contact with.
At 8pm, everything was done and ready and we did the interview. The entire band sat in on it. Carmelo was really the main guy talking, Giuseppe chimed in with some comments, and Massimiliano said about two sentences for the 50 or so minute interview. Touring (new member? oops should have asked) bassist, uh, Roberto? (I was told, I forgot) said nothing.
The interview was good, especially the stuff about Century Media, and entertaining when talking about Silvio Berlusconi.
Doors opened at 9pm. There are a lot of fucking goths that show up to see Katatonia. ay ay ay. Creative haircuts are not so attractive.
On stage, Novembre rocked. We made the mistake of being directly up front against the rail, center. With my earplugs in, the guitars completely disappeared. (they were being pumped out the main speakers which were to the sides of us pointing behind us...) Without them, they were pretty weak and buried in the mix. Sanna says she heard them perfectly. Makes me wonder if I have specific range hearing loss, which makes my whole effort doing this pretty... strange.
The bass player was fuckin' PHENOMINAL though, and I can't recall a single bassline just from listening to the albums. heh.Must remember. No matter the band nor the opportunity to do so, NEVER be all fanboyish and be right up front. Learn the lesson you already know and always ignore: STAND BY THE MIXING DESK. Best sound in the house is always there.
Novembre rocked. They had some backing tapes for keyboard parts (no keyboards on stage) and vocal harmonies for Carmelo (nobody else had a mic), but aside from that it was cool. Very few people seemed to know the band when they took the stage. No applause for "and this one's from our new album...", a good roar for "this one's from Novembrine Waltz...", and even a good raucous cheer for "this one's called The Dream of the Old Boats." Wow.
You should have seen the mad rush to the merch table after Novembre finished.
After seeing Manitou in concert in Vaasa, I really appreciated seeing an Italian band and a Swedish band playing Finland. Stage banter in ENGLISH! I wouldn't have known I was in a foreign country if the exit signs looked like they were designed to help nobody find an exit in case of a fire.
How the fuck does this thing mean "this is the way out"?
Katatonia was fuckin awful. Really. I haven't heard the new album so had no opinion of it. LOVE Brave Murder Day through LFDGD. I was actively interested in seeing Katatonia play. Problem. First few songs were newer songs. Boring as all get-out. Nothing to see here. Renkse pretty much just stood there, hair COMPLETELY covering his face like Cousin It (cliche I know, but... really), singing. Nyström was rocking the Morbid Angel T but that was about as interesting as the first few songs got.
So then they did some old stuff. Discouraged Ones is my wife's favorite Katatonia and she was happy when they announced Deadhouse. I was happy because the wash of guitars I always associate with Katatonia (I came in during the Brave Murder Day time period) finally showed up. Renkse sang it like a song he didn't know the words to, but knew key words. "mumble mumble mumble mumble DEAD - HOUSE! mumble mumble mumble" I know that part of the appeal of Katatonia on record is the despondent feel, but the detached feel that comes across as desperate on record comes across as "detached from caring about this music and this performance" on stage.
He tried to make up for it with stage banter between songs. At one point he told us that "he was happy to be here." At another point he thanked us for spending our Friday night with him. We were also a great crowd, we are also loved by the band, etc etc.
Teargas was next. Fucking hell! I really like this song! BUTCHERED IT. Renkse is a horrible, horrible singer.
After that song, I mentioned to Sanna that this was destroying my will to live in a way entirely unintended. She was overjoyed to hear it, so we left, getting out on the road before midnight.
Drive home was dreadful. Four hours of being able to see nothing but the road since the countryside is not lit up. It's fucking dark out there!
