lauantai 13. lokakuuta 2007

First day

The alarm goes off at 7am, I have slept for maybe three hours. It's raining like hell. Fuck it, I'm calling a taxi...

We have agreed to meet at the practice place at 8am, where we'd do the final packing (clothes, fagbags and light stuff to the cargo, CD's and Boss pedals on the plane with us in our backpacks) and take a cab to the airport, where we'd catch a flight to Hamburg. The previous night was spent at the same rehearshal room weighting our stuff, trying to make it all stay withing the 100kg we can take on the plane without extra charges. It quickly becomes obvious there's no way this is possible, it looks like we'll have to pay for at least ten extra kilos. Well, there's nothing we can leave out, so we decide to try the good ol' "smile nicely to the check-in lady and pray for mercy" -method.

At the check-in, we are told we have a tad over 20kg overweight. I do the quick math in my head, and wait for the lady to announce that we owe them 200 euros, but lo and behold! Our cute little tired smiles do the magic, and she lets us off the hook! Thanks Blue 1, we'll name our next album after you!

We enjoy some overpriced coffee to pass the time, and meet up with 2/5 of Norther + two crew dudes, merch-captain Vemmu and Sound engineer Qiffe. Norther's Pete and Heikki seem to be in a good mood about the tour, as are we. This should be fun. The rest of Norther (Kride, Tuomas and Jukkis) are still in Sweden mixing their new album, and are gonna fly straight to Holland tomorrow for the first gig. We'll fly to Hamburg, Germany, where we have the nightliner waiting, go pick up the Drone guys and the backline from the ICS offices and then head to the first venue in Holland.

The bus is absolutely killer, best we've been in so far. There's old Snoop Dogg and P Diddy passes hanging by the driver, so that should tell you how pimp this ride is. If it's good enough for Snoop, it's good enough for us! We meet Miriam the tour manager and David the driver, who both seem like good people. We pick up Drone, who we all get along with instantly, and start to drive towards Holland. It doesn't take long for someone to put on some Mötley Crue, and that's all it takes for the chitchat to start rolling and the beers flowing. The bands bond though mutual love of cockrock, Prince and Pantera, and so the tour starts with a kick-ass first night party...
-Ben

1 kommentti:

Anonyymi kirjoitti...

Whittu mikä bussi! Kyl jätkien kelpaa :D