Wacken round 1

We really didn't know what to expect as we yesterday drove the van into the vip area of Wacken open air - the biggest heavy metal festival in the world. The only thing we were pretty sure of was that the audience would experience something they hadn't seen before.

The Wacken 2014 poster with bands like Slayer, Megadeth, Motörhead, Apocalyptica, Children of Bodom and Fork.

The festival is in the middle of nowhere on a field. Last year it had been raining all festival so the place was one big mud pool. This year it is dry which means the air is thick of dust and it sticks to everything. Your ears, mouth, nose, eyes, clothes, microphones, sound desk, shoes, you name it. The festival has around 80 000 visitors and on this pre-festival day the place was already packed. And everybody seemed to be happy to be here.

The arrangements and security around a festival this big are enormous. Everything seemed to be working very smoothly, we got our festival passes and were shown to our backstage.

 The catering was great and neat! Chili con carne with a salad. So heavy metalish.

There was a Jägermeister cask. A little bit more heavy metal.

In our backstage tent there was this sign on the wall: Wacken says no to the wall of death. We agree totally!
There was of course no time for a soundcheck so we did a short line check behind the stage. Or at least we tried to do, while another band was performing. There are no breaks in the line up, band after band goes on and after spending some hours on the festival area you can't remember what silence sounds like. I have a feeling that the decibel of the festival wouldn't be accepted by the Finnish law…

Getting in the mood!
Our gig wasn't until midnight so we had some time to see other bands. Great stuff!

The festival tent at night.

Here we are on stage. Tobias was doing a great light show and Greg had been working for five hours with headphones on to get our sound right! They are the best!! And we had a great time -  sweaty, dusty, loud but good time!

Today we are performing at 17.30 - looking forward!
And tomorrow we are going home.
Deutschland - it has been fantastic once again. See you soon!

Poseidon night

Seems like the whole Europe is having a pretty warm summer and if it would be up to us we would rather travel in this

than in this

on the other hand - while our light guy Tobias is driving, the rest of us can do this

The place we performed at in Schwäbisch Gmünd looked like this

I climbed up this very high tower and took this picture of our tent. If you look really close you can find the rest of the band down there.
We were very pleased with our backstage

on the sign it says ONLY FORK.
Sometimes when we are very lucky our backstage looks like this

Meet Mike and Florian, our German hunks.
The garden around the festival was very beautiful and Jonte was flower struck

There was also a big forest which we took a walk in

Suddenly we had lost the boys but luckily we found new ones almost as good.

The weather was perfect all day but just before the show was about to start some threatening clouds appeared at the horizon.

Look how happy they look. They have no idea whats coming up from behind.

Anyway, the thunderstorm didn't make it our way and the night was great fun! Thank you Schwäbisch Gmünd, you were great!! (a bit too complicated name for a Finn but otherwise only thumbs up for this city!)

Oh and not to forget the fantastic Greek restaurant Poseidon who saved our night. We had been recommended a Maroccon restaurant, went there, waited for 30 min to get a table, waited for another 30 min to get some service (which we never got), tried to order the drinks from the bar which we weren't allowed to do, got up and left. Hungry and pretty pissed. Walked down the street and saw this little restaurant with no customers (never go into a restaurant with no customers) but decide to take the chance anyway. And it was absolutely fantastic!! food, drinks, service, everything. A bunch of happy Finns left the restaurant a couple of hours later.

Today we are getting ready for our first gig at Wacken, one of the biggest heavy metal festivals in the world. It will be very exciting!!
Will we survive is my question?!!

Sometimes

The internet connection is not always running as smoothly as a Finn would like it to do but at this hotel in Freiburg it is perfect!
Yesterday we had a corporate gig and today we have a day off. Our plans are to do Freiburg which includes shopping, checking out the local wines (maybe tasting a little bit) and having lunch with our German agent Florian.

The night before we were doing a show in Tuttlingen. It was a festival up on a hill and as the Germans like to think "in the middle of the forest". When the promotor picked us up he looked at the shoes the ladies were wearing and expressed his concern about us moving around in them up there in the wilderness. As a Finn I would say the festival area was more like a park with some trees here and there.

Sometimes tour life is all about waiting.

Tuttlingen was a great experience, the festival was held in a tent, the show was sold out and we had the great honor to perform on the same night as voXXclub and ONAIR, two fantastic a cappella bands from Germany. Hope to meet them somewhere in the near future again.

Cheers Tuttlingen! Here we are with the promotors of the festival.

Sometimes (like after 5 weeks of vacation) you realize you don't remember how a song goes and then you look like this.

And sometimes you need to do something about your looks and the you are very grateful for Linda who of course also knows how to cut hair.

And sometimes you think it is a good idea to jog in the morning. That is before you realize how incredible hot it will be on stage the same evening and how you will sweat like a little pig and really wouldn't have had to do any extra exercise at all.

Baden Baden

I know it's been a while once again since my last update on this blog but what can you do - time flies when you're singing a cappella.
A short update on what's been going on: we had a very busy spring, rehearsing mew material for our upcoming X- show where we will be celebrating our ten year anniversary as a professional band. Or at least as pro as this band can get… (we are having the opening night in November in Helsinki, but more about that later).
Then we went on a nice summer vacation and now we are back. Like the year before and the year before that…

Our first stop this season is Baden Baden in Germany, gigging here tonight and soon on our way to sound check. We were here last February and enjoyed it very much. Now even more at least when it comes to the weather! Aaaah the heat!! We flew here yesterday, met in the morning in Helsinki, had
a couple of hours of hard rehearsals, packed our stuff and took off.

A picture from last spring. Somewhere in Austria at 2 a.m when we couldn't get into our hotel rooms  because we had no keys and we needed to call someone who only spoke German (by the way I had never heard Kasper speak German as fluently as he did that night) and then when we finally got the keys and went to bed we found out there was already someone sleeping there… That is when Jonte put a palm tree on his head.

But now we are here in Baden Baden and so far almost everything has been going smoothly so we are looking forward to the gig and hope to see all you Baden Badeners there!! Now I gotta run for the sound check but before that some more pics:

While Greg and Tobias are packing the van….

these three are practicing some new moves.

La première en France!

France! Paris! Oh, la la. Here we are now, staying smack in the middle of Paris, in two different apartments. Boys in one and girls in the other. Not bad, not bad at all.

Before Paris we did a gig in Vendenheim and on our arrival we were offered lunch.

The French really knows how to cook, at least in Vendenheim. The lunch was so good with a local dish and local wine so it felt almost impossible to start thinking about work again. But luckily we eventually did because Vendenheim was sold out and the locals had high expectations on the Finns and our knowledge in French. Well, we had been practicing a bit so I would say we didn´t make fools out of ourselves. Even Jonte, who has absolutely no background of any kind of french lesson threw some unforgettable lines.

Another challenge was that we had decided to use our golden clothes in Vendenheim, which also involves some hair work for Anna and me. Since we don't have a hair dresser with us, Linda was the one to create something on top of our heads. I think she did pretty good.

Linda was nervous throughout the show that our hair would fall off. It didn´t.

The trip from Vendenheim to Paris took 5 hours and here are some pics of what usually goes on in our tour bus.

Linda counts money. Or actually checks. We stopped using checks in Finland in the 80's so this feels very special. And a bit antique...

Jonte does arrangements. Kasper is knitting. Yes, you heard me.

Anna is reading.
Greg is sleeping, I am writing and Tobias or Hasse (depends which one is on tour with us) is driving. After Vendenheim Tobias went home and we were joined by Hasse, who is now in charge of the lights. Welcome Hasse!

Then we came to Paris.

Oh la la.

The first night we just walked around and enjoyed this lovely city.

The next day we had a gig in Achères ( a suburb to Paris), at 14.00(!!) for 300 french speaking kids.

In the soundcheck we looked like this:

And this

And this

But OMG was it fun to sing for the youngsters. They knew exactly how to behave at a concert, dancing, singing along, screaming and enjoying themselves 100%.

And after the show we were this happy

And once again the stuff was put into the tour bus to go to the next place. We are staying in Paris the whole week but our gigs are in different places around the city. Tomorrow we are in Le Vesinet. 

Today we have a day off. Let's do Paris in one day!

From Hamburg to Berlin

So we did go shopping and Hamburg didn´t let us down. The only problem was that it suddenly became really cold. And please don't think that hey, you're a Finn, you can take it. I can't.

Girls freezing in downtown Hamburg. But also looking good.

It was great to be back gigging at the Fliegende Bauten where we were performing  also last summer.  Only this time the tent wasn't as hot as last time… and I managed to break my shoe just as I was doing my best boogie-woogie moves. No worries, no one got hurt.

Backstage food. Thumbs up.
The audience in Hamburg wasn't as easy-flirted as the previous crowds, maybe big-city-audiences are more picky since they do have happenings to chose between. Michael Bublé was gigging in town the same evening as we were, I wonder how he felt when part of his audience came to our show instead.

Then we were on the road again…

…and Jonte of course needs his toys to keep him satisfied and quiet….

...and then we came to Berlin!

Ahhh...

We were all very excited about our gig here and the place we were performing at, Kesselhaus, was fantastic. It is something special about Berlin, especially if you are in the performing business. You have to do Berlin at least once in your lifetime.

Maybe our next cd cover?  (where Linda will have a solo)

We were performing at an a cappella festival and had the pleasure to share the evening with MuSix, the a cappella band from Berlin.

Watching MuSix soundcheck. 

Then it was our turn and of course we started with a short warm-up in the dressing room.

A beautiful version of You raise me up, performed by Jonte. The singer from MuSix was amazed.

After that we raised the bar with some streching…

…and if you look really close you can see that the arranger of the festival had put a note up in the right corner where it says Tervetuloa. It means welcome in Finnish. Very nice. And indeed we felt very welcomed and we hope to be back in Berlin very soon again.

MuSix and us. It was a fun night.  Let´s hope for a soon return to Berlin.

Today we sat in the car for 10 hours and now we are somewhere in France.  Tomorrow I have to learn French.  Good night.