15.-16.8.2009 Savonlinna, Olavinlinna (with Nightwish)
This is the first blog entry of our band and I’m proud that we got this online finally! Every writing is a personal "diary", so these are not always our band’s opinions. So ROCK ON!!!
15.8.2009
I woke up 4:45 in the freaking morning. And after (almost) well slept night it was fun to start our first overnight trip with our band. Everything went exactly as we planned (except little navigational problems). We arrived to Olavinlinna at 11 o´clock. Nightwish´s roadies were waiting for us and started immediately to move our gear to the castle. They were very nice to us and to all our silly questions.
Nightwish stepped on the stage to do their soundcheck. Then it hit me... We are going play on the same stage with them. Excitement started to grow inside me and I got nervous. When we did the check, it felt it was the best so far on our "career".
I looked the clock. It was 30 minutes to showtime. I started to freak out when I saw there were less than half of the crowd seated. There is nothing harder than winning over seated, half empty (and apparently sober) crowd. I just decided to go there, have a blast and kill my neck. Everyone else thought the same. It works all the time because during the last two songs (Through the Valleys Of Hate and The Flow) crowd started to cheer to us.
After the show we drank few beers and went to sleep to get ready for the second night. The sleeping with Antti and Olli sounded exotic (NOT EROTIC... AT ALL).
16.8.2009
We arrived to Olavinlinna in the noon and felt that we were ready to blow this castle after Nightwish’s last nights awesome show. We didn’t have pyros but we had this freak energy for a whole day. We decided to play the show of our life. Every single one of us were ready for this night.
Everything sounded better than yesterday. From the first note of the show I felt like I had almost physical orgasm. The feeling lasted the whole show. The gig went great. We had fun and I heard afterwards that it showed.
Here was our trip in a nutshell. I still get goosebumbs as I remember the feeling on the stage. The freaking Flow! First taste how things really should be done.
Here is thanks to all and an apology if I forget someone. Thanks to my personal saviour Ari Mustonen to repair my bass in the mid-Friday-night. Nightwish’s road crew, you showed us how things are done when people are pro. You guys ROCK!! Thanks for catering. Those sandwiches saved my day. Big thanks to Tuomas Karhula for making our weekend work. Thanks to Janze and Marko for sound and helping us with the gear. Cheers to our personal road crew, Antti Soila (driving and misc. stuff), Vellu "Valmet" Kuronen (guitar and bass tech) and Hermo Sallinen (drum tech). Finally thanks to everyone who were watching and enjoyed the shows! Give yourself a hug and a kiss on a cheek... if you can.
KEEP ON ROCKING ‘TILL THE DAWN!!!
Aki Jalkanen
