+++ Hello, it’s Robin from The Ocean. This is the final diary entry from out first U.S. tour, in support of our latest album, Precambrian (Metal Blade). We have toured Europe for over a month, and throughout the States for the past few. Above is a photo of the Ocean in San Luis with Joe from Intronaut and his parents. Below is the final installment of our journey. Enjoy!+++
6/12 Tempe, AZ
We left the yard of the empty, sealed house in the morning. The scenery just outside of Farmington, New Mexio, is spectacular: vast, empty plains with steep mesas, a landscape from a science-fiction movie. We pulled over to take some band pictures in front of a surreal looking mountain, when a car approached us in the middle of nowhere. Sensing trouble, we headed back towards the RV. Three big Navajo guys got out of the vehicle and intercepted us on the way… they were super nice and told us that the rock where we had just taken pictures is the rock where they filmed Transformers! How fucking cool is that!
After a long, scenic drive through a hilly landscape covered with large cacti, we arrived in Phoenix around 6pm. Our friends from Intronaut were already waiting for us. We have toured Europe with these guys for a month and became close buddies, so it was a merry reunion. Watching Intronaut play their new songs was nothing short of amazing. These guys are one of the most daring, progressive heavy bands out there right now, incredible musicianship and exceptional songwriting.
Joe is probably the most awesome jazz bass player I have ever seen play in a metal band. Whoever doesn’t know these guys, go check them out NOW! Shortly before they started, some familiar faces approached us. I couldn’t believe my eyes: Frank and Linda had come all the way from El Paso to Tempe, to see us again. “You guys came 10,000 miles to see us, so why wouldn’t we drive a few hundred miles to come see you guys again?”, Frank said with a big smile on his face. After the show we sat on the sidewalk for a long time, drinking whiskey and wine in great profusion, talking about the good ol’ times that only laid 2 days back in the past. The venue was long closed. “It’s strange, alcohol doesn’t have any effect on my body,” Frank said, and when he got up he almost fell over. I love this guy.
6/13 Fresno, CA
We said farewell for good and left Tempe around 3 AM, destination: California. One of the most awful drives was ahead. I took over the first shift, checked the gas: we had almost half a tank left. As the sun rose in the rearview mirror two hours later, I realized that we were in the middle of the desert. The needle of the tank display had gone down to a bit less than a quarter. There was absolutely nothing around except sandy desert.
The sunrise was exceptionally beautiful, a big orange basketball rose behind the mountains, far away in the distance, and the few bushes cast long shadows on the sand. I was awestruck and started taking pictures through the windows of the car… a feeble attempt to capture what is absolutely impossible to capture on a picture: a special moment, an atmosphere, an all-surrounding light, a certain feeling, the tiredness, the tranquility in the RV… I was the only one who was awake. I had this moment completely for myself.
As the needle went down into the red, I started getting really worried. I knew I still had probably a good 20-30 miles left. According to street signs, two towns were ahead, one was nine and the other one 26 miles away. As I passed the first town, the needle was deeply down in the red. There was no gas station. It wasn’t even a town, just a parking lot with heaps of campers and RVs, but no services. 10 miles later, and still almost 10 miles away from the second town, the needle went below the red section on the tank display, and beyond the last little white mark. I was expecting to stop any minute. I was sitting tense behind the wheel, driving slowly, staring into the distance ahead. The minutes passed slowly. My knuckles were white. I was sweating. We made it to the second town, but I couldn’t believe it: there were no services here either. I felt like a lone traveler in the desert who was deceived by a Fata Morgana: the moment of utter disappointment, when you’re dying of thirst and all of a sudden you realize that the oasis you saw in the distance was just a blur, just a trick your mind played on you… hope left me.
I kept rolling, prepared for the engine to stutter and stop any moment. But I kept rolling, for another 5 minutes, another 10 minutes. The needle had not moved in the last 20 minutes, it was beyond the last mark and there was still gas in the tank. 15 minutes past the 2nd town, I felt a strange sensation of triumph. It didn’t matter anymore. We were fucked anyway, there was nothing ahead now for at least 30 miles, maybe more. The engine would go off any minute, but I was joyfully celebrating any minute it kept running, like a triumph over the Gods, like a big middle finger raised sullen against the sky. And then, the miracle happened: a sign read “services ahead, 2 miles”… and immediately the sensation of joy left me and the tension came back… to stop now, only 2 miles before salvation, would be the worst defeat, it would have crushed me. I was clasping the wheel like a life buoy, and after what seemed an eternity I saw the roadside services ahead. I made it. I got out of the van, fell down on the floor, kissed the ground, raised my arms to the sky. I had won. I had defeated the desert. Everyone thought I was crazy and that’s most probably right.
Fresno is a nice laid-back California hippie town. I went to a music store to buy guitar strings and the first thing the shop owner offered me was a blunt. It’s legal here, people can apply for a weed passport. All you have to do is say you have back pains and that you found that weed helps. And then you get a weed passport which allows them to legally purchase and possess marijuana. You can even have it on the passenger seat in the car. A touch of Amsterdam in the United States…
The show tonight was in a country bar and absolutely not worth talking about, so I won’t.
6/14 San Francisco, CA
After the Fresno show we decided to leave towards San Francisco to spend the night at the beach. I passed out right after the gig and woke up the next morning at noon in the sleeping compartment above the driver’s seat… opened the little slide window, stuck my sleepy head out and inhaled the fresh Pacific sea air. A strong wind was blowing from the sea; we were parked on the side of a curvy coastal road somewhere north of SF. Deep down below us, the Pacific Ocean, mighty waves crashing against the steep coast… the drive back to SF along the steep coast was really nice, with incredible views of the Pacific Ocean.
Our RV has finally reached the Pacific Coast:
We spent the day exploring San Francisco, an amazing city which reminded me of an American version of Berlin in many ways.
Seven Sisters:
Nice Victorian Houses:
We went to Amoeba Records to spend our last cash on cheap records; had some delicious Thai food and a nice walk through a park.
Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge:
The show was awesome, a good crowd showed up and Annie’s Social Club was packed. Name played and I missed most of their set but what I saw was pretty awesome. Giant Squid were up next, with their eerie melancholic music that involves both male and female vocals and a cello. I had been really looking forward to seeing them live since I am a big fan of Amber Asylum, and they and Giant Squid share the same cello player. I was not let down.
An Amazing Bill:
We played a good gig to an appreciative crowd and after the show us and Intronaut went over to the Animosity guys’ place to crash. I passed out in the RV after a few hits of Californian homegrown.
6/15 San Marcos, CA
Another tough fuckin day. It took us 11 hours to get to San Marcos from SF. We were pulled over by the cops just before L.A., and with the image of those Farmington bastards still stuck in my head, I urged Jona to flush any illegal substances we had down the toilet. Better be on the safe side. We were taught that we had been pulled over for impeding traffic. We were driving on the left lane and we were too slow. The guy was nice and let us go without a fine. We all mourned the useless dumping of our drugs, now floating all lonesome between our excrement. When we finally got to the place, a few underage kids were moshing it up to the local metalcore heroes. It was hard to motivate ourselves to play tonight. After the show I hung out with Phil from As I Lay Dying and we all ended up going over to the promoter’s house to drink more and crash. I spent the rest of the night talking to the most beautiful girl in Texas. I missed her.
6/16 San Luis Obispo, CA
The Ocean and Intronaut Boys:
Another useless show in a college town on vacation. It was getting too much. We needed to get home. Intronaut sounded incredible tonight though, these guys are the future!! After the gig, Nico chatted up two girls and we took them to Joe’s parents’ place, where we were staying for the night.
Our RV in Joe’s Parents’ Garden:
His parents were living in the mountains between San Luis and L.A. on a beautiful property with lots of fruit trees. There was not enough room for all of us in the house so we had to sleep in the RV again. We blazed up, and Nico went to screw one of the girls in Intronaut’s van, while the other one stayed with us in the RV. Joni offered her his sleeping bag and pillow, and came to lie next to me in the upper compartment, covered with nothing but T-shirts, freezing. ‘I am the holy Christopherus,’ he repeated over and over again in German, like a mantra. I was stoned like a motherfucker and laughed until I got belly cramps. Poor girl downstairs had no idea what this was all about. So here we were, five guys in a comfy bang-bus with a sole girl, and what happens? Everybody just goes to sleep… this tells you we’ve been on tour for too long.
The Chick Who Didn’t Get Laid:
6/17 Los Angeles, CA
I woke up next to holy Christopherus, snoring like a, well, a holy man I guess. Joe’s mom prepared an amazing breakfast for us in the garden, including strawberry short cake, homemade muffins, eggs and everything that makes a hungry rock band happy. We got to L.A. around 4ish.
Luc on Holywood Blvd:
The Knitting Factory is located right on Hollywood Blvd, the famous stars in the sidewalk are right in front of the venue. Around us was a bizarre world of neon billboards, fake tits, fake faces and fake pizza. We had time for a lengthy sound check today and it felt great to be on the safe side again—we had almost no sound check the last couple of nights. I had some pasta with Jen from Metal Blade and by the time we got back there was a crowd of about 250 people in the hall.
Happy Pasta with Jen:
The Knitting Factory L.A.:
Unfortunately, there was no responsible stage manager looking over the times. We were supposed to be on at 11 and were finally on at 1. I was pissed off. What can you expect when you’re the 5th band on a weeknight and you start playing at 1, people will eventually leave half way through the set, of course. The ones who stayed loved it. Tonight was a weird, weird night for all of us.
Luc, Brooding About the Latest Discovery in Quantum Physics:
This was the very last show of our U.S. tour, it felt great, and it felt terrible at the same time. We’ve had some really good times, and some really terrible times as well… it was intense, after all. We will never forget this, it’s gonna stay with us until the day we die. We have learned a lot… never again will we do a headlining tour in the U.S. without a tour manager. Never again will we do a U.S. tour in an RV that eats 300 bucks in gas a day… never again will we pass El Paso without having at least a full week off there. This was our last night and there was supposed to be a big party, but everything just faded away because it was so late. It was a sad night.
6/18 Los Angeles, CA – day off
We spent the whole day packing all our stuff and cleaning the RV. We wanted to meet the Intronaut boys in Venice beach and the sun was setting when we finally got there. Nico, Mike and me took a swim in the huge surf at sunset, it was awesome. A dignified ending to the tour. We had dinner at an amazing Asian place and met Dave from Intronaut. Lair left to drive to Oakland. Dave took us to this posh bar for drinks, and Jona found a bag of white powder on the toilet… when the bar was about to close, we went to a party. I did not enter the house, but layed down on a bench in the garden and talked to the most beautiful girl in Texas instead. Dave and Jona were hitting on the same girl and since Dave was first and also since Dave was the one who got us to the party, we tried to disengage Jona from the chick to take him back to the RV.
In one and a half hours we would have to go to the airport. I didn’t sleep. When we got there I felt dead sick. My eyes and my head were hurting, I was drunk and drugged and fucked up. We unloaded all our stuff and checked in, while Jona was cruising around the airport with the RV because there was no parking for it. The 1st lady from American Airlines was a bitch. She started charging us for every single one of our 10 bags because most of them had about 1-2kg overweight. We decided to repack everything so that in the end we would have three bags with a lot of overweight rather than 10 bags with a little bit of overweight each, which didn’t make sense from a rational point of view but hey, as we noticed before rationality isn’t held very dear in this country.
In the end we paid $200 for the overweight. We paid nothing on the way to America, but that was back in good ol’ Germany. When we were done, me and Luc took the RV to the drop-off station, which was located 16 miles south of the airport although it said “drop off LAX” on our vouchers. Another scam. While circling around the airport, Jona had somehow lost the right rearview mirror of the RV. It was gone and he couldn’t really explain how it happened. We were all too fucked up to even talk properly. We paid $850 dollars for damages to the RV, it was what we expected. Over the course of the month that we had been using it, this vehicle had fallen apart, on the outside and inside. There was a hole in the bathroom door and nobody knew where it came from.
The stove was broken, the luggage compartments were fucked from all the loading in and out, the back of the RV was damaged, the mirror was missing, the table was broken…these houses on wheels are not made for rock bands on tour in the end. When we got back to the airport, Mike had finally got our customs carnet signed, after tremendous hassle. We took our hand luggage and proceeded to the gate. There was a huge queue before the security check and the lady at the end of the queue told us we could only have two hand luggage items each. Two of us had three items. So we started taping items together.
“As long as I can still see it, it’s considered two separate items,” the bitch bitched. So I taped my fucking laptop to my backback and covered the whole thing in my jacket. All you could see now was the jacket. I grinned at her, expecting her to be happy, but noooope. “I’m afraid what you’re doing is illegal,” she bitched. “You will have to go see the supervisor.” What the fuck did that pathetic ignorant daughter-of-a-bitch want us to do? Check in one single fucking laptop as an additional check-in item? Come the fuck on! So we had to go back downstairs to look for the supervisor.
“What’s the problem?” she said. “I have not the slightest idea,” I replied. “Your colleague has a problem with the way we packed our stuff.” The supervisor was cool with it. Another colleague had to follow us up the stairs to confirm this to the bitch. She didn’t comment her defeat, neither did she say anything when I looked her in the eye and wished her a soon and sudden death of cancer. We were completely covered in sweat after all this, our hand luggage was heavy, after we had to repack everything due to the overweight issue, and after last night’s excesses we were in the worst physical state you could possibly be in. Finally, we were admitted to leave the country, with our belongings. This was probably the most difficult part of the whole tour. And as I got a last glance of L.A. through the windows of the plane, I was relieved, but still angry. I was thinking of everything that happened this morning, and what happened in Farmington the other night, and I had a Today is the Day song stuck in my head:
Shoot every fuckin’ pig
Aim right at its head
They out number you
But kill as many…
+++ Hello, it’s Robin from The Ocean. This diary starts in the middle of our world tour in support of our latest album, Precambrian (Metal Blade). We have already been on tour in Europe for over a month now, but I only recently started bothering to write down some of our adventures as The Ocean tours the States for the very first time. Here’s our third installment… +++
6/6 Austin, TX
There were 2 shows happening at the same time tonight: an English punk band played in the yard, while we played in the club. I spent the better part of the evening at the bar, talking to the most beautiful girl in Texas and progressively getting drunk along the way. This band The Dead Sea played and they fucking ruled.
For some reason there were aggressive vibes though throughout the entire evening. Almost everyone working at that place was an arrogant cunt. In the end they hard-cut our outro and started pushing everyone out of the venue before we even got off stage. “I thought you were finished, you said ‘thank you’”, the sound guy said.
“There was still music coming from the stage. You don’t turn off the PA as long as there is still music coming from the stage”, I responded. “You shouldn’t complain, you’re getting paid” he scoffed back. Bullshit.
I don’t care about getting paid, I wanna finish my fucking show. I ended up getting lost on the highway with the most beautiful girl of Texas and her boyfriend.
6/7 Denton, TX
When we woke up, we realized that our moneybag with the merch money from last night plus change was gone. We searched the entire RV and didn’t find it: it must have fallen out of someone’s pocket, or someone must have snuck into the RV while we were loading out. $1,000 bucks down the drain. This is the last thing we can afford; this tour is too fucking expensive anyway due to the ridiculous amount of gas this RV swallows. A sour feeling took hold of me and stayed with me throughout the whole day.
A lot of people told us before: Austin rocks and everything else in Texas pretty much sucks balls. We would find out that there is some truth in that. Denton certainly sucked, although the promoter was really nice. This was The Destro’s home turf so we were expecting a good crowd, but in the end no more than 40 kids showed up. It was stinking hot here and we played a limp show. We’re getting to the point where it’s just getting too much.
This tour started mid march, we’ve been out for almost 3 months now with only a few days off, and we have another month ahead of us. And we still have neither started hating each other, nor have we been struck by the fate that killed Refused: the awareness that it is all futile – taking great pains to do what you do, traveling around the globe in a van, being broke as fuck, not seeing your girlfriend or family for months, being sleep deprived, sick and eating crap food; and everything just for the sake of playing to a bunch of kids who don’t care every night.
I have asked myself many times the question that any musician on tour shouldn’t be thinking about too much: Why are we doing this?. And yet I have always found a satisfying answer to this question, an answer that made sense to me: because it is what I love doing, because it is better than working a fucking 9-5 office job, because I get to travel around the world and meet new people every night, because music is the first thing I wanna do when I get up in the morning and the last thing I wanna do when I go to bed at night – because it is fucking intense, because it makes you feel alive. Because I will remember these days when I’m old and I will feel that I have lived life to the fullest.
Tonight, however, it was hard to motivate myself, and I really suffered through the show. This is a new feeling for me. I used to believe that no matter how tired or fucked up I was, whenever I would get up on stage to play, this switch would go on automatically and I would be on fire. Playing live is magic, for the fact that it enables you to draw upon energy that is not even yours, it feels like you’re sucking it out of the people who are watching you, and it feels like your powers are rising from the beginning to the end of the show, so that in the end, even though you are sweaty and tired as fuck, you are at a higher energy level than before.
Tonight, the switch didn’t go on. It was a terrible feeling. It felt like everything was fake; it felt wrong. Most people must not have realized something was wrong, since we got the usual ‘great show’ comments from the handful of fans that was in front of the stage. But for me, it felt wrong. I was depressed tonight, trying to cheer myself up by talking for hours to the most beautiful girl in Texas on the phone.
6/8 San Antonio, TX
So we ended up staying at this girl’s house. She was still living with her parents, they were bikers and they were cool. Her mom said she knew Dimebag back in the day and so we all decided to pay his grave a visit in the morning. It felt eerie getting to the place, but Dimebag would have most probably liked the idea of fans and visitors at his grave, paying tribute to him, the greatest of the great, and his immortal legacy.
Dimebag’s gravestone:
Dimebag’s grave is located in the VIP section of the cemetery, so to speak… all graves here are really fancy and it must cost a fortune to maintain them, or to, err, lease the space here in the VIP area… an awkward idea, to lease land for a dead… but I’m sure the town government pays for that. That girl’s mom told us that his funeral must have been biggest event the small town had ever witnessed; the cemetery was crowded with thousands of people including innumerous big names in rock n’ roll…
We got to San Antonio late, but not too late to chill for an hour before we had to unload. The venue was located in the middle of nowhere really and it was doubtful that this would turn out to be a good show. The Lair guys said that San Antonio has a dying scene… Again, there were 2 shows happening at the same time and today it was us who were supposed to play outside… so we did.
It was probably the more comfortable choice anyway since it was ridiculously hot inside. We had some terrible Mexican food, played a violent set and did not (more…)
+++ Hey guys! It’s Angela from Arch Enemy here. Over the past few weeks I’ve been checking in with updates from our U.S. Tyranny and Bloodshred tour, which started on May 9 in Philadelphia and ended on May 30 at West Hollywood’s House of Blues. With supporting acts Dark Tranquility, Divine Heresy and Firewind, it was a crazy, good time. Below is my final wrap up of that tour! But don’t fear, if you’re lucky I just may post a final final round-up report of our European festival shows. +++
We are all back from the US “Tyranny And Bloodshred’ tour and ripping through the European festival season now! Michael is working double shifts with Arch Enemy and Carcass – speaking of which: Carcass are fucking great and getting a killer response!
The USA / Canada tour was absolutely amazing (most shows sold out) and for the first time I wished it wouldn’t have been over so fast! Firewind, Divine Heresy and Dark Tranquillity were such nice people and put on a kick ass performance every night as well. Fantastic tour package! A big thank you to all of you for the smooth ride, for the passion and for the great music!
Here’s some live shots of Micheal from Edmonton:
Those weeks flew by like nothing – and we know we have been missing out on lots of places all over the country, especially more down south! We will be coming back for another US run when Carcass take a break from dissecting the metal world (and before everybody starts shouting and screaming: I am damn positive Carcass will make it to American shores as well – check www.mypace.com/carcass for tourdates!).
“Taking Back My Soul” live in Edmonton May 24:
Here’s some pix from our bus in Vancouver:
“The Last Enemy” live in Vancouver June 26:
“My Apocalypse” live in Vancouver June 26:
Here are some impressions onstage, off stage and on the road – I love those beautiful mountains around Vancouver and in between Seattle and San Francisco!
+++ Hello, it’s Robin from The Ocean. This diary starts in the middle of our world tour in support of our latest album, Precambrian (Metal Blade). We have already been on tour in Europe for over a month now, but I only recently started bothering to write down some of our adventures as The Ocean tours the States for the very first time. Here’s the second installment… +++
5/30 Charlotte, NC, Tremont Music Hall
After another long drive we arrived at the huge Tremont Music Hall in the late afternoon. We set up our lights and hung out outside, while Mike was getting some free ink by the guys from Liberty Tattoo, who had offered their services prior to the show via MySpace… awesome people! There was a good crowd and the show was fun. We slept in the RV in the backyard of the venue until about 8 AM, when it got too hot.
Mike getting ink in front of our RV in Charlotte:
5/31 Atlanta, GA, Masquerade
Christian emo fans getting corrupted by members of The Ocean:
When we got to the place, there was a bunch of young girls waiting outside in front of the venue. Our faces lit up… had we finally made it? Had we progressed from a filthy rock band that draws filthy buffalo-hip chicks and long-haired metal dudes into…something else…that draws hot teens? Someone eventually told us that there was another show happening upstairs, some bands we had never heard of before were playing in a large room, and that someone described the style of music as “Christian emo.” So we embarked on a mission to try to convert as many of these lost teens to the cult of the Ocean, and won a good handful over, by offering them free guest list spots. These poor Christian emo girls didn’t really seem to understand what was happening to them when Withered unleashed their black metal thunderstorm.
Chris from Withered playing bike guitar:
Tonight was gonna be the last show with these guys who had become brothers in a matter of a few days, and we were all rocking out to their awesome set. Luckily, we were allowed upstairs, so we could eat all that Christian emo food and drink their Christian emo whiskey. The first band sounded like a terribly corrupted version of Mars Volta. But hey, these guys drew some 500 kids; there’s gotta be something to them.
Atlanta street party:
We drank a lot of J.D. and had a cool show. Afterwards we went out with Kylesa, Withered and Lair of the Minotaur to eat and party one last time. It was impossible to sleep in the RV tonight, the moist heat was unbearable. I took my sleeping bag and laid down outside in the parking lot, but even with the sleeping bag it was just too fucking hot. I took off my shirt and used my sleeping bag as a mattress, and still sweat was pouring from my forehead. It didn’t get any better. In the end I found peace sleeping in underwear in the parking lot, worried only that rats would come after my genitals.
Our drummer Luc, who doubles as the Venus de Milo:
6/1 Orlando, FL, Back Booth
We woke up completely beat and left really early to be at the venue at 5PM, as we were told, and when we got there no one was there. On the way we had passed Jacksonville, the city where I had my first real-life encounter with America in 1996. As a 16-year-old, I spent about one year of my life in this city as an exchange student, going to high school and living with an American host family, made up of a dude and his daughter. The dude was a nice but boring character, whose life can be summed up in a few words: work, Burger King, Seinfeld, weed and football on the weekends. His daughter was a much more interesting type: a diehard Christian who had devoted herself to an enlightened life serving God, and trying to baptize all eclipsed existences around her with a passion: her Dad appeared to be the only lost soul she had given up on.
She was engaged in aggressive agitation endeavors, including visitations at random people’s homes several days a week, missionary trips to the Philippines, etc. Me, getting big-time into Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy at that time, and her, completely denying the theory of evolution and conceiving of evidence of the dinosaurs as a coup of mad scientists possessed by the devil, were certainly not the best match. But somehow I felt sympathy for her, and I had the feeling I needed to save her just as much, or maybe even more, than she needed to save me. I sent her a copy of our recent album Precambrian the other day, as a reminder that the earth is (more…)
+++ Hello, it’s Robin from The Ocean. This diary starts in the middle of our world tour in support of our latest album, Precambrian (Metal Blade). We have already been on tour in Europe for over a month now, but I only recently started bothering to write down some of our adventures as The Ocean tours the States for the very first time. Anyway, here we go… +++
5/24 – Boston, MA, Church
We have had about 5 days off before this tour to recover from the fatigue that came with the extended tour of Eastern Europe we had just finished – just enough to get ready for our first US tour ever, and hell yeah we were stoked as we got on the plane at 6 AM that morning, direction Logan international airport, Boston.
Checking in our luggage proved to be much smoother than we expected – we were allowed 10 bags of luggage at 23 kg each, and we had spent a day putting all our guitars and LED lights together in all different kinds of combinations, weighing them and duct-taping everything together… in the end we had 10 bags of 24-25 kg each, and my Diezel amp at 32 kg. I was really worried that my amp might have to stay here, but in the end we didn’t even have to pay any extra fees. We decided to celebrate all this and start drinking immediately, so we made friends with one of the stewardesses, a generous older lady who realized we were a broke rock band that wouldn’t be able to pay for their beer as soon as we got on the plane, thus showing a lot of sympathy for us and getting us free beers all the way until Boston.
Mike’s shoes after two-and-a-half months of touring:
I still don’t understand how we managed to get all this gear AND ourselves into one single taxi, but we did. Jona and I were sitting on the front seat next to the driver and Jona had my foot in his mouth while I had his ass cheeks spread over my right thigh. We went straight into town to buy guitars at Guitar Center…the dollar is so cheap for us. You buy a new guitar, use it for a tour and sell it when you get back to Europe and you get more money for it then you paid for it in the first place.
The next morning we went to pick up the RV that was going to be our home for the next 4 weeks. I couldn’t believe how big this house on wheels really was. There’s a shower inside, a kitchen, a toilet and enough comfy beds for 6 people, fucking great! We would find out about the downside very soon though: this beast drinks gas like we drink Jack Daniel’s. A full tank comes at 180 bucks, and it doesn’t last very long.
The RV:
Inside:
I’m going to skip our 3-day Canadian run here. We had a great time there, even got to see the impressive Niagara Falls! Especially Montreal was awesome, despite us having to cut our set short and despite Opeth playing the same night… Hardly ever before have I been to a city with such a vast abundance of beautiful women out in the streets at night! I made plans to come back here soon.
The Ocean Live in Montreal:
The Ocean in front of the mighty “Niagra Falls”
…Or was it this one?
We got back to Boston and arrived at the venue early but the other bands with the backline didn’t get there until 7 so there was no time for a sound check. The church started filling up after the first 2 local bands played and in the end there was a decent crowd of more than 100 kids. I didn’t check out the other bands tonight because the sound in the venue was so fucking terrible that it was just no fun and we all thought it fucking sucks that we didn’t bring our sound guy over. There were some delays throughout the night and in the end we started so close to the curfew that we had to cut our set short 2 songs. This is what you get for not bringing a tour manager.
After the show we had shots at the bar and then ended up hanging out with Kylesa at the promoter’s band’s rehearsal space. There was more whiskey there and these huge plastic bottles of tequila and in the end I was so shitfaced that I didn’t remember how I got back to the RV. When I woke up the next morning, my head felt as if 2 freight trains had been driving into it from both sides. Not only the alcohol; the RV was parked in some garden, fuck knows how it got there, and the surface there was so uneven that I was literally hanging upside down in the bed compartment above the driver seat… my feet were numb and all the blood had shot into my head, making it red like a tomato. Good that my Mom didn’t see me this morning… (more…)
+++ Hey guys! It’s Angela from Arch Enemy here. Over the next few weeks I’m gonna be checking in with updates from our U.S. Tyranny and Bloodshred tour, which starts on May 9 in Philadelphia and ends on May 30 at West Hollywood’s House of Blues. With supporting acts Dark Tranquility, Divine Heresy and Firewind, it should be a crazy time. So keep checking back each week to get the inside dirt! +++
This week’s update begins on a slightly sour note caused by a very, very long travel day to Montreal due to our tour bus breaking down. Shortly after departure the engine started running on half the power and our max speed was capped at 40mph. So we slowly crawl up and down the mountains to the Canadian boarder, where they manage to take three-and-a-half hours to look at our papers and pale faces. Yep, not too much fun.
We get to Montreal at 4AM, Tuesday the 14. Instead of 8 hours the trip was almost 20 hours – so we are kinda wrecked and basically flee the bus immediately upon arrival. The bus then goes straight to the garage to be fixed. Despite being tired, I am looking forward to the show, the fan meeting, the lovely Miss Alissa White-Gluz (from The Agonist), our fanclub winners and my girl Hadass, a devoted metal soldier flying in from Jerusalem to catch the show! And what a show it is! Pure fucking metal magic, soaked in sweat, screams and moshpits – Montreal, we love you!!!
Hadass:
Michael backstage:
“Ravenous”
“Dead Eyes See No Future”
“Blood On Your Hands”
Firewind tearing up the stage:
We are having a hard time saying good-bye to our friends and fans that night – everybody wants to cherish that day as long as possible! At 6AM we finally make our way to Quebec, le capital du metal!
I don’t know how, but we manage to break the last five years record in attendance figure for a metal show! The L’Imperial is packed with almost a 1000 souls, ready to tear it up!
“Nemesis”
The promoter couldn’t look any happier and saying good-bye after this show takes a while. Thanx for all the love and care we got that day..and to everybody who came out to the show that night – pretty much every metal head in town!
The same goes for Toronto! Great show, extremely dedicated fans, singing along every line!
My friend Rebecca a.k.a. NEKRO – a fashion and fetish designer comes out to the show and brings me a new pair of her self-designed pants – they look killer!
I am very sorry I didn’t hang out with fans after the show – I had a very packed promo day and I can feel the bus-cold has gotten me too now. I am unusually exhausted after the show. I barely made it out of the shower there and back on the bus. I crash into bed immediately.
And on we drove to Detroit with a lovely three hour stint at the border…and this time we were intoxicated and not so innocent looking. But we managed to pull ourselves together, even Michael, who had some ominous space cookie after the show and looked scared shitless all the way through in the interview room. Priceless. I get to take a few early morning pictures from the beautiful scenery we are driving through:
Today it’s Detroit with very low ticket sales. A shame – the city of Rock’n’Roll isn’t doing well – Hip Hop, Rap and R’n’B have taken over this place! We have fun anyway, and the 300+ kids manage to fill up the run down Recher Theater with a huge circle pit! I think it was our last visit to Detroit though, if even such a strong package as we have right now isn’t doing well there. A shame indeed!
The next day at the House Of Blues in Chicago is a great ‘pick-me-up’! The place is packed and the crowd intense, celebrating every single band on this bill! We get to meet our lovely fanclub meet’n’greet winners, Stach who did a great airbrush painting of the Rise Of The Tyrantcover artwork and Bridget, a dedicated Arch Enemy girl with a great AE tattoo!
Jody from Randall (who came to hang with us and check Mike’s & Chris new sound) sums up the show in three words: Pure Metal Magic! Hells Yeah!
St. Paul, Station 4: This place is a dump, but the most popular venue in town – all metal bands are coming through here! We stay on the bus – the backstage room underneath the stage reeks like a pig stall! But a crowded sh*thole is better than an empty arena – and we have a killer show again! Btw, I think its time to introduce our lovely merchandiser Jake, who has been with us since the Ozzfest tour in 2005!
The prospect of four sold out Canadian shows coming up makes the smiles on our faces even bigger and the pain of the border crossing this night slightly more bearable. Oh yes, the Winnipeg border customs kept us there for quite a while again. We actually start to feel at home in fluorescent lit halls, haha! Fuck the system!
+++ Hey guys! It’s Angela from Arch Enemy here. Over the next few weeks I’m gonna be checking in with updates from our U.S. Tyranny and Bloodshred tour, which starts on May 9 in Philadelphia and ends on May 30 at West Hollywood’s House of Blues. With supporting acts Dark Tranquility, Divine Heresy and Firewind, it should be a crazy time. So keep checking back each week to get the inside dirt! +++
Well, it’s finally here: the first update from the Tyranny & Bloodshred tour! We are one week in and it is going well!
So far, all places were nicely packed, some actually sold out! Given the current economical situation in the USA we are more than happy that people still come to see the show!!!
Canada is a different story – ALWAYS full house, no worries attached! Great place to visit if you’re a touring a metal band! If only there weren’t those awful border crossings. But we’re lucky to not have any criminal records/weapons/drugs onboard and even manage to look very innocent and sober at 5am in the morning It also helps having all the paper work in order – but the customs still manage to keep us on our toes for at least three hours every time. We don’t have anything like this in Europe.
Arch Enemy, Dark Tranquility, Divine Heresy and Firewind – a diverse and really good package – the fan response is very positive! Things go smooth and quiet backstage. All bands are grown up and know the secret of a good tour: Respect for each other…and keeping the shower clean for the next person to get in!
It’s a bit of a clusterf**k backstage, small and midsize U.S. venues tend to have little room backstage (and still often no shower – why???) . Especially the first show at the TLA in Philly (9 of May) – That venue scared me! The ceiling is six-and-a-half feet high, which means [bassist] Sharlee [D’Angelo] basically touches it with his hair. Plus there’s only one shower, which you step out of and right into the guys from Firewind, as their ‘dressing room’ is in front of it. No privacy – but a good hug from [Firewind guitarist] Mr. Gus G instead makes up for the claustrophobic atmosphere!
The show is ok, if a bit tame maybe. And all the bands kinda have to warm up as well. The first two shows are always a bit shaky, with new or very old gear, finding that right mindset again and simply working as a team.
Talking gear: Look at these beauties:
And here is a good clip of Dark Tranquility’s ‘ Wonders At Your Feet’
And Divine Heresy, tearing up the stage with new singer Jake:
Towson, 10 of May, Recher Theater is great actually! The venue itself doesn’t look like much, but there is so much space backstage! And a pool table too! We get more people that night then last time when we played in the area on the Black Tyranny tour. I am happy we are able to still tour over here and enjoy the ride! Thanx for having us back and coming out to the shows!!!
Check out “Blood On Your Hands” from that show:
All happy and clean we make our way to New York, Irvine Plaza (11 of May). No shower backstage. Nice. But the venue is packed and we play our best show in New York that day! I also get to meet the good people from MetalKult.com for an interview and we have our first fanclub meet’n’greet, which is a lot of fun actually!
I manage to give away our New York pizza to the fans outside. They looked so hungry. And we just get too fat eating that stuff EVERY night anyway!
Here are some cool pictures from the show:
Here’s “Ravenous” from NYC:
We all get to bed late, despite the next early morning’s IRS office visit we have to face. Yep, we are paying taxes in the U.S.! We are good people! All that and more in the next update! The office visit was quite exciting by the way. A woman fainted in the waiting line. She came out of it quickly, but it caused quite a commotion! And the very friendly lady at the desk helping us with the paperwork had a big fat smile on her face, after I told her that she “fucking rocks.” Haha.. I don’t think they get too many metal bands coming through.
+++Hey guys! It’s Angela from Arch Enemy here. Over the next few weeks I’m gonna be checking in with updates from our U.S. Tyranny and Bloodshred tour. But before that madness begins on May 9 in Philly, I thought I’d give you a little taste of what’s to come. Below is the dirt from our recent shows in Glasgow, Manchester and London. +++
23.04. Birmingham
Together with those Brummy bastards we are kicking off the short but sweet ‘Defenders Of The Faith’ tour with Opeth! Its very nice meeting these guys again! Per and Fredrik are basically part of the Arch Enemy family!
Today is quite a busy day for Michael and Daniel. Terrorizer UK are here to conduct a lengthy interview for both Arch Enemy and Carcass – plus an insane photo shoot in the vein of the movie 28 days Later! I captured Michael and Daniel looking a bit on the…ermmm…infected side. Just check out their bite and strangle marks! Yeeeeees, that reunion is going well. Haha.
The show itself went well – the UK is always great when it comes to live shows! But the set didn’t flow so well, so we decided to cross out the guitar solos and add “Enemy Within” instead for the upcoming show in Glasgow!
24.04. Glasgow
I wake up at an the ungodly hour of 7AM, peeing blood. We decide to get me to hospital in an ambulance, so I get medical attention quicker and get some sleep afterwards. Exciting! The two meds are very funny and keep cracking jokes with a thick Scottish accent.
Turns out I have a bladder infection – I was quite in a bit of pain for over a week. I cant help but tell the crowd about ‘Blood Pee’ – its not as exciting as blood puke, but still a good Dethklok moment there. Btw, I will be in some of these episodes, playing a very insane character ☺ I have already recorded one episode, I will do more when we get to L.A. on the U.S. run!
The Glasgow show is awesome! Raging, set – it works a lot better, but Vultures doesn’t take off live, so we decide to swap it with “I Will Live Again” for the Manchester show!
And here comes Blood Pee:
The setlist has emerged to this version by now:
25.04. Manchester –
Raving mad! Together with Glasgow the highlight of the UK tour. Great crowd, fantastic new venue (purpose built, clean, lots of rooms and showers) and for the first and only time during the UK run – good catering! The set works great tonight and we are getting very excited about London tomorrow. We will have some pyros at the end of the show. We also know 4350 tickets are sold already – the Brixton academy will be packed!
Check out the review and pictures from Manchester HERE.
26.04. London
Opeth – as different as they are musically from us – experience the same crowd reaction. Birmingham good, Glasgow and Manchester super intense. All camps are a little nervous about London.
The Arch Enemies backstage, discussing tonight’s set:
All the media will be there, the venue is huge, but a bit of a dump as well.. The PA system cant match the Manchester Academy system, the sound on stage is pretty indifferent. And the audience is too far away from the stage – that photo pit is taking up a lot of space. It’s a bit of a shame, because we play the show for the fans and not for the photographers – and I like being able to see people in the front row straight into the eyes. All these factors fall short tonight – but we get a huge mass of people instead! And the show is probably the best we have ever played in London. Apparently it sounded massive upfront and the circle pits, hands in the air and chants reassure us, we are doing great tonight. And the pyro plus big bang at the end is pure rock’n’roll magic!
Here’s a couple pix:
And here the Grand Finale on video:
It is Sharlees birthday today, so there will be quite a lot of partying going on later. I have press lined up for Sunday, so I decide to leave rather early. We need to clean out the bus and move into a hotel room. I look forward to the festival season and a less rigid tour schedule – I haven’t really chilled for ages.
Here I am with my buddy Payman in the hotel lobby, where I will be doing my Sunday press. The fucker didn’t let me win though!
Now its Monday, midnight. We are almost home. I am beyond tired and looking forward to my fluffy bed! We will have a few days rest, until next week: When the Tyranny & Bloodshred tour will kick off in the U.S. and I will do another 4 weeks of mad screaming
This tour is going to be fun and will be our last U.S. tour for a while. We will do festivals in Europe in the summer, then Carcass will do some touring. We are thinking about another European round maybe end of this year. SO WHOEVER WANTS TO SEE US IN THE US: DO IT NOW, WE WONT BE BACK BEFORE LATER IN 2009!
This EU and UK tour has been an absolute success, we played to more than 15.000 fans in these 2 weeks and we explored new territory: Russia! I want to say a big, hearty THANK YOU to everybody who came out to the shows! And to all the bands, who came along for the ride: Textures, 3 Inches Of Blood, Devildriver and the great Opeth of course! Our crew did a fantastic job – We will bring the whole lot with us on the US run! Its good to have this ‘family’ with us – it’s a well-oiled machine with a heart of STEEL and a brain made of METAL!
Hope to see some of you out there!
Angela
PS: We have just launched our UNITED ENEMIES fanclub! Check it out HERE and join us!
PURCHASE TICKETS to the TYRANNY & BLOODSHRED TOUR by clicking the links below
+++Hey guys! It’s Angela from Arch Enemy here. Over the next few weeks I’m gonna be checking in with updates from our U.S. Tyranny and Bloodshred tour. But before that madness begins on May 9 in Philly, I thought I’d give you a little taste of what’s to come. Below is the dirt from our Amsterdam, Paris and Antwerp gigs. +++
We are moving into the tour bus today. Apparently its Motorhead’s vehicle. And what a bus! Double-decker, 15 meters long. Very nice and a little posh inside. Just have a look!
This is how my cosy little space looks like:
Check out the Arch Enemy clan in the lounge downstairs HERE and HERE. I am not in the picture, because I am wearing pajamas and glasses. I know, this is not metal
And this – ladies and gentlemen – is Lemmy’s personal ice bucket!
Playing Amsterdam on a Saturday night – wohoo!!! Our Dutch friends know how to have a good time! The show was sold out and with broken hearts we had to watch the ticket office turning all these kids away. But the total cap of the venue, Melkweg, is 1400 and security is simply the most important thing – too many tragic events in overfilled clubs have happened to risk anything.
Textures did a great job opening up for us – we had them out with us in the past. The venue was boiling up and smelled quite interesting: A melange of sweat and cannabis – they must have been smoking my chocolate, haha.
It was easy to launch into a furious, high rising set – 90 minutes of excessive metal! I loved every second that night – to leave the crowd completely exhausted and happy is the best reward you can get!
Check out this shot from side stage:
Unfortunately we couldn’t launch into a proper celebration afterwards – a long drive to Paris called for an early bus departure. But here a few backstage impressions:
Me, my friend Susan (Murder Syndicate/Cliteater), Green&Blacks organic chocolate and a kick ass new Legion Of The Dammed Hoodie – I am happy!
Arriving at noon in Paris – just in time for the load in. It’s the best time of the day to sleep: You hear the crew getting out of their bunks and into working gear: The sound of others working real hard is very soothing to my ears… haha! It’s the feeling everything will be taken care of, its all going to be fine. I love getting up a lot later and walking into a ‘ready-to-rock’ venue. We handpick our crew, so they’re the best: hard working, lovely, funny and all smoking hot
Speaking of smoking hot: It’s my brother Benjamin’s birthday today and I managed to get a hold of him in his new home in the south of Spain. My little niece Lavinia will be joined by a tiny terror brother soon. Benjamin lives a very different life from mine, but it’s just as crazy.
Paris, Bataclan is packed with almost a 1000 souls ready to thrash. They are already going berserk when Textures hit the stage, forming huge circle pits. By the time we go on, the temperature has risen to sauna-level and the air is pure mist. We are basically breathing water instead of oxygen. The French maniacs are frantic. Singing along with the lyrics and the melodies, showing no signs of fatigue. I start feeling light-headed towards the end of the set and seeing little stars. There is no air left in the house! We look freshly showered with clothes on. It’s just the smell that gives the truth away. Its pure fucking sweat and we worked hard for it. And the French crowd beats every other audience so far on this tour! Je t’aime – merci beaucoup!!!
Here is a good clip from “Revolution Begins!”:
And here is a bit from “Nemesis”
Check out this cute letter I received from a very young Arch Enemy girl: Tuukka from Finland!
Exhausted but very happy we crawl into the bus that night to drive up to Belgium Antwerp. We have played Hof Ter Lo a couple of times before. Getting the Belgium crowd going is not that easy. The show will be on Monday evening – a day most people hate with a vengeance, everybody sober and tired from the prospect of a long working week ahead. Not the best circumstances, and the show falls a little short compared to all the others as a result. The audience really makes 50% of the show happen and tonight the atmosphere isn’t magic. It’s a shame because I want them to let go, let loose. By the end of the set they are finally catching fire, but then the show is over. And I make a mental note: No shows on Mondays in Belgium – let it be a day off!
Here is a great clip of “Enemy Within”
And go HERE to check out some photos from that show.
Since we’re off to England next, we need to discuss and decide the set for the UK shows – We are getting clear orders from our lighting engineer Richard.
See Michael working on the setlist right here:
We hurry and get out of the venue to make the ferry to England. We miss it anyway and now we are all hanging out on the bus, jamming silly music. We have to wait to 4.30 AM for the next boat and then it’s a 90 minutes crossing. I haven’t made up my mind yet if I should stay on the dark, locked up bus in the belly of the beast or hang around on deck for the crossing. Both options are equally tempting. The thought of having a day off tomorrow in good ol’ England is a good one though. And the prospect of four upcoming raging mad shows is exhilarating. Manchester is already sold out; Birmingham, Glasgow and London are closing in quickly too. I am getting all excited just thinking about it and must jam some Judas Priest now. Defenders of the Faith – Hells yeah. As our religion is METAL TO THE LAST BONE!
Amen to that!
Yours truly, Angela
PS: I found a cool interview with Michael that he conducted with GetInThePit TV
+++Hey guys! It’s Angela from Arch Enemy here. Over the next few weeks I’m gonna be checking in with updates from our U.S. Tyranny and Bloodshred tour. But before that madness begins on May 9 in Philly, I thought I’d give you a little taste of what’s to come. Below is the wrap up from our April 13-16 gigs, when we played Helsinki, St. Petersburg and Moscow.+++
We arrived in the Finnish capital Saturday evening. Helsinki – in sunshine – is a beautiful and lively city, offering interesting architecture, arts, beautiful parks and lots of bars, cafes and restaurants. Saturday night it was stormy, with heavy rain and darkness prevailing through. People were getting totally hammered, screaming and fighting in the streets. The runner from Tavastia club told me that the Fins start drinking from a very early age, about 12-14 years old. It’s the long and dark winters that drive them into depression and they fight it with excessive amounts of liquor. It is tragic to see very young, pretty girls falling out of a bar at midnight, completely smashed, a cig in their mouth, barely able to walk and cursing like old sailors.
Our show was Sunday evening in front of a visibly weekend-drained audience. Our 90-minute set felt slightly exhausting, as it was hard to get the energy back from the crowd. There were some very excited kids there, but too many tired soldiers in between. It was a bit disappointing as all the shows in Finland had been absolutely mad in the past. Next time we will come in on a Friday night, when everybody is still fresh and able to mosh!
Next morning, we have a brutal wake up call at 6AM. We are moving on to St. Petersburg, Russia. Driving into the city, a towering statue of Lenin and a WWII memorial site greets the arriving visitor. The weather is still gruelling and I feel like shit, so I retreat to bed for the rest of the day with a big bag of dark chocolate–covered marzipan. I am addicted to that stuff right now. We are all offline and resembling a horde of Zombies – I believe we all hit the sack no later than 10pm that night. Just look at [guitarist] Michael [Amott]’s face below, haha.
Waking up refreshed and excited about the St. Petersburg show! The venue ‘Port’ was located right opposite an impressive cathedral.
Our Lighting designer Richard in front of the venue.
We made our way through the crowd (I very much dislike venues with no way out in the back – there is a fire and we are TOAST) and got ready with banana milk meets Vodka with Chris backstage.
They caught me with “forbidden” food that night, but to my defence: There was no cheese on that pizza. It was vegan!
The show was killer! Loud and crazy, bodies flying and fists in the air! Check Darkside.ru’s pictures here and here.
The only “glitch” in the set was when suddenly an old lady appeared onstage and, obviously confused, tried to make her way down to the crowd. Armed with a big shopping bag and a wild stare. I couldn’t help but make a few jokes Thanx to darkside.ru, we got a good shot of it:
Here’s the set list for the St. Petersburg show:
Intro
Blood On Your Hands
Ravenous
Taking Back My Soul
Dead Eyes See No Future
My Apocalypse
Chris Amott Solo
Revolution Begins
Daniel Erlandsson Solo
Burning Angel
Bury Me An Angel
Dead Buried Their Dead
Vultures
Michael Amott Solo
Enemy Within
Nemesis
–Encore–
Snowbound
We Will Rise
Fields Of Desolation (Outro)
After the show we boarded the night train to Moscow. It was a hot and tight ride and none of us slept that much to be honest. But it’s a famous trip so you gotta do it – only once in my case, haha. That’s Michael below:
We decided to add “The Day You Died” to the set list in Moscow. It went down surprisingly well. We kinda thought it’s more of a “Japan” track – so emotional and melancholic. I think it will stay in for the next couple of shows now.
Moscow is basically history on every street corner! You don’t know where to look first, or where to go for sightseeing. As usual, our stay there was way too short, and we didn’t have much time to look around. But at least some of us made it to the Red Square:
The venue DK Gorbunova is big and well equipped. The 1500 people in there filled it up nicely and got a good sweat going! I had a close encounter with security that night. A kid who crawled up onstage was trying to get back into the crowd—it was very tight up front and people were getting pressed into the stage rim. Well, the security obviously felt it was necessary to jump at him and get quite physical, pushing him all over the stage. I got in there and they actually let him go back into the crowd. Its not easy doing the security job, but there is a definite difference between being firm and getting violent. And violence against our fans is NOT something I like to see!
To see some more cool pictures from the show go HERE or HERE.
At the end of the show I did my little “shake hands with the front row” round…and almost got torn to pieces! All my wristbands were gone within seconds and my arm still looks a little mangled:
And here a few backstage impressions:
The paparazzi Angela at work!
Chris is awake at last.
Taking pictures with the promoters.
Catching the Three Musketeers in action!
Our exquisite video director Paul Smith came out to Moscow and filmed the show professionally. We will use it for a little clip and maybe as bonus material on the next DVD, which is already in the works!
The Russian promoters Andre & Igor and their assistant Sasha took great care of us – but it blew their mind that Michael and I are vegetarians. They made fun of it until the last day, when we met at noon in the lobby. Andre looked absolutely destroyed and I had the last laugh – strongly advising him to maybe try some fruit or vegetables at some point. He looked like a ghost and definitely was in desperate need of some vitamins – and not just lard. That’s me and Andre below.
When it was time to say goodbye, we laughed, we cried and then made our way to the infamous airport there, anticipating two shitty flights via Helsinki to Amsterdam. We got to the city of sin and weed in the evening. All about the red lights, sweet waffles and expensive supercharged chocolate in my next update then! I am getting ready to rock these Dutch stoners now!
It also helps having all the paper work in order – but the customs still manage to keep us on our toes for at least three hours every time. We don’t have anything like this in Europe.
