”Ari! Wake Up! The Eiffel tower!”
Our beloved lead singer - who is easily capable of sleeping for 16 hours straight no matter where he is – had specifically asked us to wake his sleepy ass once we're in Paris so he'd get to see something else than backstages on this tour. So we did. He took a quick look at the famous tower, said ”cool” and went back to sleep...
We played La Loco in 2006 with Dark Funeral, so we knew what to expect. I wasn't gonna let the smallest stage ever bum me out, but instead head out to see the beautiful and sunny Paris with the boys. The area the venue is located on is ”Rock N' Roll”, to say the least: Moulin Rouge next door, and nothing but lingerie shops, strip clubs and guitar stores everywhere. So it was easy to keep ourselves busy. One guitar store had a kickass life-size Slash cardboard standee, which I thought would've looked cool in my hallway. This is how the short bargaining went:
”Excuse me, how much do you want for that Slash standee?”
”Oh, it's not for sale.”
”Well, how about I start piling 50 euro bills on the table and you tell me when we're even?”
”Sorry, it's not for sale.”
I guess it wasn't!
Besides shallow window shopping, we climbed up to the Sacre Coeur church, from which the beautiful landscape of all of Paris opened up. We stayed around for a while to watch some street artists do their thing, got some delicious chocolate & banana crépes and coffee, and started to head back to the club.
Now, this is where the day starts to get ridiculous. First, we get to hear that, because of a fucked up curfew, our showtime has been reduced from the already short 30 minutes to 20 minutes! Twenty friggin' minutes! How the hell are we supposed to put on a decent rock n' roll show in 20 minutes, might I ask? Well, we figure out which five songs to play, and hang around to wait for our soundcheck. Our showtime is 7.15, and at 6.30 we're still waiting for Before the Dawn to finish their check (not their fault though, everything was running late that day). We finish our soundcheck about 10 minutes before our show starts, so we have just enough time to put our stage clothes on, some new eyeliner on top of last night's, and get out there.
Again, a kickass french crowd welcomes us warmly, but technically the gig was a nightmare: none of us could hear anything from the monitors, my amp was way too quiet (apparently because of some electricity problem) and - my personal favourite – my mic stand kept sliding downwards, so I had to shout my parts at about my knee hight by the third song. Oh, and the whole show (plus 15 minutes before and a few hours after) Ari was sure that his laptop has been stolen. Luckily he finds it before we leave town. Spinal Tap, anyone?
-Ben
ohh man, just 20 minutes? what stupid thing =/
VastaaPoistaArii, your face hahahahah I loved it
go go guyss! :D
suudelmat from Brazil.
(nathginza@gmail.com)
Terve, taas!
VastaaPoista"He took a quick look at the famous tower, said "cool", and went back to sleep."
It seems it was reported in a so much exciting way as it was happening.
It remembered me those times people get so asleep waiting for something (or a movie on tv) that the most gorgeous things is just postponed in a simple way.
I think you all did fine. Moulin Rouge and "Vous le vous couchez avec moi ce soir" ? All the nice ambience for guys :)
It's terrible when you can't hear what you are playing or singing. I have a band so, it's really bad. Not that you don't trust you but how can you do something more or try something different or even get along playing if you are worried about how you're going or if people can hear you.
Hyvää Paivää ja mukava show seuraavan kerran.
Hope you can soon sleep in a real bed, to have good internet conection and go on playing, no matter how hard it is. "You are profissionals"
Emelin from Brazil.
I enjoy reading your blog but also love to see how the tour gets by. You guys have taken sooo beautiful pictures.
VastaaPoistaEnjoy those gigs no matter what. Someday you'll get back there and be the main band :D