We don’t usually do any shows while working on a new album, but this time around couldn’t pass on an opportunity to play ProgPower and LoudPark; never played these two festivals before and our curiosity level was too high to resist the temptation :-)… and in order to make these events even more special we decided to play one song (Back to Square One) from our yet-to-be-released new album. It seemed to be a little odd to include an “unknown” song in our live set (otherwise completed for a festival audience) but what the hell… we are an odd bunch :-).

So here we go – after five days of rehearsals in Copenhagen we’re on the way to:    

ProgPower USA (September 10 – 13, 2009)

12 hours on a non-smoking plane to Atlanta only to spend another 2 hours straight on trying to get through the tightest (and – for the most part – meaningless) security system we’ve ever faced. After being asked to open my bag for the forth time I suggested the officer in charge to keep it and enjoy the view of its contains in the privacy of her own home… only to discover that my sense of humour had absolutely no value inside these walls. Oh well.


The rest of the day went remarkably smooth: after a short drive to our hotel we’ve been given an opportunity to shower, change and grab a sandwich before driving to a rehearsal room, where we could check out all of our rented equipment for the next day (we only brought our guitars and a couple of keyboards with us).

After three noisy hours we decided to decline (politely but firmly) to attend the official dinner with Mr. Obama to Allan´s considerable regret (he wanted to share his views on some of the airport security issues with the president) and – after visiting friendly surroundings of the nearest Starbucks establishment - went back to our hotel to join other long haired and equally dysfunctional individuals in a bar; at around 2 o’clock in the morning all worlds’ major problems have been effortlessly resolved and we felt tempted to retire to our rooms (some – not all, mind you! -  were taking their new-found female companions with them… probably only to continue their discussion about the impact of the 18th century chamber music on B. Spears latest opus :-). 

Next morning the staff at the hotel’s restaurant were serving breakfast to a bunch of jetlag and hangover’s casualties (discretely studying a vast exhibition of – mostly - old, washed out Purple and Maiden’s t-shirts) while a long row of mini-vans outside the hotel suggested that it was time to go to the venue for a brief soundcheck. Thanks to the technical staff of the event (and our sound engineer Barry, who – once again – escaped the claws of R. Blackmore’s mother-in-law just to get up at 3 o’clock in the morning and fly from Connecticut to Georgia) that part went quickly and painlessly.

The remaining hours were spend on chats with a few old or new friends and colleagues, watching other bands performing and do whatever else we usually do before the show :-). The entire organisation of the festival was really well thought out (no logistical/technical difficulties = no delays), so right on time our intro tape started:

The Mission, Never Give Up, River of Pain, The First Rock, Message to God, Tears of the Sun, Back to Square One, Last Goodbye, Far Away, Martial Arts and Epilogue – all went down well. I won’t go into any more details here (everybody performed great) but would like to say a few words about our “new kid on the block” – Andreas; it was his first gig with the band, so we were a little worried about him… and such a trooper he turned out to be! Just observing his gigantic smile (I’m not kidding you, he looked like an oversized “smiley” the entire show) was convincing enough to assume that the guy was having a tremendous amount of fun :-)

Back to the backstage area: cooling off, changing/refilling and charging back to watch Mark performing two songs with Crimson Glory – good job, mate! – and now it’s party time; not much different from a night before (we are simple people, very easy to entertain :-) )

Day off!... ok, partially day off :-) We did some moderate sightseeing while hanging out with the entire Raitzin family and after dinner headed back to the venue for the previously announced, an hour long signing session. We were a bit surprised by the large amount of people who showed up and the level of interest which we happened to generate, so – after signing everybody’s albums and other artefacts, chatting with fans and having our pictures taken with them for a while - we convinced ourselves that our job here was done and went straight into “VIP-Lounge-of-sorts” to restore our alcohol balance, watch other bands performing and to communicate with whoever was as thirsty as us and happened to be there :-)

Our last day was spend on a rather reckless lunch with a bunch of old/new friends, a bit of shopping (to watch Maria in action was a delightful – yet a little scary – sight… what’s it with women and shopping?! :-) and off we went to Atlanta’s airport, looking SO MUCH forward to another 12 hours plane ride :-)

All in all: a god show and a pleasant experience in general; thanks again to the entire ProgPower USA crew and – of course – to everybody who showed up… we had a lot of fun!

Some “kodak moments”:
Pontus Norgren (our other sound engineer) happened to be at the festival as well and – straight from the airport – went in to offer some help: watching him and Barry working on the mixing desk TOGETHER in the beginning of our set was a little bizarre; watching Pontus falling asleep during the last part of Epilogue was hilarious beyond believe – poor guy :-)

A sight of Michelle – hesitantly - throwing “the horns” on stage kicked me down for a count instantly :-)

First chorus in “Back to Square One” – people in front rows singing along – Marcus turns to me:” How the hell do they know WHAT to sing?!”

A local technician rushes on stage – in the middle of the set – and handles me a note:”CD player died = no intro to River of Pain… improvise! Michael”. No problem mate, just let me find a bunch of angry, chanting Indians with their drums… in the next five seconds :-)

Loud Park, Japan (October 17 – 19, 2009)

After returning home from Atlanta we took a couple of days off in order to “re-group and re-focus”, than went back to the studio: Marcus added some minor guitar parts here and there, a few keyboard lines/sounds have been changed and – most importantly - Mark spend a couple of weeks in Copenhagen recording his vocal parts. The rest of the gang joined us again (except for Maria who, unfortunately, had to sit out that one show) for a few days of rehearsals and than - on that dark and windy October morning (6 o’clock!!!) - we were driving to Kastrup (Copenhagen’s airport) in order to start our 15 hours journey to Tokyo.

With no delays or other obstacles we arrived at Narita airport, got picked up and – after a half-an-hour drive - delivered safely in the lobby of the Green Tower hotel, residing only a 5-7 minutes walk away from the venue – a seriously oversized “exhibition hall”, perfectly suitable for an event like this: large dressing rooms, enough rooms (halls?) for production/numerous catering set-ups, appropriate and nicely equipped stages, lots of extra activities for the fans (signing sessions, record company’s booths, related publications stands, assorted bars/cafés, merch stands, music equipment exhibitions/stores, recreational areas, plenty of bathrooms, smoking lounges, guarded storage places and lots of other things… and everything’s logically placed and clearly marked).

After a couple of hours of “quiet time” (which some of us used wisely and some of us didn’t :-)) we walked to the venue for a production meeting with local crew; just to make sure that all the rental gear was in place and according to our rider as well as to answer staff’s eventual questions regarding sound, lights, monitors, backdrops and so on… yeah, all that boring stuff :-).

A dinner with our record company representatives followed, but – despise the fact that these guys were great, food delicious and local beer excellent – we just had to cut it short in order to see the headliner of the day: the Mighty Judas Priest! And sure as hell they delivered… in spades :-).
By the end of their set the party broke up: all the smart ones went back to the hotel to catch some sleep while the…hmm… less smart ones - Allan and I – stayed for encores… big mistake.

You see: we’re not Priest, but chances are - as thousands and thousands of metalheads are starting to leave the hall – that some of them will notice you… and ask for an autograph… and a picture… and all of the sudden you’ll be stuck there for hours. “No problem!” – two wise men said – “we’ll just find a little, remote bar somewhere in the back and stay there until everybody leaves”. And so we did… except… the bar wasn’t as remote as we thought… actually, it was a “Jack Daniels” booth… and within minutes hundreds of people were passing it on their way out :-).

Well – we’ve definitively got some attention, but as the “JD” crew started serving countless drinks “on the house” – who cares? So we’ve spend a couple of hours signing, posing and chatting; so we’ve had a few drinks too many and yes, Allan was singing “Breaking the Law” a bit too loud, a bit too often and quite a bit out of tune; and yeah, I might have promised some girls to play the entire “Paradox” and “Collision Course” tomorrow… we had fun, right? :-)

Right… until the next morning, but come hell or high water – the show must go on - and by the time of our (fortunately quite lengthy this time!) soundcheck we (Allan and yours truly) were doing alright… years of practice finally paid off :-) Remaining time went with hanging out with other bands, having lunch, doing a photosession and other small things/rituals every band does… before the show.

Stage was hot. No, the stage was boiling. Everybody was drenched in sweat even before the intro tape run out – unreal! Luckily, we were supposed to play a shorter set: The Mission, Never Give Up, Message to God, Tears of the Sun, Back to Square One, River of Pain, Martial Arts and Last Goodbye – otherwise we might have melted :-) The sound on stage was well controlled, we were definitely not saving any energy and the audience seemed to enjoy the show – what else could one ask for? Andreas was on fire, starting to feel so comfortable that he (accidentally, according to him) punched out Marcus’s pedals in the middle of a guitar solo; Mark impressed everybody by taking one of these supersonic notes WHILE running across the stage; Allan managed to play AND to take pictures of the audience and I’d swear that Michelle was singing with two voices simultaneously (yes, and those “horns” have been thrown again… R.J. Dio would have been proud :-).

Back to the dressing room, change and half an hour later we’re on our way to a signing session (damn, I thought Allan and I already did our share yesterday, didn’t we? :-). Obviously not, as we were practicing writing our names on CD´s, pictures, posters, t-shirts, magazines, tickets, body parts and what-else-you for a while… a long, long while :-)

A quick visit to an exquisite catering, a short trip downstairs to watch Slayer “painting the entire world in blood” (Andreas and Allan’s idea!!!) and – finally – back to our hotel… only to find out that the gang (this time motivated by Mark and Marcus!) was “not done yet” :-). Alrighty, back to these dark streets, wandering for a while and landing on a bench in front of some sort of “7-11” store with a bunch of beers… enjoying quietness for a few minutes and – suddenly – realizing that we’ve been completely surrounded by a large group of happy and energetic fans :-). Time flies in a good company, so we made it back to the hotel by 3 o’clock in the morning… and got up at 5.30 for our ride to the airport :-).

Now everybody’s home safe… and people are asking us if it was worth it: rehearsing, flying for 25 – 30 hours, driving, changing hotels etc. only to play for an hour… Hell yeah! Because than we see you happy faces in front of the stage – it’s somehow makes it all worth while… see you soon!