Solstafir Issues Tour Road Report

Solstafir has issued the following recap of their recent European tour dates:

"So, it’s been a few days already and memories are starting to become vague, some would say because of alcohol abuse in the bus, but I think it’s mostly down to old age.

"We kicked off the tour in Finland with a gig in a small town called Jÿvaskÿla after spending some lost time at our friend’s Sami’s unofficial office, Pub Ikkuna in Helsinki. The Jÿvaskÿla gig went way better than we expected, a good crowd and a great reaction. And the aftershow party was awesome too thanks to the Cavus and Pressure points guys. Big cheers to them! But not everyone survived that night. Late in the night Svavar smashed one of his two basses in a fit of extreme rage because the kebab place decided to close down just as he was about to order his kebab. We’re just thankful that he wasn’t in a pizza place!

"A few days later we met up with the Secrets of the Moon kids in Hamburg. Tagging along were Kai the tour manager, Fri[/jófur the merch guy and Björn the light technician. So off we went to the first gig.

"Rotterdam - Murphy’s law: Everything that can go wrong will go wrong. But it doesn..t say it all has to happen on the same night. As the bus was delayed because of picking up people and equipment all over Europe we arrived too late to the venue, and thus there was no soundcheck. As we were about to enter the stage the electricity went off of half the venue, including the light system and most of the stage. So we had to arrange all the power plugs into fewer sockets than would be legal in the UK because of health and safety rules. But luckily we were in Holland. When Addi took his Gibson flying V out of the case we discovered that the neck was broken. Gringo got so stressed out that he broke the pin on the power adapter for all his effects and the playback that worked in the line check 2 min earlier was missing in the mix. I later discovered that the sound guy forgot to turn up the volume. Considering everything, the gig wasn’t a total disaster. At least we had the smoke machine working in the kitchen lighting that was left in the venue. Afterwards two members of one band (guess who) went into town to check out the local night life, making it back to the time just in time before early morning departure despite having the wrong address of the venue. Two gigs down, two instruments broken.

"London - Playing at The Purple Turtle was a bit strange for me. London being the place where I almost live and having a flashback of being in the backstage room before with drunk Frenchmen. But the gig it self was near perfect for us, brilliant sound, good crowd and good reaction for a UK crowd on a Sunday night. My only complain was the crappy backstage rooms and the almost total lack of alcohol. But after the show the bus stopped at a local off licence store, and everyone stored up on alcohol. Right that night, at day two, it already felt we’d known everyone in the bus for a month, so the morale was very good.

"Day off/Driving/Drinking - I don’t remember this day so well, it was spent in two ships (England – France and Denmark – Sweden) , drinking and sleeping. But the morale was still good and spirits were high.

"We finally made it up to Oslo after more than a whole day in a bus. Oslo was a special gig for us. The legendary Elm Street is by far the smallest venue on the tour, but it was the place where we knew the most of people. We have many good friends living in Oslo, both Icelandic and Norwegian, and one friend even showed up all the way from Sweden. We were greeted by some traditional Icelandic dried fish, Brennivín and rotten shark from our friend Magnús. The rotten shark not being as popular with the rest of the bands and crew as the dried fish. The only person brave enough to eat it with us being Marianne, the bass player of S.o.t.M. although I think black metal superstar Simen Hestnæs did try one bite. In Oslo we also picked up the rest of our traveling companions, our good friends Code, and Rob the sound engineer. Again the gig was very good for us. It seems like the endless rehearsals did pay off."