Solstafir Issues New Tour Blog

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

"Nürnberg – Hirsch – Monday 05. October We arrived in Nürnberg with a massive Pálinka hangover, imported straight from Budapest. I was too wasted to help out with the load in and just tried to sleep the hangover away. The gig was not one of our best, but again the audience seemed to like it.

"Setlist:
Intro (Náttfari)
78 Days in the Desert
Köld
Nature Strutter
Pale Rider
Ritual of Fire

"Pratteln – Z7 – Tuesday 06. October: The Z7 club in Pratteln is without doubt the biggest venue of this tour (except for Turbinehalle in Oberhousen – but that was a festival). With the biggest indoor stage and PA system I had ever seen, I knew we would at least have a good time playing, even if the hall would be empty. Sure thing the hall was not really packed, but ca 200 people paid in, which is good enough considering it was a Tuesday night and Pentagram and Trouble played there the night before, and Cannibal Corpse two night before that. And with a schedule like that almost every night, Z7 is almost over saturated with good concerts.

"Again we had a good gig with good response from the crowd, although the place wasn’t exactly over crowded. And again it was nice meeting some old friends, Antonio the Swiss Mexican we met at Party San and the singer of Swiss blackmetal band Darkmoon, who got the honorary nick name John Paul (Sigmarsson) at the Nebelmond Festival 3 years ago.

"John the drummer of Code deserves a big respect for playing a whole set despite the fact that in the morning it looked like he could not play at all as his hand was so swollen (due too much spare time in his bunk in the bus I guess). And also Jörg of S.o.t.M. for learning a handful of Code songs in a couple of hours in case John could not play. I also have to mention the stage hands and on stage monitor guys, those guys are not just really professional but also really nice guys who provided a good atmosphere and great sound on stage. All in all a really good night for all the bands with awesome sound and awesome light show (thank you Rob and Björn!).

"Setlist:
Intro (Náttfari)
78 Days in the Desert
Köld
Love is the Devil (And I am in Love)
Pale Rider
Ritual of Fire
Encore: Nature Strutter

"Salzburg – Rockhouse-Bar – Wednesday 07. October: I can feel the tour is starting to wear us down. The Salzburg gig was one of our worst gigs, I totally fucked up Köld and the playback allows no space for fuckups. Addi did a couple of noticeable mistakes as well. The sound was horrible (due to the lack of any real PA system and monitors and the strange oval tube shape of the room. All in all a pretty lousy gig for us. But we did have some fun after the gig and got totally wasted with the other bands and crew and our friends Bianka and Cindi who came all the way from Hungary to see us again. After the gig everyone hit the town and things began to get a bit hazy from there on. I’m pretty sure someone gave me a bicycle, or maybe I just borrowed it. However I acquired it I rode it all through town, and only crashed twice.

"Setlist:
Intro (Náttfari)
Köld
She Destroys Again
Love is the Devil (And I am in Love)
Pale Rider
Ritual of Fire

"München – Backstage – Thursday 08. October: The Backstage club in München is a pretty cool place with a small club, a medium sized venue and a big venue. We played in the medium sized one and the attendance was pretty good. Again I was making some mistakes, but this time just minor ones. The crowd seemed fairly content though, and I noticed a few people screaming along to the lyrics, and others closing their eyes and getting into a trans like state of mind during Ritual of Fire. Bianka and Cindi came down to München with us as well, but when the bus left at 2am they had to get the night bus to the train station, stay there the whole night and take a 9 hours long train ride back to Hungary. I didn’t envy them as I said goodbye and went straight to bed.

"Setlist:
Intro (Náttfari)
78 Days in the Desert
I Myself the Visionary Head
Köld
Pale Rider
Ritual of Fire

"Bitterfeld – Festung – Friday 09. October: It’s cool being in Bitterfeld again and meeting Roter and his United Metal Maniacs crew. We played at their Festung Open Air festival a year and a half ago.

"But I’ve had a pretty shitty night. I had noticed a slight pain in my right wrist last night but didn’t pay it any attention. Now I can hardly move it and the pain keeps waking me up. But that’s not the only thing. I can’t sleep on my left side, I have this huge bruise on my left thigh after that night in Budapest, my back has been hurting for some days (no Addi, it was before I fell off of that table in Salzburg and crashed that bicycle into a tree, twice), and I’m swollen under my right foot. The thing is that my right foot is 1.5cm longer than the left one, which I’m told is quite much, and I should wear something in my shoes, but I don’t, and holding all the equipment two times a day plus drumming is starting to take it’s toll.

"But despite all odds the Bitterfeld gig proved to be one of our best shows of the tour. The club was almost full and the crowd really seemed to like us. I guess we have never had this much sing-along before, and after we played I missed most of Code’s show because I was busy giving autographs and talking to people. And yet again we had some good friends over. Johanna (Phil’s S.o.t.M. girlfriend joined us again, along with Nina the girlfriend of Jörg S.o.t.M drummer and her friend. Our friends Olaf, Nadine and Wiebke were there too, but most surprisingly so was the girl I had fallen in love with at Party San Open Air, Francisca, with her boyfriend Kalle (fucking lucky bastard!). She was wearing a home made Sólstafir T shirt and all. After the gig I ended up talking to them all night and long into the morning about Germany and philosophical matters until it was time for them to go and check out of the hotel room that they had not even used.

"Setlist:
Into (Náttfari)
78 Days in the Desert
Köld
Nature Strutter
Til Valhallar
Pale Rider
Ritual of Fire

"Altenburg – Alte Brauerei – Saturday 10. October: It was a strange site as I woke up and looked out the window of the bus. All I could see was mountains of beer crates. How big is this venue if they need all this beer? As I walked out of the bus I saw we were in a beer brewery. There were mountains of beer crates everywhere in the yard. The venue was in the basement, at first sight it didn’t look good, a big mostly empty concrete hall. There was some band sound checking, the sound was horrible. At this point it sure looked like it was gonna be a crappy gig. There were 3 other bands playing as well, this was some kind of mini festival. The crowd wasn’t promising at all as the first two bands played, but to my amazement the room slowly started to fill up as Code took the stage. And the sound was pretty ok too, maybe this wouldn’t turn out to be such a disaster as I thought. We were up next and by this time there was already a considerable amount of people in the hall.

"Despite having some problems with the drum kit I was really getting into the performance. This was rock’n’roll like I know and love it. Louder than hell on a small stage. After the gig I felt void of all energy, like I had been running on spare energy I did not really have. But I managed to get some rest while Purgatory played, and afterwards it was time to finally bang my head properly to the awesome power of Secrets of the Moon. I have really been getting into their songs on the tour, and I wouldn’t mind seeing them live every night for another month, same goes for Code. Again it amazed me how many friends we have on mainland Europe. Our friend Nadia came from Leipzig to see us, but unfortunately missed our show. Next time in Leipzig hopefully! So against all odds the night turned out great, and again great respect to the stage guys for their help and good attitude.

"Setlist:
Into (Náttfari)
78 Days in the Desert
Köld
Nature Strutter
Pale Rider
Ritual of Fire

"Würzburg – Posthalle – Sunday 11. October: So we had made it to the last date of the S.o.t.M/Code/Sólstafir tour. It was a rainy day in Würzburg, which kinda fitted the mood I think everyone was in. I know some people already wanted to go home by this point (not me though – and S.o.t.M. had a month left in America), but I think everyone was kinda sad that the group was braking up. But we still had one gig to do, so no time for crying.

"We had talked much about playing pranks on each others bands on stage at the last show, but somehow no one seemed to be in the spirit to do so. S.o.t.M. played first and put on one helluva show like always. I tried getting the Code guys to come with me and play some pranks on them, but they were not feeling up to it (some of them having massive hamgovers). In stead I jumped on stage and did some backing vocals in the awesome 'Seraphim is Dead'. Next up was Code and again it seemed no one was up for good gags, except Jörg who played a little joke on John. Me and Phil were going to storm the stage and do some backing vocals in 'Possession is the Medicine', but unfortunately Code played a rather short set and skipped that awesome song.

"So it befell to us to close the tour. The set started out pretty normally, not much happening, just an occasional poke in the back from various S.o.t.M. and Code members behind the drumraiser. But as we proceeded into 'Ritual of Fire' it soon changed into a Ritual of Chaos. Jörg helped me out with the intro of the song, adding some cool floor tom beats and cymbals. And as the song progressed so did Andy of Code. So all in all there were six hands playing the drums in the intro, which sounded massive. Rob the sound man had told me of some drummer who played in his underwear, so for Rob I had to stand up in the middle of the song (only bass drum and ride in that part) and take my kilt off, without loosing the beat. But as Jörg saw that he began to take my t-shirt off, and again, without me loosing the beat haha. But it wasn’t until the latter half of the song that the mayhem really begun. Phil and Mat were both on stage singing with Addi, Yusaf of Code was there headbanging along with Svavar, Jörg was holding Svavars cable in his bass (don’t know if it was broken or Jörg just teasing Svavar) and Andy was still playing the drums with me. Then all of my cymbals started to disappear, and so did the rack toms, leaving me in the end with only one cymbal, bassdrum and a snare. By this time the chaos was so… ummm… chaotic that I have no idea how we managed to keep on playing. And just as I hit the final cymbal crash before Svavar takes over with only the bass line I saw Yusaf flying through the air, over what was left of the drums (I had already kicked away the second bass drum and the snare), crashing straight into me and sending both of us flying off of the drum raiser and ending on the floor several meters away. There we lay while Jörg and Andy finished the song for me. I think the mayhemic chaos lifted everyone’s spirits, but it was still a weird and kinda sad moment as we got into our taxi and said goodbye to everyone. Sleeping in a hotel room that didn’t move felt strange. Andy, Andy Newstead, Björn, Chris, Fridtjof, Johanna, John, Jörg, Kai, Mat, Marianne, Mickie, Phil, Rob, we salute you!

"Setlist:
Into (Náttfari)
78 Days in the Desert
Köld
Nature Strutter
Pale Rider
Ritual of Chaos
Encore: Love is the Devil (And I am in Love)

"Travel Day – Monday 12. October: We had to catch a train from Würzburg down to Fribourg. We had said to ourselves that we would never travel with all the gear in a train again, it’s too much hustle. But we made an exception for this instance for we thought it would only be one train directly from Würzburg to Fribourg. Boy were we wrong! We had to change the trains 3 times, different trains different tracks, and only minutes to spare! The lady at the ticket office told us this was the last train going that day, the outlook was bleak, the chance of us missing one train was massive! As we changed trains for the last time we were pretty relieved, but the staff in the train and the station were not pleased. We literally threw our gear from one train out on the platform and into the next train on the opposite track that ready to depart. The whole procedure took less that a minute, yet the staff was yelling at us for holding the train. Once in the train the ticket lady told us never to do that again. Do what again I asked. 'Change trains like that'. I explained to her it was not our fault, we just bought a ticket from Würzburg to Fribourg and this is what your stupid fucking company gave us! 'You could have taken the next train' she said. 'What! The next train? We were told this was the last one!' 'No no' she said, 'There’s another one coming in hald an hour'. Well how the fuck should we know how the trainsystem works in Swiss, we come from a land that doesn’t have one single train, no underground, not even a tram! When we finally arrived in Fribourg we noticed we had only lost one bag, our cymbals. Not bad for having to change trains 3 times with shit loads of gear and only minutes to spare (or so we thought).

"Düdingen – Bad Bonn – Tuesday 13. October: Where the Hell is Bad Bonn? Bad Bonn is for some reason a legendary club in Swiss. Many of the worlds biggest rock/indie/metal groups located left of the mainstream play there regularly. It’s a really small club, located a few minutes outside the small town Düdingen. Our driver Joe, a man around the age of 60 or so, who drives the biggest small car in the world, a car that runs on vegetable oil, had taken us there the previous night. It was dark and the stars were shining clearly. All that was to be heard was the ringing of cowbells securely fastened to cows invisible in the dark in a near by field. No wonder their slogan is 'Where the Hell is Bad Bonn?'! By mid day or so the chaps from our supporting band Requiem started to show up. Really nice lads they are, but even as soon as setting up the gear I felt something was missing. Even during the dinner I felt strange. It was like coming out of a long and good relationship and now be having dinner with a new person. Yeh we were really missing the S.o.t.M. and Code kids and the rest of the crew. During the sound check we saw we would really have to give our best. Requiem is probably the tightest death metal band I have ever seen on stage. They would kick our collective arses! And they certainly pulled off a great gig, but somehow we managed to convince the crowd as well. They even wanted an encore.

"Setlist:
78 Days in the Desert
Köld
Nature Strutter
Pale Rider
Ritual of Fire
Encore: Love is the Devil (And I am in Love)

"Travel day – Wednesday 14. October: Joe picked us up at our hotel and drove us to Zurich, which was awfully nice of him, since the original plan was for him only to take us to the train station in Fribourg. The rest of the day was a pretty uneventful typical airport/airoplainday, except for some personal adventure of mine that evening in Helsinki, which is not suitable for this report.

"Helsinki – Nosturi - Thursday 15. October: The gig at Nosturi proved to be somewhat of a disaster. Everything seemed fine in the sound check, but during second song I noticed something was horribly wrong with my bassdrum pedal. The head of the pedal that we had rented was actually about an inch or so away from the head of the drum when the footboard was all the way down. The gap was big enough for me to easily run my finger in between without touching either the skin or the head. This caused the kick to have a ridiculous backlash, which I could handle in the slower songs, but it totally set off the balance between my foot and the pedal during faster songs, making it impossible to keep the beat. So I had two choices, take the pedal apart and try to adjust it, which would take some amount of time that I did not have, or try to manage. I took the latter choice, although I was pretty sure it would fuck up the Struter and the Rider as well as it had already fucked up Köld. But I had no choice.

"After the gig I just wanted to disappear, I felt like I had played like I had played like a retarded monkey, and no matter if I told people why, the damage was done. Yet unbelievably this day proved to be the start of something great for me personally! ;) Also the turnout was pretty good, and most of the crowd seemed to like the show, so let’s hope it wasn’t as horrible as I perceived it. Mat of Code came to hang around in the backstage room and drink our beer, so at least something felt right, also present were our Bjarki, Antero and numerous other friends. Helsinki almost feels like home.

"Setlist:
78 Days in the Desert
Köld
Nature Strutter
Love is the Devil (And I am in Love)
Pale Rider
Ritual of Fire
Encore: She Destroys Again

"Turku – S-Osis – Friday 16. October: We drove up to Turku for the last gig of the tour with our friend Toni in a 1970’s Mercedes bus/van that was still going after being driven more than 990.000km! I had a bad feeling for the gig, the stage was the smallest we’ve played so far and the night before had kinda sucked all the energy out of me. I kept my hoodie on partly to warm up quicker and partly because I still wanted to disappear. As we were about to start our first song I looked to the side of the stage and saw that Essi our merch girl from the night before had shown up, which made me even more nervous. But I guess I was able to use that nervous energy in a positive way because we had one hell of a killer show, totally slaying the audience. It was such a nice feeling being able to finish the tour in such a way. Afterwards we went to a local bar with Toni, Essi, our friend Emilia, her boyfriend and a few others. It was a perfect ending of a perfect night the last gig of the tour!

"Setlist:
78 Days in the Desert
Nature Strutter
Köld
Love is the Devil (And I am in Love)
Pale Rider
Ritual of Fire

"Travel day/ Surprise acoustic gig in a local bar in Espoo – Saturday 17. October: While some members of the band woke up still drunk and going straight back to the bar I woke up feeling pretty good. We had to drive back to Helsinki (or Espoo actually – a neighbouring town of Helsinki). Tagging along were Essi our merch girl, Sami from Spinefarm who had come to see us the night before but then mysteriously disappeared and his two lady friends. The ride back to Helsinki was one of the strangest car rides I have ever taken and is in most parts not fit to be described in details on the internet. In the car Sami had the idea that we should do an acoustic gig at his local pub in Espoo, which we of course agreed to. After the epic acoustic performance each one went in their own direction, some heading down to Helsinki to see Ajattara in Nosturi and drinking ‘till dawn, some going off to sleep and others just minding their own personal business. I think everyone needed a brake from each other although the spirit was still very good.

"Day off – Sunday 18. October: This was the only real day off, no traveling, no nothing, each member minding his own business.

"Travel Day/Back to reality – Monday 19. October: It’s been a long and epic journey, hard but fucking fun! But all good things come to an end, and it’s time for us to return to reality. For behalf of Sólstafir I want to thank all the great beautiful people we toured with, all the friends old and new me met and made. You all made it worth it! See you on tour soon!!"