Day 2/34 - 013, Tilburg, Holland - 29.10.10

The day startet approximately 2,5 hours after yesterday ended. At 6.30 it was time to leave for Mönchengladbach, to meet up with the nightliner (the bus we’re sleeping in during the tour). It was an energized duo, consisting of me and Einar, who was the lucky two given this self rewarding assignment. After a couple of detours we found ourselves at MZES bus company, where we met our bus driver Scott.



We soon realized that we we’re in serious need of some additional storage capacity, as the storage room under the bus couldn’t hold half of our gear, and so we had to hire a trailer. Can’t get enough of those extra expences! :D After parking our van at some random parking spot in Mönchengladbach, it was time to check out the interior of the bus.



Concidering the fact that we hadn’t slept all that much the last 24h, we also found this a suitable time to check out the sleeping facilities of the bus. While we slept, Scott drove us back to Tilburg for the preparations for our first concert of the tour. After crossing the border to the Netherlands something happened to the bus door, so we got ourselves an additional three hours of sleep, waiting for someone to fix the door. Thanks to this we returned to Tilburg relaxed and ready to prep for the concert.



After the sound- check, Halvor, Tobias and myself went for a jog around Tilburg. We found this a good way to see the city, which btw is very nice, and we’ll try to do this in every city from now on. 15 min out running we encountered a fruit & vegetable store, and took this opportunity to buy some ingredients for my juice sentrifuge. On the way back from the veggie store I realized that running with a 15 kg bag of vegetables isn't all that fun after all. As you can see from the pictures, it was a high class photogenic trio that returned to the backstage at O13. Just for the occation, Halvor showed of with his latest neck extention. From the looks of it, the ingredients for my next juice creation will be, broccoli, carrots, sellery, spinach, cauliflower and apples. Feel free to come with suggestions to a name for this juice. We shall try to post a video soon of how to make the best pre-concert juice.

Loch Vostok opened the tour with a massive set, which received great feedback from the crowd. After a record fast change-over we entered the stage, and tried to live up to the standard set by LV. Once we had a song or two on our continence I felt we were really starting to groove, and with the help of the great audience in Tilburg (approximately 2000 people), we all had a really good experience on stage. Hopefully there were some people that liked what they heard, because we would love to come back some day! All in all this first concert was a great start on the tour, and we're all really looking forward to the next 28 concerts. :)

Here's a preview of the opening show:

Back on the bus, and on our way to Groeningen, we passed the time listening to the masterpiece by R. Kelly: “Trapped in the closet”. For those of you that haven’t heard it: Do it! It’s highly rewarding! ;) You should all have a listen to the original a couple of times for starters, and then top things of with the bonus feature ”Kell’s commentary remix”. This is where R. Kelly is sitting admiring his own brilliance. I rest my case.

For a preview, check out this link

Stay tuned for more updates!

TorO

Tour blog - Day 1/34 (28.10.10) Oslo - Tilburg (Travelday)

The first of day of our trip was delayed due to an unexpected issue. All the copies of our most recent album “Tall Poppy Syndrome” had by mistake been sent to “Sør -Norge Aluminium” (South Norway Aluminum) in Husnes near Bergen. It was so late as Wednesday afternoon (we were supposed to leave Wednesday evening) before a guy called us and told us that had received our package. Since we all live in Oslo, which is approximately eight hours away from Husnes, we had no choice but to delay our trip with one day. TNT - the company responsible for the mess - promised that we should have the package delivered at our door between 8 and 9 am next morning. When we were starting to get nervous the next morning, the package finally arrived at 8:57 am. We were finally ready to leave!!














Whilst two of the band members (Tobias and Halvor) cowardly chose to fly down to Tilburg, the rest of us had to choose the hardcore-18-hour-drive-with-no-sleep-at-all alternative in order to get all equipment there in time.

To avoid unnecessary conflicts with the Norwegian customs on our way home, we had a to prove that we already owned the equipment before we left Norway:





The trip through Sweden went smoothly, without any difficulties worth mentioning. While we were driving through Denmark we realized that Denmark do not operate with gas stations along the highway.

On the ferry from Denmark to Germany we managed to get a proper meal, as well as having a deserved and long awaited break from the driving. Here you can see Øystein philosophizing on the ferry:














And finally we reach das Autobahn! That means we can drive as fast as we want to without being confronted by the law! Oh, but wait.......nearly 70% of the way there’s 60 zone due to road work!! After a while, we were finally able to drive in 120 km. But suddenly, there was a cat running out in the highway. And Tor Oddmunds spontaneous reaction was to do his very best to avoid killing the poor animal, and he took a very sharp turn while driving in 120 with a full-loaded van. The car headed towards the fence, but TorO managed to maneuver the car back on the road before hitting the fence in high speed. Suddenly it seemed like the car was going to tip over because of the manouver, the high speed and tallness of the van! Luckily TorO managed to get the vehicle back on track. This was one of the most horrifying situations in the traffic I’ve ever witnessed! But we all got out from it in good shape - including the cat - and headed further on to Tilburg!

When we finally arrived in Tilburg, we were satisfied, relieved and tired. After an exhausting 18 hour drive (with only four small stops including the ferry), we were finally able to go to bed!

Here’s a video clip from our arrival in Tilburg:





All the best, Einar