Day 5 - Hannover

"Hmm.. what time is it? 2PM! Ok. I better get up". Socks, pants with the backstage pass, t-shirt, sweater.. "Where is everybody? And where's the venue?". Deafening silence. "Hello?". I head down the 5 step stairs down to the first floor. Still nobody. The bus door goes "psssssshhh" as I push the switch to open it. Drawing a map from the bus to the venue and putting it on the door has now become a daily affair for an unknown person, and as I leave I keep the map in my mind.

"Capitol" is no more than an arms length from the bus, and I find the entrance just around the corner. Not much of a challenge there. The crew is doing the daily routine of setting up everything on stage, but still no sight of any of the Lepromaniacs. No one ever bothers to draw a map for the backstage (not really necessary at all), so as usual I go looking, trying different doors along the way. I follow a few signs up some stairs and find our backstage next to the catering and the guys from TMET (The Man-Eating Tree). Still, no Lepromaniacs. I now realize this late morning (no alarm) made sure I stayed in while all the others are out having fun checking out what Hannover has to offer 4 crazy Norwegians. In particular I know they're looking for some nice games for the PS3…

Ahh, breakfast in peace. The catering here in Germany has been really great so far and also is today. Two pieces of bread and one yoghurt later my lazy tour stomach is pleased. I get back to the bus, pick up my stuff and my tiny Blackstar amp and start practicing in the abandoned backstage until the guys arrive. Despite all the spare time we have on tour, it's harder than you think to find time for things like this. Always something happening, and there's always someone everywhere;) But it's nice to try to make something of all that time!

I then practice some more. Tobias joins in with his drum pad. The rest of the day stays pretty much the same for everyone:

• Hang out in the backstage
• Having a bite
• Roaming around inside the venue
• Visiting Teemu at the merch stand
• Watching a TV series
• Surfing the web (if usable Wi-Fi)
• Practicing some more
• Etc etc etc.
• Occasional exchange of words

That's todays tour report!;D Might be boring, but believe it or not: not all days on tour are ultra exciting! But there is one person on board that has made the last few days a bit more exciting: Gunnar Sauermann!;) This respected, funny and entertaining metal journalist writes for Metal Hammer and has been on our bus telling jokes and taking pictures and notes from our life on the road.

Auf Wiedersehen,

Øystein

Day 4 - Osnabrück

I have to be totally honest here, I don't have much to write about today. Being very tired from traveling to Germany the day before (early flight, no sleep, hours of waiting), as well as from the gig last night in Bochum, I decided to sleep late today. It turned out I didn't miss much. The venue was basically located in the middle of a forest, or so it looked. Not much to see or do in the area, in other words. But the venue was great. Big stage and a cool atmosphere. The gig went well. Once again, I'm sorry about not having any interesting stories, or spectacular happenings or miraculous wonders to share with you guys. Didn't happen much today, except the usual concert, which was fun. As usual :)

We did, however, put together a little video for your pleasure and entertainment. Enjoy!

- Rein

Day 3 - Bochum merch bonanza

Our first show in Bochum is sold out in advance, and high expectations arise as we check out the nice venue of Zeche. We say goodbye and give another big thank you to Martin and Jon-Øyvind for stepping in for Tobias and Rein on the show yesterday. Still, we’re looking forward to getting the real line-up together for the rest of the tour, and we celebrate this event in doing the thing we do best; hasseling Øystein when he’s trying to eat:

What goes down, has to come up. Somewhere…
Luckily for us, this good old saying is also very much represented in the relations between the toilet vs shower in our backstage. The fact that whatever went down the toilet would resurface in the shower wasn’t noticed until after all the 8 man-eating trees had done their best “effort” in the toilet, so I guess I’ll just wait out this shower opportunity.

Showtime
The venue was packed with people, and it was very nice playing together with the real line-up again. Einar struggled a bit with his voice, but if I know him right it's not something long lasting. Before and after the show we finally got to meet Leif and Jens from Century Media (our record label), which turned out to be very pleasant guys. We also met our old friend Waldemar from the Therion tour last year.

Teemu’s merch bonanza
During the entire 1st part of the tour, our merch salesman Teemu complained that all of our shirt motives was so ugly, and that he wanted us to print up a new t-shirt. Well, today we received the fresh batch of shirts, and as you can see on this picture Teemu is totally psyched!

What we didn’t calculate on though was that the extra cases of merch had to go somewhere… So, bye bye luxurious lounge area! :(

Please help us get rid of all these t-shirts by buying them on one of our shows! That's also a nice opportunity to actually meet Teemu.

Thnx!
TorO

Day 2 - Jena

Part one: Leprous/Amorphis Re-union

Today we had to wake up early as we were meeting Amorphis + crew and the tour bus. We ordered a taxi, and went straight to the airport before even eating breakfast. Re-uniting with the Amorphis guys and their/our crew was something we had looked very much forward to. It was indeed great seeing them again, and we’re looking forward to three more weeks on the road with the guys.

Part two: The New Tour Bus

When we opened the doors on the tour bus, we found ourselves really pleasantly surprised! We’re talking a luxury bus including facilities I had expected waiting several more years enjoying. After chatting a little bit with the Amorphis guys, I went so sleep until we arrived in Jena. Three hours of highly appreciated sleep!

Part three: Step-in guys

On todays show we had Martin Wright Thorsen as a step-in drummer for Tobias, and Jon-Øyvind Nordby as step-in bassist for Rein. It is of course slightly thrilling for us to change the whole foundation in the band for only one show, as Tobias and Rein are very hard to replace. However, when playing a song at the soundcheck, we hear very clearly that Martin and Jon-Øyvind has done a really great job. Many thanks goes out to Martin and Jon-Øyvind for going through all those hours of rehearsing for only one show.

Part four: First show

When going on stage today I was almost a bit nervous (I usually never get nervous when playing), as I had to handle all the backing tracks in addition to be the lead-singer and keyboard player. Even though the show today wasn’t as good as a Leprous show can be, I feel we managed to do the very best out of the situation. This also made us prove that Leprous never cancel a show, unless we really have to!

All the best,

Einar

(Part 2) Day 1 - Berlin

Christmas turned out to be very short for us this year. After a good nights sleep we all got up early to catch the bus to the airport in Oslo. Our plane left for Berlin at 1PM and after flying all the way to Japan a couple of weeks earlier, this one felt like 5 minutes. We landed in the German capitol at the airport "lala", and got ourselves a nice, big taxi to hold the 5 of us to make our way to the hostel for the night. Amorphis and the crew are arriving tomorrow, and we're all meeting up with the bus early in the morning. A day off waiting for the others is the perfect opportunity to check out the city!;D After checking in at the hostel and getting 5 minutes of rest, we decide there's no reason to just sit around in a cheap hostel staring at the wall (or our computers/phones for that matter) in a big, unexplored city. So we get to it.

Berlin turns out to be a really great place, but food is currently our number one priority. Our first thought is to find an Indian place and it does not take long before we find the perfect place. Cheap and exactly what we wanted. Finally we have the energy needed to explore this huge city;) With a big tower in sight we just start walking, hoping to find some kind of city center. After a while, we reach a nice traditional Christmas marketplace selling all kinds of food and candy.

....and of course we have to buy some chocolate bananas/grapes.

The market is located at Alexanderplatz where we finally reach the tower we aimed for. We see an endless road and just keep walking. 5000 miles later we end up at Brandenburger Tor! It's now getting late and after some photos we head begin on the long, long journey back. After a few hours Berlin's moderate temperature somehow doesn't seem very moderate anymore, so the next logical step becomes getting some ice cream! ;) One large ice cream later, the cinema becomes very attractive but is soon discarded when we realize all movies are dubbed. As a last source of entertainment we go back to find a bowling place we discovered on our journey. Einar eventually gets fed up with all the walking…

The bowling place is of course closing in 10 minutes when we arrive, so heading back to the hostel becomes the only tempting option left. A quiet ending to an awesome day in Berlin, and we fall asleep late, ready for our first show day…

Regards,

Øystein

Tour report: Japan 2011

Day 1: Hello Tokyo
After a very long flight from Oslo to Helsinki, then from Helsinki to Tokyo it felt extremely good to stretch the legs. Even though I have developed a zombie mode when traveling, and don’t mind long flights that much anymore. Already by the luggage claim we get a taste of the Japanese efficiency, as all the bags and instruments are already waiting for us. After picking up the baggage, we walk out to the arrival hall and find ourselves pleasantly surprised with two very nice japanese fellows called Tetsu and George welcoming us immediately. Shortly after we met the driver Nambu, which turned out to be the organizer of the whole tour. They drove us straight to the hotel, but we weren’t allowed to check in there before three hours later. Luckily Nambu, Tetsu and George had planned to take us out for traditional japanese lunch! The restaurant offered us both looks and tastes we’d never experienced before, in a good way. Since we’d missed one night of sleep it felt really great to get a couple of hours sleep at the hotel, before everyone (except Rein who slept to the next day) went out to check out what Tokyo had to offer. What immediately stroke us when we found ourself in the most busy are of Tokyo, Shibuya, was that even though there was an insane amount of people it was rather quiet in the streets. That is impressive! Even in Norway (which is not the most noisy country in the world), the same amount of people would have made ten times as much noise. For not to mention the cars! Before going back to sleep at the hotel, we ended up eating at a really great japanese plays, which made me look at raw fish in a completely new way. I mean, I’ve tasted sushi in Norway several times without being blown away.



Day 2: Asakusa
Being rather confused with the new time zone, I woke up VERY early this day. I think 3 am is the earliest I’ve ever woken up ready for a new day. Of course I tried to go back to sleep, but without success. As soon as daylight found his way through the curtain, I went down for breakfast with Rein and Ihsahn. Today we had a day off and were all going to Asakusa, which is a district in Tokyo most famous for the Buddhist temple Sensō. It was a very pleasant experience to be able to see old japanese architecture. The area was heavily bombed during the second world war, and was later re-build. A really nice off day!





Day 3: O-East
One more night without a sufficient amount of sleep! It certainly takes time to adjust to the new time zone. Finally time for the first show day! O-East, today’s venue, is one of the nicest concert places I’ve ever been to. Huge stage, the finest equipment available and very nice backstage facilities. For the first time ever, we were about to do shows with two different bands without a break between. We have never played in Japan before, so it was with great excitement we entered the stage. The response when we entered stage was humongous and very inspiring, so it wasn’t difficult to give everything today! After playing the last note on the last song, we literally ran off stage to change from red and black to black. Three minutes later we were back on stage, this time with Ihsahn. It was a new, and very good experience to play a double show in such great circumstances. Thirty minutes after we got off stage, The Haunted entered the stage. I have to be honest and say that it’s long between metal concerts I really enjoy, but the Haunted delivered one of the best metal shows I’ve seen a while. Really passionate and intense performance! After the show we went out to say hello to some of our fans, and when we got back 20 minutes later the stage was 100 % cleared! Wow, we REALLY have a lot to learn from Japan!

Day 4: Nagoya
Finally a night with proper sleep! We were picked up quite early at the hotel, and driven to the closest train station in Tokyo. This trip was full of “first times”, and we experiences a new one of those when entering the express train to Nagoya. Approximately an hour later we arrived in Nagoya, and was driven to the venue immediately. The venue was located in a huge shopping mall, and the was the hotel. Very convenient! As I’ve revealed to our blog readers earlier, I’m a sucker for sweets and desserts. Therefore I was exceedingly excited when I saw the most fantastic dessert restaurant I’ve ever witnessed! After the soundcheck almost everyone joined me for some desserts, and my day was already complete. The venue in Nagoya was a lot smaller, but it was also a great place for concerts. The show went really well, and Japan still lives up to all our expectations!

Day 5: Big cat
As we just arrived from a european tour where it was impossible to have a single moment alone, it was a really pleasant surprise that the organizers had booked single rooms for us every night. When on tour it is always on the third and fourth show is at its worst. Today was no exception, and I was quite worried about the show. We stayed at the venue most of the day today, as we knew that we had a day off the next day to check out the city. I started warming up my voice one hour before the sow, and it ended up working OK. It was a bit more difficult on the Ihsahn set, as it is usually a long wait between every time I’m singing. So the voice becomes hoarse between every time I sing. Despite the problems the show also went great today, and it was a really worthy last show on this small tour. We managed to see a part of the Haunted’s show, and it was really great today as well. Check out this band live if you ever have the chance! The organizers takes us out for dinner every day after the show, and this day was no exception. We've gotten the chance to taste new and great food every day, Japan is fantastic!

Day 6: Off day in Osaka
Woooohooo, no sleep at all! Today we checked out a rather rainy Osaka, while trying to buy some christmas presents. George (which became a good friend during our stay) also gave us a really nice guided tour through Osaka It was an OK day, but not the most memorable.



Day 7: Hello Oslo
Time to go back Norway! We were driven to the airport quite early, and the check in at the airport was problem free. It was with mixed feelings we left this great country, and we really hope to get back really soon. The flight was nice, and despite the mixed feelings it felt good to be back on Norwegian soil.

Best,

Einar

Day 27 - Last day of luxury in London

The last show
The end of the first part of the tour brings us back to London, for our third concert here. We’re all ready to give everything we have on this last show, even though 40% of the band have been struggling with illness the last couple of days.

Bye bye Blackstar
The technical part of the concert could have gone better. After standing a couple of minutes with the power on, my beloved Blackstar S1 200 amp gets a bit more power than it’s made for, something that leads to the total annihilation of two fuses as well as some plastic components that encloses them. Our super guitar technician, Falle, fixes the fuses and the plastic thingies, but even though the power gets back on, theres no more of that delicate sound being generated. At this point we give up, and I must ask as nicely as possible if I could borrow the Orange amp from Miguel in NahemaH, who of course borrows me his gear without question. Thanks! :)

The show is by far the best we’ve had in England so far, and it seemed as the audience liked it as well. After the show I had to pack down my beautiful amp, and send it broken to Jena, where it will be waiting for me (still broken) when we return december 26th. I guess I can just hope for a Christmas miracle.

Living luxurious
Being world famous rock stars and all, we all live pretty high class lifestyles, as portrayed in this video clip:



Going home
After getting an incredible good nights sleep, I wake up at 4.00, to get to Heathrow to fly home. Tomorrow I’ll return to work as a physiotherapist for three days, before we head out for our Japan with Ihsahn (and Leprous). We will of course report how this goes as well, before we return with the second part of the Amorphis tour, when Christmas is above us.

In the meantime,
Let the juice flow!

TorO