8:00 I am taking the train to Malmö to go to Hertz to rent the van. It is over 1000kr more expensive this time than when we rented in March for the same van and the same length of time..

8:50 I am at Hertz and the van is getting cleaned now so I have to wait some minutes. Everything is in order, also for the rental for gong and playing in Wurzburg at the end of November. In general I think things are going well for the band. We are slowly building up a dedicated fan base and getting invited to play interesting places and festivals like the Psychedelic network and Roadburn. We are evolving and creating new music with new musicians all the time. I think we are maintaining our high standard of musicianship and still having a good time.

10:18 I am waiting for Mogens and Nick at Dragens Hule. I got to my place about 9:50 and loaded up all my stuff and had a little more food and out the door. Van is more than 1000kr for the same van and the same length of time Thursday morning from 9 until Monday morning at 9. Strange…. It is a really beautiful day. The sun is shinning and it a blue sky. Just like in March when we were waiting to go! I love going to Finland. It is a long trip but we hear a lot of good music, have a nice time with each other, etc and the crowds really appreciate our music.

13:00 We are having a break on the side of the road. The colors of the trees are amazing right now in Sweden, Fantastic. Sebastian called and he wants to meet at 15:30 in Mjölby. Looks like we will have no problem making that time.

Mogens having a good time at the rest stop near Jönköping

Driving by in Sweden... nice colors on the trees..

15:40 We are in Mjölby, which is about 2hrs from Stockholm, where we will pick up Mattias and Juba. This is some of the music we have been listening to on the trip so far:

Brant Bjork- Saved by Magic, Pothead- Fairground, Taipuva Lutisuria IV, Dedato Siguir (African living in Denmark), Hawkwind- Astounding Sounds Amazing Music,

17:40 We are getting close to where Matthias’s rehearsal place is. We have heard some of the sitar jams that I recorded with the Siena Root guys and everyone thought it was really relaxing and cool music.

18:40 We have picked up Mattias and his pedal steel and things. We have also just met up with Juba and his bass! Now, we just sit in the van and wait in the cue at the Viking Line ferry to Turku, Finland. Ferry leaves at 20:10 and arrives at 7:45. I really hope we don’t have big snoring problems, as I can’t sleep with snoring people at all. I also hope the band does not stay up all night drinking.. We will see. We are all starving though and will go straight for food.

10:00 We had a really nice meal (duck with risotto for me and Sebastian). Mattias and Mogens are vegetarians’ so a lot of times things are limiting for them. Neither eats fish or shellfish either. We have had some beers in the bar and are hanging out in one of the cabins. I will try to crash soon and hope that Juba is not a snoring one. I know that Sebastian does not, so he is in my cabin as well.

Friday Oct 30th, 2009

07:00 I had a pretty bad night. I tried to get a little drunk with 3 beers and some salmiaki korskonkorva but it did not work. Juba is a very loud sleeper, when he finally did come into the room at like 5. He was hanging out in the bar with Christian, the old singer in Terrafirma, now in Lord Vicar, who he has know for 20 years. I was not really sleeping much anyway. I just lay there and my mind is running and I just can’t shut it off. Now, I am tired. Luckily, Sebastian will drive to Lahti and Juba will drive after the gig tonight!

8:54 Wow.. I had to take a breathalyzer test when I drove off the ferry. I was at 0.32 and the limit is 0.50. I felt totally fine except I was really tired. He recommended that we switch drivers to some one how had not been drinking. The only one was Mattias as he does not drink but he also does not drive! I drove to the first place for breakfast about 10km away and then Sebastian took over. We are having breakfast now in Piikiö. We were listening to the amazing Thor’s Hammer CD from 1971. Great Danish band. It is a beautiful clear day in Finland but damn cold, -7C outside. I am totally exhausted. Had a cinnamon roll, some tea and juice.

10:45 We just got done hearing Pothead- Pot of Gold EP. I had not heard that in ages. We also heard this EP by a cool new UK band called Paradise 9. Everyone thought it was cool. Looks like we will get to Lahti around 12 and Jussi will make us some lunch and we can try to sleep a bit in the afternoon.

12:16 We could not find his house as our map appears to be wrong so he is coming to pick us up. We are quite close by.

12:36.. We are at Jussi’s house. A really nice place. Jonni and his girlfriend Christine are there. Very nice people. They have prepared a smoked salmon (they smoked it themselves just now!), vegetarian lasagne, salad, etc… very nice.

Jussi's house

15:46 Now we are in Lahti relaxing before we will head to the venue for Souncheck around 18. Torvi, is one of Finland’s oldest running original rock clubs. It is an honor to get to play at this club. Jussi showed us a full page article in the local paper about the festival. He thinks that we will have a very good crowd for this evening Johnny, the VJ was here when we had lunch. Seemed like a really nice person as well. I look forward to play tonight. Everyone is hungry to play so this is good. Nick, he is addicted to his guitar and playing any chance he gets. He and Juba were having a bass-guitar jam and working some things out while I was lying down. Sounded cool.

19:00 Soundcheck jams are really good and we are going to go get some pizza around the corner at a place called Ararat. Recommended by the people in Temples, who are really cool. We also have met our drummer for the night Jukka and is very nice and seemed to fit in well and click with us right away.

21:00 The pizza was terrible and we are now in the backstage hanging out with the Temples and this is Sirius people. All super cool. People are starting to arrive and temples will start at 22. The visuals that Jonni is set up look really cool but the projector does not seem strong enough for this venue. The TV sets look great though. I hope that a lot of people show up.

22:25 Temples is playing and they are quite heavy cool. They do a lot of improvising the lead guitar player and singer said. They have their structure for the songs but then experiment a lot. A decent crowd of 75 or so now I would say. The band smoked a joint with them right before they hit the stage.

Temples This is Sirius

23:45 This is Sirius is now playing and this is strange but pretty cool music. A bit like Circle meets Bongzilla with a beat poet singer who has a very gravel like voice. Singer is very special on stage and music is pretty dynamic. Crowd seems to dig them a lot.

03:00 Wow.. what an amazing gig. Jukka was a killer drummer and we really played a very cool concert tonight. I was really blown away. I pray the recording sounds good as it was a good show and the people really loved it and thought we were amazing. A lot of people came up to us afterwards. I did not sell much stuff. I hope someone can send me some pictures as I did not take any of us. Someone video taped some of the show. Jukka from Hyvinkää was in the front row and loving it but also quite drunk. Temples people were also in the front and digging it. I had the best time I have had at a gig in a long time and felt really inspired. The pedal steel was amazing and beyond my wildest dreams how cool it was. Nick was very tired and did not rip off many killer leads but had the groove riffs and hooked in with Juba and the drummer. Juba was also super solid and the band liked playing with him. Great night!

Set List:
1. Torvi Spaceout 20:53
2. Smoke Rock 14:46
3. Inside Jukka's Head 15:51
4. .Band Introductions
5. The sound of breaking Ear Drums 20:42
6. Gastronomical Domine 30:27

Note:
The players on this night were: Mattias- Pedal Steel, Jukka- Drums, Dr. Space- Synthesizers, Mogens- Synthesizer, Sebastian- Guitar, Nick- Guitar, Juha- Bass