June 1st
We are about 150km away from Riga and Jonathan is driving. The Ipod is on shuffle so we hear all sorts of stuff from Antibalas to Asoka to Brant Bjork to Black Sabbath to Widespread Panic to Fela to Taste to CAN to Embryo to Blackberry Smoke to Lonely Kamel to Crosby Stills and Nash to Jefferson Airplane to
Only 3 more shows on the tour. Wow.. Been quite the experience but I am getting more tired each day now and this is the 2nd day with little sleep. I have lost my inspiration for playing as well. If I could sleep in the van, it would help. Vemund, he sleeps the entire trip everyday and has never seen any of the scenery for the entire trip. I think Øyvin is about the same. Jiri has done most of the driving. The rest of us can’t really sleep in the van except now.
It is mostly just green farmlands with patches of forest with pine and birch trees all through Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Very flat. Could be parts of Sweden and Denmark quite easily but less density of people and farms.
12 We are totally fucked now. Jiri made us get off the ring road to take some short cut thru Riga and we have been stuck in this town driving around for an hour. We have 294km to go still and we stuck in traffic in Riga. If the highway is 130, we have a chance but I have my doubt. We have to arrive at 16:10 at the latest. I hope we can make it. We will see. Next ferry is 2 hrs later and I hope our ticket will still work.
16:30
Wow.. we barely made the ferry, 15mins to spare. I am glad we did not stop for gas as it would have been quite close. I am so tired, really not feeling well. Only had some chips, a croissant with ham and cheese and an apple. I will lay down for a bit on the boat. It is pretty full of people.
20 We are at the venue although we had to make a pit stop as Daniel was throwing up in the van (in a bag) so we had to stop at the apotek (pharmacy). We got to the venue, and they were way behind. Octypus Syng was soundchecking so we just hung out in the backstage. They had drinks, beers, coffee, tea, etc. some fruit. It was a very cool venue and nice people. We spoke to the Jupiter guys a lot. Anyway, Octopys Syng was supposed to be on at 2030 but did not start until 20.45. It all went well and the soundman was great and helpful. There were not very many people, maybe 20 for them. BMC played next and Daniel decided to play and he was great but played a bit softer, as expected. We did Ghost, American Eagle and Jack’s Cold Sweat. I thought we played awesome. I was in the zone. I just had a solo part where the Kaossilator pad was freaking out on me and the band was sort of waiting for me to do something and I was in a spot. Rest was great. All was recorded.
Jupiter was a very special Finnish band. They have made a few records and been around for more than 10 years. Anyway, a great trio with an intense drummer and bass player. The guitarist was also cool and did the lead vocals. Sometimes it was very metal and other times not but quite cool songs. They got a good response.
ØSC was on the stage about midnight. IT took a while for Vesa and all of us to set up. I guess there was about 50-60 people, less than half of what we had last time. There was a lot of gigs recently and also this was school graduations. A lot of my Finnish friends were there though: Eetu, Juha, Santtu, Jaire, Artsi, etc….
We played only two jams in a bit more than 80mins and then we took a break. We came out and played one more 40mins jam. Sadly, the edirol only got 22mins but Jonathan mulitracked all 4 bands !
This was one of the highlight concerts of the tour. I felt it might have been my best show. Tim also felt it was his best drumming. We were all so euphoric and high after the gig. Did not get to sleep until 4.
Fotos by Sabine
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