Aalborg, Denmark.
By the time we reach Aalborg, we are past the hallway point of the tour. Many exhausting days of early ferries pushing the hurry up and wait feeling. We arrive in Aalborg several hours early with little idea of what to do while we wait for someone from the venue to arrive. Find a spot to park the van along the river, break into a few different groups with different ideas of how to pass the time. Jerry and I find ourselves sitting along the river bank shooting the shit, talks of tours past and present, people we have met along the way, women we have had instant crushes on along the way (sometimes the same women…), and general conversation of how we are each feeling currently. Jerry drinks a beer as I watch him drink and long for the moment I can do the same. None of us miss the contrast from the last time we played Aalborg 3 years prior. We were on our way north to Oslo and it was our tour manager and good friend Jani’s last stop with us, so he and I were having quite the epic drinking fest. Upon arrival, we started drinking straight away, being told by the bartender that the beers we were drinking were the strongest beer they had (sounds like a challenge!). The night picked up very quickly from there, burning one another with cigarettes, breaking “doctored” bottles on heads, urinating onto possible skinheads from a rooftop, and passing out in the only shower available to the bands for a bit. Those were definitely the highlights of the evening. I honestly don’t even remember playing that night. I do however remember that we played with Beneath The Frozen Soil from Sweden.
So by comparison, last night’s show was remarkably different from my point of view, and I am sure for the rest of Embers as well. For starters, I’m not drinking and have not for days in an effort to let the antibiotics I am taking (for what is probably not blood cancer (long story…) but not limited to zombie plague) a chance to work and to heal me. It has been very different not drinking on tour, and comparing Aalborg 09′ to Aalborg 12′ to me is the very pinnacle of how those 2 choices differ.
We played with Early Man from LA, and Terex Titans from Denmark. We had a pretty small turnout, but not surprising for a Sunday in a town that seems to have little metal scene. After the show is finished and the venue cleared, some of the folks at the venue convinced 7 of the 8 from both bands to join them at a local bar. Late on a Sunday night the city is rather tame, and the locals do their very best to get all the Americans wasted. I end up leaving early with Rosa-Lina, the young woman that is to cook our breakfast, and spend some time getting to know one another, talks of politics, and the general differences between our cultures. The rest arrive mostly drunk for more drinking and trading tunes. Steve is drunk and showing off his grasp of the Danish vocabulary consisting of 3 words, one of which is Beau-wolf..
Off to bed, up for an amazing breakfast (thank you Rosa-Lina!). Altogether 1000fryd with it’s amazing hospitality, good people, clean beds, hot showers, and great food is a highlight for road dogs no matter what the actual show feels like.
On to Hamburg!!!
We arrive in Hamburg as planned at around 6pm. We are playing at Rote Flora and had not played in this squat since our first tour in 2007, and this is our 3rd time playing Hamburg, so we are no strangers here. The show is with Contorture (Sweden) and From This Day On (Berlin).
I have not been in Hamburg in 3 years, and of all the cities we have been to, this is the one I have spent the most time in. In 09′ Kelly and I flew into Hamburg before she went on to Copenhagen, and I set up for some time getting to know Hamburg before heading to Bremen for BOB fest. I spent most of that time wandering around and day-drinking, getting to know some of the locals and trying not to get too lost. I also came back to Hamburg after tour to spend some time, though by that time I was far too sick to do much of anything.
Back to the present… The show went very well, I had no idea what to expect from From This Day On, a bit shoe gazey, but defiantly on their shit and excellent musicians. Contorture brought the fucking pain! Should I have expected anything less from 4 brutiful Swedish women?? We had played with Christina’s other band, Agromonia, in Gothenburg, leave it to the Swedes to fail to disappoint. As for our set, we are most definitely getting tighter each night in both sound and presence. I know that for myself, I am feeling more in touch with my guitar, as if it were an extension of my body and not just something I am holding on to. It’s a good feeling to have, whether it’s real or just muscle memory. That, and the personal content of the lyrics I am singing, make each night that I get the chance to play music I love with my friends for persons that appreciate it worth every part of the bullshit that is touring and “paying to play”.
We finish out the night on a search for the most suitable bar to have some time with our friends that came out to see us, both new and old. Stephi and Gerard (BOB family) came from Bremen, thanks guys!!! As well as Hanna and Stephanie (2 Germans that we met in Gothenburg). I had previously hoped for a rager of an evening, as this is the town I know so well, but it remained mostly tame, to sleep by 4am.
New Comments