BARREN EARTH keyboardist Kasper has issued Part 6 of his ongoing tour report. The following is an excerpt:

February 8th:

"After the Ft. Worth gig, it was yet again time for a day off. This time it was deliberate and not because of cancellations due to weather conditions. The free day was spent in El Paso, Texas. On our way into El Paso, Mikko said he’d really want a shower. I agreed. After inhaling the odour emanating from him, I could only concur with his sentiment. I, too, wanted Mikko to have a shower.

Finnish names are often difficult for foreign people. So far, there have been no serious errors, but one misspelling seems to pop up repeatedly, and that is Janne Perttilä being spelt as Janne Pertilla. He likes this. We all like it. Not least because it has a certain tex-mex vibe to it. Pertilla, after all, is not that far away from tortilla. Considering this, it really is no surprise that on this sojourn it is Janne Pertilla who has excelled in spotting Mexican restaurants. In El Paso, he led us to Julio’s. This place was nothing short of excellent. Well, it had to be, because upon perusing the menu, it was discovered that Julio’s is endorsed by Jack Nicholson. And that is the only endorsement a restaurant really needs.

As it was Superbowl Sunday, Julio’s had a special offer on giant Margheritas for $3. No disrespect towards American Football, but we weren’t really bothered with the televised Superbowl, as we were occupied with ‘superbowls’ of our own.

The weather has gradually been getting warmer, and upon arriving in Tempe, Arizona yesterday, it was a pleasure to find that the day was truly hot. This was what we had been waiting for. It was the first time on this trip one actually had to worry about getting a sun sting or burnt skin. So it was really nice to be in Arizona, or should I say Ari-sauna.

On this trip I am very grateful for being able to use Emmi Silvennoinen’s Korg M3 as my second instrument, Emmi of course being the keyboard-wizardress of ENSIFERUM. In preparation for this tour, we sat down and programmed Barren Earth’s piano, string, and choir sounds onto her synthesizer. It has worked splendidly, and has saved me trouble as now I have only one keyboard of my own to carry around. The crew, notably Hans and Eki, has also been very helpful in setting up the gear, and providing assistance with DI-boxes and US-electricity converters. Much obliged, I am.

Yesterday, however, things didn’t go quite smoothly for Emmi. A few hours before our show, Emmi had an alarmed expression on her face, as she said: ‘Something terrible has happened with the keyboards.' It turned out that she had accidentally wiped out the memory of her keyboard, meaning that all the sounds were gone. All was not lost, since she had done some backing up, but not recently, the latest backup having been made at least six months ago. My BE sounds were gone, obviously. But this seemed a rather petty matter compared to her loss, for she had lost complete program lists for several ‘ferum tracks. This meant she would have to start incessant work on recreating the sounds before the evening’s show. Could this be done? First we redid my sounds, and got them about right quite quickly. Then Emmi continued work on her ‘rum sounds. Up until the point of our gig, she was still furiously working with the keyboard which I would be needing.

K: Excuse me, hate to bother you, but I’m kinda needing the synth...

E : Oh, I’ll be finished in a couple of minutes.

K: Erm, yes, but you see, I should be on stage in a couple of minutes…

Though reluctant to interrupt her work, she saw my dilemma, and kindly once again let me use the machine. After our show, her furious sound-hunting work continued. I don’t know if she got everything in order before Ensiferum’s show, but watching their gig, I thought it sounded, keys included, very good. And the crowd of 300 Ari-saunians seemed to agree."

Remaining dates on the tour are as follows:

February

21 - Cleveland, OH - Peabody’s
22 - Toronto, ON - Opera House
23 - Quebec City, QC - Imperial de Quebec
24 - Montreal, QC - Metropolis
25 - Rochester, NY - Montage Music Hall
26 - New York City, NY - The Gramercy Theatre
27 - Worcester, MA - The Palladium

March

1 - Philadelphia, PA - The Trocadero
2 - West Springfield, VA - Jaxx
3 - Charlotte, NC - The Casbah
4 - Raleigh, NC - Volume 11