BARREN EARTH keyboardist Kasper has issued Part 11 and 12 of his ongoing tour report:

February 21st:

“We brought our own backdrop for this tour, but we’ve only used it once. This is because putting it up and taking it down in such difficult and tightly scheduled circumstances has proven to be too much of a hassle. In fact, no band on this tour has a backdrop, but FERUM and TROLL use a certain type of screen onto which visual effects are projected. We and ROTTEN SOUND also use this screen, by projecting our own respective logos onto it. It doesn’t look as good as the real thing, but it is better than nothing. The projector is quite easy to operate, but there has been the odd technical blip. For example, in Regina there might have been confusion as to who was performing, as Rotten Sound were blasting away against a Barren Earth-logo projected in the background…

Snow seems to be ubiquitous on this tour. In Winnipeg the snowstorm was so heavy, that entering the bus, and leaving a few minutes later, the falling snow had already completely covered the footprints. It was in this snowstorm that we entered the Canada-US border. Whereas the previous border crossing had been an easy affair, this time there seemed to suspicion about our traveling party. We had to wait quite a bit at the border station, as the guards checked our bus inside and out. A prevalent fear in the group was obviously: will they find it? This was of course a reference to the vegetables and fruits in our fridge, as it is forbidden to carry such items across the border. Upon returning to the bus, it was apparent that they had checked the bus quite thoroughly. Bunks had been tampered with, personal possessions had been investigated. Yet mysteriously, the bananas and onions were intact in the fridge. Maybe they weren’t searching for fruit and vegetables after all…

The following morning in Annandale, Minnesota, our bus driver took us to visit his home, where his wife had prepared a ‘Finnish breakfast’. A delicious breakfast of the highest quality was served for whoever happened to be awake at 11AM Our hostess had baked a Finnish pancake according to a recipe off the internet. The pancake was Finnish enough, i.e. very good. We did not dare mention that although the pancake was quite close to Finnish in taste and texture, it is not a food to be served in the breakfast table, but more as a dessert. But so tasty and savoury was this pancake that one starts to think maybe it is time that the Finns too learned that the best way to start a day is in fact just that, a pancake. And bring out the maple syrup, too.

Some people who missed the breakfast were slightly disappointed that they hadn’t been woken up. As a consolation, we did show them photos of the various delicacies: the tasty pancakes, the fantastic salad-salami wraps and the mouth-watering omelette, so all was not lost.

Upon arriving in St. Paul, Minnesota, it was time for the other bus to have some technical problems. For some reason the vehicle started losing air pressure, as a result of which the brakes did not work. Also our bus was stopped there, since the drivers tried to fix the problem together. As we were only 4 or 5 blocks away from the venue, we decided to complete the journey by foot. After arriving on the venue, me and Oppu went to Macy’s. Whilst walking back, we bumped into Rotten Sound who had been looking for the venue for the last hour or so. They had been given confusing instructions about the venue’s location, and were quite literally lost in Minnesota, drifting blindly along the streets. Lucky that they saw us, otherwise they could’ve been lost in St. Paul forever.

After doing our sound-check in St. Paul, I was asked to move my keyboards half a metre backwards, in order to make room for the local support band. I did this, but left the sustain pedal where it was, since I was to move the keyboards back to their original position later anyway. But by the time we were due on stage I had completely forgotten to move the keyboards back. About half a second after starting the piano intro, I realized that the sustain pedal which I desperately needed was situated about 50 cm in front of the keyboards. And I just had to reach it, otherwise the intro would’ve been ruined. This resulted in an uncomfortable but acrobatically impressive stretching of legs which would have made even David Lee Roth jealous…”

February 23rd:

“On Saturday morning we were approaching Chicago. The mood in the lounge of the bus was one of impatience, as once more the toilet door had gotten jammed. About 20 minutes earlier the driver had said that we were 20 minutes away from our destination. But as we were only in the outskirts of the city and the traffic was heavy, it was obvious that it would take more than 20 minutes (and had, in fact, already taken). To make matters worse, a bit later both buses happened to drive down a narrow street, only to find that we were facing a bridge too low for us to go under. We had no choice but to reverse back the way we came from, and try to find space for turning around. Just to make it clear: reversing a bus on a narrow street, accompanied by honking horns and abuse from road-raged drivers whilst desperately needing to use the toilet is not the ideal way to enter Chicago for the first time. But on this particular morning, this was the type of entry that fate had bestowed upon us, and who are we to act in defiance of fate?

On a more positive note, the show at Reggie’s Rock Club, Chicago was sold out. Unfortunately, some people who had come specifically to see us, were left outside. If it was any consolation, we did give them our autographs; with our shaky handwriting.

As Chicago is a city of blues, as well as the city of The Blues Brothers, we decided to go listening to some blues. We had no idea where to find a good blues club. But somebody pointed out that maybe, just maybe, one could find blues at The House Of Blues. And we did, courtesy of the excellent Jimmy Burns Band.

Upon returning to our bus, we heard strange news: some people in our entourage were to change buses. Stories relating to buses on this journey would deserve a blog of their own. Both buses have been constantly experiencing technical problems, buses have been exchanged, drivers have been changed, sometimes voluntarily, sometimes involuntarily, and now this. For various reasons, some people from the “party bus” had aspirations to move to the “silent bus” and vice versa. As a result, our bus currently consists of Barren Earth, Rotten Sound, 4/6 of FINNTROLL and the drum tech, while the other bus consists of ENSIFERUM, 2/6 of ‘Troll, and the rest of the crew. Can you, o reader, guess which one is the "party bus"?

In Detroit we had the pleasure of doing a bit of sight-seeing with a friend of Mikko’s as our guide, although sight-seeing is perhaps not the best word to describe it, since the heavy snowfall meant very low visibility. But at least we could feel the city. Detroit seemed like a ghost town, as we drove around the abandoned houses of the city on Sunday, amid the ever-present snowfall. We were taken to see the Heidelberg Project, which is an outdoors art installation. Gloomy, sullen and even macabre, but impressive nonetheless.

In the Greek Town district of Detroit we went to have lunch in a Greek restaurant. The atmosphere was nice, the service was efficient, and the food was excellent. The only thing which wasn’t all right was the hyperactive waiter constantly enquiring if everything was all right.

The venue in Detroit was the legendary Blondies. The walls were adorned with historical rock’n roll artefacts from famous bands who had played there in their early years: concert contracts, advertisements, etc. for performers such as MEGADETH and FAITH NO MORE. It would seem by this, that Blondies really is the way up to the stars. Then again, they also had artefacts from bands which rock history may have already forgotten. Speaking only for myself, I do not recall the likes of Beer Whores, Feisty Cadavers, or Bulimia Banquet…

The shows in Detroit and Cleveland were the worst attended so far. This can at least partially be blamed upon the bad weather, since advance sales in both cities had been reasonably good. Even people who had bought tickets beforehand failed to turn up, since heavy snowfall had once more made the traffic conditions terrible.

After Cleveland it was time to cross the border to Canada again. This time it was an easy affair, since we didn’t even have to step outside the bus. Somebody collected our passports for a quick inspection, and soon we were able to resume our journey. This was slightly disappointing, since on the last border crossing to Canada I received a gift in the shape of a Canada pin. I had secretly been hoping for more pins. Not necessarily Canada-pins, though. This time I would’ve preferred something more exotic, like a Burma-pin or a Burkina Faso-pin, or whatever else they would have had to offer…”

Remaining dates on the tour are as follows:

March

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