Vienna & Linz

Austria, you have treated the entire Paganfest package with fervent devotion and we all appreciate it. Vienna had a crazy crowd and you treated Swashbuckle with particular admiration. For this, we hail you. Can't wait to come back. It was a rainy a day, so I didn't get a chance to check out the town. I hear there is alot of great history to see, around Mozart's old stomping grounds no less. Our bus call was very late (or early?), at 9 am. Luckily there were two bars close to the venue - one, a killer metal club sporting great 80's hits; the other, a raging reggae hip-hop club. We bounced back and forth between the two. Ever thought Korpiklaani was into reggae? Me neither. Apparently we were all wrong.

The show tonight in Linz is literally a circus. Unleashed is on stage now, and so far on stage we have had a shopping cart gundown, a ninja attack, a roman toga party, the chartoon character Obelix, a pirate dingie row across the backdrop, a "viking longboat", and there are still two more bands to go...

Backstage Beer Info:
Vienna:
Ottakringer

Linz:
Gösser
Salzburger Stiegl
Kaiser Fasstyp

Off to the United Kingdom for a bit 'o tea with the Queen and some needed r. & r.

Cheers
~RedRum

Picture unrelated.

Tour Bus Fire & Innsbuck

I have never found myself in more elegant surroundings prior to today's show in Innsbruck, Austria. The city is almost completely surrounded by the Alps. Every way you look, your eyes are greeted by these massive geologic wonders. Though, I am saddened to think that to the natives, these are just business as usual. I spoke to a few locals and they say they often forget what the horizon looks like. If they ever travel through the central Unites States, I'm sure they'll never forget such drab, static landscapes that exist in places like Tennesee and beyond.

I walked into the city center early with Alestorm and Anders from Unleashed. We were following signs to some sort of Alpine Zoo, but when we realized a cable car trip was necessary, we deserted this plan and had a few beers outside in the town square. The name of the brew escapes me, but trust me, there is nothing like enjoying a good beer accompanied by an ever better view.

Now that I've got all the enchanted hippie nature loving stuff out of the way, I suppose I should also discuss the horrible towering inferno that was our tour bus's engine two nights ago. After the show in Graz, we got on the road and started drinking. Heavily. About a half hour into the long drive to Milan, a couple people downstairs started noticing a fowl stench upon the air. After placing the blame on Anders of Unleashed, we realized (as did the driver) that it was a problem with the bus itself. We veered off into a timely placed gas station, half of us ran out to grab fire extinguishers, and the other half went upstairs to wake the sleeping passengers. I took some really great footage of the event, the only footage of the actual fire before it was doused, but the bus company is complaining that their good name may be tarnished should it be released. I'm not sure why I'm obeying this false authority. Their bus did catch on fucking fire. We rescued every drop of alchohol from that vehicle and got some rooms at a conveniently placed hotel across the street from the gas station. We spent the next day there, confined to the hotel and said gas station. In hindsight, it was great to have a day off, but apparently the crowd in Milan was incredible, and I really wanted to go to Italy. Ahh well, maybe next time.

The show tonight in Innsbruck was great. Nothing really special, but as we are winding down, the bands come closer together on tours like this, which is admirable. The best part was definitely the cliffs, crags, and mesas. This place will be sorely missed.

Backstage Beer Info:
Innsbruck:
Schwechater

Two dates left...
~RedRum

Graz - A Special Post

Today's update will be a guest post by the mighty Chris Bowes, the singer of our piratical brothers in arms, Alestorm:

"Sup dudes? This is badass fuckin' pirate Chris representin' to y'all from the sexy city of Graz in Austria. Actually that shit is a lie. This town blows goats. Apparently the most epic and bodacious governor of California Mr. Sir Lord Arnold of Schwarzenegger comes from here. Not like anyone gives a shit. As far as these dungeon-raping dudes are concerned, that guy is dead to the world. I tried giving a shoutout to that badass mothafucka on stage tonight, but nobody got what I was on about. No biggie. We all still rocked out, especially those badass piratical dudes in Swashbuckle. I was supposed to be dressing up as a shark on stage tonight, but I was caught short while dropping off some chocolate hostages. They hate me forever. Especially Pat, that big fat fucking faggot. But fuck it, I'd bone that dude in his big fatty folds. Yeah baby, you dig that shit.

Yeah, I'm all outta ideas. Time to get wasted on this delicious (read, shitty) Austrian beer. Mmmm.... Puntigamer.

Goodnight, bitches.
Word.
Chris xxx"

Well I totally fell off the blog band wagon...

But it wasn't my fault! Internet has been crap the past 4 days. I'm finally getting a period of respite in which I can update all my social networking thingamajigs. Just so the train of thought hasn't been completely abandoned, post-Pratteln we've seen Illingen, Eindhoven, Stuttgart, and Zlin, in Germany, The Netherlands, Germany, and the Czech Republic respectively.

A basic grading of the shows is exhibited hereunder:
Illingen - Ok
Eindhoven - Great
Stuttgart - Tremendous
Zlin - Buttfuckingly shitty.

and tonight's show in Budapest - Buttfuckingly Awesome.

I suppose the most notable happening that was undertaken was Volksfest, Stuttgart's annual autumnal fair (essentially Oktoberfest). Our good friend Marc Raner of the company Vans for Bands came out to our show in Stuttgart and was kind enough to give me a lift to the festival. I had a towering mug of Fürstenberg, stole the stein, listened to a German cover band perform a not so favorable rendition of "Walking on Sunshine", walked around the carnival rides, then headed back to Paganfest. Good times were had by all.

Backstage Beer Info:
Budapest:
Soproni

The missing cities' beer info is lost to the halls of history. They weren't very good tasting anyway.

We're rounding out this tour with a couple Austria shows and one in Italy.

~RedRum

Pratteln

So we're back in Pratteln, at the venue Z7 where we played the Metal Dayz festival earlier this year. There is a large erotic shop right down the street that we were unable to get to last time, but we had plenty of time today so Stijn and I galavanted off for a while. There we stumbled across a very unique magazine...

This is the first, and only venue on this tour with a washing machine and dryer, so everyone is waiting patiently in queue. I don't think I brought enough clean cloths to last the whole tour, so this is quite the windfall.

Looking forward to a good show. Kai from Eluveitie is here running some of the merch from here on out, and I believe some other members of Eluveitie will be here later to watch the gig.

Backstage Beer Info:
Pratteln:
Gralsburg Export

See you all tonight
~RedRum

Lyon

Ahh, Southern France, why are you so beautiful? Lyon is a happening little city. Apparently there are something on the order of 25 colleges here. Staggering. The college area reminds me a lot of the school I went to, Rutgers University in Jersey. Alestorm (minus Dani) and I meandered across one of the rivers here to the more affluent area of the city, saw a couple nice cathedrals, almost made it to some badass castley looking structure, but had to take the metro back to the venue in time for Swashbuckle's soundcheck. I had some delicious chocolate tasting thing from a little pastry shop enroute.

This is a very nice venue as well. Although the net connection has been shotty at best. I'm lucky I had an opportunity to fire this post off. Pretty crap beer, but then I suppose France isn't necessarily known for its skills in that arena. Perhaps I should have tried to find some wine...

Backstage Beer Info:
Lyon:
Biere Blonde de Luxe

~RedRum

Paris and Magic Merlin's Birthday

Happy birthday to our mystical drum tech, Merlin (of Eluveitie fame). Hope all your dirty dirty Swiss birthday wishes come true, my friend. The man materializes from a mist of sorts, effortlessly constructs the kit to each drummer's specifications from memory and then tirelessly stands guard should a high-hat clutch fail or a stick disengage from hand. His consistency is something all should strive for. Can't wait to be on tour with him again next year alongside Eluveitie...

Paris packed some surprises for us. The venue we performed in is next door (quite literally) to the most famous cabaret in the world, The Moulin Rogue. Because of this, we were forbidden from sound checking, or making any noise of significance until after the show next door was through at 8pm. Then we subjected the Parisians to our unique brand of metal. They were clearly prepared. We were expecting a much tamer crowd, but the fuckers loved it. Simply put, the audience was beastly.

Prior to the show I walked, or rather scaled, the Montmarte area with Crashride and our sound engineer Stijn. Here, at the highest point in Paris, sits the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, and what a grand cathedral it is. As we entered, Crashride, in a completely honest display of piety, muttered: "Should we take off our PAGANFEST tour passes?". I laughed. Then we went in.

Because it is the highest point in Paris, from it's steps, you get a grand view of the entire city and can pick out such landmarks as Notre Dame, The Eiffel Tower, and Les Invalides. It was at this point, as I gazed across the Paris skyline, that I smiled and pondered the thought that my droll little pirate band has taken me this far. It's funny how things work out. We probably won't have a better cityscape for the rest of the tour. It felt like we were in The Da Vinci Code. Both the movie, and the novel by Dan Brown.

Next time we're in Paris I will be sure to get down to the Louvre. I'm ashamed for not giving myself the opportunity to see the works from, among others, the masters of High Renaissance.

Oh well, we'll be back.

Backstage Beer Info:
Paris:
Kronenbourg

Since the only French I know is from those old Muzzy language learning commercials and Frasier episodes and a good Frasier quote escapes me, I'll leave you with this:

Je suis une jeune fille
~RedRum