The Fading - Official Tourdiary "Infecting Nations Tour 2010"

Mit den Melodic Deathern THE FADING macht sich eine weitere Band aus dem bis dato für metallische Klänge eher exotischen Israel daran auch in Europa Fuß zu fassen. Der erste Schritt hierzu war der Gewinn des 2008er "W:O:A Metal Battle" auf dem Wacken Open Air, welcher dem Quintett nebenbei auch den ersten Plattevertrag mit dem hauseigenen Label des Kultfestivals sicherte. Nachdem diesen Sommer das Debüt "In Sin we'll find Salvation" aufhorchen lies, sind die Burschen nun erstmalig auf ausgedehnter Europatournee und geben dabei den Anheizer für zwei Bands, an denen der geneigte Thrasher dieser Tage kaum vorbei kommt, nämlich EVILE und WARBRINGER. Was THE FADING auf diesem Kreuzzug quer über unseren Kontinent erleben, erfahrt ihr exklusiv auf sounds2move.de aus erster Hand im offiziellen Tourtagebuch.

Stay tuned for steady updates!

February 14th

After 11 great shows in the UK it’s about time to head up to mainland Europe for 22 more shows. We found ourselves on a ferry to France in the freezing cold of the English Channel with the guys of Evile and Warbringer getting bored to death. After landing on a safe and a bit less freezing ground we headed up to our first two shows in Holland, which from obvious reasons we were very excited to get to. So another long ride through the night is expected and the movie marathon continues, with Basket Case 2, which is the “best” worst movie ever probably, "Evil Dead" and more blockbusters. Ilia kept on playing Football Manager on his laptop…

We arrived at 013 in Tilburg to one of the coolest venues on the tour. Amazing backstage facilities, with all the food and the drinks we could dream of. There were pictures on the wall of almost all the artists who played this venue – from Nile to Ice Cube. It was a very good show that night, with a great response from the crowd for all bands. Paul marks this day as a tour milestone, for having his first shower after 6 days. This great standard of the venues ocontinued even after we left Tilburg, when we arrived at Kerkrade. The guys there showed us a great hospitality and probably the best Chinese food we got to eat on the tour. Nothing is perfect though – the crowd turnout wasn’t too great eventually. The Russian speakers in the band were happy to meet 3 Russian girls that somehow got to watch the show.

The rock star hospitality kept on going even in Saarbrucken and Munich – great venues with awesome facilities. The show at Saarbrucken was really hot, the crowd was almost on the stage itself and the energies were great! After the show one guy asked us to sign his The Fading t-shirt (that’s a first time for us), and we got explain a bit about our lives in Israel – mainly stuff like “We actually do have cars, we don’t ride camels”… The Munich show was pretty cool, the stage was extremely high and the bartender girl was hot. But the main event of the evening was definitely the 69 Eyes show in the next venue. Well, maybe not, probably just for Ilia – LOL.

Before those German shows, we played in Aarau, Switzerland and Prague, Czech Republic. Aarau was very very cold… a weather we would encounter again on this tour when we returned to Germany, after the Spain and Portugal shows. The awesome club in Aarau was a great compensation for the bad weather. The visit to Prague gave Ilia, Paul and Arie a chance to reconnect to their communist roots, with the Russian-looking streets. This was definitely the darker side of Prague - Creepy! The Prague fans reacted very well to our show, and gave us a rock star treatment just after we finished the show. Apparently the metal fans in Prague really like band autographs – on CD’s, vinyls, t-shirts, posters, concert tickets, and whatever you could think of. 

Stay tuned for the next part of the tour diary – about our great trip to Spain!

 

January 31st

In the second part of the tour diary, we will try to sum up our UK experience. A total of 11 shows were played in the United Kingdom, starting with Cardiff which we’ve mentioned in the first part of the diary, and a show in Wrexham on the next day. Not many people attended the Wrexham show, but it was still a lot of fun. The night continued with a great party at the club, a lot of alcohol and good music – a nice finish to the Welsh part of the tour.

Next was York – we had the pleasure to work with a very experienced sound engineer, and a very nice man. Apparently we are the second Israeli band he has ever worked with, after Monotonix – we spent about 15 minutes discussing this crazy Israeli trio. The crowd turnout seemed to be very good, and we also got interviewed for a local radio show – great success! The club in Glasgow welcomed us with 3 floors of staircases – definitely the hardest time so far loading the gear in and out. This show is memorable for the funny Scotts in the crowd, and the first shower of the tour!

Have you ever watched the Spinal Tap movie, in the scene where they get lost on their way to the stage? Well, apparently we were lost in the same mazes in Newcastle’s O2 academy, where we got to work with a great soundwoman. This was also the first time we got to know the double-venue system – entering the amazing main hall only to find out we are playing the smaller venue upstairs. The next day we woke up in Manchester’s University campus, to find a lot of good-looking ladies walking around all over the campus. Nothing really happened on this day-off, but the show on the next day was absolutely great – amazing crowd and lots of energies made this show on of the best of the whole tour so far.

After watching the entire "Back to the Future" trilogy, we arrived at Nottingham, to a cool club with a great staff. The place was pretty packed and the show was awesome. The crowd in Leeds was assembled from mostly grown-ups, and the reaction from the crowd seemed to be pretty decent, but nothing prepared us for the huge amount of CD’s we sold later that evening. The club in Bristol was actually on a boat! That didn’t stop the crazy crowd from rocking the place for 3 shows straight. In London we got to meet some old friends from Israel, who came to see us play. After the show we all went to party in Lucy’s pub, with a lot of alcohol and metal sing-a-longs. Wolverhampton was the final show in the UK, in the newly-built club The Little Civic. This town seemed to have the cheapest places to get food in, as anyone can satisfy his appetite for a little more than £2.

That’s it for now, part 3 to come in a few days!

 

January 20th

Hello there!

Elad from The Fading here, reporting from the “Infecting Nations 2010” European tour with Evile and Warbringer. We are now in Manchester on one of the few off-days we have on this tour, and that’s probably a good time to give you the story as it is so far, starting with Day 1, the busiest day so far:

Last Thursday started as we somehow managed to get all our gear to the Ben Gurion airport just outside of Tel-Aviv. When we arrived at the airport, Shaked suddenly realized he has forgotten his cymbals at home! A couple of phone calls and one late-night taxi driver got the cymbals back in Shaked’s lap. After the check-in and the other regular procedures we found out that our flight is going to take off after a 45-minute delay – not too bad, but with the other bands waiting on the tourbus to pick us up in London – we could easily do without that delay. Finally, after a 5-and-a-half hour flight, we landed at Luton Airport in London. Then we got held up for about 20 minutes at the border control to check our UK work permits (we actually have them!!), and after getting our luggage we met Lyall, the tour manager. A very nice guy who welcomed us very pleasantly, and showed us the way outside to the tour bus.

On the tour bus we got to meet our buddies for the upcoming 5 weeks – Evile and Warbringer. Everyone was really nice and we were very glad to get some tour tips from those 2 experienced bands. We spent the next 4 hours driving to Cardiff, Wales for our first show of the tour, trying to get some sleep on the way due to the lack of it on the flight and earlier. Upon arriving to Cardiff, we went down the stairs to find a club with a very sticky floor, and a pretty small stage too. We were told to expect more than 150 people in the crowd, so we figured the place is going to be pretty packed. And so it was! Our first show in the UK came out really well, as the crowd seemed to be very supportive. That night we also got to witness the professionalism of Lucy, the merch-girl, who got everything under control within minutes.

After loading the gear back to the trailer and chugging down the rest of the beers the club has given us, it was time to go to bed while the bus is driving down to Wrexham. A long day finally comes to an end. Great Success!

A second report coming soon!

The Fading