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Fear my Thoughts - "Where Death is most alive" Tourdiary 2008

With their new singer and new creative courage for thier own musical identity FEAR MY THOUGHTS this year presented us thier new album "Isolation" and gave prove that they don't give a damn about categories and being pigeonholed. At the same time the album not only earned excellent critics but also brought much respect from all sides for the musicians behind it. In October and November the band from Freiburg are on a foray across European clubs, together with thier label mates DARK TRANQUILLITY and POISONBLACK. And not only are we inviting you to be present live at the shows, but you also have the opportunity to learn what's going on behind the scenes of the tour that is encompassing eight countries. Exclusively of course at sounds2move.de. The guys of FEAR MY THOUGHTS will give you their tour diary and take you on a journey that promises to be exciting. You can't be saved - you cannot hide.

Translation: Heiko Eschenbach - www.sounds2move.de

October 24th 2008 - Berlin (D)

Hi, this is Patrick of Fear My Thoughts. I was commissioned from a higher instance to write a diary for this tour, to give you a little insight into the happeinings during the everday life at tour.

I accept to do it, because a lot of time at tour you spend with sitting around and waiting. Just like Keith Richards decribed it after a journalist's question on how the everday life of a real rocker would look like: "22 hours waiting, 2 hours Rock n Roll".

Well, I don't want to badmouth it that much, as it is a special privilege to take a trip around the world in that way, and more so as we're doing it with such long-serving bands as Dark Tranquillity. Before a tour of course you intend to sensibly use the remaining time. You can put out some literary treasures out of your shelf ("I'm finally reading this"), ort he designers and studio operators amongst us can put their work onto their laptop and work on remaining things. Or you do sightseeing at several metropolis. But as the experience from former tours proves, most of the time you're just lying around wasted and ristless, haha…and soundchecks and other organizational things have to be done. Okay, that's it for the talking, should be enough for a short introduction.

Yesterday first day of the tour in berlin. First dates of a tour usually mean: stress, hecticness, nervousness..you meet a lot of new people that you have to deal with, the whole equipment must be spread…here something is missing, there soemthing is too much, who has which task..but after few days it works quite well. Dark Tranquillity's crew and theband itself are extremely relaxed an friendly and so the first day goes down quite unstressful. We have a good show, the audience seems to be very interested in the live performance of our new songs and waves as goodbye in a seemingly satisfied way. Poisonblack are real rockers and womanisers, and DT do almost a punkrock show in the small Kato, including singer Mikael Stanne crowdsurfing. A great opeing show, the audience is enthusiastic.

Today Hamburg/Grünspan…wer are coming!

October 25th 2008 - Hamburg (D)

From Berlin-Kreuzberg to Hamburg-St.Pauli-Reeperbahn. Two cult sites of entertainment on two consecutive days. But only Norman and Bartosz entered the fray after the show between bad discos, filthy bars and expensive ladies for rent.

The rest falls tiredly into the berths of our 6-bed camper van that we've hired for the tour. Unfortunately the description on the internet was a bit misdirecting, instead of 6 beds there are only 4, plus 2 emergency cots, rather intended for children. Only one person can nestle on this two places located next to each other. We are however six people, because our merchendiser/driver/roadie Thomas is with us. And thus one person always has to organise a sleeping place otherwise. Up 'til now it works quite well, we are masters of improvisation! Ah, yes, the concert at the Grünspan. It was quite cool, especially at the Dark Tranquillity show the sold out club was boiling. Tonight we have an early Sunday Matiness-Show in Dordrecht in the Netherlands, we're looking forward.

 

October 26th - Doortrecht (NL)

For some the Netherlands are embodiment of freedom and liberty, especially concering some intoxication laws. And so some of our fellow trevellers spent time at some smoky joints. The anticipation could be felt at the beginning of the tour.

The Bibelot in Dordrecht is a spezial concert location as it is inside an old church. Our light operator is very happy about that (to many he is by the way known Masmiseim -> bass player for SAMAEL!), because the ambience fits perfectly for his video projections that he puts on a screen during the DT show. DT-soundman Andrew however is absolutely NOT amused, because the sound in the old chapel is just horrible. But is ist he very friendly and competent Bibelot crew and the atmosphere in this wonderful building that compensate that.

We have to enter the stage as early as 4 p.m. as the whole concert must be finished at nine. It's an wakward time for rock 'n' roll, but nontheless the show was very much fun.

 

October 27th - Vosselaar (B)

FMT and Belgium…not always an easy relationship. We played countless numbers in the land of chips but every time we have the feeling, that nobody knows us, likes us or both.

Well, there wer not many people at the front at the beginning of our show, but it was good and we had fun playing. Next to the club there is a shop called "METALZONE", a huge shop selling everything what a metalhead could look for. The owners gear the opening times to the shows in the Biebob, so the shop was opened today until midnight. But there's also positive things in Belgium: First I met my wife there und then one of our oldest friends and supporters is Belgian! Dries from Antwerpen, who helped is out in some crazy situations, when we needed a place to sleep because the organizers forgot to get us one!

 
October 28th - Paris (F)

Funny is that the club Locomtive is located in the same building as the world famous Moulin Rouge, and even a dicotheque is to be found there. And this is why the scenery in the evening is almost scurrile: Outside the building there's a crowd constisting of metalheds, disco guests and Moulin Rouge vistors, mainly Japanese and American tourists on a "Europe in 10 days"-trip. As the club is at an important traffic street, the nightliner and our camper are only allowed to stay here for 15 minutes for unloading and then have to be parked elsewhere. For the nightliner there's a parking lot for busses available, but we mustn't go there, because a camper just is not a bus.

Something extreme follows: We're not kidding you, we're searching five (!!!) hours for a parking lot on the center of Paris. Wer are too large for usual parking garages, too small for the bus lots and gaps that we find are big enough for a Renault Clio. Totally frustratet we return to the Locomotive and ask the organiser for help. And "suddenly" it occurs to him, that there's a parking garage for campers, vans, trucks etc just five minutes away...AAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!. Well, we were lucky in the end, but the rest of the day we'll spend chilling!

The show is quite cool, the venue seems to be sold out. The people's reactions are ok, and the strong applause seems to be honest. Heart-warming was the meeting with a French die hard fan who wns seemingly everything from us, even the lp's. He then wanted to have evrything signed and do some pics. Thank you man. See ya in Lyon!

 

Photos: Anthony D.
 

October 29th - Lyon (F)

I've never been to Lyon, and so I was looking forward to doing a bit of sightseeing, as French cities ususally offer a very nice historic city. I have to rethink because it's raining constantly and because of the club's  location, that is in the middle of a commercial area outside the city. Pity,  but that's how it goes on such tours! And so we were all just hangin' out, but that was okay. The club is quite  comfortable and well equipped. FMT + slave Thomas made the others scoff at them, as we were sitting next to each other on six laptops in a row. Several fins and Swedes drink their first beers at 2 p.m., so I rather spend  my time with writing tour diaries - that's better for my health in the long  run.

The show has been the best on the tour so far and I think this is partly due to the uniqueness of the French metal scene. The scene there is more  indenpendent and more open with experiments as for instance the German one. "Progressive" and "advancement" are no curse words there, but naturalness. Bands like Gojira, Hacride, Cubensis or Scarve are very huge in that country, and I think this is excptional, because their music really isn't  suitable for the mass.Sorry if some of our German musician collegues don't share my opinion, but I think we could really take a page from our neighbour's book.

Right after the concert we packed our bags and made our way .. HOME!!!..yes, that's right! As we'll have a day off tomorrow, we decided to travel 400km  home, spend the day with our loved ones and drive to Milan on Friday, only  350 km from our homes.The sudden onset of winter unfortunately swarded our plans. In Genf, 250 km before our destination, it started to snow so heavily that it was nearly impossible for the Autobahn to be crossed, trees were broken etc. Instead of  the planned 4 hours of travel time we were on the road for 8 hours, because we couldn't drive faster than 30 km per hour for some hours. It was nerve-stretching when we arrived home at five in the morning. But to share the bed with your own wife compensates all inconvenience. ;-)
 

October 31th - Milano (I)

After a day of relaxing at home we made our way to Milan, only 300 km away. The amazing journey through the alps even proceeded without the usual traffic problems. Directly in Milano however a jam started, and continued through the whole city center and so it took 1,5 hours to take us from the periphery to the club. ...grr...

When arriving Dark Tranquility were rehearsing their gig with a guest female vocalist that was flown in fro Sweden. This should be a special day: DT had chosen this club to film their gig for a DVD. The band has a very strong fan base in Italy and speaking choirs could be heard from the outside fans hours before the show. Due to the preparation and quantity of the production both Poisonblack and we have to shorten our sets but we could use the great light and sound PA. Our show was great, Poisonblack were celebrated and Dark Tranquilly made an incredible show, the crowd was amazing, longs since I last experienced something like that, sheer madness!

After the concert all were relieved, the nervousness and the stress of the day disappeared, the aftershow party was boozy and DT seem to be so big in Italy that they were escorted out of the club by bodyguards in black suits and with miniature headsets and radio devices – somehow strange.

November 1th - Bologna (I)

From the rainy Milan into the South to Bologna! The temperatures rise, the clouds become less, a glimmer of late summer surrounds us. The Estragon is located at the edge of the city inside a former aircraft hangar and some utilize the likeable climate to sit outside in the sun, with a laptop, beer or literature. A trip into the center again seems to be too circumstantial – unfortunately!

With DT the atmosphere is a bit chastened: Singer Mikael's bag was stolen yesterday in the club, including notebook and identification papers. And there are constantly problems with the nightliner's technics and the incompetent bus driver. Sometimes the motor doesn't start, water runs through leaks into the berths, the driver turns the air condition too hot or too cold and has such a dynamic driving style that it's almost impossible to sleep during the drive.

We get a visit today from – attention – the Azores! Travelling to this small Portuguese group of Isles in the Atlantic between Europe and America we made some friends there and this is why a lovely woman named Cristina travelled just for this day from Sao Miuel in the Azores to Bologna to see us. 3000 km one way! Arrived one morning, back on the next. That's what I call a dedication!!! The show wasn't as great as the one from the day before, but that was hard to top. But we can say that it was „successful“ anyway. 

 

November 2th - Rome (I)

Rome is always worth a trip, for me it's Europe's most beautiful city. It's unbelivable how many sights can be visited there. Everyhwere there's another ancient monument. The concert was to be the best on the tour so far, the crowd was great, I think we sould tour more often in Italy. ;)

We had a day-off after the show, and we dicided together we the whole people touring with us, to stay in Rome and enjoy the city or sleep in the bus the whole day. We walked through the city 8 hours and it was a real cool day! 25°C in November and bright sunshine – that's something we can live with. In the evening we drove to the coast in Ostia and Norman and Marsen took a bath in the sea.

 

November 4th - Treviso (I)

It started to rain last night. Pity...that's it with the summer weather. We had a longer journey of 600km after Treviso, in the rain and grey it seemed to be eternal. In darkness we arrived at a forlorn indsutrial area. The atmosphere was queasy then, the more so as the backstage area and the stage were tiny, so that we tread each other on the feet. When we entered the stage, only 50 people were there and the concert was rather moderate. And the local light technician seemed to be new. Either we had flash in the pan for some minutes, or it was totally dark. Well.

Thus far for the four shows in Italy, that were all great except for Treviso. And I have to add the great catering. I could have eaten the whole day through. 

 

 

Link: www.fearmythoughts.com , www.myspace.com/wheredeathismostalivetour