Day 60 - 2011 wrap-up
2011 is over for Pain. We have done 47 shows in 15 countries.
Thanks to our fantastic crew who makes everything possible. Hede, Kimmo, Macke, Emanuel, Kjellgren, Jens. I guess i am not expressing my gratitude as often as i should, sorry for that!
Thanks to all our drivers, tourmanagers and catering personnel that has been working with us this year. I guess you won't hear "thanks" as often as you deserve either... So - Thanks!
Thanks to Raubtier, Engel, Turmion Kätylöt and Black Light Discipline. I had a blast with you guys! New friends in the Pain family, and more crazy memories to be told :-)
Thanks to Jackson guitars, Sennheiser, Rawk/Xzavier, Dunlop strings and Avid Technology. Because of you i had the best gear and the best possible sound available. Your support makes me feel safe and calm when i know i always have the best (and best looking) gear.
Thanks to my colleagues at work, who keeps up with me and my irregular travels... They never know if i am at the office or on the road from one week to the other. I really appreciate your support.
But most of all, thanks to YOU, all our Painheads that has been supporting us. We are nothing without your support, and and i am always proud of our Painheads around the world - respect.
Now it's time to draw back and lick our wounds. I will continue to work on the 8th Sin album "Cosmogenesis" that i think will come out at some point next year, and in December i will lay down under the knife to do a surgery. After that i will be in bed for a couple of weeks.
Thanks to our fantastic crew who makes everything possible. Hede, Kimmo, Macke, Emanuel, Kjellgren, Jens. I guess i am not expressing my gratitude as often as i should, sorry for that!
Thanks to all our drivers, tourmanagers and catering personnel that has been working with us this year. I guess you won't hear "thanks" as often as you deserve either... So - Thanks!
Thanks to Raubtier, Engel, Turmion Kätylöt and Black Light Discipline. I had a blast with you guys! New friends in the Pain family, and more crazy memories to be told :-)
Thanks to Jackson guitars, Sennheiser, Rawk/Xzavier, Dunlop strings and Avid Technology. Because of you i had the best gear and the best possible sound available. Your support makes me feel safe and calm when i know i always have the best (and best looking) gear.
Thanks to my colleagues at work, who keeps up with me and my irregular travels... They never know if i am at the office or on the road from one week to the other. I really appreciate your support.
But most of all, thanks to YOU, all our Painheads that has been supporting us. We are nothing without your support, and and i am always proud of our Painheads around the world - respect.
Now it's time to draw back and lick our wounds. I will continue to work on the 8th Sin album "Cosmogenesis" that i think will come out at some point next year, and in December i will lay down under the knife to do a surgery. After that i will be in bed for a couple of weeks.
I'll write here again next time we are on the road. Lots of you seems to like this blog, that's why i do it.
Keep in touch at the official Pain forum (found through our site www.painworldwide.com). You can also find Pain and 8th Sin pages at Facebook and MySpace.
//Michael Bohlin
Pain 2011 passes
Denis Goria in action, filming for our upcoming DVD
The filmcrew is making final preparations for the show
The filmcrew is making final preparations for the show
Rigging for DVD recording in Stockholm
Rigging for DVD recording in Stockholm
Denis Goria in action, filming for our upcoming DVD
Day 59 - Stockholm, Sweden
In Sweden we call this day "Fathers Day", and it is when all fathers are being celebrated by their children. It was just a co-incidence that the date for our last show became the same as the annual Fathers Day.
So, to be able to spend time with my children, i drove back to Stockholm right after the show in Örebro. My girlfriend came with our car so we could go right after the show, while the others stayed and came next day with the tourbus as usual. But as i came home after the show, i could sleep at home in my own bed, and wake up fresh. My youngest daughter came around lunchtime and we had some applepie. Then i left to the venue for soundcheck in the afternoon. After soundcheck i met my oldest daughter and went to have dinner with her before the doors open.
Everything this day was delayed a lot. Load in, soundcheck, doors, showtime. The reason was mainly that this show was filmed for an upcoming DVD and the preparation for this is huge. They had to build up the camera cranes and it was loads of extra people working in the film team, i think it was eight cameras.
After all we could enter the stage for the last time this year, about 45 minutes too late. The venue was full and the expectations were high. I personally squeezed out the last drips of energy that i had left, to make this as good as possible, and the payback was a good show but a fucked-up Michael afterwards. I was so exhausted that i almost vomited after the show, but i also had a cold coming up again which didn't really make it easier. When i came home after the show i had fever. I think i got the same as Peter, who had a really bad cold as well. Anyway, the show itself was great and we had a good time, and Andre Skaug was visiting us on a couple of songs. As we were "home" in Stockholm we had hundreds of friends showing up and the whole feeling was just fantastic. Bands, friends, families, journalists, photographers and others - they were all there.
I will wrap up this tour in a separate blog, but for now - thanks to everybody involved!
Camera preparations
Camera preparations
Camera preparations
So, to be able to spend time with my children, i drove back to Stockholm right after the show in Örebro. My girlfriend came with our car so we could go right after the show, while the others stayed and came next day with the tourbus as usual. But as i came home after the show, i could sleep at home in my own bed, and wake up fresh. My youngest daughter came around lunchtime and we had some applepie. Then i left to the venue for soundcheck in the afternoon. After soundcheck i met my oldest daughter and went to have dinner with her before the doors open.
Everything this day was delayed a lot. Load in, soundcheck, doors, showtime. The reason was mainly that this show was filmed for an upcoming DVD and the preparation for this is huge. They had to build up the camera cranes and it was loads of extra people working in the film team, i think it was eight cameras.
After all we could enter the stage for the last time this year, about 45 minutes too late. The venue was full and the expectations were high. I personally squeezed out the last drips of energy that i had left, to make this as good as possible, and the payback was a good show but a fucked-up Michael afterwards. I was so exhausted that i almost vomited after the show, but i also had a cold coming up again which didn't really make it easier. When i came home after the show i had fever. I think i got the same as Peter, who had a really bad cold as well. Anyway, the show itself was great and we had a good time, and Andre Skaug was visiting us on a couple of songs. As we were "home" in Stockholm we had hundreds of friends showing up and the whole feeling was just fantastic. Bands, friends, families, journalists, photographers and others - they were all there.
I will wrap up this tour in a separate blog, but for now - thanks to everybody involved!
Camera preparations
Camera preparations
Camera preparations
Day 58 - Örebro, Sweden
Today is Johans birthday! We celebrated him as much as we could in real Pain-manner. He got birthday cake in the tourbus, and we sang to him. We had a nice dinner with him at "Wongs", then we celebrated him on stage in Örebro, with help from Raubtier and crew. The whole audience sang for Johan and we had funny hats and balloons :-)
Overall it was a really good show, and we had loads of fun. Hulkoff from Raubtier joined us on stage at "Shut your mouth" and we joined Raubtier in one song as well. It was all like a big funny party on stage.
Örebro is also the place where Björn (our merchandise guy at the european part of the tour) lives, so he came to see us together with his family. Nice to see him agian!
Tomorrow is the last show on this tour and in 2011. Stockholm!!!
Johans birthdaycake!
Johans birthdaypresents from Pain, Raubtier and Crew. Delivered by Hulkoff
Blue birthdaycake, shared backstage
Kulturhuset in Örebro, Sweden
Pain in Örebro, Sweden
Overall it was a really good show, and we had loads of fun. Hulkoff from Raubtier joined us on stage at "Shut your mouth" and we joined Raubtier in one song as well. It was all like a big funny party on stage.
Örebro is also the place where Björn (our merchandise guy at the european part of the tour) lives, so he came to see us together with his family. Nice to see him agian!
Tomorrow is the last show on this tour and in 2011. Stockholm!!!
Johans birthdaycake!
Johans birthdaypresents from Pain, Raubtier and Crew. Delivered by Hulkoff
Blue birthdaycake, shared backstage
Kulturhuset in Örebro, Sweden
Pain in Örebro, Sweden
Day 57 - Mariestad, Sweden
!!! 11-11-11 !!!
You shouldn't have too high hopes, that's what i learned today. Normally, eleven is my lucky number, but today i seriously doubt it.
I woke up early as usual, and realised that i got almost no sleep this night as the party in the bus was serious. Normally i sleep like a stone even though people are having a party. Also, the party normally goes on upstairs and i have my bed downstairs, so it's fine. But this night it was all over the top, on both floors and outside the bus. So i was terrible tired all morning and just tried to figure out when i could get my sleep back.
Then we arrived in Mariestad and i walked into the venue to get something to eat. That's when i first saw the stage. I was like "is this a joke?". As long as i have been in this band, i have never played in such small stage ever. The stage-set we have is pretty big, but it can also be transformed to adapt to different stage sizes. But this was something else... I started to think that this day will be interesting.
As we have such fantastic crew, they always tries to get the best out of every situation, and in some crazy way the found a way to use small parts of our stage-set in this venue anyway. We made our soundcheck and it felt like it will be okay after all. Then i got reminded again that this is a Pain tour. When we were about to eat dinner, the whole place went dark. The power system in this building was not really top of the line so to speak.. Mixing consoles started to blink and all electrinics went nuts. Something really bad had happened to the power system and it was clear that our gear was too much for it.
So, terribly hungry, we were sitting in a dark restaurant with candles on the table, waiting for the power to come back so they could start making our food in the kitchen. The mood fell pretty low with most of us at this point. Eventually they managed to fix the power system and everything started to function again, including the kitchen and we got our dinner.
I went out to the bus and went to sleep. I really need to get my sleep! I fell asleep right away and woke up two hours later by my alarm clock. I don't know if this was a good idea, but to wake up 50 minutes before showtime, and feel like a zombie (even more tired than before) is taking it's toll sooner or later.
Showtime. We managed to fit the stage even though we couldn't move at all. After just a few songs, in "The end of the line", Buffeln from Raubtier had a bright idea to come up on stage to give Peter a shot of booze. Not that smart. Due to the small stage size, he pushed me over when he was leaving the stage so i fell backwards towards the drums, and managed to get hold of a moving head right before i hit the floor. After the feeling i got through this whole day, i got totally pissed off when this happened and started to yell at him. This was not intentional and he was very sorry about this, and i had to apologize afterwards. The whole situation just made me so angry, but not really at him. Poor Buffeln :-(
Next stop is Örebro, and also Johans bithday!
Our backline tech, Emanuel. Faceless.
Welcome to Mariestad
Less than 50% of our stage-set could fit in the venue in Mariestad..
Loading the bus after the show, at 3:30 am in Mariestad
Mariestad by night
You shouldn't have too high hopes, that's what i learned today. Normally, eleven is my lucky number, but today i seriously doubt it.
I woke up early as usual, and realised that i got almost no sleep this night as the party in the bus was serious. Normally i sleep like a stone even though people are having a party. Also, the party normally goes on upstairs and i have my bed downstairs, so it's fine. But this night it was all over the top, on both floors and outside the bus. So i was terrible tired all morning and just tried to figure out when i could get my sleep back.
Then we arrived in Mariestad and i walked into the venue to get something to eat. That's when i first saw the stage. I was like "is this a joke?". As long as i have been in this band, i have never played in such small stage ever. The stage-set we have is pretty big, but it can also be transformed to adapt to different stage sizes. But this was something else... I started to think that this day will be interesting.
As we have such fantastic crew, they always tries to get the best out of every situation, and in some crazy way the found a way to use small parts of our stage-set in this venue anyway. We made our soundcheck and it felt like it will be okay after all. Then i got reminded again that this is a Pain tour. When we were about to eat dinner, the whole place went dark. The power system in this building was not really top of the line so to speak.. Mixing consoles started to blink and all electrinics went nuts. Something really bad had happened to the power system and it was clear that our gear was too much for it.
So, terribly hungry, we were sitting in a dark restaurant with candles on the table, waiting for the power to come back so they could start making our food in the kitchen. The mood fell pretty low with most of us at this point. Eventually they managed to fix the power system and everything started to function again, including the kitchen and we got our dinner.
I went out to the bus and went to sleep. I really need to get my sleep! I fell asleep right away and woke up two hours later by my alarm clock. I don't know if this was a good idea, but to wake up 50 minutes before showtime, and feel like a zombie (even more tired than before) is taking it's toll sooner or later.
Showtime. We managed to fit the stage even though we couldn't move at all. After just a few songs, in "The end of the line", Buffeln from Raubtier had a bright idea to come up on stage to give Peter a shot of booze. Not that smart. Due to the small stage size, he pushed me over when he was leaving the stage so i fell backwards towards the drums, and managed to get hold of a moving head right before i hit the floor. After the feeling i got through this whole day, i got totally pissed off when this happened and started to yell at him. This was not intentional and he was very sorry about this, and i had to apologize afterwards. The whole situation just made me so angry, but not really at him. Poor Buffeln :-(
Next stop is Örebro, and also Johans bithday!
Our backline tech, Emanuel. Faceless.
Welcome to Mariestad
Less than 50% of our stage-set could fit in the venue in Mariestad..
Loading the bus after the show, at 3:30 am in Mariestad
Mariestad by night
Day 56 - Gothenburg, Sweden
We arrived in a very sunny and nice Gothenburg around lunchtime, and the first person i met was Patrik Douglas. Patrik was touring with us (actually with Engel) on the European part of the tour, and it was very nice to meet him again! Just like yesterday we had many friends visiting us at the show. All our friends in Engel came to pay us a visit, as well as Peter Iwers from In Flames, the great guys from Jackson Guitars, Baskim from Meta 4 Music and many more. The Painhead Sean from France was also at the show, i wonder how many shows he has seen now? Also, do you remember when i wrote about this Italian Painhead that was at every Italian show and then also in Barcelona? She was at the show as well... I am stunned...
Anyway, the show was great, and we got many comments afterwards about the fantastic sound! Especially from people who has seen many shows in this venue that said that "normally it sounds like shit here, but tonight it was fantastic, and that guitar sound!". Things like this is very inspiring to hear, and i am bound to say that the reason is Kimmo Ahola, Venue SC48 and Eleven Rack. It's a winning concept. Period.
After the show, Peter Iwers brought us all to his own bar/restaurant that he opened up this summer. It is called 2112 and is a really nice placei must say! We tried the In Flames whisky and some other good stuff. I promised Peter and myself that i will visit this place again and try out the menu - it looks really promising!
Tomorrow we will be in Mariestad, and it's 11-11-11! My lucky number is 11, so this will be interesting!
:-)
This is the first thing i saw in the bus when i woke up this morning...
Beautiful day in Gothenburg
Parked outside "Brew house" in Gothenburg
Playtime again, more planes and stuff bought today. Buffeln and Hede is happy
David and Johan is building tanks...
Special guitar pick from the bar/restaurant 2112
Pain with Peter Iwers from In Flames, at 2112
Anyway, the show was great, and we got many comments afterwards about the fantastic sound! Especially from people who has seen many shows in this venue that said that "normally it sounds like shit here, but tonight it was fantastic, and that guitar sound!". Things like this is very inspiring to hear, and i am bound to say that the reason is Kimmo Ahola, Venue SC48 and Eleven Rack. It's a winning concept. Period.
After the show, Peter Iwers brought us all to his own bar/restaurant that he opened up this summer. It is called 2112 and is a really nice placei must say! We tried the In Flames whisky and some other good stuff. I promised Peter and myself that i will visit this place again and try out the menu - it looks really promising!
Tomorrow we will be in Mariestad, and it's 11-11-11! My lucky number is 11, so this will be interesting!
:-)
This is the first thing i saw in the bus when i woke up this morning...
Beautiful day in Gothenburg
Parked outside "Brew house" in Gothenburg
Playtime again, more planes and stuff bought today. Buffeln and Hede is happy
David and Johan is building tanks...
Special guitar pick from the bar/restaurant 2112
Pain with Peter Iwers from In Flames, at 2112
Day 55 - Lund, Sweden
Back in the tourbus again. Back in black. We left Stockholm late last night together with Raubtier and our whole crew. David didn't go with us as he was busy and arrived today with train to Lund instead. Same with Johan, who doesn't even live in Stockholm, so he also joined us in Lund. Our crazy French photographer Denis Goria also joined in Lund, as he will do some documentary for some possible future stuff. We drove all night and arrived early morning in Lund. First we picked up all our gear that had been in a warehouse after the european tour, and then we continued to the venue. We realised that some very important gear was left in Germany in our other tourbus, so our German tourmanager Marcus Müller had to pick up the gear and drive all the 700km to Lund and leave it before our soundcheck. Sweet. Now we don't have to remind ourselves that this is a Pain tour.
It's fun to be back with Raubtier again, and with Johan. I have missed him a lot. The crazy Raubtier guys went to a store in Lund and bought really expensive radio-controlled mini-helicopters. They went out on the backside of the venue, started them up, flew about 2 minutes, and then crashed them all completely. That was very expensive 2 minutes of fun... Jeez
I like to play in Sweden, among all our friends. Our guestlist on every show in Sweden is completely packed. This night we had friends from Xzavier/Rawk and Avid, among many others. The show was good and it was packed in "mejeriet"! Lots of energy, and after a couple of songs it felt like last show was yesterday.
Tomorrow we will end up in Gothenburg. The home of great metal, and we have loads of friends there. I am really looking forward to see them all!
Johan is back! (-stage, hahaha)
David is polishing his metal painheads
Raubtiers metal was already shiny
Soundcheck in "Mejeriet", Lund. Venue SC48 as usual. Kimmo Ahola as usual.
Back in Black - our home right now
David before the show (and Denis is always around...)
Audience in Lund
It's fun to be back with Raubtier again, and with Johan. I have missed him a lot. The crazy Raubtier guys went to a store in Lund and bought really expensive radio-controlled mini-helicopters. They went out on the backside of the venue, started them up, flew about 2 minutes, and then crashed them all completely. That was very expensive 2 minutes of fun... Jeez
I like to play in Sweden, among all our friends. Our guestlist on every show in Sweden is completely packed. This night we had friends from Xzavier/Rawk and Avid, among many others. The show was good and it was packed in "mejeriet"! Lots of energy, and after a couple of songs it felt like last show was yesterday.
Tomorrow we will end up in Gothenburg. The home of great metal, and we have loads of friends there. I am really looking forward to see them all!
Johan is back! (-stage, hahaha)
David is polishing his metal painheads
Raubtiers metal was already shiny
Soundcheck in "Mejeriet", Lund. Venue SC48 as usual. Kimmo Ahola as usual.
Back in Black - our home right now
David before the show (and Denis is always around...)
Audience in Lund
Day 54 - Leaving Stockholm again
Enough rest now. When i am writing this i am about to pack my bag and get ready to leave my home and go to the central station here in Stockholm, where the tourbus will pick us up and drive to Lund. Tomorrow we kick off the first show of the last part of the 2011 tour. We have 5 shows to do, and they are all here in Sweden. Raubtier is back as support again, and Johan is back on stage. It feels really good to end the tour in Sweden for once, i don't think it ever happened before. And to be able to have the grand finale in Stockholm is even better! After that show i can just easily jump in my car and go home, which will take about 10 minutes, then we are done with 2011 and have done 47 shows by then.
See 'ya tomorrow in Lund!
Here we go again
Live in Paris
Live in Paris
Live in Lyon
Live in Lyon
Live in Toulouse
Live in Toulouse
Live in Toulouse
Live in Toulouse
See 'ya tomorrow in Lund!
Here we go again
Live in Paris
Live in Paris
Live in Lyon
Live in Lyon
Live in Toulouse
Live in Toulouse
Live in Toulouse
Live in Toulouse
