! ! !  S O L D  O U T  ! ! !
The last show on this part of the tour became the highlight so far. A sold out Nosturi packed with crazy Finnish Painheads really made my day! It is so inspiring to play under these conditions, and i am so grateful the Finnish fans always treats us like this. Respect!

After the show we had some visits backstage from many of our Finnish friends (like people we have been touring with in the past), our crew packed up and we said goodbye to Kimmo, Sofia and Johan who went other directions. The rest of us went to Turku to catch the morningferry to Stockholm.

Thank you all so much for these first 9 shows, now it's only 30 shows left to do :-)



Pain backstage at Nosturi - end of part one


Hede and Kimmos workingplace at Nosturi


Cool Kiss-paintings in the bar at Nosturi


The Nosturi Schedule


Our tourbus parked outside Nosturi in Helsinki


Another word that fitted my i-theory


It's many bodypacks with different frequences to administrate

I am a sucker for breakfast. I just have to admit that. If i don't get breakfast i get grumpy. So my most important meal every day, is always breakfast. Then if the breakfast is high quality, it's even better. So i have developed a 10-point breakfast scoring system for breakfasts. Before we left Kuopio i got a very good breakfast at "Fransmanni", which was a hotel breakfast actually. This one was a 9/10 and i got "Karelska Piroger med äggsmör" (i have no idea what that is in English...).

Anyway, we left for Jyväskylä, arrived safely without any gas problems or other strange moments. It's almost 4 years ago since we were here, in the same venue at Lutakko in Jyväskylä. I remember that was a good show, so my expectations for this one was pretty high. It turned out that i was right, and the show was fantastic. I think Lutakko was just about packed to the maximum with people, and the atmosphere was great! So i think it was a really good show, despite the fact that we had some minor fuck-ups again (like when i was given a guitar that was tuned in the wrong pitch).

After the show, the Sauna was ready in the backstage. It was friday night and we had several things to celebrate, like the fact that it was friday, a very good show, but mostly that it was Mackes (our guitartechnichians) birthday! So everybody made sure to get to the bus before him, and prepared a birthday party. So when he finally arrived we all sang to him and had ballons and a cake ready. Hehe... Our support band Black Light Discipline was there as well, and i guess the party went a bit too far as they forgot their bass player in the bus when they left. He was still in the upper lounge when we left Jyväskylä for Helsinki...

Only one show to go in Finland now.



Macke (guitar tech) and Sofia (Merchandise)


Backstage in Lutakko, Jyväskylä


Mackes birthdayparty in the tourbus, but where is Macke himself?


Mackes birthdayparty in the tourbus, but where is Macke himself?


Mackes birthdayparty in the tourbus, but where is Macke himself?


Mackes birthdayparty in the tourbus, but where is Macke himself?


Mackes birthdayparty in the tourbus, but where is Macke himself?


Mackes birthdayparty in the tourbus, but where is Macke himself?


Live in Umeå - Photo: Mats Söderholm


Live in Umeå - Photo: Mats Söderholm


Live in Umeå - Photo: Mats Söderholm


Live in Umeå - Photo: Mats Söderholm


Live in Östersund - Photo: Jenny Widding


Live in Sundsvall - Photo: Björling Media

This morning i realised that the internet connection we had in the bus didn't work when we left Sweden. Smart. So me and Kimmo went to Elisa in Oulu at 9am to get a USB modem, before we left Oulu for Kuopio. So now i have internet in the bus again, and can continue blogging :-)

Our driver took the wrong route from Oulu to Kuopio, and ended up in the Finnish-middle-of-nowhere with no gas stations to be found. As this is a Pain tour, it was not unexpected at all that we soon ran out of gas... So here we were, totally alone at the side of the road, with no gas. Welcome to the Pain tour...! Fortunately our driver ran out on the road when a car finally drove by, and got a ride to the next gas station to pick up some gas. We were sitting in the bus hysterically laughing about the situation for some time, until he came back with a big broken dripping can of gas to temporarily fill up the bus. Hahaha, totally priceless! We managed to start the bus again and get to the next gas station to fill it up properly. Then we were on our way again. About 100km in the wrong direction and very late, but still, on our way to Kuopio :-)

We finally arrived in Kuopio, and our crew had to speed up the process a lot, had a quick dinner and went for soundcheck. Everything went fine after all, and the show was good. Peter broke a string (AGAIN!, like he did on the first show!) and some minor mess-ups occured, but after all i must say it was great - thanks to the great Finnish audience of Kuopio!

Next stop is Jyväskylä.

7 Shows done, 32 shows to go!



Visited Elisa in Oulu at 9am to get a USB Modem


Alone in the middle of nowhere in Finland with no gas..


Örjan and Hede filling up some gas to get going again


Welcome to Kuopio


Building the stageset in Kuopio


I am lying in the leathersofa backstage at Puikkari, texting my daughter

I just love the fact that many swedish words are similar to Finnish, just with the exeption of the letter "i" at the end of every word. I have made jokes for many years about this fact, just put the letter "i" efter any Swedish word and it becomes a Finnish word, hehe. Of course that's not true, but just for the fun of it. On our way to Oulu we passed a small community called Ii (you read it right, two "i"). That made me laugh my pants off as i was just thinking of my i-theory again :-)

Anyway, we finally arrived in a rainy Oulu, a city where we played about two years ago at the Q-Stock Festival. The stage in this venue was a bit too small for our new stage set-up so we had to adjust it a bit. It worked in the end, but i feel a bit sorry for our support band on the Finnish shows (Black Light Dicipline), who had difficluties to fit on stage.

I had great expectations for this show... and...
...I knew it! It seems like we can always count on the Finnish Painheads! Oulu was great, and felt like the perfect start of the Finnish shows. It felt so good, so we actualy threw in some more stuff on the setlist that wasn't there on the other shows.. Every memory i have from past shows in Finland are great, so i have a really good feeling about Kuopio, Jyväskylä and Helsinki.

Next stop is Kuopio. As far as i know, we have not been there before, so it will be very interesting to see if there are any Painheads there.


My i-theory is confirmed. In just one picture there's grilli, kioski, apteekki :-)


Mattias Hedberg, our fantastic light engineer and stage designer behind his desk.


All guitars and basses on the tour


Side view of the stage with all special light designs and LED's

Goodbye Sweden!

I was sitting in the tourbus looking out the window between Umeå and Luleå, watching the rain pouring down. Terrible phoneconnection and thick forrest surroundings, then you know you're far up north. When it's a bit dark even at lunchtime, you know you're far from home :-)

After soundcheck Johan, David and myself went to a place called "Restaurang Corsica" and had pasta with renskav (no idea what that is in english, reindeer meat?) Anyway, that kind of meat is typical in north of sweden, and i don't get it that often. It was really good!

I didn't expect so many people on a show in Luleå on a tuesday, but fortunately i was wrong. It was lots of people and they treated us really well. The stupid teasing fights that Johan and me use to do on stage went a bit too far tonight, and almost affected the performance. I guess we have to take it a bit easier in the future..
After the show Raised Fist joined us backstage, but we couldn't stay that long as we had a long ride over to Finland this night. We drove to Haparanda and visited the Hulkoff farm, left the Raubtier guys behind, and passed the finnish border and continued towards Oulu in the morning.

I just found out something today. The Swedish part of this tour (with Raubtier) is called "Griståget". Right. There's t-shirts and stuff with the "Griståget" logo and the tourdates on the back. Right. But not until today i realised that it's my son-in-law (Daniel Jakobsén) who made the design for "Griståget". How wierd is that? Small world...?

So, this was the last show in Sweden (and with Raubtier) until we come back from the european part in November. Next stop is Finland and Oulu. I am really looking forward to the Finnish shows as we have a past with really good shows in Finland.

By the way, a great concert review from the show in Sundsvall! (in Swedish):
http://st.nu/noje/konsertrecension/1.3918617-tagtgren-utstralar-pondus




Parts of Pain, Raubtier and Raised Fist backstage in Luleå playing songs together...


Venue SC48 at soundcheck in Luleå


Raubtiers crazy stuff on stage, and it's no fake..


Raubtier has some serious shit on stage, like this machine gun..


Raubtiers machine gun again :-)


The sign "Griståget" on the Luleå show


The Hulkoff farm

I just realized that this venue in Umeå (Idun) is the same we played back in February 2007. That was the show called "House of Metal". It's a cool place, kind of theatre-like hall with rows of seats in a steep upward design. Only problem is that it's a bit too big for this kind of shows. But who cares anyway, the good thing is that the stage is really big.

Our backline tech-guy Emanuel (he lives up here in the north) knew some good tattoo artist in Umeå, so he called them in to our our backstage and they updated Peters left arm a bit. Also, TV4 was here and did some interviews. Busy day..

The show was great and Umeå really kicked ass. Loads of people and a great atmosphere! Johan was brought up on stage with our support act Raubtier to play some serious iPhone-drums... well, don't ask...
Here we also met our friends in Zonaria who we were touring with on the European Tour 2007. Nice to see those guys again!

So next stop is Luleå, the last one in Sweden until November. After Luleå we are heading over to Finland to continue our crusade.


Our merchandise shop with Sofia on this part of the tour


Peter took the opportunity to update his left arm while we were in Umeå


Building the Painstage in Umeå


Me at stage during soundcheck in Umeå, wearing my favourite shirt :-)

All or nothing, right? This morning it was like a sauna in the bus when i woke up. We really have to find somewhere in between steaming hot and freezing cold in this tourbus...

A sunny day agin, this time in Sundsvall. Peter, Johan, David, Emanuel and myself had a walk in the city and had Sushi for lunch in the main square. The venue was a very beautiful old house with paintings on wall in the main hall that was several hundred years old. Not the ideal place for a rock concert due to the acoustics (same feeling like a church), but it was a beautiful place for sure. In the daytime it was no problems, but as soon as the evening came we realised a very odd feature in this building: the lights in the hallways and our dressing room shut off every 5 minute. Then we had to find our way out of the dressing room in the dark, down the hallway, and find the light switch. Every 5 minute! Really stupid feature if you ask me, especially if you are sitting in the toilet...

It's only day 3, and one of the wheels on one big roadcase dropped dead. That's the case that has 4pcs of 47" LED screens in it, among loads of other stuff, so there's no option to carry it. Also, the load-in through the restaurant kitchen, up in an elevator, and through another kitchen to get to the main hall, didn't really make it easier either :-)
Fortunately we have a great crew who kind of fix everything, no matter what!

We continued the tweaking of the In-Ear systems again, just to get that final touch-up of the sound in our ears. Having the Venue SC48 on tour just makes everything so much easier. During the first 2-3 shows we are setting and adjusting the in-ear monitoring sound, and then it's stored in the desk so there's no need for monitor soundcheck every night. This is worth a lot in a busy schedule for everybody. We can just take one part away from the normal routines in soundcheck, as it's gonna be the same sound in our ears every night anyway. Awesome! The only soundcheck that needs to be done is the normal FOH soundcheck. It also feels so much safer for all of us to know that it will sound every day.

The show itself went good. The audience was great even though it was a really small one. Sunday night in Sundsvall might not be the best opportunity to get people to see a concert, i don't know. Tomorrow we are heading for Umeå, who are reporting really good presales!


A very happy Kimmo Ahola with his Venue SC48


Casulties of war - already on the third show day one of the cases gave up..


Live in Östersund - Photo: Jenny Widding


Live in Östersund - Photo: Jenny Widding


Live in Östersund - Photo: Jenny Widding


Live in Borlänge - Photo: Mattias Nääs

Woke up this morning in the tourbus in only 4 degrees... shit that's cold! Someone had forgot to put the heat on, so all 14 people in the bus was sleeping with jackets and jeans all night, to keep the heat. Hopefully this will be fixed for this night..

During the day when our crew was setting up the stage, Johan, David and myself had a walk arouond Östersunds surroundings. It was a beautiful and sunny day and we walked down to the harbour and then back to the city for a cofee. We also met our friend and Hypocrisy guitarist, Elofson, as he lives here.

Showtime: Wow! After a pretty dull start in Borlänge, Östersund became a very good surprise to all of us! Everything just seemed to work out perfectly. We did a very good show, we had a really good time, the audience treated us very well, and all technical stuff was on our side. I'd say this show is on the top 10 of the best ever. Thanks to all of you painheads in Östersund!

One of the new odd things we are doing on this tour, is the special version of the song "Have a drink on me". For this song only, David has a second drumkit which is like a tiny shrinked version of his big set. It's still the same style in metal chrome color, but just very very small :-)


In Östersund we found this very different kind of "houseboat"... i've never seen anything like this before, like a floating caravan!


Welcome to Östersund


In the harbour of Östersund


Davids mini-drumkit :-)


David found the "big seamonster of Östersund"...

There's always something special with the first show of the tour. Everything is fresh and unknown so to speak. Sometimes new people in the crew, most often new gear and new songs, and always a new stage setup. This time we had it all. In the crew we have many new faces, and some old bastards that is always there, hehe.. Having Kimmo Ahola on FOH with his Avid Venue SC48 on the whole tour is a fantastic improvement since last tour. Everythinng will be so much easier and will sound way much better! That in conjuction with the Sennhesier wireless systems (both for guitars and in-ear) and the Eleven Racks we are using, will give this show a new dimension.

The new stage set is bigger than ever before, and is all created around the feeling of the front cover of our new album "You only live twice". The whole setup is a brand new design, and everything from lights and fabrics to drumrisers and TV screens are designed for this Pain tour. But it's a tough job for the crew as it's loads of shit on stage to carry around on every show..

The first show on this 39 show european tour, went ok. I am not giving this show more than ok, even though we got really good reviews in local press. We did our very best, but had some technical problems on the first songs that made it feel like - only ok. But honestly i think it was better than that. We were playing at the venue "Cosmos" in Borlänge, which was a great place and it fitted our new stage set perfectly. But hey, it's always the same thing on the first show on the tour - it's like the last rehearsal before the real deal, either we like it or not.

Next show is in Östersund, and we have been told it's sold out, which is always a good sign to look forward to the show!

Magazine story about the first show:
http://www.dt.se/nojekultur/1.3909514--det-blir-inget-supande-



Davids new drum design!


We only use the Avid Eleven Rack - nothing else


Sennhesier wireless systems


Avid Venue SC48 on FOH


Dinner with milk! Peter has commented officially in a Swedish magazine that "it will be no drinking on this tour"...

2011-04-02 – Bandit Rock Awards – Stockholm – Sweden
2011-05-26 – Bingo club – Kiev – Ukraine
2011-05-27 – P!pl Club – Moscow - Russia
2011-05-28 – Glav Club – St Petersburg – Russia
2011-06-04 – Rockstad Falun – Falun – Sweden
2011-06-11 – Nova Rock Festival – Nickelsdorf – Austria
2011-06-19 – Myötätuulirock – Vantaa – Finland
2011-06-25 – Graspop Metal Meeting – Dessel – Belgium
2011-07-09 – Samfest Rock Festival – Satu Mare – Romania
2011-08-05 – Rock Nights 2011 – Zarasai – Lithuania
2011-09-16 – Cozmoz – Borlänge – Sweden
2011-09-17 – Gamla Teatern – Östersund – Sweden
2011-09-18 – Stadshuset – Sundsvall – Sweden
2011-09-19 – Idun – Umeå – Sweden
2011-09-20 – Kulturens hus – Luleå – Sweden
2011-09-21 – Club Teatria – Oulu – Finland
2011-09-22 – Puikkari – Kuopio – Finland
2011-09-23 – Lutakko – Jyväskylä – Finland
2011-09-24 – Nosturi – Helsinki – Finland
2011-10-05 – Markthalle – Hamburg – Germany
2011-10-06 – Lido – Berlin – Germany
2011-10-07 – Hellraiser – Leipzig – Germany
2011-10-08 – Masters of Rock Café – Zlin – Czech Republic
2011-10-09 – Arena – Vienna – Austria
2011-10-11 – Backstage – Munich – Germany
2011-10-12 – Dynamo – Zürich – Switzerland
2011-10-13 – Bloom – Mezzago – Italy
2011-10-14 – New Age – Roncade – Italy
2011-10-15 – UFO Club – Brunico – Italy
2011-10-16 – Rockfabrik – Ludwigsburg – Germany
2011-10-18 – La Laiterie – Strasbourg – France
2011-10-19 – Colos-Saal – Aschaffenburg – Germany
2011-10-20 – Underground – Köln – Germany
2011-10-21 – Helling – Utrecht – Netherlands
2011-10-22 – Trix – Antwerpen – Belgium
2011-10-23 – Nor – Heerlen – Netherlands
2011-10-25 – Divan du Monde – Paris – France
2011-10-26 – Ninkasi Kao – Lyon – France
2011-10-27 – Le Phare Club – Toulouse – France
2011-10-28 – Salamandra 1 – Barcelona – Spain
2011-10-29 – Sala Stereo – Murcia – Spain
2011-10-30 – Caracol – Madrid – Spain
2011-11-01 – Hard Club – Porto – Portugal
2011-11-02 – Cine Teatro Corroios – Lisboa – Portugal
2011-11-09 – Mejeriet – Lund – Sweden
2011-11-10 – Brew house – Gothenburg – Sweden
2011-11-11 – KG5 – Mariestad – Sweden
2011-11-12 – Kulturhuset – Örebro – Sweden
2011-11-13 – Debaser Medis – Stockholm – Sweden