Our management had booked and prepaid extra luggage with Air Berlin for our trip from Stockholm to Berlin, but of course "something went wrong" and we had to pay for the luggage again at check-in. On our way back from Berlin to Stockholm with SAS, the same shit happened again! We had prepaid extra luggage in our booking and we even showed the confirmation that said "extra luggage confirmed" to the staff at the counter but it meant nothing at all. We had to pay anyway! So in the end we paid for the luggage twice i think. How stupid is that? And i must say the Berlin airport is one of the most ineffective airports i've ever been to, and believe me, i've seen a few... We check-in in terminal D, but when we had to pay for the extra luggage we had to go to terminal A to pay and then go back to terminal D to show the receipt and find our gate. Fantastic. Fortunately we were there in good time otherwise we would've missed our plane. Also, every restaurant in the airport is on second floor, with elevators too small to carry a luggage-trolley. Smart, as most people in an airport are carrying luggage...

 

Okay, enough airline complaints for now, i was just so fed up with companies that are not committed to their customers and can behave they way the want as they know no one will complain - as it is impossible to contact them and complain afterwards...

 

Six years ago we played With Full Force Festival. I remember it well: Slayer was headlining, it was raining in the evening and it was the last time we had our red/black flatline drumriser-drop as we unintentionally left it there afterwards. Funny, as this time Slayer was also headlining (but the day before us) and it was also raining, even though it stopped exactly when we entered the stage. Fortunately we didn't left anything behind this time. Sad to hear Lemmy is very ill and Motörhead had to cancel their slot, but it felt good when Phil Anselmo in DOWN celebrated Lemmy in front of all 30.000 fans and got them all to scream "Lemmy, Lemmy, Lemmy" just to show how much we all respect him. Phil is a great guy with tons of attitude, and i just love his vocals, both in DOWN and previously in Pantera. I remember when i saw the last Pantera show in Sweden back in 2001 and i said to myself "god damn this guy has more attitude than the rest of the audio industry together, and rocks the shit out of everone else". Nothing has changed there for sure!

 

We had a great show and lots of fun. The fact that i have been working out at the gym since january is really showing results. I have so much more energy than earlier, and a show at a big stage like this was not as tough as it was in the past. After our show we went to a big signing session with shitloads of fans. I was a bit surprised so many showed up as this happened at the same time DOWN was wrapping up the last songs on stage. Back in our backstage lounge again we met one of the guys behind the board game "Rock Science" and we all got our own copy of the game to bring home. That was really cool as i had been thinking of getting one ever since i heard about the release. I mean, a game full of rock questions only, it just cannot get any better, can it? Finally we can get together with a crate of beer and a board game that actually fits our intellect! hehe :-)

 

When the rest of the mob stayed at the backstage area to party with Phil Anselmo i went to the hotel to get some work done and some good nights sleep. The hotel was way down close to the bottom of my list - i thought there were no hotel rooms where you could smoke in 2013, but apparently i was wrong. My room smelled like shit and i had to keep the window open all night. They had even put an ash-tray at the bedstand! Anyway, next morning after breakfast (Breakfastpoints: 6) we left to Berlin again and flew back home to Stockholm. Well, only David, André and myself as Peter and the crew went to another festival with Hypocrisy.

 

Now a few weeks of well deserved summer holiday awaits and next show is another festival in Germany, July 26th. Until then, have a drink on me and don't pay for any extra luggage in advance at any time!

 

//Michael