So we arrived in Mexico City in the evening of May 26th to be greeted by our friends ChazZ and our Mexican manager Marco from Disharmonic Music. We when and got settled at our accomodation and head out for some Mexican food and beer, I can not remember what anything was called but it was meaty and delicious although it reeked some havok on our bodies later down the track but not a tale for the blog!

After a late dinner and a few beers we got some sleep for the show! We woke up to a lovely cooked breakfast from chazZ, some quesadillas with ham and cheese. At 1pm Marco showed up and we head to Circo Volador for our sound check and to get settled. I had played at this venue once a few years ago with another band and knew it was going to be a great night.

When we arrived Anathema’s crew were line checking all their gear and Anathema them selves were in various places watching the soccer which pushed their sound check back at least an hour:) Jamie from Anathema was doing an amazing Aussie accent which had a fooled and prided him self on how many lines he know from the movie Chopper, it wasnt to long before Vinnie was in on the act also and the liverpool lads were calling everyone bloke, saying g’day and having a good old time!

After Anathema sound checked it was our turn and our mexican crew swiftly set up all our gear and we began what was a long and confusing sound check, in the end it all came together and we were ready to rock mexico city!!!

One interesting thing about shows in Mexico is how organised they are at making pirated merchandise and how good it is! There are like 12 stalls set up directly outside the venue with so many different Anathema tour shirts, mugs, pillows and much more, all as cheap as hell with amazing levels of detail. Knowing this was a rare chance to get some rare Anathema stuff I went a bit crazy and picked up loads of t-shirts and a pillow haha we also had a nice walk around the area and check out wht was going on, being in Mexco city for 1 full day sucked a bit as we would have loved to see more of Mexico but due to the flu thing and all that it made it a bit hard for us to get down there any earlier!

By the time we got back doors were open and people where making there way into the venue! This was a really cool night for me, playing with a band that was a big influence on my own music and that had been party of my life for at least 15 years! It was great to finally share the stage with Anthema and to top it off it was in one of the greatest rock/metal venues in Mexico City!

We hit the Stage at 7.30 and got a one hour set! we played: silence / without reason / a cruel misfortune / a means for an ending / down / blood / hollow inside / everlasting / lost our way / to drown – The crowd was really responsive to us and i think their was at least 1000 people which was just awesome, clapping screaming and generally being awesome, so Mexico we thankyou with all of our hearts I hope we make it back again, was a moment none of us will forget. Marrty threw out loads of drum sticks, i gave the crown setlists, picks, strings and even one guy yelled out for me to give him my belt, so that was just crazy haha

Not long after Anathema hit the stage and played a great set, well over 2 hours with a collection of tracks from their whole career, for me this was a very special show!! Marty, Dave and Myself also walked the crowd giving out flyers, signing autographs and posing for pictures, we knew it was very important for us to get into the crowd and make some fans, and I think it went well, the Mexican people we met are so lovely and generally amazing to spend time with, we hope we see you all again soon!

After Anathema ended their amazing set we did some more meet and greet in the foyer and went back stage to annoy the Anathema boys some more, I found a very drunk marty already there tormenting them but they are from liverpool so i assume the have seen worse hahah Its worth noting anathema had ham, cheese and lettuce sandwiches and we only had ham and cheese!! bloody rock stars! haha I think their mayo also tasted better haha

The boys had early flights in the morning and so did we so all parting was cut short as it was well after 2am, Anathema had to be at airport at 4.30 and us at about 6.30! arghh!

This was a very special for us and I can only hope we will get to play with Anathema again some time! Id like to thank all involved in the show! Marco from Disharmonic, Carlos, all the crew, the great mexican people we met, Jamie, Vinnie, Les, John, Lee & Danny from Anathema, ChazZ, her lovely family, Midori, my aussie mate Brett who showed up and anyone else we met! cheers!

We are staying with our good friends Rhett and Lili who have been looking after us so well! Great food and great company we also got the chance to spend some time with rhetts band Gravehill who are also great guys!

So almost two weeks off what did we do! Well it began with sickness for my self, first a flu that became a respitory infection and had me bed ridden for the better part of a week and also gave me my first experience with the medical system in america, which basically if you have money is ok, if you dont your stuffed! but 150 us dollars later I was medicated and on my way to getting better!

We saw a few shows also, we got to catch Opeth here is LA which was a blast, Marty and Dave saw gojira a french death metal band and we also saw gravehill whch was a brutal show at this really weird venue on the outskirts of LA, it was lik techno and thrash metal all at the same time, but gravehill crushed, we got totally drunk and a good time was had by all!:)

So with all this slacking off and eatting we thought we better do some reheasing and songwritting so we booked ourselfs in for three days of jaming in LA at the same place Slayer wrote most of Reign in Blood, unfortunately for you metal heads this had no effect on the material we wrote hahaha so we rehearsed some songs we had not been doing and we also managed to get some great ideas down which i think will shape nicely into some songs when we get home!

So with all this slacking off out of the way its time to play our last tw shows before we head home, next stop Mexico City!

We made our way to the House of Blues to catch the end of the Tarja sound check as usual. It was a really sunny day in LA and the vibe was good, the only daunting part was some local act was opening, leading to four acts being on the bill with 10 minute change overs, this in my mind was a bit silly but what can you do! We did our change over in 9 minutes even though the opening act were taking their time getting their gear off, yes these guys were not really in my good books, a bit to much piss farting around for my liking but what can you do… worth mentioning that after the show they tried to steal my pedal board which was quite rude, I found it under their roadies arm in the back seat of their van, they then processed to try and convince me it was a mistake, yet there gear was on the opposite side of the stage, so first night in big bad LA and I feel like a small town sucker but at least I got my gear back.

This was our last night with Tarja and her crew so it was of course great to be in the house of blues but sad that the fun would stop here! The place was really full this evening and the crown was great, one thing I can say about Tarja’s crowds is they were open minded and took the time to check out the opening acts and we sold all our cd’s and most of our merch on this tour so from a promotional point of view this was really working well for us being our first time in America & Canada.

So we did our thing, gave it our all one last time and left the stage with some affection from the crowd, it was great to know that now for the first time in 6-7 weeks we were about to finally have some time off, we had been on the move non stop since we had been in Australia, so some time to get our energy up and prepare for our last few shows being Mexico w/ Anathema and a Show at the knitting factory in LA. We had planned to be in mexico for our break, but the whole swine flu put a damper on that so LA seemed like a warm and sunny choice until we could work out our situation in mexico.

It was nice also that Tarja thanked us on stage for doing the tour with her, so another chapter of the world tour wraps up, I look back I see Japan, Portugal, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Finland, Hungary, Canada & Traveling across the usa, seems like we have experienced a life time in such a short time, so many people, so many cultures, all because we made some music, Ill never forget this tour in a hurry and all our new friends and fans, on a tour so much can go wrong and we were lucky enough that nothing major did, sure the ocassional dodgy promoter, car hire mix ups and hotel fuck ups, but nothing major and for that we are lucky, we have made it from one end of the world to the other in one piece (minus a guitar player) but I feel we are so much stronger…anyway no need to get all sentimental now because it aint over yet, next week we fly to mexico and support Anathema, should but fantastic! – Mark

Ok, so after the epic drive across america which at the time is always hard but in retrospect always beautiful, we drove into sunny San Francisco which at this point was a sight for sore eyes because we knew we would get out of the car! Its worth noting we had only chosen to continue on with the Tarja tour a few days before as we were planning the texas thing, but it was going so well we decided it would be in our best interests to continue on with these dates!

So we arrived late afternoon at The Grand at the Regency Center which was grand indeed, a large classic style ball room, it was just lovely! We were greeted by the in house crew and began to unload on one of San Franciscos many hills. We entered the venue to see Tarja just finished her sound check, as usual cedric was tunning guitars and maria was tinkering on her keys, mike was messing around on his kit, after getting used to seeing this everyday, its kind of comforting to walk into, for starters it means we are in the right place haha and that we didnt just drive 40 hours in the wrong direction!

We had heard ticket sales were lower for this show, which was fine, even though it was one of the bigger venues. We were second on this evening so by the time we hit the stage to my eyes the crowd was quite healthy and very responsive, I must say i was overall really proud with the way we played on the Tarja tour, some of our best live perfomances to date, San Francisco was no acception even after 40 hours of hell we pulled together a tight set, so it was showing, our 30 gigs previous had payed off:)

After a successful set (kartika / means for an ending / everlasting / down / without reason / blood) we celebrated with a few beers, which turned into quite a few beers, during the tarja set dave and myself when about our nightly ritual of tormenting maria the tarja keyboard player with stupid faces and general annoyence to which she generally seemed amused. By the end of the Tarja set it was safe to say I was quite tanked and went to pass out in the van for a while, I woke several hours later to an even drunker marty beating the shit out of me, it turned out that him and dave had found a nice bar that gave them both endless free shots, these two payed the price the next day, well dave did but thats another story…So San Francisco was not the biggest show but a damn fun one!

Next and final stop on the Tarja tour: Los Angeles House Of Blues!

Being the seasoned long distance travelers that we are from our collective years of touring experience we have, we entered into this drive with a innocent optimism that was soon to be destroyed and left behind somewhere on some butt-fuck nowhere highway somewhere between Lincoln, Nebraska and Salt Lake City, Utah.

We started the drive at about 9pm Tuesday night with the plan to drive through the night and the next day, stop for a rest somewhere on the Californian boarder and drive the rest of the way, the day of the gig. We were to drive, ride shotgun and sleep in shifts and somehow make it to the other side of the country alive. a Goo plan but one that did not account for the series of mishaps that was about to occur.

We were off, driving into the night full of optimism and all desperately trying to sleep in the uncomfortable van to prepare for our turn in one of the hot seats. after maybe five hours of driving we decided to stop for gas, finding the petrol station we stopped for was closed and also discovering that Connie, had been driving us for over an hour in the wrong direction… time to back track. in another hour we were back on the road to San Fran still optimistic about getting there with plenty of time.

The sun came up somewhere between Iowa and Nebraska only to reveal the most flat, boring, featureless landscape you could imagine. Nebraska felt like it went on for ever and to my recollection it took upwards of 8 hours to cross. Being the amateur photographer I am I was naturally disappointed that our daylight hours were wasted by such boring landscapes.

My disappointment was soon forgotten as we travelled through Wyoming and in to Utah where the landscape started to become truly breathtaking. The sun was setting over the desert and rock formations and despite the fact that my body was beginning to freak out from being so confined for so long, I was really happy we got to see this. We travelled through Salt Lake City just after dusk which is also very beautiful and travelled along the great salt lake towards the Nevada boarder. Just as we passed Bonneville speedway (where kiwi Burt Monroe broke all those land speed records) we moved into Nevada and into the Nevada desert.

It was an amazing contrast to witness, traveling from Utah, one of the most religious states in the union into Nevada, possibly the most sinful. We went from temples and beautiful natural landscapes to all night casinos and strip joints.

It was about this time that our current driving team Marty and Mark debated whether to fill up with gas or rely on the gas gauge and make it to the next town. They chose to wing it and in hindsight maybe we should have stopped. About 20 miles into the Nevada desert at about 12.30 am the van stopped. We had run out of gas. It reads like the script of a B-grade slasher movie and we were a little concerned because we had to be at the venue in less than 15 hours and the Nevada desert is not the kind of place you want to be spending the night. Dom and Steve set off into the night to try and find someone to help but found that no one would stop for them, I still wonder why. Once again slasher movies come to mind.

After about half and hour they returned with news that someone was on the way to bring us gas but it was gong to cost us over US$200 for them to do so. We bit the bullet and after about 45 min our saviour, a simple minded local who we nicknamed Gomer Pile arrived and we were back on the road. After another couple of hours of driving we settled in at a motel somewhere in the middle of Nevada to get a few hours of sleep to prepare for the show that day.

After a truly exceptional diner meal we set off towards the California Boarder. Just after you cross the boarder is some really beautiful mountains and lakes including the famous Lake Tahoe which were very nice to see. We finally made it to the outskirts of San Francisco and crossed the bay bridge into the city, arriving at the venue nearly 2 hours late.

We had survived, and as difficult as the drive was on all of us I think it was truly an experience to be had. We drove thousands of kilometres through the heart of the USA. We got to see some of the amazing natural beauty that america has to offer and experience some of the most backwards and interesting cultural attractions along the way. Thank you America, it was a fucken trip alright.

Track our Journey on google maps

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Chicago,+Illinois&daddr=San+Francisco,+California&hl=en&geocode=Fe8HfwIdc_XG-g%3BFVxnQAId_Ae0-CmxclTX9oCFgDFYPZ-89e-Eiw&mra=pe&mrcr=0&sll=39.784364,-105.076049&sspn=32.679014,58.447266&ie=UTF8&ll=39.842286,-105.029297&spn=30.96979,58.447266&z=4

The venue itself is really great, all the walls and furniture are hand painted with crazy pictures and the walls are covered with pictures and memorabilia from the artists who have graced the stage there in the past. Music is a proud tradition in Chicago, second only to sport, and this venue is truly a testament to this. After load in and an exchange of stupid jokes with the lift operator, D-man, we got to sound checking and got prepared for the gig ahead.

It was about this time we were presented with the option to carry on with the Tarja tour to the west coast which considering recent news about the Texas festival we were to play instead, ended up being more of a blessing than we could have imagined. See that story here…
http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=119842

All drama aside we got to sound checking and after a fun check with the great FoH and monitor people, we then prepared to rock. We were up first and despite the first billing we felt that the show was more than a success. We had a great time playing such a world class venue and the crowd was very good to us. Urn played and then the beer began to flow. We made the most of the fact we didn’t have to drive anywhere after the show and enjoyed the fantastic hospitality the HoB had to offer.

A big thanks for everyone at the House of Blues, Rotting Corpse crew for selling our merch, D-man for being classic, Urn, Tarja and everyone who showed up and made us feel so welcome. thank you Chicago.

Anyway, after a night in Kitchener, and a few hours sleep,  we headed to the bus station in Kitchener to head back into the US seperate toour friend’s Urn for various reasons that we won’t go into right now.

So we get to the bus station, and find out after alot of tooing and froing that the tickets that were supposed to be ready for us, weren’t… so after sorting that situation out, we got on a bus to Chicago… 16 hours…. on a bus….. yes… that IS a long time!

So taking in some of the lovely Canadian country side, which were did enjoy, we ended up in London, Ontario, Canada. We were supposed to wait here for about 20 mins and catch the next bus to Detroit… but there were delays, which kept us in London for nearly two hours. Looking at our schedule for the rest of the trip, we saw that we would probably miss a connecting bus in Detroit.. so we made sure we would still be able to get back to Chicago… which we were told was not a problem… we would be able to catch any bus… so that was a relief… but little did we know what would await us in Detroit.

So, we drove on through Canadian country side, which was actually quite nice. After a whole bunch of hours, we got to Windsor, which is the Canadian side of the border… Detroit being on the other side.

The border crossing here takes you through a tunnel, half way through the tunnel you have a line with a Canadian flag on one side of the line, a US flag on the other… I almost felt like jumping out of the bus and hopping across the line… now I’m in the US…. now I’m in Canada… now I’m in the US… now I’m in Canada… but I think it was much too serious a border to be messing around like that!!!

Ok, so we get to the border, and get off the bus and go into Imigration and Customs. When we crossed into Canada, we had no grief, but this time we went through individually, and even though we all got the same officer, she really for some reason either didn’t like me, or found in fun to hassle me, but we got through and got into Detroit….  now keep in mind, we were told that the Detroit bus station was in a very bad neighbourhood, and after we got back to Chicago, we were told by a friend of Urn’s, who drummed for them after Chicago, who was also a Homocide detective, that Detroit is the worst city in the US for violent crime …. this was an experience.

So, we get to Detroit bus station… this was an interesting place… I think we were the only non-Americans in the place… so we probably stuck out like a sore thumb!! At the beginning, we were keen to maybe leave the bus station and get some food, but after sitting down for a minute, we soon realised that the kind of people in and around this bus station, were maybe not the kind of people we wanted to be with alone….. it was like Jerry Springer live and scary!!

Probably one of the scariest people we came across was a woman who was maybe 5 ft tall, maybe 6 ft wide, maybe three teeth in her mouth… a little moustache… maybe a little beard too… screaming into her phone for about 30 mins about how she wanted her damn money… I think one line she used was “I’m out on f*ing parole, and I want my f*ing money now or else I’m gonna f*ing kill someone”… so we kept clear of her… very clear!!!

There were quite a few very shady characters slinking around the bus station, one guy looked like he came straight out of The Deliverance… and was spinning his keys around his fingers, and just kept sitting across from us and looking at us.. and then would get up and walk around, and then come back… I kept hearing “You got a perrty mouf” in my head…

So… after being on a bus for a while, we were pretty peckish.. and the vending machines only took $1 notes… and the change machine only took $5 notes to change into $1’s… we didn’t have alot of $1’s or any $5’s and so I went to the counter to ask for some change… they didn’t give change, but there was a burger king a block and a half away….

After asking Mark and Dave, it was decided that they weren’t going outside the bus station no way no how… so if I wanted change… I had to go.. a block and a half out… into Detroit… I could do this… sure… no problem… I think.

So.. out I venture into Detroit… I walk to the corner… no problems… turn the corner… walk to the next corner… no problems. I look down the street and I can see the Burger King… nice… but between me and there is a couple of what looks like condemed buildings, some very abandonded looking cars… and some other buildings that look somewhat dodgy… I can do this… I’m a big scary looking Aussie guy… and yes I am shaking a little, but that’s ok!!!

So off I walk… wondering whether or not I’m going to die in Detroit… I get to the Burger King in once piece.. that’s a good sign, and as I walk in, I walk past a big guy who is on the phone… I hear “She called the f*ing cops on me?? I’m goin f*ing kill that b****”… ok… I just need to order and get out.. not hard!!! So I am in line, I order… if you order a large meal in America, you get about a 2 litre drink… insanity! Anyway, so I order, and as I move down the counter to pick up me meal, I notice there are two 7ft tall, 6 ft wide big african american dudes looking at me, the kind of guys you see as body guards…. the kind of guys who could snap you in half in their sleep!!!

One of them says “hey boy, where you from?” … my stomach sank… loads of butterflies… scared like a little girl… So I say “I’m from Australia”… to which he replies “Dats Cool” and went about his ordering… So I grabbed my meal and headed out into the street and got back to that bus station with some food and some $1’s as fast as I possibly could!!!!

Got back to the bus station, told the guys my story, gave them some $1’s and sat there eating quietly, not making eye contact!!! At this point there was someone sitting opposite Dave, Dave was eating starburst, and had some chips that were not to his liking… this person opposite Dave looked over and said.. “Hey.. gimmie some o dat candy”.. Dave gave this person some of the chips instead, and we all lived happily ever after… till we found out this person was a girl, apparently, and Dave called her “bro”… but I guess they didn’t catch on because no one said anything!

Ok… not long to go now… 15 mins till the bus… that was when the first woman, the one on parole, sits down right next to us… ok, we’re up and off into line to get away from her and get onto that damn bus!!!

So we wait in line, waiting… waiting… that 10 minutes seemed like 30 to me… and we eventually got onto the bus and sat down… we had escaped Detroit without being bashed, shot, stabbed, killed.. it was a good feeling!!!

The rest of the trip was quite relaxed, we met a young guy who was a singer, but looked like a white rapper, who was going back and forth to Canada to hang out with his girlfriend. Nice guy. Our next stop was Kalamazoo, MI. Dave and I went to the local Maccas for some drinks…. $1 any size… good lord!!!

Back on the bus, and the 4 or 5 hours left to Chicago… I think we slept alot of the way … or at least I did, and once we got to Chicago, we met up with the Urn guys again, and back to bed and off for some much needed R&R at Dom from Urn’s house…. Ahh yes, we made it back… in one piece!!!

After the brief but exciting time we spent in NYC, we were on the road again to play the second of our dates with Tarja and her super band, in the beautiful french canadian city of Montreal. First priority was making it across the boarder though. It seems as though the Canadians are quite careful about who or what crosses their boarder from their neighbors to the south and understandably so. After some feat of organisational magic our faithful american friend Dom was able to convince the suspecting Canadian boarder officials that letting through a van full of rock musicians without so much as a sniffer dog or BCS, into their country, was a good idea.

shortly after clearing the boarder we were in Montreal checking into our motel and venturing out to find nutrition and celebratory beers in the city centre. It was nice for us Eternal boys to unwind, drink some beer and relax for 5 minutes. After some well earned rest, we loaded in to Le Medley venue in downtown Montreal, a beautiful rock venue which was to bring good things for us. After a decent sound check and some getting to know Tarja’s monster of a drummer Mike Terrana, doors opened and people started rolling in.

We had the first billing tonight which ordinarily is a little tougher but in the case of this 700-800 strong French Canadian crowd, it was ideal. When the lights went down and Marty started the Kartika intro, the crowd literally roared. By the time Mark and I took the stage they were going crazy and it seemed that everything we did for the next 30 minutes found favour with them. After the set we went to the merch desk and proceeded to meet some great people, takes picture and sign autographs at a rate we could have not expected, selling nearly all of our cds we had set aside for the entire Canadian trip.

After the show we drove as far as we could towards the next show in Toronto, and after hours of drunken molestation of each other and our american travel buddies we found a motel somewhere along the highway.

We arrived in Toronto mid afternoon to find the area in which we were playing to be quite like some of the inner suburbs of Melbourne. We ventured out to find the first decent espresso we had had since arriving here and felt at home if only for a moment. The Opera House in Toronto was a beautiful venue with friendly staff that were very kind to us. Once again, we seemed to find favour with the Canadian crowd and sold out our few remaining cds early in the evening. After a fun evening of catching up with old friends and making plenty of new ones we were on the road again to stay at one of Dom’s fiends house in preparation for our marathon bus trip back to the USA the next day. That bus trip is a blog unto itself though so stay tuned.

A big thanks to all the staff and crew at Le Medley and the Opera House, The Urn and Tarja bands, Shy, Liz, and everyone else that made us feel so at home in Canada. We had a great time and will hopefully return someday, sooner rather than later.

Our first night in Chicago was a night off which was great as we had to start the 12 hour drive to New York City for the first date of the Tarja (ex-Nightwish) Tour. We had our first sample of traditional Chicago stuffed deep pan pizza, I managaged 1 and a half pieces and that was it, it is one hell of a meal and totally great! So thank you Chicago!

The next morning we all went about packing and preparing for the trip to New York, dave and my self sorted merch and Marty, Dom and Sofia went and got the Van. New York Road trip here we come! We broke this trip over few days so after about a 4pm departure we stopped around 2.30 am some where in pennsylvania and checked into a hotel for the evening…ahh a soft bed is a luxury at times:)

we hit the road at around 11am in hope we would make our 5pm load in at the legendary Filmore Irving Plaza. To dom’s credit he weaved his way through New York traffic like a wizard and we arrived 20 mintes early, driving through New Yrok city in a 15 seater van is not something I wish apon anyone..ever hahaha but New Tork, what a great city, it was nice to be back even if only briefly!

This was to be our first show in the USA ever as The Eternal and also note we were back to a 3 piece again. But I think for all of us this show will go down as a special one, I dont think we had really prepared for what was a head, a great legendary venue where anyone from U2, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Metallica had jammed  and also to our delight a very large and attentive crowd!

After Urn prooved them selves with a nice set we took the stage just before Tarja and I was really pleased, here we where so nobodies from australia with a full room at a legendary NY venue, to good!:) We only had a 30 minute set so it was a bit of a best of, but we looked at it as our first US show case, we played: Means for an Ending, Everlasting, Without Reason, Down & the epic Blood which of course went down damn well and we had a great crowd chant, I spent most of the set in water as i spilt a bottle and feared I would die of an electric shock or that tarja her self may kill me for messing up the stage, at this point my converse have seen alot of travel and have holes in the bottom, so I spent the set with wet feet trying not to electricute myself haha, Marty and Dave played great and it was just one of those very special nights Im sure we wont forget, sometimes our hard work pays off! We made our way to the merch desk for some meet and greet and it went very well, sold loads of CD’s. lots of Autographs and pictures and generally a great response from the Audience, so thank you New York for taking the time to share you nice words with us, it really left us feeling everything we do does not go un noticed, I do hope we return some time!

it around 12am we had back to our accomodation in New Jersey and settled down for the night, I had to stay up till about 2.30 am to make a call back home to make the final booking for the studio and producer of our new album which im looking forward to telling you about, but I can tell you this, The Eternal are recording a new album in December and its going to be special:)

So now we make our way to a very beautiful part of the world, Montreal Canada, with all our paper work in check I really hope we have no problems jumping boarders and I just cant wait to get to canada! More soon!

- Mark

Our first night in Budapest was a night off which we needed, so we checked in, went about doing our washing, cleaning up and getting some sleep, met with our promoter balazs who took us to a lovely lunch. It was really great having Antza along playing guitar and the brotherhood between the 4 of us immediate so our first night off in Budapest was a great one, we went out hit the town for a bit and just had a great time, hungary is quite cheap so it was a welcome change from finland to our hip pockets.

After a last night antza and myself work up and restrung our guitars and jammed pink floyd echos for a while, this was really nice, then we decided to explore the town for a while walking around budapest for about 4 hours, which was great.

We met up with Marty and Dave for Dinner and began to get ready for the show at the ‘After Music Club’… the crowd was already healthy by the time we got to the venue and the vibe was great, many good people and we also met up with our hungarian tour manager Tebore (not sure of the spelling) who is just insane to say the least:) Neverland did a great set and we hit the stage at about 11.30. I knew from the first notes of ‘Silence’ this would be a great show! The crowd was energetic and emotive and we fed on them like vampires!:) and also being antza’s second show with us he did a great job! We did a full set, at the last note balazs gave us shots and beers and we proceeded to do ‘to drown’ as an encore. The corwd chanted and cheered and it was also great to see quite a few knew the words, which is alwasy nice! So after a high energy set we partied into the night amd tried to get a few hours rest before heading to Szeged for our second and last Hungarian show.

Tebore picked us up late afternoon and we made our way to the city of szeged to a club with a name so long it escapes me right now, it was about a 2-3 our drive and we slept at least half of it, touring at some point just beomes about sleeping when you can, on floors, park benchs, you name it, we have slept on it haha

The Szeged crowd was great to us, very similar to budapest, energetic and emotive and once again folks singing along, even though we were as tired as hell they brought us to life and another great set with an encore and the never ending after party, this was strange as the venure was full of couches half the people were passed out in chairs at 3 am, on this night we where also sleeping in the venue which left us not smelling so great the next day:) Tebore was in great form this evening and had as all in tears of laughter so thank you tebore:) haha

Beofre we head back to Budapest we had lunch with my good friend anita at a traditional hungarian resturant and also took a nice stroll around Szeged, so thank you anita, we then made the 2 hour drive back to budapest and made our way to the hotel which was near the airport ready for our trip to the USA. This was also a sad night as Antza was not to be joining us in the USA and we would be continuing on as a three piece, but we all had a nice evening together regardless and reflected on what a fun time we had had.

The next morning at around 6 am we made our way to the budapest airport and checked in for our next adventure… America…

Thank you to Balazs, Tebore, Anita and all the other great friends we made in Budapest, see you next time!