Monday, November 29, 2010

Coz We're Warriors (warriors) of Ghengis Khan

Massive Swedish router station




Inside the Swedish high tech router station



This is trve band width
Once again we've been cursed by the "False-internet-connection-Gods" in southern and central Europe... so, we'll try and update you about what's been going on the last week of the tour now when we're back in Sweden, which as you can see above, have some really powerful router stations compared to the rest of Europe!


We had an awesome and successful gig in Paris (where we finally met our myspace-site-designer Hicham who had his birthday that day) with almost 11000's of "fläktar" in the audience. After the gig the local sound guy at Glazart came to our backstage room and started to yell at Ola and said that Grave was a very unprofessional band. He complained that we took to long time to do our line-check etc. The show was already delayed with 10 minutes and we took 20 minutes instead of the scheduled 15 minutes to do our changeover and line-check before we started our set and apparently it was our fault that it all took such a long time. After 20 minutes of yelling he finally gave up and went of, what a douchebag. During Arsis set, he sat and read a book instead of doing what he were supposed to do, do a proper sound so who's the unprofessional one!!? During the day he'd also been a real pain in the ass, trying to rush the rigging and sound-check, meaning "it's better for you if you do it quick. Then you'll have more time to smoke and drink..." Oh well... Pro..?




Kuknästornet
London on a Monday, what can you expect? Well, it was fukkin great! Lots of people at Underworld club, which is located in Camden, a very cool part of London town.
After our set, Ronnie threw out some drum-sticks which caused a fist fight between 3 guys and 1 gal. As the true gentleman he is, he of course gave the girl a new stick and let the other 3 soccer hooligans fight for the other one. It all ended with the security guard throwing them out from the venue.
Next up was Dublin, Ireland, a very nice town indeed. Ola and Tobias took a walk around town, went to the Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy) statue, and then went to the pub next to it and had a nice meal with fish and chips and some Guinness beer. After the gig, when we were all about to leave, two random guys tried to sneak into our tour bus, Mark from Misery Index told them to leave but then they dragged him out of the bus and tried to start a fight with him. At that time it was only Mark and Magnus on the bus so Magnus ran out when he saw what was going on. One of the guys started to swing at Mark and when Magnus tried to stop it, the guy tried to hit him instead, but Magnus blocked his punch and then just hit him back, right in this forehead instead -  great success! At that time more people from the tour started to notice what was going on and we all just tried to get the guys to leave, but they just kept on screaming at us. Guess the guys were only looking for someone to pick a fight with. Well, we had a buscall so we had to leave, maybe they found somebody else who were up for a drunken fight with them during the night.

Awesome name for a burrito. Dublin has good taste
The gig in Plymouth -  UK was nice. It was actually a real brutal show. One guy stage dived through the Misery Index set and fell so bad that he cracked his nose.

Isn't he cute, our sound guy?

Amen to that

Every backstage need to have dicks drawn at the wall
The show in Gent, Belgium was also cool. Although Ola and Ronnie had set a new party-record for the tour and went to bed 1:00 in the afternoon... Ronnie nearly fell of his drum-throne during the Gent show... Very pro indeed...
Tilburg in Holland is a very nice town and the 013 venue is a really good venue, we'd say it's one of the best ones in whole Europe! At that gig we met up with another tour that is going around in Europe at the moment, our good friends in Interment, Diabolical and also the Finnish band Urn plus Black Breath from the US were also playing that same night. It was really nice to meet up with the other Swedish guys, it is always welcomed to see some fresh faces after just seeing the same 23,71 people every day for a month. Johan and Perra from Interment ended the evening in our backstage room, telling one weird story after another, completely loaded with vodka/redbull. It was a great night, but as always we had to leave to soon.

Last gig on the tour - Leipzig, Germany. It always feels kinda strange when it´s time for the last gig, but the feeling today was really good. Over all this had been a very good tour with lots of cool people, not a single asshole in the whole tour package, but as long as you are into metal it is easy to get along, you will always have something in common. The venue tonight was packed, we did a really good gig with a crazy headbanging audience, this ended up being one of the better shows on the tour. It is always nice to end a tour with a great gig. As always on the last gig on tour it was time fore some pranks, halfway through Misery Index set, we went up and decorated their stage with loads of flowerpots that we found backstage, it looked really nice indeed, not very metal though. After the gig we had the usual beers and Jack Daniel´s shots, we hung out with the people, took some fan pics, wrote at least 11000's autographs before it was time to leave to go to Frankfurt airport to head back to good old Sweden. To sum it up, it has been one hell of a tour, great gigs, great people, and many liters of alcohol.

22 guys, 27 days... So much space
Ronnie's 1 room apartment on the tour
Magnus rippin' it up in his bunk
 

Sunday, November 21, 2010

We don't have the proper people, we need a proper driver, a proper tour manager, a proper bass player....

A complex of Spanish quality router stations
French router station
 Alright, where to begin... Luynes, France. Our good friend Rose Vignat came by but other than that, this night was NOT a night to remember. As usual, Jason Netherton, bass player in Misery Index, went out for his daily dose of bird-watching with his binoculars. Or as we've suspected for a long time now; He's looking for our dinner.

Next day, Wednesday, the tour ripped up the Mephisto club in Barcelona, Spain. Again there were no less than 11000's of banging metal maniacs in the crowd. Later that night we were led to a back alley street where there was darkness and fog, and a small bar called Valhalla. A cool place with strong and cheap drinks. In fact it was so cool that we almost missed our bus call. Guys in The Last Felony and James in Arsis was having a field-day with a hair trimmer outside the bus when we finally got back. Inverted crosses shaved into facial and body hair. Bass player in The Last Felony, Seb Painchaud, got his eyebrows shaved off, and then remembered 5 minutes later that they were going to have a photo session two days time. So we decided to paint him some new ones. Great success!

Ola and Tobias rippin' it up in the tank
Thursday night in Madrid, Spain was a real blast! There were rumors about a strip show on the stage after the bands had played and everybody was excited about it. And what a show it was! Why don't they have anything like that in Sweden? Two girls and a dildo! After seeing two freshly shaved spanish pussys being spread open and penetrated, we all had a hard time in the bus when we left for Bilbao. Except Magnus, Grave, and Seb from The Last Felony, who were backstage by themselves during the strip show. Baguette fight?

Bilbao on a Friday night seems to be a cool thing. Lots of fläktar (fans) showing up. Some with wooden teeth and some with glasses and many of them with mullets! Ola was taken by the moment and got an autograph written on his bare chest by a pretty fläkt (fan). After the show we had to tear down the backline real fast because they were starting up a disco at the venue. 11000's of disco-craving spaniards pouring in to the compound. We had to evacuate the bus from the parking lot or else we would have been stuck in it for the night.

Saturday, Really cool venue, Le Ferrailleur, by the sea in Nantes, France. Small intimate place with a good atmosphere and feeling to it. We got a home cooked meal by the in-house chef, who also doubled as a photographer, that was really good and much needed. The crowd was absolutely crazy. We lost track of the number of stagedives and crowdsurfs going on that night. The French fans (fläktar) showed their absolutely best side. Thank you so much! Not much else was going on though. Maybe we are too old for this shit?!

2 extremely old geezers at work

Monday, November 15, 2010

Burning looting, raping shooting!

Italian router station

Italian router station employees
 Italy = No coffee, no pizza, no wine, no cigarettes, 1 dedicated fan (a dog) called Pluto and really, really, REALLY bad pasta! Luckily 2 female friends came by in Vicenza with a nice bottle of local wine... and pepper-spray.
They decided to try out the spray inside our bus, so we had to evacuate it for an hour or so.. Great success!

Fine red wine from our female friends
The audience were very lame and that unfortunately goes for whole Italy this time, only Rome was ok but that show collided with Cathedral and Steve Vai so there were less than eleven thousands fläktar (fans) when Grave pummeled on. We also did some sightseeing in Rome, went to Colosseum among other places. James, the singer in Arsis decided to take a little trip of his own though. He needed to take a shit at a local pizzeria and the pizza-man demanded that he had to order a pizza in order to use their toilet. There was no sign from him in several hours and the rest of the guys in Arsis were a bit worried. Eventually he found his way back to the venue in time to do the show.


Our sound guy Peter's breakfast in Vicenza
*No comment*

Roman warrior, threatening Peter outside the Italian router station
Today we are in Luzern, Switzerland and finally got some decent food on our plates. On our way to the venue our buss got hit by truck on the highway and we lost our left rear view mirror. Close Call.

Tomorrow we will rip it up frog-eater style in Luynes, France.


RIP IT UP!

Friday, November 12, 2010

Who's that playing bass?

Slovenian routing station
As you've probably noticed, the internet STILL isn't up to Grave standards but here we go again on our own. Going down the only road we've ever known. Like drifters we're born to walk alone. So we made up our mind, we ain't wasting no more time. Now it's time for grogg!

The last couple of shows has been really good for all the bands. Especially last night at the Gala Hala in Ljubljana, that show killed! Robert Kovacic, good friend of Magnus and session-drummer for Belphegor and many others, was a welcome guest. The shows in Bratislava and Vienna were also nights to remember. Especially in Vienna when we had time to dance like motherfuckers at some shit hole bar, all thanks to a late bus-call. We invented the 'Pure Holocaust'-grogg (drink); Jim Beam and your favorite energy drink. It really does the trick. There were also, as usual, hooters in our faces all night long.

The brave heroes in The Rotted rescued Peter's jacket from the Gala Hala for us! They informed us that there was 100% no money in it when they found it and not to ask them about how they got their van resprayed this morning, its just pure coincedence!!



One of many shitty setlists so far, more to come!
 Tobias left his gig-panties in Ostrava, Czech Republic so he went out on a shopping spree in Vienna to get some new unisex pants. He's looking so smoking hot these days! He's also forgot his expensive earplugs somewhere.

Over the last years Tobias has also lost:

4 T-shirts
1 Cellphone
2 Pair of earplugs
3 Digital cameras
1 Wireless system
1 Video camera
1 Leather jacket
1 DVD movie
4 Instrument cables
1 Passport

Tonight Grave has emerged in Bruneck/Bolzana in the northern parts of Italy. Nice surroundings with the Alps so close you can touch them. Good catering and very, very good grogg. Tonights performance will include 'For Your God' in the setlist and the guys have been setting up some sick harmonizers to some of the vocal parts.

RIP IT UP!

p.s. tomorrow we'll be ripping it up Vicenza-style d.s



Beer of the day... somewhere...


Sunday, November 7, 2010

Screw it, we are a rock band. Make it a 100 pints of lager!

5/11 - Berlin. Today we used the backdrop for the first time on this tour. It looked killer! The gig went great, K17 is a nice venue to play at, good sound and cool lights, and of course meatloaf for dinner as usual. After the gig there was an afterparty in the same building, it was four floors with different kinds of metal on every floor, the K17 extravagansa. We ripped it up in true Grave style! The party continued on the bus with the usual stuff going on.

The TRVE milk-chocolate!

The beer of the day

Pre-show picture of the stage

Lodie and Zodie folding the backdrop


6/11 - Zabrze (Poland) We woke up with a total hangover. Most of us didn´t get out of bed until 6pm. The venue was in a barn-like building heated by open fire places. The gig went great, the crowd consisted of 11000´s of crazy vodka drinking, glue sniffing maniacs. We played so loud so the monitor system gave up at the end of the set, so we disconnected it. Since we were all a bit hungover today we took it pretty easy after the gig. The Americans took care of the partying on the bus this time, ending up with vomits  in the trash can and red wine spilled all over the tables. Tomorrow we're gonna rip it up Bratislava style!

Vomitorium!

Friday, November 5, 2010

...and what've you been doing for the past 4 years? Working in a bank!

Wednesday 3rd and Thursday 4th.

Sorry, all 11 000's of Grave-blog followers but the internet-connection in the German reich is not up to Grave-standards...


German router station


Markthalle in Hamburg, yet again a good drinking day.
Jenny 'Nanny' Magnusson came by and Ronnie handled her the cheese doodles
she ordered, she looked satisfied.
Then it was time to fix the backdrop so we went into town, walked for hours looking for something to fix it with, we went to several different shoemakers etc. Finally we found what we were looking for and we headed back to the venue. Mikael, one of our many roadies on this tour put on his "gloves of metal" and with an "iron will" And a "hammer of the north" he gave the backdrop a "touch of evil"
The gig went really good, the death metallers in Hamburg showed us what they were made of - Pure German STEEL!

Tobias showing off with the "Hammer of the North"

Öljett-konferens
The three musketörerna

Mikael found Y's from Fatal Smile's stage prop


Kassel on a thursday, hell yeah! We took a walk into the city, saw a porn shop in classic German style. Later we did a soundcheck, the first one we´ve done on this tour so far. Before the gig we joked around backstage with some cool stage moves, so we decided to try some on stage. Magnus and Tobias did the crab walk - Immortal style, and Ola and Tobias tried some Scorpions moves. Both attempts ended with epic fail. The night ended on the bus with beer, vodka, whiskey and metal music on the stereo. We riped it up with the usual: Scorpions, Def Leppard Ozzy etc. and also some Craft. Ola, Tobias and Darin (Misery Index) had a very serious discussion on Venom vs. Celtic Frost.

Tomorrow we're gonna rip it up Zabrze style!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

It says sausages up there!

Tuesday Nov 2nd
Good drinking day. In fact it was a great drinking day so we don't remember very much from the gig. Leif, our German friend and legal advisor, came to the show. He had only one advice; "Drink more grogg!"

Beer of the day - Astra
Ola - The founding member of Grave.


Ronnie gets a blowjob

No glam-rockers allowed!

 Then we ripped it up Autobahn-style with an 80's metal party. When the bottles were empty, the sight of Misery Index's JD bottles caught our attention. We drank them immediately before Jason and the other guys in MI could react.

Later on Ola gave Darin (Misery Index) a lesson on swedish doom and assaulted him with Epicus Doomicus Metallicus and the poor lad was blown away. Tobbe got a crash-course in thrash with Deathrow, a very early Grave influence. The rest of the playlist for the night contained Scoripions (as usual), Mötley Crüe, Judas Priest, RATT and King Diamond among others. Today we are in Hamburg and we expect thousands of screaming thrashing maniacs at the show. And tomorrow we´re gonna rip it up Kassel style!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Grave? What about 'em?

2010-11-01


Arlanda 05:30 AM, checked in everything and ripped it up L.A-Style at the bar! That means 4 beers and 2 bottle of Ramlösa.

Tobias, Peter (our soundguy) and Ola is partying like motherfuckers at Arlanda airport.


Mike, 2010-kurva crew



After a soft flight to Amsterdam we met the tour manager and our merchandiser at the airport, took a cab to the venue De Kade. We were very excited about our new backdrop and wanted to check it out right away but... 

What's wrong with this picture!!?

Great success as our friends from Poland would say.

All the bands, Misery Index, Arsis, The Last Felony and The Rotted seems to be really cool and nice guys so this should be a killer tour. After the gig we hung out in the tourbus, listened to 70´s Scorpions and Anthrax and had some beers and whiskey shots before we hit the bunk.
Tonight in Bochum we're expecting like 13 000 screaming people... As usual!
To have panties and random underwear thrown at us... As usual! Now we have to go, the line of groupies outside the venue is building up and tonight we're gonna RIP IT UP Bochum-Style!!!


The venue in Zaandam - De Kade




Ola and Magnus is discussing the awesomeness of this tour.