SCANDINAVIAN / RUSSIAN TOUR JOURNAL
by John Evicci

ICELAND

12 Aug -- Reykjavík. Sitting in Siggi's apartment, the guy who's arranged our shows here. He also plays in Forgarður Helvítis and Dys. We just got back from playing our first show of the tour in Selfoss, a small town (approximately 5000 inhabitants) about a 45-minute drive outside the capital. I really didn't know what to expect there. I imagined it would be a pretty tame, laid-back show considering the location. This suited me fine as it would give us a chance to sort of "break in" to touring mode. The first show of a tour is usually a little rough around the edges, and can be used to work out some of the kinks and just really settle in to the whole milieu of touring. Well, the show wasn't nearly as tame or laid-back as I had envisioned. In fact it was much, much better than I expected. Seemed like everyone I talked with had come out from Reykjavík, which seemed to make the whole idea of playing a gig outside the city pointless, but maybe there were more locals there than it seemed. Anyway, the inevitable first gig kinks were there, but I feel we played pretty well. The sound from where I was was pretty awful, but I have to believe the people who were in the audience who said it sounded fine. The audience was really fucking good. They really got into it and ended up buying a shitload of shirts...far, far more than I had ever anticipated in my wildest dreams. If those kind of sales were to continue (which I'm sure won't happen), we'll be out of shirts before we hit Sweden!! I think tonight was just a strange fluke. Good, but strange. I am concerned, though, with being considerably short on shirts. It's such a fucking crapshoot. You never know how many to bring (or what sizes). Sometimes they sell great, other times you're returning home with dozens of useless "tour" shirts. Anyway, tonight's show was very good. Just the kind of show you wanna start a tour off on: really positive. When we first played here in 2001, the show was quite good, but this time was far better, and so much more because it was so unexpected. Here's hoping the remaining 2 shows in Reykjavík are as good. On the way to the show we took a little sightseeing detour to Kleifarvatn, a place I've wanted to visit for quite some time now but was unable to on my last visit here. It was well worth the wait. Much cooler than I expected. Much like everything else here, words can't begin to describe it. It simply must be seen for itself. I was shocked to learn that even Siggi had never been there before. I am led to believe that it is one of Iceland's many unsung gems. Oh, I also have to mention the weather, which was fucking gorgeous! I've never been here in the summer time but I know that today's weather was exceptionally nice. We were extremely lucky to get it. Apparently they are experiencing something of a heat wave here at the moment. According to Siggi, yesterday (the day before we arrived) was the warmest day in the capital since 1977. Anyway, sorry to be so gushing about how great great great everything was, but it really was, and you gotta appreciate these good breaks when you get them because they have a tendency to be few and far between. Of course, my account is bound to be more gratuitously positive because of how much I love this damn place. Anyway, I really gotta stop writing. I'm probably keeping everyone in the room awake, except Mikey, who's taking Jaye's place, not only as the bassist, but as the band's token snorer. OK, as they say here, góða nótt.

Unloading as we first arrive at Siggi's. Hallgrímskirkja in the background	As we set out from the city we come across these big racks full of drying fish. It smelled as bad as you might imagine.	The road confirms that we're off the usual tourist circuit	We explore Kleifarvatn and it's surroundings. Simply awesome.
Not far from Kleifarvatn, we stop at Krýsuvík and check out some of the geothermal sights	On the way to Selfoss, Siggi stops to help some stranded motorists. We explore the area, including this dung-filled sheep pen.	Among the sheep dung we find a mushroom. We suspect it has magical properties but never get the chance to find out.	The first day of the tour and Deuce is already missing his girlfriend so much that he's compelled to chase down sheep!

Photos from Tryggvaskáli, Selfoss
More photos from Tryggvaskáli

13 Aug -- Siggi's apartment. We just finished watching Fat Crazy Ethel on Mark's portable DVD player he brought with him. Great movie. Tonight we are playing at a club in the city called Grand Rokk with Labrat from the UK. They just arrived about an hour ago and swung by here and said 'ello. Earlier today we just walked down Laugarvegur (the main shopping street) and around the city. The weather isn't as nice as yesterday. It started out really nice but soon got cool and overcast. Siggi's apartment is directly behind Hallgrímskirkja, the city's most striking landmark, a towering, imposing church. Deuce and I paid the fee to ascend to the top of the tower, where I've been told the view is fantastic, but a fog had descended over the city about a half hour before so we didn't get to see shit. If we get any more clear weather we'll try again.

Hallgrímskirkja

Gourmet cooking in Siggi's kitichen

Siggi & us hanging out on his sofa

14 Aug -- Again at Siggi's apartment, our headquarters here in Iceland. We just woke up to the peals of Hallgrímskirkja's bells. Probably very annoying to all the severely hungover revelers we witnessed last night on the streets and in the bars downtown after the show got out. As I was quite sure was to be the case, last night's show at Grand Rokk wasn't nearly as good as the previous night in Selfoss. Labrat headlined and we didn't even get paid. The 3 local opening bands were definitely a break from your typical punk/hardcore bill. The first was really sedate emo, the second really sedate acoustic music, and the third really sedate metal, if that makes any sense. Quite a contrast to our set. Not sure if people were quite prepared for the transition. Not sure if we were either, for that matter. We chopped our set in half because we weren't headlining and because our normal set (25 songs) seemed a bit too long the previous night. I don't feel very confident about how we played. Again, the sound on stage wasn't good and I couldn't tell if it was just from where I was or if that was what the audience heard as well. I had a bit of hard time with the drums that they had there. Anyway, it wasn't a bad show, but just a tad disappointing perhaps. I was pleasantly surprised to hear them playing Nick Drake between the bands. I guess that fit in with the, as I mentioned before, quite sedate opening acts. Labrat were really good, if not exactly my style of music. Their promoter referred to them as "math metal". We're playing with them again today and possibly tonight. We weren't supposed to, but we were offered to play at another bar tonight with Labrat. Hopefully things go a little better. We will insist on a soundcheck!

14 Aug -- Back at HQ. It's about 21:00. We played in Ingólfstorg today, which is a square in the center of Reykjavík. It was an outdoor skate fest/competition thing. Miraculously, we were once again blessed with gorgeous weather. Odin truly smiled down upon us today. We played a three-quarter length set, which was far better than last night's, at least from my vantage point. I feel we played really well and got a good response. People were skating in between the bands' sets and a DJ was spinning some really good (and some really shitty) records. It was amazing to say the least. Easily one of the coolest shows I've ever played in my life, if not the coolest. Now if I can just get ahold of someone who videotaped it! Afterwards we walked to a comic book store and Deuce and I tried to go back up to the top of the church, but it was closed. Now we're just hanging out watching Mark's DVD player. They're about to put in Family Guy so I gotta go.

In the city	Austurvöllur. Many people out enjoying the crazy-nice weather.	Mikey tries to flip Deuce the bird but he's too consumed with his Nonnabiti
Siggi showing some of his runic tattoos	The show at Ingólfstorg	Mikey gets a bad attitude when he's unable to visit the Penis Museum

More photos from Ingólfstorg, Reykjavík

15 Aug -- HQ. Awoken again by the clanging of church bells. Today is Sunday, though, so they were a little worse. Last night's show was in a tiny upstairs room of a bar. I don't know what the occasion was but for some reason they were giving away Jack Daniels so it ended up getting pretty wild pretty quickly. Given the fact that the place was so small and crowded, naturally the night turned into a clusterfuck. By the time Labrat finished their set I just wanted to get the hell out of that place. I was feeling increasingly claustrophobic and I was really starting to feel the strains of my self-imposed teetotalism. An old friend from our first trip here, Krummi from Mínus, was DJing downstairs. It was really great to see him and have a bit of a chat up, but I just couldn't bear the atmosphere in the place. I badly wanted a drink and every passing minute was harder to bear. The show itself was OK, but once again it sounded awful from where I was. Apparently Mikey's been having a lot of trouble with the bass rig he's been using here. I don't know, man. Aside from the Ingólfstorg show, I'm not really happy with the way we've been sounding, which is peculiar because we were sounding really solid right before we left. Hopefully it is simply an equipment issue and we sound better from here on out.

Red Motor Dog, opening band at Bar 11.   Great stoner rock band.

We cram into a back stairwell at Bar 11 for a group shot

16 Aug -- On the plane to Oslo. Just had a couple cups of coffee so I'm feeling somewhat human again. Had to wake up at around 4:45 to catch our flight. Siggi couldn't drive us to the airport so his roommate Hákon and his friend Gyða gave us a lift. What benevolent souls they are to have woken up that early for us. Yesterday we had a day off so we went to the Blue Lagoon. I had been telling the guys how cool the place was leading up to our visit here. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to like it as much as I did. We also stopped by the home of one of Siggi's relatives, Unnur Jökulsdóttir, who had written a book called Íslendingar, which was on very prominent display downtown in Austurvöllur. I wanted to get a copy off her but she was not at home, much to my disappointment. I made one final attempt to ascend Hallgrímskirkja and it was worth it. I managed to get there just 15 minutes before it closed for the day. It was overcast, but not foggy this time, so I was able to get those great views of the city I had been hearing about for so long. After that we went to a tattoo parlor where, a day or two before, we had arranged to meet a guy to get some tattoos. They guy never showed up, so to cap the night off we went to see Hellboy at the cinema. I more or less went against my will, but the movie turned out to be really cool and I enjoyed it a lot. As is always the case, I am very sad to be leaving Iceland, but the rest of the guys are probably glad as I'm sure they're sick of hearing me keep talking about how great it is. Well, the captain just announced we'll be landing in Oslo in about 20 minutes so I guess that's all for now.

Awesome views from Hallgrímskirkjuturninn

Reykjanesfólkvangurinn, great for picnics!

Forward to Part Two (Norway, Denmark, Sweden)  >>

 

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