Sunday 12th November -Tilburg, Holland, 013 club
What an unusual start to the day, getting up practically twelve hours later still in my pantyhose! That really was a deep sleep and unless someone slipped something into my tea the night before, (one can never be too careful around this lot) a sleep well needed.
So it's without further ado that i'm invited out with Dani, Rosie and Sarah (as well as Beatrix, a loyal fan who follows the band around on every European tour... this time i believe he has mentioned attending a possible ten shows, driving behind the tour bus and then sleeping in his car overnight) to hunt down to a coffee shop and experience what the somewhat more tolerant European laws have to offer. Weed in abundance.
Two hours latter and having almost broken a heel on the return journey through the hissing rain, i'm wrapped up in the dressing room with a big smile on my face, hair in ruins around my rosy cheeks and the promise of a steaming hot shower if i can be arsed to move from the chair i'm sunk in.
Much of the afternoon i spent helping to dress the set, interviewing band members and watching the to-ing and fro-ing of the crew and band as everyone silently panicked. Today was a big day. The coming-together of months worth of preparation in one defining hour and a half set, complete with stage production and huge lighting show (including a constant backdrop video feed), plus the added weight of an extended setlist as well as Charle's new beard and moustache combo coming off looking good, if not godly onstage.
For the band the afternoon was spent doing interviews and photos and very soon the support band for the tour, the mighty Death Stars, took to the stage to a rapturous response. I like this band a lot, a little too skinny for my tastes, but their music reminds me of a hybrid mix between The Sisters Of Mercy and Dimmu Borgir and they look damn good too. Definitely a band to keep an eye on.
I stood watching from the side in order to take in the 1200 capacity crowd, who were going mental. The stage show looked great under the lights, but i couldn't really appreciate it from where i was standing so i decided to slide around to the photo-pit beneath Paul to take it all in. The stage show i mean.
From here the trees lit up looked fantastic so i further decided to head toward Paul Collis, (the band's erudite sound guy) and film at least a part of the show (Tonight In Flames - see the front page of the website to view). Here i stayed until practically the end, mesmerised by tonight's outlandish performance. The band looked great and played with renewed vigour, new drummer Martin (that name's gonna stick, i can tell) underpinning it all with some truly aggressive playing. Unfortunately the band had to cut their set a song short tonight due to curfew restrictions, but this did little to mar the evening, save the lack of booze backstage i guess.
Tottering off to the venue's bar (and leaving the guys to their showers), i eventually bumped into Dave who was with an old friend of ours and her boyfriend, so i hung about enough to get tipsy on wine and to say hello and then i felt i needed some entertainment from the smokers in the band, who, today being Holland, seemed to be the majority of them, including Sarah and Rosie (the former, having bought some weed cookies for the following night, was already giggling like a tickled gibbon).
Au revoir boys and ghouls.....
Libby.
PS. Some useful tour tips i found out today were never to give Sarah anything that starts her giggling (she'll never stop), bring a disguise like Dani has to travel incognito between the bus and the toilet of a morning (he has a huge afro wig and seventies glasses to deter the stand-outside-the-venue-at-ten-in-the-morning-ers), never stick your head out of the bus skylight on a French motorway, never eat yellow snow, don't get a bed near a Scotsman, don't drink anything Charles offers you whilst getting into bed with little more than your thong on show, don't forget the door code for the bus (as i have about twenty times already), never wear saucy suspenders walking up and down the steep bus steps and above all, never shit in a bus unless it's in a plastic bag that is instantly jettisoned.
Tonight In Flames (Live)