Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

Massive Music has issued the following:

VADER is in the States and brings fresh news from the frontier of their tour over the New Continent. For the upcoming weeks we’re gonna publish their tour blog from Back to the Black US tour 2013. Stay tuned! \m/

08.09.2013 Portland, OR @ Alhambra Theatre

I can say, the day started for me at  2 AM, just after the show in Oakland. I was so exhausted after this intense gig that I knew one thing: once going to bed I will sleep till 4 PM, up to our arrival to the club in Portland. I ate almost nothing for the past 24 hours, so another day with no meal could be fatal for my health. I didn’t want to weaken my organism and get cold right at the beginning of tour. I decided to stay tough and keep awake till the nearest gas station. We stopped at 5 AM – after 3 hours of waiting. Great! In the food store I found a fresh (I hope) chicken/veggie salad . After the meal I was ready to go back to asleep with clear conscience. I woke up according to the plan – at 4 PM. I headed right to the club, bumping into jogging Spider.

A stage was ready for soundcheck. After it was done, Spider enters the club and asks “if we’re ready for soundcheck” 😉 We had a great dinner afterwards, a short rest in the bus and then preparation in our dressing room (this time we had such a “luxury” in the club). Quick look at Vital Remains show and we’re ready to go! We entered the stage in heat and sweat, just like the previous night. The sound was 666 times better then last night, though!!! It was a pleasure to play that night. The crowd was totally exhausted (previous bands took no mercenaries) but many crazy maniax were still able to take more! We played “God is Dead” just for them. Fast visit to a hotel after the show (first real shower on the tour). Then clean and fresh I came back to the bus to write down these words. Seattle tomorrow…

I remember almost nothing from the first two days, because I was sleeping all the time. The trip to US was not as bad though. First two shows in Santa Ana and Oakland were pretty good indeed. California was waiting for Vader and we could feel it. Just after our gig in Oakland we moved to Portland. I woke up at 7 AM ! My bio clock must be f***d up! The whole morning I spent at chatting with our driver Ray. He’s kind of a freaky man and a really cool person. We have smoked a few cigarettes and were closing up to Portland slowly. At 4 AM we were at the place. I took my jogging suit with me on tour. It was about the time to put myself together. I was out for about 45 minutes.  After I came back … Vader’s soundcheck was done. What can I say…Sorry guys! It was worth to get my body get on trail finally. We started our show very late this evening. Entering stage I noticed Ray behind mix desk. This Dude is a miracle man I guess 😉 I was impressed indeed. Sound was really good. After the show he informed me that he was working as a soundman already before. He is able to do monitors or other things on stage too. I really hope he can do sound for us on next shows as well and that wasn’t just a single performance. After Vader left stage we went to hotel for a long awaited … shower. Oh yes – it is about time after three days. See You in Seattle !!!!

We spent all night and most of the day in the bus making the journey to Portland so there was a lot of sitting around and really not much else. It’s not glamorous but that’s really how life is on tour. We got to the venue, loaded in, did our soundcheck (without Spider) and had our first real meal of the tour. Lots of roast chicken, a huge joint of beef, a selection of vegetables and deserts – basically it was awesome! We also had our master-of-all-trades bus driver behind the sound desk for us today – and he was making it sound killer! Then I set the alarm and went straight to sleep. Unfortunately I was still suffering from jet lag so I slept right through my alarm and was woken up 1 hour later by Spider shaking me and telling me that we were supposed to be on stage in 45 minutes. Thankfully, the show was great, which really made it worth the long day of nothing. Finally after the show we were also able to have our first (and hopefully not last) shower of the tour, which was a great way to end the day and get us prepared for the next show in Seattle, Washington.

Read also the tour blog from Santa Ana and Oakland, HERE.

Home Sweet Home…

Done so far:

09/06/13 Yost Theatre – Santa Ana, CA
09/07/13 Oakland Metro – Oakland, CA
09/08/13 Alhambra Theatre – Portland, OR
09/09/13 El Corazon – Seattle, WA

Check out the remaining shows here below:

“Back To The Black 2013” U.S. tour dates are:

09/10/13 The Venue – Caldwell, ID
09/12/13 Marquis Theatre – Denver, CO
09/13/13 Aftershock – Kansas City, MO
09/14/13 Fubar – St. Louis, MO
09/15/13 Reggie’s – Chicago, IL
09/16/13 The Detroit Pub – Detroit, MI
09/17/13 The Paper Box – Brooklyn, NY
09/18/13 Mojo 13 – Wilmington, DE
09/19/13 Kings – Raleigh, NC
09/20/13 Oasis – Charleston, SC
09/21/13 The Orpheum – Tampa, FL
09/22/13 The Masquerade – Atlanta, GA
09/24/13 Chameleon Room – Oklahoma City, OK
09/25/13 Korova – – San Antonio, TX
09/26/13 The Boiler Room – Dallas, TX
09/27/13 Launchpad – Albuquerque, NM
09/28/13 The Rock – Tucson, AZ
09/29/13 Whisky A Go Go – Hollywood, CA