Stockholm, Sunday

Waking up Sunday around noon, the first order of the day was a to procure a new string for one of the guitars, which was urgently needed in time for our 5am TV gig, but which was complicated by the fact that all shops were closed. Once again, our by now good friend Jenny came to the rescue and lent us one of the guitars from her home.
Having taken the 'scenic route' across Stockholm courtesy of our gps-guidance system, we next walked over to Drottninggatan to play in the streets.

After consulting one of the local street artists, a folk singer from Hungary, we picked our spot near parliament and unpacked our instruments. Our passersby were mostly tourists, weekend shoppers, or locals just enjoying a Sunday walk around town. By sunset we had sold some CDs, made some new friends and raked in some hard-earned cash. All in day's work.

Saturday in Stockholm. We got up early to play at the Weekend Market in Gärdet, one of Stockholms many beautiful neighbourhoods, with wide open spaces, tall leafy trees and plenty of grass for swedish teenagers to practice american football. We did a set of our songs in sunshine under a clear sky, but towards the end, as we sang the lines of Sunday Morning: '...as it is it's raining every day' wouldn't you know it, it started to rain. We dove into a nearby tent or under umbrellas to finish our set without the instruments being harmed, but we wouldn't be so lucky later in the evening.


A quick shower and then off to the garden party. We were invited to a barbecue at a friends house, which had a western theme. Being in another country we were ill equipped but we threw on our best checkered shirts and some blue jeans and headed out to meet some locals. When we arrived we were greeted by our amazing host Jenny who welcomed us with trays of grilled lamb and corn-on-the-cob. After a great meal we played a couple of songs as a way of thanks. After a crash course in line dancing we felt confident enough to try a couple of steps along to Rednex 'classic' hit Cotton Eye Joe. As the night wore on we moved inside and did some more uptempo numbers for the guests who were in high spirits. Passing our instruments around to shake things up, we went into a heavier number. Maybe a bit too heavy, for a string in one of the guitars broke, leaving us desperately seeking a replacement in time for our gig on TV on monday morning.

Borås, Friday

We drove Borås and performed at a radio show called Cocktail on channel P4. The host, Lotta Brunmark, had prepared an Icelandic theme for us which included Icelandic candy. After a few remarks about how our volcano ruined everyone else's vacation plans, she asked us in a deadpan manner how it feels to come from the most hated country in Europe, which was proceeded by a few seconds of radio silence as we groped for a comeback. I guess we should have had some prepared soundbytes around that. Otherwise, Swedes have generally been very lovable to us.

We continued to Stockholm and played an impromptu gig in our friend Erik's apartment. The band members then had a look at the local bars, before tucking in for the night.

Gothenburg, Thursday

We did the first gig of the tour at Pustervik in Gothenburg. The audience was great, and the stage sound was top-notch. We celebrated the whole night, drinking Icelandic Brennivín together with Peter Andersson, the president of Adore Music.

Not having any trees in Iceland, we decided to climb some that night. One of the band members fell out of it though, and now has a slight but charming limp.

Earlier that day we did an recording session for the blog In My Kitchen. Two songs will be aired there next month.

We flew to Kopenhagen yesterday, and drove to Gothenburg. We named our tour-bus Ronnie James Dio. On the road we had beautiful weather, and saw som amazing scenery... unfortunately no one thought of taking pictures while driving. But here are som pictures from the airport:

Flights from Iceland leave ridiculously early in the morning, so some off us didn't have time to sleep. You could say that we were a bit tired yesterday.

Lift off

Still in Reykjavík. Our flight is only a few hours away. We will fly to Kopenhagen, and then drive straight to Gothenburg. Peter Andersson - the record company president at Adore Music - has invited us to dinner. He says it will be thai food - and we just so happen to love thai food.

We've added a gig in Stockholm next weekend, at the charming El Mundo. So this is what the tour looks like now.

Regars,

Árstíðir

Rehearsing in Reykjavík

May 24, Reykjavík.

Well, the notorious volcano under Eyafjallajökull has taken a break - so it looks like our flight to Kopenhagen on Wednesday will be on time (Still I'm going to knock on some wood, just in case...)

On our rehearsal yesterday we played the whole album from beginning to end, wich was a blast because we have'nt played some of the songs for a while (when you're playing concerts, you tend to focus on the singles).

If you have'nt listened to the whole thing, you can stream it here:

http://arstidir.bandcamp.com/album/rst-ir-full-lenght-album

I'd like to take the oppurtunity to thank Iceland Air for helping us get an extra flight seat for Hallgrímurs cello - Cellos are very delicate instruments, that are sensitive to variations in temperature and humidity, and so checking them in with the rest of the luggage can be risky, even with a "handle with care" -tag. The cello will get it's own in-flight entertainment system, and it does'nt even have to pay airport tax, Iceland Air told us.

Regards,

Ragnar

Preparing for the tour

Saturday, May 22

It is an unusually sunny Saturday in Reykjavík. No sign of volcanoe ash in the air, just the way we like it

The tour is just four days away.

We've worked out most of the things for the tour - we've rented a tour bus (it's a mini van, but we like to refer to it as the tour bus), found a place to stay in most of the cities that we will play in.

This close to the tour we are still adding gigs to the schedule. As the tour draws nearer, more interest is generated, and thus more places are willing to let us play.

We'll keep you updated here on the blog, and on our facebook group. So far this is what the tour looks like.

Regards, Árstíðir