St Peterburg, day 2

(Photo (©) by Linda Iliste)

After sightseeing in the most beautiful city in the world, we went for soundcheck at the MOD Club. We were booked for a concert hall within the complex with a capacity for 400 people, but were informed upon arrival that the hall was undergoing renovation, so we had to play inside the adjacent bar. The explanation was offered to us with a smile: “This is Russia.”

With over 300 in attendance, the bar was bursting at the seams. When it was time for us to start, the crowd of people all surged to get closer to the stage, and for a moment we found ourselves in the interesting position of not physically being able to make it through to the stage to play.

But by the time we blazed a trail and started the show, the tight space and surging crowd was made up for in spades with a heartwarming response.

(Photo (©) by Sokolov Roman)

Our wonderful friend Marjana.

(Photo (©) by Linda Iliste)

We were supported by the incredible Marjana and her band iamthemorning. Their music really blew our minds, and we hope to play together with them more in the future.
You can check out their music HERE.

After the gig we rushed to the train station for a night train to Dubna.

Our amazing manager Masha.
(Photo (©) by Linda Iliste)

St Petersburg - the first night

After visiting a local brewery in St Petersburg, Marjana, Alexei, Mikhail and the people from our fan-club went with us to the canal to watch the drawbridges open, and the ships sail by - a spectacular sight indeed.

The night was beautiful but cold. Before returning to the warmth of the bars, we stopped by the Winter Palace and sang of the song Find the Cost of Freedom.

St Petersburg, Russia

(Photos (©) by Linda Iliste)

Our manager and a driver picked us up in Helsinki and drove us to St Petersburg. We were delayed on the border between Finland and Russia, and were two hours late for our appointment with our fan-club in St Petersburg.

But the people were patient, and we were warmly welcomed on arrival. After two hours of chatting and drinking, we went bar hopping in St Petersburg with our new amazing friends.

(Photo (©) by Linda Iliste)

Helsinki, Finland

The first gig of the tour went down at a rock club in downtown Helsinki named Bar Loose.

In a generous backstage lounge sporting posters of Iggy Pop we found a fridge filled with Finnish beer. That managed to compensate the fact that they had misspelled our name on the billboard outside.

The crowd was great, and our host Toni even more so. We now have ample reasons to come back to Finland.

In the airport

...aaaand we're off.

With no sleep, high expectations, and good spirits, the band made it to the airport in the middle of the night. We checked in our instruments - everyone except Hallgrímur, who ordered an extra flight seat for his cello (imagine that: the cello gets its own on-board entertainment system!) - went through security, and had a beer to mark the occasion.

Man, we are really excited about this. While Jón, Daniel and Hallgrímur went away to shop presents for our manager Maria, the rest of us decided to post the first video blog.
Enjoy:



Tourblog 1 from Arstidir the Band on Vimeo.

Tonight we have a gig in Helsinki at a bar called Bar Loose. Here is the facebook event.
Cheers!

Copenhagen, Saturday

Early in the morning we crossed the bridge between Sweden and Denmark and went to Copenhagen. After spending some sun-soaked hours busking and on the main shopping street Strøget, we made our way to Café Blasen.

Blasen is a bar owned and run by Icelanders, and is frequented by Icelanders living in Copenhagen. Sure enough, when the gig started the house was packed with Icelanders, and we found ourselves talking to the audience in our mother tongue.

We did a purely acoustic gig, which was a challenge as the boozers are often loud on Saturday nights. But much to our delight we received the audience’s undivided attention, and were met with an incredible response.

Since it was our last gig of the tour we played a longer set than usual, and did several encores.

Needless to say, the night ended with one hell of a party.

(Photos (©) by Höddi)

Malmö, Friday

The day started with a cold swim in Dalby Stenbrott, a lake situated in a birch forest close to Torna Hällestad. One band member – the same one that fell out of a tree earlier on the tour – cut his leg on a rock, adding to his list of injuries.

After driving to Malmö to sound check at Babel, we killed time before the gig in an adjacent park, sipping Sangria in the sun. There we met with a producer who is working on a musical installation set to take place in an old mine in Sweden next year, and wants Árstíðir to play a key role.

Jonas Schwartz opened the show at Babel for us, as he did in Gothenburg, and it was nice to meet him and the rest of the guys again. We really liked playing at Babel – the venue was made to look like an old church, boasting an enormous stage and state-of-the-art PA system. The engineer did an amazing job with the sound, and the audience responded warmly.

After the gig, we drove back to our basecamp in Torna Hällestad and rounded off the day with a few beers.