European final tour - Part 5

October 6 - This is the end

I had expected to wake up in Stockholm, but when I woke up we were parked a few miles from the Swedish capitol. I was up front with Janne, Petri and Urban while the bus drove the last miles to the venue, and was sort of surprised by the weird route our driver Udo chose for the last bit. Debaser Medis is in a part of Stockholm that I have driven to multiple times (the classic venue Kafé 44 is just nearby) so I really didn't know what he was doing. Eventually - after actually driving past the venue - we got there, just to realize that the suggested parking from the promotor was occupied by some cars. These cars drove away after a few minutes and Udo did some extreme parking, displaying the skills that only these veteran nightliner drivers possess. We all stood on the sidewalk and watched him do his magic and obviously saluted him with applauds when he was done.

We were quite early for the load-in so Urban and Jesper went to their homes, Jon was looking for his phone that never was found, Keijo checked in at the hotel to get some sleep and I also went to the hotel and did what would actually be the last interview I did as a touring member of Nasum. (Here's the interview - in Swedish).

We loaded in our gear and Antti and Hannes went to work for the last time. Before the soundcheck the other bands started to show up and my friend Maria came from Örebro with the van I rented from local stonerrock heroes Truckfighters to bring my drums and stuff back home. After the soundcheck it was time for a very particular band meeting. In the summer of 2010, I met with the Stockholm members at an Indian restaurant just a short walk from Debaser Medis. It was at this particular restaurant the idea of the Farewell tour first was discussed and it seemed very fitting to close the circle by going there again for a drink and to decide the final setlist.


The last soundcheck and the last, quite emotionally charged day-sheet.

We were not alone for this meeting, Michael from Siegfried Productions was also with us. Michael is the "leader" of the Danish film crew that shot our show at Roskilde earlier this summer. We got to see the first five minutes or so of the footage prior to the final tour and liked the style and look of it, but wasn't particularly pleased with the show itself. So we had a meeting with Michael during the Copenhagen show (a tale not told in this blog) and invited his team to do the same kind of documentation of the final show and also shoot some documentary stuff during the day as well. So Michael brought Casper and Rasmus (the latter one is responsible for the amazing "Relics" video) with him and tagged along from the Malmö show.

Anyway: we went to the restaurant only to discover that they had gone through some renovations. We were able to (sort of) locate the table we sat at two years earlier, but when we tried to get a table inside just to have a drink and talk they refused to have non-eating guests. What a failure! Instead we headed to another Indian restaurant for the drink and setlist writing… Well, when life gives you lemons - go somewhere else…

It was actually quite nice to sit down and have this final band meeting just the five of us (plus our Danish fly-on-the-wall). We also managed to come up with the last setlist, which included 33 songs…

After the band meeting it was time to head back to Debaser Medis for a meal. While going there we decided to check out the line. There had been a debate in the band about the attendance for this last show. I was a firm believer that the show would be sold out (if a free show actually can "sell out"), while some other members weren't as sure. Well, one hour before the doors opened there was a considerable line that just kept on getting longer and longer. We stood in it for a while just for the fun of it, and the line just kept getting longer and longer… A few hours after the doors all the 850 spots were taken and the line was still amazingly long so we "sold out" for sure.


A panorama shot of the longest line… At least this particular evening!

We had planned something special for this show. We had done the "Mr and Mrs Gasmask" intro for a few shows - the premiere in Örebro, at Maryland Deathfest, Hellfest, Metaltown and Obscene Extreme, and we would definitively do it on the last show. But we wanted to do something more, because this intro isn't really a surprise anymore as it's been on YouTube since May. This was one of many discussions we had prior to the tour, and at some point we thought of recreating the "Inhale/Exhale" cover even more by having some properly dressed "wedding guests" as well. Jesper bought ten gasmasks before the tour and through out it we searched for the right dresses for these ten people and found them - in Stockholm. Ten matching military protection outfits were bought and a few hours before the show we had a "dress rehearsal" with ten people that we managed to engage in this stunt.


Anders posing between Joel and Oskar from Anders's Coldworker, two of the ten people dressing up for the occasion.

It was quite surreal to see all this people in costume, and it looked really cool. We had three different missions for them, but we only needed all ten of them for the first one. Our plan was to have the wedding couple up front and then let the ten dudes appear after a while to create an effect, but the stage at Debaser Medis made it difficult to complete this idea, but the one we came up with instead worked fine.

We had plenty of time this night, but it was also a night filled with emotions and tension. Keijo was feeling slightly bad and feared for his voice, but got some snake poison medicine (!) from Finland that would make it better. It actually worked. After basically just waiting for the moment to hit the stage the time came to get dressed and get ready. All of a sudden I realized that my playing shirt was at the hotel and got extremely stressed. I more or less ran down the many stairs from the dressing room to the street and over to the hotel, which thankfully just was across the street, and down to the room and found it, quickly dressed and ran back. I don't believe I felt nervous this evening, but if I was, the nervousness disappeared during this stressing situation. Then I strapped on the camera I would have on my chest and ran to the stage to do the last adjustments to the drums. And then it was time for the last show…


The deluxe intro. Photo by Soile Siirtola - ExtreMMetal.se.

We all stood by the stage waiting during the longer version of our intro. We had heard that siren and war noises so many times by now, but this was the last time. I watched our 12 person strong gasmask stunt and it seemed to work. It was something special just as it should be, and ultimately we switched places with our performers just as the speech from "Flesh For Frankenstein" begun, and then we started the last show.


Live shots by Gustaf Sandholm Andersson.

This was a really tough show, and I didn't really get to enjoy it as much as I wanted to. It's a really strange notion when you know that you do something for the last time. You feel tense, because you want everything to be right. There are no room for mistakes… But the mistakes obviously came anyway. I made some fuck up's, Jon broke a string and Jesper lost control of his strap at some point. Shit happens and it was just matter of facing the mistakes and accepting them: The last show of Nasum wasn't better than this.


Live shots by Peter Herneheim - herneheim.se.

Another negative factor during this show was the immense heat! It was insanely hot on the stage, so hot that though I would faint after five minutes. The heat and the tension - well, that made the show really tough to get through. But of course it was a good show. We gave everything that we had - and probably more. The emotions were overflowing and besides shit-to-bits-blasting, there were room for hugs and tears. The last ten minutes of the show Jon played with tears flowing down his cheeks, which continued backstage when the show was over. It was beautiful.


Live shots by Gustaf Sandholm Andersson.

Six of our gasmask dudes returned to the stage during "Inhale/Exhale" which concluded the main set, and just stood there facing the crowd before we returned for the encores after catching a few breaths of cool air.


Photo by Soile Siirtola - ExtreMMetal.se

And then two of them returned for the absolute grind finale. Sometime during the tour I came up with the idea that we should conclude Nasum as a live band with the song "Den svarta fanan". That wasn't a particularly hard decision as many shows ended with the combination of the "Human 2.0" songs "The Idiot Parade" and "Den svarta fanan", but it was actually the last line of lyrics in "Den svarta fanan" that appealed to me. The line in Swedish is "Den svarta fanan vajar högt" which can roughly be translated to "The black banner is waving high", and what I wanted to do is to have someone wave a black Nasum banner on stage to symbolize that Nasum is over, but will forever live on. The problem was that we didn't have a proper Nasum flag for the occasion, but the solution was to use the first Nasum backdrop that was at my home in Örebro and luckily we were able to have it for the show.


The really not that black banner is waving high enough… Photo byPeter Herneheim - herneheim.se.

The end came so fast in some way. I was so focused at getting the last blasts of "Den svarta fanan" so precise and hard as possible that I didn't even notice when the two gasmask dudes came in with the banner, but all of a sudden they were there and did exactly what was planed. It was almost like they just appeared out of thin air. And then it was over.

We said our goodbyes to the audience and rushed of the stage, into the backstage and I kept on going to the stairwell as the air was cool there and just sat down on the floor soaking up the reality that Nasum was over. We had blasted shit to bits. We had done our legacy justice. We had celebrated the life and achievements of our fallen brother who wasn't with us on stage but always was there with us. I shared this moment with Urban who was my closest companion during the entire tour, my roommate at countless hotels and so on. That felt good. Ten meters away Jon was crying loud until he barfed on the floor. Classic. I don't know what Keijo and Jesper did, but apparently they were sitting together somewhere. And when I stood up I accidentally knocked over a huge bin filled with glass bottles, creating massive destruction and a huge racket in the stairwell, which actually broke the tension. Then I saw Keijo coming at me, laughing and saluting me for this rock and roll moment…


Grindcore vs champagne! Photo by Soile Siirtola - ExtreMMetal.se.

The following hours were spent cooling down, getting changed, packing up and celebrating the final show. It was emotional for sure and a whole lot of hugs was shared. It really was the end and we were parting ways. Our agent Silvester, who was one of the ten extra gasmask dudes, had bought us a big bottle of champagne so we could have a last drink together, and then it was time for the final photoshoot before we more or less parted ways. The after party continued in smaller groups as the hour got later and later…


Group shot with Nasum, crew and Black Breath minus Jamie who was somewhere else, but to fill his place Silvester stepped into the shot. Keijo's eyes says it all… Complete MADNESS! Photo by Soile Siirtola - ExtreMMetal.se.

Then it was truly over. Nasum left the building and will never return as a performing band. Thanks for sharing this adventure with us.

This is the end.