Posted: Wednesday, 12 July 2006 11:52
This past weekend I did a short trip to Italy with the Regurgitate guys and played with them at the Grind Your Mother festival in Cologne (no, not the German one!). In case you didn’t know, I have done a few shows with Regurgitate before, back in 2004. I did four shows with them as their “real” drummer Jocke was recovering from back injuries. This time Jocke couldn’t do it as he is expecting his second child any day now. Congrats in advance!
The setlist was generally speaking the same one that I learned back in 2004 apart from a few songs that were changed to some old “Carnivorous Erection” and “Effortless Regurgitation of Bright Red Blood” songs that I hadn’t played before and also two songs from their upcoming album “Sickening Bliss”.
We rehearsed three times before the trip to Italy and we were sort of prepared for this show.
We went by Ryan Air from the Skavsta airport, which is called “Stockholm Skavsta” in the Ryan Air world. If you’ve traveled by Ryan Air you’ll know by now that in Ryan Air world the airports are nowhere near the city of which they are named, so both me and them had to go for a while to get there.
After mongoloiding around a while (see photos below), we boarded the plane, only to find out that we had to wait one hour (!) for the take off due to some very stupid reason. Only on Ryan Air, kids…
Two mongoloids...
...and two more.
Once in Italy Giovanni from The Spew Records, who arranged the festival, met us. In true Italian fashion he broke a few traffic laws taking us to the venue in Cologne. The club was really cool, of the type that I wished there would be more of in Sweden and in Örebro in particular.
This was on the Friday and our show was on Saturday so this evening all we could do was enjoy the company and the music, which wasn’t too hard for me as Napalm Death was playing. After hanging around in the hot backstage area for a while Napalm Death showed up and the hug-o-rama begun. I haven’t seen these guys since August last year so as always it’s a pleasure meeting four of the nicest people in the business.
Although Shane and I had “talked” via emails a few weeks ago he had totally forgotten that I would be there so was a little bit pissed that he hadn’t brought the new Napalm Death album with him so I could hear it. I, on the other hand, played a few rough mixes from the Coldworker album for Mitch and Shane who both gave it thumbs up. Shane proved to me why he is the grind god that he is by singing along one of the most complicated blast riffs on the Coldworker album after just hearing one round… I can’t understand that guy!
Eventually Napalm Death went on stage and shredded as always. The set was very similar to last year’s. Barney dedicated “The World Keeps Turning” to me (which I think is the first time ever that someone dedicates a song to me!) and of course asked the classic “Har du duschat?” question from stage. Very funny, and very tour of 2000!
They played a new track called “Fatalist”. It started of with a few quite rhythmical parts that reminded me of the late 90’s Napalm Death until it started blasting for a while, ending with a break down part. Both Mitch and Shane described the song as pretty “basic” and I was too – for lack of better word – “shaken” by the intro riffs to understand what they actually meant by basic.
One very happy Italian guy digging Napalm Death.
Old school type of photo of Barney.
Very sweaty Mitch after the show.
Short video from Napalm Death's show. (DivX)
At some point when I discussed riffs and songs with Mitch he said something that was the most flattering thing I have never heard in my life. He said: “I said to Shane during the recording ‘I wonder what Anders will think of the album’”. Imagine that: one of the bands that you like the most in the world values YOUR opinion that much that they discuss it in the studio?! I have never felt so proud and important at the same time. An amazing feeling!
Unfortunately they had to leave and we had to leave to the apartment we were sleeping in, which was a 30-40 minute ride away to the town of Sulzano. Our driver this time was a fucking maniac that basically risked our lives driving like a madman. I didn’t think that was funny. Round-abouts are called that because you go ROUND them, not OVER them.
In the darkness of Sulzano this night we couldn’t understand much of the location where the apartment was but in the morning it was almost like we had traveled to a little paradise. The apartment was just next to a lake in which there was a mountain island, about 600 meters high. Amazing! We went for a walk in the surroundings taking photos and looking for possible places to eat and found a nice restaurant next to the lake. As it was too early for a meal we went back to the apartment for a few hours of just slacking and talking. And just when we getting ready to go to the restaurant Giovanni came and picked us up and drew us to Cologne and the venue again.
A little bit grumpy we went to look for another place to eat. A restaurant next to the venue was closed at this time so we walked a little more and found a café where we at least could have a sandwich and stay away from the heat for a few hours.
The bed where I slept.
The mountain island.
Back at the venue we put up the Regurgitate merch and looked at some bands like Fleshless, Machetazo and Avulsed. Machetazo really stood out with their old school grindcore. It was really cool and the guys looked bad ass on stage. I liked it!
At some point we actually went to eat at the restaurant. Giulio the Bastard from Crippled Bastards went along. I ordered what I though was a pizza with mozzarella, tomato sauce and oregano, and it sure looked like it, but it taste like salty fish. I couldn’t understand why and although I wasn’t satisfied I ate it anyway.
After that it was almost time to get on stage and play some grind. A guy called Jacopo had brought a great set of cymbals for me to use. Jacopo went on and on about how it was such a honor for him to lend them to me, which was a little bit embarrassing… I mean, I was the guy who should thank him and not the other way around.
Best. Home-made. T-shirt. Ever. "In my life I want only fuck and listen grind" (sic)
Machetazo rocking.
Glenn and Jacopo.
Me at the merch stand.
At the restaurant with Giulio the Bastard
So we played our set and the crowd, albeit being quite fewer than on the Friday, seemed to like it. I fucked up one song good because I couldn’t hear the guitar and in another one I did a few mistakes that perhaps wasn’t that obvious but anyway… But it felt quite good to play outside of Sweden again and I hope to return with Coldworker soon!
Playing live.
Almost still drenched in sweat we had to go back to the apartment basically at once after the show so we got there, talked for a while before we went to sleep. Some sooner than the other – Glenn basically just have to close his eyes before he starts snoring like a sawmill. Urban recorded the snoring with his cell phone and I shot a little video of said recording.
Glenn snoring, Urban recording. (DivX)
On Sunday we had almost the entire day off until we needed to go to the airport and ultimately back to Sweden. Our main plan this day was to go to that restaurant next to the lake that we had spotted the day before. Said and done we got there so early that they hadn’t opened yet, but we could sit in the sun looking at the menu anyway. I noticed that they had the same pizza that I ate the day before, but that the ingredients now included anchovies and capers… No wonder it tasted like salt fish then… Yuk!
However pizza was not on the menu this time and all of us ordered different food and were very pleased with the dishes. Italian food rules (unless you order something that tastes like salt fish…)!
Regurgitate and their new drummer.
After the meal we more or less when straight back to the apartment. It was very hot and we were really tired and after slacking and sleeping for a few hours Giovanni came again and took us to the airport. And eventually we got back to Sweden.
