Tour diary: Finland 2003

2021 Introduction: In April of 2003 we did a short tour of Finland with Rotten Sound. By then we had recorded “Helvete” but it was yet to be released. By then, we had also decided to add Urban as a second guitarist and had rehearsed this way for a while. But when it was time for the tour, Urban didn’t feel confident enough to be with us on stage. Instead, he tagged along to sell our merchandise.

Reading this tour diary, that was posted in its entirety after the tour, thus being more of a report than a diary, I guess, I believe that we hadn’t made it official that Urban would join the band as a touring member.

Anyway, this might give a small picture of what touring with Nasum was like during this time. As it’s very obvious at the end of each day, I left the partying and drinking to the other guys. At this time I didn’t drink at all, so it wasn’t really worth it suffering through drinking nights as the only sober guy in the room. Also it’s very clear that this was before smartphones and constant access to the Internet. There are a few passages in this tour report that could have been way different if we had access to some GPS system…

I have corrected some bits of the text that was spelled wrong or worded in a weird way, but more or less this is how this text originally was when it was posted. I have also added the photos that was posted in this diary originally. Unfortunately, they are a bit small since back then resolution was lower and server space was tiny, but I have tried to make them look good anyway. There were some videos as well, but they have not been included.

Shit, this intro is getting way to long…

- Anders

NASUM vs FINLAND
A wordy rant by Anders Jakobson

Day one: April 22 - travel day

The plan was for me and Mieszko to get together at noon at the rehearsal place, load up the van, and be on our way to Stockholm by 1 AM. Jesper, who lives in Lund in southern Sweden, decided to fly to Helsinki from Copenhagen, so he wasn't joining us at all until we actually were in Finland. In Stockholm we would meet up with Urban Skytt of Regurgitate who was going with us to sell merchandise.

Anyway - we got slightly delayed because as always (with Nasum) someone forgets something and so on, so we left Örebro at 20 past 1. We had to be at the ferry at 4.20 at latest so we had a good three hours to drive to Stockholm (a two-hour drive) and then spend some time finding the ferry. Unfortunately, we did a huge mistake and took the northern way to Stockholm instead of the south which would have taken us directly to the ferry. Nevertheless, we got to Stockholm, saw the signs for the ferry and ended up - at the wrong harbor!

Urban was at the right harbor waiting for us. His cell phone has the worst battery ever, which means that he can't talk in his phone more than a couple of seconds before the cell dies. But he can send and receive text messages. While we tried to think of how to get to the right harbor Urban was begging the boat people to hold the boat for us. To make everything worse we ended up in the famous Stockholm rush traffic (which really means that everything stands still). We moved a couple of meters every five minutes which was way too slow. I even did some illegal driving and drove in the buss lane.

The time was running short and we were still nowhere near the right harbor and eventually we got the news from Urban: The ferry is leaving. We then decided to stop and think of what to do. The ferry ride to Helsinki is a 17 hour trip and the boat only goes once a day. And we'd just missed the only boat! We talked about how to solve the problem. Should we leave the van in Sweden, take a flight to Helsinki (spending a lot of money on both last minute plane tickets and lots of extra luggage), rent a new van in Finland (spend some more money), or should we cancel the first show (and lose a lot of money) and take the next day's boat?

By then, good boy Urban, had found out that they could buy back the tickets and we could take a later boat to Turku, 1,5 hours away from Helsinki. There it was - the solution to our problem! We then drove through the rush traffic again and finally got to the right harbor and met up with Urban. We sold the tickets, but of course - the boat to Turku didn't leave from this harbor but the first harbor! So we had to go back but this time we had a map so we could easily get there.

And after what felt like an eternity we finally got on the boat to Finland! We got the cabin and then went to look for something to eat. After the food we went to the tax-free shop and the boys loaded up on some whiskey and vodka (I'm not a drinker so there was nothing there for me) and got back to the cabin and talked some. Later on, we examined the boat, Mieszko lost like 2 Euros on the roulette betting everything on black ("since we're hardrockers!") and finally we ended up in a bar where none other than Elvis himself was hosting an open mic karaoke evening. First off were a couple of Finnish guys singing a song in Finnish (apparently well known for most of the listeners sung along). Then a girl sung a Whitney Houston song (by then it was time to get the digital camera and record some of the wonderful music). Four drunk Swedish guys came next and performed "I'm too sexy" until everything was wrapped up with a Finnish guy in a Children of Bodom t-shirt singing "Sweet Child o' Mine". By then the entertainment ended and so did the evening.



Day two: April 23 - Helsinki

We reached Finland at 8 in the morning. Very tired I drove the van to Helsinki which was a real challenge because I could hardly keep my eyes open. We stopped somewhere for breakfast and to my great pleasure I discovered that they sell Mountain Dew in Finland! I bought a bottle and some sunglasses and felt refreshed and ready to go to Helsinki.

Urban showed big talents reading our somewhat blurry map of Helsinki and we managed to reach Hotel Arthur. Mieszko went and looked for the promoter of the whole tour - Juha - and even though Mieszko had spoken to him (in Swedish) on the phone earlier he started with a "Hello, how are you doing?" in English!

We got our rooms and shortly thereafter Jesper showed up at the hotel. The others decided to go out for some food, but I decided to stay at the hotel and catch some Z's. Later on they told me that they looked everywhere for Chinese food, but ended up eating pizza, just to discover like five Chinese restaurants on their way back to the hotel, one being on the very same street!

Around 5 AM we drove to the venue which was pretty close to the hotel. We met the guys from Rotten Sound and unloaded the van and put everything on trolleys. We had to go by an elevator to the actual venue and then push the trolleys down on a little slope to the stage. Here something happened. Mieszko and I pushed the trolley which was very heavy. When we got to the slope the speed increased rapidly and I had to hold it back, getting a finger slightly crushed and Mieszko had to push against the trolley to keep it from falling. Nothing happened with my finger but some days later Mieszko complained about a bruise on his leg which I understood was there because if the trolley accident.

Anyway - time went by. We did a soundcheck and soon thereafter we got interviewed by Finnish cable TV (Moon TV). About that time, the doors had opened and soon Deepred entered the stage. Classic Suffocation type of death/grind with a quite impressive singer who did some serious grunting while headbanging like a wildman. Cool!

Then our friends in Rotten Sound got on stage, covered in red paint as always and performed a great set with songs from "Murderworks" and other recordings, to close with their killer version of Carcass' "Reek of Putrefaction". Great show.

Time for our first Finnish show ever. Can't say that I remember much of it actually, but it was pretty OK. Unfortunately, I had mixed up my crash cymbals and had the left cymbal on the right stand and vice versa. Really irritating and it took a couple of songs until I understood what was wrong and quickly changed the cymbals. Stupid, but I am a drummer you know.

After the show and the curfew we packed everything into the van and went to the hotel. Rotten Sound also stayed at the hotel and there was some serious partying in their room. Myself, I went more or less straight to bed.



Day three: April 24 - Jyväskylä

The day started with me and early bird Urban investigating the breakfast table (something that became a little tradition on the tour). Mieszko and Jesper slept late. We checked out at noon and got on the road to Jyväskylä. Rotten Sound had to go to the venue and get their stuff, so we went ahead. Mieszko suffered from a hangover and slept almost the whole way while Jesper drove most of it. It was a three-hour drive and the last part was on really bad roads.

When Mieszko felt better he got a phone call from Juha who said that Rotten Sound got a bill for 500 Euros from the hotel. Apparently, the party kept on… or so we thought. The truth was that someone had spilled some beer on an "exclusive" bedspread worth 500 Euros. A load of crap, we thought, because Hotel Arthur didn't seem like a hotel with "exclusive" bedspreads for 500 Euros.

We got into Jyväskylä and found the hotel at once. From the outside it didn't look very nice but when we sat down in the lounge with a nice view of some kind of water (a lake perhaps) and the impressive University building everything was very fine. The clerks were nice as well since we in true Nasum fashion ordered food three times in a row.

After the food we went to the venue that was virtually right around the corner. It was a large, odd, brick building in the middle of all these high tech buildings. We later found out that the place was going to be torn down soon and be turned into a parking lot. Have we heard that before?

This night, and the following two we were supported by Cause for Effect, a strange little duo with one singing bass player and a drummer. They describe themselves as jazzy grindcore and they were quite interesting.

The usual routine followed: soundcheck, food, and then the waiting for the show. We had a lot of time so we kicked back at the hotel a couple of hours and returned in time for our show. When Rotten Sound left the stage we saw a guy with a high class DV camera also coming of the stage. He asked me if he could tape our shop and I said yes of course. In the end I realized that he was only taping me! It turned out the guy played drums in some band who probably will aspire to be the fastest fucking band in the world! He wanted to record something in Soundlab and said that they play to a click track which at this moment is cranked up to 250 bpm! And they were heading for an even faster speed! I hope they come and record something because I gotta hear it!

Our show was OK and after the show we talked to some people. Some guy wanted to talk soccer with me (in Swedish) and another guy in a Burst t-shirt turned out to be an Austrian guy more or less just passing by. Very funny.

We left all stuff at the venue and went back to the hotel for partying or sleeping. Guess who did what?



Day four: April 25 - Turku

The fourth day started with a breakfast date with Urban. If I remember correctly this breakfast was slightly better than the one at Hotel Arthur. Jesper and Mieszko slept late again.

Yet another three-hour drive to Turku and yet another date with that crappy road. When we started to reach central Turku we realized that the van in front of us belonged to Rotten Sound so we could fuck the map and just follow them. Nice!

The venue in Turku was quite cool. Unfortunately, there were no promoter present, and we didn't really know what to do at first. But things got rolling and soon everything was as it usually is. We did two interviews and finally got some long-awaited Chinese food. Keijo - the singer in Rotten Sound - kept babbling about treating us some Finnish dessert called "Memma" so he went to get some.

After the soundcheck we went to the hotel which was just straight across the street. The hotel had a lot of drunken Swedes in it because the world championship in Ice Hockey was about to start in Turku. Jesper had developed a cold and since I was sharing room with him I started to feel a little bit ill myself. I talked Jesper into getting some tea that we could drink while watching "Good morning, Vietnam!" on TV.

Jesper, who also had to make a phone call, left the room just to discover a complete naked drunken Swede smoking a cigarette in the hallway! When he came back fifteen minutes later that drunken Swedish bastard wanted to come into the room, but Jesper politely asked him not to.

It was a late show, since it was Friday, so at midnight we went back to the venue to prepare for our show. The crowd were going nuts and screamed for more after we've played out whole set. I suggested that we should play "Bullshit tradition" by Drop Dead to round it off. The only problem was that we haven't played that one in a long time so I guess we did the worst version of that song ever! But what can you do when the crowd wants more?!

Backstage we finally got to taste "Memma" which turned out to be very dark bread in some sticky form which virtually looked like the aftermath of a bad stomach flu. It tasted strange, not as nasty as it looked but strange.

Leaving the venue we felt like something to eat and found a pizza/kebab place near the hotel. Jesper ordered a pizza and I ordered a huge falafel (that really didn't taste good to be honest). While waiting for the food we realized that the very drunken Finnish guy who were munching on a kebab now was sleeping in his food. Urban took a picture of this wonderful sight.



Day five: April 26 - Tampere

The last show was in Tampere, just one and a half hour away. Tampere is the home town of Cause for Effect and for Rotten Sound's singer Keijo, which showed because the largest crowd of the tour came to the final gig, probably due to some serious marketing by Keijo.

The venue was cool. Quite a big house with lots of rooms and stuff, I guess there were many activities in that house. They had some kind of coffee shop just a few meters from the stage and there were some people sitting there while we soundchecked. That bugs me totally! Anyway, I hope they enjoyed some grind with the coffee.

Although they had some nice and oily mozzarella sandwiches at the venue me and Jesper decided to leave and go to the hotel for food. Mieszko had already left somewhere by foot. At the hotel we sat down at the restaurant and ordered some food. While eating Mieszko's face showed up outside the window so he got in and joined us. He told us a quite funny story about a Finnish guy in drag jerking off that he'd just met. Another day on tour!

We got back to the venue and got backstage and decided to expand our setlist with some more unrehearsed bits. While on stage I think we played three or four songs extra in the end. The Tampere show was as the other three quite a good show. Nice crowds and everything. Our musical experience of Finland was a good one to sum it up.

The night ended as usual - packing the things, leaving them at the venue, going to the hotel, party, sleep, whatever.



Day six: April 27 - travel day

The day started off with a goodbye date with Rotten Sound. Keijo bought us coffee at a café next to the venue. A nice closing ritual for this tour. We then loaded the van and went to Helsinki. We stopped at the airport and dumped Jesper and then got to the city, and since we had a map we could easily find the harbor! (Note to self: always bring a map!)

Not much happened on the way back to Sweden. We investigated the boat, got a piece to eat and then lost almost two hours watching "25th Hour" with Edward Norton in a small cinema on the boat. A good movie.

Ah well - this is the end of this long ranting. I hope you haven't died of boredom.

HELP ME FUND THE VAULT AND THE RARE NASUM

I have a lot of Nasum "vaults". There are the digital vaults, harddrives, CD-R's and whatever that contains some stuff. And then there are the analog vaults. Boxes filled with documents and notes and boxes filled with tapes containing rehearsals and rare stuff. I'd be more than happy to share this with the fans, but I need some funds to take time of from work to really do all that boring excavating that's needed to find and document everything.

I have put together a GoFundMe page for this: gofundme.com/the-rare-nasum and any donation is appreciated. You can also support this cause by buying The Rare Nasum stuff at Bandcamp. Or you can make a donation without going through GoFundMe or Bandcamp - just contact me at nasum@nasum.com. Everything that comes in via these channels are ear marked for a future massive excavation.

I really hope you can help me to preserve The Nasum Vault for the world. Thanks!

- Anders Jakobson.