Rather than talk about how the shows were, I thought I would tell you all a little bit of how our travels went on a cold five day tour of Scandinavia with my good friends from Seabear, MuM and Mr. Silla & Mongoose.
The whole trip started when I met up with everyone at Sticks & Sushi in Copenhagen. Between the band and the crew there were twenty of us in all, mostly made up of vegetarians, chowing down on spicy tuna rolls and some fresh unagi and washing it down with some help from the lovely beer Sapporo. After the food we headed out and made our way over to VEGA, one of Denmarks most famous music venues. The show was sold out and the audience was a mix of Danes and Icelanders. I got to enjoy my first appearance on stage when I joined all the guys for Seabear’s last song and MuMs first. I can honestly say that being on stage with such talented musicians was a great experience. After a few drinks backstage I was told that the bus was leaving at 4am and there was a spot for me downstairs on a bench if I wanted to tag along to Stockholm, Oslo and Malmo. I ran home and packed a bag and was on my way on an 8 hour bus ride to Stockholm.
The next day we woke up in a freezing cold bus and the weather outside wasnt any better at -10{degrees} Celsius, so before heading out every last one of us put on warm clothing to face the Nordic cold. The bands played at Debaser and to no surprise the logo was made with the Pixies font. Like Denmark the night before, the venue was sold out and the bands preformed like champions. As the show ended everyone headed to the dance floor where moves like no other were displayed. The night ended in a wrestling match between Orvar from MuM and Orn Ingi from Seabear, which Orvar won making him the unofficial wrestling champion of the Scandinavian tour.
If we thought the ride to Stockholm was long then we were in for a treat: it took us all of 12 hours to get to Oslo in Norway resulting in everyone on the bus watching trees and snow for a good two hours before arriving. The good thing though was we had heat, which apparently our German driver had forgotten to put on the night before.
Same thing happened in Oslo, a sold out show where all bands put on an amazing gig for the crowd. One thing stands out and that was Orn Ingi trying to decide which black metal t shirt he would wear that night on stage, and ohh yeah of course the $15 beers and Cafe Mono which greeted us with the sounds of Dinosaur Jr as we tried our best to keep the party going. After a long night out, the bus left at 4am sharp and Malmo in Sweden was our next destination. On the way an elderly woman almost killed us all as she walked in front of the 20 ton bus sending me and other loose objects flying around, but we made it to club KB where yet again a sold out crowd showed up. The backstage reminded me of Flatstock at SXSW: every wall lined with some of the coolest concert posters I have seen. As all the shows before on the tour, the crowd got what they payed for, even catching a glimpse of Orn Ingi playing one song in his new leather jacket that he just picked up from the thrift store. Like routine the bus left at 4am and this time heading for Berlin, I said my goodbyes wanting so bad to keep on traveling, but I had work the day after so I jumped on the train, crossed over to Denmark and woke up to another day of the so called normal life.
For some more photos along with some music, go to Matthias’s website
Brooks Institute of Photography
