Rainmaker

Well, this first one has nothing to do with anything in this blog but Mio looked so comfortable and cute at this one I couldn't resist exposing this little kitty. He's actually my parents neighbours cat but since my parents has been feeding him when they're away for years now he lives a little where he feels which is mainly at my parets house. He's a really sleepy cat that loves to brushed and scratched. He's about 17 years old now so he really deserves being spoilt.

It's so nice to get scrarched

Friday afternoon the sun was shining in Gävle and I walked towards the station in a very good mood. Couldn't for the world imagine what was to come the next day at the Sonisphere Festival. I was a little disappointed that my request for a photopass was declined but now afterwards it was the best, would have been horrible to try to hide the camera from the rain...

But Gävle was sunny and i felt very good to get out of work and go away from the packing and carrying boxes!

A sunny day at the station in Gävle

Peter joined me i Stockholm a few hours later. I made it to the hotel to check in first before I met up with him at the station. We decided to skip the Sonisphere Pre-party in Kungsträdgården and headed off to Södermalm instead. Bröderna Olsson's Garlic & Shots was our first choice for dinner and luckily we got a table. I told Peter about the Garlic Beer and Garlic Shots introducing him to the place and of course he had to try the beer. If you look closely at the picture there's some stuff flating around in the beer, yep, that's chopped garlic!

Happy Peter with a Garlic Beer

None of us could resist the Garlic Burger and damn, that one was HUGE and very Garlicy... *s* But it tasted nice and the place was cool so if I get the chance I would really like to go back there and try something else. Just when we were finished with dinner our waiter told us they had to close the outside, we decided to go somewhere else instead of trying to fit in the already full Bröderna Olsson's place. Kelly's it was but that sucked so we decided to leave quite soon and took a walk around Södermalm and rested at Medborgarplatsen for a while before we decided to go to the hotel.

BIG Garlic Burgers

Saturday started of very nice, quite warm and cloudy, NICE! We made it to Stora Skuggan and got to wait in line for a litle while before it started to rain. Ok, just a few splashes at that time and it still felt really good.

Charged!

The line in to the Festival was extreme and I never thought I would make it inside before Warroir Soul was finished. I think we only missed 1 or 2 songs though, since the festival decided to open 20 more entrances, ok we didn't get to keep our tickets but what difference does that make, I stillhave the pdf and can print another one if I want.

Warrior Soul did great but they're better on a small stage. They should be in a filthy and sweaty environment.

Anthrax was up next on our schedule, the sound was terrible to start with but when that was solved it turned out great. Joey Belladonna was best though, he still has a great voice and he was very much the entire show.

Joey didn't fuck up, that's for sure!

Then Slayer and now it really started to rain, we didn't have any rainclothes and to pay 100SEK for a shitty plastic bag, no way. Then I rathe stay wet! Slayer was also really good, very cool set, sure a best of but what the hell can you expect for a festival. Aggressive Perfector mixed in to Raning Blood was the coolest though.

Alice Cooper put on a great show but at this point I was almost ready to give up. Freezing cold and soaking wet but that's not Rock'N'Roll. Both me and Peter decided by the end of the show that we HAD to do the best of the situation.

Snail in the loo

I can tell you it wasn't easy to go to the toilet waring tight soaking wet jeans. After a few rounds my fly gave up. On the other hand, wet weather brings out cool creatures. This one held me comany at one of the toilets.

We did try to go and see Mötley Crüe but the area was either too crowded or too wet so we decided to go back to the bar and try to get a little warmer before Iron Maiden started playing

Shower? Nope, Sonisphere!

The really sick thing is that the rain actually stopped just a little before Maiden were scheduled to start playing. I'm so glad we didn't leave early, that we stayed the entire evening to see Maiden. Bruce sounded better than ever and when you get as charged as we did it's clear that Maiden is the best live band ever.

Dance Of Death

The new tunes sounded great and it's really cool that they still play songs from the last couple of albums. Still there's always songs missing... Guess it would be like that even if they played for 5-6 hours.
Going homeward the sky opened up completely. I was almost dry when Maiden finished, I was anything BUT dry entering the Metro. It was a huge puddle of water around my feet in the Metro going the few stations to the Main Station. But we got home quite easliy at least and it was really nice with a hot shower after the rain.

It wasn't at all as nice the next day to try and squeeze in to the wet and broken jeans again, or the shoes for that matter.
I forced Peter to go clothes shopping in Stockholm, he was thrilled!!! *hehe* I found some cheap jeans and a denim jacket on sale, great! I needed a new one but did't want to pay 1000-1200 SEK for a good one. Now, 200 for the jacket and 200 for the jeans! Super! Sko Uno was closed so no new dry shoes though.

After the clothes shopping Nina joined in with us and we decided it was time for lunch. It was nice to see her again and talk a little about everyting. A Burger later, which wasn't even close in neither size nor taste compared to Bröderna Olsson later we went for coffee and a tour of Stockholm City Center. We found a cheap record dealer at Hötorget and of course I found a bunch of things I wanted!

Nina and Peter enjoying shopping

It was really cheap too so why think twice? The best thing was that all of it was stuff I've been thinking of buying for a while. 3 DVD's and 3 CD's...

Catch of the day

Then it was time to junp on the train back to Gävle again and continue packing... The days after Sonisphere were horrible really. Luckily I could take the afternoons off from work, else I wouldn't have been finished at all. Monday = Leave the car at my car-contact to have it checked before I move, back to Gävle to pack, 30 times up and down the stairs with scrap and garbage, Tuesday = Clear out the attic, took 5 hours carrying around moving boxes with varoius heavy stuff in as books, magazines and so in. Then back to packing the flat. Wednesday = Sandviken to leave the stuff there to the moving company, the couch, boxes and one round at the attic, then back home for Erikshälpen who agreed to pick up my furnitures on a very short notice. Then back to Sandviken to get a ride to pick up my fixed car, then back home again to continue packing.

I picked Peter up at the station right after 9pm, then out to the rehearse room to pick up the Marshall-amp, Peavy-head and Fender speakers. Down with that to the basement. Then Peter was nice enough to pack my LP's, at that time I could hardly move. My whole body was aching, somewhere between musclepain, being beaten up and cramp.

We gave up at 1 am since the moving company was showing up at 8 am already the next day...

I'm so glad the move is done now!

Cheers E

NP: Accept - Blood Of The Nations