Erika's Metalblog: juli 2012

So... Time flies when you're having fun I suppose. Well, it has been fun weeks but also very exhausting weeks. Almost one Festival every weekend, tons and tons of work. I've been travelling forward and back between Borås, Stockholm and Malmö like crazy. Have hardly been home at all. Not until this last weekend. Cleaning up before Peter arrived I realized I had about 5 different bags packed. Ok, most of the clothes was tipped over into the biggest one though. Still the flat was a huge mess.

But it felt good to be home and have the time to clean up a bit. It is always much nicer to be at home when it is tidy. The strange thing is, what takes the most time to sort out is all records that seem to be exactly EVERYWHERE in the flat. Putting everything away a little more organized than it was I realized it is not only the CD room that is full... There's not much space for vinyls left anymore either. And there are already two crates outside the shelf. Don't really want to end up as I had it in my old flat where I could hardly move.... But this issue will soon be solved! :O)

Anyway, I picked up another package from TPL today and I finally got the Pure Steel records, Sleepy Hollow, Halloween and New Eden... All of them very nice!!! And then a little more... I also picked up another similar sized pack at Muskelrock but they're tucked away in the shelf now.

Then a pack of doomier stuff. It's a bit strange with Grand Magus, this new one "The Hunt" hasn't really settled yet but it was the same with "Hammer Of The North", it took a while and all of a sudden everything just fell into place. Still waiting for that to happen with "The Hunt". Christian Mistress was great at Roadburn so that was a must have...

Apart from shopping for records I signed up to a food site for some reason. Now during the spring they exanded and mail out tips about wine and spirits too. Mainly stuff not available off the shelves, stuff from the orderable seletion. And since I enjoy Zinfandel wines and they've been posting a lot about that it has been nice! Not very expensive bottles either.

Then I received a mail about the Crystal Skull vodka... I don't drink vodka at all but the bottle was just too cool, designed by actor Dan Akroyd. Got the SMS and went to pick it up, asked the staff to get it for me. The desk for information is on one side of the shop, the warehouse on the other. The lady when to pick up my order and coming back out of the door to the warehouse, screaming "what a damn cool bottle"... Ok, it wasn't the busiest time but still, I gott ALL attention from everyone in there, about 25 people and all really wanted to see the bottle... It is damn cool though.

And it will make a nice match with the skull candle holders later on....

Then I don't know... Doesn't feel right for either Motörhead or Slayer to have their own wine brand... But it still is a bit fun I think!!! And it looks cool on display too. Kiss has their logo on most everything so this wasn't really any surprise but I think this one will win anyway. Mainly because it is a Zinfandel... Zin Fire!!!

These last two weekends has been spent doing a whole lot of band business... And seeing Jon Oliva's Pain play. Last friday I went to Essen, one show isn't just enough and I'm really glad I went. Turock was completely packed and the support given from the crowd was amazing!!! But more on that at Metal Kaoz later...

And this weekend, more band business and another JOP show. This time at Sticky Fingers in Gothenburg. Not the same support from the crowd but at least a good and positive crowd. Again JOP did a fantastic show and it feels a little bad I just planned two shows this time. Forst because both these concerts was amazing and because the set was very special. But again, more on that later.

After the show in Essen I ran into Jerry Outlaw, after talking a little big about guitars, Matt LaPorte and more he was really nice and gave me a Matt LaPorte shirt and posters from the memorial show. I really wanted to go to that one but it just didn't fit, not in time nor money. And sure, I really missed Matt now, he was such a great player. But Jerry was really impressive and filled the gap after Matt really well.

I still need to figure out the setlist from Essen, according to the list it was rather similar to the Gothenburg one... Apart from a few in the first section but that wasn't what happened during the show. Not that long into the Mountain King set Jon kicked off "Believe" and they absolutely ended with "Hall Of The Mountain King"... Also, I'm almost sure both "Legions" and "Strange Wings" were cut from the set. Were they???