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GENERATION
ARMAGEDDON
Tour
Report
ANCIENT
RITES / THYRFING / PRIMORDIAL / SEPTIC FLESH / BLOOD RED THRONE / SKYFIRE
30.04.03
UK -
LONDON – THE UNDERWORLD
I hate
London, it’s no secret. I have some great friends there but I detest the
place, and after today I don’t think its possible for me to hate anywhere more
(with the exception of perhaps Bradford !). Our first encounter with our asshole
busdriver Carlo leaves me notching up my first argument of the tour. This
asshole is leaving the backdoor open to the street in Camden ?…in Camden. And
anyone who knows Camden will know what lunacy that is. As it transpires the
following day in Leeuwarden Carlo leaves the bay door open and someone steals a
2000euro SG belonging to guess who ?. of course…Primordial. Add into that the
fact that our drummer has problems getting over and cannot arrive in London til
the show is over so we cannot actually play. There is nothing we can do except
hang around and apologise to the crowd, may of whom have showed up wearing
Primordial shirts. Possibly the worst start to any tour I’ve been on. One poor
girl shows up from Tokyo to see us…that really sums up today.
01.05.03
HOLLAND
- LEEUWARDEN – ZALEN SCHAAF
After
the stress of yesterday its nice to properly catch up with our friends from
Ancient Rites and Thyrfing especially and to make new friends in Blood Red
Throne, renew our brief encounter with the Septic Flesh guys and slowly but
surely meet Skyfire. Its obvious that the tour agencies hopes of bringing 300
people a night are lunacy as its obvious that in the last year or two the scene
is in recession and the news filters through that No Mercy (Testament, Nuclear
Assault etc…) pulled in less then 300 on 6 nights of their tour. However over
200 people show tonight in a plush and excellent venue far far in the north of
Holland, replete with candelabra etc. it looks more like an oldtime dance hall
or something from the 19th century. Dark Funeral got something like 25 people
here we are cheered to find out !…strange. Our show goes ok and is probably
the worst of the tour, as we are playing without Ciaran and our good friend
Gerry from Mael Mordha is filling in on guitar and a good friend of ours from
Canada is filling in on bass for Paul and its his first ever gig and things are
a little rigid. However its definitely not the worst Primordial show and we come
through it.
02.05.03
FRANCE
– LYON – C.C.O
Whoever
planned driving from the North of Holland to the South of France needs their
head examined ?…it took us almost 17 hours to get to Lyon and we are almost 2
hours late for the show. Everything is a rush and we get 20 mins to play. The
sound engineer tonight is a complete incompetent and I think the crowd warm
bizarrely to my righteous anger and fury at him…threatening to come down and
kick his head in got the crowd on my side. Everyone gets into the swing of the
evening and after the abortive Gods to the Godless this is a very very angry
Primordial show and the 230 strong crowd seem to be behind us and we win over a
lot of people. France is a very hard market for Primordial and the crowd always
seem to appreciate extremity and tonight through no fault of our own we deliver
a furious show. And for their troubles I break 2 microphones in 20 mins which is
no mean feat. The small backstage means everyone is in the same small space and
the banter is good although Septic Flesh are not really warming to the tour
experience at all and threaten to leave for about the tenth time…in ways I
can’t say I blame them but I have a feeling once we get to Germany things will
improve.
GERMANY
– GLACHAU – ALTE SPINNEREI
A nice
big venue just into former Eastern Germany and already things feel more relaxed
then yesterday. There is time for soundchecks and whiskey is only 15euro a
bottle which improves our humour no end. Tonight the show is one of the best of
the whole tour and the crowd is really enthusiastic. It becomes apparent as
throughout Germany that Thyrfing should be headlining with us behind them as
most of the crowd sadly leaves throughout Ancient Rites set leaving perhaps only
50 people from the 230 crowd which is as disappointing for me as it is for the
Rites guys. Yet this is repeated almost every day in Germany. Thyrfing are much
improved from the Viking Clash tour in 2000 and the crowd really go mental for
them. Nice to see. In truth I think Rites’ old label Mascot had very little
profile in Germany and despite their longevity they are building almost from
scratch in Germany. Tonight I also end up doing Blood Red Throne’s sound and
not for the first time !. The pressure is on our tour manager Arne but mixing
tour managing and doing the sound for 6 bands helps no one !. The banter is good
and over 2 buses and 36 or so people we have not one asshole among us which is
rare. Having said that tonight somewhere on the highway at about 4 am our bus
driver, yes the asshole who left the bay door open, slows down the bus to throw
me out after another argument and I threaten to pull him outside and beat the
shit out of him…
Thanks
to the ever diplomatic Erik from Rites for diffusing the situation.
Whiskey
huh ?.
Nowergian
Super Homo Mr Tchort gives us some amusement on the bus as well, along with his
very drunken bunch of ladyboyz known as Blood Red Throne.
Who
are also turning out to be the surprise of the tour for me, delivering a
crushing performace every night….
04.05.03
DAY
OFF
For
once we actually have a good day off, we are joined by a Legacy tour writer who
we succeed in getting so drunk he cannot even talk by 11 pm… hehe…and a
lunacy inspired full on football match in the car park of the Rockfabrik where
we will play a few days later is the drunken highlight of the day/night (3 am !)
. Europe against the Greeks…who won ?, depends on who you speak to I guess. I
reckon our super defender Mr.Theys saved the day for the Ancient Europeans.
Little did we know that Dod - Daniel from BRThrone was supposed to play for the
Norwegian national team…holy fuck were we surprised by that. A pretty eventful
day was rounded out with a new invention…vodka and apple juice , headbanging
to Accept in the middle of the empty dancefloor and watching our drunk of a
drummer try and remember the lyrics to all the old rebel songs and forgetting
them…not to mention falling on his ass a few times. The singing carried on and
at 11 am the usual suspects of myself, Dave (bass) and Jan from Ancient Rites
call it a morning. Nice.
On the
total downside just like on the Viking Clash Jocke the drummer from Thyrfing
gets sick and has to go to hospital, no one seems to know what Thyrfing will do.
We all now Thomas the vocalist is a killer drummer so it remains to be seen…
05.05.03
SWITZERLAND
– PRATTELN – Z7
The Z7
is fuckin huge, it takes about 2000 people I would reckon if totally packed. Its
Monday and we don’t expect many but are pleasantly surprised with about 150
perhaps 170 and we deliver a pretty good show I feel, although the strangely
slippy stage floor of the Z7 nearly puts me on my ass several times. By now Dave
is flying and looks like he’s been in the band since day one which is great to
see. I am beginning to get a lot of stick with my black wife beat on stage but
hey if its good enough for Angry Anderson then its good enough for me right ?.
We kill on merch and meet up with some old friends and make some new ones. After
the alcoholic exertions of the night before everyone is a little wrecked to say
the least and things are a little more subdued then normal but even though
people imagine you are going to be roaring drunk every night of the tour things
don’t usually work out that way and in 2 weeks you might 3 or 4 hard
nights…, the body simply wont take it and when you can drink as much as us
(ahem…) getting enough drink from a venue when there are 36 people around can
be a little hard…to say the least.
Thyrfing
don’t play tonight and are debating going home…
Which
casts a real downer on things…
06.05.03
FRANCE
– PARIS – LA LOCO
This
is our third trip to the Loco and it’s a great venue right beside the Moulin
Rouge and in the middle of some of the most scum filled fuckin nasty ends of
Paris. We take the opportunity to replace the stolen guitar here as there is a
street just down from the Loco with about 20 guitar shops around. It aint the
same but we have to buy another guitar. Our bus driver had since left the tour
several days before to be replaced by a rather rotund gentleman of a much
brighter disposition but handing over merch money for the guitar still kinda
made me wish Id smashed the other bus driver by the side of the road in the rain
in Germany. Its Tuesday and we aren’t really expecting many but a reasonable
crowd of about 150 show and are behind the band and it really seems we are
beginning to turn the corner in France if the last few shows are anything to go
by. Also today seemed a good time again to meet some old friends again and meet
with some new people. Thyrfing again don’t play and thankfully decide to stay
with Thomas playing the drums tomorrow and the rather talented drummer from
Skyfire agrees to learn a few songs. Tonight is also a stormer of a show from
Ancient Rites which is great to see, perhaps their best show performance wise on
the tour.
However…
Later
that night as typically enough we are playing on the swings at about 3 am at a
gas station Ancient Rites have a full blown fight and the fallout leaves Jan
dropped with his bags at the train station the following morning and out of the
band.
07.05.03
GERMANY
– LUDWIGSBURG – ROCKFABRIK
The
RockFabrik is one of Germany oldest Metal clubs, running independently since
something like 1982 and owned now by the old drummer from Running Wild. Tonight
although the crowd is smaller (perhaps 100) the reaction to Primordial is
excellent…in fact so far every night has been positive, there hasn’t been
one bum gig for us.. We also meet an American Metal Maniac who travelled all the
way from Arizona for the show, which kinda freaks out the Thyrfing boyz as they
are not on full tilt !. Similar to how I felt when the girl came from
Tokyo…Tonight for the first time we play Autumns Ablaze and swop over guitars
as Dave isnt sure of it as we only had about 2 weeks of practise before the tour
(which translates to about 4 practises !.) which people seem to appreciate. Its
rough and ready but works ok.
08.05.03
GERMANY
– ESSEN - ZECHE CARL
Essen
was great when we played there with Immortal and tonight I can really say is our
show. The crowd go fuckin mental when we play and everything is tight and
everyone is meshing really well. Perhaps the best show for us on the tour
overall and again we swap guitars for Autumns Ablaze as we have time without
Thyrfing playing again and with Rites playing as a three piece ever fate has
conspired to almost make this a Primordial show. The reactions from Germany have
been all great so far and it makes it a shame that Saarbrucken was cancelled in
the end. More drunken idiocy insues in the courtyard and I have to say I am
quite jealous of the posh bus the thyrfing/flesh and skyfire lads have, really
looks more like a lapdancing club then a tour bus. However we have all the
krusty Metal heads on our bus and I aint jealous of their Korn cds !…although
their alcohol stash is impressive.
09.05.03
GERMANY
– BERLIN – K17
This
venue is very strange, like playing in a flat complex of a housing estate, with
the venue on the ground floor, another venue upstairs, a record store and the
backstage conveniently on about the sixth floor with absolutely no air. We get
time to sight see at the Brandenburg and the Reichstag which is really
impressive and nice to get out of the strange pokey little venue for a while.
Tonight is a fuckin stormer of a show, tiny place really packed and the crowd
totally behind us again. The ticket price at over 20euros seems strange for what
seems like playing in small pub but I guess with 6 bands there is a price to pay
. And thank fuck for the diversion of the disco upstairs afterwards, sometimes
it gets really dull just sitting in the bus, and thanks to Gunnar for the unholy
apfelevildrink which had the desired effect.
10.05.03
GERMANY
– MUNICH – BACKSTAGE
The
backstage is quite famous and I had at least heard of it mentioned in mags
through the years, it was only on arriving there did I realise that it’s
mostly for pop punk kind of bands and that there was a rap band playing in the
larger hall within the complex. Apparently there isnt much of a metal scene in
Munich and we arent to expect many people. Saturday night I would have thought
should have been a big night but true to the prophets of doom less then 100 show
and and are quite reserved for all the bands, prefering to stand and watch and
listen. Which is ok you get those kind of shows and I did feel we worked quite
hard tonight and strangely there was no small amount of anger and spite in the
show either. Not quite Lyon but getting there. After the show the complex became
a massive disco and Metalheads mixed with people into punk, rap and american
fashion victims in a way you could never have it in Dublin without people being
killed. Quite entertaining until we were dragged off early again.
11.05.03
BELGIUM
– VOSSELAAR – BIEBOB
Our
third trip to the Biebob turned out to a good one again as we had to move our
set time to after Blood Red Throne as Leary, Gerry and Michael had to return
home that night, but the crowd was good as ever in Belgium and although it
wasn’t the “true” Primordial the troops performed with sterling steel and
we can leave the tour knowing we put our fuckin hearts into it yet again and
despite the guitar being stolen and other setbacks again we conquered in the
face of adversity.
/Nemtheanga
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