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PORTUGUESE MINI TOUR REPORT
Tour
Report
Bejas - casa de cultura - Thursday
Let me tell you something about Portugal. It runs on Portugal time and don't you
forget it. You cant rush and you cant stamp your feet in frustration. Now anyone
who knows me may tell you that its simply karma coming around for all the times
I've stood them up or arrived 2 hours late in shall we call them my earlier
years. Maybe their right, however it doesn't make things easier for a reformed
Irish time keeper like myself (sorry to all my ex's who might be reading this
and choking on their food).
Apart from that we really need a private jet or helicopter these days as any
start earlier then 11 am means I simply don't sleep as I'm a night person. So
after another sleepless night (isn't that what the day is for anyway ?.) we
arrived in Lisbon to sit around for hmmm 3 or perhaps 4 hours before under a
scorching mid day sun our host and Mr. Relaxed 1978 Jose from Sacred Sin fame
arrives to whisk us away to. Lisbon's biggest mall where we mill around
aimlessly for another 2 hours. I realise at this stage the itinerary I scribbled
down the previous night was already running 3 hours behind schedule and I might
as well use it as a paper aeroplane.
Bejas really is a warm up gig
for the other two but ends up turning out to be a really good show, Bejas is a
quiet sleepy town down south with about 20 000 (or was it 6 ?...I got
conflicting reports...) inhabitants or something like that and we had played
there in 1999 and it seems people remember when you come to a place like this
when no one else does so we are greeted very warmly by everyone. Well hey its
Portugal after all right ?.
After our show the previous weekend in Dublin where we made perhaps the most
amount of mistakes we have ever made at a show perhaps ever it was really a good
feeling to walk off the stage knowing that we played a blinder and everyone was
on top form despite the huge high ceiling and the reverb washing back on us in
massive waves. It was also where we would meet the
guys from The Firstborn who would be playing with us the following night and
Bruno who would be acting as our minder as well.
About 120 people show which is pretty good considering the place. Now back to
this Portuguese time keeping, we were due back in Lisbon for a party at 1.30am.
At 4.30 am we arrived at our lodgings too late for anything and perhaps all the
better for it as me, whiskey and no sleep aren't the greatest bedfellows. In
fact just me and whiskey have a pretty fractious relationship.
Millenium Festival - Almada
We woke early to find the rottweiler in the garden below had taken my gig shirt
and was now using it to line its bowl. It took some persuading but in the end I
decided to not teach the dog a lesson and wrestle it for my shirt. Anyway we
strolled to a local café realising if we waited for the itinerary to kick into
action then we might be sitting around looking at the four
blank walls and our ugly mugs for the next well. who knows ?.
Several beers later lunch time was upon us so we decided to walk down to the
venue. We were the first band to show up as only the rather startled looking
crew were still setting things up in a massive basketball hall which full length
would have taken several thousand. Thankfully the stage was situated halfway and
across the middle so as it would look fine with a few
hundred. We set about the difficult task of sitting in the sun drinking beer and
waiting to be fed.
The first band are late of course and take ages setting up what should be just a
line check for them and have some kind of guitar that is picking up everything
on the stage (?.yeah a good idea I know). So rather then simply telling them to
borrow a guitar and get on with it everyone is simply milling around as we edge
past the opening time. Setting up the shirts beside the stage it really does
seem to be a Portuguese thing for no one to take charge of a situation. Starting
to get aggravated I decide to leave for the more sensible option of the sun and
a cold beer and leaving them to sort it amongst themselves. See I am reformed.
The old Nem would have been in there giving orders in ten seconds flat. The
Decapitated boys arrive and we say our hellos, we played with them when we
toured with Immortal back in 2000 in Poland when they were about 14 or
something. They seem more then content to stay in the gloomy backstage smoking
joints all day. We on the other hand are holding court in the back beer garden
getting drunk and preparing for the show like true professionals. So pro in fact
that on the way to the backstage I decide it's a good idea to buy a bottle of
whiskey.10 euro. Great. So pro in fact and such a scumbag I decide to mix some
drinks for the stage, i.e bring a bottle onstage. The show went great and the
people were totally behind us and again somehow we don't make mistakes and Paul
looks a hard man with his new armband. Natch. I do my best Bon Scott
impersonation by drinking three quarters of the bottle of said shitty whiskey
over our 80 minute set much to the amusement of the crowd. What band am I in
again Rose tattoo isn't it ?. Anyways as we expected the house lights go up with
about 3 songs left as everything is running late because of the antics early in
the day. Some arguing and pleading with the local constabulary means we can
continue. I hear in the end we have just shy of 400 people which is great.
Later on things get messy as another bottle of whiskey is bought and consumed
but again its too late to head into the city centre to drink so we have to make
do with annoying the stragglers and people who hang on after the show with our
drunken antics. Its not our fault that beer is 75cents and a bottle of whiskey
10euro. Things get messier still later as our Michael
falls asleep on the street at 6 am with Mr. Responsible Simon O'Leary stepping
forward looking after him ????. I have Martha to thank for saving me from
Ciarans snoring although not for nearly killing me. don't do that again sis.
Thanks. Messy messy messy
Hard Metal festival - Mangualade
The itinerary states we leave Lisbon at 12.30 pm. At 4.30 pm I am sitting at the
side of the road at a truck stop waiting for the rest of the guys. Par for the
course really and I get some entertainment out of the local gypsies. sorry make
new friends with. So with more beer bought, 4 smoking Poles behind me (hehe) and
some AC/DC on the stereo we are set for the North of Portugal. The North is
actually poorer then the south and there are some pretty big cultural
differences as well, for example a town of just fireplace shops for one.?. I kid
you not. Ok I could go into more detail but.
Again things are running late and we go to the hotel and back but by now the
tiredness and we can call it crankiness is starting to kick again as my 3rd more
or less sleepless night is taking its toll and knowing we have to leave straight
after the show to head to the airport doesn't fill any of us with joy. We swop
with Decapitated because of this and it when we walk onto
the stage the last Portugese band before us has left us a bass drum and a tom.
taken the mikes down, left us with only cabinets and no heads. As I said before
the old Primordial would have hollered and bellowed but there's nothing you can
do so we sit at the side of the stage drinking and watching as the Portugese
shout at each other and try and solve the problem. Everything here takes a lot
of discussion o). who's in charge ?.who knows. Eventually things get sorted and
we play what is the worst show of the three, we are all tired and the crowd
don't seem to want to react to anything that's been offered all day and the
atmosphere is a little lacking. Still we persevere for 60 minutes and its by far
not the worst show. And hey there's strippers after Decapitated right ?.Wrong.
We get stranded in the hotel for over 2 hours and miss the whole thing. Nought
you can do. No one comes to get us. Tired and pissed off I do my best J.Read
impersonation in the now empty venue hoping to bump into the strippers and ask
them do they like Conqueror. Even the offer of free beer doesn't assuage my
grumpiness and after some goodbyes to the nice boys of Decapitated we leave for
the airport and no sleep again. On the way Bruno comes with inches of driving us
into a tree.escaping certain death twice in two days is too much to take so I
try and doze. We all do..
Portugal is beautiful in the morning it really is, just when the sun is coming
up there is something charming about the place. However we are all really too
tired to take it in and we arrive at the airport tired and weary. Yet tomorrow
we know we are going to remember this as another great visit to Portugal. It was
!..
Thanks to
Role of Honour
Jose from Sacred Sin / Dark Music, Bruno Vin Diesel and The Firstborn,
Decapitated. kourva pistu, Martha Lopez, the dude with the studio whose house we
stayed in, all the cool people we met and drank with. see you again
soon.
/Nemtheanga
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