SUNDAY, JUNE 1, 2025, Tampere, Finland
7:00 a.m. – It’s supposed to be a leisurely travel day from Tampere, Finland to Paris, France. We’ll have a two-hour drive from Tampere to the airport in Helsinki, then a three-hour flight from HEL to CDG Paris.
Last night after the show, we packed our fly gear and locked it in a storage room at the venue. We could have taken it back to our hotel, but the venue is literally next door to the hotel, so moving it once is a better idea than moving it twice. Except for the fact that the security person who is supposed to give us access to the venue is not there. I call the promoter, who assures me that security is on the way. We wait.
I’ve seen this movie before and I start looking around for an easy break-in point (don’t tell anyone, but I had a prior career as a Master Thief. Kidding!). Fifteen or 20 minutes later, the promoter calls to inform me that the security person was seriously injured in an accident while riding her bicycle to the venue and is being taken to the hospital. Needless to say, we’re horrified and concerned. The promoter is on his way to personally get us into the building.
7:45 a.m. – Finally, we retrieve our gear and pack it into the bus. We should be at the airport in approximately two hours, which in theory is enough time for us to check in, but with the excruciatingly long check-ins we’ve had, I’m nervous. I guess I should be thankful that the flight wasn’t canceled due to the “industrial action” (aka strike) by the Finnish Aviation Union.
10:00 a.m. – We arrive at the Helsinki airport, and it’s jammed. I approach an airline worker at the check-in area to ask if I should be checking overweight bags at this particular counter, and he dismisses me rudely: “I’m busy. I can’t talk to you!!” My reaction cannot be published here, but it went something like this: “@*#&%*!!”
I wait in the queue and 20 minutes later, I’m facing the same worker, who now tells me that he cannot accept oversize/overweight bags at this check-in area and directs me to a different counter. In an effort to avoid an international incident, I resist the temptation to clobber this moron over the head with the five-pound frozen salmon steak that I’m carrying in my backpack. (I’m kidding. It was only four pounds.) “@*#&%*!!” We head to the other counter and start the process all over again. By the time we’re done with check-in, there’s not much time to spare. Beeline to the gate!
2:20 p.m. – We land at CDG in Paris. Yay! Now we need to retrieve the gear and bags and get taxis to the hotel. Boo. What a pain in the arse. The taxi dispatchers look at us like we’re from another planet but get us three large vans. Traffic from the airport to the hotel is insane, and we see a lot of police vehicles with blaring sirens. One of us jokes that the police must be herding the local rowdies, not knowing what we’d learn later in the day.
As soon as I drop my bags at the hotel, I scoot out the door and walk down the street. The last time I was in Paris, we stayed at the same hotel, and there’s a killer bakery… yup, just where I left it. €1.50 for pan au chocolat, and it’s amazing, just like I remember.
I head back to the hotel to meet up with a few of the guys, one of whom is on a mission to bring a designer bag back home for his lady friend. Bless his heart. We escort him on a trip to a local mall, the likes of which I have never seen. It’s like Fifth Avenue in Paris: You name the chichi designer and they have a shop there. Way out of my league, but it’s interesting to see what $700 jeans look like. I’ll stick to my Lee Regular Fit, thank you very much.
Instead of taking a cab back to the hotel, we decide to rent bicycles to see some more of Paris and then head back to the hotel, completely oblivious to the fact that there were riots on the streets of Paris earlier that day.
Apparently, the locals didn’t quite like the results of a football match, so they decided to brawl and set fire to cars and E-bikes. And you thought Philadelphia had a lock on that…
9:00 p.m. – Time for dinner! A few days ago, I asked the band’s manager if he knew of a good place for dinner. He came back without hesitation: La Coupole, a famous brasserie in Montparnasse that’s been there since 1927. We start off with the crustaceans platter, work our way through prawns and foie gras, and then have the colossal gall to order entrees! I had La Coupole’s Sauerkraut, which was nothing short of outstanding. My cardiologist won’t be happy with me anyway, so I may as well have dessert: souffléed chocolate mousse with vanilla from Madagascar ice cream. It was ridiculous.
MONDAY, JUNE 2, 2025, Paris, France
Travel: None. Yay!
Ground: Taxis. Boo!
Venue: L’Olympia
Console: Yamaha CL5
Status: Almost sold out. Early that day while the LDs are focusing lights, the venue is dark, and although I’m using a flashlight, I take a header, falling over a half-door at FOH and scraping about 14 inches of my shin. It’s ugly.
As I sit on my arse to assess my condition (see what I did there?), I am literally watching my leg swell up like something out of Alien. It hurts like hell, so I head for the production office to get some ice. Just what I needed. I sit in production with an ice bag on my leg while I try to get some work done on my laptop. The folks at the venue bring me a first aid kit. I clean up, bandage my leg and get on with the day. Ouch.
The show? Oh, yeah, the show goes very well. I meet a BÖC fan who I’ve seen at most of the shows to this point. He can’t speak much English but manages to politely ask if he can have the set list after the show. Naturally, I oblige.
Dinner: It is a buyout. One of my crew and I stroll down the street and find a place with a French take on sushi. Make no mistake: The French know how to eat!
At the end of the night, I’m happy because merch is completely sold out—nothing to count!
TUESDAY, JUNE 3, 2025, Berlin, Germany
Travel: 7:00 a.m. Lobby. Thirty minutes from hotel to airport via Uber. Yuk. Fly CDG to Berlin. We won’t land in Berlin until 11:20 a.m., so I ask the promoter if the house crew can get our backline uncrated and roughed into position (grrrr).
Ground: Promoter-provided. Yay!
Venue: Tempodrom
Console: Yamaha CL5 (I see a trend here)
Status: Sad to say, this show was the low point of the tour for a variety of reasons. A big part of it was the lack of effort and general bad attitude of the house crew. Knowing that we wouldn’t arrive at the venue until well after 1:00 p.m., I asked if the house crew would give us a head start by unpacking the backline and roughing it into place. Not so. When we arrive, the backline is still in cases and the locals are playing tiddlywinks. We politely convey our sense of urgency to the house crew, and are met with a fair amount of uncooperativeness.
House audio guys were nowhere to be found and there was something seriously wrong with the P.A. hang. I suspect it was hung too high for the room, but due to the time crunch, I really don’t have time to ask them to lower it—though I did insist that they change the angling of the hangs, which were clearly not focused on the main audience area. I was glad when this one was over.
Dinner: I don’t remember.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2025
Travel: Back to Helsinki, gone sideways. We’re supposed to take an easy direct flight from Berlin to Helsinki, but the industrial action by the Finnish Aviation Union results in our flight being canceled. Our travel agent, Saint Roy, has a backup but it’s not pretty: Berlin to Copenhagen, with a connection from Copenhagen to Turku, then a two-hour ride from Turku to Helsinki. Yikes. Instead of a lollygag lobby call of 10:15 a.m., it’s now moved to 7:15 a.m. Ouch. So much for an easy day of travel.
Ground: Promoter-provided to Berlin airport, and also on arrival in Helsinki. On the way to the hotel, we’re able to drop the gear at the venue. Yay!
As has become customary, we drop our bags and go exploring. No bicycles this time, just on foot. We go to see the Helsinki Cathedral and marvel at the pipe organ. Would love to hear Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor performed here.
Dinner: Allas Sea Pool, an excellent outdoor restaurant on the water, not too far from the cathedral.
THURSDAY, JUNE 5, 2025, Helsinki, Finland
Travel: None. Yay!
Ground: Promoter-provided. Yay x2!
Venue: Kulttuuritalo. I dare you to say that three times fast. In fact, if you can say it properly once, I’ll give you one of my Lexicon PCM70s. I’ll call it the Helsinki Hall of Culture.
Console: DiGiCo SD8. This one’s a little temperamental. The touchscreen is a bit off-cal, so it’s not properly tracking the position of my finger. Occasionally an unexpected window pops up. Have I mentioned that I keep an old MacBook running Windows under Boot Camp just so I can run apps like DiGiCo’s offline editors? They have one for every desk because files are not compatible between their consoles. Argghhh. I had the presence of mind to prep a file at home, so as not to have to start from scratch on day-of-show.
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Status: Jammed, though not quite sold out. Counting out merch is a nightmare because we have errors that can’t be sorted until the final credit card numbers come in the next morning. Boo!
We head back to the hotel after the show, knowing that we’re looking at a 3:00 a.m. lobby call. If you missed the gory details of what happened when I returned to the hotel, check out the blog from June 6: To Sleep, or Not to Sleep?
Dinner: In-house catering ,which was pretty good, but lunch literally could have been the show stopper(!).
FRIDAY, JUNE 6, 2025
Travel: 3:00 a.m. Lobby. Ouch.
Ground: Promoter-provided to the airport; cabs and our cartage company when we land in New York. Yay! Most of us are going back to the States but a few of the guys will go straight to Bilbao for a show on June 13. I’ll be thrilled to be sleeping in my own bed for a few nights, but the time at home will not be “off.” I have more ‘Cult shows to advance, as well as shows for the second leg of the Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks Tour, which literally starts the day after I get back from Bilbao. I’ll tell you about the joys of bouncing between the two tours next time.
