Tour diary from "Any Colour You Like But Red, Blue And Pink Tour" 2003
Any Colour You Like But Red, Blue And Pink Tour 2003 Day one, wednesday 19.2.03 Germans arrived. Seven lovely boys (men) who talked some irrational language. We understood something. If not, we asked WAS!!??? At first the finnish musicicians found themselves shy at the kitchen talking to each other. Little alcohol and the ice started to break. It was soon noticed that Green Slider and their tour manager Jan had a similar humour with finnish colleagues especially when talking about farts. First gig was at Stella Star, a nice big club in Kallio. Everything worked: free drinks, mixer and lovely waitresses. Graydance openend the night with a storming set. They played new songs like ”Broken Down” and ”Will you come?” as well as the old hit singles ”Beautiful” and ”Drowning”. Nevergreen hit the stage next. Excellent opener ”Fragile” worked like hell. It became very clear that front man Tomi is a natural rock´n´roll star if he wants to. Then it was time for Green Slider. And it was an experience. Their music is based on cool riffing, jamming and virtuose playing of each member. In the centre point is the singer, whose voice is really cool and hip shakes like in the 60´s. Good time music indeed! Just a great band, hard to describe, must see. Next time Helsinki ”underground” people: you can´t miss an evening like this. Whiskey drinking party continued at the house of one famous and lively drummer in Kallio. Day two, thursday 20.2.03 Hangover and sightseeing. Slider boys visited museums trying to understand why finnish people act like they do. Maybe the reasons are to be found from the historical context. Gig place tonight was Factory. There were a few people there also. Just a few. But they heard an extremely intense and raw sets from the bands. So intense that one member of the audience even woke up. Nevergreen started playing about the same songs as yesterday. Excellent, of course! And heavy. Graydance was second on tonight´s bill. They played just six raw songs including ”Down the Drain”, ”Reaching Back”, ”Will You Come”, ”One Step”, ”Bittersweet” and ”Even” no love stories tonight. Green Slider took the stage professionally and drunken finnish rockers jammed like animals. Actually Slider boys told that the gig was nearly best one they´ve ever played. Great night indeed. The lack of audience was only disappointing thing. And the party continued again until late morning at Mr. Virtas´ flat. Day three, friday 21.2.03 Spud from Graydance made a mistake and woke accidentally up a sleeping beast after just a few hours of sleep. That same beast started to listen black metal with quite a volume. Of course sleeping after that was easy. And now you ask: Who was that mysterious beast. Let´s just say it wasn´t any of the guests. Hangover. Moving to Lohja city. Germans got finally a chance to rest a bit in a cottage. Some of the finnish rockers would also had been good to lay down but once you have a rock´n´roll gear on it´s hard to stop. Expectations towards evenings gig were pretty high. After all Graydance members are worshipped rock stars in their home town. At least they think so, especially at four a clock in the morning when a gilrfriend next to you is already at sleep tired of listening the same story again. X-it club was the place of tonights´event. The carrying of equipments was mostly done by germans (again). Obviously the others didn´t help very much unless laying drunk on the floor on top of each other was helping. When Nevergreen started playing the club was almost full. Over two hundred people had bought the ticket. Success!!! Every band made the audience eat from their hand. Balsam for the wounds. Or salt. But the life of the rock star also demands it´s taxes. In the middle of Graydances´ set, singer Jaba begins to mosh. Not a good idea after hard partying and awakened nights. Jaba collapsed, falled from the stage and got a wound in his hand. Blood at the stage! A few seconds later he was back in business. Survivor! Meanwhile there is rumour that Mr. Piippo from Nevergreen had showed his capacity of muscle power to some guy. Great night again and (surprise) the party continued at the cottage until morning. Especially Mr´s Virta and Korkkinen from Nevergreen were on hilarious mood. Sauna was full of finnish rockers, only one german had the courage to join. Day four, saturday 22.2.03 Last gig today. Everybody seems tired but happy. The not so heterosexual actions between Nevergreen boys are confusing our guests. But they are very polite and are smiling when boys are touching themselves. It´s nice to notice that we have really become friends with Green Slider and Jan. They are absolutely fantastic persons and we would love to visit Germany as soon as possible. Pub Norris in Karjaa is the gig place tonight. Small but nice place. There we met Sepi who had organized the gig. He is a cool grey haired guy who loves music. A big thank you to Sepi! Everything worked out fluently. At the soundcheck Nevergreen main man Makes´ hair is also in a spot to turn to grey. His drummer has some difficulties in keeping the sticks in hand. A little sleep and food for Erkki and Nevergreen played their strongest gig in the whole tour. Before them Graydance and Green Slider had warmed the audience (some 60 people). But the evening didn´t stop here. We also heard blues based jam sessions with two harmonicas played by Jan and Sepi. Group picture was taken. So, ”Any colour”-tour ended. Sad but true. Thank you so much Green Slider. It´s an honour to tour with such an entertaining and at the same time professional band. You are great guys, see you soon! Same goes to Nevergreen! Lastly: the rock´n´roll award goes to Nevergreen. Graydance stayed the most polite band in the world! Yes!!! Or blaah!