Black Moon Circle Denmark-Norway Tour Nov 2019

Nov 3^rd

I caught the bus in my home town to Lisboa with a change in Coimbra at 16. All was smooth so far except the bus driver decided to take the N17 instead of the highway and arrived at 17:35 instead of 17:05. A lot of people on this bus, including me were booked for the Lisboa bus at 17:30 and very stressed.  The bus waited for us and it was completely full but there was no time to get any food, pee or a drink.  Just straight on to the other bus.

Then.. there was incredible traffic on the A1 to Lisboa. We actually came to a complete stop several times. I had never seen so many cars on the toll road, ever! Insane.. Now we were a hour behind and then about 15mins away from the station, the driver pulls over and says she has gone past her limit or driving for the day. We have to wait 45mins for a fucking replacement driver to show up. So we arrive 2 hrs late. There was some very angry Eastern European people in the front of the bus who missed their airplane flight now. Insane.

I was so hungry and thirsty. Feeling a bit strange. It was only a 5.9€ taxi ride to the hostel and then I could find a restaurant but it was nearly 22 now!! I had a nice meal (I had sort of wanted fish but they talked me into veal) and a few beers and then straight back. This place is a dump though! The bed was one of the worst I had ever (tried) slept on. The springs are sticking up all over the bed, so no matter where you try to lay, you have a metal sticking you in the side, arm, legs.. stupid… small room with only a small window in the ceiling with rotting plaster and corroded metal frame. Very noisy, not a very nice bathroom, no towel… would not recommend this place even for 24€ a night for a double bed. 

Anyway, it is not raining today so far and my flight is not til 11. So I have lots of time now.  See how today goes.

Nov 4^th

Sunset in Roskilde 

Arrived in Denmark without a problem. Plane left nearly 40mins late but only arrived 5-10mins late. Took 40mins and my bag was the 2^nd to last to come off so by the time I got to my daughters it was 18:30..  It is much colder here than in Portugal.  We had a nice evening.

Nov 6^th

Gray and wet out, 7C outside.  Not sure if I will go to CPH today or not? I will meet some friends tomorrow for some beers. I will go into town early and visit some stores, etc… eat at Sheik Shawarma or Kebabish??  We will see.  Working more on my book at the moment.

Nov 7^th

 Woodstock, Christiania, DK 

SørenWoodstock, Christiania… 

I saw my daughter after work and then took the train to Copenhagen. I stopped at the Hostel to check us all in and drop off my suitcase and then off to Christiania.  It was about 1815 when I got there and the guys all arrived about the same time. The club was so smoky. Incredible. I had no idea how I would manage to be in that place playing music for 3 hrs???   Anyway, after some greetings we got down to business and BMC set up the gear and Jiri set up the mixer and connected to their PA speakers and set up a couple of monitors. I went to get some food and came back 10 mins later. This place is small so we were really packed in there. There was no soundcheck, really.  ØSC was playing first at 20.  All went pretty smooth and the ØSC line up was only a five piece and the new guitar player in Fri Galaxe, Jiri and Martin’s band, would play with us for the first time. He was a guy in mid 60s I guess and a really nice guy.  Anyway, ØSC started on time and played for nearly 2hrs. It was a cool concert with some great dynamics and Søren really went for it and played some wild solos and came up with some great starting guitar riffs.  Fun show..

Woodstock audience

Øyvin

http://www.archive.org/details/OSC2019-11-07.FLAC

            Took about 30mins and BMC was ready to roll. Simon was squished in the corner by the door to do liquid lights for the totally stoned and wasted people in Woodstock. They were entranced for sure.. Anyway, we opened with the Ghost. Daniel would like to start with this song every night but we like to change it around not get stuck in any routines. This keeps it fresh for us and we keep all of our repertoire alive.. It was fucking loud and I had forgot my moulded earplugs so I had to use those yellow EAR ones and they block out all the frequencies where the modular synth is so it was tough.  The place was pretty full but not as many people as earlier.  We played only 4 songs on this night including the new on Monster Serpent that we are enjoying a lot. It was a fun night and great to see Jiri and Martin and some friends that came to see us and me. Very few old friends showed up, sadly. IT was a late night, 2 by the time we got back to the hostel and we have to be on the road by 10.

Daniel-BMC

Set List: The Ghost, American Eagle, Monster Serpent, Enigmatic Superbandit

http://www.archive.org/details/BMC2019-11-07.FLAC

Nov 8^th-  Vaterland, Oslo, Norway

 We had a great gig here in March and it is a cool club. The drive was pretty uneventful and we arrived just on time at 18. The other bands were also just outside the club. Super nice people.  This was going to be a special night. Orsak:Oslo were opening with a 40min set and then BMC for an hour and then a special BMC meets Kanaan jam.  Rob, the Australian guy was still the soundman so this was excellent. He is great and friendly and works hard to make everything perfect for the musicians.

All went well and we had an excellent pizza from downstairs (probably the best in Oslo). I like the one called Satan.  So did the other guys.  They provided a few cases of Hansa beer but I think it tastes bad. I only had 2-3 the whole night. They have a lot of great craft beers on tap but they are super expensive, the cheapest is 128kr, I think and up to 169kr.. That is nearly 17€ for a single beer! Crazy..

            Orsak:Oslo are a four piece instrumental band. The drummer only had a high hat and ride cymbal, which I found interesting.  The main guitar player played some really cool effected guitar with a nice flanger that he used on a couple of tracks.  The set was pretty diverse and more rock than the album I heard on bandcamp which I thought was kind of boring.  They were quite good.

BMC hit the stage a little after 22 as planned and we opened with Jack’s Cold Sweat, which is a fun one to play but we don’t play it that much anymore.  It was fewer people this time (62 paid compared with 82 last time in March) but a good crowd and they were really into it. There were so many amps on the stage going all the way to the ceiling there was virtually no where for Simon to project, which was  a pity.  Anyway, we had some very cool jams and a good set. Everyone enjoyed it.  Daniel was a little off though with the tempos on a few of the songs. I think he probably smoked and drank too much before the gig.

Set List: Plains, Jack’s Cold Sweat, Monster Serpent, The Ghost


http://www.archive.org/details/BMC2019-11-08.FLAC

Next the Kanaan guys set up their pedals (bass and guitar, the 2^nd drum kit was set up at soundcheck) and we had a little 15min break.  Daniel was pretty tired after the set but he was forced to really kick ass with the young fresh drummer as most of the stuff we had in the jams was pretty uptempo and fucking loud! Two drum kits, two bass players, two guitar players and me on synth. IT was really fun and the audience really enjoyed it. Two guys came up after the show and said it was the show of the year, better than any they had seen at Høstsabbat! High praise. It makes you feel so good when you hear that. Wow.. That is what makes playing music all worth it in the end, considering all the hassles and expenses and difficulties one goes through just to pull gigs off.

https://archive.org/details/BMC2019-11-08.Kanaan

Nov 9^th- Lobbyen, Trondheim

It was a late night and a long drive to Trondheim. The weather was terrible with snow and ice leaving Oslo. Thankfully it was clearing up as we moved north and then there was no snow as we got toward Trondheim.  I drove the first couple of hours and then Daniel drove and then Vemund took over for the last 90mins.

Anyway, we arrived at the club a little later than we were expected. Anyway, this load in, set up went very fast but the soundcheck took forever. It was not a very experienced sound guy but he was super nice (and he did a great job if you listen to the recording!).  They had redone the club since we last played here. It was much nicer now and a bigger stage than last night. I was still pushed nearly behind the PA.  All went well. We had pizza again and some beers.

Glydenløve (The Golden Lion- below) were the opening act. This was Simon’s new band. A four piece playing instrumental rock and roll with a slight metal edge and some 70s inspiration.  This was there debut gig in a club. They had only played private parties before. Anyway, they rocked!! IT was super loud though and the guitar and bass were way too loud for the stage so you hardly heard the drums at all.  There was about 50 people. They started right at 22.

BMC, we hit the stage at 2230 and opened with Machine on the Hill. I had wanted to play it on the last tour but we never managed. Anyway this was great and the new way we play it is cool. It is not as long as it used to be. Then Enigmatic Superbandit, Monster Serpent, The Ghost and we knocked them dead with Warp Speed. Not as long a version as at Desertfest.  I think it was about 75mins.  Vemund was on fire this night. We had a really good response from the audience and Torgir, who owns the record label that most of the BMC stuff is released on, thought it was the best he had ever seen the band. That the sound was really complete and I was more integrated into the song structures, etc..  He was happy. There were some photographers but I don’t think it was video taped. We had one other recording as well that we will get but no multitrack (of any of the gigs).

https://archive.org/details/BMC2019-11-09.FLAC

 

Great tour but not sure how successful it was money wise as we had less people than last time we played in both Oslo and Trondheim. We sold out the last of the shirts now but only 3-4 records each night and maybe 1-2 of the CD boxes. We don’t sell a lot on tour at all, which is a pity.  This was the last gig probably until May or something. IT has been a great year for BMC and I think we made a lot of new fans this year. 

httP://blackmooncircle.bandcamp.com