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Scare Force One in Finland – Part 3

Posted in Finland, Scare Force One Release, Uncategorized on November 5, 2014 by Sara Hammerzmith

And with that,the gig was over. Before the gig, we had been told we could possibly go backstage, so directly after we had to head over to the meeting point, and of course it’s at this point we run into Maddy and Jasmin! I tell you though. Maddy is a girl I’ve known for a good 8, yes _8_ years and I hadn’t met her up til this point! My god! It was such a surreal feeling a way, this girl you’ve chatted with for so many years and all of a sudden she’s there! Right in front of you!

A brief little hello before we had to rush further, in order not to loose our friends. Gladly, we were all re-united with everyone at the meeting point and headed over to the backstage-area.

And seriously, it was a mess alright.

First of all, there were all these people with the VIP passes that apparently included a meet&greet or something with Lordi, and fair enough! But after a while it was time for us to get in as well, and first we got in and somehow Sophie managed to sneak in with us. They stopped Anthalerero in the door but with a little bit of arguing about her being the photographer we got her in to, and with her came Jasmin and her friend, and then the next thing happened where they stopped Maddy in the door and the next little argument started about that they can’t take in us all and leave Maddy behind, so gladly we got her in to. I think Laura and her guy managed to sneak in at this point to, as you can hear: TOTAL CHAOS!

Anyway, we were told to be quick getting our pictures taken, and I’d say we were! It wasn’t so much of a meet&greet, more of a “GET IN TAKE A PHOTO GET OUT” kind of thing, BUT, Mr OX and I did totally have a moment.

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First picture is Michelle and Kaarle, second pic is Mara and Me, and the photo of me and Mara is taken by Anthalerero.

I sadly do not have pictures of the other guys with Lordi, but you get the picture! After this we all stood in a little circle waiting for each other to get done when one of Kaarles friends came over and gave me one of Mana’s used drumsticks! Seriously, thank you J! That was just the cherry on top, seriously. When getting into the lobby we ran into Laura, who worked at the exhibition in Savonlinna this summer, if you remember? It was really nice seeing her again, and saying a more proper hello! After going out of the area we all kinda split up. Maddy & co headed over to Bäkkäri, Mara and Kaarle headed home and me, Michelle, Sophie and Anthalerero headed to the hotel to drop off some stuff and a quick clothing change before joining the rest of the people at Bäkkäri. But before so,we had one last groupshot.

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We ended up spending a little while at home talking about everything and nothing before “finally” heading over to Bäkkäri where we met up with Jasmin, Maddy and their friend. We had a good few hours talking and laughing, and at one point the wonderful Kaisa came over to say hi! This meeting was completely unexepcted, but this is also one of these Lordi fans I’ve had contact with for a few years and never actually met until now. It was really cool meeting you!

I promise. Maddy did survive. Anyways, after a few hours at the place we all got a little tired and me, Michelle, Antha and Sophie headed back to the hotel where we originally planned to go to bed… and well, Michelle did, but the rest of us sat up and talked and talked for hours and hours about everything and nothing. A lot of gasps, laughters and memories shared until we decided that it might be a good idea to get a few hours of sleep before getting up to showing Antha out of the hotel in the morning. I think we slept about two hours before we went up again. Ahh, the life on the road! We said good bye to Antha for this time, went back to bed for an hour or so before going up and packing everything and saying good bye to the most amazing hotel ever.

We met up with Sophie at Sokos McDonalds and headed towards the cutest little coffeshop for breakfast and good bye. And I swear to god, like I already wrote in the previous entry… I could have sat in that coffeshop for the whole day, forever. I didn’t for a split moment want it to end. It was just heartbreaking when we had to leave for the bus and say good bye to Sophie for the last time… I can’t tell you people enough how badly I did NOT want this all to end.

This was the best weekend I have had in a very, very long time, perhaps ever. Meeting up with peers that shares the same passion as you, and meeting up with them all on the same time, in the best city in the entire world, watching the best band in this world and just living inside this little bubble that is the Lordi fandom for a whole weekend… It’s just beyond amazing and it’s the best thing you could ever possibly do.

Thank you, sincerely, ALL of you who made this weekend the perfect that it was. I’ll thank you all one more time.
Thank you, Michelle, Sophie, Kaarle, Mara, Argo, Anthalerero, Maddy, Jasmin, Aneta, Laura, Kaisa and of course – Lordi.

// Sara

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Scare Force One in Finland – Part 2 (THE SHOW)

Posted in Concerts, Finland, Scare Force One Release, Uncategorized on November 4, 2014 by Sara Hammerzmith

So! Towards the Circus we headed, and we walked and walked and walked… for five minutes. Or less. I’m not even sure, what I DO know is that the Circus was ridiculously close to the hotel. I’ve had hotels that are close to arenas, but this took the price! We basically just walked down a street or two, and over a market square and there it was.

Much to our surprise, there was already a small line there. I know how horrible it sounds, but I didn’t really expect that. It wasn’t long, but it was there! The first thing that happens is that we were greeted by Michelle’s long time friend Kaarle and Mara. It was great meeting you guys!

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But as we came to the queue, we noticed a few people were missing… Where the hell were Sophie and Argo?! They left like, half an hour before us, there was no chance in hell we’d arrived before them. We started getting real worried actually, if they had gotten lost or something, but gladly, they showed up! It turned out they had been on the other side of the venue for a while, phew! I’m glad they hadn’t gotten kidnapped or anything. Yes, we did really consider this a thing.

After them arriving the long wait sort of began. The queue started growing behind us, and all of a sudden I see a familiar face…. could it be? YES IT WAS! Anthalerero was in the house! Damn, it have been too long since I last saw her, possibly at Christmas Metal Meeting, which is three years ago. It’s hard to think about, because as soon as you meet them, it feels like there was never a time apart.

Now we really stared to feel like a crowd, and the opening hours were getting close. And once the clock turned 6… they didn’t open the door. And see, here’s the thing. You can stand outside the gig for so many hours, but GOD FORBID they open the doors a little late, because I swear to god, nothing is longer than those five minutes you have to wait extra.

But you know, eventually they DID open the door and we rushed in. Apparently you had to leave your jacket in the wardrobe, so we all kinda threw our jackets to Michelle for her to handle it and the rest of us rushed in to get spots, and we ALL got spots in the front row! ACE! We switched between holding the spots and going to look at the merchandise, and I must say I was a little disappointed with what they had in store. But oh well, no big deal!

While waiting for Korpiklaani, another familiar face appeared! Aneta, another person I hadn’t seen since Christmas Metal Meeting three years ago. It was so great seeing her again, and Antha also showed up again (we lost her during the opening of the door, haha). Seriously, I can’t put to words enough how happy I get to see my fellow monstermaniacs again.

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So, Korpiklaani was said to start at 18.45 and they were pretty much on the clock! While I’ve heard of the band prior to this show, I have never actually listened to the band up until now. However, I was happily surprised! The band on stage was energetic and managed to get the crowd going pretty good. And for someone who is absolutely unfamiliar with this band, imagine my surprise when they started playing “Ievan Polka”. That’s a song even I know! Haha!

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Anyway, I really liked what I heard! Another band to add to the list. After this, the excitement started to grow even bigger. It was finally time for Lordi.

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Pretty much right on time “Estimated Time of Arrival” started and to my surprise, two flight-attendants before the ever so familiar Mana walked on stage and greeting us. Following him came the little spider-doll Hella jumping out on stage like, well, yeah, a spider. Her new attire is just fucking perfect, what a character she has become! Amen and OX followed suit and then they started off with…

… “Nailed by the Hammer of Frankenstein“.

I’m not going to lie to you people – I was SO CONFUSED when this happened. I was so sure they were gonna do “Scare Force One” as an opener, that I literally for the first few seconds of the song just stood there trying to figure out what song they where playing, and once I did so, I was just there like “wait what?” and it wasn’t until half the song had passed or so that my brain has managed to process what was going on. Oh man, they sure got us there.

And if this wasn’t enough, they made “Hard Rock Hallelujah” the second song of the night, which was the next WHAT THE FUCK moment. Fine, I’m absolutely OK with it not being at the end, but I was WELL surprised to see it as the SECOND SONG of the night. Do you understand, I literally stood here like “what on earth is going on…”

And if this wasn’t enough, they had enough pyros fired off to make me have a heart attack. This my friends, even just two songs in, this is probably the most in-your-face I’ve seen Lordi in many, many years.

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After this rather confusing intro, one my biggest Lordi dreams came true. Mr Lordi pointed out that it was Halloween night, and given so, they just had to play Alice Copper’s “He’s Back (The Man Behind The Mask)”. And literally, guys… I’ve always loved Lordi’s cover of this song, and to actually hear it live… This is literally one of my biggest dreams when it comes to Lordi. And the fact they had an actual Jason coming out and slicing someone up just made it better. I’ve missed theatrical Lordi.

Right after the fired of my oh so favorite (sarcasm) “Sincerely With Love” before walking off the stage and letting “SCG7” play in the speakers. When they came back, they fired of my REAL favorite song (at least of SF1) “Scare Force One”. I’m not entirely sure what happened, but in the first pre-chorus it got real screwed up. At first I thought the flight ladies sang the wrong pre-chorus, but I’m not starting to think it might have been a delay-issue, or something like that. Sounded screwed like hell, that’s for sure.

Whatever it was- it got fixed to the next pre-chorus, gladly. After the title-track, the ever so missed autopsy table was brought back on stage and it was time for us to learn how to slice a whore, haha. God people, this song live! However, I’m not sure what was most awesome – he slicing the corpse, or he almost setting his bandmates on fire with the chainsaw. Sorry for the humor, but the reactions of both Mana and OX – despite wearing masks, were just hilarious.

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Mana is basically like “DUDE, STOP IT!”

“It Snows In Hell” was the next song on the list, and yes, we did indeed hang upside down! It’s become a new tradition. It just has to be done. After the little break it was time for Mr L to get out and get his hat for “Sir, Mr Presideath Sir!” And seriously though. I’ve so underestimated this song on the album, and it’s beyond amazing live. And it was so fun – there was this woman coming out with a baby, to you know, get a kiss from the presideath, but since it’s the presideath,and not the president… Yeah. He chewed the thing right up! Oh God, theatrical Lordi, I’m glad you are back!

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“Blood Red Sandman” found it’s way to be done before it was time for another of my favorites off the new album – “Hell Sent in the Clowns”. See, even thought I was a clown at circus-school when I was little, clowns creep me out like hell. And we had already gotten a little sneak from Hella about there being actual clowns on stage… and there sure as hell were! “Clowns are coming…. clowns are coming…” and the little bastard came out on stage! They threw everything from blood to confetti on us, and being basically all over the place. When they first came out I was worried they’d start beating us, like grandma did during “Babez” era,b but gladly not.

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After the clowns got sent back to hell Amen joined us up front for his ever so familiar devil’s horns, and “Devil is a Loser” was kicked in. The band left the stage, and returned a little while later firing off “Would You Love A Monsterman”. If you thought that was it, it wasn’t.

They made one last song – “God of Thunder”. I loved Lordi’s version of it, but I must admit I found it a little strange they’d wrap the whole show up with it, rather than “Would You” But you know – if that’s what they like, that’s what they like.

After “God of Thunder” they thanked for the time and walked off the stage. This was indeed a short list from the beginning,but the epicness behind the whole show made it feel even shorter since I for once in a very long time actually enjoyed every second of the show. The band seemed to be more into, more “hungry” than ever before despite the crowd being a little meh. I think they might have needed the time down with “To Beast” in order to come back this strong.

Thanks Lordi, for a pretty awesome gig! It was the best I’ve seen in a long time.

To be Continued

Scare Force One in Finland – Part 1

Posted in Finland, Scare Force One Release, Uncategorized on November 3, 2014 by Sara Hammerzmith

So, after a bit of debating with myself I came to the conclusion that I’ll divide this into three parts rather than making one LONG entry about it.

Well well! Where shall I start off. Because of school reasons I decided to leave fairly late from home, not until about 5.30 or so in the evening, arriving fairly late, as you might understand. I immediately set off for the hotel and started walking up the ever so familiar shopping street, and a few years later I finally arrived at the hotel. I set up my things and left to pick up some dinner and also heading out for some poster-hunting. Yes, I’m a sucker for gig-posters, and having seen a SlipKnot one on Drottninggatan I had to see if there was anymore than that one availible, which it wasn’t, but you know… I got my dinner so I’m happy.

So yeah. What can I say. Scare Force One on repeat, dinner and chatting with awesome people before going to bed to get ready for the real adventures. When laying down, I noticed that people had written small messages in the “roof” of the bed, and I figured I had to leave a little message as well.

The next day became a little more stressful. I know myself pretty well, and I also know I hate getting up in the morning even if I have to. Even though I packed and prepped everything already the night before, I still struggled a little coming up. I had planned so I could miss a bus or two without missing the flight, which was good. I got out in good time, and I even had time to stop and snitch Sid off the panel he was sitting at at Drottninggatan.

And this must have been my lucky day I’m telling you – when looking at the buscharts, it said it was going to leave at 8,which made me so confused, because when I checked the time-table online, it clearly said 7.40, 7.50, 8.00 and so on, and I had checked specifically for todays date, and I saw the bus before left 7.45, and I arrived 7.46.

Or at least it was supposed to have been. I went outside and got on the bus that was outside, and after a minute or so it left, like, 13 minutes before it was “supposed” to. Not sure at all what was up inside Cityterminalen, but I was more than happy that I and Sid got to the airport as soon as possible. Luggage drop off was quick, and I eventually went through security and all, with only abuot an hour or so until the plane was about to take off. Good. After all this time travelling, I’ve gotten sick of waiting too long.

I decided to pick up a coffee for breakfast before meeting up with Michelle who was already waiting by the gate! Gaaah, it was so cool to see her again, and to travel again you know? At first we started looking for some place to have some actual food, but soon decided against it and eat one in Finland instead. As we waited for the plane, a little kid came and played with Michelle’s jacket. Oh the lulz.

Since we didn’t check in nor book together, we didn’t get seats next to each other… but gladly, the plane wasn’t filled or anything so we ended up sitting together regardless! When we landed in Finland we were greeted with better weather than it was in Sweden, that could only be a good sign, right?

First stop after getting to Helsinki central was to pick up some concert tickets at a R-Kioski and then heading toward the hotel. I had originally booked the wrong hotel, but managed to cancel it and book the same hotel fellow monstermaniac Sophie stayed at. We headed over there, and much to our dismay, noticed we couldn’t check in until 4. I’ll tell you about this hotel.

So, this hotel is basically not staffed. You have a code to your room, which is also the code to the hotel and the elevator, so there is no actual receptionist or anything there. We were a little frustrated, I mean, we wanted to get to the gig goddamnit! So we called the service number, and she told us since our room was ready, she could activate the code immediately. THANK HEAVENS! We went upstairs, unpacked our things and got in touch with Argo and Sophie.

We told them to meet us in 20 minutes outside the hotel, so we went down to the lobby to wait for them. It was so exciting. I haven’t seen Argo since our trip to Italy in 2013, and Sophie, the last time I met her was in 2010!! It’s fucking insane! After waiting a while, we finally saw them coming and I literally went all ASJDLAJDLASJ on the inside for seeing these amazing people again! Wow. The feeling people, the feeling of seeing someone you haven’t seen for YEARS, and now they are there with you, in real life. It’s a surreal feeling.

We headed to the Rax Pizza buffet for Lunch and we just sat and ate good food and talked for a good hour or so, before heading back to the hotel to get ready for the show. It took a little longer time than I had expected, so we sent Sophie and Argo to head over before us – like, the arena was 5 minutes or so away from our hotel, so it wasn’t even a particularly long walk or anything. A little after they left, also we got on our way and headed for The Circus.

To be continued