Sara Hammerzmith

The only thing that really keeps my spirit and inspiration up at the very moment is the knowledge of those precious weeks in January and February. Starting with two fantastic, or well, hopefully, fantastic shows with SlipKnot, followed by festival and whatnot in Australia and rounded up with Toto home in Sweden.

Speaking of SlipKnot. I’ve thought a little bit about what songs they could possibly play at part two or whatever you wanna call it of “Prepare For Hell” tour, but I do hope with keep “Killpop”, and this time WITHOUT doing so on the expense of “The Negative One”. Honestly, I’m not sure what they were thinking replacing an intense song like “The Negative One” with a calm song like “Killpop”, or even worse, how they could replace what could possibly be the best song on “.5”, apart from “Nomadic” that is, with “AOV”, if that was the reason. “AOV” is ok, but it doesn’t by any lengths or measures become anything like “The Negative One”.

What would, on the other hand, be the cherry on top would be if one of the gigs we are going to features “Purity”. This year, “Purity” was played in Denmark, and Sweden had “Vermilion” and Finland “Dead Memories”. The question is, if they do the same round of setlist, what song would I want to sacrifice? “Vermilion” is my favorite, but “Dead Memories” is Michelle’s. Tough things, huh?

And then Lordi. I’m not sure if I have any certain wishes for Lordi. I think I have seen most of the songs I ever wished to hear live by now… and I mean, they brought back “Deadache” for Tour Force One, what more could I ever ask for? Nothing. But it’d be cool if they thought about bringing back “Hulking Dynamo” or perhaps “Icon of Dominance”. I’m pretty sure they played “Icon” before, but the song, sadly, only grew on me later.

Toto… Well, I can’t say I have any certain wishes for them. It will be a calm but bombastic night in Stockholm after some of our most hectic weeks. And then… Ireland.

But first; Delain and Powerwolf.

// Sara

I’m so sorry for the lack of updates. Normally I wouldn’t apologize for the lack of writings, since it’s all up to me when and how I write, however, this time I will. Because I’ve always come to remember that I should blog when I lie in bed ready to sleep. And I’m too lazy to get up.

My lack of writing, and lack of interesting things to write, is because of work. I’m starting a lot of new jobs all at once, while applying for other jobs which makes time short. It has to be done – Australia is creeping closer by the day. But at least the day is coming – the day to book the tickets. First we need to talk to the embassy though.

I’ll try to get more interesting thing to write, but considering I have a trip to Belgium and two shows upcoming next week, I guess it won’t be too hard.

Until then, listen to Linda Pira and enjoy your day or weekend or whatever.

//Sara

Today was the day! Ticket release for SlipKnot.

I must admit, I wasn’t in my best spirit when we were about to order the tickets. Not because I don’t look forward to see the boys again, on the contrary. SlipKnot is the only band that manages to make me excited. However, I had spent the whole night being somewhere between sleep and being awake because of my illness. Seriously, I had finally gotten better, and now I’m back in hell with a non-existing ball blocking my throat that I can’t swallow nor throw up.

But! We did get a hand on the tickets, and it was a bit stressful, but not because I was scared to not get tickets as Antoine might have thought, but because we were getting a bit different tickets, and most of the information was in Finnish. But. we managed to pull through so all is good!

Of course, my heart broke a little that I couldn’t take the specialized fan tickets, which we had for HammerFall and Lordi earlier this year, but you know… sometimes it’s just too expensive. Or more like, an unnecessary cost.

But, all in all. We got ’em. And I’m really excited. Now I just gotta put up some extra shifts at work to make sure I have enough money for it all. And fight with some stores over money.

// Sara

You know, it’s kind of ironic in a way. I’ve literally just gotten better from my last fever, was looking forward to a hard and well-filled work week… only to be hit by the fever again.

Gladly, I know what is causing it – and it’s over working. And since I don’t have any over-working shifts coming up any time soon, it’s all good, I’d say. Tomorrow is SlipKnot Finland ticket release, and I’m beyond excited. It’s going to be so fun to see them twice, again, on this tour. I’m getting a little scared from all their two years break talk, so I prefer trying to see them more than once. And it’s not like we’re up to anything better that week anyway. Why not warm up a little bit?

With that said, I shall now go to bed to get some hours rest before tickets.

// Sara

I’m going to adress something that, once again, is a big deal in Sweden right now.

I’m a very lucky person. I have never so far in my life ever failed to get a ticket to a concert I wanted to go to – regardless if it’s Lady Gaga or W.A.S.P here in town. Despite high ticket pressure, I’ve always managed. So I’ve personally never had to deal with second hand tickets personally. This is actually a subject I have written about previously, but in Swedish.

However, the entire second hand market for concert tickets disgusts me about as much as illegal downloading does. I’m talking about those people who buy as many tickets as possible only for the sake of making quite a big profit on other peoples desperation to see a band or an artist playing.

The incident in question is the two shows with Håkan Hellström at Ullevi. While I’m no fan of the man myself, I feel with the fans who was left without a ticket, and loads of them only because of these ticketsharks. And I feel with the artists who are forced to play to half empty arenas because the tickets doesn’t get sold.

I have previously done researches about this phenomena amongst audiences for my university program, and a lot of the people interviewed agreed with me – it’s time to end this.

And there was efficient way to do so. By making it illegal to sell tickets for higher price than the original.

Will this solve the problem? That is yet to see. However, what it will do is making it difficult for companies like Biljett.nu and so on to actually make any profit on it, which could hopefully lead to a decrease. Making selling tickets illegal all in all doesn’t work, nor should they be personal because there ARE people who may not, for various reasons, be able to attend, and it’s better they sell the ticket to someone else (for the original price) than having the ticket be unused.

Sweden, it’s time to wake up. Follow Denmarks lead. Make it illegal to sell for higher prices.

// Sara

I forgot to tell you something yesterday. You remember how I told you I had an interview for a job?

Well, I got it! And I’m so excited, it’s a practically a full time job as a groundskeeper, and I’m so excited about it, as I said. Finally, FINALLY I have a pretty meaningful job, and not just all these “crap jobs”, that are still jobs nonetheless, but it feels good to have a decent job.

Aside this, things are starting to fall into place. I’ve finally dedicated a part of my travelbook for SlipKnot and Australia trip, and it’s starting to slowly get planned. I’m so excited about all of this that I don’t know anymore what to write, but I need to fix some things for work, so I need to run.

Talk to you later!

// Sara

So, Graspop Metal Meeting announced their first real batch of bands today, and the bands are as follows;

Abbath, Amon Amarth, Bullet For My Valentine, Trivium, Sacred Reich, Satyricon, Testament, La Muerte, Dirkschneider, Arcturus, August Burns Red, Borknagar, Dark Funeral, Delain, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Legend of the Damned, Moonspell, Overkill, Virgin Steele, Bury Tomorrow, Grand Magus, Loudness, Monuments, Myrkur, Oomph!, Slaves, The Algorithm, The Midnight Ghosttrain and of course, the headliners, King Diamond, Iron Maiden, Volbeat Black Sabbath and Twisted Sister.

In all honesty, I’m not familiar with too many of the bands, probably because of genre, but I’m very, very, VERY happy about seeing Twisted Sister on the bill. I have gotten a teeny bit stressed over this being their final tour and not being able to catch them, but now I know I will. And if they come somewhere else, good on them.

And Delain.. Antoine was truly right. He said I’ll get many oppurtunities to see Delain after missing them on SRF, and he was right! That’s awesome.

About the rest, I’ll have to give a lot of them a listen and get back to you. But it’s a decent start, I must say!

// Sara

Today has been bandrehearsal day, or well, mostly. I still need to find that spirit to get up in order to get things done, but I can’t find it. Thankfully, going to the rehearsallot helps a bit.

It’s going good. While we didn’t play THAT much today, mostly talked about everything and nothing, we did some last minutes rehearsals and it’s steady. It’s not as unsure as it was originally, and we’ve decided on trying out a few more songs to get some variety.

Aside this, Michelle and I have made more plans. We are going to try out something… certain, next year, and it’ll be very interesting to see if it’s really worth, and to see if we pass out or possibly throw up doing it. I guess we will see.

Anyway. I managed to get myself another job interview as well. Things are actually going better now, gladly. And apparently, Curt and I are celebrating six years on Facebook today. Which in reality is eight years friendship. Time passes by so incredibly fast…

// Sara

In the midst of still not being well enough to go back to work, I’ve spent most of my day planning out things. Planning out Australia, planning out what to do next with my sim, planning out what to do for my hamsters cage. And it’s an amazing idea, I’m telling you! My hamster will be so happy when she get her improved living.

Aside this, I’ve also started planning and mapping out new projects. I can’t tell you all about them now, because they are just in the start, but I’m pretty excited about it in all honesty.

And on top of that, SlipKnot announced a Finland date. It pisses me off a bit, because that date, January 18th, are actually a bit more suiting because of our Australian endaveours to go to, but of course they had to announce it later instead of at the same time. But then again, this just makes me wonder if maybe we should just add another show to our already on going month of gigs. I’m just gonna wait and see if they also add a Norwegian show, because then we might as well just do that one.

So basically, while I’m bleeding money from not working, I’m planning new, costing plans.

Isn’t it perfect, huh? I also, finally, ordered my new jacket. I hope it comes soon.

// Sara

Three weeks from now, I’ll be at the end of the start of the last batch of concerts. It’s the Wolfsnäschte tour, and I’ll be present in Antwerpen. I’m really looking forward to it, it’s a good bill. Civil War being the opener, which I can’t wait to see properly after the… cut short set… on Noch Ein Bier and then we have Orden Ogan. As I’ve mentioned once or twice before, “Ravenhead” is a solid album, and seeing them open for HammerFall was A LOT of fun.

And of course, the main act for the night, Powerwolf. It’ll be the third time I believe I see them. Sweden Rock, Noch Ein Bier and now at Wolfsnäschte. It’s going to be good to see an actual headlining show with the guys, rather than festivalsets, and especially visual wise, as that fell through on Noch Ein Bier.

I just noticed I’ve literally managed to make Noch Ein Bier sound like the worst experience ever, haha. It wasn’t that bad though, I promise.

Two days before that I’ll be in Vosselaar at Biebob again, but this time it’s another female fronted band, Delain. I’ve been waiting to see Delain for soooo long. Because of my knee injury, I missed out on them on Sweden Rock, and “The Human Contradiction”, or at least what I’ve heard of it, it sooo good. I can’t wait to hear “Here Comes The Vultures”. Seriously, I LOVE bands who can add drama in their songs, the way Delain and Epica, to mention two, does. Where something is happening, that sets a mood rather than just being good.

The Gentle Storm is the opener, and it’ll be fun to see them, despite me not knowing a lot of them. I’ll probably have to either check them out, or I’ll be forced to by Antoine.

So, after this start, it kind of takes off. Two weeks after this we have our Nightwish / Mötley Crüe weekend, and two weeks after that it’s HammerFall again. Mötley Crüe will be… mixed. I’m not sure anymore if I go more for Alice Cooper than Mötley, seeing he can actually deliver. But then again… The final tour, or at least we think it is (you never know). It’s a bittersweet feeling, but I’m glad I got to run with Mötley for a while.

So, what I am actually trying to say here is that things will get more interesting. And while I’m at it, I should get a book where we can rate hotels. Yes, I’m going to get this ASAP.

// Sara