Sunn Tickets

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Sunn O))) In Norway

Went to see Sunn play a gig in Bergen Norway last night. They played in a cathedral and it was different to say the least. They used guitars, vocals, the cathedral pipe organ, a moog synthesizer and a trombone. Hahaha, trombone.

When the music ended and the band disappeared away into the back rooms of the church we ran up to the stage and took photos of the bands stuff that they had left strewn about the stage. Well, *I* ran up on the stage, camera in hand. Then everyone else kind of followed me up. It was really funny actually, everyone slowly crept over to take a look at the stage and I waded through, stood on the front of the stage with my arms stretched up and making 2 claws with my hands and got my photo took, then grabbed the camera and went onto the stage and took close ups of all the amps and guitars. hahaha, well why not; what were they going to do, kick me out of church? God botherers.

When everyone started taking photos it looked like a gang of police photographers at a crime scene taking close ups of the evidence of a murder or something. Some guy who helped set up the event then came over and basically told us to leave. Well he tried to, but instead we started asking him about the gig, how it was set up, a black metal show in a church! He said that they had arranged the show very tactfully, they told the people from the church that Sunn is a band who play medievil style music from the Scandinavian tradition. Something like that. So the church said "oh okay" and let a gang of black metal satanists loose in the hallowed halls. Sick!

After the gig we spoke to the guys in the band for about 2 minutes, we met them outside the church then I ran over and grabbed Attila Csihar (who did the vocals) and asked him about the gig... what exactly was he singing about and what language was it exactly? He told us it was all in Hungarian and "some was spoken in tongues" and the lyrical content was mainly about the church being fake and it will crumble and burn, Jesus is a made up story. Things like that. Wow.


Patchie, Attila Csihar and yours truly.
After the gig we went back to our hotel room with a bunch of other guys that had traveled for the show and proceeded to get hammered on Jagermeister and vodka. Then someone said "what's the time?" and we realised it was midnight. So then we all went to the local rock club and carried on getting drunk. Norwegian prices are ridiculous though, but since they had no merchandise at the show I still had a pocketful of money to piss up the wall. We bought Guinness and talked shit for hours.

By the way, we ended up drinking in the club til about 3 or 4am, with SunnO)), In Flames and Gorgoroth. 3 metal bands, all hanging out in 1 club all at once. Really we never spoke to the 2 other bands at all, they just happened to be there. Me and Patchie ended up talking to Greg Anderson and Toz from Sunn and agreeing to go and see them when they tour in Japan in May.

We never got to bed til half 6 this morning and then I was back up to get out of the hotel room for 11am.

Other things we did:

Took stacks of touristy photos and threw Claws at monuments

Ate starnge Norwegian style pies, kinda like pancakes folded in half and filled with cheese & ham

Tried to teach European types how to speak Scouse

Drank far too much Jagermeister

Someone (no names mentioned) fell asleep in the shower for 2 hours

There's stacks more to say, but right now I am hung over and can't even begin to think straight. I had to come and sit down though, so I figured doing a bit of a blog post would straighten my brain out. Instead I am here rattling like a junkie who needs a fix, with my heart fluttering in my chest.

Schipol Post

Hello from Amsterdam. Me & Patchie are sat here at the airport (Schipol) and we've had the best luck today. Our flight to Bergen isn't til 3pm local time and it's only twenty to twelve now, so stacks of time to fill in the meantime with duty free shopping. I would think about going out into the dam properly, the red light bit and all that, but we've already pushed our luck today so we're going to be staying here in the terminal til its time to board the plane.

Our luck is officially worn out I should think; get on this - we have already missed our connecting flight to Bergen but have now had it rescheduled. The plane from Manchester to Amsterdam went without a hitch, then we got here, stopped for a cig and some pizza and to buy some booze, then made our way quickly to the gate for the next flight. When we got there it was deserted, expect for one woman in a uniform sat at the gate. I asked her where we should be for the flight to Bergen and she asked my name... when I told her it she told me (with a deadpan expression on her face) that our plane had already left.

From there we went to a transfer department and took a ticket to be seen, the current ticket being seen at the desk was 150 and our ticket was 238. So after a long wait we finally got to the front of the queue and spoke to the girls on the desk. While we waited around in the meantime we went through a whole range of emotional states, mainly disbelief about missing the connecting flight and frustration about taking time out to eat pizza when should have been giving it legs to the next plane!

When we made it to the front of the queue to have our situation resolved we kinda played it dumb and said we didn't realise we had to run from the first flight to the second... and the attendant was as cool as hell. She rescheduled our flight, got us window tickets, issued us with new boarding passes and then said "have a nice day" or something like that. Just like that, everything was sorted and it didn't cost us one penny extra. Cue the Cheshire Cat style grins that we both still are wearing on our lucky faces.

Now we are sat here in this place, nex to our gate for boarding, next to a bar (where Patchie can have a smoke), with internet access 6 euros for 30 minutes), drinking a beer and grinning at each other. The beer is Heineken and it tastes different than the stuff we get at home. Oh, we had a Guinness in Manchester this morning (because its St Paddys Day) but it never tasted good so we left them.

Really I think we should have had to pay something towards the rescheduled flights. Really. If we were at home right now I know we would of had to, England is nothing like this for helping you out when things have gone wrong.

When we get to Bergen we have to find the hotel, get our room keys, go on a hunt for Bergen Cathedral where the SunnO))) concert is happening tomorrow and generally start having a ball.

More later.