European Tour Diary: Day 5 - Oslo, Norway

Fail plain miserably due to not really being able to sleep and pretty much have to go straight to the venue. Really cool place though, the Rockefeller, and we’re all excited to play again after a few days off. It’s only really now that the tour begins properly! 28 dates after tonight I think. Seems like a lifetime. When we get there, we are amazed to find that three Norwegian fans have come and have been waiting for us with some presents. We can’t believe it, and we hang out and take some pictures and chat for a while. Norway and Sweden seem pretty strict on age restrictions and tonight’s show is an 18+, so they can’t get in which really sucks. I try to figure out a way to do it but as a support act we don’t really have much weight so sadly we can’t make it happen but they hang outside for a while anyway and we talk. Next time guys, I promise, and thank you so much for coming to say hi, and the Norwegian chocolate.

We set up, and I leave the guys to sound check while I go to do another radio interview, on my own this time, for Radio Tango, Norway’s rock station. I get taken by cab (check me out) to the station and go up to the15th floor where I’m to do the interview. The view is immense, and it looks like mountains and rivers snaking off to the horizon in different directions surround Oslo. Pretty stunning stuff. Unfortunately, since I had my phone stolen in London a few weeks before, I have nothing to take pictures with so you’ll just have to take my word for it.

The interview with a lovely Norwegian woman called Marie is fun and easy enough, and I head back to the venue to get ready. The venue fills and we play our set. It’s fun, but the crowd do seem a little muted tonight, at least for us. That’s understandable, most people probably have no idea who we are, and people just want to see Danko Jones so it’s to be expected, but we give it all we got and make some new friends in the end.

It’s Ben’s birthday at the stroke of 12 we go for just a quiet few drinks, and plan to go out properly once we go back to Sweden tomorrow. We walk back to the hotel and pass out.

-Gus.

European Tour Diary: Day 4 - Day Off in Oslo, Norway

We wake up, sore headed but excited to start our first travel day in Europe. We’re on our way to the capital of Norway. Being half Norwegian but never having been there, I’m really excited but also completely unsure of what to expect. Will I feel some kind of homecoming sensation? Will I feel a kinship and a connection with this place I’ve never even been to before? I highly doubt it, but nevertheless part of me kind of hopes that will be the case.



We leave Stockholm and make our way across Sweden. The scenery on our journey is breathtaking, and though it’s not Norway it’s still Scandinavia and it feels good seeing this world I imagined all my life for real. Rolling hills and mountains, lakes and rivers, and fir tree forests lining the roads. We all want to get out so we stop the van in a remote area, climb up the bank on the side of the road and make our way through the wood to a beautiful still lake to skip stones, take pictures, and just generally absorb a bit of this amazing countryside. It really is amazing, but fucking cold! We lark around for a while by the lake and get back on with the journey, and arrive in Oslo quite late at night.

Tonight we are staying in what is basically a set of hostel rooms, which are basically a corridor with bunk beds and a sink. This is okay though, we’ve been in places like this plenty of times before, and the novelty of actually being able to stay in hotels/hostels and not on friends/acquaintances/strangers’ floors hasn’t worn off so it’s all good. We are pretty broke and Scandinavia is REALLY expensive, so we pop into the centre to see if we can eat some dinner for cheap. We walk past a cool looking venue and find out that one of my favourite new bands, a Norwegian punk/black metal/rock band called Kvelertak have just finished playing. Gutted! I keep missing these guys, missed them at Reading, at the Camden Underworld with Converge, and now all the way over here in Oslo. We find a junk food place and eat back at the room.

We are staying in the red light-ish area of Oslo and there are people around even though it’s pretty late. The area is a bit sketchy but kind of cool but we are all pretty exhausted so we split up into our two rooms and get into our beds. I later learn that Ben got stuck in the communal toilet for a while which amuses us no end. Our room is myself, John, Dave and Emre so I drift off while Emre reads and John and Dave skype each other for no reason at all. Plan to get up early and see some of the city.

-Gus.