Helsinki begins the toughest part of the tour-a five day stretch of back to back shows, a few of which without our crew due to distance. The tour was planned with some unfortunate back-tracks (St. Petersburg is only a few hundred kilometers from Helsinki), and having our vans drive around Europe is simply not cost effective. So we were on our own for this one.
As we made our way around the hotel and venue, we were greeted by friendly people everywhere. Even on a late-night trip for some desperately needed chap stick, we met an extremely friendly guy running the convenience store counter. Those guys are usually grumpy (I had that job once)! Turns out that the happiest people in the world live in Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Not sure why but it’s easy to follow suit!
The venue in Finland was an arena that doubled as a hockey rink. It’d been there for a long time and the back hallways were decorated with hundreds of concert posters from years past (including a 14 year old poster of the Backstreet Boys in red silk suits). It’s where Teemu Seläane got his start in hockey (he later played for my home team, Colorado Avalanche) and our green room was a hockey locker room. It works!
I’d love to stick around and explore more of Helsinki but it is off to the next place early the next morning. We got a little breakfast at the hotel and made our way to the airport to head off to Stavanger, Norway for a show that night. Let’s go!!!
