Chapter IX

For the next 2 gigs we'd planned to at least play a few songs with our drum tech, Damon filling in for Lopez. He knew some of the mellow "Damnation". In Calgary we did like 5 songs with him. For the Vancouver gig our tour manager suggested that we'd bring someone in for us to be able to play a longer set + some heavy songs.

I was immediately turning that idea down as there's not a chance somebody could learn any of our songs during a day. Anyways, I was talked into it, and perhaps I felt it's worth a try. I wasn't even sure that Lopez would show up at all! We called up the mountain of a man, Gene Hoglan from Strapping young lad. He lived in Vancouver and everybody knows he's a terrific drummer + nice guy and...on top of that, one of Martin Lopez drum heroes! Gene said "Alright daddy!" in 10 seconds after we'd asked him to help us out.

Now, he came down to the venue round lunch time (for normal people, that is!). We gave him a walkman with a wish for him to listen and learn how to play at least 1 song. By sound check 3 hours later he'd learned and also flawlessly played "The drapery falls" and "Demon of the fall". That guy is a genius! It took me 2 weeks to learn the "Smoke on the water" lick properly! Anyways, that show was legendary I feel. We all felt out of place due to Lopez's absence, but playing with Gene was great and definitely a unique Opeth happening! The crowd went insane when I introduced him on stage. By the side was Devin Townsend and his girl watching, probably thinking we're going to try and steal Gene for the rest of the tour. But, luckily, by the time we hit Seattle, Lopez came back, happier than I've seen him in a long time. The doctor had actually diagnosed him with a condition that's inherited and one that his father, Washington had suffered from too. He'd recieved some medication too. Quite honestly, I don't think I've ever seen him happier!

It's no secret that we'd had difficulties recording the last 2 albums, but also everything past that had been plagued by personal problems and other stuff that wasn't bringing us closer but rather further apart.

But now, we'd left that behind us and as a result I feel we felt more connected with each other than perhaps, ever before! A great tour! The support bands were great people too! We had heaps of fun with them and our best wishes go out to them! I felt bad for Devil driver at times as some people in the crowd were mocking them. I thought they we're quite heavy and didn't think of them as a nu-metal band at all. And believe me...I HATE nu metal!!

Coming back home was especially great as we knew this was our last long tour for quite some time. We all felt exhausted but also slightly down/sad. Touring is something you gotta experience to know exactly what it's like. When you're touring you can't wait to come back home. But very soon, you start itching to go back out again. I guess this lifestyle has become what we are! We had a short break before our official last tour.

The rescheduled tour for one of our favourite countries in the world, Australia! I was really anxious to go back there and play but also to spend some weeks with my wife. We'd planned a 2 week holiday that officially was our honeymoon. Almost one year after our actual wedding.

This tour was fantastic! We are getting a seriously big fan base in Oz, and every gig was fantastic! We started out in Adelaide. The night before we decided to drink...really to get wasted! We emptied all the mini bars at the hotel. Fighting about whether Yngwie Malmsteen is writing evil music or not. Suddenly Per got this great idea. He wanted to see what happened if he dropped a chair from the 12th floor. The Martins were sleeping but we were in their room, the rest of us. Per dropped one chair, and 12 floors down it smashed into pieces. Then I dropped another, also smashing it to bits.

Then came the notion of "what the fuck are we doing?". We're grown up men, not some problematic small kids. I was very nervous that we'd be fined or even arrested. I mean, it's quite dangerous dropping chairs off the balcony like that. As we're checking out the receptionist said something like "Didn't you guys like the chairs on the balcony?", very ironic she was. We ended up paying 50 Australian dollars per chair, which really was way less than I'd expected. In retrospect I almost feel it was worth it. Seeing them chairs smash to pieces was a great sight! Wouldn't do it again though! Or???

Sydney is a fantastic city! The gig there was amazing. I think we pulled almost 2000 people to the gig at the Enmore theatre. Marvellous!! As the tour had ended (2 nights in Melbourne), me and my wife flew back to Sydney and spent a week there. After that we had a week on a sunny tropical island called Hamilton island off the east coast of the mainland. All I can say (again) is fantastic!!

We'd officially completed our last tour. The only gigs remaining were 2 festival appearances. One at the Download festival at Donington park/UK + at the (great!) Sweden rock festival.