Day fucking four teen(s) [:Seattle-Portland:]

Finally a late check out and a relatively short drive. Haven't had one of those since the East Coast, I'm sure. If I didn't fuck up, it would have been even nicer. I bloody woke up at 0830 am and couldn't get back to sleep, but had a decent night sleep anyway; definitely better than sleeping in the van. At least I got time to download some shit on my new iPad, like iKaossilator and iElectribe. Fun stuff!

I am sorry guys, but I feel the blog posts are getting more and more predictable and boring, but that reflects some of the days on the tour. This might ruin your image of the glamorous life on tour, but that's the way it is somtimes, especially when the cities are far away from each other. That being said, it is fucking glamorous, actually so glamorous we cannot depict it in this blog :-P And when you leave some ofthat shit out, what you are left with is basically: woke up, drove, loaded in, waited for show, performed, packed down, drove off (then repeat).

The merch sales are low; trying new strategies

Traffic

I'll just continue the story, boring or not. So, hit the traffic into Portland. Chris' girlfriend Erica joined us in Seattle and was now riding with us in the van to Portland, and she'd brought all kinds of goodies from Europe: salty licorice, dark chocolate and all kinds of sweets :-) Got to the Fez or whatever the venue in Portland was called, and we were deeply surprised how tacky the venue looked. There were beds everywhere, and it did look like the place where everyone would just smoke weed and get into a massive orgy. I bet there was quite a lot of weed going round, but the orgy never happened.

Icon on a Coil

On arrival mr. Tom Edwards surprised us with a couple of awesome gifts, more specifically a metal cut-out reading Icon of Coil and the one and only Icon on a Coil. Nice work, man! THat was creative and very much appreciated! We found many uses for them already in Portland, but we are definitely bringing them back to the studio in Atlanta!

The Fez was another one of those places where the backstage area is just behind the curtains behind the stage. This makes it hard to talk and relax and really stresses me out, but having a huge dildo backstage helped :-p Those of you who were attedning the Portland show did probably notice that the dildo made an appearance on stage during the last part of our show. I think it did a good job as stand in for Sebastian, although it could never beat the real Komor! Then two words about the Portland crowd: fucking awesome! They nearly tore down the stage to have us do an encore, and after the encore the promotor had to go on stage and say a few words so that they didn't totally destroyed the place.

Casi showing off

So we headed out after loading the van and drove off to San Francisco, one of the drives we all have dreaded for quite some time. As I am sitting here writing, we are still more than 100 miles outside SF, tired and ready for an off day in LA on Thursday. I hope and expect SF and DNA Lounge to be a good show, but I really cannot wait to get to LA and meet up with a friend of mine from Fredrikstad, my hometown, who has moved to Marina del Rey, for some beach life, relaxing and good time. But before that there is San Francisco on Wednesday, and then bbq in Hollywood Hills on Thursday. Good having something to look forward to when you are dead tired in a van with people throwing up and shitting themselves. Yes, you heard me! Some pieces of clothing just do not survive a tour like this and have to be put to eternal rest at a hotel or in the ditch somewhere along the road.

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is forever IOC. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom IOC bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, their waste to love, their boxers to roam;
A body of IOC's, breathing Norwegian air,
Washed by the waters, blest by Taco Bell.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by IOC given;
Their sights and sounds; beats hard as their day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under a Norwegian heaven.

Freely from Rupert Brookes "The Soldier"