Reporting to you from the ultimate Heavy Romantic Love Metal tour
We are into week 2 of the H.I.M - Monster Magnet - Auf der Maur tour, and I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!! The big celebration started day 2 of the tour in Philadelphia! There was some real living life to its fullest times with H.I.M and the BAM/ Bloodhound Gang types. Late night, lot's of laughs, patient parents, a crazy house with a skate ramp driveway and plenty of Heartagrams to go around. The Philly meets Finland connection is an odd combo, and somehow I connected with both these camps separately in the past year, so in addition to that unlikely pairing, count me in! The Canadian girl is in!!!! Next, two nights at Irving Plaza in NYC came and went, some chaos there, but we made it through with smiles and dancing.
Pittsburgh, the Iron City, home Andy Warhol and a real deal rock town with cool bridges, was last night, I met lots of new ears that discovered my sounds last night. We hadnÕt played Philly proper yet. So friends were made there. Now we are off to the original Rock city, Detroit! We have had the pleasure to play there 3 or more times this year! Every time makes me happy.
Mid West is here. and we played the best show of the tour, so far, in Chicago. One of my musical spiritual homes. The people there were so supportive and wonderful and the beautiful Riviera theatre looked and sounded great! I love Chicago and The Pumpkins........... Next begin to head West................ The rest is set in the west....Let me tell you about the phenomenon from Finland called H.I.M; to begin with they are wonderful people. So gracious and enthusiastic to have us in their world. Real music lovers and hailing from northern isolation. Which in addition to their viking nature gives them a slightly out of this world glow. Which is reflected in there dedicated and devoted fan base. I have not seen anything like it before. I saw glimpses when touring with nine inch nails and Marilyn Manson in the 90's, the romanticism and gothic intensity, but those bands were huge! and every one and their mother had heard of them. H.I.M. are huge in europe, but have close to no support here from radio or magazines. What they do have is the hypnotic symbol as a logo; the Heartagram, (part heart part pentagram, reflecting the duality and ultimate truth in life; heaven and hell together forever), a wild skater and avid supporter called BAM with his own TV show, heavy riffs combined with heavy love songs and a whole lot of LOVE METAL to pass around. This has inspired people across the country to buy every wearable version of this logo (t-shirts, belt buckles, necklaces, scarves, hats.....), one out of five has it tattooed, and in a time of low ticket sale tours, they buy up all the tickets way in advance to our arrival. Now that is Magic. It has been amazing to be apart of this and witness this new emerging subculture come together. Thank you to those new ears we have entered along the way, and it has been great to see the familiar faces at the shows again.
Our year of touring is coming to an end, and I look forward to begin work on my next album this winter......a time of rest is coming, so this H.I.M. tour is the last blow out for awhile!!!!
Live Life to its Fullest, and I will too.