02.03.2007 – Kofmehl, (SO) / 03.03.2007 – Fri-Son, (FR)

After our concert history during the past 9 years, the first weekend of March 2007 brought something really special to us. We got the chance to play two support shows with the amazing band Stone Sour.

After having a boring start of the day at work, I left at noon to head towards our rehearsal room.

Goran, Damian and myself stuffed the equipment into our rental bus and started the engine to ride to the first venue, the Kofmehl in Solothurn.

We arrived there on time and got in contact with the local crew straight away. We got a sightseeing through the club and spent the time waiting for action.

Patrick and Michael and our crew with Yves (sound), Melanie (fotos) and Sascha (backliner) arrived after a while as well.

After Stone Sour had a very loud sound check (107dB), we got set up on stage as well for our sound check.

Actually, the stage was very small, since the drum riser of Roy Mayorga was huge. But we found a way to handle that and even dealed with just one (!!!) monitor line for the whole band.

After a delicious meal we went upstaurs to our backstage area to get dressed for the stage. When we looked outised the window, the amount of people outside was unbelievable.

We entered the stage at 9.30pm with “Smashing Ride” and the crowd was with us during our whole 30 minutes set.

We had a lot of fun on stage and a very good sound as well……and we played a hell of a show for the sold out show of 900 people.

After a very quick changeover, Stone Sour entered the stage with a blast. The just kicked ass for 80 minutes, incredible how much energie this band has.

We found a spot to watch the show and went outside during the encores to spread our postcards to our new fans.

We got drunk and gave our cards and stickers to almost everyone. Sadly, we didn’t saw Stone Sour backstage at all, since the backstage areas where splitted from the beginning.

At around 2am, we finally decided to get our equipment into the bus again, even the rain hasn’t stopped.

We went to our hotel in Solothurn for a very confortable night…..and this was just the beginning…….

The next day, we had to leave the hotel at noon. The band looked really fresh, except Michael, who looked like he slept under a truck. Since every single one of us where very hungry, we headed for the golden arch, which was pretty close to the hotel.

After the usual crappy burgers, the journey to Fribourg begun. Our get in was 6pm, but we just wanted to go there as quick as possible and see what we can do there.

We arrived at the venue at around 2pm and where very surprised about the size. The Fri-Son is huge and fits around 1400 people.

We got a very warm welcome by Mario, the booker of the Fri-Son, who showed us around. The Stone Sour crew was already working since hours. The day before, we got an invitation to visit the H.R. Giger museum in Gruyere together with Stone Sour, which we couldn’t reject at all.

Andrea and Christoph of the Musikvertrieb organised a bus for this incredible journey.

In the end, the group was Melanie, Damian, Andrea, Christoph, Josh of Stone Sour and myself. After a very special ride to Gruyere, we arrived there save.

Gruyere is very tiny town on the hills. It looks like in a book and in the middle….the museum.

We entered Mr Gigers world of insanity to watch his illusions and visions of the future and his Alien and Species models.

Josh had to be back at 5.45pm for his soundcheck, so we went for a drink after the museum and back to the venue.

Today, we shared the backstage area with Stone Sour, so it was very easy for us to chat with the guys.

The whole band and crew was very nice to us and it made everything easier for us as well. Damian even got the chance to sit on Roys huge drum set.

After our soundcheck (this time, we all had our own monitor line) we where very hungry. The dinner we got was amazing. Thank you very much to the kitchen crew, delicious.

The doors opened at 9pm so there was plenty of time to relax and chat with Stone Sour.

At 9.45pm was our time to rock. We played the same set as the day before and as tight as well. Actually, every single one of us did something wrong, but the crowd didn’t realised that. Since my bro Sascha wasn’t able to help us out as a backliner, our friend Rejhan jumped into the slot and was a huge help as well.

I got rid of almost all my guitar picks, since the first row (mostly cute girls) where anxious to get them.

After another quick changeover we stuffed the bus with our stuff to enjoy Stone Sour on stage again and get ready for an amazing after show parts.

Stone Sour kicked ass again as usual with an incredible performance. The last three songs, Patrick, myself and Damian watched the show from the monitor desk, which was very amusing as well.

After both bands did their jobs, the fun started. Melanie was so nice and offered to drive back to the hotel, so Damian and myself had the chance to get wasted.

What happened afterwards couldn’t be described in words, it was just incredible and funny as hell.

Corey, Roy and Jim where all in a very good mood and we couldn’t stop laughing.

The only people who weren’t able to laugh where the two groupie girls…I guess, they just didn’t understood the jokes, so they left…sorry girls, but it was our night….

Josh turned into our hero, when he came in a told us, they could stay additional 30 minutes. Meanwhile, Jim was doing a lot of jokes on an Austrian girl with huge…..no, really…..huge tits.

At 3.30pm, Stone Sour had to leave to Stuttgart, so this was a very quick end of an amazing weekend for us.

After another confortable sleep in a hotel in Fribourg, we decided to have a very nice fondue, since Fribourg has very delicious cheese. This was one of our best decisions ever and a very nice end of our mini tour with Stone Sour.

I would like to send out a huge thank you to Corey, Roy, Jim, Josh and Shawn of Stone Sour for two incredible nights, Gazza for making it real, the whole Stone Sour crew, Andrea and Christoph from Musikvertrieb for a very nice trip to Gruyere, Melanie, Sascha, Yves, Rejhan, Fabian for the huge support on and off stage. Pascal and the whole Kofmehl crew, Mario and the whole Fri-Son crew and of course my brothers in rock, my band mates Damian, Patrick, Goran and Michael…..let this be the beginning and not an end.

- Pat