UK Tour 2010 – February 8th, Islington UK
By: Matt Holland of Man Must Die
Final show of the tour and there’s an air of anticipation when we arrive at the O2 in Islington. This will be the biggest crowd of the week and there will be reps from Nuclear Blast and Relapse present, not to mention Jackson guitars, so we’re all "amped" to play well. Kataklysm have been on the road for over a month now and are ready to finish up and go home. Julia, the merch girl is especially anxious to get away from living with a bunch of sweaty men..! The bus is really starting to smell awful and could do with a serious fumigation…
A few of the guys have friends and girlfriends visiting for the show so there’s a good atmosphere backstage and everyone is in high spirits.
It’s an altogether more-pro affair with a separate loading bay with a lift and crew to help us in. We get in and are shown to our own dressing rooms and get some food. All bands get a soundcheck and wait for the show.
We have a couple of interviews to complete before the show and Alan and Joe take care of these, which free’s me up to get some exercises done.
Because the bands have separate rooms, we don’t get to hang out as much we have done which is a down point, though we do get the odd visit from some of the guys before we play.
There’s a good crowd in when we go on, although they’re not the most responsive. We play a good tight set though we just can’t seem to get the crowd going and that takes the shine off the night slightly. Kataklysm have a good response but the night belongs to Decapitated. It’s their crowd and they play brilliantly. They seem to have pulled out all the stops to make this show the one that counts.
At the end of the night we all catch up and say our goodbyes and we leave the others on the bus for them to go to the airport the next morning. We have our friend from Glasgow to take us back home straight after load out.
So the tour is finished. We’ve played some great shows, made some new fans, drank a bit too much, slept a bit too little, met some amazing people and made some good friends along the way. There really isn’t much more I could ask for from a tour.
Until next time…
Matt
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