Matt Holland – Man Must Die – Tour Blog #4

UK Tour 2010 – February 4th, Bristol UK
By: Matt Holland of Man Must Die

We arrive in Bristol early and everyone except me, Joe from Man Must Die, Julia the merch girl and Adam the sound guy are dying from a hangover. We go and find some breakfast and wait for load in. It’s like a scene from Dawn Of The Dead when we all start loading in and it’s good entertainment (in a sick way) to see all the guys who partied too hard the night before suffering…

The Beirkeller is a good venue set up like a Bavarian beer hall with long benches on the floor and a high stage with a drum riser. Soundcheck is good and we look forward to a good set.

The venue fills up nice and early and there are quite a few members of bands present who we know and it’s great to catch up. There are guys from Trigger the Bloodshed, Traces and The Rotted who we hang out with most of the evening.

All bad show demons are exorcised and we play a blinder of a show. We have a good backstage area which we share with Decapitated and get a good warmup and stretch while just talking through the set and mentally preparing to give a good performance. Everything is killer, onstage sound, tightness and playing. We get a great crowd reaction and are energised knowing we’re back to fighting strength.

Kataklysm get the crowd going and Decapitated are on fire tonight, Kerim seems to be getting more confident with every show and it can be seen in his playing. He really is going to be a major force on the extreme drumming scene.

We load out and see there’s a nightclub next door, a few of the guys get slightly distracted by Bristol’s daughters tottering past in high heels and it takes a bit longer than usual.

The show in reading has been cancelled so we’re heading straight up to Leeds for the next show on Saturday. Bus call is 2am so we have time for a beer with some staff from the venue in a nearby pub, where apparently Lacuna Coil are drinking after their show. We don’t see them although Joe suggests we find them and beat them up as they’re not as metal as us. This is good Glaswiegan justice.

Luckily for the Americans we head back for bus call and hit the road North. With a day off in the cards I can have a few drinks and enjoy some whisky given to us by Decapitated. Heinrich and Ralph from the band join me and we chat into the small hours.

Northward we roll…..

Matt