UK Tour 2010 – February 6th, Leeds UK
By: Matt Holland of Man Must Die
We arrive in Leeds technically a day early for the show. The Reading date has been cancelled so we head straight up North. We park up outside the venue behind another tour bus being used by Marduk and Anaal Nathrakh who are playing Friday night. Myself and David from MMD get a cheap hotel room for the night, as we need a wash and a rest and as there’s no show for us, we can’t use the clubs ameneties.
There’s the option of going to see the show tonight, so we head through for a while and see a bit of Marduk’s set. I wanted to see Anaal Nathrakh but missed them! I met Steve their drummer and chatted for a while, which was cool. Marduk were ok, nice fast drumming but Black Metal really isn’t my thing. I lost interest quickly and headed to the hotel for a good sleep. Most of the Polish guys stay out, as they are friends with Marduk’s crew.
Next day is gig day and I feel pretty good. Load in is quick as we’re right outside the venue. Rio’s is a pretty decent venue and Adam gets the PA sounding great. There’s a local support so we only get chance to set up our gear and wait to get a quick line check before we play. I get a good 20 minutes after the support band set up to warm up on the kit, which actually works out better than a soundcheck for me.
When we get up to play we get a line check and monitor mix from Adam and he leaves it for the local soundman to ‘Babysit’ as he calls it. Well, the soundguy decides he’s bored and plays with our monitor mix which completely screws us up. We have to really concentrate to get used to it and it makes for a pretty frustrating show for myself. We still play tightly and the guys do a great job out front. We get one of the best receptions we’ve had and just make a note to be vigilant with local crews in the future.
I had been talking to Max from Kataklysm that day and he uses an in-ear monitor system with a mixer for putting in an ipod with click tracks alongside his trigger mix. This is something I’m seriously considering after tonight’s trial.
There’s a rock club after the show and as we can’t load out before it shuts, we stay and drink whilst dancing to Bon Jovi ans Kiss… Seriously.
Load out is a strange affair with most of us being worse the wear for drink. We’re parked on a narrow one way street on a hill and have to stop traffic to get the flight cases up to the trailer.
One problem being that we’re boxed in each end by cars and we need to move forward to free up the trailer door. It’s decided that the front car will have to move so led by me, Danny and Davy from MMD we lift the back end of the car and bounce it 6 feet down the hill… .
We’re back on the bus by 3:30am and leave shortly after for Wrexham.
Cheers Guys, speak soon,
Matt
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