Raphael Saini Tour Blog 9/28/09

Raphael Saini Tour Blog 9/28/09

What’s up guys? Raphael from Chaoswave here… the tour is continuing and my legs are suffering a little bit due to some triggering problems when I played with Evergrey’s drumkit (i am hitting those bass drums like a maniac to make the drumtrigger work properly),

We played a gig in Cluj Napoca and we(Chaoswave) had only 20 minutes of show due to many problems, I didn’t have the time to warm up… some days I feel like I am not going to make it due to all the problems we have, but I am lucky because even if I am tired i feel stronger then ever (I made some good practice before leaving for the tour). The day before cluj napoca we basically travelled a LOT, imagine all the day sitting in the tour bus and playing Playstation…after a while it just get SUPER BORING.

For those wondering what I did before the tour: I just played like a maniac trying to push my endurance at the highest level. Iit was not about speed (I was playing around 200, 210 not any faster) but about keeping the single stroke rolls going for minutes with the maximum volume…with the feet also!
This is something really important for me because a lot of times I just don’t have the right backline to make the drums sound as I would like so basically I try to have the highest volume on my own.

Even if I use triggers on the bass drums I try to have a lot of motion on the beater avoiding to "tap" the bassdrums, in my opinion triggers just have to give a more punchy sound but will not help you with your low volume problems. Triggers can be dangerous and make you forget "how to play a bassdrum".
Some weeks before the tour I had an Elbow problem… my right elbow was hurting a little bit, so I did some changes on my set and I changed my sticks (I am using bigger sticks, POwer 5b)…I also started doing a lot of stretching before the shows, expecially I’m stretching my right arm. Until now I had no problems, let’s hope things will keep staying like this!

Regarding the gear for this tour I am using a drumkit provided by Drumcraft (22×2, 12, 13, 16 and a snare 14×6,5" Huge!), I have two Alesis D4 modules (cheap but they work very well when triggering bass drums!) I also have all the stuff that I endorse: my Meinl cymbals(see kit pic for details), my Axis A-L pedals,my Staff drum triggers, my powerclick monitor (so many times he saved my life!) and also I am using my new urban boards shoes (Dennis chambers signaure model) that are very confortable…I use them all the time even when I’m not playing.

I forgot to tell you that in Hungary I had the chance to meet a great drummer: Gergo BorlaI, He is also a fantastic person and I am happy to have it as a new friend!Gergo is also a MEINL endorser, check his videos and see what this guy can do! We spent few hours talking about drums, gear and so on… When you meet a drummer like him, you have always a great time!

After the show in cluj Napoca i woke up in the morning and something not so cool happened… the trailer lost weel and….we stopped 10 km from Budapest waiting from help. The trailer lost one the back weels and it looked like the Titanic going underwater! We spent all the day at the repair station waiting for some replacement parts to arrive.

we left the rapair station at 1 in the morning… it was a very long and boring day! This morning we woke up at the border: "Show your passports please…"
Another long trip to Croatia, we are playing playstation like we never did before… don’t really know how many hours we spend with GTA or Fifa09!

In Croatia we had a great time… We all were impressed by the number of wonderful girls at the venue: it looked like a fashion catwalk! We played for the 1st time on this tour "Blackened" by Metallica and the crowd went crazy! I was impressed by a girl in the 1st row that was playing perfect air drumming during the song! After the show I met her and she told me that she was a drummer too and she knew how to play that song… she played such a good air drumming that I truly believe she can do it!

One other thing that really impressed me was that few guys in the crowd knew my name and they were screaming it after Chaoswave’s show… those kind of things really makes me happy, I am not used to it… they know the name of the singers (expecially the name of Giorgia) but nobody outside Italy never screamed my name during a gig.

Tomorrow we’ll be in Italy… can’t wait to be there!
See you soon!