There was nothing to indicate that tonight's show was going to be anything other than a nightmare. It was mean cold from the time of our arrival and the club management at Rio's were real scumbags and basically attempted to extort money from the tour package for standard amenities. They didn't have anyone present to help cart all the gear up the stairs and they jerked us around about just about everything. Combined with another night of low presales, we weren't looking forward to the show in any respect. Gorgoroth had a lot of problems with sound check so the whole show started almost an hour late and we all had to cut our sets shorter. Rio's is one of those clubs that turns into a disco room the minute the live show is over, so we had a tight cut off time. We were feeling hurried and reticent to face what we expected would be a thin audience. Imagine my surprise when we marched out on stage to a full house. We ended up bashing out a superb set and the crowd carried our energy with no reservations. It was brilliant, plain and simple. Gaahl said that he enjoyed the particularly angry sound we had tonight. I cannot count the times we came into a situation like this where we were expecting nothing but letdowns and it turned into an excellent evening. All the same, it's not a lot of fun getting to that point. Gorgoroth went over huge but due to the time constraints of the club they had to play a truncated set. This went over badly with some punters in attendance and they gathered outside in an angry cluster demanding answers. They finally realized Gorgoroth wasn't about to answer for it and took off.Take it up with Rio's, kiddos. We're in the center of a large club district so I wandered up the street and ended up being stopped here and there by random folks who wanted to quiz me about where I was from and the like. I'm always wary in places like this; it's hard to tell if it is a ruse for a mugging or some other hooliganism. I ended up getting some of the most disgusting kebab ever and then hung out on the icy bus with various band personnel. It was not an easy night, but it was a good one in the end.
PS We ended up trapped in front of the venue by a car parked to close to the bus' front end. Iain of Artisian and The Carcass went out and tried to wrench it out of the way. The fact that they even managed to hoist it on their own was impressive. It still didn't grant us passage but finally the bemused owner showed up to move it. Not a moment too soon. This bus is getting pretty zoological with drunks now.
