TRISTANIA tour 2008

TRISTANIA Issue Tour Update; Guitarist Backs Out At The Last Minute

TRISTANIA's male vocalist Østen Bergøy has checked in from the band's jaunt to the Wave Gotik Treffen in Germany followed by the kick-off of their South American tour with the following diary updates:

May 8th:
"Dear fans and friends of Tristania. After a turbulent year with injured drummers and runaway female singers we thought that our worst struggles belonged to the past. It is with regrets I must announce that we were wrong.

Putting a last hand on the preparations for WGT and the upcoming tour in Latin America, we learned that Svein Terje (Solvang/guitars) had decided to jump the ship. The timing could not be worse, because it was way too late to replace him for the upcoming shows. I am not sure concerning the reasons – I hope for his own sake that they are valid. I love Svein Terje like a brother, but I must admit that this feels like being stabbed in the back. However, we will do the tour with Anders as the only guitarist. Not an ideal situation, but we will make it work. The rest of us are eager to get out there and play our songs for you.

WGT is a festival that brings good memories and the return to Chile, Brazil and Mexico is something that we have been looking forward to for a long time. And finally we get to visit Argentina.

On behalf of the band I would like to say that we are ready and eager to get out there!

When we find time, we will post our impressions and thoughts about the tour here and maybe some pics as well. Feel free to comment and ask questions on the way. Our plane leaves from Stavanger at 0600 a.m on Friday.

Take care."


May 10th:
"After being ripped off by the airport personel at Sola airport, Stavanger (due to too much and too heavy luggage), we finally got on the plane that was going to take us to Frankfurt. The first flight of many these upcoming days. There was a noisy German business-man in the seat behind me who was cracking jokes and laughing loud. I hate early flights, and I hate loudness at 6 in the morning.

From Frankfurt, we got another flight to Leipzig and when we arrived at the airport, we missed one bag, but the most important part of the gear was all there. We checked into the hotel, and could finally get some sleep. The hotel is the same as we stayed in when we played WGT a couple of years ago.

The show started around 9.30pm, and I think the crowd was quite slow in the beginning - but through the set they were really loosening up. It was strange to be on stage without Svein Terje beside me, but I guess we will all just have to get used to this.

I think the show went well, the stage sound was good, and the crowd was friendly. Thank you to those of you who took the time to see our show.
These are the songs we played:
'Libre',
'Shadowman',
'Angellore',
'Mercyside',
'The Wretched',
'Down',
'Beyond The Veil',
'World Of Glass'.

We are all looking forward to the next shows. Today is a day off, which means sleeping and drinking and maybe seeing a few shows at the festival.

Take care everybody."

Tristania's schedule is now as follows:

May
14 - Teatro Flores - Buenos Aires, Argentina
16 - Hellooch - Curitiba, Brazil
17 - AVR Festival - São Paulo, Brazil
19 - El Huevo - Valparaiso, Chile
20 - Novedades - Santiago, Chile
21 - Sala 2 - Concepcion, Chile
23 - Ibex - Monterrey, Mexico
25 - Hard Rock Live - Mexico City, Mexico

July
12 - Masters Of Rock - Vizovice, Czech Republic

TRISTANIA Check In From South American Tour


TRISTANIA's male vocalist Østen Bergøy has checked in from the band's South American tour with the following diary updates:

May 14:
"Hi again, everybody.

After several long flights: Leipzig-Frankfurt, Frankfurt-Mexico city, Mexico city-Sao-Paulo, Sao Paulo-Buenos Aires, we are finally able to write you some words. At the moment, we are preparing for our first ever show in Argentina. Needless to say, we are all exited about the show tonight. I love the city and wish we had more time to explore it, but that is one of the sides of being on tour that there is nothing to do about as we are off again tomorrow morning. Soundcheck is in 90 minutes, and tonight there will be an impressive 5 (!) local support bands. Most likely, we will not get to see much of their shows, as our own scheduel is quite tight. But I can mention their names: EVA, ANGEL TEARS, LUZABRIL, ENCHAINED SOULS and BLOODPARADE.

We met our tour manager AC in Mexico city - he also tour-managed the tour we did with KREATOR three years ago. He was just finishing a long Latin American tour with HELLOWEEN. And a few of us went to see the last part of their concert. Some of us met them after the show, and they turned out to be brilliant guys.

Anyway, now we have to leave for soundcheck. Thank you for your time, and as soon as we can, we will be back with our experiences from tonight's show.

All the best for you."


May 16:
"Gracias, Buenos Aires!

We have finally started the musical part of our tour here in South America, and our first show in Buenos Aires was one of our best ever. The crowd definatly knew how to have a good time at a concert. This kind of shows is what it is all about, it makes the travelling and the hard work worth the effort. We did 'Sacrilege' live for the first time ever - one of the most challenging live songs we have played.

It is nice to notice the the new songs work well live, (the old ones too, of course) and that the audience Wednesday night seemed to enjoy listening to them as much as we did playing them. It is also a pleasure to play a long set as a headlining band, to give our fans the full treatment. Thank you again, wonderful people of Buenos Aires. We really hope we can come back soon.

Setlist: 'Libre', 'Sacrilege', 'Circus', 'The Ravens', 'Angina', 'World Of Glass', 'Shadowman', 'Lotus', 'Down', 'Tender Trip On Earth', 'Mercyside', 'Beyond The Veil', 'The Shining Path .. The Wretched', 'Angellore'.

After the show, we were invited to a WHITESNAKE aftershow party (they were playing that night as well), and most of us went.

Yesterday was a travelday, and now we are back in Curitiba, Brazil. We did a show with Kreator here a few years back. Can't wait to play for our Brazilian fans again! Brazilians like their metal.

Now we have to leave for soundcheck. We'll be back with more updates as soon as we are able to.

Take care."

Tristania's schedule is now as follows:

May
17 - AVR Festival - São Paulo, Brazil
19 - El Huevo - Valparaiso, Chile
20 - Novedades - Santiago, Chile
21 - Sala 2 - Concepcion, Chile
23 - Ibex - Monterrey, Mexico
25 - Hard Rock Live - Mexico City, Mexico

July
12 - Masters Of Rock - Vizovice, Czech Republic