Cause For Effect - Germany tour 1.-12.10.2003 together with Gorilla Monsoon

Actually it all started in summer 2002 when Virulence, American grind/jazz
band contacted me and asked us to join their European tour in September
2002. We said yes but all the time it felt like it came too soon. So we had
to cancel it because of personal reasons. Later I heard that Virulence also
cancelled and splitted up because of it. That's very sad because they made
very good and interesting music.

Half year later in spring 2003 I took contact to Karsten who runs
noisepoint.net [http://www.noisepoint.net] (linkittää ton noisepointin
osoiteen). Noisepoint is a small DIY label that organizes gigs and tours and
tries to support bands they feel worth supporting, mostly German bands from
their sachsen area but also some finnish bands also. Like Cause For Effect.
Karsten answered immediately and and after 2 emails, we had a tour!

Half year later in end of September we were ready to go. Karsten was in
Finaland because he likes this country and we drove by his car all the way
to Germany and used it thru the tour and back to Finland. Volkswagen Passat
was very trustful car.

Tuesday, September 30, 2003.

Ferry from Turku to Stockholm. After two hours
driving from Tampere we arrived in Turku and went to ferry. There we met
hardcore band Manifesto Jukebox,
http://www.combatrockindustry.com/manifestojukebox/ (linkitys) guys and they
borrowed their cabin for our stuff since we didn't have own cabin. We went
to the bar and started to discuss and make ourselves familiar to each other.
Very soon we discovered that even Karsten is german, he has character of a
finn. He joked dry finnish humour and understood us perfectly. After few
beers the clock was so much that we had to find a place to sleep because of
early awakening. We woke up Manifesto guys with excuse me and took our
stuff. We didn't have a cabin but luckily we found one empty with door open
and we went there! Paying nothing, took shower and slept well all those 4
hours what we had left before arriving.

Wednesday, October 1, 2003.

After 15 hours of driving from Stockholm,
Sweden. We finally arrived in Hamburg where we had a first gig. The gig
itself was arranged only few days earlier so we didn't expect anything
special from there. It was a bar called Scandiabar in Reeperbahn area and it
was runned by couple finns! There was also another finnish band called Deep
Insight there http://www.deepinsight.net/ (linkki). They played some sort of
soft core, good in their style. Just few people came to see the show but we
didn't care because we wanted to play this first gig for Karsten and he
liked it. We played same set every evening, 30 songs and about 25 minutes.
Over 20 songs from Album CD and two from PQ-2 and rest were from the
forthcoming miniCD. Playing itself went well, actually surprisingly well
after such a long journey.

After the gig bar owner asked are we interested in sauna? At first we
thought that no, because the bar was quite shitty and we thought that sauna
would be the same but it was very far from the truth! The sauna was amazing!
Just like back in Finland, very good quality with wooden walls etc. It was
like some expensive Finnish villa's sauna. So we took good löyly there with
Deep Insight guys and drank a lot of beer and Lonkero (grapesoda/gin mix,
popular in finland). Then we met Manifesto Jukebox guys again. They played
also in Hamburg in same evening with Finnish hardcore band Endstand
http://www.fireinsidemusic.com/ebandit_endstand.htm (linkitys) and Tragedy,
very famous dark/heavy hardcore band from U$A. They had heard this finnish
bar and its sauna but unfortunately it was already booked so they didn't
have a sauna possibility.

For me it was surreal feeling to be in Reeperbahn area. We took a walk
before the gig and looked places where prostitutes sold themselves and suit
and tie guys tried to push us inside to sex show from the street. I didn't
like it. While we playing, there was a big window behind the stage and it
was clear to see the street and all those prostitutes and pimps there. So
young girls, it felt bad to see them selling themselves.
We took more than few beer and somewhere in the early hours of morning we
went to sleep. It was a half ruined apartment but there were walls and
windows and a place to sleep. There was complete darkness but somehow Ari
and Karsten found a bardesk and started to act as bartender and customer. I
felt into sleep hearing them shouting orders and something drunken. Also
part of Deep Insight slept there. Other part in their expensive and
uneconomic van.

Thursday, October 2, 2003.

Grey morning greeted us when we woke up. I was
the first and I had a pleasure to wake up two actors from few hours back.
They seemed to be a bit hangoverish so after Karsten drove the car out from
the Hamburg I took care of driving.

Our next destination was Jena. So we had a plenty of driving. Weather became
better and we drove through the nice north german countryside in sunlight.
We stopped to local shop and bought food and fresh bread. Then we picnicked
in the place used to parking. Just by the forest.

Because 3rd of October was a national holiday the autobahns were full and
totally jammed. We heard "slow traffic" from the radio. But we were totally
stopped. Stopped line was 21 kilometres long but luckily we were near the
exit so we used smaller road to get to the Jena. It took hours, even though
the landscape was nice. Darkness descended before we finally were in Jena.

Sandro the drummer of Gorilla Monsoon http://www.gorilla-monsoon.de waited
us in the backyard of the gigplace. He said that GM guys are also late but
they came almost as the same time like we did. Then we introduced ourselves
to each other. There were Sandro, the drummer who liked also history so we
had a good conversations later. Phil, the guitarist. really
down-to-earth-guy and funny and nice as well. He spoke English with such
strong german accent that few times I thought he was speaking german to me.
Chris who played the bass was totally straight. And later I discovered that
he was a session player. Because their own bassplayer didn't have a change
to participate the tour. Chris was also very funny and I admired his
patience to deal with drunken us after the gigs. He seemed to enjoy as much
as we did. And then there was Norman, the vocalist/guitarist of Gorilla
Monsoon. At first when he introduced himself to Ari, he said his name as
german way. For us the german pronouncing is sometimes very difficult to
understand and after asking few times again Ari said "Moment?". I burst into
laugh and said to Ari. "No! Norman!" Really nice guy who spoke very good
English with understandable accent and soft voice. They had also a driver,
Susie who didn't speak much but smiled even more.

Gigplace was cool, named Rosenkeller http://www.rosenkeller.org/ .
Underground dungeon-type place. Thick stone walls and medieval feeling. Very
well kept and clean. In tour the most usual thing to do is waiting. So there
we waited again the start of the gig. We discussed with Gorilla Monsoon guys
and started to get more familiar. Karsten took care of the merchandise like
in every evening. His counterpart in noisepoint.net also arrived there.
Gorilla Monsoon Started and we checked their show. They played really heavy
stoner/doom/sludge stuff and the volume was thunderous. Even thru the
earplugs it felt too loud. Gorilla Monsoon did what they say in their demo:
"Demonstrating Heaviness" and it worked. Even though Norman said to me: "We
can't play but we can pose" I think that they both played and posed really
well.

I was bit nervous. This felt first real gig. There was about 100 people
inside and when we started, almost all of the came to see our show. It went
ok, but because of the low frequencies of the bass. Thick stone walls
started to echo my playing and on stage the sound was awful. I really hope
that audience got better sound quality. All in all they enjoyed the show and
we played two songs for encore. After the gig I sat sweating and opened cold
beer bottle and felt extremely satisfied.

Then we started our first party and kept loud conversation and drank all our
free beers end very quickly. I heard that one guy had came from München to
see us. 300 kilometres in one way! Just to see us! I really hope he enjoyed
the show. Unfortunately I didn't meet him. We had a good party goin' on when
Karsten came and said that we have to leave. "Where?" I asked, I thought we
were sleeping there like usually. But this time there was hotel rooms booked
for us! So we went to real hotel and got clean rooms. Karsten went to chat
with GM guys and me and Ari watched the phonesex ads from telly half
sleeping. More porn than in finland. Way more. Especially 70 year old granny
who massaged her bare breasts, we decided to stop watching.

Friday, October 3, 2003.

After the breakfast we drove to the club and
picked up the gear. Then we started to drive to Nürnberg. For me who is very
interested in history, that name sounded a bit gloomy. After long driving
with short pissing breaks we arrived in Nürnberg and to the big factory-like
building. It was a Squat-like but I wasn't certain, was it Squat or not. The
name was Kunstverein
http://www.kv-nbg.de/ . It was Friday evening and there came about 100
people again. Together with us there played also local grind band named
Maggot Shoes http://www.maggots.de/ they played groovy and really heavy
grind with low grunts, like grindcore mixed with Six feet Under. Then we
played and again in went well. This time I wasn't nervous anymore and
playing was easy and fun. People seemed to like us and there was a lot of
smiling and laughter like in all our gigs. We take it as a compliment. We
are not a humour band but in music there's certain humoristic element.

All in all playing for German audience was fun because we were totally
unknown and our music is so different than usual extreme music. Every
evening there were persons who were totally positively surprised and liked a
lot. Also there was people who didn't care at all, they were there because
of Gorilla Monsoon. But it was a good thing to see that usually people liked
both of us.

Gorilla Monsoon played last while I took care of the merchandise because
Karsten wanted to see them like every evening. After the gig we had really
cool party in the "backstage" a kitchen. Lots of people and lots of noise
and beer. We met a long hair dude who was totally wasted and he told us that
he's a x-ray doctor in a hospital. We discussed about how's the football in
Germany and had fun. Also we met a lot of different people and discussed
some not-so-serious topics. That usual speaking when you have drunk few
beers. It was 4 in the morning in went to sleep. Ari came an hour later and
told me when we woke up that noise became even louder in the time when he
left.

Saturday, October 4.

We woke up somewhere noon and in silence picked up
stuff and started to drive to next place. Ansbach, a small town just 50-60
kilometres south from Nürnberg. The place was two floor house and place to
play was just bigger than normal living room. The name of the place is
Projekt Turm. This gig was the absolute anti-climax in the tour. There were
people but they didn't give a shit about our show. For a moment it reminded
me the days when we started our band years ago. Gorilla Monsoon got a bit
better audience and there was some local moron who humiliated himself trying
to sing while GM played. I felt myself ill, flu had struck and I went to
sleep quite soon. The sofa was soft but there we some tiny spikes from
somewhere. They came thru my sleeping bag and clothes and pushed into my
skin. It didn't feel good especially at the same time I was certain that I
had fever.

Sunday, October 5.

Grey and rainy Sunday greeted us when we woke up. I had
still feverish feeling and those damn spikes felt all over my skin. This was
the first time I missed home and warm bed there. But better was to come. I
had forgotten that this day I'd make an interview by phone back to Finland
to the radio show named Hardcore Club. It comes every 2nd month from
national Finnish radio broadcasting company and it has coverage of all
Finland. I went to Karsten's car, and phoned to Finland about 15 minutes.
The hostess of that show called me and we chatted how's our tour had gone
and what was in the future. When I came back home, I heard it and I liked my
speaking sound in radio J.

After the interview we started to drive to Switzerland. We had one gig
there. Landscape became more and more attractive because we started to get
closer to Alps. There weren't real mountains but beautiful hills covered by
fields. Finland is a flat country so we enjoyed the scenery. Also my fever
disappeared and I felt much better.

Swiss border wasn't pleasant at all. They checked all our stuff and for a
moment it felt like we had come to Russia or Baltic states. Very strict and
formal. An hour later we were free to go and drove straight to Bremgarten,
near to Zürich. Or as straight as we tried. We lost a little and after short
delay founded right way.

Gigplace was a squat and the organizator of the gig was René. Very friendly
and nice guy. He runs also a small DIY label called Blutwurscht Produktion
and distro named Endistro. http://www.endistro.com
There weren't so much people because of the Sunday evening but they liked
us. Much better gig than in yesterday. It was funny to play and it sounded
good. Gorilla Monsoon played shorter gig. Obviously people there had come
because of us. After the gig a guy came and wanted our autographs for all
our releases he had. He had our both CD's and MCD and also split 3" MCD w/
Utter Bastard from the past. He told that he's a teacher and he had played
our music to his pupils and wanted them to draw a cover for our album. I
guess the children were about 10 years old or something. He had those
drawings with him and he gave it to us. There were some really funny
drawings and I laughed a lot. The whole situation was a bit surreal.

After the gig we went to René's home. Really cool apartment and lots of room
and very considerable amount of CD's and LP's. We drank few beers there and
chatted and then went to sleep.

Monday, October 6.

We woke up and headed to the Squat. There was breakfast
and we ate before we started our driving back to Germany. René showed us a
little his hometown and it was beautiful. Medieval like. Weather was bright
and we saw also Alps. For us seeing real mountains is always very special
experience.

This was free day. We went back to Ansbach and spend a night there. Whole
crew was very tired so we went quite soon to sleep.

Tuesday, October 7.

Now we headed to Halle. The gig place was good Squat.
They had even water boiler there. Halle is an ugly town and it was very much
DDR-like. We had played there in our first European tour in 1998. This time
we didn't play at the same place. Not much audience but good. Again it was
funny to play and our 30 songs went really fast. It was also a special gig
because Guitarist/Vocalist and drummer of Le Scrawl http://go.to/scrawl came
to see us. For me personally Le Scrawl is one of my favourite bands and
seeing two guys from that band was really cool! Cause For Effect is very
much influenced by Le Scrawl, so if you like us, check them! They have now
compilation CD/LP out and it includes all their recorded material so far. 66
songs! They had come from Berlin, 200 kilometres away and they had working
day in the next day. We had a short conversation with them and they said it
was worth of driving to come to see us. I felt the best compliment in tour.

After the gig we had a party. At first Karsten came and said: "We have a
early wake in the morning, so no strong party!" Yeah, right. We all partied
very strongly including Karsten. I remember that Ari stood in middle of the
room with arms up and kept loud voice. All the rest just stared.

I was one of the first who went to sleep and it was about 3 or 4am. Beds
were good but room was a bit cold but my old many tours seen sleeping bag
took the care of my warmth.

Wednesday, October 8.

It was a free day for us but Gorilla Monsoon went to
Nürnberg to Doom festival named "Doomestication of Nurenberg". We went to
Karsten's home. He lives near Dresden in town called Bishofswerda or
something. I don't remember the exact typing. He has a nice flat in
apartment building and we just chilled out and ate good food. Then we went
to local sport center and there was a sauna. For us it was great! After it
and long hot shower, I felt myself completely clean and relaxed. Sleeping
was easy.

Thursday, October 9.

In the morning we went to town named Bautzen. It was
very near and very old. So we spend our day as tourists. Checked the old
castle and streets, bought some souvenirs. After that we drove back to
Karsten's and picked up our gear. Then we drove to Dresden for a gig. This
was one of those, which Karsten had arranged for us just few days earlier.
The place was cool. I don't remember the name but it was dungeon-type like
in Jena but smaller. There were three bands with us. The first was Buzz
Aldrin, bassplayer, vocalist and a drummer. The trio played heavy hardcore
and it had some moments. Line up was interesting. It was sad that their
mixer seemed to be totally anti-professional so bass was too low. We played
as second. It was decent gig. People seemed to enjoy even though they had
came to see the last band. Very young people came there and surprisingly big
amount of pretty girls. The third band was shitty rock band. I don't
remember the name. The headliner was Tour De Force. New school hardcore.
Karsten has helped them also. Decent hardcore with lots of young energy but
not my cup of tea. After our gig the usual: few beers and meeting some
really nice people. Then we drove back to Karsten's again.

Friday, October 10.

Long drive all the way up to Rostock. After almost four
hour driving we drove to harbour and Karsten pointed a ship and said: There.
Then I remembered: Our gig was in a boat! For Me it seemed old fishing boat
or something. The name was MS Stubniz. Ship inside was really cool looking.
There were two floors. The bar floor and the hole in the middle where you
can see the band who plays in the floor beneath and half floor beneath the
stage was a room for audience. There played also Gorilla Monsoon who joined
us again and two other bands. The first was Waylander. Decent black/death
metal with incredible drummer. Then played Gorilla Monsoon, again killer
show and people seemed to like it. Then played we. Personnel from the ship
took video cameras and shooted our gig. We got the tape right after the
gig. As a playing wise it was one of the worst. Somehow we screwed up the
first songs but when we got warmer, the playing started to be better. As an
audience it was one of the best gigs I have ever played. And like every
evening, just after the gig I wanted to be alone for a moment but then met
people and chatted with them and took few beers. I missed the Last band
called Golem . Somewhere in the early morning I went to our cabin to sleep.

Saturday, October 11.

After picking up our gear and eating breakfast we
drove many hours to a small town named Bad Langensalza and the gig place was
a bar named So What. At first it was a shock: Clean like a youth club and
average age in the audience were somewhere 16-19. After many hours of
driving I felt fucked up. Karsten saw it and tried to cheer me up. This was
also one of the last-minute-booked show. But luckily it wasn't so bad.
Audience were drunk and at least they saw and reacted quite loudly. Gorilla
Monsoon played first and their massive volume caused some painful faces
within the audience.

We slept in a "backstage". An empty room with one sofa. There were some
people and they partied. I was tired and wanted to sleep. So I went into the
sleeping bag and there, on the floor. ..

Sunday, October 12.

The last day opened sunny for us. The last gig was in
Dresden and we played there 2nd time but this time in a different place. It
was a squat named Chemiefabrik. We arrived there quite soon and went to
Norman's place where sat and drank tea. After that we went thru Dresden to
Sandro and his girlfriend's place and ate good meal.

Opening band was Spearhead. It's Norman's other band and he plays guitar in
it. Their set was like from Spinal Tap movie: at first they broke second
microphone even before they started. Then bassplayer lost sound and tried
whole 30 seconds to find out what was the problem. Then he stopped playing.
Put bass away and grabbed the second, broken microphone and "sang" some
choruses but because mic was broken, there wasn't any sound. After the laugh
I noticed that Normal played quite cool riffs and the drummer was really
fast. He played one of the fastest blastbeats I have ever heard. Vocalist
had cool grunting voice and overall they sounded cool.

Then Cause For Effect played our last show and it was good. People really
liked and we played well. It was a pleasure to finish our tour with such
gig.

Gorilla Monsoon played for their home-audience and people enjoyed. Maybe the
best GM show I saw during the tour.

Then we greeted Gorilla Monsoon guys and said good-bye. Karsten calculated
the costs and realized that we didn't get minus from the tour. I felt sad,
reliefed and very tired. We drove to Karsten's home again and after 4 hours
of sleeping we started our 48 hours journey back to Finland.

Only incident worth to tell during our returning happened in the middle of
night between monday and tuesday. We had stil 300 kilometres to Stockholm
when Karsten's car started to sound strangely. We put more oil and waited 30
minutes worrying and then started again. Sound lost and we were able to
continue. I felt very frightening, in the middle of nowhere, windy autumn
night, cold and heavy wind.

Tuesday evening, October 14th.

I was home again. Still confused and tired.
All memories were in my mind in no order. Next morning I went to work but my
mind was still in Germany in Karsten's car to go somewhere. This continued
the whole week. My all dreams were related to the tour. All I can say that
it was great!