The Latest

Our first stop on the tour brought us to Hamburg, Germany. First days of tours are always a little hectic. Usually because the crew for the main band is working out all the details of that first show. We pulled up and noticed the large line of fans already waiting hours before the doors are set to be open, and in the cold and snow. Yep, after being in Italy, I'm a little bummed to be in snowy weather again but the anticipation of waiting fans, the size of the venues and knowing that most all the shows will be sold out have us all excited for this new tour. We all get ready and if catering on this first day is setting any type of precedent, then dinner is something I'll be looking forward to every night. We hung out in catering most of the night. I made the long distance call to home and so I find a hallway to find a quiet place. Next thing I know, Ville comes around the corner and I introduce myself and shake his hand. We meet the other guys in HIM as they walk through catering to the stage.

Four shows into the tour, and that's pretty much all the contact we've had. Its a bit like ships passing in the night. They don't hang out much. The guys appear and disappear. Hopefully I'll get a chance to chitchat a bit and at the very least express my gratitude for having us on their tour. All the shows have been pretty great. We've played Hamburg, Amsterdam, Dortmund and Luxembourg so far. Dortmund was a very reserved crowd. At first I thought they might not like us until I heard that the same luke-warm response we received was also the response HIM received. In complete contrast, Amsterdam was crazy! That show put all of us on cloud 9. Those people are out to have a good time and they did and so did we. It really made me want to return to Amsterdam as soon as possible. The fans were great and so were the giant pancakes.

We closed out the string of shows in mainland Europe with a show in Luxembourg. That show rivaled Hamburg in crowd response. But we had a great time meeting new faces by our merch booth. The people are very kind. Hopefully we'll be making it back this way very soon. For now we make the trek back to the UK. We have a very busy schedule aside from shows. But we are going to get to close out the string of UK dates with one headlining show at a small intimate place in London called Borderline. It will be a great send off back to the US.

We are traveling somewhere among the snow covered Alps at the most northern area of Italy. Its our day off between tours.
The show last night in Treviso went very well, and I can officially say, Italy and Dommin are having a beautiful love affair. It was another night of wild fans showing their appreciation and support for this new American band and us giving everything we had in us to the audience. All the shows in Italy were amazing and officially the best of the tour. It was a bittersweet show. We are happy to have accomplished our first European tour but sad to be saying goodbye to our friends in Lacuna. I think we will playing the same festival this summer.

I am curious to know what some of these cities are going to be like on round 2. The tour with HIM starts tomorrow. Its going to be the first hectic day as usual, I'm sure. It will largely be crew trying to work out all the kinks with sound and lights. We'll be meeting our new tourmates as well. And we'll be spending a lot of time together as this 2 band bill will turn into a 4 band bill in the U.S. I've already heard great things about the HIM guys so I'm sure it will be pretty cool. But we are hitting some of the same areas we did with Lacuna. Now that our album has been out for a few weeks in the UK, it will be interesting to see the reaction.
I've also been thinking about the last show of this tour. We are leaving Europe doing one headlining show in London and I'm trying to figure out how we can make it special. It will keep my mind occupied on this long drive.

We have a 3 hour drive to Bologna. When we arrive its a very unassuming place. In fact we drove in circles for a good 15 minutes trying to find the venue. It resembles a warehouse from the outside. I feel pretty burnt out this night. I'm not sure what it is. I know we just had a day off, but there certainly wasn't much rest on that day. I could really use a day to do a little bit of nothing. I think the other guys might be feeling the same.
I go onstage feeling tired, maybe even a bit sluggish. I don't have the same jumpy nerves I usually do on stage. Perhaps I'm just becoming more comfortable. All I know is that it worked...whatever it is. I ended up having my best show of the entire tour. I played and sang better tonight than any other night. Perhaps it was because the excitement didn't overwhelm my focus. The Bologna fans were amazing. They gave me all the energy I would ever need to get through a set. Its only the second show in Italy but I'm wondering if this will be the trend at Italian shows. We don't stay in Bologna that night. We leave the show early to reach the next destination that night.

We make the 4 or 5 hour trip to Rome. We start the first of the "Back To The Future" trilogy to keep us entertained. I had never realized how over-acted and more "kid-targeted" that movie was until seeing it back to back with the first, and best of that trilogy. We arrive in Rome at 3:30 AM. We have plans to get in a bit of tourist activity the next morning before heading to the venue. There is so much I want to do. Rome has always been the place I desired most to visit. But I was determined NOT to do the 2 hour drive-by tour. We picked 3 things to do in 4 hours time. Which is still too short. But how do you come all the way to Rome and not spend SOME time looking around. We get dropped off at the Coliseum. From there we visit, or more like pass by, the Forum and head to the Fountain. The amount of history here is amazing. Everywhere you look and everywhere you walk, there is such a rich history. The only disappointing thing for this tourist is how many precious things were destroyed by the citizens. Perhaps it was by necessity, I'm not sure. But many of the reasons that there are mere ruins left is because the materials were used to build houses and various other things. I suppose the thought of preserving the history while living in it didn't really cross the mind. But its beautiful all the same.

After a small meal and some gelato, it was time to get to the venue. And for the 3rd time in a row, the Italian fans were lovely. Much like Bologna, these fans didn't need any direction or prompting when to clap or sing along. They were all over it. I think at the end of the show, we signed more things and took more pictures than we had on the entire tour. I can't imagine how it would have been had more people understood my English announcing our presence at the merch booth.
Thanks to the Romans!
If the final and last show in Treviso ends up as good as all the other shows it Italy, then I think it is safe to say that we'll be welcomed back. And that makes me happy. Because Italy is definitely a place I would love to spend more time in. I think the land and the people are capturing a piece of my heart.

As we leave Switzerland, we pass through some of the most beautiful scenery and landscapes of the entire European tour. To our right and left we see snow capped mountains, dense forests, cascading waterfalls, and below, these small picturesque towns.
We cross over into Milan. Its expected to be the biggest show of the tour in the home town of Lacuna Coil.

We get to the venue. Its a 1800 capacity place and the biggest stage we've ever played on. On one hand, I'm hoping we get to utilize the stage. On the other hand, being a front man that is forced to be stationary in front of the microphone stand makes stages like this a bit daunting. However the thought of being able to really move freely when not singing is exciting. We are so used to these stages where little to no movement is possible. This feels like a real dose of freedom.

I see Lacuna being bombarded with guests, friends and family. Hometown shows are always a little crazy. I made sure to leave Lacuna alone because you can tell they were being pulled in a hundred different directions. Other than hometown shows, any shows in Los Angeles or New York are a bit crazy as well because of all the music industry people that come. I guess its good that we usually can knock out the industry/hometown show in one night being from Los Angeles. It always takes us away from our fans a bit because we have so many things to tend to.

We hit the stage in Milan and its one of the first times we have gotten a reaction like this. Its normal to have cheering when the lights go out and we walk out on stage. This time I walked to the front of the stage and a second wave of excitement from the audience was invigorating. There were people singing every word to every song. We get into the set and its a very cool feeling being able to move so freely on stage. I wanted to be able to walk to Billy's mic stand when I remembered he is the last guy in the band to be getting over a cold. I think I'll pass on that this time. It was a good time and a good night. We made our way to the merch area and for one of the first times, it was a little scary in an unstable way. People were excited and unknowingly being rude to others. There was a bit of shoving. Things could have gotten out of hand. I think we may be getting to a point where we need to make sure we are in a bit more of a controlled space when we meet fans and friends, for our safety and theirs.

The next day was a day off in Milan. I went with a couple of guys to the Cathedral in Milan and the gallery just next to it. Later that night, we returned to the same venue as the night before to see Airbourne. I regret that we didn't arrive early enough to see Taking Dawn. Airbourne put on a great show. It was like AC/DC on methamphetamines. It was such high energy and the Milanese loved them. It was kinda cool to be in the building with 2 other Roadrunner bands knowing you're all on a common road sharing common experiences.

We hit the Rock 'N' Roll Bar later that night and enjoyed hanging out together and with Justin from Airbourne as well. I left around 2AM back to the hotel. Most of the guys stayed behind and I'm pretty sure they were out until nearly sunrise. We play Bologna tomorrow. We are practically just passing through. We play the show and leave early straight to Rome. Its going to be a long day. I'm glad I'm back at the hotel at a decent hour. The others...they'll be hurting.

We spent a beautiful day in Salzburg, Austria. We walked into town and soaked in the birthplace of Mozart. We visited one of the largest castles in the world. It was like being transported back in time. So many things were well preserved from furniture, clothing and weapons.

The next day we drove into Vienna. I tried to imagine myself being Mozart and traveling by horse and carriage from Salzburg to Vienna to perform for aristocrats. It must have been a grueling journey. It was strange, but as we rolled into Vienna it was almost unanimous that we felt like we were rolling into Dallas, Texas. The show in Vienna felt like a flash. We couldn't hang out like normal because of our next day drive, part of which we had to do that night. We have a long way to go to Zurich, Switzerland.

It was a total of about 8 hours of driving. Luckily, we were able to break it up into two sessions. We are able make the time pass by watching movies on the way. We watched "Sunshine" and "LA Confidential". Both are very cool. However the DVD player's sound is hooked up through the audio of the stereo and I think its possessed. Every so often, without any regularity or correlation, the movie sound will go off and we will be interrupted by German news reports. It always seems to happen at a very crucial part in the movie.

We get to Zurich and its a great show with very active fans. Some people actually knew who the hell we were. There was quite a funny moment on stage. I always prefer a round-base microphone stand. I like the simplicity and the ease of its movement with a weighted bottom. These boom stands have too many joints. It never fails that they move or swivel while I'm singing. Its kind of a challenge singing into a moving microphone. So, prior to the very last song, I try to tighten all the joints. As I'm doing this, the microphone slips out of the clip and hangs down pointing directly into the monitor blasting the audience with an ear piercing high pitch squeal that makes everyone as if in a choreographed dance bring their hands to their ears. Realizing the hilarity of the situation, I grab the microphone and yell "I'M SORRY" into the mic which brings the crowd and the band to laughter. Its moments like these that I find endearing because it takes the rock show to a much more personal and intimate experience.
The night ends like I wish every night would end. We've got a plush hotel tonight with a very moody bar. I sit at the bar, order a late dinner with some good company, some light jazz playing in the background and I can feel the tension leave me. I'm winding down. On to Italy tomorrow and the last leg of the Lacuna tour. Its gone by so fast. And I feel sad because it feels like we won't see our friends for a while. I hope that's not true.

Dommin will be playing at headline show in London on March 21st, following their run with HIM. Check out the tour section for more info!

We arrive at the venue in Karlsruhe and it's a place called Substage. The name of the venue finally makes sense. We are literally playing under ground below the middle of an intersection which I am assume would normally be a pedestrian route for crossing the street. I'm a bit bummed that there is no projection here to put up our backdrop. We had some technical issues tonight with the drums sliding across the floor. Things like that make it feel a little more like a rock show. I feel like I thrive a bit off of the challenge of things going awry. All in all it was good.

The next day we play Munich. After getting lost from haven been given the incorrect address, we arrive at a place that seems a bit like a botantical garden. This place has three rooms. There is a concert going on just next door and I hear that its some type of pagan fest. Lots of growling and million mile an hour solos bleed through the walls. Its the last show in Germany on this tour. We do what we do and I think that Munich might have been the loudest and most enthusiastic crowd in Germany.

Tomorrow is a day off. We'll be spending it where "The Sound of Music" was filmed, Salzburg, Austria. This is also the birthplace of Mozart. I am writing this as we are just outside the city. It certainly is a beautiful alpine town. This will be a great place to lose any sense of time and enjoy the surroundings.