New grounds: Some updates from the road.

Gramps (Tony Lind). Photo: Christopher Anderzon.

All quiet on the Billy front? Not quite. But we’ve been really busy lately, so the blog posts have been conspicuous by their absence, and for this we apologize.

The summer concerts are coming along nicely, and we are still adding shows, so the initial itinerary may be subject to change over the coming weeks, stay tuned on facebook for updates.

Summer weather in Sweden is, at best, fickle, but so far we have been lucky, and Helios has mostly been smiling on our outdoor shows, unlike some big stadium shows that were halted this past weekend by heavy rainfall.

We’ve been extending the setlist quite a bit lately, which is cool for fans who might have missed some of their old favorites from earlier tours when they saw the first Seven Rivers Wild shows. We have added several golden oldies for your pleasure, so make sure you catch at least one of our summer performances!

We are also playing mostly new venues (to us) on this tour, so we are breaking new ground, meeting new people and making new friends, and havin’ a blast doin’ it.

Midsummer is coming up, and for this holiday, which is a pretty big deal in Sweden, we will pull the breaks on the tour bus and engage in some hardcore Billy-style partying which should go down in band folklore gloriously. But once the hangovers have been endured it is back to work.

All the audiences so far have been great, and we can’t express enough how much we appreciate you guys comin’ out and enjoying the ride with us, our old, trusted fans who stay with us through thick and thin, as well as new friends who brighten our day with your presence.

Oh, yeah! For those who read my post a while ago about the post-gig blues, I’m currently trying out some supplements that seem to ease my PGB symptoms, a nice development that might save me many hours of insomnia in the future.

See you guys on the road!

/Gramps

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Billy Momo on the road

Orren. Photo by Christopher Anderzon.

We just got back from a very classic, typical Billy Momo trip. Two days and four gigs in Värmland and. Närke, Sweden.

Deje was first up. A very small town in Värmland. The venue was an old power station, turned into a gallery/bar/live music venue. Super cool place, would have fit perfectly in some up-and-coming London suburb or super trendy NYC area. This is typical for Billy Momo gigs. Small towns in rural Sweden often has one really cool venue. Not two, one. There may be several bars, but only one place to go for the real art and music lovers. And those are often quite unique.

We made a lot of new friends in Deje. Only drawback was, when the one place to go in town closes, the town goes to sleep. We are not used to going to sleep at a reasonable hour when on tour. There were invitations to various after parties, but for some reason we hesitated to follow strangers into the woods, so we ended up wandering the streets (or street, rather) and then staring at the ceiling at the hotel. Gramps, with his post-gig blues, crying himself to sleep.

Next day we started in the garden outside the power station, rehearsing our first-ever busking. We were signed up for a street music competition at a city festival in Askersund. Hotlips had made tin cones to use as unamplified megaphones and we had brought Gramps Gig Pig, a perfect weapon for small venues or accoustic sets. It’s a drum kit-in-a-box.

 

PreacherMan and Hotlips, Askersund. Photo: Christopher Anderzon.

The festival was a beautiful event. 50 something bands playing every corner. Musicians in every bar, instruments being dragged over cobblestone all over. There were fellow musicians everywhere. The whole town was out, exploring.
This is the beauty of small-town city festivals. Everyone is there. This one attracts alot of people from other areas as well. We did our busking set and two more sets later the same day. A bit out of breath after the last one, I’ll admit. But luckily for me, I don’t have a drivers license, so I didn’t have to drive all the way back. We went the same night. Billy Momo won’t waste time on sleeping.

This was a typical, ideal weekend for Billy. Perfect venues, lots of new friends and fans and strictly good vibes.

Oh! And we won that competition too!

(Orren)