Venezuela insanity!

Getting into Caracas was a smooth ride. We got picked up by the promoters contact at the airport and never had to pass immigration.. Yeah, that’s how things are done there. ha-ha. With or without the pig flu?! Haha.. Looks brutal!

Caracas skyline:

Chris chilling in the green:

Caracas is the most dangerous city in the whole of South America. We heard a lot of sinister stories and saw a bunch of frightening areas and people. The long ride to Maracay most certainly didn’t feel safe - but that was actually down to insane mountain roads, reckless driving and zero seat belt coverage for the entire trip. Life is cheap in Venezuela.

We checked in an out of the Maracay hotel within an hour, as cockroaches and floaters in the bathroom are just not our idea of a 'cozy place to stay'. So we spend most of the day looking for another hotel and gave up that search right before sound check. Fuck it; we are simply going to drive back to Caracas after the show.

We didn't film the floaters (too disgusting), but here some pics from the ‘elevator’. I mean, I saw kids playing on that floor level.. I wonder what could happen if they came near that gaping hole?!

The 'venue' was an old basketball hall and in regards to sound, lights and safety quite challenging. Biggest problem were the security guards letting people into the backstage area for half the price (at some point we got about 50 kids suddenly running towards us) and the police force, hitting down people and threatening to close down the show - Thus receiving a couple of grand to back off. Corruption is the daily business in Venezuela. Crime and murder as well - people are being seriously deprived and held down by their government. Such a beautiful, potentially rich country. Makes you want to 'Let The Revolution Begin' right fucking now!!!

A sold out, raging show. Of course. Metal fans are nuts in this place. And that’s a good thing.

We managed NOT to have a full-blown riot, instead lots of choirs, chants, raging energy, sweat, tears, and happy faces. All the chaos before the show so was worth it!!!

Thank you Venezuela!!!

Oh.. What misery the next day at the airport. Copa airlines simply felt their plane wasn’t 'full enough' and had us stranded there (with lots of other people and a ton of equipment) at the airport. Trying to hop on different planes to Colombia. It was an excruciating 15 hours at the airport and we all had to take different flights. LAN and Avianca. Our plane was completely in a 70ies design and I was wondering for most of the flight if it would make it through the 4 heavy thunderstorms we had to pass. I am not a big fan of lighting  - that flight was like riding a strobe effect. I didn’t think we would land safely in Colombia - but we did!

Many thanks go out to Cheo, the promoter, who had to face a million problems and we made it through each one of it. A lot of times with the help of many $$$ bills. He stayed with us until everybody had boarded a plane!

 And a million thanx to all the fans who came out to this insane show – you are the life and blood of this country! Stay pure fucking metal and don’t ever stop fighting for freedom!

Venezuela Libertad!

Do we care? Yes, we fucking do!

The Promoter/festival took 25% of any merch income straight out of our pockets again.

Here a little calculation of merch income:

We pay 6 Euro per Shirt (excluding freight costs!).

If we bring a merchandiser (like now.. as we are on tour..) - the merchandiser gets average 150 EUR/day

So.. imagine this scenario:

Usually, we sell our shirts between 15 - 20 EUR.. depending on the club commission.. 

Its tough competition on festivals, bands sell maybe 30 - 100 shirts per day. Lets take an average nr of 50 shirts:

50 x 20 eur = 1000 Euro

minus 25% commission 250 Euro = 750 Euro

minus merchandiser wage 150 Euro = 600 Euro

minus 50 x 6 euro manufacturing costs 300 Euro = 300 Euro.

Left over for the band = 300 Euro

..thats some food, beer and wine for the band and crew.. bought by ourselves after the show as festival catering is long over and gone when we get off stage...

Money taken out of the pocket of the fans: a 1000 Euro.

We could easily drop our prices by at least 5 Euro if promoters wouldn't be so greedy. 

What should we do in the future? I guess not sell any merch?! Being ripped off just doesnt feel good.

BTW:

You can get our shirts for 15 bucks at 

Merchland Shop Europe!

JSR DIRECT people (Just Say Rock Inc. USA) so you can get our killer designs at top quality, for little money everywhere in the world!

So long..

Angela

“We’ve had an amazing run of show down here in South America. We’ve played Venezuela and Colombia for the first time with Arch Enemy and it’s been really killer playing for the fans there, these people live and breathe Metal... It’s inspiring” 

Also returning to Brazil and Argentina again has been great, the fans in this part of the world are so intense, they’re almost louder than the PA…it’s so much fun!” "Tonight we play Santiago, Chile - I'm sure it'll be a blast, we always have a good time playing here. And as things have turned out, it will unfortunately be the last show on this Latin American tour..." “Sadly, we've had to cut the tour short, the May 8 Mexico D.F show has been postponed due to the flu chaos and the restrictions that have been put on shows in Mexico D.F over the next days/weeks. We are obviously not happy about this – but it is out of our hands. We are looking at quickly re-scheduling the show and return to Mexico in August. The 2,500 tickets for the sold-out Mexico D.F show are valid for the new date - so hold on to them” More information about this situation can be found in Spanish here.