Take 4 - A day with The Sums

[TomiT14]

Day 1 - September 7th

Fucking epic day! If you didn't check the other thread, I ran into Matt by random!
After I was wandering around the city for few hours, I decided to check the venue location so I'll find my way there easier. After that I headed back to my hotel, and on my way there I noticed a familiar body type taking pics of the buildings. When I came closer I recognized him, asking "Excuse me, Mr. Matt Whibley?". I introduced myself being a fan from TNS and that I have started a Finnish fansite, then we talked about the city and why I came here from Finland and stuff. He told the guys were sleeping at the hotel, but I should come to the bus later (8pm) to see what Matt can do.

I was there at 7.55pm, but no Matt. There was a bus driver (little drunk), and said he hasn't seen Matt all day. I waited for 15 minutes, got disappointed and went to the venue doors. There I introduced myself and told that I was given a backstage pass. "No such thing", they told me.
I didn't want to give up, so I went back to the bus, waited another 10 minutes, and finally Matt showed up. He apologized, but I was cool with it of course.

He then took me to the backstage, told me to wait for a moment while he gets things worked out. After like 10 minutes he invited me in, I stepped into the dressing room, and almost got a heart attack seeing that fuzzy hair in front of me. Matt introduced me to Deryck, we didn't get to say more than 'hi how's it going', when Stevo and Cone came in. Then I introduced myself, gave them a bottle of Jack and, thanks to FakeNinja for the idea, couple of Jack Daniels guitar picks, all this in the name of TNS. Deryck liked them, saying "Cool! I want these medium ones!", and Cone took the heavy's. After that Matt took a pic of me with them. No signs of Tom though. After the pic Matt told me nicely to get out. This whole meeting took like 5 minutes, but it will still stay in my mind forever.

So I came off the backstage, saw the full crowd there, decided to stay on the side of the stage, but was kicked out after the supporting band finished. So, my place to watch the show was probably the worst in the house. Sucked, but at least I got to see the band, so it was cool.

About the show, setlist at the end of this post, but couple of surprises in the familiar songs (for me at least).
During We're All To Blame, Deryck didn't ask for the whole crowd to scream Sacrifice. Instead, he picked a one person at a time to scream it. Cool, unfortunately no video.
Also, Cone did a stage dive, not sure which song it was but I got that on video. Dan Moyse played the drums for P4P. Stevo dedicated the song for tour manager Chris Holland, asked him to come up stage, but Chris stayed in the shadows.

But then, after the band left, most of the people started to leave the building. I for one stayed, since I got nothing more important to do. After a while, like 30-45 minutes after the end of the show, Tom came and started giving autographs, and after that talked to people. There were few guys from Germany, and one annoying scumfuck from Czech, who probably didn't even know who Tom was. Annoying, since he interupted Tom many times when he was telling me something cool. I chatted with him like for an hour, talking about everything from living in NYC to how Obama is handling the war and stuff. But of course I asked about something new I wanted to know about the Sums. Tom didn't know the answer for most of them, but here are some:

-They played the whole SBM album yesterday in Germany for the soundcheck. Today only half of it in Prague.
-All the titles he knew were the same old SBM and Blood In My Eyes.
-He didn't know the name of the 12-minute song, they just call it 'Epic'. It consists of three songs, with the middle part being called Jessica Kill.
-Other members of Gob are currently stepped in to workers' life, so they have jobs, since Tom has no time to finish the recording. Although he said the new songs are best they've ever written.
-Asked if they are going to play any new stuff at the Eastpak tour, he said most likely Scumfuck, since it's already so popular. They have thought about playing SBM the song and Blood In My Eyes, but nothing sure yet.
-No idea about when the 12-min song's coming out.
-The label was eager to release the album for the summer, but since it got delayed, they prefer the winter time for it. Tom said he isn't sure if the album is even fully mixed yet.
-Tom did record some riffs for the new album, mainly for the title track.
-Why Paint It Black? Tom once asked if he could sing some Sum 41 songs live, Deryck laughed about it and told him to choose a cover song instead. Tom listens to Rolling Stones every day.
-Tom preferred smaller venues over big stadiums, because in smaller places you can interact with the crowd better.

While Tom was chatting with fans, Chris came with a disappointed face and said "all the others are waiting for you man".
Despite the looks, Chris seemed like a very cool, down to earth guy too. So, Tom left with him, and that was the end of my epic day.

Pics at the end of this post.

Setlist:

1. Intro + The Hell Song
2. We're All To Blame
3. Walking Disaster
4. My Direction
5. In Too Deep
6. Motivation + 88
7. Master Of Puppets
8. King Of Contradiction
9. Underclass Hero
10. Over My Head (Better Off Dead)
11. Welcome To Hell (Cone's crowd surf)
12. Makes No Difference
13. Paint It Black
14. Still Waiting
--Encore--
15. Deryck's jamming (Smoke On The Water + Seven Nation Army)
16. Fat Lip
17. Pain For Pleasure + Ma Poubelle (playback)

---

Day 2 - September 8th

This time, no any special treatments. But fuck, it was simply the GREATEST FUCKING SHOW I've ever been to!
Some time ago I said that even though I love Sums' music more, I think Green Day is the best live band I've seen.
Fuck it, after this show there's no question for me. Sums have become a lot better than ever before imo.

I was a bit doubtful before the show, since I was afraid this show could be identical to the last one.
But I was totally wrong! Even though this one was slightly shorter, with the same songs as the day before, BUT in slightly different order, and NO pre-rehearsed talking between the songs! Excluding the setlist, these two shows were so different from each other.

The first day included the Cone's crowd surfing. When I chatted with Tom after that show, I asked him if it's his turn to do the surf. No surfing on the second show, mostly by the fact that his guitar is wired, but fuck, he jumped and whirled and everything like I've never seen before! So full of energy!
Oh, and Deryck had a back injury? If Dan Moyse didn't play the drums on P4P, no one could've told Deryck had a bad back. He was active jumper throughout the both shows with not a single sign of pain.

Maybe because of it was the second show in a row, there were some minor flaws. Deryck fucked up the lyrics for the verses in Underclass Hero, forgetting words here and there and mixing the two verses up, so Cone's backing vocals didn't really fit in with the leads. Also, Deryck started to play the first notes for Walking Disaster, but Stevo started to play the drums for Welcome To Hell. Cone joined him, so Deryck had no choice but to stop playing, saying "Guess we'll play a fast one then". The original setlist had Walking Disaster and Pieces between UH and WTH, but they were both left out because of this, which was a bit of a shame, since they didn't play Pieces on the first day either. And that was probably the reason why this show was a bit shorter than the previous one.

Nevertheless, fucking epic show! I'm seriously thinking about going to see them more than once on their next tour. This band is so fucking badass live!

This time, I was in the front row for most of the show, so couldn't take any good pics because of the pressure on my back. So instead, I took some videos. Czech them out!

Setlist:

1. Intro + The Hell Song
2. We're All To Blame
3. Over My Head (Better Off Dead)
4. In Too Deep
5. Motivation + 88
6. Master Of Puppets
7. King Of Contradiction
8. Underclass Hero
9. Welcome To Hell
10. Paint It Black
11. Still Waiting
--Encore--
12. Fat Lip (with Smoke On The Water -jamming before it)
13. Pain For Pleasure + Ma Poubelle (playback)

Pictures from the two shows.

*Note: Because of the copyright issue, Underclass Hero links are set as private. So you can only access them by clicking the link here.

[Jake-41]

Wow, this is amazing news! Thanks alot for sharing, i'm super excited to get to hear some (more) new shiz. And that thing about Jessica Kill really took me by surprise.

Thanks!

[Heather]

Tomi, I think your the first out of all of us to actually ask questions...lol wtg
So happy you got to met them. I'm digging the extended set list, but wish they wouldn't play covers, add No Brains or something instead

[Jeremy Kill]

Awesome man! I'm happy for you and also happy Jessica Kill is part of the epic known as the 12-minute song!

[sumfan4]

Damn, nice!! How the hell are ya'll contacts with Matt Whibley??!!!?

[Nic]

Sweet info dude! Glad you had a great time.

[SociallyInept]

Damn, nice!! How the hell are ya'll contacts with Matt Whibley??!!!?

Yeah no kidding, I've seen like 3 threads like this in the last few weeks :S

[sumw41]

cooool man! i bet that it was one of the cooolest day of you life!!!

[kILLDR3n]

Yeah they should take out those covers and add in Mr. Amsterdam and No Brains. I wish they would play 88 fully, I'm pretty sure they've only done it once.

[Dylan]

do they play all of Master of Puppets during these last few months? or do they just do half of it like they used to?

[kILLDR3n]

do they play all of Master of Puppets during these last few months? or do they just do half of it like they used to?

Pretty sure they do the solo only. At least during Warped they did.


Alright so if Jessica Kill is part of the 12 minute song and its 3 parts it'll be like

Blah Blah Blah/Jessica Kill/Blah Blah

Sorta like what Green Day did.

[TomiT14]

About the Master Of Puppets, only the solo + chorus.

About knowing Matt, after I was wandering around the city for few hours, I decided to check the venue location so I'll find my way there easier. After that I headed back to my hotel, and on my way there I noticed a familiar body type taking pics of the buildings. When I came closer I recognized him, 'Excuse me, Mr. Matt Whibley?'. Introduced myself being a fan from TNS and that I have started a Finnish fansite, then we talked about the city and why I came here from Finland and stuff. He told the guys were sleeping at the hotel, but I should come to the bus later to see what Matt can do. And the rest is on the first post.

About the show, it was a bit odd how Deryck said 'We're gonna play an old song now. It's called My Direction'.
And 'This is the very first song Sum 41 has ever made. This song's called Makes No Difference'.

Also, I added two things from the Tom chat to the first post.

Tonight it's going to be a regular gig for me, so I'll concentrate on rocking out. So don't expect any epic stories this time.

[Boni]

I personally would be happy if the 12-minute songs was just called "Epic".

[Lars]

Tomi, I think your the first out of all of us to actually ask questions...lol wtg

Haha, yeah that's what I was thinking as well

Anyway; awesome man! Really glad for you!

Nice idea, giving them a bottle of Jack! Everyone should do this when they have a meet-up!
Hold on... Every TNS-member.

[Simon]

Nice! Glad everything worked out so well for you Tomi.
So, is anyone here from Russia going to meet them? I think that's the last stop before they take a break.

[Hentaiman]

Wow dude! You're so lucky to meet them and ask all these stuff! Sounds really cool! Good info, too bad they decided to push the album back cuz of the label and all... cuz the label thinks it will be better to be released in the winter, though I agree it sounds like a dark winter album, not a summer one, but November-December is also winter, doesn't have to be February-March ><

[Emil]

Poor Gob.

[Susanne]

Wow that's so cool Tomi! So you just accidentally ran into Matt? If so then you were unbelievably lucky!

[Simon]

Well, it's not like he ran into him at a gas station or supermarket. When you're at the place where they play later on the same day, the chances of running into someone from the band or the crew are actually pretty good, I think.

[Lars]

Could be, allthough Prague isn't just a small village