Tour Diary

• 7. 8pm june 23rd, 2008
• 6. 3pm june 21st, 2008
• 5. Ísafjörður june 18th, 2008
• 4. midnight (still light!!) june 17th, 2008
• 3. midnight june 16th, 2008
• 2. 2pm June 13th, 2008
• 1. 11pm June 11, 2008

7. 8pm june 23rd, 2008 - (Pétur Bjarnason, Tour Organiser and Surrogate Father)

"I met The Hoodagngers in Copenhagen three years ago in 2005 and then thougt it might be a good idea for them one day to take the tour to Iceland. And now The Hoodangers are in Iceland and I had the oppurtunity to help arranging their tour and I have been traveling together with them a part of it. I have enjoyed every minute. The Hoodangers are great musicians, humorous and nice guys and a good company to spend time with.

Thinking of it. In a visit like this it is very important to use the oppurtunity to increase the understanding of people belonging to different cultures, In their tour those guys have both been on a whale whatching tour and have tried the good taste of minky whale (that in no way is a endangerous species!). Is it not a good thing to get a broader view on each issue when developing ones own attitude? In Iceland we pity the kengaroos in Australia. We hear they are shot by people from helicopters. We do not know anthing abour kengoorus but they have all our sympathy. In Iceland we think whales is a one of our resources to be utilised sustainably. People in Australia, we hear, do not agree on that issue. Me and the Hoodangers have among other things been discussing the kengaroos in Australia and whales in Icelandic waters and found out that neither of us do have the neccesary overview to really now what is going on. But the future developement on our attitude in both matters will be based on increased knowledge - I hope.

The Hoodangers! You have been welcomed guests in Iceland and you also will be welcomed next time. People in Iceland are looking forward to your next visit. Lets make it take place soon. You have made it very clear for me and my family that we have friends in Australia. The same goes in the other direction. You are always welcome to us and you do have a warm place in our hearths."

6. 3pm june 21st, 2008 - (Chris 'CT' Tanner, clarinet)

We are in Reykjavik at the moment, we're here for the next 5 days. We played last night in a place called organ. It just so happened that I ran into a guy that I had been partying with in Akureyri at the start of the tour. He was managing the club we played last night. Its a band venue that has been open for a bit over a 1 year now. Was a good gig and we all played well. We are off to play in Acranes tonight a town north west of Reykjavik

Iceland has been a lot of fun. I highly recommend you traveling this part of the world. People are friendly and every view is like a photo. We have 5 more days of the Iceland leg of the tour left.

5. Ísafjörður june 18th, 2008 - (Jens, danish attorney)

Woke up one cold morning, many miles from the smooth cobblestones of Copenhagen. Maybe it wasn't even morning, it's awful hard to keep track of time when it's bright daylight around the clock. Anyhow, a drum boy caught my attention and forced my tired body to leave the safe premises of the Old Guesthouse. The drums weren't advertising the execution of yet another inbred outlaw in this remote and uncivilized town of Ísafjörður - but some bizarre parade.

The Elders had it compulsory for every kid in town to dress up in silly costumes and march the streets waving with some local blue, red and white rag to celebrate the anniversary of so called independency. Some locals seemed to take this temporary social experiment of independency from the Danish Motherland rather serious.

It truly made me sick to witness the sad faces of children forced to wave that bastard flag. A horrific brass band tried to cover the sound of young maids crying, wishing for the return of the good old days of Danish protection in this rough & isolated province. I have only these few words of comfort to their lost souls: Despair not, the Danish flag will return to this windswept land.

(The hoodangers in no way endorse the above comments)

4. midnight (still light!!) june 17th, 2008 - (Marky Mark)

Loving Isafjordur. A crazy little windswept fjord dwelling town with some specy snow capped mountains surrounding it. It’s a barmy 11c on Iceland’s national day, i spotted people sun baking!

Last nights’ gig was a cracker especially for a Monday night. Was in a newish venue that had until recently been an old derelict fish processing factory.    I always love watching the reaction of punters that have never heard or seen the Dangers before. It always takes a couple a tunes for people to start to grasp what the hell they’re experiencing. Was good to see a table of young local trippers digging us.   Dangers are starting to find their ‘tour chops’ (musical term for hardening the fuck up on tour).

This afternoon we took a boat out to Puffin island to do the “Puffin Tour”. Apparently its layen season and a good time to go check em out.  Tour guide showed us around, beautiful island with a nice view of the nearest Glacier. Saw some cool stuff, the Ida (Ida down fame) Duck was there. They sell the Duck down for 1500 euro a kg.  Saw lots of Puffin type burrows but not one fricken Puffin!!  Theres supposedly 30,000 Puffins on this island but i reckon they’re full of shit!

Tonight (if ya can call it night!!) we went to the number one sea food joint in town. As luck would have it our man Petur (the great!) called ahead and got us a play for dinner and beers deal! SWEEEEEEEEEEEET!!  We played for an hour and had a life changing culinary experience.  Beautiful seafood chowder for start followed by Halibut with a mustardy capery buttery sauce and then after a couple more tunes a Cod dish with caramelised onions and mushies with a kind of pepper butter sauce. Happy Tummies!!

Well...........everyone fine over here, maybe a bit smelly at times but otherwise sweet. Love to all xxx

3. midnight june 16th, 2008 - (Eamon 'Scrote' McNelis - Special guest trumpet)

Iceland is all about the hot and cold - and a little bit of warm.

Cold: The outdoor swimming pool across the road from our guesthouse. Did my bung knee good, but jeez those temperatures have a diminutive effect on ones member.
Hot: Steam rising from cracks in the earth's surface, making bubbling mud puddles that scar the ground like an infected ulcer.
Cold: Whale-watching. I was wearing two layers on my legs and 4 on my torso, and then they give you this giant ultra-warm-cover-all costume that looks like a space-suit... and I was still fucking cold.
Hot: The underground swimming-hole just outside akuyeri... it's beautiful, you climb down into this cave, and it stinks of sulphur cos this pool is heated by... i dunno... lava or something, and it's hot. like, really hot. like a really, really hot bath, but it doesn't cool down. The water was a beautiful luminescent blue. i reckon if you chucked us in there with a couple of onions, some garlic, and maybe a potato or two we'd stew up real nice.
Warm: we've got this beer fridge in the back of the van but it's bloody useless. We worked out that we'd had it switched to 'heat' for most of the last coupla days, so we've changed it to 'refridgerate' but it's still not going very well and i haven't had a cold beer since i got here.

Red Beans and Ricely,
Scrote

PS. Does anyone know if I'd get a taxidermy'd puffin through australian customs if i tried? I really, really want one.

2. 2pm June 13th, 2008 - (BennyG – trombonist & word screamer.)

Why do I do this?
Late nights.  The earliest of mornings.
 On vans. Off planes. On buses. Off trains. On bikes. Off ferries. On foot. Off trams.
A carbon foot print bigger in one month than most people achieve in 5 years.
An overheated liver and kidney and other tender organs.
Fighting, bitching, complaining, frustrating, tense and hating.

Mostly cause its so fucken awesome. Totally awesome and fairly unexplainable. Being on the road with people I love and who helped made me what I am. 13 years later and nearly  a million combined kilometres later and I still love it. Really love it. A comraderie and a sense of common purpose that is unique and most people will never know. All for the music but for so much more than the music. Barfoot once said to me ‘So you’re goin on the road again?’ ‘FUCKEN GREAT, I LOVE BEING ON THE ROAD!’  It was pretty straight ahead but it stopped me dead. I realised, as I do a lot lately, something that I already knew so well! ‘I LOVE BEING ON THE ROAD’. Thats why I keep doing it. As stressful as it is. I just love being on the road.

Last night we played our first Iceland show. At Marina in Akureyri. Icelands second biggest city. 17,000 people in total!!! More like a concert than we usually like but it was all good.
Akureyri is our main man Peturs hometown. Petur has taken it upon himself to bring us out here and work like a dog to do so. Only to receive 2 weeks of madness and confusion from 6 Aussie deros and a Dane (our attorney who will write a diary entry soon). But of course some great music. Its continually surprising to us what people will put themselves through over the years and around the world in order to hear good music. And we cant always guarantee that!  

We just recorded our second spot on Iceland TV this afternoon. You can check out both with the links on our site.
Later today we’re off to Husavik to do another gig. Its an hour away to the North east and one of the capitals of whale watching in Iceland. The owners of the whale watching business also own the restaurant where we will be playing tonight. They are not keen on whale hunting so Mal and I will have to wait a little longer to sample one of our mammalian cousins.
 Mmmm what would chairman Rudd say?
We also plan to eat petrified shark. An Icelandic delicacy that involves burying a shark until it begins to rot then eating it.....Seriously! Its essential to have a form of schnapps with it we’re told and we suspect it is to hide the distinctive flavour.
We’ll keep ya posted.

1. 11pm June 11, 2008 - (Eamon 'Scrote' McNelis - Special guest trumpet)

Generic touring musician fucked-ness.
Tired. Haven’t slept on a bed for days. Too tired, even, to get properly drunk.
We’re stuck in a 7-seater mini-van (supplied by our dapper tour manager Petur) driving from “ray-ki-ya-vik” (the capital) to “ak-oo-ware-E”; the second biggest town, with a population about the size of Wangaratta. The sky is blue and the sun is bright, even though it’s eleven in the pm, the mountains on each side of us are capped with snow, the rivers are running quick and the smells of 7 dudes in a car with no windows is starting to get to me just a little.

After getting into Copenhagen early the morning before last, the libatious process of catching up with old mates led to extreme difficult in waking up for our 7am flight to Iceland. We did a little telly thing in Reykjavik (Chrissy sung pitter patter) and I realised... I’m on a euro tour with the cunting dangers. Brilliant.

(Catch the hoodangers on iceland TV here)