Compilation video from Stettin, Poland

Thanks to our friends in Poland for putting together a compilation of a few songs from our show in Stettin: 'Echoes of Silence' and 'Ghost in My Head'.

High quality video from Judgement Day "Echoes of Silence"

We just found a great video from Bat Rock TV on YouTube which was filmed at Judgement Day. Hope you enjoy it!

Thank you Stefan and Thomas!

While it may look like it's all excitement, partying, bright lights and bald men from the outside, a tour in a van also means a lot of hard work and stress. And the people doing most of the hard work don't ever get to stand in the spotlight.

Thank you very much to our wonderful driver and merch salesman, Stefan. He is officially the funniest German in the world and he did so much more than just drive us 6,000km around Europe.

IKON would also not sound as good on tour if not for our professional sound engineer and translator of Stefan, Thomas. He not only made our shows sound great, but he also whipped up some pommes mit mayo in the kitchen while tweaking the levels in Budapest. Thank you for your patience and the laughs.

Last show of the tour in Roma

It was some journey to get to Rome in time. After leaving Austria at 1.00am straight after the Festival show, we had almost 1000km to go to get to our final show in Rome by the next afternoon. As luck would have it, a large truck overturned on the highway outside of the city, spilling the cars it was transporting on to the road too. This meant two hours stuck in the van a few hundred kilometres from the venue, and also that we were very late for our soundcheck.

Despite this bad start, the show in Rome was a perfect end to the tour, with excellent promotion ensuring a great crowd were in attendance and they were not shy to stand up the front of the stage and go crazy. We barely realised that we played 22 songs!

We visited the Colosseum after the show in the early hours of the morning, taking in the last moments of madness before the tour came to a close. Well, at least the part before the 24 hours on a plane rolled around.

Now we're back home in Melbourne and we thank everyone who came out to see us in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Poland, whether it was for the first or fifth time. Thank you also to those who've followed the blog who were too far away to come to see us play, especially Miguel and Matthias.

We'll continue to post photos and videos from the tour here in the next few weeks, so keep checking back.

Setlist Roma 03.10.09

Memoirs of a Butterfly
Reality is Lost
I Never Wanted You
Condemnation
Subversion
Echoes of Silence
Dreaming
Blue Murder
11 O’clock Tick Tock
Afterlife
Fall Apart
Love, Hate and Sorrow
Without Shadows
All Depths of Despair

Encore One:
Torn Apart
Path of the Unknown
A Line on a Dark Day
Garden of the Lost
Rome

Encore Two:
Stalag 13
Black Roses
Ceremony
Psychic Vampire

Video of Condemnation and setlist from Judgement Day

Here's a rough video taken on a still camera to show the feeling of the Judgement Day Festival. We've recorded every show on the tour, and both the Leipzig and Berlin shows were filmed, so hopefully some good quality footage will be available for you to see soon.

Judgement Day 11 setlist
A Line on a Dark Day
Memoirs of a Butterfly
I Never Wanted You
Condemnation
Echoes of Silence
Driftwood
Garden of the Lost
Fall Apart
Without Shadows
All Depths of Despair
Rome
Sister Ray/A Forest

2.10.09 Judgement Day Festival, Dornbirn Austria

It had taken us some time to get to Budapest, although well worth it for the crowd's enthusiasm and gratitude to us for travelling there. Nevertheless, we were left some distance away from our next show at the Judgement Day Festival in Dornbirn, Austria. After a day driving in the tour van, we spent the night about half way to our eventual destination, in Linz, Austria. It was a wild night full of clothes washing after so many days on the road with no time off . The following day our "lovely" driver Stefan got us safely to Dornbirn the night before the show.

Spielboden was an impressive venue with good sound and lighting, which looked like it was used more for cultural events rather than the bunkers we'd become accustomed to on this tour. Disturbingly, we knew that we had to leave the festival straight after we played because we had to make it to Rome by the next afternoon. And so we had a relax while Grooving in Green (formerly Children on Stun) played and then performed for an hour. After so many shows under our belts, it felt like we had found our rhythm and that it was a good performance.

After the show, we had a quick chance to talk to many fans who'd come over from England and some locals too, but meanwhile the van was being packed for a quick escape to make the 1000km journey to Rome. As in Budapest, it was terrible to have to leave when the festival was still kicking on with a party.

Setlist and video to come...

Limited edition 2-CDs

Just a quick note to tell our favourite fans who are hoping to buy the limited edition 2-CDs of the new album, This Quiet Earth and On the Edge of Forever that we will have some left from the tour and will put them on our website for sale when we return home to Australia. Don't worry, we haven't forgotten you!

Best wishes,

IKON

29.09.09 After Music Club Budapest, Hungary

It was a long drive from our Polish adventure to our next show in Budapest, so we stopped en route in the capital of the Czech Republic, Prague. It was the first time we'd seen more of a country than the inside of a hotel room, a petrol station or an autobahn, and it was beautiful. We've even got photographic proof.

We arrived in Budapest unsure of how we'd be received in Hungary. What a surprise to find one of the most excited and enthusiastic crowds of the tour, all crowded in to yet another underground venue (we seem to be touring all the bunkers and caves of Europe this year). It has been amazing to play to audiences like the one in Budapest who are happy to have darkwave bands playing in their city at all.

We were entirely exhausted after the long drive and the gig, so we unfortunately had to leave the club night after the show and head for our hotel. Even more sadly, we farewelled our sound engineer, Thomas, in Budapest, as he had to head back to Belgium.

And so we set off in the van minus Thomas's talents and translation skills to our final two gigs in Dornbirn, Austria (at the Judgement Day Festival) and Rome, Italy.

27.09.2009 Stettin, Poland

After Leipzig, we were excited to be driving to our first gig in Poland. After a somewhat mysterious rendezvous with the promoter at a gas station, we were soon welcomed to Stettin and Polish hospitality. We'll never forget the bison grass vodka, the giant jar of gherkins and the tinned paprika fish. Not only was our host, Darek, really accommodating, but the crowd was so appreciative, even working up an "Ikon" chant at one point and crowding around for photos and autographs at the end of the show. It was a fantastic night and left us pleased that we'd made the journey to Poland. It was also our last show with Dandelion Wine, who we were sorry to see leave to head home to Berlin.

Setlist:

Memoirs of a Butterfly

Reality is Lost

I Never Wanted You

Torn Apart

Condemnation

Subversion

Suicide

Echoes of Silence

Ghost in My Head

Afterlife

Amongst the Runes

Rome

Fall Apart

God Has Fallen from the Sky

Black Roses

Ceremony

Psychic Vampire

A Line on a Dark Day

Leipzig, Club Lagerhof 26.09.09

Leipzig was our best gig so far, which is lucky considering that this show was also being filmed for our live DVD. We had great support on the night from Die Kalte (whose music we thought was excellent) and Dandelion Wine. And far too quickly we had to leave Leipzig, after only a Swedish kebab and a hotel breakfast to head off to our first ever gig in Poland.

Setlist:
A Line on a Dark Day
Memoirs of a Butterfly
I Never Wanted You
Condemnation
Subversion
Echoes of Silence
Path of the Unknown
Fall Apart
11 o'clock Tick Tock
Ghost in My Head
Garden of the Lost
Amongst the Runes
Rome
As Night Falls
In Trust I Return
Ceremony
Afterlife
All Depths of Despair
Sister Ray/A Forest/Interzone
Black Roses
Psychic Vampire

Chemnitz, Bunker, 25.09.09

Chemnitz was our second show in a Bunker this tour. This Bunker was built to store food in after WWII in the event of nuclear fallout, so it made for an unusual (cold!) venue to play in. Our next stop after Chemnitz is Leipzig, where we're very excited to be playing at Club Lagerhof.

Memoirs of a Butterfly
Reality is Lost
I Never Wanted You
Condemnation
Subversion
Dreaming
Driftwood
11 O’clock Tick Tock
Afterlife
Amongst the Runes
Fall Apart
Rome
Torn Apart
Echoes of Silence
Black Roses
Psychic Vampire

Berlin K17 24.09.09

We arrived in Berlin excited to play our fifth ever show at K17. It was also a happy occasion because fellow Australian band Dandelion Wine joined us as a support band. It was great to play the first of four shows on the tour with them. The guys from Goja Moon Rockah, our other support on the night, were lots of fun and we hope they'll have lots of success in future.

SETLIST
A Line on a Dark Day
Memoirs of a Butterfly
I Never Wanted You
Torn Apart
Condemnation
Subversion
Echoes of Silence
Blue Murder
Driftwood
Afterlife
All Depths of Despair
Fall Apart
Love, Hate and Sorrow
Rome
Without Shadows
Stalag 13
Black Roses
Psychic Vampire
Shadowplay
Reality is Lost

Logo Hamburg setlist 23.09.09

We are posting from the band room at Club Logo in Hamburg.

Thank you to everyone who came along, danced, took photos and videos.

SETLIST

A Line on a Dark Day

Memoirs of a Butterfly

Reality is Lost

I Never Wanted You

Torn Apart

Condemnation

Subversion

Dreaming

Driftwood

Ghost in My Head

Amongst the Runes

Rome

Fall Apart

Without Shadows

11 o'clock Tick Tock

Afterlife

All Depths of Despair

Shadowplay

In Trust I Return
Black Roses

Echoes of Silence

Sister Ray/A Forest

Echoes of Silence video from FZW Dortmund

Here's a video from a small camera (not the best quality) of "Echoes of Silence" from the Dortmund show. If anyone has any video they want to share with us from any of the shows, please leave a comment.

We'll be having our Berlin and Leipzig shows filmed professionally for use in a future DVD project. So come along to the upcoming shows Berliners and Leipzigers!

Dortmund at FZW 22.09.09

We arrived in Dortmund one night early and enjoyed the rest at our hotel after the first lot of shows. The venue for our show, FZW, was brand new, having only been used for a couple of bands before us.


It was one of the most enjoyable on the tour so far, with great sound, lots of old fans coming to see us and a great response from the crowd. The band has sore wrists from signing so many CDs after the show!


Today we leave our luxury 5-star hotel to head to our next stop, Hamburg.



Setlist: Dortmund 22.09.09


A Line on a Dark Day
Memoirs of a Butterfly
I Never Wanted You
Condemnation
Subversion
Echoes of Silence
Path of the Unknown
Driftwood
Garden of the Lost
Amongst the Runes
Rome
All Depths of Despair
Fall Apart
Love, Hate and Sorrow
Blue Murder
Afterlife
Ceremony
Black Roses
God Has Fallen from the Sky
Psychic Vampire
Reality is Lost
Torn Apart

Video of "Blue Murder" from Z7 Switzerland

Aachen, Musikbunker setlist

On Monday we played our first show ever in Aachen, Germany. The venue was quite literally a bunker, which meant there was not a lot of air down there. We played to a smaller, but very enthusiastic crowd, who were eager for us to play all night, as you'll see from the long setlist.

Setlist, Musikbunker Aachen 20.9.09

A Line on a Dark Day
Memoirs of a Butterfly
I Never Wanted You
Torn Apart
Krista
Condemnation
Subversion
Suicide
Blue Murder
Amongst the Runes
Rome
All Depths of Despair
Fall Apart
Echoes of Silence
Reality is Lost
Ghost in My Head
Garden of the Lost
Love, Hate and Sorrow
Crucified
Black Roses
Psychic Vampire
Sister Ray/A Forest

Sint-Niklaas Belgium with This Vale of Tears

After Pratteln, we travelled in our van that night to yet another Etap hotel, somewhere in France (for those who don’t know Etap hotels have somewhat of a plastic cupboard in the corner which contains the toilet and shower). With all the driving it is sometimes hard to know what country you are in, let alone which town. From our hotel, we crossed France and Luxemburg, driving all day, to arrive in Belgium and straight to the venue, Kompas, for soundcheck feeling quite exhausted.



The venue for the show was, of course, a lot smaller than Z7, but we were treated like kings by our hosts (in the photo above with IKON) from the moment we arrived and were glad to be back playing to an audience of our fans.



Support band This Vale of Tears warmed the crowd up while we took a moment to rest. They did a very good job of this as the room was really hot by the time we took to the stage! In the heat, we played a long set, returning for three encores and playing so me unplanned songs like ‘Psychic Vampire’ and our tour medley of ‘’ and ‘A Forest’.

A well-needed sleep in Belgium saw us head back to Germany this morning, where we are now about to soundcheck for our show in Aachen.

SETLIST

Sint-Niklaas 19.09.09

Memoirs of a Butterfly
Reality is Lost
I Never Wanted You
Torn Apart
Condemnation
Subversion
Echoes of Silence
Driftwood
11 O’clock Tick Tock
Ghost in My Head
Afterlife
All Depths of Despair
Rome
Stalag 13
Psychic Vampire
Sister Ray/A Forest
Fall Apart
Love, Hate and Sorrow

Pratteln, Switzerland with Faun

We had a great time playing at Z7, the largest permanent music venue in Switzerland- it can hold up to 1000 people! The lighting and sound were both amazing. Because we were playing with folk band Faun, we changed our set quite a lot to play some of our more folk-influenced and acoustic-based songs to suit the audience. Thank you to the Swiss IKON fans and those who travelled to see us from other countries nearby. We were pleased to see that some Faun fans who did not know us well enjoyed the show and bought CDs too.

Faun were extremely friendly people and we were very happy to have the opportunity to share the same stage as them.

The setlist is as follows:

As Night Falls

Crucified

God Has Fallen from the Sky

Elohim

Memoirs of a Butterfly

A Line on a Dark Day

Fall Apart

I Never Wanted You

Condemnation

Subversion

Blue Murder

Driftwood

Amongst the Runes

Torn Apart

Stalag 13

Frankfurt setlist

And a translation if you can't read Dino's writing:

A Line on a Dark Day
Memoirs of a Butterfly
Reality is Lost
I Never Wanted You
Torn Apart
Condemnation
Subversion
Dreaming
Driftwood
11 o'clock Tick Tock
Afterlife
All Depths of Despair
Encore one:
Rome
Love, Hate and Sorrow
Encore two:
Shadowplay
Echoes of Silence

Frankfurt show

The tour has begun! Thank you to everyone in Frankfurt who came out to a metal (!) venue to see us play. Even though we were exhausted after the long flights from Australia, the crowd gave us a great response and we were very friendly.

For the man who wanted the setlist on the blog today, we will post it soon (as soon as we find it in our bags!).

Tour merchandise

IKON will have lots of merchandise available on the tour, including, most importantly, a limited-edition double-CD version of the new album. The second CD includes acoustic versions from the album sessions. There'll also be limited edition double CDs of the albums On the Edge of Forever (bonus disc includes a previously unreleased live show) and This Quiet Earth (includes the complete Crimes of Passion recordings), as well as the singles collection The Burden of History, and recent EPs League of Nations and Amongst the Runes. Plus we'll have the last remaining copies of the second volume of Boulevard of Broken Dreams volume 2 "Live in Marseille".

We'll have the In the Shadow of the Angel t-shirt, as well as a brand-new Love, Hate and Sorrow tour t-shirt, featuring all the tour-dates on the back .

IKON Tour Blog begins

IKON will be touring Europe from 17 September to 3 October. This blog will document the tour through seven countries.

The tour dates and locations have just been finalised:

17.09.2009 D-Frankfurt, Die Halle (with Gates of Dawn)
18.09.2009 CH-Pratteln, Z7 (supporting Faun)
19.09.2009 B-Sint-Niklaas, Kompas
20.09.2009 D-Aachen Musikbunker Aachen
22.09.2009 D-Dortmund, FZW
23.09.2009 D-Hamburg, Logo
24.09.2009 D-Berlin, K17 (with Dandelion Wine and goJAH moon ROCKAH)
25.09.2009 D-Chemnitz, Bunker (with Dandelion Wine)
26.09.2009 D-Leipzig, Club Lagerhof (with Dandelion Wine)
27.09.2009 PL-Stettin, Dom Kultury Slowianin (with Dandelion Wine)
29.09.2009 H- Budapest After Music Club (with Autumn Twilight)
02.10.2009 AT- Judgement Day Festival (with Grooving in Green)
03.10.2009 I-Rome Big Bang Roma