Tour life might seem glamorous and fun, but it ain’t for the faint of heart. Between the homesickness and long drives, there’s also the issue of where to rest your head each night. It’s not just up-and-coming bands cutting their teeth playing tiny gig after tiny gig don’t get to ride in a lux tour bus much less stay in a hotel room every night (although, those can be weird, too). Instead, you crash wherever they can to save money. Denmark-based heavy metal outfit Manticora know all about this — they’ve stayed in some pretty shady spots while on the road since forming in 1997. The band — comprised of vocalist Lars F. Larsen, guitarists Kristian Larsen and Stefan Johansson, bassist Kasper Gram and drummer Lawrence Dinamarca — will release the second part of the grandiose horror concept, this one entitled To Live to Kill to Live on August 28th, as a killer follow-up to the 2018 album To Kill to Live to Kill. We caught up with Lars Larsen to get a look at what tour life is really all about.
Sidewalk
We had to sleep on a sidewalk in Vienna because the air conditioner in the bus was broken. That was pretty weird to sleep where people were passing by.
Backstage-sorta
In 2014 we played at this club in Milan called Blue Rose. It was incredibly hot and there was no backstage room. Great show, but funny venue.
Garage
After a bus breakdown — after the first show of the European tour in 2014 — two bands with crew walked to a garage in Hamburg, where we slept and got supplies. What a way to kick off a tour!
Parking Lot
In a random parking lot in France in 2005. Our bus driver had to get some sleep and we had to spend several hours in this tiny shopping mall. We ended up playing football outside for several hours.
Fastfood Restaurant
The great search for food after a show in Niagara Falls, North America. Long story short, after the longest search we finally found a fastfood restaurant that was nearly closing. We ended up having a long chat with the guys working there and came back to the venue with more than 5 kg of food that we got for free.