7.23.2011
Memory must prevail.
I have been seriously lacking in posts as of late. Tour is something you get caught up in, and I did, so...I probably won't be posting any more till the end of tour, and then I'll recap everything after my last post up till the end. As much as I liked recapping events at night, I'd rather live the event, and recap it after all is said and done. Thanks for reading, stay tuned for the end of tour journal. In the mean time, stay classy internet.
7.13.2011
Crawling up the rectum of France...
...as Matt put it while traversing the millions of tunnels it takes to get there. We stopped once so far, and were treated by down home yokels from the good ole US of A. I know that it s exactly how we sound, but hearing other Americans order cappuccinos, coffee, and various food items makes me ashamed at how stupid our accent sounds compared to the whole of Europe. I've lost track of how long we've been in the van already, which I guess is partly a good thing, but makes me anxious to know how long we have left. Best just not to think about it and enjoy the scenery.
Bummer town, population: Rosetta & City of ships
So...the van broke down again, and not the temporary way like last time, this was pretty bad. We were stuck on the side of the road for about half an hour to 45 minutes when a truck came by to 'tow' us off the highway. I use the word 'tow' loosely, mostly because it was more like a tugboat action. The dude tied a rope from his tiny little truck to our gigantic van and pulled us to the next exit toll. We still had to pay the toll, and to actually get through the toll, we had to manually push it through.
We ended up setting off alarms because the toll booth sensors thought we (the dudes pushing the van through) were another smaller car trying to sneak through the toll. Once on the other side, we waited for the actual tow truck. This felt like forever. When the tow truck got there, the dude told us to get in the van, and he was going to hoist us onto the flatbed of the truck. This, we all thought, was a bad idea. First attempt, he was unable to lift the van onto the flatbed, so he immediately gave up, and decided to just pin up our front end, and tow us. We were all still in the van while we were being towed. This was both exciting and nerve wracking, especially since we bounced up and down, and the stirrups holding the van to the tow truck kept bouncing and scraping on the ground when we hit bumps, and made sharp turns.
We finally arrived at a Mercedes-Benz dealership, and boy, when we got inside that building, it was like walking through the gates of heaven. Comfy waiting area, air conditioning, and a television (though it only played Italian shows and really crappy pop music videos). We waited there for a good while to eventually find that the van was, for all intensive purposes, screwed.
Now, in the US, we would be boned if our van broke down and had to have massive work done to it, but in Europe, we're working with a German company, and as Mike says, "I love working with Germans. They have no sense of humor, but they know how to run a good business." The van was fully insured, and the only thing we had to worry about was waiting, and maybe being late for tomorrow's show (though, we did have to cancel the show today, but we much needed a day off anyway). Even greater, someone is going to drive a new van for us to Italy, from Germany, now that's service. So we get to spend the night in a miscellaneous Italian city, which is a thousand times better than any city in the US.
We took a bus to the center of town in an attempt to find a place to sleep. There was a lot of wandering, but we finally found a hostel to sleep.
We got a recommendation from one of the locals as to where to et cause they overheard us talking. It was pizza again tonight, but where better to have pizza than Italy! We walked for a bit and found the pizza place. It was almost unbearable to stand inside the building to read the menu it was so hot. I finally settled on a margarita (I don't think that's the correct spelling for the pizza, spell correction) pizza, everyone else got their respective food and we wandered for a place to sit and eat. Once we're done, we wander for a bit, but decide we want ice cream too, so we returned to the pizza place to ask where to find some. We walked for some time, which was long enough for us to almost think we're going the wrong way, but finally we see it. We had some amazing gelato, and we're off back to the hostel.
The next day: On to France
The new van is being driven down to us from Germany, ridiculous. It' was supposed to be here at around 9am or so, he got here around 9:30. We picked up some food from a local grocery store and headed out. We had to get the driver to the train station by 11:30. We were late getting there, not cause he was running late, but because we had a hard time finding the Mercedes dealership, trying to move the gear from one van to another (this van being epic and amazing, but having less room in the back for gear), and then, we hit horrid traffic on the way out of town. The drive said he could just take a later train as he had already missed his scheduled train. We got him there, said our thank you's and goodbyes, rearranged some things, and we're now on our splendid 9 hour drive to France.
We entered the longest tunnel ever that led to France. I fell asleep mid tunnel, but was woken up on the other end to a border guard knocking on the window, and everyone telling me to wake up and open the door for him. We all said 'hi' and he heard we were American, and sent us on our way, weird.
Mike got tired, and so now our Mike [Armine] is captaining the van, since he's the only other dude here that knows how to drive manual. We're well into France now, and we'll probably be late to the show, but we'll make it. It's weird, the lapse of time while in tour is a completely different animal than when at home. We broke down yesterday and had one unscheduled day off, only one day, but it feels to all of us like we haven't played a show in a week. Hopefully all goes well the rest of the trip today, and the show tonight.
We arrived late as expected. The show went pretty well, but the crowd didn't seem that energetic and, in turn, didn't feel as exciting. We were mostly just happy to have a new van and that we got paid. I think we lost a good amount of money yesterday.
Bummer town, population: Rosetta & City of ships
So...the van broke down again, and not the temporary way like last time, this was pretty bad. We were stuck on the side of the road for about half an hour to 45 minutes when a truck came by to 'tow' us off the highway. I use the word 'tow' loosely, mostly because it was more like a tugboat action. The dude tied a rope from his tiny little truck to our gigantic van and pulled us to the next exit toll. We still had to pay the toll, and to actually get through the toll, we had to manually push it through.
We ended up setting off alarms because the toll booth sensors thought we (the dudes pushing the van through) were another smaller car trying to sneak through the toll. Once on the other side, we waited for the actual tow truck. This felt like forever. When the tow truck got there, the dude told us to get in the van, and he was going to hoist us onto the flatbed of the truck. This, we all thought, was a bad idea. First attempt, he was unable to lift the van onto the flatbed, so he immediately gave up, and decided to just pin up our front end, and tow us. We were all still in the van while we were being towed. This was both exciting and nerve wracking, especially since we bounced up and down, and the stirrups holding the van to the tow truck kept bouncing and scraping on the ground when we hit bumps, and made sharp turns.
We finally arrived at a Mercedes-Benz dealership, and boy, when we got inside that building, it was like walking through the gates of heaven. Comfy waiting area, air conditioning, and a television (though it only played Italian shows and really crappy pop music videos). We waited there for a good while to eventually find that the van was, for all intensive purposes, screwed.
Now, in the US, we would be boned if our van broke down and had to have massive work done to it, but in Europe, we're working with a German company, and as Mike says, "I love working with Germans. They have no sense of humor, but they know how to run a good business." The van was fully insured, and the only thing we had to worry about was waiting, and maybe being late for tomorrow's show (though, we did have to cancel the show today, but we much needed a day off anyway). Even greater, someone is going to drive a new van for us to Italy, from Germany, now that's service. So we get to spend the night in a miscellaneous Italian city, which is a thousand times better than any city in the US.
We took a bus to the center of town in an attempt to find a place to sleep. There was a lot of wandering, but we finally found a hostel to sleep.
We got a recommendation from one of the locals as to where to et cause they overheard us talking. It was pizza again tonight, but where better to have pizza than Italy! We walked for a bit and found the pizza place. It was almost unbearable to stand inside the building to read the menu it was so hot. I finally settled on a margarita (I don't think that's the correct spelling for the pizza, spell correction) pizza, everyone else got their respective food and we wandered for a place to sit and eat. Once we're done, we wander for a bit, but decide we want ice cream too, so we returned to the pizza place to ask where to find some. We walked for some time, which was long enough for us to almost think we're going the wrong way, but finally we see it. We had some amazing gelato, and we're off back to the hostel.
The next day: On to France
The new van is being driven down to us from Germany, ridiculous. It' was supposed to be here at around 9am or so, he got here around 9:30. We picked up some food from a local grocery store and headed out. We had to get the driver to the train station by 11:30. We were late getting there, not cause he was running late, but because we had a hard time finding the Mercedes dealership, trying to move the gear from one van to another (this van being epic and amazing, but having less room in the back for gear), and then, we hit horrid traffic on the way out of town. The drive said he could just take a later train as he had already missed his scheduled train. We got him there, said our thank you's and goodbyes, rearranged some things, and we're now on our splendid 9 hour drive to France.
We entered the longest tunnel ever that led to France. I fell asleep mid tunnel, but was woken up on the other end to a border guard knocking on the window, and everyone telling me to wake up and open the door for him. We all said 'hi' and he heard we were American, and sent us on our way, weird.
Mike got tired, and so now our Mike [Armine] is captaining the van, since he's the only other dude here that knows how to drive manual. We're well into France now, and we'll probably be late to the show, but we'll make it. It's weird, the lapse of time while in tour is a completely different animal than when at home. We broke down yesterday and had one unscheduled day off, only one day, but it feels to all of us like we haven't played a show in a week. Hopefully all goes well the rest of the trip today, and the show tonight.
We arrived late as expected. The show went pretty well, but the crowd didn't seem that energetic and, in turn, didn't feel as exciting. We were mostly just happy to have a new van and that we got paid. I think we lost a good amount of money yesterday.
7.11.2011
Meanwhile, in Italy...
Today, I am in Italy, and had my first experience with a bidet. It needs to catch on in America because it was absolutely wonderful. It was like a shower just for my ass, leaving you feeling fresh and clean. My legs are covered in itchy bug bites from last nights fiasco with the horror that was our dinner situation, and I'm trying real hard not to just rip apart my legs right now.
Today we're off to France. The drive is exceptionally long, something like 8 or 9 hours. Should be fun.
I wanted to get this post in before we left Italy mostly because I don't know when we'll have wifi again, but also cause I wanted to have a separate post about the morning bidet experience. Cheers.
Today we're off to France. The drive is exceptionally long, something like 8 or 9 hours. Should be fun.
I wanted to get this post in before we left Italy mostly because I don't know when we'll have wifi again, but also cause I wanted to have a separate post about the morning bidet experience. Cheers.
7.10.2011
What's the Italian word for 'f**king beautiful'?
Woke up this morning in the sweet hotel we were given, opened the window only to be attacked by flying bugs, so I closed it again. The view was absolutely outstanding, lots of pics to come. Andrew and I roomed together, but woke up too late to catch breakfast, we pretty much starved till we got to the show in Italy.
We took a much deserved detour on the way to the show, and it was un-f**king-believable. We pulled through a canyon to reveal a huge cliff, below, a little town on the water. Lake Garda, absolutely beautiful, straight out of a tour brochure, but much more awesome. We were gonna go swimming. Even if we didn't go in the water, the trip and the scenery would have been worth the trip. The richest blue I've ever seen was the water, epic tall mountains surrounding everything, swimmer, boaters, and people parasailing. There were even topless sunning women, not that we were scouting them out, but we have been on tour for about a month now, so they would be a momentary object of spectacle when passed, but our attention would immediately switch back to the wonder of the surrounding nature.
We eventually found a parking spot, everyone prepared themselves for the water (most just wore jeans cause that's all we had) and dove in. Later we found that our chosen swimming spot was actually a dock for the ferry, but we were all out of the water in time to not get run over by it. After the beauty of the Italian lake, we were hesitantly back in the van. Our only choice for food was an American style food cart, which we all sort of frowned upon, eventually deciding just to get some coffee. Everything else was closed because it was Sunday, which doesn't mean much to us, as we never know what day it is anyway.
It was still a 2hr drive to the show, and after the beauty of the lake, everything else waned in comparison, which then brings us to one of the lowest points on this tour. First, we get a call saying that we have to pick up the promoter and drive him with us to the venue (later we would find out the biggest goof when he shows up driving a car). Luckily he's carrying a pot. We thought, "great, a home cooked meal for dinner." When we got to the venue, we were more than disappointed, we were just sad. We had to wait about a half hour for the dude with the key to show up, and when he did, the venue was covered in trash and bottles. It was a substantial undertaking on their parts to get the place cleaned up before the show started.
We were told that we should load in first before we eat, so we got the gear in, and setup the back line. Once we were finished, we waited by the van for someone to tell us we could eat. We were told we were gonna go to a place to eat (thinking there is more food, or some place more comfortable to eat, than the run down venue room). We pull up to an abandoned parking lot. Our passenger who is carrying the food pot gets out and opens the gate. There is nothing but trash, broken cars, a gutted bus that looked like someone was living in it, and out back, a picnic table surrounded by overgrown weeds. The worst of this all (besides the eventual food) was the presence of about a million and one biting, flying bugs. These insects where not present at the van, at the venue, and I made it clear I would have rather just eaten out of the van than go to this obvious goof of a location, but it's not the worst.
The dude opens the pot, we're all expecting some sort of pasta dish, maybe rice of some sort with veggies. Nothing could have prepared us for the let down we experienced. It turns out to be full of nothing but white rice, canned peas, and extremely crappier, canned mushrooms (all of it being stone cold). As the dude starts dishing out the food, everyone is silent, and hesitantly starts to dig in. Dave, however, starts into a giggle loop that ends in probably the greatest laugh I've ever heard come out of him. He pushes around his 'food' and just laughs hysterically for about ten minutes. Meanwhile, Eric, Andrew, and I are trying desperately to not be eaten alive by the millions of insects by walking out of the high weeds in the sun, and just keeping mobile. Finally, we all get fed up, no one finished their plate, and we walked off back to the van. We got in the van and drove back to the venue.
We mulled about at the van for a bit before deciding that we needed some real food, and Mike took us to a pizza place he had eaten at before. I've never been happier to eat some pizza (despite our past experiences with awful pizza from promoters on this tour).
The room in the venue is a tiny circular room that has a stage that can barely fit our gear let alone the members that use it. There was even a big duct tape X on the floor, that we found out signified an area that would collapse if trod upon. The building has no sign of ventilation, and all the windows are sealed and padded for acoustic reasons, so, no chance of opening them up to vent the heat. The show is a veritable hotbox. A sardine can put into an oven. I have no fan, and am probably going to pass out at the end of the set. We're gonna try to keep our set to 4 songs, and get the f**k outta there as fast as possible. We've all been looking forward to chilling at Mikes' place, eating some good food, and drinking some good espresso.
As a side note, my shoes are starting to fall apart. Bummer. I don't have enough money to buy new ones, so hopefully they're able to half-ass it through the rest of tour.
I could barely hold onto my sticks while playing, it was so humid in there. Croatia was hot, but I was actually able to hold into my sticks a bit better. Actually, now that I think about it, I think that was because they supplied me a fan for the show, cheers again dudes, I wish we were carrying a fan with us, I always have one when we tour the US. We only played 4 songs, and were not planning on playing an encore, to which we were fortunate enough to not be asked to play one.
We're driving to Mikes place tonight to sleep, then we wake super early and drink espresso, charging us for a grueling 8hr drive to France.
We took a much deserved detour on the way to the show, and it was un-f**king-believable. We pulled through a canyon to reveal a huge cliff, below, a little town on the water. Lake Garda, absolutely beautiful, straight out of a tour brochure, but much more awesome. We were gonna go swimming. Even if we didn't go in the water, the trip and the scenery would have been worth the trip. The richest blue I've ever seen was the water, epic tall mountains surrounding everything, swimmer, boaters, and people parasailing. There were even topless sunning women, not that we were scouting them out, but we have been on tour for about a month now, so they would be a momentary object of spectacle when passed, but our attention would immediately switch back to the wonder of the surrounding nature.
We eventually found a parking spot, everyone prepared themselves for the water (most just wore jeans cause that's all we had) and dove in. Later we found that our chosen swimming spot was actually a dock for the ferry, but we were all out of the water in time to not get run over by it. After the beauty of the Italian lake, we were hesitantly back in the van. Our only choice for food was an American style food cart, which we all sort of frowned upon, eventually deciding just to get some coffee. Everything else was closed because it was Sunday, which doesn't mean much to us, as we never know what day it is anyway.
It was still a 2hr drive to the show, and after the beauty of the lake, everything else waned in comparison, which then brings us to one of the lowest points on this tour. First, we get a call saying that we have to pick up the promoter and drive him with us to the venue (later we would find out the biggest goof when he shows up driving a car). Luckily he's carrying a pot. We thought, "great, a home cooked meal for dinner." When we got to the venue, we were more than disappointed, we were just sad. We had to wait about a half hour for the dude with the key to show up, and when he did, the venue was covered in trash and bottles. It was a substantial undertaking on their parts to get the place cleaned up before the show started.
We were told that we should load in first before we eat, so we got the gear in, and setup the back line. Once we were finished, we waited by the van for someone to tell us we could eat. We were told we were gonna go to a place to eat (thinking there is more food, or some place more comfortable to eat, than the run down venue room). We pull up to an abandoned parking lot. Our passenger who is carrying the food pot gets out and opens the gate. There is nothing but trash, broken cars, a gutted bus that looked like someone was living in it, and out back, a picnic table surrounded by overgrown weeds. The worst of this all (besides the eventual food) was the presence of about a million and one biting, flying bugs. These insects where not present at the van, at the venue, and I made it clear I would have rather just eaten out of the van than go to this obvious goof of a location, but it's not the worst.
The dude opens the pot, we're all expecting some sort of pasta dish, maybe rice of some sort with veggies. Nothing could have prepared us for the let down we experienced. It turns out to be full of nothing but white rice, canned peas, and extremely crappier, canned mushrooms (all of it being stone cold). As the dude starts dishing out the food, everyone is silent, and hesitantly starts to dig in. Dave, however, starts into a giggle loop that ends in probably the greatest laugh I've ever heard come out of him. He pushes around his 'food' and just laughs hysterically for about ten minutes. Meanwhile, Eric, Andrew, and I are trying desperately to not be eaten alive by the millions of insects by walking out of the high weeds in the sun, and just keeping mobile. Finally, we all get fed up, no one finished their plate, and we walked off back to the van. We got in the van and drove back to the venue.
We mulled about at the van for a bit before deciding that we needed some real food, and Mike took us to a pizza place he had eaten at before. I've never been happier to eat some pizza (despite our past experiences with awful pizza from promoters on this tour).
The room in the venue is a tiny circular room that has a stage that can barely fit our gear let alone the members that use it. There was even a big duct tape X on the floor, that we found out signified an area that would collapse if trod upon. The building has no sign of ventilation, and all the windows are sealed and padded for acoustic reasons, so, no chance of opening them up to vent the heat. The show is a veritable hotbox. A sardine can put into an oven. I have no fan, and am probably going to pass out at the end of the set. We're gonna try to keep our set to 4 songs, and get the f**k outta there as fast as possible. We've all been looking forward to chilling at Mikes' place, eating some good food, and drinking some good espresso.
As a side note, my shoes are starting to fall apart. Bummer. I don't have enough money to buy new ones, so hopefully they're able to half-ass it through the rest of tour.
I could barely hold onto my sticks while playing, it was so humid in there. Croatia was hot, but I was actually able to hold into my sticks a bit better. Actually, now that I think about it, I think that was because they supplied me a fan for the show, cheers again dudes, I wish we were carrying a fan with us, I always have one when we tour the US. We only played 4 songs, and were not planning on playing an encore, to which we were fortunate enough to not be asked to play one.
We're driving to Mikes place tonight to sleep, then we wake super early and drink espresso, charging us for a grueling 8hr drive to France.
Beautiful Germany...kinda
Passing through Germany and Austria on our way to a festival Italy. The view is great. We were watching 'the last samurai' when Matt said he needed to pee, so he grabbed a bottle and prepared. Mike ended up pulling into a truckstop shortly after that, much to Matt's happiness. The parking lot was on a sting upward slant, in fact, we had been traveling uphill for white a while now. As we pulled in, the van stalked out. Mike tried to put it into gear and make it into the parking space, it stalled out again. We ended up all exiting the van and pushing it as far as we could into a nearby parking space, with the steep incline, and the amount if gear we had in the back, this was no easy task.
We eventually got it most of the way into a space, but it still stuck out a bit into the driving lane, whatever, we didn't care. We figured the engine overheated and we needed to just wait for it to cool off. Waiting was not a fun idea, mostly because of the heat, but also because the fact that we're only ~30 minutes from the show, and already running late.
We kept warning to wait to open the radiator because it will likely explode from the pressure of the boiling engine coolant. Lo' and behold, Eric ended up popping the cap off, and liquid came spewing out like a geyser spilling its contents in the engine, then out the bottom and down the hill. Eric says afterwards, "well, that was a bad idea." We all agreed.
We purchased a few bottles of antifreeze and filled with water some miscellaneous bottles we had lying around the van. We then needed the van just to sit and cool off for a bit. There was a pretty swanky McDonalds nearby, so we went in and got some lunch. Eventually enough time and worrying had passed that we could return to the van and cross all our fingers hoping. It started, and we all were happy. As Mike pulled the van up, he noticed the coolant light was still lit, and we got worried. We bought another bottle of antifreeze and filled up the water bottles again, filled her up and we were off (fingers still crossed).
The van made it alright. We had a couple of scares, but nothing really directly related to the van. We were more afraid of falling off the side of a cliff, hitting something or someone, or broadsiding another car. The views were absolutely beautiful. I got a bunch of pictures that hopefully I'll be able to post later, but it was fantastic. When the venue for the festival was in view, we were awestruck. The shear size of it, let alone just the stage were enough to make us all worried and excited.
Because of our predicament, as we predicted, we had to load straight to the stage and start playing (well, city of ships had to, but you get the idea, 'the touring package' had to play right away). The load was awkward, and there weren't that many people there as we were doing it, not that we expected to play for thousands of people. City of ships sound checked and they started playing. There were people that started to wander over once they started playing. Many left after a song or two, but most stayed and either rocked out, or just stayed cause they had nothing better to do.
When they finished, the crowd dispersed and we started modifying the CoS stage setup for Rosetta. Once we were ready to do a line check, we had to wait another 5 or 6 minutes, because the sound guy was mysteriously MIA. Eventually a dude went and found him, and we were under way. We only had a 30 minute set time (every band up to and including us had that same time. Every band after us had a 60minute or longer set) so we only played three songs. I wasn't really nervous, I couldn't have given a s**t about anyone attending, or any of the other bands watching from the side stage, but I still messed up on a couple parts, mostly because it was foreign to me to play on such a giant stage, but also, because I could her everything that was going on that I was playing (and that's very rare for most of the venues we play), so I started over thinking certain parts, and ended up just messing them up.
I wasn't too worried, I still had people shaking my hand and telling us how good we were even up to when we were leaving. Even the tour manager (or I assume that's what he was, he just said he was 'with' them) for Terror said he was looking forward to hearing us, and was pleased with what he heard. He called it a, "breath if fresh air." Terror was up after us. I had never heard them before, but had heard they're name, especially Scott Vogel. I only actually got to speak with one of the guitarists and the bassist, as the rest of the band retreated to their bus directly after the show.
Caliban was after terror. It was starting to get dark enough for the stage lights to actually be worthwhile. I had never heard caliban before either, but didn't really like it much. Very hardcore/metal thing, but in a very pop-punk/cheesy sort of way. All the members if caliban retreated to their bus directly after they played.
Last, and certainly least, 'Lordy.' Apparently this band win some form of American idol, but in Europe and that's how they became famous. They look like Gwar, but sound like Bon Jovi...well, if Bon Jovi had been gargling glass for a few years and took on a horrible German accent.
We had a bit of trouble getting our merch out, and us with it. Gwar mark II decided, they want to be bussed up to the stage,and sling with that, tighten security so not even the bands that are supposed to be there can through to their respective vehicles. We were, at first, asked if we could move our van so the bus could have room to pull up for Lordy. Matt and I said we would find Mike and have him move it. Literally 3 seconds later, as we turn the corner around the van to start our search for Mike, we see 2 dudes with our drivers side door open, rifling through all the pockets, and dashboard, in our van, our home, without permission. I was about to kill them.
I could go off about how you just don't f**k with another bands van, their home, their safe spot for their personal items while they roam your s**ty festival. Rob later gave them an earful, which didn't really accomplish much, but probably made him feel a tad better.
The meal was good, spaghetti, hot sauce, rolls, and sandwiches. We're staying in a hotel 5 minutes from the venue, it's way swanky, and I'll have to post pictures of it once I can. I forget where we are tomorrow, but it's a short drive, which is nice.
We eventually got it most of the way into a space, but it still stuck out a bit into the driving lane, whatever, we didn't care. We figured the engine overheated and we needed to just wait for it to cool off. Waiting was not a fun idea, mostly because of the heat, but also because the fact that we're only ~30 minutes from the show, and already running late.
We kept warning to wait to open the radiator because it will likely explode from the pressure of the boiling engine coolant. Lo' and behold, Eric ended up popping the cap off, and liquid came spewing out like a geyser spilling its contents in the engine, then out the bottom and down the hill. Eric says afterwards, "well, that was a bad idea." We all agreed.
We purchased a few bottles of antifreeze and filled with water some miscellaneous bottles we had lying around the van. We then needed the van just to sit and cool off for a bit. There was a pretty swanky McDonalds nearby, so we went in and got some lunch. Eventually enough time and worrying had passed that we could return to the van and cross all our fingers hoping. It started, and we all were happy. As Mike pulled the van up, he noticed the coolant light was still lit, and we got worried. We bought another bottle of antifreeze and filled up the water bottles again, filled her up and we were off (fingers still crossed).
The van made it alright. We had a couple of scares, but nothing really directly related to the van. We were more afraid of falling off the side of a cliff, hitting something or someone, or broadsiding another car. The views were absolutely beautiful. I got a bunch of pictures that hopefully I'll be able to post later, but it was fantastic. When the venue for the festival was in view, we were awestruck. The shear size of it, let alone just the stage were enough to make us all worried and excited.
Because of our predicament, as we predicted, we had to load straight to the stage and start playing (well, city of ships had to, but you get the idea, 'the touring package' had to play right away). The load was awkward, and there weren't that many people there as we were doing it, not that we expected to play for thousands of people. City of ships sound checked and they started playing. There were people that started to wander over once they started playing. Many left after a song or two, but most stayed and either rocked out, or just stayed cause they had nothing better to do.
When they finished, the crowd dispersed and we started modifying the CoS stage setup for Rosetta. Once we were ready to do a line check, we had to wait another 5 or 6 minutes, because the sound guy was mysteriously MIA. Eventually a dude went and found him, and we were under way. We only had a 30 minute set time (every band up to and including us had that same time. Every band after us had a 60minute or longer set) so we only played three songs. I wasn't really nervous, I couldn't have given a s**t about anyone attending, or any of the other bands watching from the side stage, but I still messed up on a couple parts, mostly because it was foreign to me to play on such a giant stage, but also, because I could her everything that was going on that I was playing (and that's very rare for most of the venues we play), so I started over thinking certain parts, and ended up just messing them up.
I wasn't too worried, I still had people shaking my hand and telling us how good we were even up to when we were leaving. Even the tour manager (or I assume that's what he was, he just said he was 'with' them) for Terror said he was looking forward to hearing us, and was pleased with what he heard. He called it a, "breath if fresh air." Terror was up after us. I had never heard them before, but had heard they're name, especially Scott Vogel. I only actually got to speak with one of the guitarists and the bassist, as the rest of the band retreated to their bus directly after the show.
Caliban was after terror. It was starting to get dark enough for the stage lights to actually be worthwhile. I had never heard caliban before either, but didn't really like it much. Very hardcore/metal thing, but in a very pop-punk/cheesy sort of way. All the members if caliban retreated to their bus directly after they played.
Last, and certainly least, 'Lordy.' Apparently this band win some form of American idol, but in Europe and that's how they became famous. They look like Gwar, but sound like Bon Jovi...well, if Bon Jovi had been gargling glass for a few years and took on a horrible German accent.
We had a bit of trouble getting our merch out, and us with it. Gwar mark II decided, they want to be bussed up to the stage,and sling with that, tighten security so not even the bands that are supposed to be there can through to their respective vehicles. We were, at first, asked if we could move our van so the bus could have room to pull up for Lordy. Matt and I said we would find Mike and have him move it. Literally 3 seconds later, as we turn the corner around the van to start our search for Mike, we see 2 dudes with our drivers side door open, rifling through all the pockets, and dashboard, in our van, our home, without permission. I was about to kill them.
I could go off about how you just don't f**k with another bands van, their home, their safe spot for their personal items while they roam your s**ty festival. Rob later gave them an earful, which didn't really accomplish much, but probably made him feel a tad better.
The meal was good, spaghetti, hot sauce, rolls, and sandwiches. We're staying in a hotel 5 minutes from the venue, it's way swanky, and I'll have to post pictures of it once I can. I forget where we are tomorrow, but it's a short drive, which is nice.
From mallrats to Vienna.
We had to go back to Bratislava this morning to go back to the mall we bought the kick drum head at. We accidentally got a 20inch head, when we needed a 22inch. We hangout for a while just passing the time, time we thought we didn't have, but when we got to Austria, and pulled up to the venue, they weren't even open yet.
Mike got some pizza from across the street, which made us fear that that was where our dinner was going to be ordered from. It turned out to be pretty good pizza. When it dam time for food, it was the pizza place we were to order from. There were other things on the menu than pizza, which was awesome. I still got pizza, just out of habit, and the fact that I could barely read the menu, some others got pasta and kebab that looked pretty good.
The stage is extremely small. Not as small as that one stage we played in Poland, but pretty darn close. This one was deeper, but it didn't matter, we needed width in order to setup properly. We eventually figured out a schematic that worked, and started putting things together. The sound guy seemed to know what he was doing, the only problem was he was kind of a prick about it. We told him he didn't have to mic the guitars or bass at all, he shrugged us off and did it anyway, we told him our sound was 'loud', he said he'd be checking db levels at the back of house every five minutes (wtf?), and then proceeded to ask Rob and I if we wanted triggers to aid in the sound of our kick drum...no we don't want triggers, who do you think we are, fear factory? Pantera? No, no my good sir, good clean kick drum please, especially since we had a brand new bangin' head on the front of that.
The show was not very well attended, but we attributed that to a 12€ entry, which is crazy. Now, one would think that with a 12€ entry, that there would be enough for a door cut (which was the deal if there was money beyond our guarantee), except we were shown neither extra money, or a breakdown of expenses for the night. There was also a curfew, which, for a Friday night metal show...should not exist.
We play some festival with terror and other crazy bands tomorrow. Apparently the stage is going to be humongous and awkward, and we will probably not have very much fun. We'll see, we may be surprised, which is what I hope for every day.
Mike got some pizza from across the street, which made us fear that that was where our dinner was going to be ordered from. It turned out to be pretty good pizza. When it dam time for food, it was the pizza place we were to order from. There were other things on the menu than pizza, which was awesome. I still got pizza, just out of habit, and the fact that I could barely read the menu, some others got pasta and kebab that looked pretty good.
The stage is extremely small. Not as small as that one stage we played in Poland, but pretty darn close. This one was deeper, but it didn't matter, we needed width in order to setup properly. We eventually figured out a schematic that worked, and started putting things together. The sound guy seemed to know what he was doing, the only problem was he was kind of a prick about it. We told him he didn't have to mic the guitars or bass at all, he shrugged us off and did it anyway, we told him our sound was 'loud', he said he'd be checking db levels at the back of house every five minutes (wtf?), and then proceeded to ask Rob and I if we wanted triggers to aid in the sound of our kick drum...no we don't want triggers, who do you think we are, fear factory? Pantera? No, no my good sir, good clean kick drum please, especially since we had a brand new bangin' head on the front of that.
The show was not very well attended, but we attributed that to a 12€ entry, which is crazy. Now, one would think that with a 12€ entry, that there would be enough for a door cut (which was the deal if there was money beyond our guarantee), except we were shown neither extra money, or a breakdown of expenses for the night. There was also a curfew, which, for a Friday night metal show...should not exist.
We play some festival with terror and other crazy bands tomorrow. Apparently the stage is going to be humongous and awkward, and we will probably not have very much fun. We'll see, we may be surprised, which is what I hope for every day.
7.08.2011
Budapest
Another hassle crossing borders today. I guess they assume every van with dirty dudes in it is smuggling drugs. This time they did actually check the gear in the back, and individually searched all our bags, asking each of us if we had any drugs, but still found nothing but dirty clothes. I understand that it's their job to stifle the trafficking of drugs and illegal substances into their respective countries, but dude...if you ask an actual drug smuggler, "do you have any drugs?" do you really think they're gonna respond, "yes, I'm carrying [insert name and quantity of illegal drug here], I'll happily confess to smuggling it, and hand all of it over, and hope that you are lenient." ...morons. If I wanted to smuggle drugs in or out of your country a) I wouldn't tell you, and b) I wouldn't cross the border in a big ass van with 7 other dudes. We figured they didn't search the inside of the van long because of the dude stench you get wafted with the second you open the door.
When we arrived in Budapest, we were greeted by a sweet venue setup, as well as a fully, and deliciously, catered meal, complete with a cake, topped with a message on top about city of ships and Rosetta (I'll try to post pictures of it later).
The show was fantastic. I couldn't actually see the crowd while playing (except when the lighting guy used the strobe, but that simultaneously made me sick) which sorts bummed me out, but we played 2 encores, and people seemed really stoked about everything. After we played, we had sandwiches waiting for us, along with that amazing cake...which was absolutely delicious. I wish I could remember the caterers name, but she was a real sweetheart, and all of us wanted to take her with us, thank you Budapest, you're f**king incredible.
We're staying at the promoters apartment, it's incredibly cozy, and of course, I'm always the one to get exiled because I snore big manly (like a bear apparently) snores. We're setting alarms for 10am tomorrow so we can get up, out, and actually be able to see some of the city before we leave, which is somewhat of a rarity when on tour.
I think this is sort of a misconception when people who aren't in touring bands (or not in a band at all) think of tour as just a vacation. On a vacation you sightsee, you travel, and you tour hotspots and places of significance, etc. On tour with a band, however, you rarely get to see anything except the van, outside the window of the van, the truck stops, and the venue, unless you're lucky enough to have a short drive the next day, or you sacrifice sleep, you're unlikely to get to see some of the wonders of the cities you're playing in.
Vienna tomorrow.
When we arrived in Budapest, we were greeted by a sweet venue setup, as well as a fully, and deliciously, catered meal, complete with a cake, topped with a message on top about city of ships and Rosetta (I'll try to post pictures of it later).
The show was fantastic. I couldn't actually see the crowd while playing (except when the lighting guy used the strobe, but that simultaneously made me sick) which sorts bummed me out, but we played 2 encores, and people seemed really stoked about everything. After we played, we had sandwiches waiting for us, along with that amazing cake...which was absolutely delicious. I wish I could remember the caterers name, but she was a real sweetheart, and all of us wanted to take her with us, thank you Budapest, you're f**king incredible.
We're staying at the promoters apartment, it's incredibly cozy, and of course, I'm always the one to get exiled because I snore big manly (like a bear apparently) snores. We're setting alarms for 10am tomorrow so we can get up, out, and actually be able to see some of the city before we leave, which is somewhat of a rarity when on tour.
I think this is sort of a misconception when people who aren't in touring bands (or not in a band at all) think of tour as just a vacation. On a vacation you sightsee, you travel, and you tour hotspots and places of significance, etc. On tour with a band, however, you rarely get to see anything except the van, outside the window of the van, the truck stops, and the venue, unless you're lucky enough to have a short drive the next day, or you sacrifice sleep, you're unlikely to get to see some of the wonders of the cities you're playing in.
Vienna tomorrow.
7.06.2011
Bratislava, the Croatian checkpoint, and Zagreb hospitality.
My only view of Bratislava before this tour was the scene in Euro-trip where everything is rundown, and $2.30 American gets them pampered in a 5star hotel. Things were obviously embellished, or things have come a long way since then. Either way, it looks like a fun place. Though we only got to see the city in passing, but the people seemed cool. Dave was pretty upset at the fact that we were getting fed in pizza again for the 3rd or 4th night in a row, but I guess, some promoters think that Americans only eat pizza.
Matt was extremely bummed about the show, saying that he had no fun. He had left his custom molded earplugs at the venue the night before, earplugs he's been playing with since 2006, and so, having to all of a sudden use crappy foam earplugs was quite jarring, and he couldn't properly hear the band or his amp.
I met a really cool girl who told me to call her 'Zuna' who had bought earlier that day a rain stick made out of a giant elongated pumpkin. We had a great talk about traveling, life, food, music. It was the first good conversation I've had all tour outside of the dudes I see every day. It's a rare occasion that we find people at our shows that aren't either completely uninterested in talking to us, or aren't kissing the grind we walk on, and can only talk about how much they love rosetta, and for us to sign stuff. Real conversations are nice cause it makes me feel like I'm just home, and I met a neat person to talk to, no pretense, no obligation or anything, just two people chilling and talking. Cheers.
We got split up last night for sleeping, so the city of ships dudes and Dave went with one group, and Matt, Armine, Mike and I went to another dudes apartment. Dave was really drunk, and being really loud, but apparently all went well with the other dudes where they stayed.
We headed out after we met up with the whole group and made our way to Croatia. We had to stop off at a nearby mall to pickup a resonant drumhead for the kick drum because e had shattered the previous one. Later we'll realize the package did not contain the marked 20 inch head, but a smaller and considerably inconvenient 18 inch head. Bummer.
The drive was long and boring, but all that was made up for once we hit the border. We thought everything was all clear at the checkpoint, but realized very quickly that we had inky just left Slovakia, and were approaching the border into Croatia. This was the fun part.
Obviously, being 8 dudes in a German van with mostly US passports (minus mike who was Italian) we get pulled off to the side. We are then asked in a very unusual way if we had any illegal drugs on us (and for some reason including alcohol in his list if 'illegal' substances). They got us out and searched the van a bit, finding nothing obviously, then proceeded to take us one by one into a room to search our backpacks.
The one guard said, and I quote, "If you have any drugs with you and we fins them, that person will go to jail. If you give them to us now, nothing will happen, and you'll just pay." so...basically a veiled request/threat to hand over drugs and offer him a bribe. Welcome to Croatia.
They only searched 3 of us before they realized a) we were all dirty band dudes, and b) they weren't going to find anything in order to arrest us for. They obviously didn't want to handle anymore of our dirty laundry that took up 95% of our bags they chose to search. And, we were on our way.
The drive to Zagreb from the border was a fairly short one. The scenery was nice, and when we got to the venue, we were a bit skeptical, but upon further inspection, was actually pretty amazing. The floors were incredibly clean (in fact, they had just been cleaned, as we saw the mobs and smelled the bleach from it) and they had what looked like a lending library with some amazing tapes and books.
Dinner was amazing, and not just because we had been eating crappy pizza the last few nights, but we were so excited for a home cooked meal. The backstage area is stocked full of chips, fruit, water, and beer for this interested. The promoter even came up to me and said that he read my blog, and were going to supply me a fan for the show tonight. Cheers dudes. The show looks to be incredibly fun tonight, stoked people, and a sweet stage setup.
So, absolutely insane. I could barely breath after the show, and I think Armine was having an asthma attack (he immediately went backstage, got naked, and sat on the couch hyperventilating and drinking orange juice). The fan worked out nicely, I think without it I would have keeled over after the first song. It was wet in there. Everybody was completely drenched in sweat, but everyone was having a really good time. Probably the best show of tour, certainly so far. The crowd was into it, we were into it, and everything was just nuts.
We're sleeping upstairs from where we played. The place is huge, and I actually got to take a shower, wee! The room we're sleeping in is very comfy, and everyone finally gets a taste of how I feel after every show, drenched and stinky. We're all hanging out clothes out the window and sun drying, my clothes will still smell a lot more than anyone else's, but they feel part of my pain. Budapest tomorrow.
Matt was extremely bummed about the show, saying that he had no fun. He had left his custom molded earplugs at the venue the night before, earplugs he's been playing with since 2006, and so, having to all of a sudden use crappy foam earplugs was quite jarring, and he couldn't properly hear the band or his amp.
I met a really cool girl who told me to call her 'Zuna' who had bought earlier that day a rain stick made out of a giant elongated pumpkin. We had a great talk about traveling, life, food, music. It was the first good conversation I've had all tour outside of the dudes I see every day. It's a rare occasion that we find people at our shows that aren't either completely uninterested in talking to us, or aren't kissing the grind we walk on, and can only talk about how much they love rosetta, and for us to sign stuff. Real conversations are nice cause it makes me feel like I'm just home, and I met a neat person to talk to, no pretense, no obligation or anything, just two people chilling and talking. Cheers.
We got split up last night for sleeping, so the city of ships dudes and Dave went with one group, and Matt, Armine, Mike and I went to another dudes apartment. Dave was really drunk, and being really loud, but apparently all went well with the other dudes where they stayed.
We headed out after we met up with the whole group and made our way to Croatia. We had to stop off at a nearby mall to pickup a resonant drumhead for the kick drum because e had shattered the previous one. Later we'll realize the package did not contain the marked 20 inch head, but a smaller and considerably inconvenient 18 inch head. Bummer.
The drive was long and boring, but all that was made up for once we hit the border. We thought everything was all clear at the checkpoint, but realized very quickly that we had inky just left Slovakia, and were approaching the border into Croatia. This was the fun part.
Obviously, being 8 dudes in a German van with mostly US passports (minus mike who was Italian) we get pulled off to the side. We are then asked in a very unusual way if we had any illegal drugs on us (and for some reason including alcohol in his list if 'illegal' substances). They got us out and searched the van a bit, finding nothing obviously, then proceeded to take us one by one into a room to search our backpacks.
The one guard said, and I quote, "If you have any drugs with you and we fins them, that person will go to jail. If you give them to us now, nothing will happen, and you'll just pay." so...basically a veiled request/threat to hand over drugs and offer him a bribe. Welcome to Croatia.
They only searched 3 of us before they realized a) we were all dirty band dudes, and b) they weren't going to find anything in order to arrest us for. They obviously didn't want to handle anymore of our dirty laundry that took up 95% of our bags they chose to search. And, we were on our way.
The drive to Zagreb from the border was a fairly short one. The scenery was nice, and when we got to the venue, we were a bit skeptical, but upon further inspection, was actually pretty amazing. The floors were incredibly clean (in fact, they had just been cleaned, as we saw the mobs and smelled the bleach from it) and they had what looked like a lending library with some amazing tapes and books.
Dinner was amazing, and not just because we had been eating crappy pizza the last few nights, but we were so excited for a home cooked meal. The backstage area is stocked full of chips, fruit, water, and beer for this interested. The promoter even came up to me and said that he read my blog, and were going to supply me a fan for the show tonight. Cheers dudes. The show looks to be incredibly fun tonight, stoked people, and a sweet stage setup.
So, absolutely insane. I could barely breath after the show, and I think Armine was having an asthma attack (he immediately went backstage, got naked, and sat on the couch hyperventilating and drinking orange juice). The fan worked out nicely, I think without it I would have keeled over after the first song. It was wet in there. Everybody was completely drenched in sweat, but everyone was having a really good time. Probably the best show of tour, certainly so far. The crowd was into it, we were into it, and everything was just nuts.
We're sleeping upstairs from where we played. The place is huge, and I actually got to take a shower, wee! The room we're sleeping in is very comfy, and everyone finally gets a taste of how I feel after every show, drenched and stinky. We're all hanging out clothes out the window and sun drying, my clothes will still smell a lot more than anyone else's, but they feel part of my pain. Budapest tomorrow.
7.04.2011
Independence day (from Poland)
Happy 4th all. We celebrated the 4th of July the only way we could while in Poland...go to a hostel, check our facebooks, then get sleep in preparation for a ridiculously long drive
We're on our way to Slovakia which is about an 8hr or so drive, but we're just happy to be getting out of Poland. Not that it's been all bad, but, we've had some pretty crazy experiences in the past week, and really just need a change if scenery. The breakfast at the hostel was apparently pretty bad, so we ended up skipping it and just hitting the road. We'll end up getting truck stop hotdogs or something, which aren't that bad I guess, just...too much of it starts to get to you. We definitely need some coffee too, yes...need some coffee.
The load in was a bit treacherous having to travel the entire length of the complex along with 2 flights of stairs, but we managed okay. The stage was nice, as was the stage sound, though every time I hit the kick drum, the entire area around me shook, and I had to fight off my floor tom the entire set. Armine gave away another t-shirt to some cute girl (the previous being in Wroclaw in 2009).
Bratislava tomorrow.
We're on our way to Slovakia which is about an 8hr or so drive, but we're just happy to be getting out of Poland. Not that it's been all bad, but, we've had some pretty crazy experiences in the past week, and really just need a change if scenery. The breakfast at the hostel was apparently pretty bad, so we ended up skipping it and just hitting the road. We'll end up getting truck stop hotdogs or something, which aren't that bad I guess, just...too much of it starts to get to you. We definitely need some coffee too, yes...need some coffee.
The load in was a bit treacherous having to travel the entire length of the complex along with 2 flights of stairs, but we managed okay. The stage was nice, as was the stage sound, though every time I hit the kick drum, the entire area around me shook, and I had to fight off my floor tom the entire set. Armine gave away another t-shirt to some cute girl (the previous being in Wroclaw in 2009).
Bratislava tomorrow.
7.03.2011
In Poland...
Sorry for the lack of updates, I thought it'd be best to do all the Poland shows in one fell swoop, so, without further ado, here is our seven days in Poland.
Day 1:
The drive was short, only about an hour or two. We got into town, and Persil (our driver) was stoked, cause this is his first time to Poland. We got the square that the venue was apparently in, but couldn't find it. We finally called and they said that it was on the opposite side of this big red bricked building. We went around and found some vehicles with trailers, we figured we'd found it. Persil bounds onto the sidewalk and across a grassy knoll type thing, polish off-roading. We start loading in and find that there is not only barely enough room for the gear to load in to, but there's barely enough room on stage for anything but a drum kit and a guitar cab.
The food they gave us was pretty good. It was pasta in a sort of 'chicken noodle without the chicken' thing, plus some veggies, and what looked l Ike penne with sauce and veggies. Meanwhile, the local band goes and asks everyone in city of ships and Rosetta if they could use our amps (not just cabs, amps) because they didn't being theirs (I guess, they assumed we just roll over and say yes, but, no way). Everyone told them no, so I'm assuming they're making arrangements to get their amps here, or to borrow someone else's.
Day 2:
The stage was incomprehensibly small. We had one guitar cab posted up on it's case off the side of the stage, and the drums barely had enough arm room. I actually had a bit more room that Rob [from city of ships], just cause we had to make more room for Matt's cab on the left side.
Polish fans are crazy. One guys asked Armine if he would sign his girlfriends breast, but luckily he did not, cause that would be weird. He stated, "I want to be able to look at it when I f**k her tonight." Creepy people.
The band that was asking for amps ended up bringing in their amps, and we saw why they wanted to borrow them, because all they had were tiny practice amps. The show went well, people were stoked, and Armine crowd surfed, and some dude even got on hands and knees and bowed to him.
Whether it was the promoter, or one of the dudes in another band, we stayed at their parents house, which is stellar, and we were treated to a fantastic breakfast.
Heading out to Gdansk now, 200 people are rsvp'd on last.fm I think, should be a crazy night.
Murphy's law states: anything that can go wrong, will go wrong...and did go wrong. Armine said, as we were getting off stage, "best and worst show ever."
It started out with the venue not having a drum rug. We ended up borrowing the rug from the first band. They had to leave right after they played, but they had members from Warsaw, and said they'd be at the show, so we could return it to them there.
Now that I think about it, I really hope we remembered to load it into the van.
To start out everything, the resonant (the front) head of the kick drum had busted through the night before, and only got worse as time went on. By the end of the show tonight, it was pretty much useless.
Secondly, one of the photographers at the show (there were many) jumped behind us to get a different or better vantage point. During out first song, she was roaming around back there taking pictures, and ended up knocking out the speaker cable for Matt's cab closest to him. The worst part about this, is that that cab already had a problem with the jack, and it had no nut to hold it in place (it was taped in). So, because of this, matt had to get his tools, borrow my flashlight, and perform surgery on the cab to retrieve the jack to continue playing. While this was going on, Dave was also having problems. His bass could no longer be heard through the amp. He checked different cables, the battery for the bass, and even inputs on the head, still nothing. Finally when Matt was done fixing the cab, he helped Dave fiddle around with things and soon enough, we had bass again.
We managed to finish the first song after that, but the crowd had gotten considerably more unruly. They advanced closer to us and our gear, and this venue not having a stage, Matt, Dave, and Armine were in real danger of having their pedals trod upon, unplugged, or broken.
During the third song, someone managed to kick something connected to Matt's pedalboard and unplug it for a second. He got it back in and we continued. We got through our second song pretty much without a hitch. However, it was our 4th song that made us realize that we were gonna have to stop before all of our gear was destroyed.
We actually got through most of the song when all of a sudden everything turned off except the drums I was playing...but that's only because I'm not powered by electricity (as far as I know). Someone had thrashed and kicked out wherever the gear was plugged into and everything died. After a bit of searching, we found the power again, but we didn't even attempt to finish to song. The crowd had been shouting out certain songs they wanted to hear, so for our last song we decided to pick the one we heard being yelled the most, play it, the get the he'll off stage.
We made it through the song with no problems, though the crowd did pick up Armine and crowd surf him to the ceiling (something that seems to be happening more and more often since we saw it first occur in Arcada, California the summer before). After that, I hauled ass off stage and went and sat on the stairwell in the band area. The crowd kept on shouting for one more, and eventually they just resorted to chanting our band name over and over again. Thankfully, Rob from city of ships came along and started breaking down the drums a little just to let the crowd know we were finished, and also, to be there if anyone got rowdy because of that, and decide to start trashing gear.
All in all, it was a fun show, though, we coulda done without all the gear problems, but you know what they say, "when it rains, it pours."
We're staying at one of the promoters house. Her and her husband live about an hour away from where the venue was. Everyone was skeptical, and Mike, our driver, really didn't want to drive for an hour. Everyone else was kinda bummed, because I think we were originally promised hotel rooms, but no one knows what happened to that. The were saying they hope it's not a squat, or that it's not a rundown old warehouse or garage that people think is okay to live in (this has actually happened to us before), and is not something to be embarrassed about.
We drove the hour listening to loud punk music and later some softer 80's stuff. When we got close, the other dudes were partially bummed because of how the neighborhood looked. It wasn't looking very good. But dint judge a book by it's cover, because this house turned out to be absolutely beautiful. They have a special room (more like a whole wing of their house) dedicated for bands to sleep. Because I snore pretty badly, the others find as may ways of exiling me from the rest of them. So know I'm writing this in my own private room on the first floor. Pretty swanky.
We're on to another show tomorrow in Poland of which the city I can't remember, and probably can't pronounce. More fun and crazy fans ahead...oh, did I mention I got asked by four different people if they could have a drum stick. Two of them didn't even care if it was a broken one, they just wanted something, but I told them I had to have the sticks last the whole tour, and can't five away sticks that aren't already broken from normal playing.
Day 3:
Wonderful sleep in a beautiful house in Poland. The view out back is absolutely astounding. Our hosts had bread, tea, coffee, spreads, and even devil'd eggs waiting for us when we woke up, along with listening to Jimi Hendrix, which was just awesome. Off to Poznan today. It was a 4hr drive, but the house we stayed at was an hour in the direction we were going, so I think we only have a 3hr drive ahead of us, yahoo.
Took a pretty long time getting everyone out of the house, but eventually we were on our way. We had to stop for an oil change because the engine was starting to smell funny when It was started up. It is hot today, and very sunny, in direct contrast to most of the weather we've had on this tour so far. The promoter, his wife, and their friend went ahead to Poznan while we got the oil changed, saying they'll meet us there. So now, we wait.
There were a few problems with the sound, mostly cause it seemed like the sound guy didn't know what he was doing, but overall everything went well. There was one really drunk guy that not only called the promoters wife inappropriate names, but also heckled city of ships, and told them they shouldn't bother coming back to Poland, or something like that, he was a douche.
Once we got on stage, the show went off without a hitch. Well, one hitch. One of Matt's delay pedals stopped working. We were able to finish the show without it, but he was kinda bummed. Later he was able to fix it easily without having to find a soldering iron. Armine got punished a little, and I was bummed to see that an old friend from 2009's Europe tour was there, but unable to hangout. Ola helped out with our show in Wroclaw at club Firlej, and is also a super stoked fan. I only got to talk to her briefly as she was leaving, but it was nice seeing her again.
Kinda weird now, seeing the space we're given to sleep that we had to split up with 6 dudes at the club sleeping area, and 2 had to go with the promoter to a hostel, because there definitely is enough room for all up here. Now, I know they want to be super hospitable, but we could have easily saved them the cost of 2 extra dudes at the hostel.
Tomorrow is Thursday, I (once again) don't remember the name of the city we're playing. I have to wake up early and try and find a shop that sells US to European power adapters. I've had no luck borrowing anyone else's, as they are using them, so both my laptop and iPod battery are dead. Only my iPad remains, and I only have a little more than a half charge. Here's to hoping.
Day 4:
Awoke much earlier than everyone so I packed up and headed downstairs. I put my backpack and jacket in the van and went on to try and find an electronics shop that sold US to European adapters. No luck, but when I got back, for some reason the door into the room where we slept (which I had to walk up four flights of stairs to get to) was locked, with no secondary entrance. So I went back downstairs and figured I'd sit till people woke up and made their way down.
2 hours later, sitting on the steps at the bottom of where we slept, and I finally hear familiar voices.
We wandered around for a while, had some pirogues and coffee, and I finally found an adapter, totally stoked. I also picked up a backup snare head. We finally started out, and ended up stopping at a truck stop. Got a hot dog, got something to drink, and Rob ended up stealing a polish version of the animated Pocahontas. It. Is. Really. Awful. Quite possibly the worst animation I've seen in a very long time.
We arrived late as per usual. There were already a lot of people waiting as we loaded in. The stage is huge, and normally it would make me nervous, but from our previous encounters with really tiny stages, I've come to love stages that don't thrash my elbows against the back wall or bass cab.
There were some various feedback problems with city of ships set, which I think is attributed to the lack of competent sound guys in Poland, whatever. Everything during our set seemed to sound okay, from my point of view anyway. Something we've come to expect from our oversees touring is encores. Hate planning for them, but an encore just feels like a let down when you blow all your energy and the flow on the main set, then you're asked to do an encore. So, we've been planning on holding a song back to allow for an encore if needs be, but we don't force it, I try to get off stage after the last song as soon as possible, and never a second encore. I learned that the hard way our first show ever in Wroclaw in 2009. We did 3 encores, and I was ready to die. So, we save a song for last and I hope that I haven't blown all my energy.
On a side note, I've been interrupted 3 times while writing this backstage in Warsaw by people wanting autographs. The idea of autographs freaks me out. Two girls came and sought me out in the dressing room, one wanted me to sign her pant leg. I think that is in the running for weirdest autograph given along with that dude that asked me to sign his beer can in 2009.
Day 5:
We stayed at a hostel last night somewhere in Warsaw. The digs were nice, but we were woken up early this morning telling us that we had to leave (11am checkout) even though we were specifically told that there was no time we had to be up. There was no breakfast, but we ended up at a nearby mall and we got coffee and some sandwiches.
It's raining again, but this time it's a little bit more welcome, mostly because the last few days have been so hot and humid. We're now on the road to the next show Chelm (no idea in the pronunciation, only a couple more Poland shows.
Poland is one of those places that can seem completely normal one minute, and completely absurd the next. Take for instance, the empty hall we entered for the show, waiting for people to arrive. People were off, doing their thing at various tables socializing, and for the most part, the whole room just looked like a restaurant where all the patrons were in terrible need of a waitress. The hint of the band starting up as Rob starts checking the mic brings everyone from the woodwork and start to surround the stage (at a good 5ft cushion between them and the stage), and now the room is filled up with crazy polish kids of all kinds. Some of these people don't look a day over 15 or 16, but are standing around drinking beers, laughing and enjoying, there's even a couple dudes here in army fatigue pants, and jack boots.
So Armine ended up spitting in some dudes face tonight. Some skinhead dude was taunting him and being extremely annoying, so he did (what we're going to refer to as the 'reverse Henry Rollins') the only thing he could think of, and that's to spit in his face. We later were very worried about while we were loading out about being jumped by the dudes skinhead friends, but nothing ended up happening. We're staying at the promoters house, it's small but cozy.
Day 6:
Weren't able to get the wifi working last night, so everyone is itching to contact girlfriends and such. On the road to Lublin, only an hour drive, thank god. The 'showers' here are basically bathtubs with shower attachments, but with no shower curtain, so the water gets everywhere if you're not careful.
The room we played in was almost as big as the stage we played on in Szeczin, really tiny. At one point people pushed up so much, that they ended up pushing Armine into the drums, and knocking them over temporarily in the middle of a song. We played well, kinda. I messed up a couple parts just cause I couldn't see Matt too clearly for certain changes, but I think it went okay considering that a photographer was also preventing Dave from clicking his pedals, and sometimes stepping on them herself.
Tomorrow is our last day in Poland, in Łodz, which is actually pronounced like 'woodge' which always confuses me.
Day 7:
Dave was throwing up when I tried to brush my teeth and change. They said he tried to fall asleep on the floor last night, but was dragged away by one of the dudes that lives here, and apparently slept in the room with the French band.
We're having breakfast and watching the new Meloncash videos on YouTube (We've been following this dude on YouTube called Meloncash who is an amazing dude, so check him out. We've been watching his videos, and listening to him while in the van, as well as quoting him all the time. http://www.youtube.com/user/meloncash spread the word).
About a 4hr drive to Łodz ("woodge") today, in the rain, and we still have to load up the gear.
The rain wasn't here when we got to Łodz, but there was a 4 story load, ugh. The room we're playing in is like a giant studio (more like an artists studio) apartment, columns in the middle and everything. There are 3 other bands on the show besides us and city of ships. There is an electronic act, the openers who played with us a few nights ago, and then a solo acoustic act from England that was actually really good, but reminded me of radiohead a bit much. It took about half an hour to look for a drum rug, and we ended up just pulling, nay, ripping the rugs off the back of the stage and put on the floor. Lots of weird people here, and lots of drunk people here. City of ships seem to be having some electrical buzzing problems, hope we don't have the same.
We have a hostel setup for tonight which means wifi, at that point I'll try to write a summation of our polish shows, and post this blog. I enjoyed myself mostly, but some of the other dudes are saying, "get me the f**k out of Poland now." we've had some hard times here, and many of the places we've played can be equated (quoting Armine here) "...to some of the worse parts of the US."
Right now we are listening to a weird 3-piece jam band from (if I heard correctly) Austria in a room full of only 7 people, not including our entourage. Very unimpressed. We only played 4 songs out of respect for having a band playing after us, and a ton of people were bummed because of it. To round out the night, some dude told Eric (from city of ships) that, even though he was appreciative, he said our time in Poland was wasted. Eric later repeated this information later to us as we were packing up. Some random girl, who we later found our was a girlfriend of one of the members of that god awful last band, then proceeded to misinterpret what he said as his own words, walked by us and said sarcastically, "sorry your time in Poland was wasted." Eric tried to explain to her that she didn't understand the context in which he said it, and she just walked away saying, "whatever" so he replied, "I'm sorry you interpreted a strangers comment wrong and attempted to make them feel bad. You're drunk, go die in a car accident."
And that ladies and gentlemen, is our time in Poland. We're at a hostel tonight, then it's a horrible 10hrs to Slovakia tomorrow. I'll continue with regular updates from now on, I just felt the entirety of Poland need their own entry.
Good night.
Day 1:
The drive was short, only about an hour or two. We got into town, and Persil (our driver) was stoked, cause this is his first time to Poland. We got the square that the venue was apparently in, but couldn't find it. We finally called and they said that it was on the opposite side of this big red bricked building. We went around and found some vehicles with trailers, we figured we'd found it. Persil bounds onto the sidewalk and across a grassy knoll type thing, polish off-roading. We start loading in and find that there is not only barely enough room for the gear to load in to, but there's barely enough room on stage for anything but a drum kit and a guitar cab.
The food they gave us was pretty good. It was pasta in a sort of 'chicken noodle without the chicken' thing, plus some veggies, and what looked l Ike penne with sauce and veggies. Meanwhile, the local band goes and asks everyone in city of ships and Rosetta if they could use our amps (not just cabs, amps) because they didn't being theirs (I guess, they assumed we just roll over and say yes, but, no way). Everyone told them no, so I'm assuming they're making arrangements to get their amps here, or to borrow someone else's.
Day 2:
The stage was incomprehensibly small. We had one guitar cab posted up on it's case off the side of the stage, and the drums barely had enough arm room. I actually had a bit more room that Rob [from city of ships], just cause we had to make more room for Matt's cab on the left side.
Polish fans are crazy. One guys asked Armine if he would sign his girlfriends breast, but luckily he did not, cause that would be weird. He stated, "I want to be able to look at it when I f**k her tonight." Creepy people.
The band that was asking for amps ended up bringing in their amps, and we saw why they wanted to borrow them, because all they had were tiny practice amps. The show went well, people were stoked, and Armine crowd surfed, and some dude even got on hands and knees and bowed to him.
Whether it was the promoter, or one of the dudes in another band, we stayed at their parents house, which is stellar, and we were treated to a fantastic breakfast.
Heading out to Gdansk now, 200 people are rsvp'd on last.fm I think, should be a crazy night.
Murphy's law states: anything that can go wrong, will go wrong...and did go wrong. Armine said, as we were getting off stage, "best and worst show ever."
It started out with the venue not having a drum rug. We ended up borrowing the rug from the first band. They had to leave right after they played, but they had members from Warsaw, and said they'd be at the show, so we could return it to them there.
Now that I think about it, I really hope we remembered to load it into the van.
To start out everything, the resonant (the front) head of the kick drum had busted through the night before, and only got worse as time went on. By the end of the show tonight, it was pretty much useless.
Secondly, one of the photographers at the show (there were many) jumped behind us to get a different or better vantage point. During out first song, she was roaming around back there taking pictures, and ended up knocking out the speaker cable for Matt's cab closest to him. The worst part about this, is that that cab already had a problem with the jack, and it had no nut to hold it in place (it was taped in). So, because of this, matt had to get his tools, borrow my flashlight, and perform surgery on the cab to retrieve the jack to continue playing. While this was going on, Dave was also having problems. His bass could no longer be heard through the amp. He checked different cables, the battery for the bass, and even inputs on the head, still nothing. Finally when Matt was done fixing the cab, he helped Dave fiddle around with things and soon enough, we had bass again.
We managed to finish the first song after that, but the crowd had gotten considerably more unruly. They advanced closer to us and our gear, and this venue not having a stage, Matt, Dave, and Armine were in real danger of having their pedals trod upon, unplugged, or broken.
During the third song, someone managed to kick something connected to Matt's pedalboard and unplug it for a second. He got it back in and we continued. We got through our second song pretty much without a hitch. However, it was our 4th song that made us realize that we were gonna have to stop before all of our gear was destroyed.
We actually got through most of the song when all of a sudden everything turned off except the drums I was playing...but that's only because I'm not powered by electricity (as far as I know). Someone had thrashed and kicked out wherever the gear was plugged into and everything died. After a bit of searching, we found the power again, but we didn't even attempt to finish to song. The crowd had been shouting out certain songs they wanted to hear, so for our last song we decided to pick the one we heard being yelled the most, play it, the get the he'll off stage.
We made it through the song with no problems, though the crowd did pick up Armine and crowd surf him to the ceiling (something that seems to be happening more and more often since we saw it first occur in Arcada, California the summer before). After that, I hauled ass off stage and went and sat on the stairwell in the band area. The crowd kept on shouting for one more, and eventually they just resorted to chanting our band name over and over again. Thankfully, Rob from city of ships came along and started breaking down the drums a little just to let the crowd know we were finished, and also, to be there if anyone got rowdy because of that, and decide to start trashing gear.
All in all, it was a fun show, though, we coulda done without all the gear problems, but you know what they say, "when it rains, it pours."
We're staying at one of the promoters house. Her and her husband live about an hour away from where the venue was. Everyone was skeptical, and Mike, our driver, really didn't want to drive for an hour. Everyone else was kinda bummed, because I think we were originally promised hotel rooms, but no one knows what happened to that. The were saying they hope it's not a squat, or that it's not a rundown old warehouse or garage that people think is okay to live in (this has actually happened to us before), and is not something to be embarrassed about.
We drove the hour listening to loud punk music and later some softer 80's stuff. When we got close, the other dudes were partially bummed because of how the neighborhood looked. It wasn't looking very good. But dint judge a book by it's cover, because this house turned out to be absolutely beautiful. They have a special room (more like a whole wing of their house) dedicated for bands to sleep. Because I snore pretty badly, the others find as may ways of exiling me from the rest of them. So know I'm writing this in my own private room on the first floor. Pretty swanky.
We're on to another show tomorrow in Poland of which the city I can't remember, and probably can't pronounce. More fun and crazy fans ahead...oh, did I mention I got asked by four different people if they could have a drum stick. Two of them didn't even care if it was a broken one, they just wanted something, but I told them I had to have the sticks last the whole tour, and can't five away sticks that aren't already broken from normal playing.
Day 3:
Wonderful sleep in a beautiful house in Poland. The view out back is absolutely astounding. Our hosts had bread, tea, coffee, spreads, and even devil'd eggs waiting for us when we woke up, along with listening to Jimi Hendrix, which was just awesome. Off to Poznan today. It was a 4hr drive, but the house we stayed at was an hour in the direction we were going, so I think we only have a 3hr drive ahead of us, yahoo.
Took a pretty long time getting everyone out of the house, but eventually we were on our way. We had to stop for an oil change because the engine was starting to smell funny when It was started up. It is hot today, and very sunny, in direct contrast to most of the weather we've had on this tour so far. The promoter, his wife, and their friend went ahead to Poznan while we got the oil changed, saying they'll meet us there. So now, we wait.
There were a few problems with the sound, mostly cause it seemed like the sound guy didn't know what he was doing, but overall everything went well. There was one really drunk guy that not only called the promoters wife inappropriate names, but also heckled city of ships, and told them they shouldn't bother coming back to Poland, or something like that, he was a douche.
Once we got on stage, the show went off without a hitch. Well, one hitch. One of Matt's delay pedals stopped working. We were able to finish the show without it, but he was kinda bummed. Later he was able to fix it easily without having to find a soldering iron. Armine got punished a little, and I was bummed to see that an old friend from 2009's Europe tour was there, but unable to hangout. Ola helped out with our show in Wroclaw at club Firlej, and is also a super stoked fan. I only got to talk to her briefly as she was leaving, but it was nice seeing her again.
Kinda weird now, seeing the space we're given to sleep that we had to split up with 6 dudes at the club sleeping area, and 2 had to go with the promoter to a hostel, because there definitely is enough room for all up here. Now, I know they want to be super hospitable, but we could have easily saved them the cost of 2 extra dudes at the hostel.
Tomorrow is Thursday, I (once again) don't remember the name of the city we're playing. I have to wake up early and try and find a shop that sells US to European power adapters. I've had no luck borrowing anyone else's, as they are using them, so both my laptop and iPod battery are dead. Only my iPad remains, and I only have a little more than a half charge. Here's to hoping.
Day 4:
Awoke much earlier than everyone so I packed up and headed downstairs. I put my backpack and jacket in the van and went on to try and find an electronics shop that sold US to European adapters. No luck, but when I got back, for some reason the door into the room where we slept (which I had to walk up four flights of stairs to get to) was locked, with no secondary entrance. So I went back downstairs and figured I'd sit till people woke up and made their way down.
2 hours later, sitting on the steps at the bottom of where we slept, and I finally hear familiar voices.
We wandered around for a while, had some pirogues and coffee, and I finally found an adapter, totally stoked. I also picked up a backup snare head. We finally started out, and ended up stopping at a truck stop. Got a hot dog, got something to drink, and Rob ended up stealing a polish version of the animated Pocahontas. It. Is. Really. Awful. Quite possibly the worst animation I've seen in a very long time.
We arrived late as per usual. There were already a lot of people waiting as we loaded in. The stage is huge, and normally it would make me nervous, but from our previous encounters with really tiny stages, I've come to love stages that don't thrash my elbows against the back wall or bass cab.
There were some various feedback problems with city of ships set, which I think is attributed to the lack of competent sound guys in Poland, whatever. Everything during our set seemed to sound okay, from my point of view anyway. Something we've come to expect from our oversees touring is encores. Hate planning for them, but an encore just feels like a let down when you blow all your energy and the flow on the main set, then you're asked to do an encore. So, we've been planning on holding a song back to allow for an encore if needs be, but we don't force it, I try to get off stage after the last song as soon as possible, and never a second encore. I learned that the hard way our first show ever in Wroclaw in 2009. We did 3 encores, and I was ready to die. So, we save a song for last and I hope that I haven't blown all my energy.
On a side note, I've been interrupted 3 times while writing this backstage in Warsaw by people wanting autographs. The idea of autographs freaks me out. Two girls came and sought me out in the dressing room, one wanted me to sign her pant leg. I think that is in the running for weirdest autograph given along with that dude that asked me to sign his beer can in 2009.
Day 5:
We stayed at a hostel last night somewhere in Warsaw. The digs were nice, but we were woken up early this morning telling us that we had to leave (11am checkout) even though we were specifically told that there was no time we had to be up. There was no breakfast, but we ended up at a nearby mall and we got coffee and some sandwiches.
It's raining again, but this time it's a little bit more welcome, mostly because the last few days have been so hot and humid. We're now on the road to the next show Chelm (no idea in the pronunciation, only a couple more Poland shows.
Poland is one of those places that can seem completely normal one minute, and completely absurd the next. Take for instance, the empty hall we entered for the show, waiting for people to arrive. People were off, doing their thing at various tables socializing, and for the most part, the whole room just looked like a restaurant where all the patrons were in terrible need of a waitress. The hint of the band starting up as Rob starts checking the mic brings everyone from the woodwork and start to surround the stage (at a good 5ft cushion between them and the stage), and now the room is filled up with crazy polish kids of all kinds. Some of these people don't look a day over 15 or 16, but are standing around drinking beers, laughing and enjoying, there's even a couple dudes here in army fatigue pants, and jack boots.
So Armine ended up spitting in some dudes face tonight. Some skinhead dude was taunting him and being extremely annoying, so he did (what we're going to refer to as the 'reverse Henry Rollins') the only thing he could think of, and that's to spit in his face. We later were very worried about while we were loading out about being jumped by the dudes skinhead friends, but nothing ended up happening. We're staying at the promoters house, it's small but cozy.
Day 6:
Weren't able to get the wifi working last night, so everyone is itching to contact girlfriends and such. On the road to Lublin, only an hour drive, thank god. The 'showers' here are basically bathtubs with shower attachments, but with no shower curtain, so the water gets everywhere if you're not careful.
The room we played in was almost as big as the stage we played on in Szeczin, really tiny. At one point people pushed up so much, that they ended up pushing Armine into the drums, and knocking them over temporarily in the middle of a song. We played well, kinda. I messed up a couple parts just cause I couldn't see Matt too clearly for certain changes, but I think it went okay considering that a photographer was also preventing Dave from clicking his pedals, and sometimes stepping on them herself.
Tomorrow is our last day in Poland, in Łodz, which is actually pronounced like 'woodge' which always confuses me.
Day 7:
Dave was throwing up when I tried to brush my teeth and change. They said he tried to fall asleep on the floor last night, but was dragged away by one of the dudes that lives here, and apparently slept in the room with the French band.
We're having breakfast and watching the new Meloncash videos on YouTube (We've been following this dude on YouTube called Meloncash who is an amazing dude, so check him out. We've been watching his videos, and listening to him while in the van, as well as quoting him all the time. http://www.youtube.com/user/meloncash spread the word).
About a 4hr drive to Łodz ("woodge") today, in the rain, and we still have to load up the gear.
The rain wasn't here when we got to Łodz, but there was a 4 story load, ugh. The room we're playing in is like a giant studio (more like an artists studio) apartment, columns in the middle and everything. There are 3 other bands on the show besides us and city of ships. There is an electronic act, the openers who played with us a few nights ago, and then a solo acoustic act from England that was actually really good, but reminded me of radiohead a bit much. It took about half an hour to look for a drum rug, and we ended up just pulling, nay, ripping the rugs off the back of the stage and put on the floor. Lots of weird people here, and lots of drunk people here. City of ships seem to be having some electrical buzzing problems, hope we don't have the same.
We have a hostel setup for tonight which means wifi, at that point I'll try to write a summation of our polish shows, and post this blog. I enjoyed myself mostly, but some of the other dudes are saying, "get me the f**k out of Poland now." we've had some hard times here, and many of the places we've played can be equated (quoting Armine here) "...to some of the worse parts of the US."
Right now we are listening to a weird 3-piece jam band from (if I heard correctly) Austria in a room full of only 7 people, not including our entourage. Very unimpressed. We only played 4 songs out of respect for having a band playing after us, and a ton of people were bummed because of it. To round out the night, some dude told Eric (from city of ships) that, even though he was appreciative, he said our time in Poland was wasted. Eric later repeated this information later to us as we were packing up. Some random girl, who we later found our was a girlfriend of one of the members of that god awful last band, then proceeded to misinterpret what he said as his own words, walked by us and said sarcastically, "sorry your time in Poland was wasted." Eric tried to explain to her that she didn't understand the context in which he said it, and she just walked away saying, "whatever" so he replied, "I'm sorry you interpreted a strangers comment wrong and attempted to make them feel bad. You're drunk, go die in a car accident."
And that ladies and gentlemen, is our time in Poland. We're at a hostel tonight, then it's a horrible 10hrs to Slovakia tomorrow. I'll continue with regular updates from now on, I just felt the entirety of Poland need their own entry.
Good night.
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