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.
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