One of the dudes from the opening band in Zagreb said that his band couldn't tour like we do because they can't stand being in the van with each other for long periods of time. When I told him that we love touring with each other he was astonished. I'm sad when I hear of bands touring and hating each other. Rosetta has never changed members, and if we ever did, we'd breakup, because this band can't be what it is if its's missing anyone. We're like brothers. We quarrel, and we poke fun and joke with each other, but we love traveling and playing music together.
Zagreb was, once again, a sweat box in the venue once everything got started. It's a lot cooler than it was last year, but not by much. We were so happy that people were stage diving when we told them it was okay to stage dive. Afterwards we had the usual autograph signing and awkward photos. Someone stole Armine's shirt from the place he put it on the kick drum. It's for that very reason that I pack up my stick bag the second we're done playing so no one steals my sticks, which did almost happen once in Moscow.
We stayed at a hostel called the 'FunkLounge' and it was by far one of the nicest, cleanest, funkiest (in a good way) hostels I've ever been to. The receptionist when we came in was real cute. She was a tiny blonde girl who spoke in a very small voice, and was genuinely excited to have us. While Armine and I sat just up the stairs surfing the internet, she was on her laptop having a funny conversation with, who I assumed was her boyfriend, via Skype.
Off to Italy.
The dude that did the show in the Italian sweat box last year is running this show in Comacchio. Mosquitos...Mosquitos everywhere. The stage is unnecessarily huge, and for some reason (much to my detest) also has a drum riser. Tall stages suck, especially with drum risers. They're always too wobbly and my snare and floor tom slowly move towards me with every hit of the kick drum. My other problem with drum risers are that I feel disconnected from the rest of my band, which sucks cause we rely a lot on line of sight and gestures for changes in songs.
The food was excellent though. Various pastas, sauces, veggies, and some sandwiches. A vast improvement over the fiasco last year.
There are apparently five bands on the bill tonight, and the first band didn't even start setting up their gear till round 10pm, which was when they were supposed to start playing. So we'll be playing around 2am. I'm glad we only have a 3hr drive tomorrow, or I'd be pissed I'm missing sleep cause the show wasn't scheduled correctly.
I also found out that ALL three bands separate from the touring package are using our back line. I'm not that upset with the use of it, it's not my gear, it's rented, but the fact that a) they don't want to use their own gear, and b) feel perfectly alright adjusting and fiddling with someone else's gear. Matt keeps two heads stacked on each other stage left. He does that cause Carl from kings destroy plays a different head than him. I caught the guitarist from the first band attempting to stack a
third head on top of them, and when I told him it was a very bad idea, and not to do it, he looked at me like I had three heads...not stacked on top of each other of course.
So, I think we pretty much played for mostly the other bands and their girlfriends. There seemed to be a few more people for us than there were for any of the other bands, but not by much. I'm not even that upset, I'm impressed. It's amazing how someone can put on a show, on a Friday night, with three local bands playing (who by all theory, should be bringing lots if friends) and still have almost no one attend. They were also a very unenthusiastic crowd. I think I saw 2 guys get into it, but mostly it was deadpan faces across the board. We also had to play a short set due to the fact that for some reason the promoter let every other band play for a ridiculous amount of time. Kings destroy played for a shortened amount as well, due to us noticing how close to curfew we were.
Overall, not a very fun show. The food was good, but the people were not excited at all, and the promoter didn't really manage the timing of the bands very well. However, I did get to watch transporting in Italian...not that it makes up for anything. There was a fun moment during kings destroy's set where (since there was barely anyone watching the show) Steve, while singing a song, walked off stage, and then back stage and sang in front of Armine and I. He then went back up, and later came through the door to the back stage on the side of the stage.
We stayed at this weird campground place. All the 'rooms' were like trailer homes with no wheels, but they were clean and comfy, and it was nice. I think we're going swimming again this morning before we drive to Milano. It's only a 2 or 3 hour drive, so we should have a good a mount of time to wander around the city before the show.
Wifi has been scarce the last day or so, so everything is going to be posted in one lump sum once I get online.
The drive to Milano was brutally hot so much that we ended up turning on the air conditioning for part of it. The oil light came on, and we had trouble finding the bottle of oil to fill it up. As usual we did tire checks at truck stops fearing something might blow in this heat, but no problems were found, and no flats were had.
The venue was a nice place fortified with a giant electronic gate. A woman was at the gate when we got there, and only after Steve (singer from kings destroy) got out and hugged her, did I recognize it was his wife. She came to surprise him for his birthday.
The live room was big with a semi-small stage at a weird angle. It had a drum riser too. It was considerably higher quality than the drum riser in Comacchio, but I still despise drum risers.
Armine is feeling like crap because he's going through withdrawal from the painkillers he was prescribed prior to tour, but had to dump before the Croatian border, for fear we'd be denied entry. We're letting him rest and making sure he chugs bottles and bottles of water.
There was a pretty good turnout for this show, and one of the bands from Commacchio also opened the show. There were sooo many mosquitos. Anywhere you went, mosquitos. There was a swarm outside, inside, backstage. I even tried to go hide in the van and 2 Mosquitos followed me in and feasted while I tried to rest.
We stayed in some weird hostel, but there wasn't enough room for everyone, namely, me. I had to sleep in a separate room with other people in it, however, the people in hat room refused to open the window because of the mosquitos, so it was a freaking sauna. I opted out and just went and sleep in the van, which ended up being a very comfortable idea. When I woke up, I wandered back to the hostel to go to the bathroom and brush my teeth.
The Autogrill is a truck stop they have in Italy, and it is by far the best truck stop establishment I have ever been to. Good food, and good coffee. We had breakfast there, and now we're on our way through Switzerland to get to Karlsruhe, Germany. The venue, we're told, is nice, and the show sounds like its going to be pretty well attended.
some weirdness about gear when we arrived. We're going to be using the first bands cabs for guitar and bass, and then they will be using our drum set. No idea why. The food spread that was here when we arrived was good, and I think more 'dinner' food is on the way. It seems like a nice place.
Pasta with chicken and red sauce, cheese sauce, pesto pasta, coffee, all the works, delicious. I love when the last day of tour is a stellar day. We've often had either crappy things happen, or just straight up crappy shows for last days of tour. However, the last few tours we've done, the last days have been awesome. After we play tonight, it's a 4hr drive to Brussels, and then we board a plane home. I'm looking forward to playing with dogs and sleeping in my own bed.
