When life hands you Lemon hotels.

Last night was a bit of a low point in the tour. As I feared, the Belgian show didn't live up to the level of the last several that we played in Germany. It was poorly attended, but to be fair, those who did come out seemed to enjoy themselves. Blue Note on the other hand was a bit sloppy and plagued by technical difficulties - amp issues, broken strings, etc. It happens I guess.

The worst point of the evening however, wasn't the show, it was the hotel. We stayed at a place called the Lemon Hotel, in Tourcoing, France. I recommend avoiding it at all costs. The place was filled with sketchy people hanging about, and was basically about as bottom of the barrel as I think a hotel can get. I missed it, but Jimmy said there were men bringing women in to the rooms down the hall for "hour-long stays"...

...on top of the hotel being a dump, I woke up in the middle of the night with severe stomach pain for no apparent reason, and vomited into the sink in the room. This afternoon, I don't feel much better.

Lemon Hotel -




On a more positive note, I did get to see some old friends in Belgium last night. Mich from Hitch, a band that Sweep the Leg Johnny played with when we came over here, and Nathalie, who I met in 1996 when Swing Kids played a festival in Ieper, Belgium, came out to see us play. It was really great to see them both, and it was nice to hang out and have a few drinks with them and their friends.

Nathalie and Mich.




We are currently in the tunnel between France and England. Tonight we play London...let's hope it goes better than Brugge, and that our hotel is more like the better ones we have stayed in on this trip.


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Belgium

Tonight we play in Belgium. I'm quite excited because I get to see more old friends from previous tours, including one person I have not seen since Swing Kids played in Belgium in 1996.

Over the last several days we have played a few different places in Germany; Wiesbaden, Hamburg and Cologne. Each show got progressively better than the last one. The band played better each night, and the crowds got bigger and wilder. Last night in Cologne, I thought they were going to overtake the stage it was so crazy. I'm skeptical about the next few shows...Germany seemed to love us, but will it be the same in Belgium, London, Leeds and Barcelona?

I'm not sure that I have much of anything that is all that interesting to say at the moment. As I wrote a couple of posts ago, touring in a band can be kind of repetitious, and you don't really get much time to go explore. In fact, my big excitement and break from the ordinary yesterday was a trip to the laundromat...

...which was wonderful! When you're on the road, sweating every night on stage, and traveling each day, you feel kind of gross and dirty. I have showered just about every day of the tour so far except once, but until this morning when I put on my freshly laundered clothes, I never really felt particularly clean.

Anyway, this post is probably quite boring...so I suppose I'll wrap it up. Wish us luck in Belgium!

Oh...here's A photo. I haven't been taking very many.

This is Nathan, Jonas from Wolves Like Us, and Jimmy feeling out backstage in Cologne.



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Not really an update, mostly just photos.

We have just now arrived in Hamburg...

    ...as promised, here are some photos I've been taking along the way with my DSLR.


Here are some photos of food I took at a market in Munich.

 Jimmy hanging at the Munich market.

 Justin with juice at the Munich market.

 More food at the Munich market.

Justin plays with a bug and his camera in Munich.

 Flowers in Munich.

 Justin, Jimmy and Nathan - hanging out in Munich.

 Nathan hanging out in Munich.

 Jimmy, in Munich.

 Jimmy in the van.  Waiting to play at the Fluff Festival in Rokycany, Czech.

 Year of No Light.  On stage at the Fluff Fest.

More of Year of No Light.

 John from Warsawwasraw at the merch table during the Fluff Fest.

 Merch at the Fluff Fest.  Justin is hiding under the table.

 Justin hiding under the merch table.

 Architecture in Pilsen, Czech.

 Ondra and Jimmy, outside the hotel in Pilsen.

 This is Kenneth.  He is the sound guy for Wolves Like Us.  He's also doing sound for Blue Note.

 Guillame (hope I spelled that right).  He's the driver/merch guy for Warsawwasraw.

 Nathan leaves the hotel in his underwear on a dare.

I thought this was funny.  A skate/snowboard shop simply called SnowBitch.

 Central square in Pilsen.

 View from the top of the church in Pilsen.  Jimmy and I climbed to the top together and I thought I was going to pass out.  There were A LOT of stairs to climb.

 Another view of Pilsen.

 Jose hanging out in the central square in Pilsen.

 Not that you can really see it...but Geneva, Switzerland is off in the distance in the middle of this photo.

Okay...so this isn't much of an update, but for those who have been asking, you now have some photos.

Heading to Wiesbaden

Yesterday, we drove thirteen hours from Vienna to Geneva. When we got to the club, Ondra said to me, "This is the part where I am glad I don't play in the band". When you stay up late, or all night as I did in Vienna, then get on the road at 5:30am, sleep here and there on the way, then arrive after an exceptionally long drive, it's really difficult to summon the energy necessary to put on a good show.

So for those who think that touring is all fun and games - drinking, partying, sightseeing, having fun with groupies, etc. - I hate to burst your bubble, but it isn't really like that. I don't drink much before we play because I have to be sober enough to perform. If there is time after the show, we may hang out and drink, but often there isn't time to do so. Sightseeing? I get asked about the pictures I take on the road...and well, if you want to see the people we are playing with and the insides of different clubs, you'll get plenty of that...but if you're looking for photos of all the tourist attractions, I just don't have them. A typical day consists of- 1) get up early, 2) drive for several or many hours, 3) arrive at the club for soundcheck, 4) hang around a bit and wait for the other bands to have soundcheck, 5) have dinner, 6) wait for the doors to open, and opening bands to play, 7) play the show, get really sweaty and gross, 8) talk to a few people after playing, 9) go to the hotel to sleep, 10) repeat 1-9.

It may sound like I dislike touring. I don't. I like it a lot actually. I wouldn't do it if I didn't. I just wanted to clarify though that it isn't all fun and games, because in talking to people that's the impression I get from them. I'm not complaining here by any means...just setting the record straight. The best parts of touring are meeting people, seeing old friends from previous tours, and playing a good show and seeing people enjoy themselves. Those things are very enjoyable, but don't make for very good stories.

Anyway, we are on our way to Wiesbaden, Germany right now. We left Geneva, Switzerland about an hour ago. The show there last night was kind of lackluster. We played the best we've played so far - which is amazing considering how tired we were after the thirteen hour drive - but it was poorly attended. Jimmy and JP have played shows there before, and said it was pretty much the same thing. I do have to say though, the people who came really seemed to enjoy the show a lot, and they got a good performance from us...which, at the end of the day are the only two things that really matter.

Ondra pointed out to me that I made an error in an earlier blog. We flew in to Frankfurt, not Munich. He picked us up there, and drove us to Munich. Sorry if I confused anyone...guess I was pretty tired.




I thought this was pretty funny- 'Wiener Zucker' sugar.




Warsawwasraw on stage in Vienna.




Nathan with some weird sperm drink.

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Pilsen, Nuremberg and heading on the way to Vienna.

We had a short drive yesterday, so after checking out of our hotel we walked around the center of Pilsen and grabbed a bite to eat at a vegetarian restaurant that Ondra knew about. Out of the six of us on the road together (the band plus Ondra), three are vegan, and two are vegetarian...so it can be a bit of a challenge to find proper food if we are eating anywhere outside of the venues we are playing. Anyway, the place that Ondra took us to was a lifesaver because everyone was starving, most of us were still half drunk, and the food was pretty damn good.

After eating, Jimmy and I walked around for a bit while everyone else finished up at the restaurant. We shot some photos, and climbed to the top of the bell tower of the church in the Pilsen center square. Unfortunately, I didn't get the name of the church...but if you're ever in the center of the town, you can't miss it. I promise to post photos soon. The view from the top was spectacular.

As I mentioned earlier, the drive to Nuremberg was a short one...barely three hours....so we FINALLY had time for a proper soundcheck. After soundcheck I kicked back for a bit in the Green Room before dinner, and then chatted with Eve (the promoter at Nuremberg's K4) for a bit...making sure to give her a hello from David and Hugo Da Cruz...who she seemed to have a soft spot for, just like several women I know back home.




From left to right - Jimmy from Blue Note, Larsh and Espen from Wolves Like Us dig in to the pre-dinner spread in the Green Room at K4.




Hilariously named chips in the pre-dinner food spread.




Jimmy goofs off during soundcheck at K4. There's a fan below blowing his hair around.




Our host at K4.


After dinner, I took off to the hotel for a bit because it was only a block away from the venue. Almost immediately, I crashed out on the bed and was out for almost two hours. I probably could have slept all night...fortunately, I didn't. I walked out of the hotel room in a daze, and headed back to the club. Warsawwasraw was already playing when I got there so I checked them out a bit, then grabbed a beer and kicked back outside the front doors. When the set ended and everyone flooded out, I ran in to Kirst...

Kirst is an old friend of mine from Glasgow (she currently lives in Holland however). We met the very first time I went to the UK on Spanakorzo tour in 1996, and again when Swing Kids came through later that year. Kirst and I have stayed in contact reasonably well over the years (considering the distance), and she even visited once in Chicago a few years ago.

Anyway, when I saw Kirst, I immediately thought "Fuck!"...I was supposed to put her on the guest list...but I didn't because I slept through the portion of the evening when such things are handled. I'm a jerk. I should have handled it earlier. Forgive me Kirst.




Me with Kirst.


The show was the best one I think we've played so far. We sounded good, we played well, and as Kirst told me after the show, it was much more intense and energetic than when she saw us in Pomona two years ago. I think adding Nathan to the lineup has a lot to do with that.

Anyway, after the show we headed back to the hotel. Jimmy and I were in one room, while Nathan, JP and Jose were in another. Ondra had decided to sleep in the Sprinter, but wanted to take a shower first. After Ondra let the other three in to their room, I asked him for the keys. He said, "I gave them to you". Crap! He had left them on the bed RIGHT next to me, and I was so out of it when I woke from my nap, that I didn't even notice. So we were locked out...and there was no one at the front desk because it was really late. My bag was locked in the room, and it looked as though I was going to have to sleep in the van and get it in the morning...

...fortunately, Ondra was able to find a guy working downstairs and we were let in to the room. After he opened the door, everyone had a good laugh at my expense because I was practically laying on the keys, and didn't know they were there.

So that's about it...we're almost to Vienna...so I'll wrap this up and post more later.




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Sunday.

We're currently on our way from Pilsen, in the Czech Republic, back to Germany. Tonight we play Nuremberg, our third show of the tour.

This tour is booked as a three-band bill. We are headlining, and are taking two bands out with us for all of the dates except Barcelona, which is at the end of the tour. Warsawwasraw is one of the openers. They are from France. They toured with The Locust a few years ago, and JP will soon be releasing a record of theirs on ThreeOneG. The other band is Wolves Like Us, who are from Oslo, Norway.

We met up with both bands on Friday night in Munich, for the first show of the tour, at the place I mentioned in a previous post - Feierwerk. Wolves is supplying the backline, and unfortunately they had a lot of trouble along the way from Berlin (where they were the night before), and we had a very rushed soundcheck as a result.

The Wolves guys were quite distracted when they got in to town because of the bombing and shooting that had happened in Oslo that day. Apparently, their rehearsal space had all of its windows blown out, and the bombing happened in an area of town that they regularly hang out, work in, etc, etc. Considering the magnitude of what had happened in their hometown, the Wolves all seemed to be in pretty good spirits, and played their set quite well. So far, we've thankfully had no news that anyone in the band lost a friend or relative.

The Munich show was decent, but somewhat poorly attended. Everyone told us that attendance was low due to the fact that many people had gone to Czech for the Fluff Fest. Despite this, we played well, and I had a good time. The crowd was a bit reserved, except for one drunken idiot that JP got into a bit of a row with during the middle of our set. The kid eventually got thrown out by Marco because he was getting belligerent, and was bothering everyone who was up front.

Yesterday, we left Munich and headed to Rocycany for the Fluff Fest. Fluff is a big outdoor festival, next to an old airstrip, in a small town about fifteen minutes away from Pilsen. Several thousand people were in attendance...mostly hardcore fans, but there were all kinds of other punk rock sub-genres represented as well.

One of my favorite bands at the moment, Year of No Light, played a few hours before we did, and I was really excited to have the opportunity to see them because they have not yet toured the US. They're an instrumental metal band with two drummers, three guitars, keyboards and bass...and didn't really fit the rest of the festival mix, but I was happy...even if the crowd didn't know quite what to make of them. I shot some photos of them playing, and hope to be able to post at least a couple soon. By the way, if you like Godspeed You Black Emperor! or similar bands, you should check them out.

After YONL, I took a nap for a while and hung around doing a bit of people-watching until it was time to play. Now, i have to say, festivals are tough...the backline is borrowed, you don't get much of a soundcheck because it's one band right after the other, and the sound on stage is typically beyond terrible. The Fluff Fest was no exception. No one in the crowd really seemed to care, but we played like shit as a result. The energy was good, and the crowd seemed to enjoy it, but we were a bit sloppy. Oh well.

After the show, we hung around for while before heading back to the hotel in Pilsen. All the bands stayed in the same place, and it was our first real chance to hang out and really get to know each other (mostly because, as you might expect, the Wolves guys had been glued to online news reporting the night before). Almost all of us, everyone except JP, Ondra and Kenneth (Wolves sound guy), headed out to hit up the town.

After a bit of a search we happened upon a dance club. The place was pretty lame; bad techno music, bad outfits, and lots of drunk and stupid people who were mostly older than us but were acting half their age. We were up for an adventure however, so we hung out, had a few beers, and had as much fun with the locals as we could without speaking the language. Naturally, it was a drunken mess...and the party continued for most back at the hotel...

...but anyway...I think I'll end this here and post a few photos...




Blue Note poster up at Feierwerk.





Orange House/Feierwerk entrance before the show.





Jimmy passed out in our room at Feierwerk.





The beer truck. What you need for a good festival!





The crowd shortly before the Blue Note set.





JP is interviewed for Czech television.

Photos.

One other thing...for those of you who know me well...

   ...you're probably all wondering why I have posted nothing but crappy cell phone photos.  I took a few while wandering around Munich today, and will continue to take some better ones as the tour wears on...I'll post some eventually.

Welcome to Seattle...?

It feels like we took a wrong turn somewhere along the way.  We arrived in Munich at around 3pm yesterday afternoon, and it's been cold and rainy for a good portion of the last 24 hours.  So no, we aren't really in Seattle...we're in Munich, but the weather and scenery both remind me of the Pacific Northwest.

The show tonight is at a place called Feierwerk, which is a compound of sorts, about a 10 minute drive outside of the center of Munich.  Feierwerk has four different music venues, a skatepark, an on-site "hotel" (where we are staying) for bands on tour, and I believe there's also a cafe.  After arriving here yesterday, I took a shower and a nap before we all went out for dinner and drinks.

For dinner, we went in to the center of Munich and met up with Marco Walzel, who runs Avocado booking.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, he's an old friend of ours who booked some shows for Swing Kids when we came over here fifteen years ago, and has booked the current tour.  Anyway, we all had dinner at a sushi place with Marco, Ivonne and Mekk, who both also work for Avocado.

This is Marco (on the left) and Jose-

Another of Jose, with Mekk -

And lastly, here's one of Mekk with our tour manager/driver, Ondra -

After dinner, we grabbed some beers (it's legal to drink on the streets here), wandered about and met up with some old friends of mine; David and Hugo Da Cruz.  David and Hugo are brothers, and I met them when I was touring with Sweep the Leg Johnny about eleven years ago.  We played in Wasserburg, their home town, and later came back over and played a number of shows with David's band.  They've both been over to the US several times to visit since Sweep came over on tour, and we've stayed in touch throughout the years...

    ...so after meeting up with the Da Cruz brothers, we finished our beers and headed to a bar called the Schwarze Hahn, which translates to Black Cock (as in rooster, not the other cock...in case you were wondering).  The bar had something of metal theme going on, so for those of you who know me well, you probably have already guessed that I felt right at home.

This is Hugo, hanging at the Black Cock bar -

And here's David, hanging with Nathan, also at the Black Cock -

We hung out at the Black Cock for a while, had some beers, chatted and so on until around 11pm, when everyone in the band decided to head back to Feierwerk to hang and drink beer back at our "hotel".  Right around that time, Hedwig, another old Munich friend of mine, who used to play in a band with David and lived in Chicago for a brief period of time, showed up.  I didn't want to say hello and then immediately split, and of course, David and Hugo are both quite persuasive...particularly when I've already been drinking...so I split from the group and took off to another bar with my three Munich friends...not really having any idea as to how to get back to Feierwerk...but I wasn't really worried about it anyway.

Drunk.  Me, Hedwig and Hugo hanging out late -

The four of us stayed out until around 2am, until I realized that I was pretty exhausted.  David hailed a cab for me, gave the driver directions, and it actually ended up being a lot easier to get back here than I thought it would.

After arriving back at Feierwerk, I hung out with the Blue Note guys for a bit.  Nathan and Jimmy and I had some more beers, talked shit and fucked with Jose, and then finally crashed out around 3am.

Surprisingly, I slept VERY well, and didn't get up until around 11am.  Even with all of the napping I did yesterday, I must have been a lot more exhausted than I probably would have admitted to yesterday. 

After we got up and got moving, Ondra took us back in to the town center.  Justin, Jimmy, Nathan and I took off to find some food, while Ondra and Jose split from the group to go see the Dachau concentration camp.  I'd already seen Dachau when Sweep came over here, and didn't feel like I really needed to see it again.  To be perfectly honest, I don't think Dachau is the best of the concentration camps to visit...the best way that I can put it, is to say that it's something like the Disneyland of concentration camps.  If you really want to experience the horrors of the Holocaust, I suggest going to Poland to visit Auschwitz/Birkenau.

Anyway...after grabbing food, coffee and wandering about, we're back at Feierwerk again.  Tonight is the first show of the tour.  Wish me luck that it goes well!