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.
Friday, July 22, 2011
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!
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!
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Munich
We've just arrived in Munich...
...I think it's about time for a shower, shave and etc., but before I do that I want to add one more photo and person to the cast of characters list.
This is Ondra Benes-
Ondra is our European tour manager slash driver. He's Czech...like just about every driver I've had in Europe. So far so good...he got us from the airport in Munich, to the place we are staying tonight in one piece.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
...I think it's about time for a shower, shave and etc., but before I do that I want to add one more photo and person to the cast of characters list.
This is Ondra Benes-
Ondra is our European tour manager slash driver. He's Czech...like just about every driver I've had in Europe. So far so good...he got us from the airport in Munich, to the place we are staying tonight in one piece.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
A brief, and by no means thorough, history of Blue Note and an introduction to the band.
If memory serves correctly, Swing Kids was started at some point in 1994. The original lineup of the band was Justin Pearson on vocals, Jose Palafox on drums, Eric Allen on guitar and Michelle Maskovich on bass. Michelle was recorded on the original version of the song "Disease" shortly after the band started, but departed the lineup soon thereafter, and never actually played live with Swing Kids.
I joined the band not long after Michelle called it quits, and we released a 7" record, played our very first show in Santa Barbara, did a bit of touring up the West Coast, headed out to Detroit for Michigan Fest in March of 1995, and went over to Europe in 1996 on a tour that was, in many ways, quite disastrous, before calling it quits.
Officially, Swing Kids played our "last" shows at the end of 1997. Jimmy LaValle, who had been playing in a couple of other bands with Justin, joined the band toward the end on second guitar. Not long after the band broke up, Eric passed away.
In 2009, a number of things happened that drew us back together and we reformed Swing Kids with Jimmy playing Eric's guitar parts. We played two shows in California; one of which was a benefit show, which was a big part of why we all agreed to do it.
The shows were great, but Eric's presence was notably lacking. As much as we tried to capture what was there before, it could never be the same without him.
Since then, we started getting a lot of contact from people overseas who wanted us to play their cities. Marco Walzel, at Avocado booking in Munich -who incidentally booked us for some German shows in 1996 -asked if we would come over to do a tour in honor of the 15th anniversary of his booking agency. We were the first band he ever booked, and he wanted us to help celebrate by reforming and coming over. Long story short, we agreed to do it again...
...but this time, we didn't quite think it was fair to play as Swing Kids, and we needed to add a bit more to the band to round things out in Eric's absence. We decided to call this new version of the band Blue Note (which is the title of one of Swing Kids' songs), and asked our friend Nathan Joyner, who plays guitar in the excellent band All Leather, to join up with us so that we could once again have two guitars.
I'm surely going to be talking a lot about the four guys I am currently playing with in the band in my posts over the next couple of weeks, so here's a brief introduction to each of them.
This is Justin Pearson, or JP for short -
As I mentioned before, Justin is our vocalist. He currently lives in San Diego. You may know him as a member of the band The Locust, Some Girls, All Leather, and several others. I've known Justin since I was 14 years old...and even though he has a track record of pissing off just about everyone who has ever known him, we've managed to remain friends for over twenty years.
This is Jose Palafox -
Jose lives in the Bay Area and I've known him for just about as long as I've known JP. He's an incredible drummer, and an excellent resource for leftist political discourse.
This is Jimmy LaValle -
I'm not quite sure when I met Jimmy. I think it was around 1996. He played in two bands with JP around that time; The Crimson Curse, and The Locust (known at the time simply as Locust). Eric wanted a second guitarist for Swing Kids toward the end of the band, and because Jimmy was a good friend of ours and had already played with Justin, we asked him to join up.
Today, Jimmy has his own music project - Album Leaf - and resides in Los Angeles with his beautiful and brilliant wife Kate. If you haven't heard his music, go check it out and pick some up. It's really good stuff.
Lastly, this is Nathan Joyner-
As I already mentioned, Nathan plays guitar for All Leather (with JP on vocals). I just met Nathan a couple of years ago, and haven't gotten to know him quite as well as the other guys because we live in different cities (he lives in San Diego, and you probably already know that I am in Chicago) but I'm looking forward to getting to know him better over the next couple of weeks.
Anyway...we are about an hour into our flight across the pond heading toward Frankfurt as I type this...and I think it's about time to pull the window shade and attempt to get some sleep.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
I joined the band not long after Michelle called it quits, and we released a 7" record, played our very first show in Santa Barbara, did a bit of touring up the West Coast, headed out to Detroit for Michigan Fest in March of 1995, and went over to Europe in 1996 on a tour that was, in many ways, quite disastrous, before calling it quits.
Officially, Swing Kids played our "last" shows at the end of 1997. Jimmy LaValle, who had been playing in a couple of other bands with Justin, joined the band toward the end on second guitar. Not long after the band broke up, Eric passed away.
In 2009, a number of things happened that drew us back together and we reformed Swing Kids with Jimmy playing Eric's guitar parts. We played two shows in California; one of which was a benefit show, which was a big part of why we all agreed to do it.
The shows were great, but Eric's presence was notably lacking. As much as we tried to capture what was there before, it could never be the same without him.
Since then, we started getting a lot of contact from people overseas who wanted us to play their cities. Marco Walzel, at Avocado booking in Munich -who incidentally booked us for some German shows in 1996 -asked if we would come over to do a tour in honor of the 15th anniversary of his booking agency. We were the first band he ever booked, and he wanted us to help celebrate by reforming and coming over. Long story short, we agreed to do it again...
...but this time, we didn't quite think it was fair to play as Swing Kids, and we needed to add a bit more to the band to round things out in Eric's absence. We decided to call this new version of the band Blue Note (which is the title of one of Swing Kids' songs), and asked our friend Nathan Joyner, who plays guitar in the excellent band All Leather, to join up with us so that we could once again have two guitars.
I'm surely going to be talking a lot about the four guys I am currently playing with in the band in my posts over the next couple of weeks, so here's a brief introduction to each of them.
This is Justin Pearson, or JP for short -
As I mentioned before, Justin is our vocalist. He currently lives in San Diego. You may know him as a member of the band The Locust, Some Girls, All Leather, and several others. I've known Justin since I was 14 years old...and even though he has a track record of pissing off just about everyone who has ever known him, we've managed to remain friends for over twenty years.
This is Jose Palafox -
Jose lives in the Bay Area and I've known him for just about as long as I've known JP. He's an incredible drummer, and an excellent resource for leftist political discourse.
This is Jimmy LaValle -
I'm not quite sure when I met Jimmy. I think it was around 1996. He played in two bands with JP around that time; The Crimson Curse, and The Locust (known at the time simply as Locust). Eric wanted a second guitarist for Swing Kids toward the end of the band, and because Jimmy was a good friend of ours and had already played with Justin, we asked him to join up.
Today, Jimmy has his own music project - Album Leaf - and resides in Los Angeles with his beautiful and brilliant wife Kate. If you haven't heard his music, go check it out and pick some up. It's really good stuff.
Lastly, this is Nathan Joyner-
As I already mentioned, Nathan plays guitar for All Leather (with JP on vocals). I just met Nathan a couple of years ago, and haven't gotten to know him quite as well as the other guys because we live in different cities (he lives in San Diego, and you probably already know that I am in Chicago) but I'm looking forward to getting to know him better over the next couple of weeks.
Anyway...we are about an hour into our flight across the pond heading toward Frankfurt as I type this...and I think it's about time to pull the window shade and attempt to get some sleep.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Muthaf*cka!
I wrote a rather long post on the flight from LAX to ATL, and it seems to have disappeared.
If anyone finds a lost posting, will you please return it to johnbrady2009@gmail.com?
Thank you and good night.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
If anyone finds a lost posting, will you please return it to johnbrady2009@gmail.com?
Thank you and good night.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Test
This is just a test...
...trying out the iPhone app.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
...trying out the iPhone app.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:N Lessing St,Chicago,United States
Work...
Two more hours at work, then it's off to LA before heading to Frankfurt in the morning. I'll try to post here as often as possible over the next two weeks for anyone who cares...
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