14.3.08
we leave early to not get into any traffic jams and are lucky that our plan works perfectly. as we arrive in würzburg we unpack the van at the immerhin (very nice venue!) and walk to manu’s flat where we find him and labse from xyeahx providing our food (which turned out to be one of the best meals on tour).
the show in the immerhin went really well, we start off and play like most bands play on their first day on tour (whatever this means^^).
then it’s the single state’s turn and it’s not hard to recognize that this is their home match and that they earned a lot of attention here!
it’s also their record release party so they sell tons of records on this day!
after a lot of partying and some drinks (too much to handle for some, but that’s another story), we head of to manu again to get some sleep cause we all know that 2 weeks of touring will be very stressful.
15.3.08
next morning we woke up, took a shower and went to the van to get all our stuff in there we would need for the next 16 days.
we left würzburg and went to döbeln. the venue there is awesome, it’s called "café courage" and is indeed some kind of café but with a really big stage and enough room for the audience.
the show itself was amazing, the atmosphere was so cool and people were really enjoying both sets!
thanks so much to andreas from emuzah and conny (together they are "kellerkinder shows") and to the people who showed up and stayed for hours after the show to talk to us and stuff!
amazing folks!
16.3.08
after a really chilled and restful night we went to conny’s place (which was indeed one of a kind and inspired us to take this lovely picture^^) to take a shower and then took off to wolfsburg.
as we arrived there we were told to bring our stuff (sleeping bags etc.) to the "sleeping room".
as I entered the door I really had to pull myself together to not completely loose it, cause the whole room was smelling like fresh vomit.
i mean, we all thought of ourselves that we might be overreacting, but the smell did not disappear.
we opened all the windows in the room and after we cleaned up all of the room and after we found rat poo all over the place (which could not be identified as the source of evil) we found out that the fridge freezer which was in the room was unaligned, so all the stuff that should have been frozen was rotting and smelling and stuff…
the show itself was pretty cool, there were some people showing up and the bands we were playing with played good sets.
after the show we were told to come to the office to get paid and all bands got there money except for me cause we were complaining on stage (yeah, not a smart or nice thing to do, we know) about the sleeping conditions.
we told this guy (which was not even the promoter of the show but some random dude who used to do shows there and now acts like a "mentor" type of guy) that we are sorry for that but also told him face to face (which we should have done in the first place) that the sleeping place is not a real option for any kind of being to stay.
that’s when things went wrong because he started yelling that if we don’t like it there we should get our ass out of there and go to a holiday inn.
then he said that he would have been the guy to get up in the morning to provide breakfast for all the bands but that he lost all his motivation to do so and that he as well (he really said this!!!) can stay in the office and watch some porn.
dude.
no.
did he really say this?
damn.
yes, he did.
note that it was just us complaining and that the other bands had nothing to do with it but now were punished too. this is more that just unprofessional, this is simply stupid.
we kept our mouths shut then, with no other option to stay, we thought we should just remove all the couches from the vomit room and move them to the concert area which we did later on. so, if your band is playing in the "jh ost" in wolfsburg make sure that the guy who is doing the show is not HENNING and that you have a place to sleep outside the venue, cause in there, chances are more than high you might get sick of something.
but as i said, other that that the show was great : ) thanks to chris who was the original promoter of the show and who turned out to be a really chilled dude who we were really able to communicate with and straight things out.
17.3.08
we left early the next morning, off to our first official "on tour supermarket parking lot breakfast" (many more to come^^).
we drove to leipzig where we met lag at his flat. lag is an old friend of the single state’s .
he and andreas from emuzah records organized a last minute show there which we were very thankful for! they did the craziest peace of advertisement ever for us!
since there was no chance to take a shower in wolfsburg this was the first thing I did when we arrived.
then we split and went around the city a little bit since there was a lot of time to kill until the show.
i went to a comic store and got myself some punisher stuff after having tasty falafel with lukas, merlin and chris.
later in the afternoon we went to the venue, the "stö 16" or just "schuppen".
it’s a small place in the backyard of a squat (nearly the whole street there is occupied).
the show went well, even if there was not much audience who was really interested in the bands. they were most likely there for the cheap beer^^
we split after the show cause there was not enough room for everyone to sleep at lag’s place, so 4 of us went to andreas’ place.
this guy has a black cat named orchid. how cool is that??
18.3.08
after a nice breakfast at lag’s place we left for weimar.
i was really looking forward to the show cause niclas was doing it. he is an old friend of the band i would say and this was the third show he did for us.
as we arrived there we were told that there were two additional bands playing this night. "alone" from italy and "broken distance" from portugal joined in along with "anakyn", the local band which was playing anyway. it was their first gig and they were amazing!
"alone" was a blast and i subconsciously caught myself 2-stepping during their show^^
they were really nice people and we had cool talks with them.
we did not speak one word with "broken distance", i don’t know why, they just not seemed to be interested or something, but they had 3 drivers from germany with them who were really annoying.
but anyway, food was awesome, atmosphere was really cool and both of our bands played good shows i think. single state of man sold a million records this evening.
19.3.08
i didn’t get much sleep this night cause the sleeping room was right above the tavern and they played german punk music all night, plus i had the honour to have a place right between merlin and pitt, the major snorers on the trip.
so i was not in the best mood this morning and the fact that the 3 stooges from "broken distance" (their drivers) were so loud and stupid during the breakfast made it even worse.
after taking this group pic we went to berlin.
we arrived at marios place who was doing the show (and besides is the boss of synalgie records) and then split again for exploring a bit of berlin kreuzberg’s beauty^^.
we played in the koma f, in the köpi that night. it was so cold there that you were able to see your own breath, but i had to take of my sweaters anyway, otherwise i would have died from overheating. i played so hard this night that i was near to a circularity collapse, i had several moments where all i saw was black...
the show itself was awesome, a lot of people showed up and everyone was enjoying themselves.
thanks again to mario for doing the show.
20.3.08
the night was restful and after a nice breakfast we left for essen, our hometown, to kill a day off.
the drive was shitty, rain all the time and it was dark and stuff. i hated it.
21.3.08
i slept well at home and the next day early we picked up mini (GEIL!), the spare guitarist from the single state’s for the next week. we left chris in berlin cause he had to go home from there to do some school stuff.
we all gathered at my place and then took of to hechtel in belgium.
we arrived at brechts place, placed our stuff in his basement and went to the club.
the show was supposed to be a huge punk festival and all the shows the promoters had done before were a big success we were told.
this night there was about 25 people. there was another festival pretty close which was for free, so all the kids went there. well, not all the kids. there were nick, maxime, jimmy and jean-marc. they really came to see our show and had lots of fun while we were playing, so did we, so we especially played one song which they requested. we normally don’t do stuff like that^^.
after the show i was told, that one of the "true" punks threw a beer can at lukas while we were playing. lukas picked up the beer can during the song and through it back at the guy as hard as he could and it smashed into the wall right next to this guys face. the story is that afterwards this guy was really scared of lukas^^
this really got me pissed. i mean, what about tolerance and stuff?! oh, i forgot, there’s no such thing in "trueness".
after the show we sat down around our merch table and had a nice party with the locals and they told us that when we come back next time we could play in maxims garage, cause he has a BIGGARAGE!^^
well, anyway, i told them that we had to fill a day off on the 23rd, 2 days from then, and if they would be able to do a very last minute show. they agreed in trying their hardest and we went for brechts place to go to sleep (some took a shortcut through jurassic park^^).
22.3.08
we got pancakes for breakfast. can you believe that?!
awesome dude. brecht you are the best man!! thanks for everything!!
we later left for oostende.
we arrived there without any sight of spike, the promoter for the day.
he came a bit later and we were served food and started to put up our gear.
the first thing he told me was that there won’t be many people at the show because there is another show taking place near there which was a bummer.
well, we nevertheless were excited for the show because we were playing with archivist, chiels new band. we know him for awhile and call him a friend.
they were awesome!
our set was pretty good too (sooo much space^^).
what got me really excited was the fact that the guys from the hechtel show responded that they found a venue and that there was a show taking place the next day! unbelievable!
after the show we drove to the place where we were supposed to stay at night. it was a house next to a church which was (so we were told) haunted. we don’t know that exactly, but we do know that it was daaaamn cold in there!
some of us went on a party that night with the archivist guys, gert-jan and laurance.
it was a school party with a lot of techno music and underaged folks.
it was great! except for the fact that i didn’t witness my promised jump style^^
23.3.08
the night was cold and short. we left the place (after placing a "help me" sign in one of the upper windows^^) and had our second official "on tour supermarket parking lot breakfast".
when we arrived in leopoldsburg, the town where maxime lives and where we were supposed to stay for the night we didn’t know what to expect.
but what came then was so far out of the ordinary! when we arrived we were brought to the attic of the house of maxims family where everyone had enough place to sleep for the night, which is always a plus, especially after a night in the haunted house^^
we then were told that maxims mom had prepared vegan food for us, which was really awesome! after a bit of chilling and doing laundry we drove to the venue in beverlo, near leopoldsburg. by the time we arrived there already were about 20 to 30 people in the place. perfect. we hadn’t expected something like that.
we set up our gear and maxims, jimmys and jean-marcs new band "sunra" opened the night.
really cool stuff, you should definitely check them out!
then it was time for a reunion show of "and he rose above the crowd", maxims and nicks old band, we played their first show with them awhile ago in hechtel and now the very last one. cool!
after them it was our turn. from the first chord to the last the people were really into it, including crowd surfing and handclapping and even singalongs…
for me one of the best and most intense shows of the tour!
the single states were amazing as usual and seemed to have had a great time too!
after the show we went home to maxims place and went to sleep early.
24.3.08
we had awesome breakfast and took an amazing group picture of the leopoldsburg crew and us:
thank you so much guys!!
we then left for caen.
thomas, bass player in isae buried memorial, proposed to us that we could play a show in his basement and stay at his house on this day. we were really thankful for that.
driving through france is expensive. we heard that before, but it somehow was not clear to us how expensive passing a bridge can be^^
we arrived in this beautiful part of france rather early and had some food which thomas had prepared for us. thanks for that, really tasty dude!
the show in the basement was cool, there were not many people, but it was a lot of fun to play! mini (GEIL!) was a star this night.
we decided to go to sleep early because the next day it was paris and we wanted to spend some time there.
25.3.08
later than planned we left thomas’ place for our third official "on tour supermarket parking lot breakfast".
we did not take the highway to paris because of the money in the first place.
i have to admit that it was such a nice driving there and the countryside is so beautiful!
as we arrived in paris we went to the miroiterie to check it out. nice squat.
we then split, me and manu had falafel at maoz and the other guys went for a stroll around town.
later we put up our gear and the first band, "pouvoir", started the show. really cool heavy fast grind stuff. nothing for me personally but it was fun to watch.
then it was single state of man and then us. we both had a great time playing i guess and there was still some audience left when we had finished our set.
the last band, "vengeance", were kind of the local heroes and started a big party on stage. reminded me a lot of louise cyphre or converge.
later we went to this kitchen party in the flat of a friend of ben, the promoter of the show.
most of us were really tired and just wanted to leave.
there was this male looking female that tried very hard to hook up with manu (which was rather entertaining) and then we left the place with 12 people in a van for 9 people and drove through paris to our sleeping place.
sounds easier than it was cause this guy (jerome, where we slept) had no clue at all where to go which was really annoying me and i had to pull myself together not to completely freak out!
well, I made it and we finally arrived at the place where we were supposed to stay.
thanks for offering this opportunity, but that place was too small for 9 people, so 3 of us slept in the van, including manu who only wanted to get away from she-male. Quote (while everyone else was in the same room and listening): "no, really, I don’t want to have any intercourse with you!" we silently laughed our asses of about that!
26.3.08
we left early the next morning and had our fourth official "on tour supermarket parking lot breakfast".
we didn’t know what to expect from the day because there wasn’t a show but i organized a place to stay in besancon at onito’s place. onito is the singer of a french band calles "ampools", they stayed at my tiny place on their last tour and we got along very well. i really have to say that he is a very nice person!
so, we arrived in besancon, onito picked us up at the end of the highway and we followed him to his house. his parents were on vacation, so we had the whole place for us. the house was really big and we all had a very nice place to sleep. thank you so much dude!!
we spent a very relaxed evening there, had a nice meal and went to bed early.
27.3.08
the next morning we had much time because there was just another day off. i slept till 12 o’clock and then went to get some baguettes with our merch/roadie dude marcel.
after a very large breakfast we left for freiburg, where we were supposed to stay at arne’s place.
we found arne’s place and went to the city to eat a falafel which was very good!
after that we dropped marcel off at the station because he had to go to hamburg to do an interview for his label cobretti records.
we split because there was not enough space in arne’s flat for everyone and half of us went to flo’s place.
28.3.08
after some of us went to flight 13 for a quick record shopping we left for switzerland.
we knew that there might be some problems at the customs duty so we prepared ourselves by counting all the merch and making a list from all the items.
sure, we hoped that we will not be asked about it, but as we drove across the border we were stopped and asked to pay for it.
we did so and went to baden where we first drove accidentially through the pedestrian zone to find the club, only to find out that the address we had was old and that the club was now somewhere else. it took us another 2 hours to finally find it.
the show was awesome, we all liked the location (the ruum) very much and everything went fine, except for the fact that "mikrokosmos 23" who were supposed to play with us on this day didn’t show up.
the food was awesome!!
we went to marianne’s place for the night and since she is the boss of ape must not kill ape and has many records to sell at her place we all bought some records before we finally went to sleep.
29.3.08
we had a very nice breakfast and went off to karlsruhe.
the last show on tour was going to be a screamo festival with 8 bands, so we thought that it would start early.
well, it didn’t, but that was alright because the show was kind of inside of a indoor skatepark which was cool, cause we had skateboards with us and had much fun riding them.
the show was really cool, sad that not so many people showed up. we had so much fun watching most of the bands and our show itself was really awesome, the audience (mostly people from the other bands that played) really made our show into a big party!
thanks to the people involved in the organisation, i can imagine how hard it is to pull a thing like this.
we drove to wuerzburg after the show to drop of all the single states and sleep at tilman’s place.
30.3.08
the "night" lasted 3 and a half hours, since we arrived at our sleeping spot at 7.30 in the morning.
after we had pasta with ketchup for breakfast we left to drive home.
we have to say that this was a really amazing tour and above all we want to tell everyone how awesome the people are we were sharing our van with.
single state of man, this band is so amazing and moreover the people itself are unbelievably nice!
marcel, our merch/roadie dude, who went on the trip kind of last minute and who we have to thank for many funny moments and his personal support during the whole time.
we met so many cool people, saw familiar and new faces at our shows and hope that every single one had a good time during our sets, cause that is what we were always aiming for.
another big "THANK YOU!" to all the promoters and people who gave us a place to stay at night.
good times. never forget.
the punx. <3
(written by thomas.)