here we go,
we made it through the kick-off of this our second tour throughout western-european parts.
here are some words on the first days and on the first impressions:
DAY 1, JET CLUB, prague w/ DEATH IS NOT GLAMOROUS (norway)ha! again all time-plans made up front are about to be thrown away during mono-loading our van for the upcoming 3 weeks on the road. note to myself: start to believe, that preparations ALWAYS take longer than you would expect. actually, if there's anything to truly believe in, it's delays!
anyways, after picking up all the other guys we're finally on our way towards prague, czech republic, one of the most beautiful capital-cities in europe. not really minding our lost front-license plate, we're more concerned about not having a working navigation system and - according to that – no clue about where to go. gladly denisa, tonights promoter, decides to pick us up from the main train station which we hold on to like a life buoy, haha.
the guys in
DEATH IS NOT GLAMOROUS have already set up all their gear, which we're luckily about to use. we're really really late now. setting up our stuff goes surprisingly fast, as we kick off our set in high speed.
the show felt pretty good to us, although we had to shorten our setlist by cutting out some new tunes. nevertheless, now it's DEATH AIN'T GLAM! there weren't as many people as there were in vienna two days ago, but the few that came out decide to party as if there's no tomorrow. pure awesomeness. to us, DING prove once more, that they are one of the best and especially most authentic live bands in europe. no doubt about that. a lot of sing-alongs, some encores and the show is over. what a tourstart!
as far as an after-party is concerned: we all feel tired and exhausted, plus we have to get up early tomorrow. so do DING, which means further chit-chatting-merch-swapping-while-loading for another 2 hours, then hugging each other goodbye to head for our seperate sleeping accomodations.
mad props to: denisa for squeezing us into the line up. as i told you before: you helped us out so much with that show. you basically saved our tourstart! thanks for letting us stay at your nice flat (balcony included!). also, good luck to DEATH AINT' GLAM. enjoy the rest of your tour, mates.
DAY 2, CASSIOPEIA, berlinw/ THE FLATLINERS (canada), RENTOKILL (austria)it's „rise and shine". literally. everyone slept extraordinarily well. the sun's still shining all over prague – we couldn't ask for more! after a short stop at a supermarket – by the way our lost license plate got replaced by a piece of a banana-box – we're heading for berlin, germany to meet up with our bros in
RENTOKILL at sash-discords and tick-bit-*johnnys casa right in the heart of friedrichshain. i almost forgot about the beautiful avenues, all the green areas and the beauty in general, berlin is bearing.
finding the rento-dudes asleep tells us last night's story. seems like they were partying until dawn. well, what did we expect?!
our merchandise just arrived an hour ago, which makes chilling-out an easy exercise.
today we're gonna play at the legendary
CASSIOPEIA, a big area including a huge indoor skate-park, plenty entertaining outdoor-facilities and a venue for shows. i've been here a fews times before, but it's the same pleasure/excitement-mix every time.
it's a big reunion going on: first of all, there's radde, tonights promoter. i also met him before a couple of times and it made me really happy, to see his smiling face again. along with him comes his dog zofe, who is just gorgeous. then there are
THE FLATLINERS, who we were lucky to play and/or hang out with a couple of days during their tourstops in austria and munich, germany. really nice dudes, awesome band.
while alex is sorting out merch and the rest of our travelparty's spread all over the place, i'm sneaking around feeling as relaxed as i haven't felt for days, maybe weeks. not quite everything sucks today.
the show tonight gets introduced by episodes of KNIGHT RIDER being showed at the venue with david h. in perfect shape and dress. nostalgia go go go! our set again feels solid and good to me, although i was feeling a bit uncomfortable, due to the 2-floored-stage we're playing on. i had to pay more attention to not stumble than to the actual show. anyhow, it felt great to see quite a bunch of people sticking around and watching us.
RENTOKILL – as they always do in berlin – played an awesome, awesome set, including their version of LEATHERFACE's „trenchfoot", which leaves me singing along every time.
45 minutes of fast, blasting beats followed by torontos very own THE FLATLINERS. seriously, since i got a copy of their new record „THE GREAT AWAKE" it repeated over and over again. the show was intense and powerful. in the middle of their set i found myself on stage again to perform kid dynamites „CHEAP SHOTS YOUTH ANTHEMS" together with the flats. good times.
this evening ended just as great as it began. all the bands hung out together in front of the venue. chit-chatting, taking crew-shots and finding out, who's still motivated to check out berlin nightlife. so, well, the early morning found its very end at a bar called „FRANKEN". we all had some more drinks and/or food, then finally waved the flatliners goodbye to play their last show of this their first european tour before they fly back home.
all our appreciation and respect to radde for putting us on, providing, delicious food/drinks and basically a great evening. also, it felt awesome to share such a great athmosphere with our buddies from RENTOKILL. the same to you: goooood good times.
thanks a lot to THE FLATLINERS for letting us use their gear, providing helpful throat-coat-tea and for taking part in a bunch of really cool evenings within the last months. make sure to come back soon.
next stop, hillentrup. olé!
DAY 3, PAPIERMUEHLE, hillentrup w/ BURT COKAIN (germany), THE SKARABS (germany)7 pm. arrival at the PAPIERMÜHLE in green, green hillentrup.
"no matter what i get told from other bands about certain locations, i always try to not expect anything and to judge on my own.
in this special case, the things i heard about hillentrup just sounded too good to be true." that's how i started reviewing our first show in hillentrup back in november 2007. and hell yes, it was too good to be true. and guess what:
again, we are speechless after just one hour of hillentrupscher-hospitality. we get fed some delicious goulash, followed by philis (the promoter) selfmade vegan vanilla pudding. fresh strawberries included. after loading out our van, setting up stuff and hanging out for a few hours, the first band BURT COKAIN gets on stage. due to the loss of my housekeys, ear protection and flashlight – they're all kinda attached to each other – i'm not able to watch BC's whole set as there was still a chance, to find my keys somewhere around the venue.
all i know is that BC played a mixture of grunge-influenced punkrock and that they are a local band practising directly at the PAPIERMÜHLE. i can hear the end of their set after about 50 minutes, while i am still in search of my belongings. anyways, the next band is called THE SKARABS, consisting of a bunch of young leds with an obsession for bands like LEFTOVER CRACK or SUICIDE MACHINES. the only difference to the bands mentioned is, that they are using an organ for offbeat parts and stuff. solid show, a good length and even some encores. they seemed pretty satisfied. by the way, by warming up for our set, i already gave up on looking for my keys'n'shit. it was completely pointless, since it was all dark outside.
as we get on stage, the people – a few less then last year, but somehow, the great mood in hillentrup doesn't seem to depend on the amount of people showing up – still seem pretty excited and awake. great. the show turns out to be really really good. some technical problems, but all in all, all four of us are feeling great and after the 5th encore, we have to quit our set, as there aren't any songs left to be played. in my opinion still the best cause, to end a show.
we spend a couple of hours drinking at the venue's bar, and talking about further plans such as album titles, hash oil, ac/dc tattoos and whatsoever, before we all fall into our beds.
phili, thank you so much for letting us be a part of your great family for some time again. i can't describe, how much this is appreciated and how much we enjoyed ourselves within all those nice people. an online-good-bye to the ones we missed on sunday! also, it was cool to meet tobi and holger from MURUROA ATTACK again. you better get some booking done fast, haha.
we spent the next day in hillentrup as well, since it was a day off. to keep another long story short: we spent a few hours at the local open air bath, had some hefeweizen while watching euro-soccer-championship and stuff. easy to spread, that's how we felt.
right now we're sitting in dordrecht at ifors place and leave for our next show at SUB 071 in leiden within the next hour.
zock
astpai