Blog posts from 2007 Euro Tour

Taking a break from the present, here are some dispatches from the past...... February 4, 2007 - Sunday France We will be in France for the next 9 or 10 days if anyone need anything from there. Berets, small moustaches, mimes, and what not. Also, I will attempt to find the throat lozenges with the Lidocaine in them that actually work but are not allowed to be sold in America for reasons probably related to capitalism or terrorism. Or both. Maybe the terrorists will win when I buy them. I drank too much and slept through almost the entire first half of the super bowl, but then I joined the crowd in the main room for movie screen American ball live from the German broadcast. The German commentary threw a different spin on it, and our Dutch friends were fun to watch sports with. All around a good time, and the beers were free? Someone brought a chocolate cake. There were chips, although the hot dogs were of real pig parts and not soy, thus not edible. I will miss the Vera when we leave tomorrow, she has treated us well. Thank you Groningen. Thank you Netherlands. All of you be good to each other and massage yourselves for easy pleasures.

Animal Planet, I love you I watched animal planet on Netherlands television today. They spoke english, but subtitled it for natives. SHows about apes and crocodiles and cheetas. It was all very lovely. I like them animals. Last night, was ourband playing the whole show as a one band show and not so bad. There was a dance party later. I tried some new moves out and i think they were good. The music was terrible. Everyone smokes and smokes and smokes. They should be dying very soon with so much smoking. It is push up day so I must leave to do the remaining 40 push ups of the regiment. This evening we will watch the US superbowl of footballs featuring the teams of Colts and the Bears vying for superiority in tackling, passing, and rushing. If all goes well, there will be a minimum of penalties. Maybe they will provide veggie dogs like they did last year. Sometimes, I hate cigarettes so much that I fear it will overwhelm my hatred of R. Kelly.

February 3, 2007 - Saturday Being man Last night. Amsterdam. There was a cat in a hash bar that I was able to pet, and I git Tyler to takke pictures of us together. Today, there was an orange cat, but it was not interested in my hand being on it so much. The show was good and the chaos punx were having a good time. An man about the age of 50 gave me half a beer while we were playing and then he called across the front of the stage and kissed me on the cheek after we were done playing. The only thing I could do was kiss him on the other cheek, you know, because you don't get chances like this so often. Then he kissed me again later at the bar, and the girl that was with him kissed me too. It was all so European. We had no kicker table last night. The hash bar played reggae and techno and combinations of the two. As well as videos with flashing colors and strobe lights. Today we went to the town center and the red light district and to get mushrooms for eating. The mushroom store was all full of drug stuff and drug humour and reminded me of flea markets and black light posters. The red light district had lots of windows with girls staring out of them. They didn't wear much clothing. I drank a beer. Tonight we play Gronigen, also in the Netherlands. There are attractive posters for the show we are about to play. I have to go to the bathroom.

February 1, 2007 - Thursday

Maximum cigarettes Hello little buddies. We are in the fine city of Geissen in Germany and all is well, especiall with the food. We have also been given beers by the name of Pogorausch. This beer comes from Belgium and is said to be brewed by punks. Not bad. They are an ambitious sort over here. I hate cigarettes. No cats yet, but 2 dogs today. One was outside a grocery and barked a frightening bark at Bret when he came near. Very hurtful. The other dog is here at the show. Much nicer and when I put mine hand upon he or she dog, mine hand did not hold a bad dog odor. Thank you dog owner. I bet D.O.G.O.B.G.Y.N smells like medical scrubs and rubber gloves. Sanitary deliveries only. Man, I need to find some cats soon. I feel so lost without them. Next time I go on vacation trips, I will bring a cat picture scrap book. And maybe a cat doing something awesome flip book to animate when times are slow and less interesting and I feel that I need a pick me up. Maybe soon Heathrow Airport can find a way to reach into its own ass and pull out our box of saleable items. Until this happens, London is a black hole to avoid. See you. Be nice to each other, and change your diapers.

January 30, 2007 - Tuesday German Feelings Current mood: sore Category: Pets and Animals I haven't seen any cats yet, but I know they're here not only because I have seen them here before, but also because I can sense them. Felines play hard to get sometimes. When I find them it will be such sweet emotional fulfillment. Now enjoy this story, excerpted from a business correspondance: The only problem weve had so far is that the flight from NY to London was late and didn't give us much time to make our connector to Hamburg. Then we foünd that you can only bring one carry on bag on flights from London, even though we were on the same airline that let us bring 2 from the states. I had to go through the passport check, and that guy sent me down stairs, those people sent me back upstairs, and I had to go to ticketing to check the bag. At this point, Troi and I had missed the plane and didn't know where anyone else was at. Turned out Bret missed it too, for the same reason, and they had held all ten of our checked bags from the flight. So now the three of us had to wait six hours for the next plane. When we finally got to Hamburg, the box of LPs and 7"s was missing. It also had all of the cd booklets, tray cards, and stickers in it. The customs/airline people also bent Greg's cymbal case, almost broke his kick pedal, and broke one of the cd spindles so our cds could spread out through the shirt bag and get scratched. Pricks. We should be getting a call about our missing items today sometime, because Timo yelled at them in German a lot. Other than that, things are fine. We ate pizza, but instead of bringing Troi pizza with pepperoni, they brought pizza with peppers. Then we forgot to warn him that when you ask for water, they will bring you carbonated water, and he didn't like that either. Sorry. Enjoy your lives, Americans.

September 18, 2010

Le Thillot, France w/Unkind, Toxic something, Unlogical Feeling

Alarm goes off early after a night of shitty, mouth breathing sleep. Feel like my sinus cavity is occupied by cotton soaked in bullshit. Not jogging this morning. Go to Starbuck’s and take part in the arranged internet chat with disheartening results. Can’t win them all. Maybe my head cold/allergy back pack has spread into my brain and soured that, as well. Diapers full.

Return to venue in time to miss lunch, which I’ve never done before and swear to never do again. Eat the remains of some bread, hummus, and red pepper, along with some tea. It is not possible to go on tour without getting sick at least once, sometimes twice.

By the time we get to Le Thillot, yet another tiny mountain town, I am delirious from lack of sleep and total snot blockage. However, I decide anyway to go on a band hike up into the mountain forest so the dudes can smoke some drugs away from civilian eyes. Nice views, photo shoots, and much juvenile behavior. After jungle weeding is done, Greg insists on following another trail further up the mountain allowing discovery of little nothings like a swing set next to a fire pit, some benches, and random wood beams sticking out of the ground. We walk back down the mountain on different trails and come out in some person’s back yard with their dog barking at us.

Creeps

Jungle Drugging

We eat at a pizza place where only one woman is making food and the oven only holds two pizzas at a time, a true small business model. I finally splurge and spend some money on food. Eat an entire pizza and feel better. Find a cat that may have Down’s Syndrome but take pictures with it anyway. Then it stands up and only has half a tail.

Down's Cat

I buy some cold syrup(sirop) from the pharmacie, down a third of it, and try to sleep in the van but fail completely. Go into the show, hang out, play a soft ass French kicker table with a beige ball that is hard to see. Play show and Unkind does an encore only because the lady from the pizza place is in the crowd asking for more songs, drink the rest of the sirop, go to punk house, eat leftover dinner, enjoy 80s sounding synth freestyle atrocity committed by the homeowners in the kitchen, and go to sleep next to Thomasz from Unkind on a single size air mattress.

Me and some weird kitten Greg found

Stroussburg, France

More photos HERE

Paris.....

French street ashtray

September 17, 2010

Basel, Switzerland w/Unkind @ Restaurant Hirscheneck

Sweat necklace wake up on short bench seat with stuffy head and itchy eyes. Can’t tell if sick or if afflicted with allergy hangover. Doesn’t matter. Go back up the 635 stairs and have coffee/juice/bread/leftovers.

Tonight’s venue is in the basement bar of a multi story corner building which also houses a café and residential living quarters. Interesting place. Above the front door are a red and black anarchist flag and a huge banner in German that translates to something praising the working class. This enterprise is refreshing, something that seems impossible to pull off in the US but is surprisingly common in Europe. The sleeping room is on the third floor and as we are being led up to it, we are told there is no smoking except in the basement because the building is 700 years old. History and a place to sleep without sniffing cigarettes sounds great.

Basel is an attractive city. We are early and there is time to wander around. I want to go for a jog but my running shoes are in the van. On the way to go get them, I walk along a large river where young boys are being taught the fine art of gondola boat pole pushing. Looks strenuous, especially seeing scrawny eight year olds attempting to do it. The van is so far away that I decide the walk was workout enough and turn around to head back.

Show flyer

Creepy cat art

Dinner is vegan lasagna packed with probably every single stray food item sitting around the kitchen, including a ton of spinach and sunflower seeds. I’m still feeling shitty inside myself and don’t trust my immune system so decide not to drink tonight. Trip to Starbucks for internet use. Return to show, still early. Go with Greg for walk across river into city center. It is Friday night and we run across large groups of Basel youth hanging out at various locations in town. Hundreds of them basically just sitting and standing around doing nothing. They somehow remind me of the packs of birds circling above landfills. Or high school. Guess there is nothing else to do here.

The show is full of humans and they decide to party with us during our live performance. Beers are thrown and dropped, mixed generation moshing occurs, crowd instigated singer crowd surfing happens, and I finally get my voice back for the first time since the first show. We are berated until we play more songs, causing more sick mosh activities to go down. Very good show.

In the morning, I plan to wake up early and go jogging followed by internet vidchat appointment with home base so I’m not part of the brutal post show alcohol abuse this evening. I manage to secure a shower before bed and on the way up to the sleeping place, I make a stop to observe tomorrow’s hangovers beginning for both bands.