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TOUR FINAL, or END HITS
I guess some folks thought it seemed like I ended this abruptly, though that is in fact how tour actually ended. Well, the tour in Europe anyway, which is what I was writing about here. I didn’t really want to reflect back on the tour, wrap it up or whatever, because I hoped the whirlwind nature of tour would have been captured in the posts themselves. Tour is a bizarre mix of hectic rush and grueling wait. The drives are often long, you seldom seem to have time to do the fun touristy kind of stuff that people expect you’d be doing while visiting so many countries, the shows themselves sometimes drag on, then we play fast, sleep (or not,) and start all over again.
We’re in our 30’s. We’re lucky we’ve hit an equilibrium where we can manage to be in the van together for weeks on end and not kill each other. 10-15 years ago, we were touring 6 months out of the year, and almost killed each other in the process. We had no life at home, couldn’t keep any kind of real job between tours, yet somehow had to save money for the next one. At the same time, we were young punks living in houses with other poor punks, paying $80 in rent, eating food out of dumpsters or scamming coupons for the corporate health food store… We could always find someone to sublet our rooms while we were gone (because we couldn’t afford to pay $80 rent and not be there working). Life was pretty cheap, and we made it that way to keep touring in a punk band.
I started writing this for my friends that haven’t toured, who always ask me what tour is like. I didn’t expect to show up at shows in Latvia, in Scandinavia, and have people tell me they’d been following it. If you’re in a band and have toured, I’m sorry for the boring drivel. There’s nothing special about the way we tour; it’s just the path of a punk band. You write some songs, record them, jump in a van and drive around the country (or world) hoping some people want to hear you play them. There are always some punks with a friendly floor to sleep on, and you hope that you get enough gas money to get to the next town. I can’t exactly explain what the allure is and why a person would want to put themselves through this routine over and over again… hell, develop an entire life based around the next tour… there’s just something refreshing about the whole tiring, sweaty, exhausting experience. It breaks life up into chapters, allowing a fresh start after every tour. Life feels more existential on tour: you live in every moment, because you have no choice but to be where you are. At home, I’m always thinking about responsibilities, worrying about what I have to do next to get by. On tour, if the van breaks down, you know that there’s no point freaking out. You either deal with it as best as possible and get to the show, or you don’t. Take the blows as they come. I wish I could do that at home, but I can’t.
We toured our fucking asses off in the ’90s in our previous bands, and I’d like to say that eventually paid off when we could suddenly afford to eat more than peanut butter and jelly on tour. We didn’t have to pull into police stations in rural America and ask them to fill our tanks… or deal with a van full of smelly punks in their little town. We might have even come home from tour with enough money to pay next months rent. I’m much more grounded at home now, but my life still essentially revolves around the next tour. Instead of accepting a free-ride to college out of high school, I moved to Memphis, started HIS HERO IS GONE with Todd, and never looked back. Part of me wishes I had found time to go to school somewhere in there, but there’s always that next tour looming, and I can’t really complain that the last 15 years of my life have not been fulfilling in that regard.
Here’s to the next one…
DAY 27: LEEUWARDEN
Somehow it didn’t feel like the last day of tour. Maybe it’s because we don’t go home for another two weeks once we get back in the US, but I didn’t feel the usual “hurry up and get it over with” sentiment. Tour energy often reminds me of staying up too long without sleep: you start with lots of energy, about halfway through you get tired and grumpy, then get a second wind that carries you most of the rest of the way. Much like staying up overnight, the fatigue eventually catches back up to you and you just want to crash.
For some reason, I still feel that second wind. Leeuvarden, in NW Netherlands, was a quick 3 hours away, and we had time to clean the van, organize our bags, etc. once we got to the show. The venue was a place called De Gloepp, which is apparently one of only two live venues in Leeuwarden. There was a bar downstairs, and a stage room upstairs.
I had time to kill after loading in and setting up and decided to walk off for a bit. Feeling the “when in rome” spirit, I decided to buy a joint at a coffee shop. I rarely smoke pot at home, and it doesn’t often do much for me. My life is too active. I can’t be working on motorcycles or working on a customer’s house stoned, so I usually just stick to beer if I want some help relaxing before bedtime. This time, it worked… and really worked. Oh well, last day of tour… whatever.
The show ended conveniently early for us, as we had to drive back to Gijs’ house in Alphen a/d Rijn, couple hours away. Our flight was leaving at noon or so the following day, and we still had to return all of our gear to him. The drive was easy, and Gijs had passed a key to his place to us through punk post, so we didn’t even have to wake him.
This is it, the end of tour.. well, the Europe portion, anyway. We still have Maryland Death Fest to play on Thursday, Philly, Providence, Brooklyn, and Richmond, before flying to Austin for Chaos in Tejas. I get to see Rebekkah there, so Austin feels like the end of it all for me, even if we are playing twice at the fest. It’s been great, Europe. Hope to see you again soon…
DAY 25 and 26: HAMBURG, and MULLHEIM
DAY 25: HAMBURG
4 am rolled around pretty quick, and we got up and headed for London-Stamford to catch our plane back to Copenhagen. At this point I’ve become fairly skilled at sleeping in uncomfortable places, and managed to sleep a bit both in the car and on the plane to Denmark. The flight was short in any case, just over an hour. Our van was in long term parking at the airport, so it was relatively easy to get back on the road. Armed with some large american-style coffee (shhhh! it might have been from starbucks.. SB might be garbage in the states, but jesus was it nice to have a proper cup of coffee), the others crashed in the back while Todd drove and I stayed up with him. The route was either 4 hours with a ferry or 5 hours driving around the sea that separates Eastern Denmark from Germany. We decided on the safe route, not knowing if it was necessary to get a reservation for the ferry.
Denmark is a seriously windy place. Still, the highways in Denmark and Germany are smooth and fast, and we made good time. Let’s recap here: We played Copenhagen, got 4 hours sleep, then got up at 7. Took a flight to London, played two shows. Slept 2 hours, flew back to Copenhagen, drove 5 hours to Hamburg, just in time to load in. Man, why do we do this to ourselves? Because in the end, it’s fun. We see cool places, meet great people. Play some music. Sleep is overrated.
Well, to be honest it’s easy to say that when you know there’s light at the end of the tunnel. The Hamburg show was a matinee with only one other band, and by 8 we were in our own little band apartment with clean sheets, comfortable beds, and a shower. This place, “Hafenklang” is one of those state-funded kind of places, which are a comfortable somewhere between a squat and a club. It’s professional and organized like a club, but has the aesthetics and staffing of a squat. German hefeweizen flowed freely all night, and they even continued to give us free beer at the show upstairs afterward.
I didn’t actually see the show afterwards, as we all wandered off toward Unkel Otto, a punk bar CRIMINAL DAMAGE played at 2 years ago, and where the punks often end up at after shows. After a shower and clean clothes I headed up in that direction, only to find Unkel Otta closed. I wandered around the area, which is kind of like a red light district- lots of bars, sex shops, kabob shops, and prostitutes. Prostitution is legal in Hamburg, and trying to walk the area is incredibly annoying if you’re a man walking by yourself, as the prostitutes get ridiculously aggressive in tyring to convince you to use their services. Luckily I found Todd, Burke, and Will BORN/DEAD, who lives in Hamburg, at another bar up the street from Unkel Otto. We had a couple beers and headed back to the venue. The upstairs show after ours was some kind of “folk punk” (sorry, I’ve never really understood that one) band from the US called ANDREW JACKSON JIHAD. Not really my cup of tea, but it turns out they were really nice guys, and we had a couple beers with them before turning in. After a while, all I wanted was that comfy bed.
Two days left..
DAY 26: MULLHEIM
Finally, a lazy morning. A proper sleep-in. Breakfast was relaxed, and the drive relatively short. It’s funny when a 4-5 hour drive is considered short. We still had to load all of the gear out and drive to the center to find a currency exchange, but had plenty of time before needing to be in Mullheim.
Mullheim is in the “Ruhrpot” area of Germany, a massive metropolitan area comprised of several large cities (Essen, Koln, Dusseldorf, Dortmund…), with lots of industry and a massive overall population. We really had no idea what the show was going to be like, being a Monday night and all. I played here with CRIMINAL DAMAGE two years ago, but it was a Saturday night with INEPSY at a “zombie birthday party” for one of the locals. It was a fun night and packed, but I had no idea how much the party and INEPSY contributed to the turnout. We all guessed low in our nightly headcount bet, with Yannick guessing closest at 250, with 334 paid.. about 400 actually there.
The venue was yet another one of these state-funded “squats.” The show room was probably an uncomfortable 200-capacity room, nowhere close to the the 334 paid… I really don’t know how that many people fit into that insanely-hot sauna/steam room. The only other band was BURIAL, who play Japanese-style hardcore. I think they’re great, and I’m glad we played with them again. Our set was great, but unbearably hot. I almost passed out towards the end of the set.. I don’t know how we managed to pull off an encore, but we did.The room everyone hung out in between bands, where the bar and the flea market of punk goods was, is some kind of giant warehouse that could have been an airplane hanger. Even that room looked packed with people.
We slept around the corner at one of the promoters’ house, which was a comfortable loft on the top floor of a beautiful old building with a staircase that winds all the way up it. There is a law of nature we have discovered in Europe, as true as the law of gravity, principle of inertia, etc.: the “Top Floor Theory.” I don’t know why it is, but the people we stay with almost ALWAYS live on the top floor. “They may not live in the top floor, but they never live on the bottom.”
Day 27, the final day of tour…here we come.
This is from our second show in London, at the Grosvenor. The quality isn’t all that great, but it’s a bit more of a typical show for us than the huge stage in the Tampere video.
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DAY 24: LONDON
While planning the tour, an extra day turned up between Scandinavia and mainland Europe, and someone had the brilliant idea to fly to London for one show. It sounds a bit crazy, but it was actually pretty easy to accomplish. Well, easy if you don’t require sleep.. With a whole 4 hours of sleep under our belts, we got up at 7 and drove to the airport in Copenhagen to catch our flight to London. I felt like we were getting to the airport too early, but the terminal was literally the last terminal in the farthest possible concourse, a 30 minute walk through the airport. I managed to sleep a little on the plane, but the flight was only an hour and a half long.
Our friend Paco had secured work visas for the show, but UK immigration is still a pain in the ass. Yannick, Burke and I breezed right through, but Todd and Billy took a while, and I expected a repeat of last fall when we played the Varning fest in Montreal and Billy was denied entry. I gotta be honest, I was sweating it pretty hard, but they made it through. Mark from the WANKIES was waiting on the other side of customs, and we loaded up and headed into London, which was an hour drive. Paco and Sean (from HARD SKIN and WAT TYLER) had a hard time finding a decent sized venue, and decided instead to do two smaller shows, with 200 capacity each. Both sold out well before the date. The first show was at 1 pm, so we drove straight to the show.
Oh yeah… By total coincidence, Me and Todd’s mom happened to be in London. My mom… in London! At our show! She and my Dad are going to Ireland for vacation, and she came a few days early to visit a friend in London. She’s come to our shows before when we’ve played in Tennessee, but never would I have thought that she’d be at one of our shows on the other side of the planet. Several people asked me what she was going to think seeing us play… I explained that she has seen us before, but also that Todd, Billy, and I first started playing music together as teenagers 24 years ago in our my bedroom at home.
It was Christmas 1987 that I got a drumset, a hand-me-down from a cousin that was a drummer. Billy’s dad played in a night-club cover band (STREETALK) and had a bass, guitar, and amps that he loaned to us. At that point, none of us knew how to play our instruments at all. In 6th grade, my best friend was this metalhead kid I used to stay up with on Saturday nights to catch Headbanger’s Ball on MTV. He taught me how to play “Gypsy Road” by CINDERELLA. At our first practice, I came armed with this, and after showing them how to play a powerchord, we had at it. Before long, we were playing horrible renditions of SEX PISTOLS, MINOR THREAT, and D.I. songs, and started our first band, HAPPY DEATH.
Ok, enough reminiscing. It’s 20-some years later, We’re in London, my Mom just bought me a pint, and Paco’s band THE LOWEST FORM was about to start. Who’da thunk? The show was great and all, but I just wanted to get a curry and have a couple pints of bitter or “real ale.” Because of it’s colonial history, England has amazing Indian food. After the show we loaded all the gear out to take to the second show, and about 20 of us walked to a vegetarian Indian buffet and stuffed ourselves. It’s here that we said good-bye to “Tragedy’s mum,” and headed to the second show.
The second show was at another pub called the Grosvenor in south London. England is more like the US than mainland Europe in many ways, and the beer situation is one of them.. it’s not customary in the UK to provide beer for the bands. Paco and Sean did their best, but I remembered from the CRIMINAL DAMAGE show at the Grosvenor that the two tickets each that we got were only good for one gross bottled beer, and pulled a classic on the first beer and ordered what I actually wanted, only producing the ticket once the beer was poured. Works every time.. well, for one beer anyway. The owner of the place was a total dick, despite the fact that we had packed his place with beer and cider buying patrons, so I didn’t feel bad getting over on him for half a beer or whatever.
Unbeknown to us before we got there, SOCIAL CIRCKLE from Boston were also playing that show. Half of the people from the first show were also here, and had been drinking ever since, which made for quite a comedic evening. The show ended past midnight, and we piled in Mark’s van and headed to our friend Nani’s apartment for a few hours sleep. Before we could get there, Yannick made the mistake of asking for a “chippy” (french fry shop), which ended up being an hour-long excursion. We were all delirious at this point, probably all tipsy at the least, and starving. There was more hilarity at this one trip to the chip shop than I could possibly translate here, but involved a lot of things purely British, like “mushy peas and chips” (what are mushy peas, you ask? They are… well, mushed up peas. Just like they sound.) and stumbling across a double decker bus wash. If you’re American and have never been to England before, it’s hard to explain how certain things British are funny, without trying to be. Some phrases seem like the intent was to come up with the most difficult way to convey it’s message. Roads are “carraigeways,” yield signs say “give way,” the baggage claim is “reclaim”… it’s like drifving on the left side of the road. You get it, but it just seems little “off.” Yeah, I know Brits: we’re the weird ones…
We got to Nani’s at about 2am, and had to decide if it was even worth trying to sleep two hours before having to get up at 4 am to head for the airport. Bear in mind that we woke up at 7 that morning, with only 3 or 4 hours sleep. I didn’t bother with clothes or sleeping bag, and just passed out on the floor still soaked with sweat from the show. Mmmmmm, tour.
DAY 23: COPENHAGEN
I forgot to mention some news we got in Aalborg. I vaguely remember a guy with a bloody forehead after the show in Oslo, and apparently he had hit the floor pretty hard while we were playing. He woke up in t morning with a sore neck and went to the ER only to discover he had broken his neck in a few places. WHOOPS!
Aalborg to Copenhagen was only a 5-6 hour drive, so we finally got to sleep in a bit. The gear was all still set up on stage, having witnessed the gay dance party the night before, so we had to pack everything up and load the van. I usually prefer to just get it over with the night we play, when I’m not totally tired and stumbling around trying desperately to get European coffee to do the job of an American cup. It usually doesn’t work and I need half the day to actually wake up.The show in Copenhagen was at the new “Umgdens Huset” (youth house). The old Umgdens Huset was closer to the center, and was there for over 20 years, finally ending in a very big eviction battle. When I say battle, I mean it literally. The venue had settled it’s squat status with the city years ago, but the city sold the building out from under them (against contract) to a church, who wanted to just demolish the building. There was a seige, and people came from all over Europe to help save the building. I can’t even imagine this type of scenario in the states.. people literally fighting the police over a cause, and not just ending up with the shit beaten out of them and in jail. In the end, a few people did go to jail, but they got their new space.
The new “US” has two venues: a large hall we played at last time we were here with SKITKIDS and AVSKUM, and a smaller bar with a stage that CRIMINAL DAMAGE played at 2 years ago. Yannick had requested the small room because the stage is so large in the big room, and so the large room got booked with a rap show. It ended up being ridiculously backwards, with our room and the entire courtyard between the two completely packed with punks, and the rap room pretty emtpy. I”m guessing there were 400-500 people there, and the room we played probably had a 200 person capacity, if pushed to the absolute limits. The rap was fucking hilarious… gangsta accents over danish language, with a “yih.. yih…” thrown in every once in a while.
HERATYS were fucking great. If you haven’t heard them, think TOTILITAR with cleaner guitar, and Finnish singing… They were fucking great but well, noone’s TOTALITAR except TOTALITAR. NIGHT FEVER played next. A lot of the younger kids in Copenhagen only care about local bands, and man do they love NF. Just as my friend Jacob (who booked the show) was telling me that their last show got really bloody, a guy comes barging out of the show, holding his elbow which was pumping blood everywhere. I’m guessing broken glass in the pit was the culprit. I didn’t quite feel NF (Rebekkah was freaking out when I told her we were playing with them), but I can see why people like them so much. They put on a great live show. The vocals are bit much for me, but they have a lot of energy. We played, and despite the unbearable heat and terrible sound on stage, the show was awesome.
Our sleeping room was upstairs from the rap show, which went on aaaaaalllll nnnniiiiigggghhhhttttttt llllooooooooooonnnnggggg….Even the earplugs didn’t help muffle the entire room rattling with the bass. In any case, it was 3:30 before I was able to turn in, and we had to get up at 7 to catch a plane to London.
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DAY 22: AALBORG
Ok, so day 21 rolls over into day 22 by being kicked out of our sleeping arrangement in Bergen and forcing us to begin our long journey to Aalborg, Denmark. It’s 3:30am, and we pile all of our belongings into the van and head south. Todd volunteered first driving shift, so I climbed into the loft and tried to get some sleep for second shift. I obviously managed to fall asleep, because the next thing I knew I was being tossed around and realized that Yannick must have taken the wheel. A bit before that, I have a dim memory of a tunnel, some screaming, some reversing.. apparently Todd had found himself having missed an off-ramp and ended up at a closed tunnel. He and Burke discussed what to do for a bit, then decided they had no choice but to just keep going into the tunnel. The screaming and reversing came when there was suddely a large truck reversing towards us, very fast. They honked the horn a lot and frantically moved to the side, and luckily the truck swerved to miss them and kept going full speed reverse through the tunnel. There was a painting crew in the tunnel, and if they hadn’t decided to go into it, we’d have been stuck at the entrance til morning when the tunnel re-opened. Stuff like this can only happen when it’s 5am and you’re delerious from sleep deprivation.
They had to wait for a bit at a ferry crossing until the first ferry ran at 5:30. The drive was along the coast, carving the fjords and mountains that make up the coast line of southwest Norway. Some fjords are only nagivable by ferry. I managed to stay in the loft a good eight hours or so, sleeping a good bit of that. Not everyone was so lucky. It’s really hard to sleep in the van, no matter where you are. The bench seats are contoured, so it’s really uncomfortable to lay across them. The loft is better, but it’s claustrophobic and it’s hard not to fear crashing while up there, and you get rolled around and feel like you’re going to fall out if the driving is anything but straight and smooth, which it seldom is when Yannick’s driving. Anyway, we arrived at Kristiandson at 1:30 pm (ten hours later) and had a couple hours to kill before taking the ferry to Denmark.
We wandered around looking for a currency exchange, only to be told that “Norway’s number one tourist destination city” doesn’t have a single one. Outside of a bank was a group of performers in full Native American war regalia— feathers, tassled leather, and all— beating on buffalo skin drums, playing pan flutes, and singing Indian songs… strange. Turns out the guys were from Ecuador. PLaying North Anerican Indian songs. In Norway.
The ferry left at 3, and was a little more than 2 hours in the water. I’ve never been on a ferry that hauled ass like this thing did. Over 60 MPH! It was also jankiest ferry I’ve ever been on, the equivalent of a Greyhound bus. The drive to Aalborg was only 45 minutes once in Denmark, but the total travel time ended up being 14 1/2 hours. We basically left one show, drove, and pulled right up to the next one just in time for soundcheck. The squat in Aalborg was great though. They’ve been there for over 30 years, and there were flyers on the walls for all kinds of great bands, going back through the ‘90’s and ‘80’s. The show space/bar was on the first floor, second floor was eating/hang out room, and the room we were sleeping in was on the top floor, a gym usually used by Antifascist Action to train for fighting nazis. Yeah.
The show was great, and the people from the squat (well, “youth center” at this point) very friendly. KNUSTE RUTER from Oslo played before us, and were fucking great! Those familiar with SVART FRAMTID, LIFE…BUT HOW TO LIVE IT?, and SO MUCH HATE, know that Norwegian hardcore has a distinct sound especially in the guitar playing, and KR were totally in this style. The guitar player’s amp even belonged to the (late) guitar player from SMH.
After the show, I talked with Rebekkah a bit on the computer and retired to our nice, quiet, clean sleeping room, unaware of the events that unfolded for Todd and Burke downstairs. Apparently the bar turned into a half-naked dance party, with dudes doing body shots off of each other and making out at the bar. One guy really took a liking to Burke and tried hard to convince him to let the guy take a body shot off of him (Burke just told me to add that the dude was stroking Burke’s cheek while requesting his belly as a shot glass). Sadly, Burke declined. I’m told there was lots of drinking, partying, puking, more drinking, and generally speaking, lots of debauchery. I wish I had stayed up for this one, but my body was very glad I didn’t. Sleep was beautiful.
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