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euro tour diary, part 1
November 9, 2006

4/20/06
Today we left for Frankfurt, Germany. Said our goodbyes, checked our
gear, ate some expensive airport food, boarded the plane then time
traveled to Frankfurt.
We arrive in Germany, grab our gear, meet up with our
tourmates/labelmates Roma 79 and have bro-hugs all around. Not long
afterward, our van driver Georg finds us rather easily. I imagine it
wasn't too hard to find six scrubby rocker dudes hanging around a street curb, standing next to a pile of gear while taking digital photos of each
other. "Who us? Nah dude, we some other two bands from America." Georg is an incredibly good guy, a real sweetheart with an Arnold-esque accent. Friendly introductions ensue.
We load all our junk into the van and roll out to Saarbrucken to meet
up with Chris, our euro-booking agent.
We stop at a gas station on the way - perhaps the cleanest gas
station ever - and are alarmed at the amount of beer for sale here. And yes, you can drink it anywhere, anytime. I'll take the giant can with the
viking head on it please. We buy our weird snacks, the woman behind the
counter (surprise!) speaks English to us without first asking. How'd she know?

We get to Saarbrucken, a beautiful city apparently known for its
shopping, and finally meet Chris, (our booking agent who arranged all
of this over the last six months) in person, another wonderfully friendly
guy. We decide to walk around the city, take in the sights, perhaps have
another beer? Ice cream is really big here, tons of it everywhere. If I
didn't know any better, I'd think the Germans live on ice cream, sausage and beer. It is everywhere. Later on a few of us are exhausted and get some sleep, the rest of the dudes keep on exploring. Oh, Chris of course put us up.

euro tour diary, part 2
November 9, 2006

4/21/06
Wake up from the jet-lag induced coma. Figure out how to use the
shower, as somehow the plumbing in friends' houses, let alone bathrooms in Germany are inevitably equipped with some strange shower contraption. Forget it, I'll wash my hair in the sink. Sidenote: I'm only slightly embarassed to admit that I'm the butt of all jokes concerning taking too long in the bathroom. Such is life.
Chris has breakfast ready: coffee, tea, juice, rolls with various
euro-spreads for them. Interesting stuff.
After, we go out to the van to inspect our rental gear. I should
mention here that obviously we couldn't take our drumsets, guitar or bass amps with us. It costs thousands of dollars to ship it all, so everyone rents a backline of gear. At least cosmetically, all the gear looks great, possibly
better than our stuff at home.
After a bit of walking around in a nearby park, yes there was a beer
stand, we left for Belvaux, Luxembourg. Drive was easy. Belvaux is a
very small town with one main road, and lots of farmland on either side.
The club we played, the 911 club (named after the Porsche), had a bar up
front and a kind of all-purpose room way in the back where the shows went down.
The bartender/owner was very friendly but she only spoke French, lucky
for us, our van driver Georg speaks French. Wow, you speak French? Oui.
The venue was a wreck from the night before, and the show promoter was supposed to have cleaned it upalready. She was pretty upset about this, and had to clean up the room
herself. She *refused* to let us help.
We walked around the town a little bit, then loaded into the club.
Set everything up and began working out the kinks in our gear. The guitar
amps in particular sound pretty awful. We did our best to work around it.
The turnout wasn't what everyone had hoped for, but not bad considering
that Stars was playing just 20 minutes away. Two young guys even drove 200 miles from Germany to see us play.
Considering the relatively bad sound for this show, it was unfortunate
that this was the only show that our booking agent, Chris, was able to see.
Not exactly a spectacular showcase of our talents. Regardless, the show
went well, the promoters provided an exorbitant (sp?) amount of food, beer, water and juice for the bands, and we sold a few
things as well.
After the gig, we followed the show promoters to a hostel in
Luxembourg City. The older chap behind the counter spoke Luxembourgish (yes, that's what it's called), which to my ears sounded almost like Italian. It's supposed to be a combination of French and German, but our driver, a German/Austrian who speaks French, had no idea what he was saying, luckily the promoter did. The hostel was really pretty nice. Very clean and all that. Georg slept in the van, which left one room for five of us, and another room for one person.
Jimmy, and the rest of us really, misunderstood this to mean "a room
for one person." But, anyone who's been in a hostel knows that this means, "there's another room with space for one more person," ie: four out of the five beds are filled. Jimmy took the card-key to this room, assuming he'd have a room all to himself, only to switch on the lights and find four very drunk and utterly naked young European men in the room,.. sleeping? Who knows? "Oh,.. uh, sorry (yikes!)," and he walked right back out. Of course after telling us what happened, jokes and hilarity ensued. Good times.

The architecture in Luxembourg city is really pretty amazing. Lots
of French style architecture, almost ren-fair kind of stuff. Everywhere in
Europe I'm always expecting a parade of nobles to come down the road, the various royalty regarding the peasants while a minstrel strums a lute or
something,... well, at least in the older parts of town. Isn't Luxembourg
still a kingdom?

4/22/06
Today we drove to Dunkerque, France, another easy drive. Arrived at
the venue, 4 Ecluses, which as a building is sort of like a big bomb
shelter, a giant cylinder sliced in half, layed sideways. An interesting building really. This venue is hugely different from the one last night.
Amazing stage, super nice, high end p.a. system, multiple soundmen, a lighting guy and a couple of loaders/helpers as well.
Behind the club was the "green room," a seperate building with two
bathrooms/showers, a stack of towels, two fridges crammed full of beer,
a kitchen-ette with coffee, tea, juice, a ton of food and clean chairs,
couches, etc., all for us. Yes, adequate really. After our dazed,
"whaaat?.... for us?" feeling, we learned that the club was also paying
for all the bands to have dinner at this restaurant on the beach... Again!?
After our soundcheck, we met the other band, Gwen, from Lille, a town
we'll be playing at the end of the tour. All the folks in Gwen were crazy
nice, and their English was much better than my French. After hanging out a while, we all went and had dinner together, really good food, lots of wine and a nude sandwoman on the beach.
The show went well for all three bands, Gwen rocked pretty damn
hard. Everyone at the venue was a saint, and with any luck we can play here again sometime.
After the show, the promoter gave us directions to our place to stay
for the evening, and a key to the door. It was an old farmhouse that
seemed to have been recently converted into a hostel type place.
Still had chicken coops out back, and what looked like a horse stable.
Yeah, I know, sleeping in a rehabbed French farmhouse where people make you breakfast in the morning? Huge bummer. Note: sometimes the French drink coffee out of bowls. Who knew? Summary:
amazing, overwhelming hospitality and friendliness from everyone. It
was hard to leave.

euro tour diary, part 3
November 9, 2006

4/23/06

Today we play our first show in the UK today, London to be exact.
We've been stressing about getting onto the ferry since we have to get
through the border control first. For us to get into the UK as a band playing shows, we had to have work permits. I could write a small book on how difficult it was for us to get them: months of going back and forth with promoters and UK gov't agents, etc. But, thanks to Claire and Paul of A Badge of Friendship, http://www.myspace.com/abadgeoffriendship, we finally got it settled. Everything went smooth, and the ferry ride into Dover,UK was nice.
We got into London just fine, but London is incredibly hard to drive
around in, no different from NYC or L.A. for sure. Georg did a stellar
job of it, and has been dubbed the "Clint Eastwood of van drivers." A
smooth operator indeed. We didn't have much time to look around town,
though I do remember hearing someone in the van say, "Wow,.. London is like if Chicago took a dump." Perhaps not a fair assesment. We arrived at the venue, Upstairs @ the Garage, and proceeded to load into the club. The load in was as follows: park around back, enter rear door, go through main room then behind the bar into the kitchen, hang a right until you reach the tiniest load-in door in existence. We didn't think this could be
possible, but after taking all of our gear out of its hard cases, we were just
able to fit everything through the door's 24" wide, maybe 4 1/2' tall frame,
then up another flight of stairs into the venue. Many photos were taken, many Spinal Tap jokes made. We got settled in, arranged our gear and
finally met in person, the show promoters and our good friends Claire and Paul - super nice people, and hands down the saviours of this tour. We would not have been able to do this tour at all if it hadn't been for their help in getting our UK work permits. Truly generous people. We met a couple of guys fromKerrang! magazine who were there to cover the show, as well as our good, good buddy Andy Parkin from Manchester. The turnout was awesome, and the other band, Sucioperro from Scotland were crazy good, and of course genuinely friendly Scotsman, (my great grandfather was a Johnston you know!). During our set, I managed to throw myself hard off the side of the stage, legs over my head kinda' thing. Rob and Jimmy, being the awesome rhythm section they are, kept the song going until I got back up, and finished the song to much applause. Bummer we didn't get it on video. Oddly enough, I was unharmed. The gods must have been pleased.
I should certainly add at this point, that Roma 79 are an amazing
band. I'm currently freaking out on their new songs, as well as their older
stuff. Freakishly good, and absurdedly overlooked. Tonight was no exception.
After the gig, we went to Adam's place, a friend of Andy P. Some of
the crew stayed up late to watch the Spinal Tap dvd that Jimmy bought for
Georg. We all had beds, so nice.

4/24/06
The drive to Manchester was the longest so far, like 6 hours I
think? Which for us, is nothing of course, but in the UK, the natives freak at
anything over an hour. Ecclairs and whatnot for breakfast, such a
rough life. We missed an exit on our drive up, which made us a tad late, but the alternate route we took was really nice. Views of of the British
countryside, mazes of stone walls (like fences really), sheep farms on
rolling hills, houses hundreds of years old, "picturesque," is the term
I believe.
Found the venue, the Star and Garter, in a relatively rough part of
town. Had a quick load in. Got to meet Chi-Chi, the crazy super nice director of "Real Fresh T.V." - an indie, web-based, live video podcast group that was there to tape the show: http://www.myspace.com/realfreshtv. Again, everyone was really friendly and awesome.
The turnout was great, and the crowd was perhaps the most
enthusiastic so far. Our good friend and show promoter, Andy P. hooked up the pizza and beers. Another badass gig.
Afterwards, we stayed with a friend of Andy's, and partied with the
locals, all great people. They'd even made us a sheet of shortbread
that had, "For the Yanks," cut into it. Sweet.
Woke up the next day, went to Andy's Dad's house for showers,
breakast, email check and a bit of laundry.

euro tour diary, part 4
November 9, 2006

4/25/06
The drive to Lancaster was an easy one. Lancaster is a gorgeous
city, almost a medieval vibe to it, complete with Lancaster Castle, which
though it is now half prison, half museum, is still really striking.
Towny pubs on virtually every corner with names like, "The Duke of
Lancaster," and "The Bobbin." Clearly a lot to do and see in this
town. The show at the Yorkshire House went well. The sound here was superb, more free food and beer (hooray!). We met another band from the States, A Day In Black & White, from D.C. who were on the bill with us. All nice guys. The fans here were awesome. At one point a group of college age guys got so pumped during our set, they literally formed a spontaneous human pyramid in front of the stage. This happened a few times throughout the evening. Hilarious, and quite a compliment. "God, I LOVE these guys, this sh*t rules! You guys thinking what I'm thinking?... HUMAN PYRAMID!!"
Again, Roma 79 crushed the place. Sounded completely amazing.
We ended up staying with our new buddy, Eddy, who lives in a small
town called Cark. Stayed up late chatting, eating samosas (yes), and
drinking cider beer. A fine fellow who also has a sweetheart dog named, Tom.

4/26/06
Today we drove to Scotland. Northern England, Scotland in
particular, is really beautiful. Kind of reminds me of Vermont. We get into Glasgow, a very metropolitan town, very "UK," but different somehow.
Despite warnings, everyone we met was incredibly friendly. We nabbed a
sweet parking spot right in front of the club, The Vox at the Vale. Two
older and relatively tough looking gentlemen, smoking in front of the club, asked if we were in a
band, and upon finding they were correct in their assumption, told us in a very serious tone, "That makes us so proud that you'd come to our country [Scotland] and play.
Welcome to our country!" It was pretty much like this the rest of the time. Met Ian, the promoter who books a few other venues around Glasgow, as well as runs rehearsal spaces and an indie record label, Podboy Records: http://www.myspace.com/podboyrecordscouk . He even did a couple of years on the road with Metallica as their merch manager. Quite an interesting and extremely generous fellow. The room we played in was pretty small, we were worried we'd be way too loud,.. the soundman said, "...too loud??," as if this was even a possibility. Our kind of club. The show went really well, the guys in Sucioperro came out to the gig, always nice to see familiar faces. I felt like a jerk for realizing after the fact, that we didn't get to say goodbye to Ian before we left. We were in a hurry to catch one last beer at the "Nice n' Sleazy," bar. Many thanks Ian!
We stayed at our good friend Jana's apartment, and I even managed
to get a free haircut out of the deal. Good times.

euro tour diary, part 5
November 9, 2006

4/27
Now we're off to the town of Bath. Long long drive.
Bummer we didn't have more time in Scotland. Again, the UK residents
seem fond of warning us of whatever city we happen to be headed to. We've literally been warned of every city. Obviously they've never been to
the States. I have to think the warning in regards to Bath was a joke,
because this city is beautiful, even a bit more well-to-do than some of the
places we've been.
We get to the venue, Moles Club (Go Ape! night), and load into
another, almost impossibly tiny door. Got another excellent hook up with some free food at the restaurant next door. I'd have to say that this
was definitely the surprise gig of the tour. Other places, we at least
knew a few folks, or perhaps a band or two. In Bath, we knew no one at all, so we weren't expecting a whole lot. The crowd here was the best by far, the sound was great, and people were dancing the entire time. I was even privileged enough to have a few groupies who were intent on petting my right arm while we played. What? Crazy good times, great fucking show.
Danced a bit to the dj spin after the show. Signed some autographs(!),
took some photos, then crashed in our new friend Jimmy's dorm room. Ah, the Etc's drank most of our beer (opening band). Can't blame em though. No hard feelins' dudes!

4/28
Day off. We finally got to complete our Spinal Tappian pilgrimage to
mecca, ie: Stonehenge. I do believe we quoted all of the Stonehenge
references in Spinal Tap, even got them on video. "Oh how they danced..." Truly an inpsiring sight, and certainly worth the trip.
Now we drive a day early to Grimsby to stay with show promoter, Greg.

4/29
Greg's parent's house was really nice. When we arrived his mom had
dinner waiting, and beds all made up as well. She went so far as to crack
open a couple bottles of wine for us, and prepared brunch in the morning.
Again, we were humbled and blushing from the hospitality. Unbelievably cool. I should get their address to send them a thank you card.
We had time to kill during the day, so we went to a friend of
Greg's, who was having a going away party. Another insanely nice place, "The Manor House," it was callled. More free food, more beer and even more friendly people. Chatted a few people up, goofed off, watched a bit of a game of cricket in the front yard, then headed over to the Matrix Club. Everyone played a good set, club folks were kind. We were annoyed by the non-English speaking bathroom attendant and his incessant, "Freshen up! Freshen up!..... Freshen up!!," while holding some cruddy cologne. Talk about stage fright. After the show, a dj of sorts started playing rock music. His first song: Aerosmith's, "Love In An Elevator,"... everyone *flipped* and began dancing really hard, like really hard. Totally hilarious. Great merch night, good show. Greg is a great dude.

euro tour diary, part 6
November 8, 2006

4/30/06

We had to leave Grimsby right after the gig since our next show is in
Lille, France. Have to drive to Dover, catch the ferry to Dunkerque, then
drive the rest of the way to Lille. No, no one has slept at all. Very very
tired right now. Attempting nap.
Got to the ferry in plenty of time, everyone is in a half sleep
coma. This ferry ride seemd faster than the last one. We had some breakfast on the ferry as well. The special was, sausage, bacon (more like really fatty ham), whole mushrooms, eggs, whole poached tomato, and baked beans. Odd. I had toast, muffin, cup of coffee and o.j. = 7 euros. Ripoff.
We leave the ferry and drive to Lille. Lille is yet another
beautiful, old city with seemingly plenty to do, too bad we're here on a sunday when most everything is closed. Barely even a public bathroom to be found except for a pay-toilet in the train station. The prices in most of the cafes around here seem to be very touristy, though most everyone is friendly.
Tonight's show is at the Stax Soul, somehow we thought it was called
the Eksprim? Sort of a hole-in-the-wall, but fine just the same. The
owner/bartender was friendly of course. We met Juliette and Gregory,
our promoter/contacts for this gig. Should we be surprised at this point
that they are incredibly nice and generous people as well? I almost forgot
that the band Gwen, from our first gig on this trip, is from Lille. They
all came out to see us off, and have one last round of beers, even provided
the p.a.! Sort of a nice, circular way to end things: the first band we
played with on this trip gets to see us at our last gig. We had a great time
at this show, butsted an encore (or two?). The guys in Gwen offered to,
"buy you a round of beers for every encore you play." Unfortunately, or
fortunately rather, the bartender wasn't keen on this idea. The beer,
by the way, Leffe, is some of the best beer I've ever had in my life, look
it up. After loading our gear out, the folks in Gwen **insisted** on having
one more beer with us. Promoter Gregory started spinning some old Beastie Boys, so Aaron from Roma 79 paid tribute by breakdancing. Apparently he used to take lessons as a kid. Awesome and yet funny in an awesome way.
After the show, everyone headed to Juliette's place, another incredible
house with what seemed like ten bedrooms, and very large, bidet
equipped, sparkling clean bathrooms. Quite impressive. More food, more beer and some kind of powerful mystery punch made from vodka, grenadine, and jus de pamplemousse (pineapple?) - which, while Jimmy slammed a champagne flute of this, Gregory's eyes grew wide and said, "ah,.. no!," in a bit of ill-timed warning. I do believe we all acted like proper 18 year olds. Good times.

5/1
Today was freaking rough. We had to drive straight to the Frankfurt
airport from Lille, and be dropped off for our flight which leaves at
11:55 a.m., 5/2. Yes, quite a long wait, about 18 hours in the airport to be exact. Why? Our van and driver, Georg, had to trek four hours north to drop off our rental gear before we would have to pay another day's rent.
We couldn't stay at Chris' in Saarbrucken, since it's two hours from
the airport, and he has no car. We could've maybe taken a train in from
his place, but we have no kinda money for six train tickets and we were in
no mood to gamble on the prospect of getting all of our gear on the train
with us, after walking the mile from Chris' to the station. There was a
glimmer of hope in staying at a nearby hotel, unfortunately the cost for a room with two beds was a paltry $400.oo.
Neat. So, the cheapest and most foolproof option was to gut it out at
the airport for a consciousness losing, 18 hours, complete with comfy sleep
on an airport bench. We staked out a spot and took turns walking around
the airport while the others guarded our stuff. It was tough, but who am I
to complain? We just toured overseas for the first time, and broke even, a feat in itself! I suppose the hardest part at the airport was leaving our ever
patient, kind hearted, good sport of a van driver/de facto tour manager,
Georg, a true gentleman. We miss you man. We shall meet again.
Overall, this trip was everything we'd hoped it would be. Speaking
just for Riddle of Steel, it's quite an occasion whenever we get to play
with Roma 79, so being able to do an entire tour with them, let alone in
Europe(!!), is something we will never forget. Good times all around.

cheers,
Andrew aje_werdna76@yahoo.com