I started this a long time ago, I have been very busy as of late and have had no time to finish. I will post it now, and hopefully finish it later...hopefully.
Remember, this was supposed to be written as an article for a magazine, so thats why there is the weird introduction at the top. If you know me, just ignore it..if you don't know me..please dont think I am a pretentious ass.
Once upon a time, way back in Spring of 1998 I received my first Guitar. It was a simpler time back then, where a used Epiphone Straticaster made my small town American life seem so much more exciting. It's kind of a cliche story, I sat in my room for hours practicing and practicing. I ended up playing in several bands over the next years, only one that really ever accomplished anything. I never thought that the Used guitar I got for an 8th grade graduation present would have an everlasting effect on my life.
I joined the band Monster Squad as a guitar player in late 2006. I played with them for about a year and a half before the band decided to stop touring and writing new albums. In that time we toured the United States multiple times and did two full European tours. Touring had become such a big part of my life I couldn't let it go, it had become an addiction. In fact, that time shortly after was worst than any Relationship "break up" I had ever dealt with.
Pullout was formed almost right after with a couple guys from Monster Squad and some other fine young Gentleman. They formed out of a side project and needed a singer. Seeing that I didn't have a band anymore and loved to write, they let me try out. With in a Year's time we had written and recorded a Full Length album and had our First European tour being booked.
This is the story of an Underground Punk bands Tour across Europe, In all its glory and all its failure.
2/15/2009: The 5 of us met at the United Airlines Terminal 5:30am at San Francisco International. We got there early because getting 5 guys covered in tattoos, carrying bags of merchandise and musical equipment through security/customs is usually a time consuming and stress rising event. Turns out we got through rather quickly and had about an hour and a half to kill before boarding. We spent the time in an Airport bar having some over priced beers at 7am.
I realize flying in its self is not exciting, nor do I feel that writing about our flight will win me any sort of awards. So, all I will say is that we spent 12 hours in a cramped plane, with mostly pissed off German flight attendants, only one of which was cute and nice. I also ordered our bass player Justin the Kosher meal when I booked the flights. That was entertaining to the rest of us for a good 15 minutes. Lastly, Lufthansa gives you free booze on International flights, needless to say we took full advantage of that.
We arrived in Dusseldorf the next morning around 8am and were met by our good friends Benni and Alex who helped us lug all of our shit on a train to Duisburg, Germany where Benni lives. Benni is the guy that makes it ALL happen for us in Europe. He booked tours for Monster Squad and for Pullout. He also helped us get our Record out on Razorblade Music in Germany, meaning we have a record out in Europe before the US. Benni is also one of the coolest dudes I have ever met and over the years has become a good friend to all of us. We were all extremely happy to see his German face.
This is where time gets blurry. Jet lag plus alcohol do not go well together when you are trying to remember important events. Anyway, the plan originally was to get to Duisburg about 4 days early to Record at AMP Studio. We had written 4 new songs and had the makings of another song that we were going to try and write. I don't remember which day it was, but when we got to the Studio they told us we had 1 day to record and not 3 like we had originally planned. This sucked on a number of levels but the worst part was that now we had 3 days to be in Dusiburg before our tour started. Duisburg isn't a tourist destination, but we do have lots of friends in the area so it wasn't all that bad. Most of our time was spent in Bars being really loud and losing at foosball to Germans. A couple of the fellas and I walked through the Red Light District in Duisburg which apparently is ran by the Banditos Motorcycle Club. I guess they don't like people who look "leftist" and it was not a good idea for us to go there. Of coarse, this news was given to us AFTER we returned from said sketchy area. Thanks for the tip.
Our last night in Duisburg was spent at our friends AG and Benedict's flat. There were a few dudes watching Lethal Weapon dubbed in German and drinking beer. Jason, the drummer in Pullout, and I decided to get "B.D.W" tattooed on our legs by our friend AG. AG is just learning how to tattoo, so not all of the lines are straight but that makes the tattoo funny and awesome. In case you are wondering, the letters "B.D.W" are Benni the tour managers initials. He booked our tour for free so we decided that putting his name on our bodies forever was a nice gesture of our appreciation. We left somewhat early that night because we had to wake up in the morning and drive to Berlin for our first show of the tour.
2/21/09: It took about 6 hours until we arrived in Berlin. It was great to be back in Berlin and out of Duisburg. I really love that city, the whole place is one giant out door Museum, so much history there. The show on this night was at the Punk and Disorderly Festival. Monster Squad played at the festival last year and it was a huge show. This year was in a bigger venue because there were more pre-sale tickets than ever before. Justin, Jason and myself were going to have double duty this night because Monster Squad was playing also. The two other guys in the band were traveling around Europe at the same time so they added us to the bill. After we got our merchandise set up and all our equipment ready to go, we walked around the giant warehouse and had a few drinks. I ran into a lot of friends from previous tours and it was great to catch up with them.
Pullout played 3rd this night on the small stage. When I say "small stage", I mean huge compared to what we normally play on. Since this was the first time I have ever screamed in front of 1,000 people I was a tad nervous back stage. Luckily, my good friend booze was there to help calm some of the jitters. M.A.D Booking, who puts on Punk & Disorderly, was filming all the bands for a dvd as well. This ment I got the luxury of having 3 cameras in my face for our entire set. Pretty intense for the first show of tour. We cut some of our songs in our set in order to respect the 30 minute time slot we were allowed. Turns out we jammed through them pretty quick and we had about 10 minutes left at the end of the set. We played some new songs and a Descendants cover that no body knew the words to...come on Germany, get with it. I felt like the first show of tour had gone very well in our favor, we even sold some CD's and some t shirts. This good news could only mean one thing..party time. I did my very best to stay sober for Monster Squads set which was later in the night. However, that didn't work out so well. There was some last minute problems that happened and I got a 5 minutes notice to grab my guitar and be on the Main stage to play the Monster Squad set. We were originally going to play on the small stage but the band before us was running very late. I normally like to have a chance to warm up and play some songs before we go on but this night it was definitely not going to happen. The MS set was....decent. We had not played in a while, so we were a little sloppy. It was still a great time and we played to about 4,000 people...Something I could really get used to. The remainder of the night was spent catching up with friends, running into people we know from the US, throwing Snowballs at red headed English children and drinking with out slightest regard of our livers. Mother nature decided to stop by with blizzard like conditions, all of us California boys were freezing our Golden State asses off.
Much later in the night (morning) we went back to our Hostel that the Festival provided for us. Now I know what you are thinking, this is where the girls enter and hard drugs become rampant. We aren't Motley Crue, and I am not Vince Niel, meaning we just went to sleep and enjoyed the beds we were sleeping on. It would probably be the last one for a long time.
2.22.09 - It was Sunday, we had a day off, so we decided to check out some of the city. We were on our way to a Ramones Museum when our Van broke down somewhere in the Berlin Metropolis. While everyone else was out trying to see what was wrong, I slept in the bed in the back of the Van for 3 hours. Finally, the van was towed and we took the Subway across Berlin to our friend Alex's house where we would be sleeping the next few days. This would turn out to be financially in our favor because we would not have to pay rent on the van for a couple days.
Later that night, some of dudes stayed at the flat to sleep, while myself and four other gents went to the last night of Punk & Disorderly. I really only cared to see one band play, but it was free for us to get in and what else were we going to do?
2.23.09 - I woke up around 2pm. We spent the afternoon figuring out what was up with our van and how we were going to get to the show tonight. We were playing in Berlin again, but all of our equipment was in the van that was still at the mechanics. To make a very long story short, the van was fucked. It needed a new transmition and it wouldn't be fixed until the following day. A friend of Benni's let us borrow a van that was just big enough to fit the equipment and no people. Our driver Bob, drove the van over to the mechanic's located on the other side of town. We took a metro train across to East Berlin to the venue which we were playing and Bob met us with the equipment. Finally, we had our equipment and were all at the venue together. The show was small but fun. We were the only band that played but we got free beer, sold some merchandise and met some cool Berliners. The venue also had a foosball table. Our guitar players, Zach and James, have never been across the Atlantic before. We decided it was right time to school those Euro Virgins in some "kicker" before the Germans step up and wipe the floor with our Yankee asses.
2.24.09 - Woke up in Berlin..again. After much waiting around, we finally got our van back with a brand new transmition. The show this night was in Chemnitz which is a city in Eastern Germany near Dresden. The drive wasn't far, 3 hours or so. The venue was called "Subway to Peter" which was a really cool old stone pub that has apparently been putting on free shows for 20 years or something like that. Once we arrived we discovered that we had free beer from the bar and free food from the venue. The food was awesome and the beer was even better. This was another show that we played by ourselves which I never like but what can you do? The turn out was pretty good for a Monday night. Subway to Peter is a small club so it felt like the place was packed. My only complaint was that the ceiling was very low which meant my head kept getting periodic slams into it. We played all the songs we knew, and then played some songs again because the good people of Chemnitz wanted more. After the show, the bar tender brought us all a shot of the "traditional" drink that EVERY band drinks when they play there. It was Garlic Schnapps, the absolute worst substance I have ever put in my mouth, and I used to dog food as a kid.
Much, much later, we walked down the street in the freezing cold snow and ice to the place we would be sleeping. I tried to stay awake and hang out with some people, but after dropping a full beer on the ground and spreading pieces of glass across the floor..I decided it was time for bed.
2.25.09 - Today we would be driving to one of my favorite European countries, the Czech Republic. The home of beautiful women and cheep, delicious brew. We drove in through the mountains from Germany and stopped at one of these Vietnamese flee market deals. I had been to one of them before, but this time everything was covered in snow which some how made everything even weirder. They sell everything from garden gnomes, neon snow boots from the 80's, brass knuckles, knifes, cartons of cigarettes and white power clothing. Yea, that's right, the Vietnamese shops are selling white power t shirts. Stop and think about that for a minute. If you ever have a chance, I highly recommend stopping at one of these places. Not so much for the cheep schwag, but because the whole experience is extremely bizarre. Moving on! We drove through Prague and some other Czech cities on our way to Brno, which is the 2nd largest city in the Country. We were playing at the Yacht club which is an awesome little club that I have been to before a couple years back. I am still not sure why they call it the Yacht Club because there are no boats or bodies of water anywhere near the club.
The show had a really good turn out, especially for a Wednesday night. Some of my favorite shows from previous tours have been in the Czech Republic. There are no jaded attitudes toward music or bands like there is back home. Everyone is always very nice and appreciative that you played in there town. We played a really good set on this night. We were really starting to tighten up as a band and I was gradually getting better at talking to the crowd. The good people of the Czech Republic went wild for us and even let me jump on their heads during our set. Good times.
After the show we stayed around the venue and talked with old friends and made some new ones. For some reason, there was a drum circle going on up stairs. I have never been compelled to join in a drum circle, but for some reason on this night nothing felt more right in all of my life. I had a few drinks under my belt, my rhythm was far from gone and I broke some strange instrument. Other than that, I think it went well. At least I was the loudest. America, fuck yea.
Finally, we went back to our good friend Martino's flat near the city center. Here, we continued to be loud until wee hours of the morning. I finally got to take a shower after about 5 days and went to sleep on a floor with a lot of blankets.
2.26.09 - I think this was the only morning that I woke up clean and warm. We got up and decided to go the Starbrno Brewery for a good 'ol fashion Czech meal. Our guitar player James went out to grab something out of our van and discovered a Gypsy trying to break in the passenger side door. The Gypsy started to run when James started yelling and chasing after him. The only problem is James' shoes were untied and they came off in the snow when the pursuit started. I have seen James fight before, and lets just say that this lucky Gypsy fellow escaped one of the potentially finer ass kickings he ever received.
After stuffing my face with Gulash, we left the Czech Republic and head for Vienna, Austria. Our original show in Vienna was canceled about a couple weeks before we left for tour. Our friend Marious managed to get us a show at the Arena. The Arena is a great big compound with about 5 different venue rooms. We were going to be playing a free show in the bar and the crowd could give us donations. It was extremely cold this night so the majority of my time was sent sitting by the fire place, drinking whiskey and hustling Euros playing dice with my fellow Americans. The show was good for a weekday, especially considering that the show was confirmed the previous night at 11pm. We made a little gas money, sold some shirts and had a good time playing so all in all we were happy.
2.27.09- Woke up this morning at a friends house in Vienna. We left in the afternoon and headed towards Croatia. None of us had ever been to Croatia so we didn't really know what to expect. All I really knew about the Country is that they were in a civil war not to long ago and you aren't supposed to walk around in the wilderness because of undetonated land mines. I think that's more true for Bosnia and Serbia, but still...pretty wild. We also had heard bad things about getting across the border which turned out to be 100% true. According to my good friend the Internet, Croatia's main exports are "Textiles" and "Food Stuffs". Their economy isn't great so you think they might be a little nicer to foreigners coming into their country to spend money..guess not. To sum it up, it was sort of like how I would imagine a Guantanamo Bay interrogation to go, minus the water boarding. So we did the only thing America knows how to..we lied. We told the customs agents that we were spending a day off from tour in Croatia before we go to Ljubljana the following day. After spending a good amount of time being nervous at the border, they finally said we could go under one condition. If the band Pullout, ever comes across the border with out the correct paper work again, they were going to take our merchandise and beat the shit out of us. I am not trying to be funny here, that was almost word for word what they said.
Almost an hour after making friends at the border we arrived in the Capital City of Zagreb. There were several things that I observed about the city, but the #1 that stuck in my head was the large number of White Power tags I was seeing. Those of you that are not familiar with the punk/hardcore scene; there is a long history of violence between Punks and Nazis. Most white power supporters in California were run out of the scene many years ago but there is still a dominate scene all across Europe. It is very unnerving seeing this in a new city/country, especially because you don't always know how things are handled from country to country. Example: Back home, if you get caught painting a white power symbol, you are probably not walking away from it. A lot of Germany is the same while in the Czech Republic its "Just how it is".
We got to the venue that was called "Rock Club Time", possibly the coolest club name ever. The promoter Jimbo met us and gave us some really amazing chicken and some beer. He told us that they have been playing our album on a local radio show in Zagreb and expect the show to have a really good turn out. We did a sound check and had some drinks and chopped it up with the locals. Everyone in Croatia speaks English, pretty much fluently. It was great to speak with some folks that spoke English so well, but it also made me feel like a dumb ass because I can barely speak my own language..let alone someone elses.
There were two opening bands this night and they both ripped. They got the crowd hyped up very well. When we took the stage, there was over 200 people in a club that has a maximum capacity of 150. This show was wild and probably my favorite one of the tour. The crowd went nuts, people were singing along to almost all the songs and they even knew the cover songs we played.
After the show the venue turned into one huge party. James managed to drink human piss for the second time in one day. I understand that the odds of this happening to someone has to be extremely high. However, if you are familiar James you would know that this was not that surprising to anyone in the band.
2.28.09 - We woke up in an apartment in Zagreb. I'm not really sure how we got there, but I woke up in the middle of the living room on a hard wood floor. We ate some breakfast and kicked it with our new Croatian buds. We got on the road and started our way towards Ljubljana, Slovenia. We were playing at this really great venue called Club Gromka just out side of the downtown area. Monster Squad played there last year and the show was super fun. Club Gromka is this giant compound that used to be a bunker during the Civil War when Yugoslavia disbanded and everything went to shit. Slovenia was only at war for like 10 days, so I am not sure how long it was a bunker/barracks but whatever...I didn't feel like calling anyone out on their history. Anyway, now they just have a venue and some of the strangest art work outside I have ever seen. The show was pretty good. We ate delicious chili again that they made us last year and gave us a bunch of drinks. The show had a decent amount of people inside but everyone stood in the back and didn't move except the 4 or 5 guys that were up front losing their minds. Afterwords we hung around the venue and talked with some Slovenians. We stayed up pretty late and went to sleep in the back of the venue where they had a bunch of delightful little bunk bed set up for all of us. Getting to sleep in a bed while on tour is better than getting to take a shower.
3.1.09 - Woke up and went to the promoter Skabina's house for breakfast. She lived in one of those Soviet Era looking apartment buildings. I have always wanted to go into one and see what it was like. I came to the conclusion that if I grew up in one of those buildings I would have jumped out the window by age 14 at the very latest. Sorry Slovenia, at least you have the Alps near by. I had been growing a beard for the last few months and on this day I decided to shave it into a mustache. I had a very dull razor so it took me about 30 minutes to hack through my mangy/greasy facial hair. Once I finished and looked at myself in the mirror, I threw up in my mouth a little. I looked like the creepiest scum bag this side of the trailer park. Our show in Munich was canceled so we spent the whole day driving to Giessen Germany. It took us like 10 hours but it felt like 20. Towards the end of the drive, Jay managed to get our TV and DVD player working in the van. The van company left a bunch of killer movies in the back including every Scorsese film know to man. We watched Casino and made the last leg of the drive fly by. We arrived in Giessen with just enough energy to walk to a gas station and buy some beers. After a couple drinks with our good bud Alex and his roommates, Danny & Lenny, I went to sleep. Justin, Zac and myself snuggled on a small mattress on the kitchen floor.
3.2.09 - Our show this night was in Giessen so we spent the day being lazy, watching movies and walking around the town. Alex cooked us some amazing stuff peppers that I scarffed down quick. The show was put on last minute so the turn out was small, but we all had a good time regardless. We were supposed to have a day off but instead we got fed, drank free beer and made a little extra gas money. It always better to play a small show than have a day off. After the show we went back to Alex's flat and acted like children until very early the next morning. When I decided to reside to my mattress in the kitchen, 5 guys decided to jump on me and interrupt my slumber. After the 3rd or 4th time of this I decided it would be a smart idea to try and wrestle with everyone who was piling on me. I hyper extended my thumb and it then swelled up to the size of a baseball. Boo Hoo.
3.3.09 - Woke up very late and had some breakfast before we got in the van to head to Frankfurt. The drive was short but we managed to get a good junk of Goodfella's in during the drive. The venue was a small place up top a whole bunch of stairs. Meaning we had to load all our crap up the stairs. The best part about being the singer is I don't have any equipment to load. Not only that, with my new found thumb injury I was "unable" to help with anything heavy. The promoter this night was named Daniel and was a radical dude. He made us delicious Thai food, gave us free beers, let us use the internet and was also wearing a Whiskey Rebels shirt. It's crazy to see yours friends bands schwag when you are on the other side of the world. The crowd was getting wild this night so the show was a lot of fun. I always like playing small places. I had been trying and trying to do a better job of talking more in between songs and looking up at the crowd. Some girl who was about 6'5 shattered my confidence when she yelled in broken English "Shut up the fuck up and play a song". It was all good though, she brought me a flower and a shot of Vodka while we played. After the show we hung out for a minute and talked with the good people of Frankfurt. There were two people from California there. I can't remember, but we probably talked about how much we missed good Mexican food. The 6'5 women that told me to shut up previously (we named her Helga) told me that my mustache was disgusting and I should shave it off. I impolitely told her to cram it and we got in the van and left for Duisburg to sleep.
3.4.09 - I woke up on our driver Bob's couch. Went to a grocery store and got some breakfast, then relaxed all day watching South Park and Chapelle Show. This night we were playing in Duisburg and the club was about a 15 minute walk from Benni and Bob's flats. We have many friends in Duisburg so we were very stoked to play there and hang out with our pals. The opening band was called Nuke Strike, they were a young local band with a lot of energy. It was so nice to play with another band. Playing by your selves can get boring and watching another band play always gets me siked. We played well and had a great response from the crowd. Afterward, we got smashed at Benni's apartment and I watched Jason put our friend Fabian in an arm bar in the kitchen. Very funny to watch, especially because Jason is a tall muscular man and Fabian looks like Mahatma Gandhi with a mohawk.
3.5.09 - Woke up on Bob's couch..again. Sorry Bob, but your couch sucks and makes me feel like I was part of a prison shower indecent that involves the dropping of soap. It was a bummer day to start because Benni had to leave us so he could go with his own band to play some gigs in Switzerland and Munich. This ment Bob was now in charge of 5 wild Americans and also had to drive. I'm thinking Bob may have killed a child in a previous life and was now was making up for it. Tonight we were playing in Dunkerque France which is a small town located near the Belgium border. It is a very nice and picturesque town and I am pretty sure there hasn't been a crime committed there since Germany invaded in the 40's. In all seriousness, its nice to know towns like this still exist in the world. Monster Squad played Dunkerque last year and the show was on a boat in a harbor and ruled on so many levels. This year it was a mini festival and for some reason we were head lining. We got up early and left Duisburg because we were told we need to arrive at the show at 3pm, which we did. When we got to the venue they told us we didn't play until 11pm. European's are very strange about load in times. Most of the shows we are told to arrive super early and then we have nothing to do for hours. Anyway, they put a couple cases of beer in front of us and we went to town on them for 8 hours until we played. The show was bizarre, we all agreed that it reminded us of a High School talent show. Every band had a completely different sound and the crowd was mostly made up of 15 year old kids. This was definitely the worst we played the whole tour, probably something to do with us sitting in a room and drinking for hours and hours. After we played it took me about 30 minutes to catch my breath. Lesson Learned! Earlier in the day, out of pure boredom, we had made these stupid animals out of apples and plastic forks. The funniest part of the night is that Bob actually sold them to some kid for 5 euros. We didn't sell CD's or shirts but we managed to sell a piece of mangled fruit..and people say Americans are stupid. After we loaded our gear and said goodbye to our friends in Dunkerque, we stumbled into the van and left for Amsterdam. A couple of our friends from the amazing Dutch band, Gewapened Beton, said we could crash at their place after the France show.
3.6.09 - We woke up in a small apartment in Amsterdam. Justin, Zac, Bob, James and myself all shared a mattress on the floor. If you are going to be in a touring band, you must be comfortable with a little homosexuality and sleeping next to other dudes. We sat in the kitchen for a long time catching up with our friends Duawe and Ming ranging in topics from our bands, new music, and the state of the American economy. We were very happy to find that they had a regular coffee machine and didn't use that instant coffee crap that the rest of Europe seems to be attached to. I had been to Amsterdam about 4 years before but the rest of the band has never been so we went and checked out some of the city. Amsterdam is a beautiful place. The city reminds me a lot of San Francisco and I really feel at home there. That might have something to do with the fact that people are chill, speak fluent English and its easy to buy weed. Later we went to the venue called The Occii in Amsterdam. I might be making this up, but I think its like the oldest squat in Europe. It has been around since the 60's and had radical old fliers on the walls. Ming cooked us a huge pasta dinner, while we ate we talked with our other friends from Gewapened Beton and their buddies from the area. Some of the guys are in one of the bands we were playing with that night called Sick Mormons. They opened the show and were excellent. They remind me of old Los Angeles bands like T.S.O.L or The Adolescents. After them, some other band played. I don't remember their name and I didn't watch them because they were supposed to headline and instead they made the touring band headline. There is an unwritten code about that sort of thing. The bigger local band should always headline over the touring band, this way there will probably be more people sticking around to watch the band that came from far away to play. Makes sense right? Luckily for us, pretty much everyone ended up staying to watch us. There was over 100 people in the place and they had great sound system. The crowd went wild and we played really tight. I thought I was going to get punched in the face by some large gents in the front who were swinging their fists like mad men but managed to stay away from it. After the show, we went back to Ming and Duawe's flat and managed to gradually destroy it. They have a small kitchen and we piled a bunch of rowdy dudes in there. My friend Arne and I made a video of us moshing to Agnostic Front and breaking stuff. Awesome. Zac and I also went across the street where we might haven eaten the best Donner Kebab in all of Europe. I went to bed about 5am or 6am and there were still people raging in the other room.
3.7.09 - We woke up to one of the most destroyed apartments in the history of partying.
To be continued..
Fuck Decaf
14 years ago
