European Tour 2004 Part One

Here's the goods. Thanks to everyone who sent in photos.

Where we were (but in Dutch)

Usually when we travel, we all fly together, get drunk on the plane, then get cut off by the flight attendants. It's usually a good pre-game preparation for the tour. Not this time. Logistical reasons (work,school,cheap flights) had us all flying into different cities at different times. Kevin (filling in for Mark who had to stay back in Calgary) and Scott "The Accountant" (road manager - last seen on the Chixdiggit Halloween Tour w/ Fluf) flew into Berlin, Jason and Mike flew into Munich and I flew into Vienna. If that wasn't making things interesting enough, the van and equipment we rented were being driven down from Sweden by our good friend Martin from Bad Taste Records. Phew!

Just about to hit some land (I thought it was kinda pretty)

I arrived in Vienna last night and there was no place to stay. Malus the promoter for the show tonight was cool enough to let me crash at his place. I spent the whole day today wandering around wondering if everyone was going to make it. Eventually all my hand-wringing paid off and the guys showed up with just enough time to do a group hug and a soundcheck. This was our first time playing with Kevin on guitar. Even though he looked a little nervous, the soundcheck made us all feel a little bit better. Good show, better party afterwards. Jet-lag and lack of drinking practice got us all hammered pretty quickly. Even Scott was trying out the local booze (Scott doesn't drink)! Chris the bartender and Malus made sure we don't remember much.

Kevin and Chris the Best Bartender in Europe

Shared the "band flat" with guys from the U.K. band Five Knuckle who needed a place to crash 'cause they had a day off. Nice guys. Special thanks to everyone at The Arena for taking real good care of us.

We all got up a few hours after we hit the sack. Jason looks like he's been hit by a train (in a good way). We took a train to St. Stephansplatz to check out the old stuff we've been itching to see. Past tours of Europe have left us little time to check out the sites so we wasted little time getting down to business. St. Stephans Cathedral cut a pretty imposing figure as we rode up the escalator out of the subway.

Hacking and slashing our way through the Krishnas and the dudes selling opera tickets, we went inside. We were all blown away by the detail of the stone carvings inside. It was pretty incredible. If you're ever there you should definitely check it out.

"Sorry lady, we're all out of extra smalls"

After that we did kind of a loop around the "Innere stadt" which is the area full of old and important looking buildings. We were guided by our Viennese friend Phoebe who knew absolutely nothing about what we were looking at. It made for some fun guessing though.

Punk Rock Dads (L-R KJ and Kevin) - the lady who sold us our hot dogs made little pillows out of the leftover bread. It was sweet of her but creepy!

That night we headed back to The Arena to check out a band from Spain called "Dover". We got their CD and it ended up being the soundtrack for the rest of our trip. Check them out.

Today was the first time we were all in the van together, a little bit weird for me as some of the usual suspects were absent. I have to say, it's a really good mix so far.

Signs on the side of the road here show cartoon pictures of the attractions of the upcoming town. To exercise our sight-seeing freedom we stop at a small town called St. Florian whose little cartoon looked pretty good. We walked around checked out the church and graveyard. The weather was nice outside but inside the church you could see your breath. We warmed up in Salzburg with a quick tour then headed for Wangen.

Here's Mike doing the right thing by spraying down his terrible smelling PF Flyers in picturesque St. Florian

Wangen is a really small town with a beautiful old town center. Ask anyone else in Germany where Wangen is and they probably won't be able to tell you. Although in a small town, this club took home the "Smokiest Club in Europe" distinctions on our last tour. You can hardly see the other side of the room and the room is pretty small.

Outside the Jugendzentrum Tonne

The Hi-Tops and D.N.I. opened and both were great. Super cool people as well. Our second show went a lot better. We were ten times tighter than Vienna and the crowd responded accordingly. Danke Wangen! They didn't disappoint in the smoky club contest either! Slept at the offices of the town youth club like a big girly pajama party. A tour highlight for sure.

Today we have a short two hour drive. Ebersburg is just outside of Munich in Bavaria which is supposed to be the "Texas of Germany". We were passing through Dachau on the way so we stopped to check out the former concentration camp and current museum there.

Honestly, at first, it didn't really seem that different from any other factory compound that we passed on the way. Everything seemed kinda sterile and newly built. Initially, the way we went in, there were very few pictures to tie what we were looking at to the past. When we made our way to the far end of the compound it started to seem a lot more real. There, there was a bridge over a little canal with a picture next to it of a naked woman who tried to make a run for it. She was shot down and got caught on the bridge's barbed wire. Seeing that picture and then the same bridge still standing there brought it all home for me. Across the canal were the "ovens" and the rooms where they stacked the bodies before they were cremated. A pretty intense place for obvious reasons. We checked out the museum part last. If you're planning to go, I recommend going to the museum part first. You'll get a better idea of what really went on there when you're looking at the compound.

It was pretty quiet on the way to Ebersburg.

Entrance gate at Dachau "Work sets you free"

KJ and Kevin sharing a shave in Ebersburg

Sub Pop era Jason? Nah, it's Jason Rocking Ebersburg!

The show in Ebersburg was fun. The Hi-Tops again put on a good show. Mosh pits aren't always my favorite thing but I was happy to see a guy in a wheelchair hold his own pretty good in the middle of our "pit". Pretty damn punk! Also, Scott is starting to emerge as a bit of a mascot back at the t-shirt booth. His handle-bar moustache is a big hit with the kids AND the ladies. It's my theory that a moustache really separates the "wheat" from the "chaff". Only a real rock girl would be brave enough to go after a guy with a beast like that on his face. Good work Scott!

Ahoy Cappy! - Scott shows off his "ticket to ride" whilst balancing the books!

We stayed at Katrin's (last night's promoter) parents house on the outskirts of Ebersburg in the country last night. It's really beautiful here. Back in the day, Katrin's parents used this house to hide defecting folks from the former East Block! Pretty cool! We had a great breakfast, got some directions to Amsterdam from Katrin's dad then hit the road.

Some of the drives on this tour are pretty long but they go by fast when you're allowed to go 160 km/h. Much to the chagrin of our booking agent, we're driving ourselves on this tour. In the past, we had a European driver take us around but his time we figured we'd have more fun doing it ourselves. The driving here seems reasonable enough, they drive on the right hand just like we do and Jason has taken to the autobahn like a big ol' Mexican pro.

You can tell you're entering Holland and it's not because of the windmills either (you see those all over northern Europe). Everything seems a bit more modern and (sorry Germany) a bit cleaner. We spent the day trying to convince Mike that Holland and The Netherlands are the same place.

"Ok, so lemme get this straight, you're saying It's called Holland but it's also called The Netherlands AND they speak Dutch there? Whatever guys ".

We'll give him a break, it's his first time over here.

We got into Amsterdam and looked for safe parking but found nothing. We didn't want to get the equipment ripped off like last time. We got a hotel by the airport and Scott drove us back in to Amsterdam.

Holland is famous for it's relaxed attitude towards marijuana and prostitution. Amsterdam, as the capital of Holland, is the capital of this as well. Everyone was pretty excited to check out the famous Red Light District. None more than Scott who showed his excitement by staying back at the hotel to sleep. We peeked in a few coffeeshops then headed straight for the hookers. How were the coffeeshops? Not so good. The hookers? Not so good either but it's fair to say that they were alot busier than the coffeeshops. I think everyone is bored of the whole pot cafe thing here. Why smoke pot in some dingy room when you can do it next to a beautiful canal? Thankfully for the Dutch economy people seem to be spending their money on "other things". The hookers couldn't be happier.

We drank about a hundred Heinekens then headed for the train station. The central station was all evacuated-like due to a bomb threat. Today, the authorities caught up with the guys who master-minded the Madrid train bombing and everyone standing outside seemed to think this threat was a response to that. We took advantage of this and shopped for some more candy and got some more food at our new favorite fast food chain FEBO. Basically you put a coin in a slot, pull open a little door and then pull out some deep fried turd-looking thing that tastes like a little slice of dutch heaven. Cheap, tasty and bad for you. We then took the first train outta there. The hookers and the coffeeshops didn't get our money but the FEBO's sure did.

We all headed into Amsterdam to check it out in the daylight. When you skip the red light district, it's actually a beautiful city.

Kevin looking a little freaked out by all the "dutchness"

Photo evidence of us skipping the coffeeshops

Jason and the pidgeons

We got to Rotterdam a bit late and loaded all the stuff in. Our very good friends The Apers were there waiting for us. After catching up a bit and loading in our stuff, we grabbed some Surinamese food. When headed back to the club. It was already packed!

The Apers were awesome just like last time we were here. The crowd loved them. We had a great show too. We've heard before that Rotterdam is the Rock capital of Holland and I can tell you now for sure... it's the truth!

Believe it or not, this guy has a twin brother! Will from the Zatopeks finds KJ's Camera between the cushions

After, we all ate at a place called "Spooky's". We had some deep fried croquettes and bami balls (it's the kind of stuff you get at FEBO) and some pannekoeks too. Then we headed to the Rock and Roll High School offices for an all night Vodka party! Kevin Aper and his girlfriend Steph were super kind enough to let us crash at their house. Yet another pajama party. Thanks to Minke and Lisabeth from Rock and Roll Highschool, The Apers, and the rest of Rotterdam for a great time!

Kevin and Jason gettin' ready for bed

My mom grew up around Rotterdam so I wanted to have a look around. Kevin lives a block away from the world famous "cube houses" so we, naturally, had a look. We had some giant "stroopwafles" (syrupy waffle cookies) at a market and checked out the very large cathedral here. You can buy beer at a stand in the back of the church!

These houses are shaped like cubes

We bought some souvineers, visited the Rock and Roll High School girls then headed out to Belgium.

Before the tour, I got an email from Hein the promoter of this show letting us know that we shouldn't be late for dinner. When we got to his house we could see why. He had a gourmet feast waiting for us! Hein and his brother served us a huge and delicious four course meal. We were full and we still had to play a show.

Tonight was one of the best bills of the tour. A band from Spain called the Gas Drummers, a band from Italy called Forty Winks and The Gamits from the States. All the bands were great, the Belgian beer was fantastic and everyone was cool. We ended up stealing some of the Forty Winks guys sleeping bags by accident when we went to bed. They were so cool, they didn't even wake us up to try and get them back! Nice guys!

Scott kicks some tires in Rotterdam

He got up and had breakfast with Hein, The Gamits and the Forty Winks guys. Hein told us this crazy story of how the bank he worked in got robbed two weeks before and he got hit over the head by the non-business end of a gun. Two weeks ago! Thankfully, he's alright. Thanks Hein and family for the hospitality, especially your kids for letting us sleep in their beds. Don't worry they were staying at grandma's.

Forty Winks, The Gamits and The Chixdiggits

Chez Bei Heinz is situated underneath a swimming pool. I think it's the first time we've played under a pool. Yet another great meal, this time a stuffed zucchini parmesan.

KJ spreads for Hannover (don't worry, we got 'em moving later)

Super fun show. Peter and Humberto took great care of us. Our former driver Ernie came down with his buddies to cheer us on too. Hannover is a town we definitely will return to.

The tour continues HERE...