I have a major in philosophy and I am working on getting a doctoral degree.
I go to a lot of punkrock/rock/hardcore/indie concerts and I take a lot of live photos. I've done this in 10 European countries and half a dozen American states. I love it.
The Queensday Festival is an extremely nice event that takes place annually in Venlo, The Netherlands, just a few kilometers behind the German border. This year they celebrate the 10th anniversary and on this occasion they invited a big headliner: The Bouncing Souls. Beyond the conveniently located town the festival also has a great venue and a great atmosphere. Theres always a few hundred people mixed from all scenes of rock/punk/hardcore, theres three stages (one open air) and an interesting line-up each year. Tickets were a ridiculous 6€! A real insiders tip!
First I made a detour through the Ruhr area to get Berni. In the face of the the fact that its a Friday before a holiday this wasn’t a good idea. The whole region is a giant traffic jam, I even took a completely different route in order to avoid the worst traffic. As we arrive at the parking lot I meet the first friend already. And it continues like that. A lot of hands to shake.
First band I got to see were the Real Danger, melodic pop-punk that not only reminds of the Descendents musically, the singer has quite some optic features of Milo. They also do a Screeching Weasel cover and the audience really enjoys them. A real good start of the night.
After that the Dead Elvis the playing outside. It’s one guy in an Elvis costume with a zombie mask who is doing some one-man-band rockabilly and blues. The trash factor here is really high, but doesn’t enthuse me. Especially cause its open air in sunlight. Inside the next band are Banner Pilot. The four guys from Minneapolis have recently released their second album on Fat Wreck and are now touring Europe for the first time. A little bit of Dillinger 4 and Lawrence arms with ruff vocals and melancholy lyrics. I like them. The Italian guy (whose name I forgot but I’ve met him on the recent tour) standing in the front row is singing along to every song! Respect! Meanwhile on the open air stage the Accelerators are getting ready to play the final show of their two month long tour. Today all people that went on tour with them are here. (1 bass player, 1 drummer, 3 guitar players, 4 drivers), and without the technical difficulties this would have even been more fun. At the end of the night we took a photo with all 10 of us. In front of the Bouncing Souls Nightliner…
I was smart enough to forget to bring money with me. I could buy three drink tickets and loose one of them. I’m lucky cause they offer you give you a new drink if you return 20 empty cups. I do that twice. And Paul bought me a drink too. Thanks!
Only from afar I hear a little of Shaking Godspeed. A trio with drums, guitar and organ. At times the guitar sound reminds me of the White Stripes, but its getting too hippie over time. Relatively early at about 21:30 the Bouncing Souls enter the stage and the hall is packed! With some luck I get a place on the side elevated on a box so I can see everything just fine. The first song is the opening track of the new album and the hall starts dancing immediately, the hands are up in the air and the first crowd surfers start flying. It pretty much stays like this for the entire show. Every once in a while Greg gets the audience to help him singing. It doesn’t take long and it’s getting really hot in the room. Lots of fun!
Final act for me was the Kepi & Friends set on the small stage upstairs. His backing band consists of Greg of the Bouncing Souls on guitar and Gregs wife Shanti on bass. Both switch to the ukulele in between. Kepi is a born entertainer and his little rocknroll songs about monsters and zombies are unplugged as great as amplified. The audience is singing along, Ivo of the Apers fame, is playing the ‘drums’ (some eggshakers), and its a great time. Shanti gets to sing two songs as well. A worthy end of the night. Can’t wait for next year! The only downside of the near border location is that you get checked by German police searching for drugs. Not that we had any. But the officers were nice. And since our story was “we went to Venlo to some punkrockfestival” – I would have searched us too. Ha!
Over the Brenner pass were going to Innsbruck. First we meet up with Kevin Aper, who traded in the flat Netherlands for the Alps not too long ago. Were playing Mario Kart and listen to Metal. After that we drive to PMK, which is located right under the railroad tracks. Its a professional club. Setup, Sound Check. With Kevin and Ox I drop off our bags at the apartment we’re gonna stay at. Back at PMK theres pasta (I eat multiple dishes) and Championsleague on a big screen. In order not to compete with Football the show starts after the matches are over.
Todays support band are the Zero Heads. Its a very young band, playing some mid-90′s skatepunk. Think of Sum41. There is a girl singing, she can actually sing and is cute, but listening to the band of Avril Lavignes little sister is not all that interesting. Plus they behave weird on stage. All the talk is done in English and they wear stupid things. We don’t get that. They cover Rihanna (Umbrella) and Bryan Adams (Summer of 69). But nothing stops their five hardcore fans from jumping and pogoing right in front of the stage. They know no boundaries. At times I wonder if this is still dancing or suicide by pogo. The audience also enjoys the Accelerators, so there are more songs in the encore today. People enjoy the covers and especially the girls are dancing in the front.
Afterwards there is a long and interesting after show party. Kevin is DJing and he is playing all sorts of stuff. From Thrashmetal to Punk to Disco classics. Its a wild party until late that night. One of the best nights of tour for sure!
The next day we stay in Innsbruck. As expected not much is going on. Erik and me are doing even less than the others who go out for some beers in the evening. I prefer to watch the new South Park episodes and go to sleep early. On easter Friday no show is happening as well (as there is a dance ban in Germany). So we directly go to the Netherlands instead, to Eriks parents. The drive from Austria to Germany is something I am so used to anyway. Kevin is with us. We only do a short stop in Burscheid for me to drop off some stuff. But after 20 minutes we hit the road again. We meet and greet Eriks family, get some fast food and thats it. Two off days feel really good.
The tourplan listed Turino for today. But that show got canceled the day before! (who does something like that?) But we hoped on a show of the Fake Problems (US) and The Real Danger (Holland) tour that was also happening. Hey – finally playing with some good bands! So we went to Catiglione della Stiviere, near Brescia and the Lago del Gado, where we were the day before. As the drive was really short again we got there way too early – even though some one way roads forced us to reroute a couple of times. The venue is an old building right in the middle of the town, with a big square outside with some statues and a fountain. We’re also sleeping here. For everybody who ever played Counter Strike: Everything just looks like the Italy map!
Eventually the vans from the Fake Problems and the Real Danger show up so all the parking spaces next to the square are taken by tour busses and weird punkrockers run around. We’re setting up, and with the merch from three bands plus a distro we get our own Hot Topic in the corner. Everybody is getting pasta in a big room upstairs. I didn’t really understand what the venue was about. There was a room for the concert, a bar, a courtyard with a tent and a container for the toilet, upstairs were large rooms, including a dancing room, with mirrored walls. So its a bar and a community-youth-center all together. The entrance was kinda high, but you didn’t just pay for the night, you became a club member for a year. So there were also a bunch of people there not for the show but just because they were club members.
Show was fine. The concert room is small, with an arched ceiling. 5 people in the first row are enough to block the view and make the room looking crowded. All three bands rock out and were having fun. Afterwards we actually sleep in the dancing room. We’re the last ones to get up the next day. Well, the Real Danger / Fake Problems tour is just going on for a few days, they still have energy left. Pretty much everybody gets breakfast at the Cafe across the street. Then we get on our way to Austria.
I know it must suck for a band to play in front of five people, but seeing the owner of the pizzeria dancing frenetically with the bartender was my favorite moment of the tour.
Maybe the best thing about the hotel in Vicenza was the shower. It had pressure, the water was hot and it was quite big, so you could move around a little. Perfect! We did our daily routine by checking out a supermarket and decided to spent the day at Lago del Gado, as the drive to the next city was only about 2 hours. While the lake is a touristical center, pretty much everything is shut down by this time of the year. We ended up at some rocky beach, doing nothing for a couple hours. Throwing stones into the water was the biggest action we got. Somebody found an old slingshot but it was in bad shape, you could actually throw rocks further than using it. After some time we were lucky and the sun came out, so it was a very relaxed afternoon.
The show was supposed to happen in Piacenza, but that didn’t work out so this night we went to a small village names Pianello Val Tidone, that is near Piacenza, but not even really close. Well there is a surprise waiting for us: The venue turns out to be nothing but an actual pizzeria! The stage is a wooden annex to the building. We are greeted by the owner Alfredo who will reveal himself as a fucking great host! We set up, we meet the other band playing that night, and then we get food. So everybody sits down at a table, there is lots of food (not really a surprise since this is a restaurant), beers and local wine, even I get fries and cola! We talk and this feels like you imagine Italy to feel like. Maybe this was the most Italian moment of the entire week. Its a good time.
Well so this is a Monday, we are in a small village, so at this point we don’t even expect anybody to show up. There are a few locals, and even two cars with punkrockers show up! We need to sit through the other band, who are nice guys, but their music is boring at best. One guy buys like 3 things off the merch stand at once, so at least we have some sales. When the Accelerators start there are a few people watching. But for the most of the time its 10 people max. Towards the end its like five. But still the atmosphere is good. Alfredo really enjoys the band (and by that time he was quite drunk too). He and the bartender start dancing. He looks just soooo happy, its contagious. I love watching him. The other two guys who show real interest are the punkrockers from Piacenza. They even request a song for the encore. That was something we didn’t had at the other shows. The scene is equally really bad and really great at once.
After the show the drinking goes on, at some point we load the gear into the van and are good to go. Yet we stay a little longer. We get another drink. And another. And instead of leaving things turn into one of these nights again. It ends when people start drinking a full bottle of booze, Alfredo telling us what he thinks about the South of Italy and tries to explain Italian politics to us. Its just hilarious. He also keeps giving us chips and snacks from the sales rack. This was a fucking lot of fun!
I think we finally leave at around 4 a.m. to get to the hotel that is a couple towns away. That turns into some sort of disaster, we have the address, we have keys. But those don’t work on the hotel door. And even with ringing the bell, they don’t open. We call the promoter who tells us we are not in the hotel but in some other room, but he is not able to describe where to go. Finally he comes to the hotel to show us. That whole thing took about an hour and sucked pretty bad. I’m pretty tired and go to sleep right away.
The next day we get up late, only to go back to the pizzeria for lunch. Again there is great food. And we get to talk to the local promoter who tries to explain to us why the Italian youth sucks. He says even if there is a band playing, they all just want to be posers and play in front of their friends like rockstars, but nobody cares about the other bands playing. So they leave early and pay no respect to the other people. That was exactly what we saw a couple times. Makes sense now. Sucks too.
Vicenza up next. Another venue I had been to with the Dopamines Tour in October. Another rather fancy rock bar type of venue. But the guy actually remembered me, and he even remembered I liked my pasta without sauce! I gotta give him a lot of credit for that! Setting up and sound checking went smothly and again there was some time to hit the hotel before the show. Doing soundcheck first, going to the hotel and coming back for the show definitely has a lot of rock star feeling to it!
Its a Sunday, so again expectations were low. But the opening band, a bunch of young locals, brings in the crowd of their friends, plus there are some regulars hanging around. But, history repeats itself, the majority leaves with the band. Not even the guys themselves stay. Theres a few punk rockers watching anyway. Its okay. The biggest surprise happens right after the Accelerators are done. I have been to a lot of shows over the years, but I never ever seen a club shut down operations so fast after a concert like that night. Basically two minutes after the band is done there is a barrier built up in the middle of the room, somebody is brooming the floor and the sound guy started dismanteling the PA. I mean I get that people want to close, but this was almost rude!
Easy to guess, we went to the hotel quickly finding us in the unknown position of being home at midnight. Check out was at 11, so there was a lot of time. I talked to Erik for some time. Read another chapter of the book. Then sleep. That was okay for a Sunday I’d argue.
Luckily the tour hit its bottom when I hit the bottom caused by the deflating air mattress. The next morning I woke up, and it was cold inside the rehearsal room. But through the windows I could see that the sun was shining outside and so I decided to get up and get the fuck out of that shitty room. There were no showers or anything anyhow, so why stay? I went into the van, that was parked in the sun on a parking lot right across the street. Thanks to the sunlight it was really warm and cosy in there. I loved it. I could see the surrounding mountains, the tops still snow covered. Beautiful landscape! I didn’t even realize we were on an altitude that allowed snow the night before. Makes sense that it got cold at night. We had agreed to start the day early in order to be able to fix the tire problem. I woke up the other guys and we informed Alex that we were leaving, so they could close up the room again. Instead of Alex one of his frieds (or bandmates?) came and he turned out to be a real blessing. We told him about the problem with the wheel and he had a friend who owned a tire place. We went there, got the tire fixed, when we tried to put some more air into the spare tire we found out that the valve of that was not working properly too, so we got that fixed as well. And it only cost us 10€! Its good to have somebody with you who knows people!
Next we went to a mall to buy some food. Thats when I found out that the lines at Italian registers work quite similar to Italian traffic: Just stand somewhere, create a big crowd, make up new lanes as you please, and eventually all will just flow somehow. Also we must have missed some catastrophic warning cause it seemed that they bought everything they had in the store. After some food in the parking lot we hit the road all the way up north again to La Spezia.
Quite some drive. After a bunch of hours Marlon took over at the wheel, right afterwards a storm started, but by that time I had already fallen asleep in the backseat. Finally I got some reading done also. I bought Steven Kings “It” to read it on tour. Basically bought it cause it is a BIG book and was only 8€! So far I’ve made it through about 1/4 and its okay. We got to La Skaletta, a legendary rock club, set up, soundchecked, got pizzas and then the guy showed us where we were staying that night, and we had about 2 hours to relax and refresh ourselves. The opening band was not able to play due to a family emergency, so the show started late anyways. I dropped the guys off at the club and then went to a McDonalds to get some fries. These did a good job to brighten my mood that got ruined by a call earlier.
Tonight finally had a good crowd, that did not leave the room when the band played. A few familiar faces showed up. Even some people knew a song or two. And this finally felt like a good show! After the show the Italians started a little dance party. There was quite a number of surprising songs played, some Disco etc.. but also a lot of punkrock. Once Andrea Manges took over the DJing every second song was Screeching Weasel anyways. And all the poppier Ramones too. When everybody was singing along to “Hey Surburbia” I thought I should film this and send the video to Ben Weasel to show him was he has done! The night went on like this. More beer, more songs. We were the last ones to leave the club. Good night. Some even wanted to keep going. But Ox, Simon and me went home first, laid down and tried to ignore the other peoples businesses.
In German there is a saying “Da ist die Luft raus” – meaning the air is out of something. Figuratively it means something has lost momentum or something is not going well or you don’t feel like doing it any more. The next day the tour felt like the air was out of it. Figuratively and literally.
There was supposed to be a show in Rome, but that got canceled. But on short notice a show as organized in Sulmona instead. That is about 1.5 hours east of Rome. Going inland means going into the mountains again. The highway was fine, but the last couple of miles we were going on a normal road instead. And that road had quite a number of narrow turns and when we finally arrived in Sulmona Erik congratulated for some fine alpine driving! We stopped at a supermarket and when I got back out I passed the van and noticed a sound. It came from the left rear tire and it was loosing air. Depending on the direction you pulled the valve, it did or did not loose more or less air. Shit! But it was only about 1 kilometer to the venue so we went there first.
We met the promoter of the night, Alex, he’s playing in a streetpunk band called One Trax Minds. And together with setting up, getting food, getting things done we also decided to change the tire. That proved to be hell of a job, as the system that kept the spare tire was totally fucked and only after quite some time and with the help from the guys of the venue we were able to lay hands on it. We even had to use some extra tools. Stupid bullshit system! After getting it out we noticed that the tire was pretty flat as well, but the neighbor gasstation had already shut down and we were not able to blow it up. We fixed the valve for the time with tape (oh tape, without it no tour would ever work!) and decided to try it again tomorrow.
Well, the show itself sucked. Lets put it straight. Once again there was a bunch of people, but they showed very little interest in the bands. During the opening band Killtime there were at least some standing in front of the stage additionally to those hanging around the room and bar. But when the Accelerators started eventually even those 5 people left (or went outside to have a cigarette). I mean – come on! That bummed people out. If there are few people at a show thats not exactly great, but thats what it is. But if people are in the venue but show no interest at all, show no respect, just leave all together – thats fucked! Ill get back to that later.
The accomodation that night was the rehearsal room of One Trax Minds. Not exactly the Hilton, but I have had that experience before. It was okay. Better than sleeping in the van. It really mirrored the rest of the night. And if all this wasn’t enough after about one hour of sleeping I noticed that the air mattress had lost most of its air, the valve had opened. So I had to blow it up again in the middle of the night with my own breath. Very fun time. Out of air and out of breath I went back to sleep.
South we went for the next shows. First to Latina south of Rome. Its a long drive again and it takes us into quite some mountainous terrain. Most of the country is hills and mountains, save for the big flat plateau in the north. At times the bus struggles going uphill. But thats alright cause the turns are not wide enough to drive fast anyway. I cannot deny that its a beautiful country, I like mountains. The only thing I really wonder about is why the Italians seem to have built most of their villages on top of these hills. I mean there’s got be no water there, usually springs are found on the foot of mountains. And you have to carry everything up all the time. Pretty much everywhere else you find the people living in the valleys….
Once we got past the mountains we got stuck in horrible traffic around Rome. Terrible! So we got a little late to Latina. The venue is weird. When you enter there is something like a cafe, or a bakery store, but then you go into the basement and there’s a huge room with another bar, a stage, a bunch of couches and a billiard table and some table footballs etc.. I like that. Looks like a mix between a rock club, a youth center and something else. Unfortunately they think its a good idea to have all four bands of the night do a sound check and that takes quite some time. Then there is food and after some more waiting the show stars. First with the Nappies, then the Orbits, then the Coffee Shops and finally the Acclerators. Biggest surprise were the Orbits, cause they dressed up in a unique way. There is a good amount of people down there, even though somebody is always paying more attention to the football tables then the bands. And people walk in and out all the time. That night there is a curfew and with the late arrival, the soundchecks, all four bands it got late quickly. So in the end the Accelerators cut their set short, just about 30 minutes. But it didn’t matter. Quick and painless I’d say.
After the show we went to Rome to stay at the Nappies guitar players apartment. At night, driving in Rome is not that hard (finding a parking spot is though). The next day I find out that people in Rome have lemon trees in the backyard, I see more than one. Erik needs to go to a music store to replace broken drum stuff. The store in located in a very convenient way in the center of Rome. I was a little scared about the driving cause I only watched a small intersection for 10 minutes and saw how crazy Italian drivers can be. Turned out alright though. On the way to the store we passed the Colisseum and walked back to it. The Accelerators had shot a video in front of it and an earlier trip (in some guerilla night action) and we went to the same spot to take a photo. The music store was closed mid day so we ended up walking and hanging around some more until it opened. The weather was nice and that was a good relaxing day with some sightseeing included. There was supposed to be another show in Rome tonight, but that got cancelled. We got a replacement show about 150km east of the town though.
The third day in Serbia was pretty much a continuation of the former two. Aleks took us again to eat at his moms place, I again kind of offended her by not eating (except for the extra piece of cake I was kinda forced to eat), and we went off to a show in a small town outside of Belgrade. The venue turned out to be a bar, that was really put well together. It had a theme. It was called “Liverpool” and so the entire bar was full of Beatles photos, items, collectibles, and whatever else you might think of when it comes to Liverpool. I thought “Kurt Baker would like this”, I’m sure he would. There was a proper stage this night. I really really liked the bar. Actually all the venues were alright, the turnout of people not so much. Again, there were barely 20 people here. And this time the entrance was totally free… At least there was one guy who seemed to enjoy the show a lot. Or maybe he was just that drunk. No merchandise sold that night, that was a first. We went back, got some late night food and went to bed.
The next day Ivan is our guide. We’re going to a smaller town about an hour drive of Belgrade. The show is in corner bar downtown. I like that place, it’s the first show that has been done there. The owner used to have some other bar and just moved recently into a new location. We set up, yet some part of the stage is missing (got stolen during the move) and so there is only room for the drumkit, the amps and Ox on stage. Marlon and Simon are standing on the ground. This is looking weird, like some well orchestrated stage setup. Ox is throwning over everything else. Looks like the Scorpions doing a guitar pyramid.
This is a Sunday night, so I didn’t really expect much. Especially after the Saturday show. Some people said the smalltown shows might be better than Belgrade though. We wait a little, but then Danielle (the local promoter) asks us to start. There is another show happening later that night in the same town, and so she thinks its better to start early. There are a few people and they don’t seem to be too interested. Yet the show was okay. Once the show started more people started showing up. Danielle had predicted that. They were probably pre-gaming at home, and got text messages that the concert was happening now. Some girl was filming the entire show with a tripod. Lets see if we can find that footage somewhere. Yet there were only about 20 people who paid the cover charge, and that was only 1€. We sold a few merch items none the less. People seemed to enjoy the Acceleratos though. Still a much better show than Belgrade.
As nothing is happening and not many people are around, we pack everything in the van and are pretty much ready to go. We’re asked if we want another drink and the Accelerators are not the band to turn down a free beer. Danielle asks if somebody want to come and check out that other show its happening just a few meters away from here right now. She wants to go there just to pay, take a short look and leave again. Some act of “support your local scene”. I have nothing better to do so I agree. Just down the street we come to the big town square, there is the library, the majors office, there is a big statue in the middle, its looking really nice. Shes telling me a little about the state of music in Serbia and Zrenjanin. We only get to see the last song of the first band. They are an indie rock band, female bass player to fullfil the sterotype, I’d say they are an okay band. A couple minutes later the second band starts. From what I understood this is supposed to be an bigger band (in terms of non mainstream music I guess) yet there are only about 40 people here. Its a nice bar, proper live music equipment. They have a much darker sound, and more of an pop-rock feeling. We leave after two songs.
Walking back to the bar I expected everybody to have finished their drink, waiting for me, ready to go. They were not. Everybody was sitting at the bar. I blame Ivana, the good looking black haired bartender. Ox was in the back of the room, playing songs from the harddrive and the internet. And so we spent the rest of the night just drinking a few more beers, talking about the best South Park episode, what the Accelerators are up to next, about the quality of the local tab water, about how living is in Serbia. Only Ox is tired and goes to sleep in the van. We continue our conversations. I cannot deny that those were some really good talks, exactly the type why you would want to hang out in a bar all night. I think we left around 4 in the morning. That night got good once the concert part was over.
The moment the opening band starts they play in front of the two friends that came with em, the venue staff and myself. It’s already 23.30h! About one minute into the first song the bass player breaks a string which forces them to stop. This evening has “Total failure” written all over it in big red blinking letters…
Serbia turned out to be a lot better than I thought it would. The country has a very bad image in western Europe. One week ago, if somebody had suggested to go to Belgrade for a weekend trip, my answer would probably have been something along the lines of “Are you insane? What drug are you on right now? Why would you ever do that?” But now – after I’ve actually been there – my answer would rather be “Yeah let’s go, let’s have some fun!” Instead of mobbing us with AK47 machine guns everybody was very friendly, people spoke English a lot better than I would have ever imagined, I never ever felt unsafe at any given time, no problems with police or authorities, just a good time. The Serbs seemed very open minded and Belgrade even felt a little multi-cultural. Not so much because of different people being there, but the people seemed to be aware of what is going on in the world and what they are up to. While it made a good personal experience, from the touring band point of view the days were a lot less exiting and successful…
We had heard some horror stories about crossing the border into Serbia, people getting searched and having to strip naked etc. But after checking the passports and a short look into the trunk we were good to go. Belgrade is about 180 kilometers from the border and the drive wasn’t quite what I expected. Basically northern Serbia is the flattest place I have ever been to, there were no hills, no trees, no villages, no nothing. Just fields and fields and swamps in between. We were passing by Novi Sad, one of the major cities, yet it turned out to be nothing but a sign on the highway exit. The first town we actually drove into was Belgrade. Flourishing landscapes look different. And flourishing airports look different from the Belgrade Aerodrome. The sleeping dogs were pretty much the most exiting thing about it. We went there to meet Aleks, the local promoter who would also function as our guide for the next days.
After taking us to his mother for a meal (and beer and booze and cigarettes (Aleks was all out smoking cigarettes)) he took the guys to a radio interview in Belgrade. I stayed in the car to guard the van. Well, I took the time to take a nap, cause all the sleep I got that night were the two hours Marlon was driving and I felt really bad at that point. When they got back Aleks had gotten really drunk. We went to the venue which turned out to be a bigger club, big stage, good sound actually. After the soundcheck Aleks and the Accelerators went out for a drink, while I stayed in the club cause it had wi-fi and I wanted to use that. So I spent a lot of time online between the merch table and soundboard.
At first nobody shows up. There is a local band opening but besides two of their friends they don’t draw anyone. The staff clearly outnumbers the audience. This looks like a total disaster. But then the bass player breaks the string, 2 minutes later the Accelerators come back, and somehow people start entering the club. Not a lot, but at least a few. When the local band resumes playing with Ox’ bass, the audience dramatically risen from 2 to 20 people. There is still “Total failure” written all over this, but the letters are no longer red and stopped blinking.
Trying to make the best of it the Accelerators rock out just fine. There is even some interaction with the crowd. Aleks likes the Dictators cover. Yet for a Saturday this is disappointing. Well, there was some other show happening that night, and people seem to have been all over it. Apparently Serbs like shitty German bands cause that night Ramstein filled a 20000 people arena and Tokio Hotel are gonna play there next weekend!
Aleks guides us to the hostel where we were staying the entire time. I can’t wait to go to bed. So can Ox, who got even less sleep than me in the last 48 hours. The others go to check out the town. I check out sleep.
5.30h – the sun is coming up at the Slovakia-Hungarian border. What’s the use of getting rid of passport controls if you need to stop at each border to buy a toll vignette anyway? While Ox is inside the never closing truck stop to pay a car stops, the driver justs walks around the building and pisses at the wall… while I can see the toilets inside from here.
The next show is just in the next town, just 30 minutes down the road. There’s a lot of old buildings for such a small city, a monastery, statues from better times. The venue is the bar of a small hotel. But I go to bed first to be ready for the overnight drive. I need to go to Serbia and decided to leave right after the show. But the second band is so loud that I gave up on sleeping and went downstairs.
What I get to experience downstairs is equally depressive, mad and unbelievable. Apparently it was payday in Fulnek and so there were a lot of people whose main goal was to get drunk and have some fun. While the bar is half empty there are half a dozen big drunk Czech guys jumping up and down in front of the stage at any given time. One guy lands on stage, there is blood, the girl singer of the second band is walking around trying to bite people, it almost comes to a fight about it. Some misunderstanding between Frazer Murderburger and the bartender leads to Frazer fearing for his life as the bartender walks up to him rolling up his sleeves. Its bizarr and terrifying but you cannot look away from it. The people like the Dangerfields best that night, but these guys would have danced to everything. Its not hard to pack everything and leave quickly.
We leave at 2.09h. Via Bruenn, Bratislava, Budapest, Belgrade. BBBB. There are no problems on the road. Ox is doing hell of a job keeping me awake. Thats the best about overnight driving, there is no traffic, no obstacles, no distractions, no nothing. After five hours Marlon takes over the wheel and I get some hours of rest.
Thursday night. Czech Republic. There are 5 bands on the bill tonight. The friends you are with are playing last. Its 22.30h and still three bands to come… There is actually one guy asking the drummer of each band for a souvenir drum stick… at the end of the night he got five.
The Road from Berlin to Eastern Silesia turns out to be a major obstacle and this is not based on the fact that the Accelerators van is an old Dutch army Ford, camouflage painting included. It is also not the rather boring experience of the Polish country side that shows little beyond forests and fields. Instead the road holes and ruts tell a story of a layer of pavement that has been in use for decades. Well at least they are working on it, the road towards Germany looks new and shiny and probably allows more than the reduced speed the signs allow us to ride.
This isn’t my first time in the Czech Republic, yet quite some time has passed since I went there with school in 12th grade. Not to mention the fact that we went to Prague, which might be not exactly a good representative for the entire country. The GPS is useless as it does not include maps of Eastern Europe – but we get to the venue in time. Its a subterranean rock club, quite nice actually. And it would deliver a really good sound throughout the entire night. The people are nice folks, there is food and beer (and cola). Besides the Accelerators its two local openers, the Murderburgers from Scotland and the Dangerfields from Northern Ireland. Its a good show, highlights include the Murderburgers cover of Be Stag, the prick attitude of Andy from the Dangerfields and girls dancing to the Accelerators at the end of the night.
The rest of the night left me with quite a mixed feeling though. When the Dangerfields wanted to go the apartment I wanted to go with them to get the keys for us to go there later. Sounds like an easy task, right? The next hour consisted of me driving from the venue to the apartment and back no less than three times. One guy got lost walking around in the city until police picked him up and helped him get back to the apartment. And people got food. Eventually I got the keys and the aftershow party continued. I went to bed around 5.a.m. Only to be woken up by the door bell ringing at 7 when the last of the Murderburgers arrived at the place. I got woken up again by the door bell ringing at 9 when somebody living there wanted the Dangerfields to move their van out of the driveway. I finally woke up at 11 to take a shower.
You are sitting between the merch table and the soundboard at a club in Belgrade, Serbia. Thanks to two Aspirin and Coca Cola your headache is gone. Laptop on your knees. Finally internet AND time to use it….
“Touring Touring – never boring” they say. Thats true, except for all the time you wait for the bus to get you to the airport, for the airline to start boarding, for your luaggage to arrive, for the subway to get to its destination, for the food, for the show to start. The first night I join the Accelerators European Tour is actually quite unimpressive. The only slight complication is that my plane went to Berlin-Tegel airport instead of Berlin-Schönefeld as I thought it would. So the train schedules I printed are completely useless. I still manage to public-transport myself to the venue without any problems. Its nice to meet the guys and of course the Berlin chapter of the Zatopeks as well, who with their alter-ego The Tungsten Tips are opening the show. There is enough time so we do not go for one, but for two strolls around the area. Some more familiar faces show up eventually and its an okay turnout for a Wednesday night. The tips are fun to watch, especially the part when Spider takes over the vocals and sings a hardcore song while attacking the audience. The Accelerators play a good set, we enjoy it. Its the first time I see them with Simon as the new guitar player. He fits right in. After the show I talk to Janek for a long time. We get late night food and stay at Sams new place. Its all good. Here is the only video I was able to upload so far. I’m very happy with the quality of it, given the fact that I bought this 100€ mini video camera.
