We came back from the last tour at the beginning of May, washed our stuff, did a show in France that didn’t happen, packed our bags again and left for a new tour. This time, Germany, Austria, Italia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Poland, Belgium and The Netherlands will be our home for the next 21 days, our longest European tour so far. Our tourparty consists of 5 people. Willem, Riekus and me are accompanied by Thomas and Rudy. Leuk!
We’ll try to update you once in a while with our stories!
Wednesday the 26th of May @ Haus der Jugend, Freiburg (Germany)
Woke up, kissed my girlfriend goodbye and took the train to Nijmegen, where we would meet to take off for our longest European tour so far. We started good with the longest drive on tour on the first day. Did some quick shopping and left for Freiburg. During the ride we encountered heavy rain, lots of traffic jams and when we finally arrived in the city of Freiburg we discovered that the Dutch national footballteam was playing against Mexico. In the massive traffic jam (2 kilometers took us 45 minutes or something) we made some Mexican friends.
When we arrived, we unloaded the van in a storm, scheisse! We met Christian, the promoter. His mother cooked us some amazing food! Christian’s band Far Off The Zoo opened the show with some nice punkrock tunes and some cool intermezzos. We were up next. During our show somebody yelled “Optiefen ouwe graftak!”. It turned out to be Marius who we met before in Rastatt. I’m still wondering why we teach foreigners “Neuken in de keuken” when there are so many better options!
After the show we went to Christian’s place. Drank a beer, drank a whiskey, listened to good music and went to sleep. Tomorrow we would have a nice drive ahead of us, which would take us through the Schwarz Wald.
Thursday the 27th of May @ PMK, Innsbruck (Austria)
We had to be in Innsbruck at 5 PM, so we left pretty early for a long drive on small roads that took us through a beautiful landscape in South Germany. We crossed the border at Lindau and the first thing I did in Austria was buy a bottle of Almdudler, best drink ever! Drank it as a kid on holidays in Austria, and still buy it every time when I’m in Austria. When we arrived in Innsbruck, the venue was still closed and it was already past 6 PM when the promoter arrived. Promoter Maurice turned out to be Italian and had to drive from Bolzano to Innsbruck. We got some Italian pasta, like! On the bill were three bands. The first one was U.C.D.T. From Italy. The played pretty loud hardcore music. We were up next. Played a bit shorter than the day before, because after our show it was up to Traktor from Sweden to finish the evening. They played some rocking hardcore screamo mixture. Pretty awesome! After the show there was going to be a party until 5 or 6 in the morning, but I was so exhausted that my bed in the basement was the best option. We were planning to have a long sleep, but the promoter and his friends woke us up because we had to leave early. We headed for the supermarket where I bought millions of vegan sausages and of course, ate them all in one and a half day. Bought some fake Almdudler and we continued our way to Poirino, Italy, where the sun always shines!
Friday the 28th of May @ MT Beer Festival, Poirino (Italy)
Today would be the day that Rudy finally did a number two. Sorry Rudy! After a few stops and a search through the van by the financial police (huh?) we arrived in Poirino, where we would play the MT Beer Festival. An outdoor festival with a stage with no roof. We soundchecked the drums and afterwards it started to rain. We covered the equipment and were hoping the rain would stop. But no, the rain turned into a storm and the weather turned out to be the worst I’d seen in months. We got a real nice pizza, we got drinks, but we didn’t get the chance to play the show. The rain continued the whole evening. Second show in 7 days that we couldn’t play, damnit! Good thing was that while we were watching some episodes of Dutch TV show New Kids in the van, we learned the Italians who were watching with us what “Stoma” means. Another fine piece of the Dutch language. Dario, the promoter took us to our sleepingplace and we had a good night sleep. Next stop: Milano.
Saturday the 29th of May @ LeonCavallo (Dauntaun), Milano (Italy)
Leon Cavallo is a huge building in Milano with lots of different venues in it. Our show today was in the basement, while upstairs in the big hall some kind of rap contest was held. On our show there were supposed to be 5 bands, but due to some miscommunications, Total Abuse was no longer on the bill tonight. We played with Kontatto. Some d-beat stuff with hardrock influences, which was pretty cool. The other two bands played more rock ‘n roll and hardcore stuff. I think all bands played pretty nice! What was not so nice, was the fact that the venue served cans of Oranjeboom, the worst Dutch beer ever. In The Netherlands, you can’t get it anywhere anymore, but here in Italy they still had it. The people at the bar claimed it was the best beer ever and one guy was actually thinking about getting an Oranjeboom tattoo. Dude! We all drank one can, decided it was really bad and moved on to other brands of beer. After the show, we were taken to our sleepingplace inside the building. In our sleepingroom, I accidently stepped in or on a snale. Leuk! The next morning we had to get up really early, because there was only one person that could open the gate for us. We waited for two hours and when we were still locked in the area of Leon Cavallo, we kinda broke out. Good to have an ex-squatter in the crew. Makes it easier to get out of a squat. After breaking out, we had to drive for almost 30 kilometers, what a distance!
Sunday the 30th of May @ Spazio Milk @ Melegnano (Italy)
After leaving Leon Cavallo, we went into the city center of Milano. Parked the van pretty cheap and strolled around like tourists. Drank some coffee, saw the Duomo and relaxed in the park. The weather was really nice, so it was a real relaxing day.
After checking out the city, we continued our way to Melegnano, where we would play at Spazio Milk, what looked like some kind of library. Tonights show was organized by Ste, from our Italian label No Reason Records. His girlfriend Sara made the best food ever! She even made vegan yogurt pie for dessert, yeah!
First band tonight was A Theory Of Justice who played hardcore with a male and a female singer. After their show, we played second. It was a strange place to play, but we had a great time. The last band played some more experimental punkrock music. Thought they were really good! After cleaning up we drove to the office of Dami of No Reason Records and we spent the night there. Playing stupid games with bandnames and drinking a couple of beers. We all had a good sleep and a freezing shower in the morning. For some of us, it was the first shower on tour. Imagine how the van smells right now! We said goodbye to Ste and moved on to Bologna, where a show with The Cute Lepers was our next stop.
Monday the 31st of May @ New Lazzaretto, Bologna (Italy)
Mondays can be really hard for shows, but hey, bands don’t tour only in weekends! Fortunately we had a show in the town of Bologna with The Cute Lepers, with members of The Briefs. When we arrived at the New Lazzaretto, we were wondering what this building used to be. Some of us thought it was a lighthouse, some thought it was a flower shop and some thought it was a UFO that landed here and never took off again. For dinner, we had pizza again! I like it when we have the local food! We killed some time drinking beers outside the venue, having conversations with some lepers. First two bands of the evening both played some punk ‘n roll, which really matched the sound of The Cute Lepers. Guess we were the odd one on this show, but there were some people that came for us. Again I saw some people singing along. One guy knew that I was the new guy, because the old bass player screwed too much. Sorry Rudy! After our set The Cute Lepers played. I was really exhausted, so I watched it sitting on a cabinet. They played a nice set of punk ‘n roll. After the show we left together with Claudio, to sleep at his studio. Riekus and I decided to sleep in the van and have a romantic night. Problem was that we parked the van somewhere where it was illegal, so I had to get up early to park it in a better place the next morning. Problem with sleeping in the van is that you can’t go to the toilet. You don’t want to know the solutions I came up with when someone needed to do a number 2. Luckily I could do it in the morning at the place where the others slept. After a while Claudio picked us up and took us to the music store and we grabbed a coffee with him. We explored the city center of Bologna, the towers that are leaning over and enjoyed the nice weather. Tonight would be the last Italian show of the tour, so we headed for Vittorio Veneto.
Oh yeah, for those interested, the venue used to be a vegetable shop.
Tuesday the 1st of June @ Spazio Mavv, Vittorio Veneto (Italy)
Vittorio Veneto is a small city in the Northeast of Italy. Actually, tonights show would be in Tarzo, an even smaller city, but the promoters moved it to Vittorio Veneto. Tomorrow was a holiday in Italy, so a lor of people came out to the show. Who said that Tuesdays are bad for shows? Again the Italian promoters, Patrick and Tomas, gave us Dutch beer. This time it was Royal Dutch beer. Never had that one before. The food this night was amazing! We had some salad with tomatoes and bread and after that we had probably the best pasta I ever had. Those Italians know how to make a pasta! We drank a coffee and after a while, Gargantha opened the show. I never heard of these guys before, but they were fucking awesome! Best band we played with this tour so far! Some parts reminded me of Satanic Surfers, like! The venue where we played was really big, but still really hot. Might have been the hottest stage of the tour. After our show I spoke to some guys who saw us at Groezrock and drove down from Verona to this show. Really cool to see that people do that for a band like us! We were taken to a youth hostel, drank some beers with the Veronians in the garden and got some good sleep. There was a great shower, so I finally could have a shower after Freiburg. Think I smelled really bad.
Wednesday the 2nd of June @ Club Baza, Ajdovš?ina (Slovenia)
Today we would leave Italy and their crazy drivers again. Next country on the list is Slovenia. First stop is a city called Ajdovš?ina (easier to type than to pronounce). On our way we were talking about that you have to put your lights on when you’re driving in Slovenia. Willem told someone that while driving in the UK, it’s illegal to drive without the wipers turned on. Sorry Thomas, but what goes in the tourreport, stays in the tourreport!
Todays show was done by the guys in Real Life Version, who I saw in my hometown last December. Great band! Because of some strange new laws in Slovenia, it is getting harder to do ‘legal’ shows and because of this, the guys made it a ‘private party’. We were the only band and I was afraid that no one would show up for a show of an unknown band in a small town on a Wednesday, but I was wrong. I think about 30 people showed up and they seemed to enjoy. After the show we had some nice talks, a few drinks and we loaded the van in heavy rain.
Jani and Aljosa, the promters, took us to the house of their drummer where we could sleep in the rehearsal room. Some people had a jonko, some people had a beer, some people had the internet. Satisfied we went to sleep to get up pretty early the next morning. After a quick breakfast we left for the capital, Ljubljana.
Thursday the 3rd of June @ Tovarna Rog, Ljubljana (Slovenia)
Around noon we arrived at Tovarna Rog in Ljubljana. We found out that the Cockney Rejects were playing at Metelkova tonight. Might not be the same kind of punk we play, but it sucks that there are more punkrockshows on the same night in the same town. We walked to the city center where we had some coffee and sandwiches. I love the Thai Sandwich at that one place in Ljubljana (don’t know the name of the place, but I know where to find it!). Since we’ve been to Ljubljana before, but no one of us ever visited the castle on the hill, we decided to climb the hill and enjoy the view over the city, awesome! Hanging around for some time, we took the train downstairs and ran into a roommate of Dario where we would sleep that night. That resulted in some free beers, yeah! Pretty bummed out that the organic store was out of vegan cornetto’s I ate some vegan magnums. Back at the venue, Dario arrived pretty soon with delicious food! A mixture of goulash and chili. Before we played, there was a puppet show in Slovenian and French, but I had no clue what it was about. I was not really interested because there was some catching up to do with Dario and Shaggie of In-Sane. I also met Rita, a Portugese girl that made a shirt design for us. There were not that many people at the show. I guess there was 1 paying Slovenian guy. Other people came from The Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Portugal and Canada. Strange… Riekus had the best snaredrum sound ever, so tonight was still a good one! We loaded the van, got some Burek and veggie kebab and left for Dario’s place to spend the night. Last time, their dog was 20 centimeters high, this time he was big, BIG! We immediately fell asleep and had a wonderful shower and breakfast in the morning with rucola from their own garden and good tea and coffee and homemade bread with some spreads and vegetables. Touring is so much easier when you have mornings like this! Although I had quite some beers and a bit of Slibovic, I felt pretty fine. We said goodbye to the guys and continued our way to Oh Vienna.
Friday the 4th of June @ EKH, Wien (Austria)
The drive from Ljubljana to Vienna was the longest of the remaining drives this tour. So getting to the next show is getting easier and easier. We arrived at the EKH squat in Vienna, a really big and awesome place! We brought our equipment in and did some relaxing in the garden. We found out that there were some people from Amsterdam and even an Austrian girl that spoke Dutch with an Amsterdam accent. During dinner, one of the best lasagnas I ever had, we had conversations about squats and squatting, which unfortunately is illegal in The Netherlands since this week. Although it’s really bad news for culture, underground music and everybody that is hoping for affordable places to live, we’re pretty sure that “Kraken gaat door!”, squatting continues.
The show was a benefit for the Anarchist Black Cross. Always nice to contribute to a good cause. First band with promoter Andy played doomy crust with keyboards next to the guitar violence. Pretty cool! Second band, Pistole played more oldschool hardcore like Youth of Today and Circle Jerks. We played last and during our flughafen, someone told me I had good looking shoes. Nico van Montfort, leest u even mee? After the show we went to our sleeping place and we found out that Propagandhi played this venue in 1996, sweet! The next morning in the computer room we found out that RKL played this venue in 1992 or something, sweet! We had probably the best breakfast I ever had on tour, holy shit! After breakfast, the rest of the gang occupied the internet while I was reading a book in the sun on the roof. Touring is not glamorous? It shure can be relaxing! The ride today was less than 90 kilometers so there was no rush. We took it easy and left for Payerbach somewhere in the afternoon.
Saturday the 5th of June @ EntroP’s, Payerbach (Austria)
Todays show was supposed to be at the new EntroP’s Extended in Wiener Neustadt. I heard from some Neustadt friends that there were problems with the local authorities concerning live misic, so Oswald, the promoter moved the show to EntroP’s in Payerbach, where there were problems with the neighbours instead of the local authorities. Guess Brat Pack would have been the perfect soundtrack for tonight, because the neighbours started to complain. Payerbach turned out to be a village where a lot of rich people from Vienna had their second home and they’re there for some weekend a year and they start to complain when the local kids have a show 2 times a year. Anyway, we had some chili and beers and then the show started with Second Effort who I played with before in Wiener Neustadt. These guys really improved since the first time I saw them. Same goes for the second band BHF. I saw them almost 3 years ago and today was the last show of their singer. I think they played some cool hardcore punk. When we played, Dominik, the drummer of BHF joined us on Testimony by playing keyboard in the bridge of the song. That was a really cool experience! It was also great to see that some Neustadt people came to the show in Payerbach. Always great to see some people again!
After the show, we headed for the EntroP’s Extended, where we would spend the night. Second time in Wiener Neustadt today. In the afternoon we already went for shopping (vegan wurst and Ottarocker beers), getting cheap gas and cleaning the backside of the van. Anyway, we ended at the venue where the show was supposed to be, had a few beers and crashed on the floor. The next ‘morning’ we woke up Oswald, who was kind enough to offer us beer and sake, but we thanked for that. Did get some Fritzl Cola and Jägermeisters and took off to our next destination where we would run into an old friend. Next stop: Sankt Jorann im Peru.
Sunday the 6th of June @ Casino Rockbar, Sankt Johann im Pongau (Austria)
Ever seen the movie Cliffhanger with Sylvester Stallone? Never mind, I tried to make a cliffhanger at the end of Payerbach’s day. We had a nice drive through the Austrian landscape and arrived at the place of the drummer of Killing Oma, where we would meet Luk, tonight’s promoter. When we entered the building, we were welcomed by our old friend Lux, who used to play guitar in Rentokill. Lux quit the band over a year ago and tonight he was playing with his new band Igel Vs. Shark. After delicious food, some kind of vegetable wrap, we went to the venue, the Casino Rockbar. We unloaded while there was Rammstein on the speakers. Mmm… Igel Vs. Shark did the soundcheck and I was already blown away by their hardrock! Like! We had a couple of beers while catching up with Lux and Julia and found out that there wouldn’t be a large audience tonight. Guess Sundays in small towns are hard. Anyway, there were some people that came to the show which made it nice and cosy. I was really surprised by Igel Vs. Shark. Too bad they didn’t have a record yet. We played last and it was good to see that some people were amused. After the show, we drank a couple of beers while enjoying the music in the pub. Rammstein was replaced by Queen, Dire Straits and Ricky Feestje. YouTube turned out to be our friend, or enemy. Genohot!
Luk fixed a sleepingplace at the Killing Oma rehearsal room in the basement of his house. The next morning he gave us a good breakfast and some wonderful band and crew pictures with the great Austrian scenery in the background. We waved Luk goodbye and left for Graz, city of Schwarzenegger!
Monday the 7th of June @ Sub, Graz (Austria)
I’d really like to advise you, to say the bold sentences out loud, like Arnie would do. Come on, do it!
We needed to get out of here! We got to the chopper! We headed for Graz, city of the Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger. When we arrived at the Sub, we met Klaus who booked the show, together with Robert. They made awesome food with chickpea curry and salad. Yummie! The other band tonight would be The Frantic Arts. I never heard of them before, but they sounded great! They played a None More Black cover as their Flughafen, supertoll! There were really a lot of people for a Monday show and fortunately, they stuck around! It was great to see so many people that came from far. My buddies from Soey were all there and there some other familiar faces. I really enjoyed this evening and I think it resulted in one of the best shows we played so far on this tour, although it was hot as hell inside, AAAAEEEEHHHHWWW! After the show we had a couple of drinks and said goodbye to our friends and to the people from Graz: Hasta la vista, baby. We’ll be back!
Willem drove us to Puntigam where we stayed at the Puntigang house. The dog almost ate my hand, we drank some beers with Klaus, Hirschi and Dominik of Soey and crashed on some nice beds. A good sleep this night would be really welcome, tomorrow we would have quite some driving ahead of us.
Tuesday the 8th of June @ Jugendcafé, Zwiesel (Germany)
A long drive through the biggest part of Austria and through Bavaria in Germany, took us to Zwiesel. We arrived at the Jugendcafé in time and since there was some time to kill, we decided to watch “Backstage Passport” by NOFX. Thomas promoted himself to be our manager on this tour, so we thought that Kent of NOFX would be a great source of inspiration to him.
The first band was Punchers Plant from München and they played a cool set of melodic punkrock. Today was even hotter than yesterday, so at the end of our set, I had to take off my shirt. Sorry ladies! Sorry boys! Immediately after the show, I threw water over myself which resulted in a wet boxershort. Sorry me!
Afterwards we had some drinks outside and heard that our friends in Sweet Empire had played the Jugendcafé a couple of weeks before us. A girl there told us about their favourite German word. Can’t remember it. I know that mine is Gummiüberziehe and that Fahrvergnügen is Riekus’ favourite, and he can’t even drive! When everybody left, we watched some more Backstage Passport while the local Bram van Montfort-clone was sleeping outside in the cold. We tried to wake him up, to no avail, then put a blanket around him and went to sleep. During the night, he woke up, closed the door too loud a couple of times and woke some of us up. Next morning the soundguy came to lock the door after we loaded our stuff. We tried to get some cheap gas and left for Hradec Králové, Czech Republic, my first Czech show ever!
Wednesday the 9th of June @ Putika Club, Hradec Kralóvé (Czech Republic)
On our way to Hradec Králové we passed the city of Plžen, where they invented beer. We also drove through Prague, one of the most beautiful cities in Europe and finally we arrived in Hradec Kralóvé. We found the venue and stole some wifi outside. Tonight there would be two bands and a debate about the Palestine-Israël conflict. Too bad this was in Czech language, because I’m really interested in the subject. Instead of listening to an unknown language for one and a half hour, I stayed in the van. After the debate, the first band, Just For Being, opened the show. These guys played some nice poppunk songs, and a great Rancid cover. When the bassplayer broke a string, I gave him a spare bass. Later I realized, that the strap that was attached to it, had the worst smell ever. Sorry Rudy! There were not so many people at the show and I was a bit grumpy at first, but in the end we had a good show.
We went to the promoter’s small house where we had to sleep with 7 people and a dog. After a weird night with possible Hylco-Douwesjes, we packed our stuff and took off to Poland. Breslau was up next!
Thursday the 10th of June @ Wagon Club, Wroc?aw (Poland)
Today we would play at the Wagon Club in Wroc?aw, a place I had been before. The venue is not easy to find, but I recognized it from a year before. Promoter Lukasz was already waiting for us and prepared us wonderful food. We went to the supermarket to buy us some beers too, really nice! Lukasz showed us an old train and we had some talks about Wroc?aw and the history of the town, being German, Polish, German and Polish again. From what we heard, Warsaw still owes Wroclaw quite some bricks.
The other band tonight was All Wheel Drive. They reminded me of some old Ignite and old AFI. I thought they were really good! Although the show was not that crowded, people seemed to enjoy our show and there was even a small moshpit.
After the show, Lukasz took us on a trip around town. We had a nice tour with beautiful sightseeing of the city by night. We were also looking for pizza, but all places that sold pizza were closed. What is wrong with these people! After being stopped by The Man, we ended up at the sleeping place, ate some bread and salad and decided to grab a pizza for breakfast.
Next morning, Lukasz told us he was gonna kill Riekus. I guess sleeping next to him is not a treat. We went to the pizza place and had a great breakfast indeed. We bought some water, because the temperature was killing us, waved goodbye to Lukasz and took off for Berlin, city of vegan food vreetpaleizen!
Friday the 11th of June @ Subversiv, Berlin (Germany)
Imagine there is only one highway in Poland. Imagine it goes from Wroc?aw to Berlin. Imagine there is one point where that one highway turns into two highways. Imagine your GPS doesn’t know this point. Imagine there is no Berlin or any well known city on the signs. You’re fucked! Ofcourse we took the wrong way and ended up somewhere at the German border, where we had to take small roads to make it to Berlin. When we entered Berlin, we had a good view of the city center. Subversiv is pretty close to Alexanderplatz and all of Berlin Mitte. According to Basti and the guys over there, we were in time and there was no hurry. We got delicious pasta salad, but best of all, we had some soysteaks. Man were they good! I think I had a million of those! We drank some cold beers and had a great night. First, Tiger Youth played a set of acoustic songs in German. The guys had just moved across the country from Ibbenbüren to Berlin and played a show in their new home bar. Cool stuff! After them, Smile And Burn played. They might have been the best band we played with on tour. Dammit, I saw so much awesome bands, but these guys really blew us away. They ended with a cover of the Baywatch theme song. Leuk!
Somehow, Riekus managed to break a cymbal stand and ended up pulling a Nico van M on stage. Willem and i played a great show. Loop maar door! After the show we had some more beers and Basti showed us the sleeping places. The room was small, so I could sleep in his bed. Yeah! Next morning I had a good shower and for breakfast, there were more soysteaks. Sweet! We drank some coffee and jumped in the van to score a vegan burger at Yellow Sunshine, in my opinion Berlin’s best vegan vreetpaleis. I had a double chicken vegan burger and the rest ordered some drinks. Seeing me enjoy the burger, everybody ordered some food and I took a double wheaty cheese vegan burger. Or something that sounds like that. Man, I was stuffed! But I’m not in Berlin everyday, so I had to eat it all! With a full stomach we ran to the van and left for the last German show of the tour in a small city called Holzminden, somewhere between Kassel and Hannover.
Saturday the 12th of June @ U-Rock, Holzminden (Germany)
The drive to Holzminden took us, again, over small roads. We arrived in time and when we got close to the venue, we found out there was some kind of a wedding going on. Were we really playing a weddingparty? Thought punkbands only played Bar Mitzwah’s. The party was upstairs, our venue was in some sort of basement. Four bands on the bill today and it started pretty late. First band played more than an hour I think. Think they played a New Found Glory cover. They sounded like NFG too. Call Me Names and Enesty were the other two bands. I watched a part of their sets and I was hanging out outside with the guys and David and Sabrina from Fair Trade Merch. They drove from Bielefeld to Holzminden, to deliver our new shirts. Everytime we order merch, we just put them on the guestlist and they show up with the merch. Cheap shipping, haha! David is a really friendly guy and he is working on the artwork of our new album right now too. I saw some parts of it and I must admit he’s talented!
We played last and by that time, there were boys and girls from the dance school party upstairs. No wedding, but still it was nice they showed up. Rudy was filming some songs and I hit him or his camera with my bass. Sorry Rudy! We got a couple of beers from Specki and the people at U-Rock and went to the sleepingplace. Next morning we woke up to the sound of a woman speaking German through speakers. There was a health convention going on in the building next to us. We tried to thomas a German flag, because the World Championship of football started. Football that is, soccer to Yankees, no fake Rugby. We got in the van and it felt kinda strange to me. Tonights show would be in Heerlen, Netherlands. Although I can’t understand anything people in Limburg speak, it’s “our” country so it feels a bit like going home.
Sunday the 13th of June @ Café Bluff, Heerlen (The Netherlands)
We drove straight to the German Ruhrarea and entered Limburg. When we arrived in Heerlen we found café Bluff pretty easy. We unloaded and Max, the promoter, showed up. I’ve known Max for quite some time, but today I would finally see his eurohousehappyhardcorepunkrockzwakkmosh project: Ravedigger! I was stoked as hell! The last three days of tour, we’re playing with Hot Water Music, Down By Law and Ravedigger. First band was Bronson. They sounded Limburgian to me. Hardcore with some MOC influences. Not really my cup of tea, but they did a good job. Stetson from France were added last minute and they played real rocking hardcore music. Sweet! We played third and it was a decent set I believe. But we were just warming the crowd up for the almighty Ravedigger! With a videoclip projected on screen, drumcomputers, two guitarplayers, a female singer and the lyrics in the background, I was liking this band from beginning to the end. The “slide show” was absolutely briliant! BA Baracus approved. Best part is that my photo was in the video, during a 2 Unlimited song. BOAH!
When we ran out of drinking tickets, Marcel gave us some free beers and he bought lots and lots of our stuff. I must admit that he was a really friendly guy! Thanks to him there was a real nice atmosphere at café Bluff. Great place!
They only bad thing I can say, is that 34% of the people in the area of Heerlen voted for a racist party. Watsmetjou? Geef me je nummer! Of je MSN. Anyway, we tried to deliver a message how to see things in a more positive perspective. We were on a mission!
Monday the 14th of June @ Trix, Antwerpen (Belgium)
After a good night party at Max’ place with YouTube-leed video’s (Zanger Rinus? Anita en Ed? Wilbert? Zanger Bob? Tuut Chips? Ricky!) we crashed on the floor. Next morning we said goodbye to Stetson and we watched The Netherlands – Denmark in Max’ livingroom on a big screen. Ofcourse we won, moved our asses to the van, bought stuff in the local musicstore, found cheap gas in Belgium and drove to Antwerpen. Tonight we would be playing with one of my favourite bands, Hot Water Music.
We arrived at Trix right after HWM was done soundchecking. We built up our stuff and Break Of Day did a soundcheck as well. We got great food, prepared by Ursula, who I used to poke way before you had a facebook (no erotic poking intended). I was kinda nervous to play, because we were playing with HWM, my predecessor Yvo was there and I saw my girl again after almost three weeks. Break Of Day played a solid set, think we played okay, keeping in mind we were pretty tired from the last weeks. After us, it was up to Hot Water Music. I think Chuck Ragan is one of the friendliest people out there. I noticed George was not there but I didn’t know who was filling in, until I heard it was Dave Raun. Did I just play the same stage as a guy from RKL is doing a couple of minutes after me? Dave Raun destroyed his kick and had to use ours, but all geeks who are following Riekus on Twitter already knew that. We had a great night, which was supposed to be the last show of our tour. But, a couple of weeks before we left another show was added. Tomorrow would be our last one, playing in Arnhem, close to home, together with Down By Law and Bro Hymn Pack.
Tuesday the 15th of June @ Willemeen, Arnhem (The Netherlands)
Last day of tour, although I already slept in ‘my own’ bed in Breda. Next morning we woke up, did some grocery shopping, got some ice cream and picked up the van. We drove to Arnhem where we heard that Down By Law would be late due to a missing guitar at the airport. Brat Pack were also late, punkers! Brat Pack opened the show. I didn’t see them play for a long time, so it was nice to see one of the best Dutch punkrockbands again. Rock ‘n Roel broke all of his sticks and got a pair from Riekus. I think you can whistle to them! Think I played one of the worst shows of the tour, man I was so tired. Think I added a post-apocalyptic vibe to the show. Tried to point out some differences between us and Dave Smiley (Joooonaaaas, 2010) but the DBL guys weren’t there. Missed that opportunity. When we were finished, they still weren’t back from their hotel. Can’t really blame them after being awake for a million days (pun intended). I must admit, I haven’t been the biggest fan of DBL (I’m more the Counting Crows type of guy) but I enjoyed the show and especially enjoyed the Montfort Bros enjoying. When they played Values Here as an encore, I went berzerk. Great to hear that song with the ‘original’ vocalist. Had some smalltalk with Dave afterwards. Turned out to be a nice guy after all. Packed some stuff and headed for the train together with some Utrecht and Amsterdam folks. I was just in time to catch the last bus to my house. Fell asleep right away and woke up the next morning to the sound of my alarmclock. Tour was over, time to go to work.
I would really like to thank everybody who made this tour possible. All promoters and people that came to the shows. In particular I would like to thank Thomas and Rudy for driving our van, doing merch, “MA-NA-GING” us, hanging out with us and – of course – drinking our beer. Many thanks go out to Ste and Dami from No Reason Records for hooking us up with cool shows in Italy, grazie mille! Also thanks to Bas Adriaan Verheijen for using your basscab. Hope you enjoy the beers!
See you on the next tour! LEUK!
Tom and Antillectual
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