after a very difficult wake-up shower, we loaded out all the gear to the taxi sent to pick us up, and mesh was already on board! so we did a quick meet and greet of rich, sean, and geoff, then headed over to the venue for breakfast and load-in. we got to the markthalle, and no lift...instead we were greeted by an endless series of stairs. oh joy! so, we carried all of our luggage and gear up all these stairs, into a really massive room, the main room of the markthalle.
but first breakfast, which was awesome, fruit, bread, tea, coffee, etc etc. very nicely put together. sandra our new merchbot arrived, as did mark (he missed the taxi). general sitting around, checking email, etc. luckily mesh had already setup, they'd been rehearsing in the space since the previous day. we waited a few hours while waiting to soundcheck, watched mesh rehearsal, and met janosch (he is the other support act on the tour, super nice guy!).
we got all of our stuff setup and proceeded through soundcheck with nom ajor issues. thankfully, the wireless equipment all worked with absolutely not issues at all! that was one of our biggest concerns before we left, so it was a huge relief that it all went well. axel, who is usually vnv nations soundguy, was the house engineer for the evening, so at least we were assured that we would sound great (and we did, i think!).
met up before the show with stefan herwig (head of dependent records, which is home to both mesh and informatik in europe), got our euro merch (the shirts are based on the girls shirt design for the states), and tried to shake off the jet lag, but it was tough. i was so tired that i didn't dare to drink any alcohol before we went on, i was afraid that i might pass out onstage! janosch completed his set, and pretty soon, we were on!
the set went as well as possible, considering all the hurdles: an audience that seemed really unfamiliar with us, incredible jet lag and sleep deprivation, sobriety, etc. but we managed to power through with almost no issues. unfortunately, i couldn't get as crazy as i would have liked...but we managed to survive and people did seem to enjoy the set for the most part. we played a shorter version of our u.s. headlining set, just eight songs...almost. just before we played 'come together', da5id stopped the concert playback, and started packing up. he accidentally misread a lighting cue from the house lighting guy, and had a momentary panic because he thought we'd gone over on our set times (we only get 40min per night). so, i apologize to the hamburg audience that you didn't get a full set from us. but you can blame it on our delirious mental state...it was a simple mistake, it could have been any of us who did that. not the end of the world in any case.
stefan met up with us backstage after the show and had a lot of good ideas of things we could do to improve the show, and it was actually really helpful. over the next few shows we've started putting some of those ideas to work, and things are definitely getting better...
mesh was up next, and i have to say the show is really incredible! and their fans are just crazy in love with them, it was mindblowing! i watched almost the entire show before i needed to go backstage and lay on the floor and try to sleep (impossible, btw). eventually i realized it wasn't going to happen, so i went out to the merch booth to try and sell some cd's and stuff.
i should mention how much merch mesh is carrying, it was without a doubt the largest collection of shirts, cd's, box sets, posters, hoodie's, watches (really!), backpacks, bottle openers and lanyards i've ever see amassed in one space. and it all has to go on the bus! so, we met a ton of cool german folks, even steve naghavi from and one showed up at our show! it was nice to see him again, though we didn't get too much time to talk. i wanted to ask him about the 'pants off men' video on youtube, but didn't get a chance.
after the crowd had cleared out, it was time to load out. our tour bus is a double decker whose last assignment was carrying some of madonna's touring party around on the 'sticky sweet' european tour. it's super nice, much better than the bus we had in the states when we toured with vac and haujobb. however, all the aforementioned merch and mesh's crazy huge staging all had to fit in somehow. we were up until 5am doing the load-out and cramming it all into the bus. in the end, we had to leave about 15 boxes of shirts and cd's at the markthalle! and btw, yeah i want to reiterate, i said FIVE a.m.!!! i lost track of the hours with the time change, but it was a long, long, long night...
finally hit the bunks, and passed out while the sun was coming up, and we headed for copenhagen...
we would like to thank: rene for picking us up at the airport (hope you're feeling better, man!), axel for making us sound totally pro, all the staff at markthalle, steve naghavi, general elektrik and everyone else we met that night at the merch! i apologize if i forgot any names, i was so delirious with jet lag it's hard to keep it all straight. thank you for making our very first european show such a huge event!!!
11.14.2009
11.13.2009
tour report - intermission
we spent the next two days off at ned's house, recovering from the previous week worth of shows. aaron finally recovered from his illness! and we were able to eat the worlds greatest sandwich (bbq seitan sandwich from handlebar in chicago!) again, which really turned my frown upside down.
unfortunately, keith (the worlds greatest tour manager) had to leave us at this point. he took the worlds greatest minivan back to DC on his own, which was a shitty way to end a tour, for sure. he is greatly missed on the european leg, i can assure you!
we had a late flight out of chicago, leaving around 9pm, which was a piece of cake. a nine hour flight to munich...unfortunately, i don't sleep well in moving vehicles, so i didn't sleep at all. we landed on time in munich at noon, and had a ninety minute layover before leaving on time for hamburg. leave it to the germans to run everything like clockwork, it was kind of amazing. converted some of our remaining cash to euro's (ouch!) and had little difficulty getting through passport control and airport security. interestingly, we had no problems with our baggage weight restrictions, which was a bit of a surprise.
though we were pretty exhausted by the time we landed, we managed to make it to our pickup, and were driven to the hamburg hotel by rene, the promoter. by this time, we were pretty much starving...so once we were checked into the hotel, we struck out on foot in search of food. we wandered around for about a half hour and only found closed restaurants. finally after we got turned around the right direction, we managed to find a chinese restaurant. da5id managed to use his limited german skills to order us something vegetarian, which turned out to be pretty decent. it was cold as hell, and we went back to the hotel as quickly as possible.
back at the hotel, we rewired the rack, and recalibrated our in-ear monitors since we'd had some issues with some of the mix balancing. at this point i think we'd all been awake for about 30 straight hours, and were heading for a total meltdown. it's safe to say that as soon as we closed the computer for the evening, we all passed out immediately.
ahh jet lag, you suck. we all woke up again at something like 5am, and did a bunch of tossing and turning until it was time to meet up with the mesh guys and get this tour on the road. the exhaustion continues....on and on....
more soon.
unfortunately, keith (the worlds greatest tour manager) had to leave us at this point. he took the worlds greatest minivan back to DC on his own, which was a shitty way to end a tour, for sure. he is greatly missed on the european leg, i can assure you!
we had a late flight out of chicago, leaving around 9pm, which was a piece of cake. a nine hour flight to munich...unfortunately, i don't sleep well in moving vehicles, so i didn't sleep at all. we landed on time in munich at noon, and had a ninety minute layover before leaving on time for hamburg. leave it to the germans to run everything like clockwork, it was kind of amazing. converted some of our remaining cash to euro's (ouch!) and had little difficulty getting through passport control and airport security. interestingly, we had no problems with our baggage weight restrictions, which was a bit of a surprise.
though we were pretty exhausted by the time we landed, we managed to make it to our pickup, and were driven to the hamburg hotel by rene, the promoter. by this time, we were pretty much starving...so once we were checked into the hotel, we struck out on foot in search of food. we wandered around for about a half hour and only found closed restaurants. finally after we got turned around the right direction, we managed to find a chinese restaurant. da5id managed to use his limited german skills to order us something vegetarian, which turned out to be pretty decent. it was cold as hell, and we went back to the hotel as quickly as possible.
back at the hotel, we rewired the rack, and recalibrated our in-ear monitors since we'd had some issues with some of the mix balancing. at this point i think we'd all been awake for about 30 straight hours, and were heading for a total meltdown. it's safe to say that as soon as we closed the computer for the evening, we all passed out immediately.
ahh jet lag, you suck. we all woke up again at something like 5am, and did a bunch of tossing and turning until it was time to meet up with the mesh guys and get this tour on the road. the exhaustion continues....on and on....
more soon.
tour report - chicago
took a quick drive from cleveland to chicago, through some insane weather...it would be perfectly clear, then suddenly a massive hailstorm, then clear again! it was slow going through parts of ohio farm country, but we did manage to make it through unscathed.
arrived early at the venue, no one was there. so we had to wait around for a bit. mark, the promoter, showed up and we were able to get loaded in with a minimum of difficulty. however, the venue was not really ideal for live band concerts...small stage and kind of a wonky sound system. after some technical struggles, we made it through soundcheck, and went off to the hotel to check in and chill out.
it was a very decent turnout though, and it was nice to see a bunch of people that we knew at the venue (folks from stromkern, iris, and assemblage 23 were all in attendance). i drank polish beer for the first time, it was alright. the first band was biocarbon 13, which was more of a terror-ebm type of band. they were good at that, so if you're into that style of music, you should check them out.
i've mentioned our awesome 'super fans' before, and tonight was no different in that regard. drew and his crew of people from atlanta, who'd seen us in cleveland the previous night all showed up in chicago. there were people that had driven down from detroit, actually, there were a lot of people that we'd met in detroit on our last tour through the midwest. it was crazy awesome, and those people are fucking great!
when we went on, things went well, all our super fans were pushed up against the stage, and were all singing along with all the songs. unfortunately, since there was a gap between the PA and the front of the stage, as the fans got drunker, they also got louder, and were actually screaming along with the songs...which was throwing da5id off a bit. i guess in-ear monitors aren't a perfect solution for everything. but still, the enthusiasm and general insanity was much appreciated!! we had a great time! it was a really great show!
afterwards, aaron went back to the hotel (still recovering), and da5id, keith and i went off to neo (the defacto chicago industrial club) to keep partying, which we did until they closed. we met up with lisa q. merchbot, and hung out for a while, which was great.
in chicago, we'd like to thank the following crazy people: mark, the cafe lura staff, biocarbon 13, drew and the atlanta crew, danielle from detroit, racquel (kizzle), kevin from a23, ned and rainbow, andrew and laurie, lisa q. merchbot, and all the people who i got too drunk to remember the names of (my sincerest apologies, seriously).
arrived early at the venue, no one was there. so we had to wait around for a bit. mark, the promoter, showed up and we were able to get loaded in with a minimum of difficulty. however, the venue was not really ideal for live band concerts...small stage and kind of a wonky sound system. after some technical struggles, we made it through soundcheck, and went off to the hotel to check in and chill out.
it was a very decent turnout though, and it was nice to see a bunch of people that we knew at the venue (folks from stromkern, iris, and assemblage 23 were all in attendance). i drank polish beer for the first time, it was alright. the first band was biocarbon 13, which was more of a terror-ebm type of band. they were good at that, so if you're into that style of music, you should check them out.
i've mentioned our awesome 'super fans' before, and tonight was no different in that regard. drew and his crew of people from atlanta, who'd seen us in cleveland the previous night all showed up in chicago. there were people that had driven down from detroit, actually, there were a lot of people that we'd met in detroit on our last tour through the midwest. it was crazy awesome, and those people are fucking great!
when we went on, things went well, all our super fans were pushed up against the stage, and were all singing along with all the songs. unfortunately, since there was a gap between the PA and the front of the stage, as the fans got drunker, they also got louder, and were actually screaming along with the songs...which was throwing da5id off a bit. i guess in-ear monitors aren't a perfect solution for everything. but still, the enthusiasm and general insanity was much appreciated!! we had a great time! it was a really great show!
afterwards, aaron went back to the hotel (still recovering), and da5id, keith and i went off to neo (the defacto chicago industrial club) to keep partying, which we did until they closed. we met up with lisa q. merchbot, and hung out for a while, which was great.
in chicago, we'd like to thank the following crazy people: mark, the cafe lura staff, biocarbon 13, drew and the atlanta crew, danielle from detroit, racquel (kizzle), kevin from a23, ned and rainbow, andrew and laurie, lisa q. merchbot, and all the people who i got too drunk to remember the names of (my sincerest apologies, seriously).
11.08.2009
tour interview
also, we did a really fun interview in richmond too, for rvafreaks.com. this interview was heavily edited down from about a thirty minute long conversation.
big thanks to scott for putting this all together!
big thanks to scott for putting this all together!
tour report - cleveland
had a day off on the way to cleveland. it was cold as hell there, and we walked about a mile and a half to a really excellent cambodian restaurant. the extreme spice level really helped warm us up after the wind tore our heads off. it was freezing cold wind the entire time we were there...
aaron started getting pretty sick in cleveland. luckily we isolated it to just him, and da5id and i are still doing fine. we got to the venue pretty early, and loaded in. we've played the phantasy before, it's a legend, pirate ships and so much more. soundcheck went pretty smoothly, other than the random homeless dude that walked onstage...needless to say, we're all using a lot of hand sanitizer on this tour.
cable, the promoter, hooked us up with some homemade pasta which was greatly appreciated. his band, encoder, was one of the openers, and they were pretty awesome. the other band, filament 38, was also pretty great...excellent light show!
we got a tour of the rest of the phantasy, which as it turns out, has a 1500 seat theater underneath the main concert venue! so we managed to get some great band photos in that setting, which was creepy, weird and perfect. no afterparty, but we went back to the hotel and got some much needed sleep. the snoring symphony continued!
big thanks to everyone that came out in cleveland, including but not limited to: cable, michelle, rabbit and sara, encoder, filament 38, dale (sound), all the people at phantasy!
aaron started getting pretty sick in cleveland. luckily we isolated it to just him, and da5id and i are still doing fine. we got to the venue pretty early, and loaded in. we've played the phantasy before, it's a legend, pirate ships and so much more. soundcheck went pretty smoothly, other than the random homeless dude that walked onstage...needless to say, we're all using a lot of hand sanitizer on this tour.
cable, the promoter, hooked us up with some homemade pasta which was greatly appreciated. his band, encoder, was one of the openers, and they were pretty awesome. the other band, filament 38, was also pretty great...excellent light show!
we got a tour of the rest of the phantasy, which as it turns out, has a 1500 seat theater underneath the main concert venue! so we managed to get some great band photos in that setting, which was creepy, weird and perfect. no afterparty, but we went back to the hotel and got some much needed sleep. the snoring symphony continued!
big thanks to everyone that came out in cleveland, including but not limited to: cable, michelle, rabbit and sara, encoder, filament 38, dale (sound), all the people at phantasy!
11.06.2009
tour report - rochester
when we got to rochester, it was cold and dark. but though the drive was long, it was fairly uneventful. arrived at the venue for load-in, even though no one was there. it was a bit scary til the soundguy came, but he was great. soundcheck went well, very fast and no real problems. the opening band showed up (silent auction) and they were cool. we left for dinner, which was amazing...vegetarian chili and some sweet falafel. we did really well there, i was impressed. so far the food on this tour has been pretty top notch. i hope things in europe will be as smooth as this.
so we missed a bit of the set from silent auction, but what we heard was good. i think this venue had one of the tiniest dressing rooms...essentially a closet. it's always nice to share a dressing room with cleaning equipment. but we got dressed, had to go long sleeve for the cold weather, and hit the stage. everything went pretty well, but the venue had left these tables in front of the stage, so people were sort of sitting there watching us. so during 'nothing greater', aaron and i ran out and played from in the crowd. i did a dive roll over a table, trying to get people to stand up and move towards the front, which luckily they did.
the set went well, the only technical hurdle was when i collapsed on stage, and my wireless transmitter popped off the guitar. that was a pretty quick fix though. i think we played a bit tighter, and a little more aggressively than in richmond. everything went as well as could be expected, and i think we sounded pretty great. i'm definitely feeling confident about holding our own when we get to europe.
after the show we took a lot of pictures, signed a ton of autographs (met some awesome people who drove down from canada!!), then rounded up all the people left in the venue and headed over to a club called vertex for the afterparty. it wasn't packed, but given that it's a wednesday night, no one seemed too surprised. we drank our body weight in alcohol, and hung out with everyone, it was a blast. then we went two blocks to our hotel, which was totally sweet. unfortunately no internet there...couldn't get good enough signal strength. oh well. crashed pretty hard, as expected, but not too bad.
we want to thank all our new friends in rochester: nancy (promoter), josh (sound), mary, danny, dean, terri and silent auction, jessica and rabbit, cedric, all the folks at california brew haus, all the folks at vertex, and everyone else we may have met and whose names we may have forgotten (well, we did drink a lot). you guys rock!!
so we missed a bit of the set from silent auction, but what we heard was good. i think this venue had one of the tiniest dressing rooms...essentially a closet. it's always nice to share a dressing room with cleaning equipment. but we got dressed, had to go long sleeve for the cold weather, and hit the stage. everything went pretty well, but the venue had left these tables in front of the stage, so people were sort of sitting there watching us. so during 'nothing greater', aaron and i ran out and played from in the crowd. i did a dive roll over a table, trying to get people to stand up and move towards the front, which luckily they did.
the set went well, the only technical hurdle was when i collapsed on stage, and my wireless transmitter popped off the guitar. that was a pretty quick fix though. i think we played a bit tighter, and a little more aggressively than in richmond. everything went as well as could be expected, and i think we sounded pretty great. i'm definitely feeling confident about holding our own when we get to europe.
after the show we took a lot of pictures, signed a ton of autographs (met some awesome people who drove down from canada!!), then rounded up all the people left in the venue and headed over to a club called vertex for the afterparty. it wasn't packed, but given that it's a wednesday night, no one seemed too surprised. we drank our body weight in alcohol, and hung out with everyone, it was a blast. then we went two blocks to our hotel, which was totally sweet. unfortunately no internet there...couldn't get good enough signal strength. oh well. crashed pretty hard, as expected, but not too bad.
we want to thank all our new friends in rochester: nancy (promoter), josh (sound), mary, danny, dean, terri and silent auction, jessica and rabbit, cedric, all the folks at california brew haus, all the folks at vertex, and everyone else we may have met and whose names we may have forgotten (well, we did drink a lot). you guys rock!!
11.03.2009
tour report - richmond
so we made it through our flight to the east coast with no real problems. had a little bit of a snag with the luggage weight, but managed to make it through that without getting overcharged. made it to dulles, where keith (worlds best tour manager) picked us up in the greatest minivan of all time. after a few minor detours, we made it over to dinner, and then headed out to richmond. i have to say, virginia has more cops than any other place i've ever been. made it to the hotel with no issues, and crashed out.
the richmond gig was really amazing, we had such a great time. if you're ever in richmond, i definitely recommend you check 'fallout' (the venue), it was awesome. a really great club, and we met a ton of great people. did a really good interview backstage, i think we got some good questions, and i think we gave some really good answers.
we had a few minor technical hurdles, mostly with the bass guitar strap falling apart during the set. but we powered through it, and even did a special thing during "don't be afraid" that we'd never done before, kind of an 'mtv unplugged' type of presentation.
after the show we went to a little afterparty scene, where i got a little too drunk, and left my coat. oops! well, it'll get sent to ned's place in chicago so i'll have it for europe.
this morning, got up, had a great lunch, and hit the road for delaware. staying with da5ids parents, who fed us a crazy awesome dinner and now it's time to crash out. i am going on 36 hours with no sleep, can't think anymore and keith is busting my balls about my slippers.
we'd like to thank all the awesome people in richmond that we met: jackie, megan, willian, shawn, scott from rvafreaks.com, tucker, project wiretrapper, myotis, jessica, sarah, and everyone else we may have forgotten.
here is an awesome picture of all of our new richmond friends!! we'll see you next time!
the richmond gig was really amazing, we had such a great time. if you're ever in richmond, i definitely recommend you check 'fallout' (the venue), it was awesome. a really great club, and we met a ton of great people. did a really good interview backstage, i think we got some good questions, and i think we gave some really good answers.
we had a few minor technical hurdles, mostly with the bass guitar strap falling apart during the set. but we powered through it, and even did a special thing during "don't be afraid" that we'd never done before, kind of an 'mtv unplugged' type of presentation.
after the show we went to a little afterparty scene, where i got a little too drunk, and left my coat. oops! well, it'll get sent to ned's place in chicago so i'll have it for europe.
this morning, got up, had a great lunch, and hit the road for delaware. staying with da5ids parents, who fed us a crazy awesome dinner and now it's time to crash out. i am going on 36 hours with no sleep, can't think anymore and keith is busting my balls about my slippers.
we'd like to thank all the awesome people in richmond that we met: jackie, megan, willian, shawn, scott from rvafreaks.com, tucker, project wiretrapper, myotis, jessica, sarah, and everyone else we may have forgotten.
here is an awesome picture of all of our new richmond friends!! we'll see you next time!
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