tour report - rostock

when we woke up in rostock the first thing we saw was a giant boat parked next to the bus! rostock is a port city, with water everywhere. the last time i was in rostock, my hotel was actually a boat. loaded into the venue, same routine as usual. i got some decent photos of the club and the surrounding area.

while we waited for mesh to finish soundchecking, we decided to take a walk around and see some of the city. it was kind of raining on and off, but we needed some fresh air and needed to stock up on some toiletries and whatnot. after patrick, our bus driver, pointed us in the right direction, we walked a few blocks and found the city center. it was super cool, kind of an outdoor mall that went on for blocks and blocks. we bought some stuff (turns out that paying six euros for six foam earplugs is quite common here!), and headed back just as the rain started again. crossing the train tracks, we almost got caught up in a political protest march, several thousand people being herded down the main road by several hundred polizei. we were pretty lucky that we made it across the road before they came along! we found out later that some kids from rostock were arrested in france while protesting the G20 summit, and have been denied visitation from lawyers, no phone calls, etc. well, hopefully they'll work all that out.

meanwhile back at the venue, all the beer was becks (terrible shite in a green bottle), so i went to plan B which we are now calling "stage juice". stage juice is a one liter water bottle filled with vodka and red bull, and it does seem to do the job, i have to say!

janosch went out and got a great response, so we felt pretty confident and we certainly got a great response as well!! i would say it was the best gig so far, up there with copenhagen for sure. i did manage to bash my knee pretty nicely, diving knee first into the floor monitors, blood everywhere (as usual, i seem to be maintaining a sufficient level of touring injuries) 'during saints and sinners'. other than that, i think the show went really well. there was a big barricade for security in front of us, which made connecting to the crowd a bit difficult, but they did seem to go pretty crazy for us, which was awesome. if only every show was that good!

after the show, we had a big party backstage for a few hours, which got pretty crazy. managed to get a bit of greenery from some random dude, just handed it to me and walked off. bit of good luck there, i'll admit! one of the backstage people setoff a chemical fire extinguisher, which cleared the room out for a little bit. eventually we managed to get back to the bus and roll out for braunschweig...

we'd like to thank all the fine folks that came out to the show, the green guy, the duct tape lady, maddin (the dj and big informatik fan), stefan, till, madeline, yvonne and her sister, and the staff at m.a.u. club!!! i never really connected with any of the staff at the venue, so i don't know any names...but you guys were all awesome!!!