Some additional blog stuff from LORRAINE:
Nov 16 we arrived in Bischofswerda, Germany at the East Club for our first of several gigs with Dutch band Rude & Visser (two of the guys from Mr. Review). There was a bit of snow on the rooftops in Fulda when we left early in the morning. I have to say that German hotels are unbelievably comfy! You get these thick down comforters that just wrap you in warmth… It’s quite different from the other countries we play (except I remember Switzerland having those same comforters two years ago! And of course in Italy we didn’t need warmth as it was June…) Anyway, the club in Bischofswerda is pretty cool and the sound gear is right out of the 70’s. The atmosphere is great, it’s an old house with thick walls, very damp but lots of artwork on everything, very much like a squat. The sleeping quarters are upstairs and a nice spread awaits us upon arrival. The show went well. At one point, we still had the “opening band U” – that big horseshoe shape when people are tentative about whether or not they want to come closer because they don’t know if they will like it – and there was a skin sitting right in front of me with his back to me and looking out at the crowd. I’m not sure if this is some sort of intimidation game between the skins and the rest of the crowd, but regardless, Dan took his sax for “Supernova” and blew it right at the guy, who calmly got up, walked 4 paces then started dancing for the rest of the set! I remember going to shows and also being apprehensive about dancing, and then regretting when the band turned out to be great and I hadn’t got off my butt until the last few songs. We also got that a LOT on this tour, people begging for more because they had only dance for the last half hour of the one-hour show! It’s very common in lots of places. Montreal is quite exceptional for that… The crowd warms up very quickly and seems to know what they like quite quickly. Prague was even more eager than that, as was Dresden and Ljubljana! Rude & Visser tore the house down – having played there several times before and playing lots of old hits from Mr. Review. We met some funny people, one guy in particular who came up 3 or 4 times just to say hi (we figure it was just to grab a beer each time, which we gladly gave him!)
The drive to Prague was gorgeous. The scenery is really nice with lots of old buildings. As soon as you cross the border into the Czech Republic, there was a small line-up of prostitutes at the side of the road waving to each car! Not your run-of-the-mill ones either, they were very beautiful women. As are the women in general in the Czech Republic and Slovenia!
Nov 17th - Prague – additional notes. While we were playing, someone broke into the van, so Christian slept in it overnight… There were about 700 people at the show who loved our set.
Nov 18th we arrived in Vienna, Austria. We were playing at Austria’s oldest (former) squat called The Arena. Just across the lane was the new part of the venue where Candi Dolpher (Prince’s former sax player – plays fusion - funk) was doing her soundcheck for that same evening. We didn’t get to see anything of Vienna, but I’ve heard lovely things about it, so I can add it to the list of places I’d like to return to someday for at least one day of walking around! This is what you do on tour really; you collect a list of places you’d love to really visit! Sometimes you are fortunate enough to get just enough time to taste the local architecture and culture and it fulfills your desire to visit, other times however, you are left with a strong desire to return and get more out of it. I’m not complaining, that’s for sure, I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else! The show was really tough because the sound was horrendous!!!! The soundcheck went okay, but I don’t know what the guy did at the show, it was so hard to get into it! The crowd didn’t help too much either, there weren’t enough of them to feel comfortable. We did get one side dancing, this was a challenge, but those people were not shy even in the face of the “other side” - sitting down arms crossed! So those people got a special show. I met a couple of those people who bought CDs after our set, Frane who will come to Slovenia, and a girl who collects ska records and has the Kingpins CD’s. The sleeping quarters were in another building in the complex. There were 9 bunk beds three per row. It was a lot of fun! The two main guys from Rude & Visser stayed with us as did their merch guy. We had some good fun before sleep!
Nov 19th we played in Altenmarkt at the Libella with Rude & Visser. The club is really cool. It is an old natural beer fridge – but looks more like a munitions storage, like the 4 Ecluses in Dunkerque, only it can’t be because it is 40 meters inside a mountain, and that would be a stupid place to keep munitions! The décor for the club where we played (there are 2 separate clubs) is all from the movie Psycho. Images of Norman Bates, and other creepy images from the movie cover the walls completely. Didi who runs the place is very nice and the hospitality is great! Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay overnight as we had a long drive to Berlin.
Speaking of Berlin, Nov 20th we played at the SO36 with a band from Prague The Chancers and a local band the Knattertones. The club is a lot like a bunker also, probably to avoid the noise spilling out onto the streets. There seems to be a growing tendency for clubs having to try and muffle the noise they make. We had a few occasions where noise was an issue because of location and the shows had to end early (Le Havre was a prime example. A boat docked in a bourgeois neighbourhood that loves to complain.) The sound at the SO36 was great! We had a separate monitor guy and front of house guy. The sound in front was really good too! The backstage was accessible only through and air-lock type of system also designed to cut the noise to neighbouring homes. Once upstairs little sandwiches and goodies awaited us! The ska sandwich and cake crew had laid out a beautiful table for us all. This was where I met Perry Slalom (the DJ) for the first time. Our set was really great! The crowd response was very warm and we had a lot of fun playing to the 500 people that showed up. Nina was at the show - I met her last year in Hamburg; she came to several other shows with her brother Ole, and she gave me nice tights (black with the white plaid design). We packed up and went back to the hostel. The next day was off, so we found a Laundromat and did some much needed cleaning. The van is getting smelly, luckily, my body has all but switched off my sense of smell to protect me from it (haha). We got to walk around town a bit. We visited Checkpoint Charlie – formerly the only access between East Germany and the American quarter. There is so much history everywhere we go! I’ve been sending postcards pretty regularly to family and a couple of friends, it’s a lot of fun!
We stayed in Bremen on this night (Nov 21st), the accommodations where the club has put us up are astonishing! It is really like someone’s house. A beautiful split level with lots of sleeping space, large windows and a door out into the garden steps away from the bed! I couldn’t ignore the first bathtub of the tour!
Nov 22nd gig in Bremen at the “Romer”. We played with Teach Me Tiger, a local band. They were very enjoyable. It was a nice change to play with a garage band. Mitch and Raz drank a lot and ended up going out with the other band after the show! The club was rather small, but as always, we were warmly welcomed and fed a beautiful meal by Karen & partner! The sound was alright and the people really enjoyed our original sound. Not because they know anything about ska either, just because they liked good music. This was a very satisfying gig for that. It seems this band fits into so many different situations. We have adapted to the traditional ska crowd (at huge festivals and smaller venues), the average rock bar, the mid-sized venue with or without ska crowd and even tiny cafes where people know nothing about what we play.
Nov 23rd, we played in Hamburg at the Hafenklang right on the harbour. Yummy veggie lasagna and a fun show in an intimate atmosphere. It was nice to see Ole (Nina’s brother) again – it was his birthday!
I’m going to leave it there for now, and continue later with some more details about shows etc. The guys are also preparing some stuff for you to read. I repeat that it was really tough to find internet and specially to find enough time to write anything more than a small sentence!