Why the heck are we still here? Let’s get the fuck out of Budapest.
Still in Hungary: ‘Of course we got enough petrol….’
Few hours later, quite close to our destination: ‘Who’s gonna walk for petrol? It’s freezing cold and there’s heaps of snow everywhere. Is there anyone wearing boots?’
Fuck, beautiful Liberec is covered with snow and there’s Petr waiting for us with our split records. Fuck, these are too many boxes of LPs to fit into our car…Hell Division ripping our heads off…People destroying the small hall. Inigo twice as big since I last saw him. We: ages pass until we finally start the set, many parts being fucked, guitars going out of tune, amps stop functioning, problems with drum pedal but good mood, great many people. Fünny afterparty: putting vinyls to covers and watching dead drunk czech folks sleeping, slipping…Crazy night, freezing cold…
Nice vegan cake and breakfast, Still placing vinyls into covers so that they would occupy less space…Van fully packed, fucking late. Goodbye and thank you very much Petra! Anchors off! First anal capuccino taken on the road at a petrol station…hmmm…what a delight…
Damn, this van eats petrol so eagerly…Driving, driving, driving…then : ’Whattafuck is happening? What’s that noise coming from the back? I’m afraid it’s the end…’ No it’s just the wheel on the back, damn.…screws are not tightened enough…’ So, stop the car, unload the back, lift it, check the wheel, tighten it properly, load the car..and on the road again…Hanau. Late as usual. Paul and Andy waiting! Great! Soundcheck, and there we go. Again, here and there fucked up parts, but much better than the day before…Amazing lasagne. Tragic Vision, bringing me back to 2004 and than Driving Range doing a 10th anniversary show. Venue packed, people liked us, we like them. Good mood…Table soccer parties, chit chats with TV and DR members. Igor drunk as fuck, but still funny..Good. Sleeping at Paul and Andy’s place, beautiful breakfast…Waving goodbyes and there we were heading for Köln.
Lazarette squat, Köln. Greeting long seen friends. Having an awesome soup made by Roland. Sharing stage with Automaton and Chaos Is. Literally Cool show…heheh. But good bands, nice folks, few people, but who cares?! Good concert we did, few fucked parts, amp refused to work again…arghhh…But good concerts from each of the three bands. Back to Roland’s place. Kitchen afterparty, room fights etc…Next day, proper and tasty breakfast, sightseeing at the community house, seizing considerable amount of tofu, fake meat products…Thank you again! Goodbye to Roland and his friends! Next destination Amsterdam.
Unloading the van, occupying Da costaastraat squat. Gabi, Martino, Andrea and Anita hosting us, feeding us…hehe. Checking the record on a turntable for the first time. Happy with the result. Going out, table soccer, flipper, chitchat Beau (bassist for Tyrannicide, Gabi’s dutch band and the guy who recorded our latest songs) joining us. Sleep, proper breakfast, sightseeing, @ bookstore, catching up with Hans (drummer of Tyrannicide). Then back with the van, load it and there we were heading for Hengelo. My friends Chucky and Ze Droginha, then also Sandcreek Massacre folks coming to see us…That’s nice. Tyrannicide’s first show. Gabi (my bro who plays in RRD, but lives in Amsterdam) plays the guitar here andwas also supposed to sing a lot. Though due to illness and inexperience he did little of the latter. But the band is killer and I was proud of having concerts with them. We did a good concert with fucked up parts here and there, but the whole thing was getting more and more together…Table soccer, chitchats, deciding to sleep at the venue, hefemale erotic phone adds on TV right before going to sleep. Next morning ‘dad Gabi’ coming back with proper breakfast. (Guess, some of us have this breakfast addiction.) Good. Driving back to Amsterdam, listening to Sepultura, and other music almost for the first time in the van. Amsterdam, unload at Occii. Then back to Da Costastraat. Food, this and that…and then back to Occii. Bandführer (me) bringing the band to wrong direction and then gets pissed off when the others let him know we are heading to the wrong way. Gabi already at Occi, not too much time, for rehearsal, but enough to check a few parts we were unsure/uncertain about…Good. Then, international amesterdam squatter band Socially Inept playing crusty grind opening the show, followed by Tyrannicide, doing a much better show then their first one, approved by the folks a lot. Friends gathering in the meantime, kinda lot of people, chitchats, good mood, Landveraat, with Hans behind the drums doing a much appreciated show. Then we played and I guess we did our best and enjoyed the show a lot. Much talk afterwards, having Doetie, the Italian folks and many of all Gabi’s friends made the whole night unforgettable. Easy walk home, sweet dreams.
Good Morning! Studio day. Going to OCCII trying to set things for the recording. Recording drums and two guitars. Eating at MKZ. Easy walk home (with Beau this time) and sweet dreams of course.
Next morning breakfast at occii. Recording Gabi’s guitar and the bass. Snowing like on films. Finishing only by the afternoon, no time for vocals, huge traffic jam, but with a detour arrival to Nijmegen. Really nice place and nice folks, cosy environment, friends, sandcreek massacre crew, groningen friends. Kinda best food ever eaten on tour succesfully tempting one of us to commit gluttony. Concert with Landveraat (reall good show) and Tyrannicide rocking again. We did one of our best concerts in my opinion. And the rest was just to come. Extremely nice and friendly boys and girls and our dearest dr slayer going crazy for the discoparty. Best performance ever seen on the discofloor award won. Talking and dancing a lot and finishing the night with some twin karaoke with Igor…Guarda che luna! Next morning leaving after breakfast for a long trip to Nürtingen. Our dearest hobo christmas father providing free chocolate against hunger every time we stop at a petrol station. Thank you „stepdad”!
Kinda strange squat like villa and Tyrannicide guys (since they were playing as well that night) waiting for us. Local folks playing their bowling like beer game reclaiming the street in front..fünny. Warm food at last and then comes the opening band consisting the promoter and his brother among others. The hall was a cold cellar with a small place for the musicians and an equally small part reserved for those to listen and watch. After first act, local rap band creating new york ghetto feeling up in the backyard with a barrel with fire inside and onstage german hip hop at its best. Strange ring around the full moon and freezing cold either in or outside. Next band Tyrannicide down in the basement, doing a funny show screaming more than ever and ripping heads off. Then a hip hop act again and then we played our set. Dr Slayer was kinda reserved, while gabi and elliott going crazier than ever before hehee…Nice concert, with many to dance and I guess we kinda managed to warm that little cellar for a few minutes…good. Crazy afterparties all around the building, sleeping in freezing cold. Obviously, Igor is the last one to come to sleep, just like in every previous occasions…Next morning loading and leaving for Graz. Waving goodbye to Hans and Beau (though he was not exactly at the spot) of Tyrannicide with whom we should definitely do some more concerts in the future. Again our dearest hobo saving us from hunger with pringles and ritter sport. Arriving to Graz on time. Really strange, Marian and Michi were probably surprised by it a lot. Freeeezing cold again. But Michi’s Goulasch and Marian’s salad made us feel warmer and then more and more people arriving we kina melted out… Scraiste from EKH Vienna, Leechfeast from Slovenija (with members of Melete) and of course our dearest Boredom. Scraiste doing a pretty original set utilizing a musical saw in one of their song…Beautiful. Leechfeast is far from what Melete was doing and a bit closer to me for the heavier tunes, but what really ruled from them was the beautifully packed demo tape. Though I hate the product it originally refers to (a pack of Marlboro cigarettes), but the idea and realization worth praizing. Boredom did a rather short set (I believe it was austrian hospitality, creating the possibility of a long set for us which we fucked anyways with our extremely long soundcheck) and played one or two new songs as well from their upcoming LP that we are waiting a lot for…Twas also good to see them again and talk to Chris, Marian, Michi, Vera and Lukas and all their friends from Graz. We did a good show I believe and enjoyed playing in Graz for the third time. Right after the concert we said goodbye to locals, bands and Igor as well. He was staying there and went back to Trieste the next day. We made a nightmarish trip back home with horrible roads fighting extreme tiredness and diarrhea. Arriving back home pretty late.
And that was it. For the first time we managed to play in Western Europe and was kinda good experience. We would like to thank everyone who helped us in any ways: to all the promoters (Petra, Andy and Paul, Roland, Thomas, Beau, Dave, Amir and Boredom crew) , their friends and families, to all the collectives, all the bands sharing stages with us, lending their equipments to us, all the people doing voluntary work at the autonomous places. We thank everyone who let us enter their home, who cooked us nutritious food and gave us liquids to drink, everyone who came to us after concerts and asked, said something about our music…I owe a huge thank you for the amp I was lent. A big hug goes to Beau and folks at OCCII for letting recordings possible. High five to all the friends coming to see us…Hope to see you again someday…(L)
