Hanover
There was a lake just behind the rest area where a couple of people were skinny-dipping, in broad daylight. Seemed a bit odd, and this shocked nobody. Eventually we arrived at the venue, only a couple hours past the scheduled load in time. But from the looks of the venue, it didn’t matter. Germany seems to offer the cliché squat venue time and time again. Even when we played Berlin with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, its was a fricken’ squat. Anyhow we were greeted upon arrival by this sweet dog. She was some sort of mutt and had a one-track mind, to play fetch. I think we all took a liking to her right away. She was persistent with the stick and would take anyone of us to throw it for her. Even when we were loading in she would put the stick on the bumper of the van and wait for us to throw it. I really wished that Gee Gee were able to tour with us.

Anyhow, the night seemed like it could be a grim one. After a long and tedious sound check, I went outside to get away from the urine/beer/smoke smell that lingered in the venue. Eike had traveled to see us and was sitting on a bench outside. So that was a pleasant surprise. We hung out with her for a bit then went in for the catering. I was pleasantly surprised about this meal, as there was no TVP. The show didn’t start till after eleven, so most of us just hung outside for the early part of the evening. Chantal, an old friend of ours turned up. She had brought her two kids who I had never met. They were so cute and really smart. Mira and Elliot were their names. I was so glad to have met them. Awesome kids who have like-minded parents are great. I mean they are our future as cheesy as that sounds. I hung out with the little ones and waited for the show to start. The venue filled up nicely and there was a lot of energy. Aux Raus were great, and even exposed some ass and an uncircumcised penis for a portion of the set. We got ready shortly after and through all the difficulties at sound check, I think that the amount of booze and filth in the venue would elevate that aspect. The set was on its way and right off the bat was really fun. There was so much energy, stage dive after stage dive. People were yelling what I thought was supposed to be lyrics and going berserk. It was also cool to see the enthusiasm by people there. Also the confusion of Mike and Robin being on stage at different times in uniform was amusing as well. I ended up talking to a lot of really cool people after the show and had a great time. I have to say; I was a bit shocked that the show turned out as well as it did.

We broke down the gear and put it in the back stage area as the venue turned into an “underground disco” right after we finished. The event got quite funny at this point. The skeezers and sluts were out in full effect. People watching was at an all time high. Chantal had taken off as she was on her way to Berlin from somewhere else and wanted to see us all. But she had brought me an attempted birthday cake, which fell apart and was placed into two Tupperware containers, but tasted great. As I made my way through the crowd to remove my personal stuff from the venue to put it in the van, I was bumped into over and over. One girl had hit me with her lit cigarette so one of the Tupperware containers that was a sea of crumbs and had no salvageable cake pieces in it went flying all over this girl as I exited. It was one prick after another. Some dude puking over there, another pissing somewhere else, scumbags making out, you know, just a plethora of jerkoffs. We mocked and have a few drinks and mocked a bit more. Some of us decided to retire to the sleeping space eventually. I was cashed and the second hand smoke was ruining me. The place we were staying at was this guy’s place, which I think owned the venue. I can’t remember his name but he looked sort of like Johnny Ramone. He has this sixty’s mod look, but was legit. I guess the age factor made him more legit than if I was talking about some you buck identifying to what was a boring and dead cultural reference.

I grabbed one of the eleven beds that he had set up at his pad and crashed, only waking up for a second as Gabe and Joey came stumbling in with the Aux Raus guys. Next thing I knew, it was the morning and I was not ready at all to get a move on. Especially when you wake up, you realize that you have to still load the gear into the van and eat breakfast (bread and spread). Probably the most irritating aspect is that I woke up with the song “Lady in Red” Chris DeBurgh stuck in my head from Gabe’s insane mix CD that seems to get played in the van, in the venues, and sung by various key people on tour at all times. Anything from Hall and Oat’s “Man Eater” to that piece of shit Beach Boys track, “Kokomo” to the Saved By The Bell theme song. We did what we had to do and departed to Berlin, one of my favorite places in Europe and by far the best city in Germany.

I woke up in the van in Berlins city limits. We had not eaten or showered in a while and part of the bunch wanted to go to the hotel and I wanted to eat. We hit up the hotel first thing, and then headed over to the venue, which was conveniently located next to a health food market. So I loaded up on food, and then unloaded the gear. The show was supposed to be this conglomerate of music, art, film, etc. I think it fell short of all aspects besides music. Anyhow, we were not headlining the show. There was already this wall of amps from the headliner, KTL. That was a tad bit impressive but a bit of a drag for us to try to set up on the stage, as it was pretty small as is. We managed to do what we had to and I made way for some exploring around the city for about the hour that I had before the doors opened. Most of the shops were closed but it was still nice to walk around and see things. Berlin is really cool but one major depressing aspect is that the city is littered with graffiti and an over load of advertisements. I think that Germany might be worse than the states with public advertising.

In Berlin it all sort of blended in with the graffiti creating this unsettling aspect. I headed back to the venue to try to wash my uniform in the washer at the venue. I kept dreading putting it on as it had not been washed since before the show we played in L.A. and needless to say, was starting to come alive with bacteria. I ran into Chantal who came to the show again, which was nice to have a little more time to hang out with her. I was disappointed that her kids didn’t come with her though. Also it was good to see Ralf who is the booking agent in Germany for us. The best treat of the night was my old friend Nadine coming to the show, who brought a birthday cake for me that was out of hand. At first I was a bit intimidated but at the end of the night us Locusts devoured it and it was an amazing treat. Maybe one of the best cakes I had ever had. Just before we were scheduled to go on, I walked downstairs to the dressing room to change into my now clean uniform with such excitement.

This guy who had passed by in the venue a couple times was in the room and apparently he and I had met when I was sixteen in Seattle. He played in the KTL as well as Sunn O. I guess we met when I was on tour with Struggle as he asked me about the band and we talked a little about Seattle. It was odd to have that be referenced and even more odd by that guy. I suited up while we talked. It’s funny to talk to people or have people in the dressing room when we change. It’s pretty amusing to have people get uncomfortable when we strip down into our underwear. Sometimes it’s the complete opposite and people are not phased which can also be amusing just thinking that whoever is completely oblivious to what is going on at that moment. We went up to the stage and were set to go. The show took way and the audience seemed a bit uptight. However we kept plowing through the set. There was a screen that had visuals being projected on it to my left and it would catch my attention at times. There seemed to be some sort of one dimensional digital locust image projected on it as well as buildings burning. The show soon ended, and we hustled to get al of our gear off of the stage. I changed and headed outside for fresh air.

The wet uniform created so much humidity when I started raising my body heat from the performance. That aspect in conjunction with the massive amounts of second hand smoke pushed me outside as soon as I could. I eventually headed back in when KTL took the stage and it was interesting for a short while. But I have to say that even though the music is one tone that is changing and being manipulated for x amount of time, it’s a drag to see a guy just standing there at a lap top and another guy holding a guitar turning knobs and drinking a beer. At least they had a smoke machine to add to the ambience.

I noticed a poster as I walked in for a show in Berlin next month that had Get Hustle billed over High On Fire, which seemed a little odd. But nonetheless, it was good to see that Get Hustle was finally touring and touring in Europe at that. I hung out by the merch area while Robin changed out of uniform and got to meet this nice girl names Emi. She was cool and criticized the pretentious factor of the show and had this essence of bitterness to her that I could appreciate. Eventually we all were summoned to load the gear after KTL was done. Gabe’s mega mix was blasted again and we had the stragglers of the show singing along to Brian Ferry, Corey Heart, and a few others. We then walked down the street to some bar for a few drinks. I quickly fell asleep sitting there leaning up against the window looking out over part of the city. Next thing I knew, I was in the van on the way to the hotel and then ended up fast asleep with only a few hours until the scheduled departure time.

We woke up on time to do all that we wanted to do; eat at this vegetarian joint that we hit up every time we are in Berlin and go to this flea market that we heard about. On our way to eat and meet up with a few friends we came inches from being sideswiped by some shit head that ran a red light. Jeroen broke so hard that he also managed to break the clutch. So the next thing we noticed after we tried to deal with things flying around in the van and the initial scare of potential death or injury, as that we were stuck in the middle of the road with busses and cars trying to pass. The prick that ran the red light pulled into a parking space about half way down the block and went into an apartment complex. We tried to get the guy but he split. So we got his vehicle info and I tried to rig the broken component on the clutch with a butter knife that we borrowed from a hotel previously on tour, some super glue that I had with me to cover up cuts and blisters on my hands, and some good ol’ trusty duct tape. I rigged it pretty good, as we would eventually head around town to the police station, the flea market, and then onto the next destination to play a show. Duct tape really does hold the world together.

See it was a Sunday and that meant that the entire European Union was closed. Sundays here suck is what I’m getting at. So if we needed to get the van serviced we would have been out of luck. The rigged clutch was perfect and we were off to Leipzig just after we managed to eat some lunch and hit up this insane flea Markey across the street from the police station where we had to make a report about the potential accident. I have to say that the flea market was the most intense thing I have ever seen like that. Twenty minutes to cover this massive bohemian swap meet was not even close to enough time. As a matter a fact we all had to get into the van frustrated that we were not able to search for stuff just after the small taste of what the place had to offer. Oh well, we were off to the next city.

JP

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