March 13 – March 21 2010. On those dates we made another trip to the South of Europe. This time we would hit some new cities and re-visit some older friends. The tourreport below is more or less in a diary kinda form, based upon notes I (Pim) made during our trip. Stuff was later added by the rest, while trying to maintain that same form. Oh well, I think it gives a pretty good view of our trip. Sit down and relax, because it’s a long ride. Hope you enjoy it! And feel free to leave some comments!

DAY 2: BORDEAUX, FRANCE

15:44, in the van on the road to Bordeaux (France)

Getting ready to leave…

As I’m writing this, it’s already the second day of our trip. We’re on our way to Bordeaux at the moment. Let’s go back to yesterday first though. We played Marquain in Belgium. 5 minutes from the France border. Upon arrival we were greeted by Annabel (who booked the show). She spoke perfect Dutch (no accent at all), which is strange (but cool) when pretty much everything else you hear around you is in French. The show took place in a small room seperated from the bar, especially made for shows. The entrance had a nice CBGB’s sign above it, such a shame I’ve never been to the real thing. This had to do for now though.

The show in Marquain. Photo’s by Vincent Méheut and Henri Jansen.

The show was opened by Call For Victory who played some kind of melodic hardcore. The second band, Teenage Wasteland, started with a Beastie Boys cover (Fight For Your Right) and played some more trashy oldschool. The third band (Donkey Punch, including their mad drunk (in a good way) singer who’se name I could pronounce but forgot how to write down) had a more Trash Talk, Kickback kinda style. Dark & nasty. They got the crowd moving. After that it was time for Kill For Peace, who were a crowd favorite with their metallic hardcore. Into the second song the drummer kicked through the bassdrum. Or atleast that’s when it gave in. Our bassdrum. Great start of the trip… Ducktape came to the rescue for the remainder of their set but it wasn’t pretty. We were up next, closing off the night. The bassdrum totally stopped functioning somewhere around the third song I guess. So the remainder of the set was played without a bassdrum. Joost was pissed since he felt like a cripple, but the people seemed into it.

This also marked Toby’s first show with us. Toby responded to our call for a bassplayer not too long ago and it seemed to click pretty much right away. In a couple of rehearsals (3 or something?) he learned all the songs and if we don’t get it any big fights on this trip (something I don’t see happening) we have found our new bassplayer. Which is great, since that’s mighty fast after Joep’s departure.

It was also cool to see Zeger at the show, he’s booking the last show of the tour, in Roeselare. He came to the show to put up some posters and check us out. He told us it was the third show he was visiting that day. Dude’s mad.

Anyway, after the show we drink a couple of beers and then we headed to Annabel & Fabien (her boyfriend)’s place. All of us packed together in a small room, tables to the side and we were ready to go. Most of us had a good night of sleep but (a tradition by now) I hardly slept. Oh well. You get used to it.

Waking up in Marquain.

We said goodbye to Annabel & Fabien (after a great breakfast, French crossaints included – thanks!) and off we went at 9:00 in the morning. We had quite a long drive ahead of us, more than 7 hours. So stops had to be short. Which is more or less like a mission impossible for most of us. Every time we’re ready to start driving again, someone is missing or a “Wait, I need to use the toilet” moment arises. Every single time. Do they hand out medals for that? We would win it without a doubt.

Most of  us tried to sleep (once again, I failed horribly) a bit or just chill in the van. Close to Bordeaux we stopped at a Mc Donalds to use the internet for a bit. Hey it’s the digital age, isn’t it? Are you following us on Twitter yet? So when everyone (with a netbook, phone or whatever) checked their email, off we went again.

On our way to Bordeaux…

A bit later a red light on the dashboard started to burn. Fuel. Shit. After driving around for just a bit too long and trying a couple of different fuel stations (cards not accepted, GPS saying there was a gas station when there was none, people sending us the wrong way etc..) we FINALLY found one, just about when we thought all hope was lost.Tour’s always full of surprises like that. The result was a delay of an hour I think. But we were on the road again… And still on schedule.

I’m still tired, hope I awake / can chill a bit tonight at the club. Out for now.

Chilling in Bordeaux…

20:39 – above the club in Bordeaux, France.

The delay of an hour turned into nearly two hours, but we got there in time. We’re now sitting above the club, in an awesome backstage. People already told us about it, but yes, it’s cool for sure. Just chilling a bit at the moment. Charging our phones, camera, laptops etc. Refreshing ourselves. Hope tonight’s show’s gonna be cool.

The show in Bordeaux. Photo’s by Henri Jansen.

23:42 – above the club in Bordeaux, France.

The show was cool! Remy (the organisator) told us that the last couple of shows the amount of people showing up were getting less and less, so we were prepared. Not that we care much if there are 2 or 2000 people (the person paying probably is though). Anyway, the people that were there (the room was about half-filled I think?) were into it and the atmosphere was really good. We enjoyed it for sure. Since we couldn’t use our drumkit (remember the bassdrum incident yesterday?), we used the first band’s drumkit. They were the only other band too – the Slovenian band cancelled. Cadillacs & Dinosaurs I think they were called. Some kind of heavy stoner rock or something. Loved it!

Oh by the way, Remy is a really cool guy, I hope his next shows will do well. I’ve also been give a couple of copies of this zine called Sedition, it’s a free zine done by some French people. It looks cool, it’s a shame it’s totally in France though. Je ne parlais pas le Francais. I have to say though, if you do, make sure to pick it up, it looks awesome!

Bordeaux at night…

The rest of the guys are heading into Bordeaux I think, I’m going to pass. Saving my voice (something I always worry about on tour), and I’m dead tired from not sleeping yesterday too.

Ok, I’m signing out. See you tomorrow.

DAY 4: MADRID, SPAIN

14:44 – in the van on our way to Madrid.

Yesterday kinda slipped through the cracks. Tour report updating wise that is. Just didn’t think of sitting down properly and writing something down. So let’s see. The guys had fun in Bordeaux. Playing golf with empty cans and bottles, eating food like idiots etc. You know, the usual.. Right.

I did manage to get some sleep, not as much as I hoped for. But enough for sure. (“Did you read that last Said And Done tourreport? Damn the only thing that dude talks about is sleeping or not. Such a snoozefest!”) So when we woke up early in the morning we did set out for a supermarket. Crossaints, baguettes, you name it, we got it. We easily adapt to the French lifestyle So after a delicious breakfast we started driving to Girona.

Leaving Bordeaux and on to Girona…

First we had to solve the problem with the bassdrum skin though. Say hello to the power of Wi-fi. We stopped at a Mc Donalds and started to search for a big musicstore. With the help of some of our friends on Facebook (Yo Carlos!) we found a couple of stores in Girona and Toulouse (which we would be driving through anyway) pretty fast. We decided to go for a Toulouse one first. We found it pretty quickly and picked up a new drumskin. Not before we pretty much tested out every single instrument in that store though. I’m sure they were glad when we got out haha. On our way up to the music store we saw a Virgin Megastore sign and decided to check that out, we had some time left. It was inside a big shoppingmall, which means escalators and stairs (the automatic ones), which means the kids of Said And Done will enjoy themselves. There wasn’t much to pick up (vinyl was way too expensive), but Joost picked up a PSP case. The keyword for Joost on this tour so far is PSP. I picked up one secondhand for this trip too but that since he copied GTA: Chinatown Wars from me he crashed into a PSP addiction hard. He’s all over it, probably already halfway the game.

Fooling around at the music store…

Ok onwards with our trip to Girona. We didn’t have a proper address of the venue (atleast not one our GPS recognized), so we had to ask around a bit. After being NEARLY there (we’re always nearly there…) a couple of times we found the place. It looked cool. Not too big, just how we like it. There was a stage, but we did set up our stuff in front of it. Way better. Stickers of Strike First, New Morality, Light The Fuse, Icepick, Black Cloud Halo etc. made us feel perfectly at home too.

The show in Girona also meant meeting up with Carles from Deathwish Team Girona again. He was the one that booked our first trip abroad, back in 2007. He didn’t change a bit. One of the coolest dudes ever. Any other band that he arranged shows for will confirm this. “Leuk skipak” style! Back in 2007 we played with Charles Bronson Discipline, oldschool melodic hardcore, just how we like it. They played again today. Good stuff, with Misfits covers to seal the deal. I’m going to keep an eye out for that new record they were working on. The opening band was a local band with younger kids called The Joke. Nice kids and a lovely female singer. She made us sign a CD for her (just after I told Carles we weren’t rockstars…). Funny shit haha. I never know how to react to stuff like that. I feel like an idiot signing stuff. Thinking it’s not punk or something. Yet I do like it. Contradictions. I’m a walking one.

The show in Girona. Photo’s by Gemma Fontàs (The Joke).

Our show was cool. Especially for a Monday show. Put up a show like that in the Netherlands and I think about half of the people will show up. While playing I saw Toby flying accross the room. He did some crazy jumping moves, dude’s nuts. The best part was that he ended up falling down on his ass (I hope we have that on film – edit: apparently we don’t – shit!).

Leaving Girona and getting some sleep…

After our show we drove to a place next to Barcelona to sleep at Gabbo’s place. We had to be quiet since he didn’t tell his sister we would be sleeping over.. Nice haha. Remco and Toby had different plans though, they wanted to drive to Barcelona and party in the city. So they dropped us off and off they (the young wolves, out for adventure) went.

The next morning (and a great night of rest (“Is that dude still talking about sleeping?”)) they picked us up. Apparently they went to Barcelona, drove around a bit and noticed that pretty much everything was closed, so they drove back and slept in the van. Bummer. We made the right choice though.

If we skip forward a bit after a not so interesting drive so far, we end up at the present. I’m typing this up in the van right now. It’s hot in here, a lot better weather than we expected. Totally different from the cold in the Netherlands. My voice is still okay too. Hope it stays like that.

We just drove to the wrong entrance at the tollbooth again haha. It’s amazing how many times we picked the wrong gate to pass through by now. Normally you would do it wrong once and that would be it. Not us, we ended up in the wrong lane atleast 3 times I think. Pretty annoying for everyone behind us waiting. On the other hand, pretty funny to see a whole line of cars going in reverse and backing up so we can enter another gate though. Funny if you’re in our car…

On our way to Madrid…

Anyway, tonight Madrid’s on. Never been there, looking forward to it. Rosa who is putting up the show was a true gentlewoman (is that even a proper word?) in her mails, so that should be cool. Tonight will mark the first of four nights (including a day off) on this trip we’re staying in a hotel. We’re such spoiled rockstars!

Ok, I’m out for now. I’m going to play some Broken Sword II while we’re getting closer to Madrid. I need to pass that dog and the fence badly. If only I had internet now and a walkthrough haha.

DAY 5: VALLADOLID, SPAIN

11:14 – in the formule1 hotel just outside Madrid.

So yeah, our first time in a hotel (that one time in Rosswein was’t really a hotel I think, it was bigger though! – Yo Greyli!) as a band. Now you shouldn’t expect big rooms or anything, but still, it’s nice.

The show in Madrid. Photo’s by Line de Vos.

Madrid was good! You never know if a show will work, especially on a week day and in a place we never been to before… But it was really cool. People knew the songs, moshed, sang along (how many times did I type this sentence describing a show already?). Good times! Other bands playing were Moments (trashy, fast and heavy) and The Marriage (a really tight band playing modern metalcore). The sound in the club was really good too. The sound guy was a bit annoying at first, making us set up first and then wanting to switch it all around, but apparently it was all for a damn good reason. He knew his stuff, turned out to be a cool guy too.

Before and after the show in Madrid…

It was cool to meet Rosa (she helped us out with the show in Valladolid too), she took great care of us. We’ll hope to be back some day for sure. I also met Nab from Just Say Yo fanzine (he also plays in Moments and used to play in A Bridge To Many), who I previously only changed emails with. Cool dude. Pick up his zine! I loved #2 and #3 is recommend too, if only for the awesome cover. Looking forward to issue #4.

For this show Toby’s dad came to visit us. He drove 800 kilometers all the way from Portugal to see his son. Such a cool thing to do. Line (Stef’s girlfriend from Belgium) also came to visit us. So far away from home I can imagine it was cool to see some familiar faces.

As I’m typing this the rest of the guys are taking showers and getting their stuff together. In about half an hour or something we’ll leave for Valladolid. Looking forward to seeing just another place I haven’t been yet.

DAY 6: DAY OFF

16:51 – in the van, on our way to Bordeaux

So let’s see. Valladolid yesterday. We didn’t know what to expect, from what we were told there weren’t many shows in Valladolid and it was a weekday so… The show was really good though. I think the cord of my microphone was only a meter long, but fuck it. I think we did an encore song on every show so far (Just so you know, that’s not something we calculate or anything) and yesterday was no exception. We played “Fit The Mold” for the first time this tour too. It’s cool to finally play some new songs again.

On our way to Valladolid…

Before and after the show in Valladolid.

Yesterday when we were shopping for food at the supermarket I found a wi-fi spot and checked my mail. There was a request from a radio station if they could do an interview. Did send them a message it was fine by me right away. So at the venue these two kids came up to us with a big mic and we did the interview, we even did a “Yo this is Said And Done and you’re listening to…” jingle. The interview itself is rather ridicilous, I’m curious to hear it back haha. We’re fucking around quite a bit (Piet Paulusma impressions included!) and the interviewer himself couldn’t stop talking about penisses. Strange to say the least haha.

Today is my birthday too. So this morning, after I took a shower I got a serenade from the rest of the guys. When I opened the door of our room they were all standing there singing “happy birthday”. It probably sounds strange coming from a singer in a band, but I don’t like attention like that at all. No I should say it differently, I really appreciate the effort and it’s cool they did something like that, but I just don’t know how to deal with it. I don’t need to be the center of attention. Nonetheless it was cool, thanks guys!

So after that I checked the internet and found lots of mails, messages (and smses on my phone) with congratulations. Really cool, made my day. So to any of you reading this who did send me a message, thanks a lot!

Day off. Checking a big mall in Spain and driving to Bordeaux.

So now we’re driving to Bordeaux. We’ll see what today will bring us. Tomorrow we’ll be in Rezé, in the Nantes area. Our show back there the last time was one of the coolest we ever did so we’re expecting a lot from it. We can’t wait to meet our friends again. Can’t go wrong!

DAY 8: BAGNOLET (FRANCE)

16:24 – in the van, on our way to Bagnolet (near Paris)

On our way to Rezé…

The show in Rezé. Photo’s by Nearly Got Busted.

The show in Rezé. Photo’s by Christophe Trasher44 and xWoldx.

The show in Rezé. Photo’s by Christophe Trasher44.

Yesterday in Rezé was amazing. Just like we expected. It was really cool to see all of our friends again. People from Golden District, No Solution (with Alex on vocals, who booked our show in Rennes in 2008 and members of Money Time), the guys of Wank For Peace etc. Good times. The show was a blast. Some technical problems but people went crazy. Just how we like it.

The other bands were good too. No Solution played their first show. They played youth crew and even did a True Colors cover (and a Judge one too!). Cool to see that. We totally digged them. Lasting Values was good too. Vince from Golden District his voice went out during their first song, which sucked (especially for him), they did play a great show nonetheless though. Hats off to Vince for continuing the show like that anyway. They had to play a show the day after too, so I hope that works out for them. They deserve a good send-off.

Chilling in Rezé, before and after the show…

After the show we did a short video interview about the show (which you can check out below). I was dead tired from the show, so I don’t know how big of an idiot I came accross. I’m not used to do those kinda things, they’re fun though.

By Anger Posi Kids.

Waking up at Christophe’s place.

We slept at Christophe’s (Trasher44) place. He’s the guy who took the picture of us in Rennes, the one we used all over the place already. He had a nice home and even had some beds etc prepared for us. Always a good thing (especially since my airbed was fucked). I think we all slept quite good (“Oh enough about the sleeping already!!”). The next morning we had a little breakfast and Christophe already had a CD ready with the pictures of last night’s show. Awesome. That’s what you call service. Oh I almost forgot, but I do need to mention the pictures on the wall in his house. Lots of rockstars (Motorhead, John Joseph, Madball etc with Christophe). Cool exposition We took some pictures with him too, so we expect to be up there next time as well haha We thanked Christophe and his family and off we went again. On to Bagnolet (near Paris) this time.

And that’s pretty much where we are now. In the van, on our way to Bagnolet (Paris). We’re almost there. I’ve heard the place we’re playing is really small, which is a good thing. The smaller, the better. I want to be close to the people in the audience. No barriers, no distance. We’ll be playing with Donkey Punch (who we played with in Marquain) again, so that’s cool.

Tour’s almost over now. Last night of the tour, tomorrow we’re playing Roeselare in Belgium and going straight to home after that. We’ve been there before but this is a different venue. Anyway, Paris up first. Not long now.

DAY 9: ROESELARE (BELGIUM)

11:04 – in our room in the Formule 1 hotel.

Yesterday we played Paris. It was cool to meet Fred, who I’ve been mailing with for quite a while now. He really did his best and made sure we had everything we needed. It’s cool when people put so much effort in you and your band.

The show in Paris. Photo’s by Gabrielle.

The show itself was okay. The first band, Youth Avoiders, played an oldschool, trashy but melodic kinda hardcore punk, including a cover of “Mongoloid”. Really good, loved it! Up next was Donkey Punch (who we played with in Marquain already), I did miss out on them though. Which kinda sucked, because they’re cool guys. I heard their show was great. Fred even joined them on vocals for a song, gutted I missed that haha. The third band was Arafat, a doomy, sludgy kinda band. We played a nice set, we had to make sure we were done in time though since the owner of the place wanted to make sure the music was over at a certain time. We had some technical troubles once again (guitar strings breaking), but Joost and Toby launched into a nice jam. We managed to finish our set more or less in time and people asked for one more, but we couldn’t do that since the owner already came down to ask Fred when we would be done two songs before the end. Next time!

After the show we did a quick stop at a Kebab place, since we were still pretty hungry. The food wasn’t amazing, but after a show, when you’re hungry, pretty much anything goes. So with a full stomach we went to our last stay at a formule 1 hotel. I think this was the biggest of the four we stayed at, the nicest too probably. Either way, we all had a good night of sleep (“That does it, I’m going to punch that dude in the face!”).

As I’m typing this, some of us went to the market nearby. I decided to go for the shower and relax and chill a bit. And it gave me time to update this tour journal of course. Probably the last time on tour too, since tonight’s the last show. Then it’s back to the normal, every day grind. Day, in day out.

12:10 – still in the hotel room

Hahaha, the other guys just came back and tried to enter their room. Locked. We apparently had to be out before 12 (we didn’t know) and they are locked out of their room right now. Their stuff is still inside. Stuff like this doesn’t even surprise me anymore haha. Oh and they just showed me what they picked up at the market. One watch and one pocket watch. Both horrible. Both fake. Amazing. They sure know their thrash haha. Ah they went to the receptionist and now he’s unlocking their door. Nice, time to get everything together and start moving again. On to Roeselare!

DAY 10: HOME

19:32 – at home

So let’s see. The final update… We’re all back home now, but let’s go back to yesterday first. The final day of the tour. We played a benefit at JH KameleJon in Roeselare. The place is closing down, which is a shame because it’s a great place for hardcore shows (aside from the stinking toilets haha). The room behind the stage was huge too, some sort of mix between a huge theater and a gym or something. Biggest backstage we ever had for sure

Before and after the show in Roeselare.

I’ll be blunt though, it was the least show of the tour. There were only a handful of people. Normally we don’t care much about that, but today it sucked since it was a benefit. Not much money will be raised I’m afraid. Luckily there were more dates, hopefully those did better.

It wasn’t all bad though, aside from the cool place it was cool to see Zeger again. He made sure we got whatever we wanted. When I was standing in the audience checking out the second band (more about that later) he even came to hand me an apple haha. How’s that for service?

The show in Roeselare. Photo’s by Henri Jansen.

Anyway, the first band was a more metalcore orientated band from South Africa (atleast that’s what I heard). They sounded okay, not my cup of tea, but they seemed like nice guys. Up second was Strike You Down. They already grabbed my attention when their guitarplayer soundchecked with the Cannonized riff by Blacklisted (I think that song was one of the last times I moshed when I saw them live haha, so good). They’re around for 2 years or something now, but they’re young kids. Their set was cool. Exactly the right length and some good songs. They gave me a demo CD which had some nice artwork, done by their mother or something. The vocals reminded me of Martijn No Turning Back. Just check out that Myspace and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Curious to see how they develop in time. It’s cool to see new, younger bands. We need more of those in the Netherlands as well. After them we played a rather uneventful set. Not bad, not great either. Just okay, which is not a good thing. The last band was a System Of A Down cover band. We watched a couple of songs, they were pretty good but when I saw they had a setlist of 17 songs, we decided to head home. We had about 3 hours to drive and Toby needed to get down to Roermond after that. So we thanked Zeger and said goodbye to guys in Strike You Down and left.

After unloading and cleaning up the van (discovering hidden treasures, like rotten cookies, socks and stuff like that of Remco in every part of the van), everyone went seperate ways and that’s it. The van will be picked up by Gert-Jan (Shield Recordings) not long from now, he’ll be on tour with The Real Danger (edit – This was written on the 22th of March). So now we’ll just have to wait till May. Then we’re doing a weekend in the UK together with Never Again. England, get ready!

SUNDAY 9TH OF AUGUST 2009

The van

As always the preparations start with picking up the van. Hearing good things about them (and our planned van being cancelled), this time we got in touch with Your Mum toursupport. We had to meet Jonas from Holy Shit! Industries in Eindhoven to pick up the van. Joost and I volunteered, so off we went. We were in Eindhoven in no time and found Jonas without a problem. First thing we did was inspecting the van, since we didn’t see it yet. A fine Mercedes Sprinter, comfortable seats for 6 persons and enough space for the entire backline. The best part though: a DVD player + iPod connection. Way too much luxury for us. Nice. The exchange was made quickly, sending off Jonas on a train trip to Belgium and Joost took a seat behind the steering wheel. Time to get moving. 2 more days to go, but we were looking forward to the trip already.

Later that evening we rehearsed with Henri for the second time. Henri filled in on drums when Joost was away to Taiwan for half a year, but now he was going to pick up the bass, to replace Joep. Dude’s multi-talented, like a Dutch Dave Grohl. We were pretty amazed by the fact he knew the songs pretty much dead on already.

MONDAY 10TH OF AUGUST 2009

Final rehearsal. We did a quick run through the set and that was it. Time to load in the van, so we could leave early the next morning. Loading in went smoothl. We became pro’s at this through the years. After a couple of beers we said goodbye and agreed to meet at 8:00 the next morning.

TUESDAY 11TH OF AUGUST 2009

The proper first day of the tour. Of course people turned up late. It doesn’t even surprise us anymore, we live with it. Today was also the day Goran was hooking up with us. He would be doing some driving and selling merch on this trip. You might know him from his band Make Them Suffer, check that out if you’re into old No Turning Back / Merauder kinda stuff. Heavy stuff. So when everyone was finally present it was time to get moving. Almost out of our little town one of us noticed he was missing his sleeping bag… So we had turn around… Amazing. Just packing everything and leaving at once is clearly impossible for Said And Done

On our way to Berlin

Surroundings of the venue in Berlin

After an 8 hour drive we finally got to Berlin. The place we were going to play was located on a huge area with all kinds of venues etc. I think it used to be an old train station or something (with huge storage locations). It now served as a place for venues, had a skate area and even had a climbing wall. It was cool to walk around and just absorb the place, lots of activity going on. Stef went on a spraying hunt and made sure Said And Done got tagged here and there. (If you ever see this ‘logo’ somewhere, take a picture of yourself with it and send it to us!) So after we had a look around, we sat down in the sun and enjoyed a nice beer, meeting up with the Trash Talk dudes and (not to forget) their driver mister Greyli for the first time. Good guys.

Today we were playing with Broken Few and Trash Talk. An all-touring-lineup. First up was Broken Few from the UK. While it was our first show of the trip, it was their last one. They sounded like the Gaslight Anthem in parts. Good stuff, people seemed to dig it, nodding their heads. We were up next. The first time with Henri on bass on stage and he felt a bit strange on stage with a bass instead of being behind the drumkit. It didn’t matter though, the set went fine and people seemed into it. People moshed, people sang along, we had a good time. While we were still recovering from our set (uhuh) Trash Talk started their show. Can you spell heavy? H-E-A-V-Y. We can. It’s so cool to see that band do their thing. Madness.

It was cool to meet some people that I haven’t met before, (Yo Henry! Yo Therese, next time I’ll take some bread with me ).

After the show there was a nice afterparty. We hung out for a while but then Henri and me decided to get some sleep. Henri wasn’t fully recovered from a cold yet and I could use some sleep too. The rest decided to continue the partying. From what I’ve heard they had a blast. Lots of dancing and drinking, what else is new We stayed with a friend of the organisator (cool girl!) and she had a nice place with some beds available to us. Henri slept like a baby, wish I could say the same. When the rest came home I still hadn’t slept for a minute. Oh well, I did get some rest and I got to hear the most amazing drunken bullshit ever from the rest of the guys while they were getting ready for some sleep. Haha. Good times!

WEDNESDAY 12TH OF AUGUST 2009

Early next morning Stef and Joost set out to get the van, they parked it somewhere near the venue, because that was going to be safer. It’s a miracle but they found the van right away and luckily there was no fine or anything. They drove it back to our sleeping place, where we quickly loaded the van. We had a long trip ahead of us. First up was a stop at the local bakery though. We all got our share of croissants and other fresh bread. Time to get on the road again. On to Poland. On to Warsaw.

On our way to Warsaw…

Still on our way…

Once again, after 8 hours or something we arrived at our destination. Warsaw. Driving through the country, we got to see a little bit of Poland. Quite a lot of half-finished buildings, stuff was priced relatively cheap and hotdogs at every gas station. It was strange to see prostitutes offering themselves alongside the road. Some of us had to be held back to ask for pricing info The country looks nice though.

Radio Luxembourg – the venue in Warsaw

Chilling at the venue

Live pictures by kirek.pl

Live pictures by kirek.pl

Live pictures by kirek.pl

Everything fades to black. Pictures by ? (get in touch if these are yours!)

The venue (Radio Luxembourg) we were playing was great and the amount of people was great. Amazing, especially since it was a weekday. 4 bands were playing, including Trash Talk again. We were up second this time. It’s always interesting to see how people will react. We’re a long way from home and we have no idea if people know us or not, if they’ll like it or not. So we started playing and from the first song people were singing along. Fucking great. When we played a Cro Mags cover I was covered with people, I had no idea where I was. The rest of the band didn’t know either they told me after the show “We couldn’t see you dude, we couldn’t see you” haha. Moshing, stagediving, singing along. Amazing. Henri felt much better too he told me after the show. Poland gave us a warm welcome. This show was great. Both Polish bands were good. The first made me think of Rise And Fall a bit. The Fight had some lengthy speeches and it’s a shame I couldn’t understand a word of it, but that’s because I can’t speak a word of Polish. I like it when bands speak out on stage. Should do that myself more often too. As expected Trash Talk destroyed once again. Upping the “heavyness” ante to another level.

Once again I did get to meet some people that I haven’t met before (Kasia!). Kuba the organisator was a great dude too, after our show he showed his ripped pants. Apparently he ripped them during our set haha. Never a bad sign! Warsaw is definitely a place we wanna go back some day.

After the show we partied a little bit and then it was time to get to the sleeping place. On our way back we did some van trading with the guys from Trash Talk, mixing up the people. First stop was a 24/7 supermarket. The sleeping place was great, a little bit out of town, with more than enough room for all of us. The party just continued. We had some nice talks with the guys in Trash Talk, drank some beers and after a while most of us tried to get some sleep again. We needed to get up early the next morning. I think I fell asleep hearing Goran sing and play a Red Hot Chilli Peppers song, that did it for me.

THURSDAY 13TH OF AUGUST 2009

Kasia and her friend made us a breakfast so we could start the day properly. The sweethearts. While the rest enjoyed their breakfast I tried to wake up Stef which was proving more difficult than we expected. Dude had little to no sleep when we started the tour (he came straight from a 3-day-festival) and he didn’t manage to catch up yet. So while he was in zombie mode we threw him in the back of the van, said goodbye to the girls and we started driving.

Stef in zombie-mode

Next stop was Vienna in Austria, a long drive. Maybe you noticed but I didn’t mention the word cancellation once yet. A rarity without a doubt. This time around we were pretty lucky, no last-minute cancellations. There was one show I was kinda worried about though and that was this show in Vienna. I didn’t know for sure if it was happening or not since the dude who was supposed to put on the show went silent a couple of weeks before the show, his friend (Peter, great guy!) took over but in the week we were supposed to leave I read it wasn’t sure there was going to be a PA… So in Poland I checked my mail and Myspace and didn’t find anything among the lines of “show’s cancelled” so I guessed (and hoped) we were safe.

On our way to Austria

On our way to Vienna we stopped at the borders of the Czech Republic and changed all our Zlotties (did I spell that right?) back to Euros. The leftover coins were used to get some food and drinks. So when we were on the move again, somewhere halfway the day, we heard some noise coming from the back of the van, “Where the hell are we?”. Stef was awake. Back to planet earth. I’ll spare the details of the rest of the ride, because it was pretty boring. It was cool to be driving through 3 countries (Poland, Czech Republic, Austria) in one day though.

Playing Vienna. Pictures by the old man

Playing Vienna. Pictures by the old man

The venue in Vienna was cool. Some sort of basement in a multicultural place or something. When we arrived two older ladies were playing flute in the room upstairs. The show was okay, not too many people, but that kinda was expected with the last minute promotion and stuff like that. We were glad we were able to play a show though, so once again, thanks Peter for taking over the show! People seemed to be into it though and it was good to see the guys of Mind Trap. An older guy (I think it was the owner of the place) was taking pictures during the show. When we wanted to go to our sleeping place, he stopped us and told us to wait for a couple of minutes. He came back and handed over a CD-R. Apparently he already burned the pictures of the show on there. So cool. So there we were driving to our sleeping place making fun of ourselves with the pictures of the show that just happened.

We spend the night with a guy from Vienna (totally forgot your name dude! Sorry!). The dude who supposed to put on the show was living in the same house, but we didn’t see him. Oh well, guess that was expected. Hope he’s doing okay though. It always amazes us that people open up their house to you. The whole place was filled with people. I don’t think there was room for anyone left. After we put all our stuff down we went out to get a kebab sandwhich and a coke. Our stomach filled we all opted for some sleep.

FRIDAY 14TH OF AUGUST 2009

The next morning we all enjoyed a nice breakfast of toasted bread. Some of us took the opportunity to have a nice shower and off we went. Off to some sight seeing in Vienna since we had a day off today. Not that we had that much time, since we had to be in Mannheim at night though. There was a show with Dean Dirg and we were allowed to sleep at the venue. Just to break up our trip to France, to get some rest.

Waking up in Austria

Vienna has some amazing buildings and statues

Vienna is an amazing city. The (old!) buildings and statues are so beautiful. I think I speak for all of us when I say we really want to go back there someday, with proper time to look around. This time we were on a mission though, we had to score a “Wiener Schnitzel”. So after a short trip through the city we settled down in a nice restaurant. Boy, did we enjoy that meal. So after that delicious meal, we could move on.

Chilling in Vienna

On our way out from Vienna we saw a record store next to the road though. We just had to stop. Browsing through those big stacks of vinyl, best feeling in the world. After we picked up some records, it was time to say goodbye to Vienna for real. On to Germany again.

On our way to Germany

Party @ Juz Mannheim

Around 23:00 we arrived in Mannheim, Germany. Dean Dirg was already playing when we arrived. The band was great and the crowd was going nuts. Strange to drop in an atmosphere like that when you just traveled a great distance and are a bit tired. It helps you pick up fast though, we were fully awake within seconds. We only managed to see the last couple of songs, such a shame. After the show it was time to party. Lity gave us a deal on the beer so we got ourselves a crate and started to relax. After a day of driving it’s great to wind down. Some of us started dancing (the dancing area looked like a highschool party haha) others pretended to be table soccer kings. Somewhere along the lines all of us found our way to our beds in the basement (with great matrasses available). I know I slept like a baby.

SATURDAY 15TH OF AUGUST 2009

That morning pretty much all of us were pretty tired / wasted haha. I think I was the only one that got up early and took a quick shower. Joost was more or less alive as well and he took the first turn driving. First stop? A bakery of course. Scoring good food in the morning (or not) can make our break your morning Along the way we also saw this sign “Henriville”. We just had to stop and take some pics.

Henriville!

On our way to France

Chilling on our way to France

After a long drive we finally arrived in Tours, in France. We were pretty siked about this show since the last time we played France (in Rennes) it was one of our (if not the) coolest shows ever. Simon who played that show in Rennes with his band was putting this one up. We were playing Black Hawk. A bar with a small basement, which was the spot we were going to play. Upstairs it was hot, but in that basement it was just insanely hot. First up was Crook Heads and next was Wank For Peace. While I expected the worse from that name, it was a great band. Uptempo melodic hardcore with great vocals. We all loved it. So after we enjoyed their set it was time for ours. Already sweating like idiots, it was time to turn the heat up. France showed us their love once again, it’s so cool to see those dudes have fun while moshing. Good times were had. I think we did 2 encores or something. Don’t know. We were totally wasted after the show, we just had no oxygen left whatsoever. One of the highlights of this trip for sure.

Chilling after the show in France

Walking to our sleeping place

After we all chilled out and started to breathe again, the first thing Goran and I did was playing tablesoccer. The Netherlands VS France. And they won. To our defense it has to be said that the table we played on was terrible, really strange handles. Next time on Dutch soil: Time for a rematch! We’ll win. Anyway, it was time to score some food again. We’d hit a Turkish kebab store and scored ourselves a kebab again with some French Fries. Not the best food ever, but it tasted great at that moment. After that those guys proposed to party, but since most of us were dead tired we opted for some sleep instead. We got to stay with Arno from Crook Heads and once again we managed to fill all the available space. After a call from Sjef (who usually travels with us, but had to stay back in the Netherlands this time) in which we all called him an idiot it we all fell asleep.

SUNDAY 16TH OF AUGUST 2009

On our way to Mol, Belgium

The following morning we woke up a little bit too late since everyone forgot to set a timer. After everyone took a speed-we-have-no-time-shower we hopped into the van and off we went. We still would be able to make it, we just had less time to do stops etc. Off to Mol, Belgium. The last day of our trip.

Live pictures by Steven Verschilde

Live pictures by Steven Verschilde

Trash Talk destroying Mol

We almost made it in time, if we didn’t had to wait at the France tollroad so long (so many tourists! (like us))… We weren’t that late though, just a couple of minutes. Considering the distance we traveled I’m kinda amazed we didn’t had more problems with this. Anyway, we loaded out the van and it was good to see the dudes in Trash Talk again. They seemed to have played some great shows as well. JH Tydeeh is a great venue, like a soccer/football canteen or something. We were up second and gave it our all for the last time. People nodded their head, we rushed through our set and made way for the rest of the bands. Trash Talk closed off the show and turned that place upside down. Literally. Salto’s, headwalks, destroyed merchtable, people going totally crazy: check, check, check. Amazing.

Tydeeh in Mol, Belgium

Obligatory group pic with Trash Talk

After the show we said goodbye to everyone and drove home. But not before we gave some youngsters some autographs haha. So strange to do stuff like that. It’s funny though. This last drive was the shortest one of the entire trip. Only 1 hour. Back home, we unloaded the van, drank a last beer and said goodbye. Goran was going to bring back the van the next day. And that was it.

Last moments of the trip, chilling back home…

All in all we can look back at an amazing week. It all went so fast that I could hardly let it all soak in. Only now, while typing this up and checking the pictures and video with it etc. It really hits me. We had an amazing time once again. I can’t wait to get back on the road again.

We wanna thank all the people that booked us, let us stay at their homes, people that showed up at the shows, who sang along, moshed, supported us with picking up merch etc. Without you guys (& girls) we couldn’t have done this trip. We really need to thank Henri and Goran as well. Henri for filling in on bass so well. With minimal rehearsals the dude nailed it perfectly. It’s great to play with you dude! Goran was great too. Dude helped us out in so many ways during this trip, thanks a lot man. To the rest of you: See you on the road!

As with all our trips, up until the very last week dates got cancelled and changed around. Nowadays we would almost be surprised if it wouldn’t happen. Especially for the UK, always fun. But luckily we managed to get ourselves 3 shows. So we were siked for a nice weekend. This would be our first trip without Joost and with Henri, so it was going to be special anyway.

THURSDAY 27TH OF NOVEMBER. REHEARSAL ROOM, SINT ANTHONIS (NETHERLANDS)

Thursday wasn’t that exciting. Sjef and I picked up the van. From a different company than usual, just trying it out. Maybe a bit more expensive, but a better van for sure. More room, no DVD players or hottubs though. No worries. Anyway, we picked it up that afternoon and both went home. Me preparing some final stuff for the trip, him probably sleeping At midnight we got together, loaded in the van. Of course someone forgot some sleeping stuff, so we had to pick up that first. Some people never change. We had to catch the boat at 7 in France. So off we went.

FRIDAY 28TH OF NOVEMBER. ROSE OF ENGLAND, NOTTINGHAM (ENGLAND)

Funny to see the difference with the first time we went aboard the boat and now. The first time we were all excited, looking around etc. but this time it was just finding a place to crash. The van was running out of fuel so the first stop was a fuelstation. We fueled up the van and were already ready to leave when Sjef came out telling us that our card wasn’t working for whatever reason. We were off to a great start for sure! Some of us went to a PIN machine in a town nearby while the others were held hostage waiting for us to come back. Of course we got lost on our way back to the station haha. After multiple phonecalls (“Yeah this is the man of the gas speaking…”) explaining us the route we got back to the station and were able to pay the fuel. Amazing.

After a long drive we finally got to Nottingham. We had some trouble getting to the venue and parking the van etc, but that’s normal for us small-town boys being in the big city. Luckily Tom helped us out with a good spot and we were ready to set up gear for the show. We ended up on the second floor of this cool pub. Place was pretty cool. It had some big windows, so first thing I asked was if this was the place were some kid was pushed out of the window at a Death By Stereo show or something. Turned out it wasn’t. Oh well. Other bands playing were No Where Fast and our buddies from the Netherlands Citizens Patrol (we recorded our 3 song promo tape in their rehearsal room). Stylewise we more or less were the odd one out. You can count our “faster than lightning” songs on an amputated hand… People seemed into it though. Stef was into it as well, he was so drunk he managed to stumble over the drums. Cool show.

A nice kickoff for the weekend. Good to meet Chris “downloading criminal” Human Race, nice chap, and the dudes from Stand Clear! Always good to put faces to online names.

After the show we took a walk with Alan, Tom and his girlfriend Becca. After what seemed like hours (and getting some food and seeing the city flown over by the local youth (how many girls in nurse outfits are there over there?)) we got to their place. After some talk the rest of the band crashed into their sleeping bags and I stayed awake for a bit to witness the birth of the Stand Clear! demo tape design. Still curious to see what it finally ended up like.

SATURDAY 29TH OF NOVEMBER. NAGS HEAD, HIGH WYCOMBE (ENGLAND)

After a nice night of sleeping it was time for us to get moving again. We picked up some flowers for Becca, thanked them for their hospitality and went on the road again.

Today was the day of the last minute show @ the Nags Head in High Wycombe. Kieran hooked us up, amazing dude. Out of the bands that played we were pretty into Hang The Bastard. Heavy stuff with a great groove. It was cool to see that Your Demise had a huge following of younger kids. Hopefully younger kids will manage to find their way to Dutch shows as well. Our show was okay, with a young audience like that not too many people picked up on our Cro Mags cover though. Oh well, can’t have it all. Maybe we turned some of them on to the good stuff.

The best thing though about the venue was probably the fact that since the late 60′s bands like Blondie and the Sex Pistols played there. We looked all over the back room to find the tags they supposedly left but we only found the Blondie one. Later on I read that The Who played there too. Pretty cool. That’s some history right there.

After the show we went with Kieran, to his place. He arranged beds and couches for all of us. What a guy. Luxury like that is always a privilege on tour. Aside from that pizza (!) and drinks were fixed. Good times. We owe him. First fixing us a last-minute show and then treating us like kings.

SUNDAY 30TH OF NOVEMBER. LE PUB, NEWPORT (WALES)

After a great night of sleep we got things moving again. Since we had some time to kill and saw a sign for “Silverstone Circuit” we decided to drive over there. It wasn’t open that day though, because of the fog no cars were driving. Shitty. We asked a couple of times if we could make a short trip around the circuit, but they wouldn’t let us. Such a shame.

Time for plan B. On our way to the circuit we also saw a sign for horse races, so that’s where we went next. We parked our car and got told to move it right away. Apparently we took the jockey entrance and parked our car near the stables. Shit. We got moved to some kind of VIP spot though, being the “we don’t know what to do”-tourists. We couldn’t have parked the place closer than this. Nice. Anyway, some of us decided to put some money on one of the horses/jockey, to complete the experience. The guy they picked was called “Hasan Pour”, with a name like you can’t expect much I guess. The horse they did bet on came in last. And not like a second later, no….. The rest of the horses were in for quite a while when their horse finally finished. These dudes have such a good taste in horses… Amazing haha.

Time was ticking, so we had to get moving again. We got to Le Pub pretty easily, probably because we knew the place from our previous trip to the UK. Since we were there early and nobody was around yet we went into the city. Henri, Sjef and I went into the city to find a toilet. We found one in a bar, we thought it was stupid to not order something so we ordered ourselves a drink and sat down. The older locals were good company and giving us charge of the jukebox was a nice thing too. Time flew by and before we knew it, we got a call from the rest of the guys asking us where the hell we were because it was taking quite a while. We gave them direction and they joined us too. We had some more nice pints and even got some food (was available freely on the bar, how cool is that!) and we talked a bit with the people in the bar. They knew about Brabant, which was cool. They told a story about them being in Brabant, drinking all day long in a big tent. Around 23:00 the guys they were with (from Brabant) told them they were going to call a taxi to go to a disco. They couldn’t believe it. They were hammered as hell, barely able to move, and here were these Dutch guys wanting to go to a disco, to party on? Hehe, so that’s how they know us in Wales. Nice haha. After a while we made our way to the venue, time to rock.

Last time we went to Le Pub we had a blast. It’s a great venue, with a great atmosphere. Alex B got is on this show, which we were pretty siked about. It was supposed to be one of the final Deal With It shows, but they pulled out at the very last minute. Sucks. Anyway, we did manage to meet mr Boyce once again though, witnessing one of the final Reality shows. Probably England’s coolest dude. Ah fuck it, just skip “probably”.

We got bumped to the last spot but the show was cool, especially for a sunday show. Always nice to play Le Pub and it was good to get to see Human Race, Reality and Ironclad. Ironclad is probably coming over to Europe anytime now, be on the lookout.

After the show we said goodbye to everyone and made way for the boat.

MONDAY 1ST OF DECEMBER. BACK HOME (NETHERLANDS)

Sleeping. Sleeping. Sleeping.

Driving. Driving. Driving.

A nice trip once more. We can’t wait to get on the road again (it’s cooler than this tourreport might make it seem like).

Where to start? It’s already some weeks ago but I promised I would put up this tourreport, so let’s stop the introduction and go back in time right away.

I’ll start some weeks before our trip. Preparations fase. As usual shows got cancelled, that’s just how it works, but all in all it was a lot harder to get shows this time (of the year) than on previous times. A lot of people were away on holidays, places were closed etc. The thing was, we could only do it this period… if we wanted to do it with Joost (who is leaving us for half a year in September) that is. In the end we ended up with 3 days off, playing 5 shows in 8 days. Still sounded like a good trip to us. So off we went.

SATURDAY, 5TH OF JULY. AREA 51, EINDHOVEN (NETHERLANDS)

Today Sjef (our friend/roadie) and I were on a mission. Objective one, picking up the new merch at mr Ries Bandmerchandise his place. Objective two, picking up the van. Although we were both more or less zombies from parties the night before we managed to do both things succesfully. Amazing. Later that day we got together with the wolfpack (the whole band, Sjef and our future replacement drummer Henri) at my place. Packed the stuff we needed for today’s show in the van and off we went. To the venue, knowing we would return home for tonight.

We already played Area 51 before but it’s always a great place to come back to. That skate area! Actually just the entire place. It’s amazing. We really enjoyed ourselves at the show. We played an average show, nothing outstanding. After us Losing Streak got on stage (it sucks they’re splitting up!), always a great band to see. Antidote covers never hurt either. Up next were Mongoloids and Trash Talk. Both were great, especially Trash Talk. They totally wrecked the place. They’re taking heavyness to the next level. Normally not totally my cup of tea, but live this was so damn heavy.

Aside from this, it was the first time I sold my “Some Will Never Know” zine. The first time I would get some feedback on it. People were really positive about it which felt great.

SUNDAY, 6TH OF JULY. PROBERAUME, DUISBURG (GERMANY)

We all enjoyed a good night of sleep, you never know how much sleep you’ll get on tour so I surely took full advantage. That afternoon we got together at our rehearsel room again. This time everything had to be stuffed into the van. Luckily everything fitted perfectly. So off we went. The sun was shining, spirits were up, this was going to be a blast.

When we arrived at the venue in Duisburg we totally felt in love with the place. It looked so cool, just check out the pictures and the video. Imagine this old abandonded, rusty, HUGE, factory and a big concrete building with lots of rooms (containing rehearsel rooms and rooms for shows). It was just perfect for this kind of stuff. The perfect location for taking band pictures, but also the kind of location you already saw a thousand times on band pictures so we opted-out for that one

Anyway, the show was great. Sink Or Swim was a cool new band from Belgium who I think played their first show, cool band, they had a girl on vocals, which is nice to see for a change in this male dominated scene They have a demo out now, go pick it up! We also did meet up with the guys in Crowd Control, they’re from Ireland. Cool dudes. They drove for 5 hours the day before, trying to find the venue in Eindhoven. In the end they just ditched the idea and did get an hotel haha. Their set was heavy. Just before us The Struggle from Belgium went up. It’s always cool to play with these dudes, great guys. After that it was time for us to get things going. People were banging their heads, some of them knew the words to Into The Distance and we dusted off our Cro Mags cover which got people moving. Good times. We managed to sell quite some merch, which isn’t the main thing or anything, but just ask any other band: it really helps when you’re on tour.

We took some graffiti spraycans and a stencil of our name with us on our, to put our names on the wall here and there. We already used it in Eindhoven, forgot to mention that. This was a perfect location to put up some wall decoration again. The organisator even took the stuff with him inside and did some of his own. Spreaaading the word! Shout out to Marcel (the organisator) anyway, he did help us out greatly with putting up the show. We loved it.

Afterwards we stayed at the house of a friend of his. We did drink some beers, had a nice chat and then it was time to get some sleep. Or atleast try to. I finally managed to slip into some state of sleep but then the others were already starting to wake up (I’m a terrible sleeper), so sleeping wise I was off to a terrible start. Sjef had the same problem. All worth it though. All worth it.

MONDAY, 7TH OF JULY, GHENT (BELGIUM)

After a shower, some of us took off to the super market to arrange a nice breakfast for all of us. We came back with some nice baguettes and made sure we ate enough. Anyway, it was to move on, to Ghent. We originally hoped to play a show in Belgium on this date, but all options fell through, so this ended up as our first day off. We were going to make the best of it though, so we decided to check out the beautiful city of Ghent. We parked our van in a parking garage and we went straight into the city. Tourist mode on full throttle. We just walked around the city a bit, checking out the buildings and towers. Great city. Joost, Joep and I went on a boat trip through the city, while the rest opted for a bar. The seats were horrible, but the sight was nice. After our short boattrip we got together again and set out for a pizza. I think we walked around for an hour trying to find one, but not one was up to our standards haha. So we got back to the van and drove to some other area, where we finally found a place that we liked. After we enjoyed a great meal, we set out to find the cinema. After a short discussion on what movie to watch, I succeeded in convincing everyone to see The Incredible Hulk. I’m just a sucker for movies with Edward Norton, most of the time they’re great. I hadn’t been to a cinema for a long time, so I really enjoyed myself. The movie wasn’t bad either. Picking an Edward Norton movie once again proved worthwhile.

Anyway, during the day and after the movie I did send an SMS to Michael, the guy who offered us a sleeping place, to let him know what’s up. But I didn’t hear anything back. No problem, I knew he was working until 22:30 and it wasn’t that late yet. We drove to his place and then I tried to call him, to let him know we were there. “Invalid number”. FUCK! That meant he didn’t knew we were coming at all… I was expecting the worst when I rang the doorbell, but luckily he was at home and everything was alright. It was a great place, huge. Joep and Joost decided to park the van in a parking garage. When they couldn’t find one, they asked the police for directions (they actually helped for once, amazing). When they got back they told us the parking garage was just high enough, only the atenna was scraping the ceiling the entire way, oh well. The many stairways (place was like a flat!) made sure we were tired enough to get some sleep. So that’s what we did.

TUESDAY, 8TH OF JULY, PARIS (FRANCE)

The next morning we got up as early as possible, said goodbye to Michael and left, so we could enjoy Paris to the fullest. Enter our second day off. But with places like this to visit you won’t hear me complaining. After a nice drive we ended up in Paris. We had a couple of things we wanted to see. So we parked our van in a parking garage once again and off we went. On our way to the metro we encountered the first beautiful France woman, nice. Anyway, we were on a mission. First stop was “Champs-Elysées”. So many people. We got ourselves to the Arc De Triomphe and enjoyed the view on top of it. It’s amazing. Next stop, the Eiffel Tower. When we got there we walked into these HUGE lines of people, so the plan of getting up there was off right away. We settled down on the grass and just relaxed for a while. It was time to get something to eat (The rest of the band are McDonald freaks, so yeah that’s where we usually end up). On our way to the McDonalds we got stopped by those cartoonists in the streets (like all other tourists) and Stef got himself a drawing (which ofcourse didn’t look like him at all). He payed way too much for it though. It’s a shame we didn’t have more time, there was still so much to see in the city. We would have loved to see the catacombes with all the human bones in it for instance. Oh well, maybe some other time, it was time to meet up with Ben.

Ben originally was supposed to do a show for us, but at an other show a fight broke out and shows were banned. Sucked for him, sucked for us. Anyway, he was willing to put up with us for a night. His flat was nice, a bit small though but he managed to get all of us in there. He had a great terrace on his roof, we settled down there. Time to drink some beer and then Ben even ordered us some pizza. Good times. When it turned cold we went back inside and after a couple of games of FIFA it was time to get some sleep. Ben was feeling ill and he had to get up early the next morning and besides that, we had a pretty long drive to go the next morning.

WEDNESDAY, 9TH OF JULY, SAN SEBASTIAN (SPAIN)

Another day, another country. It feels so strange, to be in a different country every day. Especially if you don’t travel much usually, like me. Anyway, after a long drive, where not much happened we arrived in San Sebastian early in the afternoon. We met Inigo and as soon as we got our sleeping stuff into his place we went off to the beach. The weather was great, the view was nice, what else could you want? Inigo kept calling us tourists haha, and that’s exactly what we were. Enjoying everything to the fullest. Taking pictures, letting it all soak in. The rest took a dip in the sea when I had a nice chat with Inigo. Cool dude. After our visit to the beach some of us had to go to the toilets. The places at the beach were closed so we had to go somewhere else, FAST. Hahaha, it looked great. Joost and Inigo walking as fas ast they could (almost running) to get to a toilet. They made it just in time.

While sitting on the beach, I talked to Inigo about our last trip and I told him we wanted to get some “patatas bravas”, since we loved it so much the last time. He knew just the place, so he took us there. It was great to enjoy that Spanish speciality enough. We all loved it, except for Sjef ofcourse who thought it was “just some potatoes with a spicy sausage”. Which is a pretty accurate description, but it’s delicious! Anyway, after that we meet up with some friends of Inigo. They wanted to get something to eat. It’s logical for them to eat around 22:00. We did eat enough of the patatas bravas so we went outside, but Inigo went for another round. When they were done we went to a bar to have a drink and chat a bit. After a while Inigo was getting tired (he had to leave for work early the next day) so he wanted to go home. Remco, Sjef and I went with him, since we were pretty beat as well. We made a visit to the rehearsel/recording room of Inigo’s band. Looked pretty cool. He showed us some blastbeats haha and then it was time to get to his appartment. The rest stayed in the city. From what I’ve heard (and saw pictures of) they had a blast. They even got lost on their way back, so I guess they partied hard. I didn’t hear them coming back.

THURSDAY, 10TH OF JULY, SANTONA (SPAIN)

The next morning Joost and Joep moved the van really early because the police was writing a ticket already. We forgot to extend the duration of our parking ticket. Fuck! They talked their way out of it though and moved the van. I missed all of that, because I was sleeping like a baby. Anyway, after we fixed ourselves a tasty breakfast half of us went to the beach and Henri and I put “Ken Park” in the VCR. I didn’t feel like walking to the beach so I installed myself in the couch and enjoyed the movie. Remco just slept through the whole thing. Never saw that movie before, loved every minute of it. Too bad it was dubbed in Spanish (it’s horrible to dub the audio in your own language if you ask me, luckily that only happens with kid movies in our country), the English subtitles helped though. Once the movie was done and the rest came back it was time to get our asses moving again. We closed the doors behind and us and we hit the road. Finally a show again.

The place in Santona looked really cool. It was covered with graffity, which usually gives away a nice venue. This was no exception. We didn’t have any idea how the show would be, would there be many people, would they know us etc? We sat around for a while, just relaxing, set up our stuff and waited for the first band to begin when all of a sudden someone said “Lastig he, dat Spaans?” (which is Dutch for “Difficult huh, that Spanish language?”, for all you non-Dutch-speaking). It was a dude from Belgium, he was on a surf vacation and saw the posters and decided to check it out. Cool dude. Then Wicked took the stage, nice guys and girls. They even had someone playing keyboard (in the back of the venue) and played a cover of Cranberries “Zombie”. Good times! Up next were we. The place was pretty crowded by then and we just went into it full blast. The show was awesome! People were moshing, having a good time and singing along to some of the songs. We talked to the guys from Belgium etc on the outside for a while but then the bar was closing. We slept inside, the owner just locked us in and we could sleep on the floor. We poured ourselves some beers and got to sleep as well. Today was the highlight of the tour so far, for SURE.

These pictures by Lady Skull.

FRIDAY, 11TH OF JULY, RENNES (FRANCE)

At 7 in the morning we heard a noise at the door. Shit! We slept through our wake up call. In a hurry we got up, thanked the owner and got our stuff in the van to take off. This time we were off to Rennes. Once again, the venue looked great and the people were great. We were siked to play. First up was “Money Time”, a local band. Lots of technical problems but who cares. Cool stuff, reminded me a bit of Dirty Money or something. People started moshing right away. This promised to be a great night. After that “Golden District” took the stage. Clearly the local favorites, they played a great set, people were really into it. We loved it. Then it was our turn. Before the show we already got requests for some of our own songs to play, so things looked promising. We started off with Isolation and the place went nuts, people sang along from the start, pile-ons, stagediving, people moshed. It was great. By far the coolest show we played so far. You know those stories about the French scene and their bands etc? Tonight proved them all wrong.

Pictures by Trasher.

Oh on a sidenote, to all French zine guys, please do your zine in English I would have liked to pick up more zines, but a lot of them were in French, and my French is… well.. terrible.

SATURDAY, 12TH OF JULY, HAZEBROUCK (FRANCE)

We stayed the night at the place of a really cool girl, a firend of the promoter. Beds, showers, Cro Mags CD’s laying around, everything. We even got to check our mail. We all slept wonderfully and the next morning we met up with Alexis (the promotor) in the city again, he’s a great guy. We had a nice croque monsieur, baguettes and croissaints for breakfast. The croque monsieur we ate on the terrace was expensive as hell though, but maybe that’s the Dutch part in us. Don’t know, don’t care.

On our way to Hazebrouck, our last stop on this trip, we ended up in a traffic jam. The first one so far, so we weren’t complaining. Anyway, Stef climbed up on the van, Henri got out his skateboard and we had some fun. We were getting quite the attention from the other cars haha. Aside from that the sight was fantastic once again. It’s such a privilige to ride around like that, checking out the cool views, having fun wtih your friends.

Then we got to the venue, it was like a little restaurant, cafebar this time. Looked nice. We got in our stuff and waited for the first band, which was “Backtime”. This was really cool, just some kids, who were 12/13/14 or something, rocking out. Like a newschool Bold or something. Curious to see how they’ll end up. Up next was “Wind Of Pain”, a metalcore outfit, reminding me of Born From Pain. Not totally my cup of tea, but I guess they did well. So then it was time for our last show this trip. The show was okay, nothing more, nothing less. People seemed to like it, bopping their heads.

So after the show, we got our stuff together and went home. We were tired, time to leave it all behind and get back to reality. The rest of the way back we spend talking about out the trip, reliving all the highlights. All in all we had a blast. It was the best trip we made until now without a doubt. We can’t wait to get back on the road. Hopefully 2009 brings us some nice trips again.

Just like when we came back from Spain, a lot of people asked us how the trip to the UK was and most of the time we responded with ‘Great, but read the little report we’ll write soon for more details…’ Well, here you go. A day by day overview of our trip to the UK to give you an idea what we’re doing when we’re hitting the road. If you get bored half way (which we can imagine), go read “The Dirt” instead (if you didn’t read it a zillion times already). Thank me later.

Because we know some people are afraid of words, we took a video camera with us so instead of reading you can also watch our amazing home videos and listen to some live tracks. Oooh the excitement!

TUESDAY AUGUST 14 (DAY ZERO)
Getting the van / last-minute arrangements

Little flyer I made for the trip, posted at various sites…

Our show in Belgium got cancelled twice and things started to look pretty hopeless… We still had to pick up the van though. So that’s what we did. First stop was Sjef Sorbet, our longtime friend, merch dude, roadie, band-beer-drinker or whatever you want to call him. He’s all of the above and more, and less. So, we cranked up the volume of our radio, pressed play and off we went. Sometime later we arrived at the renting place and they gave us the keys to a great 9 persons Volkswagen Transporter, our home for the next couple of days. Sjef drove the van home to his place, I took the car to my place and that was that. Amazing isn’t it? I think I can speak for both Sjef and me if I say it was one of the most exciting moments of our lives. And we lived to tell it! And that’s only the beginning of this wild, wild story!

As for the Belgium show, we actually gave up on it already but when I got home I got a message from Jeff, a 16 year old kid from Belgium. He thought he might be able to arrange something. So for the remainder of the day I stayed in contact with Jeff and amazingly he managed to hook us up indeed. JH Reflex in Kortrijk was willing to let us do it. There was still a need for a PA/vocal amplifcation though… Enter Didier (Losing Streak, originally we would have played at his place), he hooked us up with a PA and everything was arranged. I threw together a last-minute flyer, did some ‘spreading-the-word’ and that was it. Time to get some sleep and hoping for the best.

I have to add though, that Jeff & Didier weren’t the only people helping out. In the days before numerous kids from Belgium tried to arrange something, they contacted venues, rehearsing places, asked their parents, whatever. It was really cool to see people trying and if you’re reading this, thanks a lot! It showed how cool this ‘scene’ can be.

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 15 (DAY I)
HARDCORE at JH Reflex, Kortrijk (Belgium)

Last-second flyer for the last-second show.

Time to leave! Bags packed? Check. Everyone present? Fuck! Ofcourse not. Remco (our guitarist) was still sleeping at his home… He didn’t knew he had to be at our rehearsel space at 3 o clock… Oh well, we loaded the van with our stuff and hit the road. First stop, Remco. Second stop, Kortrijk, Belgium.

When we arrived at JH Reflex, Jeff walked up to us. Something was wrong… Apparently Jeff talked to a volunteer instead of someone in charge (he didn’t know that). So when got to the venue they told him it wasn’t happening. Luckily he still managed to talk them into it. Any money that we were supposed to get was out of the window though. Not that that was a problem to us, we were on our way to the boat anyway. We thought it was amazing we could play a show in the end. So we calmed Jeff down, because he was stressing a bit of it all. Poor dude.

Just when we thought everything was going well, we noticed a problem again. Killing Frost provided the backline, but they only have 1 guitar player… We have two… Fuck, we didn’t think of that. Classic mistake. But Jeff came to the rescue once again, one phone call to a friend (almost on his way to France to go on vacation) and the guitar cab was arranged. Time for the next problem. Drummers need a drum seat. Killing Frost didn’t take that with them and we ALWAYS take that with us, but OFCOURSE we forgot it this time… Aaargh… A normal chair it was. It worked.

Killing Frost started to set up. They’re cool dudes, cool band. We especially loved the dubs they did. Good stuff. After that it was our turn. Some people sang along, good times.

In a way it was one of the coolest shows ever. Not because of the massive turnout (because there weren’t too many people. last-second-show alert!), not because the place exploded with crazy (practiced at home) mosh moves… But because of the fact that it showed how cool hardcore can be. First people trying hard to fix the show at the very last second, arranging everything at the show. During our show people took a glass and passed it around, asking for people to throw in some money. Jeff even asked some friends (not into hardcore but at a place nearby) to come to the show and throw in some money as well. They did. So in the end it resulted in quite some money for both bands. Amazing. It was so cool.

Still buzzing because of the whole show, we left for the boat in Dunkerque in France (the second time we cross through France on a trip without playing there). For most of us, the first time crossing the channel. England belongs to us, you better believe it!

THURSDAY AUGUST 16 + FRIDAY AUGUST 17 (DAY II + DAY III)
Crossing the channel, driving on the left, waking up Rob Boyce, Guitar Hero, Crazy Golf, Anchor Man, witnessing Abandon Ship at Le Pub, Newport

THURSDAY AUGUST 16 (DAY II)

Driving on the left. It’s so strange, to us atleast. In the beginning you constantly turn back to the right, like in the Netherlands. Oh well, Joost adapted pretty quick and was crowned a hero by us all. After a quick stop at a tankstation (and some horrible coffee later) we arrived in Brighton at 6 o clock. An hour too early, timedifference you know. So we had two options. Waiting in the van for an hour or wake up mr Rob Boyce. Ofcourse we woke him up. Must be great, 6 o clock in the morning. Having 6 morons from the Netherlands outside your house, wanting in. We went to sleep right away, but I think none of us had much sleep. Oh well, can’t have it all.

When we were awake enough we almost stumbled over this guitar attached to the Playstation. None of us ever played Guitar Hero before (but heard some great stories), so we wanted to try it. Well, we as everyone who plays it. We got hooked. Damn. Crazy game. Aside from playing Guitar Hero the entire day we went into Brighton with Rob as our guide. We discovered you have to be 21 to get beer from the supermarket in the UK. And even when you’re 21 all your friends have to be 21 as well. Something like that would never happen in the Netherlands. Don’t know what approach is better though. Oh well, just another difference between both countries.

Next stop. The beach. Amazing. Brighton has a great beach. We just sat around, chilling a bit. Stef & Joost were crazy enough to jump into the sea, being swallowed by the waves. After they failed to drown we went on to the highlight of the day. CRAZY GOLF! Something Rob practices on every day (he refuses to admit it though), yet we totally outplayed him. We felt sorry for him, so we went back to his place for some more Guitar Hero.

I don’t think there’s a better way to end the day then with watching Anchor Man, so that’s what we did. Said And Done loves lamp. Stay classy people.

FRIDAY AUGUST 17 (DAY III)

Flyer for the show.

So when everybody was awake, more or less, it was time to head for Newport. We were crossing borders once again, this time to get to Wales. After a pretty long drive, including some traffic jams, beautiful views, the strangest people in cars (but they probably thought the same of us) we arrived in Newport. So now we had to find the venue. Luckily some lovely ladies in the post office were able to give us directions. When we arrived at the venue we found the dudes from Killing Frost (& Didier from Losing Streak) waiting for Kai (the promotor) to arrive. In the meantime Joost (our drummer) started to get sick quite a bit. So he layed down in the buss and we stood outside, waiting. Luckily some people from the club arrived pretty fast and we could get in. A bit later Kai arrived with some good food. After eating a bit of it, Joost started to feel a bit better already and we were looking forward to play.

First up was Losing Six Seconds, Kai’s band. Good stuff, some great guitar riffs. Next up was Misuse, another band I’ve never heard of before. Fast, heavy, pissed off stuff, two girls (bass & drums), you already know it’s going to be good. It was. Our turn. We ripped through our set, because the show started to get behind schedule. It’s always cool to see people singing along and dancing to your songs, especially when you’re in another country. This was no exception. Good show, we loved it. The place has a great sound as well, never hurts. After us it was time for Killing Frost again, this time they amazed us with an Iron Man intro during the soundcheck (flashbacks to Guitar Hero). So then Abandon Ship took the stage. We were told in advance that this was the best band from the UK, so were excited. We met their singer Rob at Rob’s place (does that sound confusing enough?) already (we also met their drummer Matt, but that’s not confusing enough) and they were cool dudes. The place exploded. Newport is down with Abandon Ship for sure. PISSED OFF, a message and lots of fun. We loved it. Reminds me, while I’m writing this, I have to still pick up the vinyl somewhere. On it. Suggest you do the same.

So after the show we drove back to Brighton right away, we had to help Mr Boyce move some stuff the next morning so… We had some problems with our GSP on the way over to Newport but it did knew the way back. Still Joep had some problems with it in Brighton and wanted to throw it out of the window (although he clearly took the wrong turn himself haha). Oh well, things never change

SATURDAY AUGUST 18 (DAY IV) + SUNDAY AUGUST 19 (DAY V)
PLS MSH 07 and the Dirty Money mayhem, Happy Gilmore, more Guitar Hero, Oldschool, Burger King/McDonalds, a castle and crossing the channel again

SATURDAY AUGUST 18 (DAY IV)

Flyer for the show. Not up-to-date with the latest info. Lots of last-minute changes.

After the essential games of Guitar Hero and good breakfast (eggs! no bacon though), Sjef and I went to a rehearsel/equipment renting place with Rob. We picked up the backline and drove it to the venue. The venue was great! An old church, including jesus on the wall. Amazing. Hell was about to break lose in it and there he hung…

Pictures by MattWBPS

There were LOTS of bands playing and I didn’t manage to see em all. From the stuff I saw and remembered I especially liked Cold Ones (and their umbrella), Bases Loaded (a band with Rob & Rob in it + Iron Man (again hehe) as an intro can’t do wrong), Dirty Money (the mayhem!! CD’s/vinyl flying through the room, all merch got put away haha) and Justice (lots of people left already, but it was really cool, good vibe. Only Living Witness and World Collapse songs through the PA before they started playing didn’t hurt either). Props to Rob for putting up this great show.

So after the show we dediced to find ourselves a pub, hell we’re in England aren’t we? Apparently pubs close really early though. So we were there for an entire 15 minutes, amazing. When we went back to Rob’s place we witnessed a pretty heavy fight, nearly got ourselves into it. But since we’re not that good fighters (haha), we managed to stay out of it. “Brighton is really peaceful” according to Rob though. That’s what he said, while we heard sirens in te distance. We loved Brighton, that’s as much as I know.

We all took turns to sleep in the van and this night it was Sjef and me who were being banished to the van. So in the middle of Happy Gilmore we took off to the van. Sjef was sleeping within seconds I think. I tried every position out there (to sleep, mind you) I think and in the end I managed to sleep an hour something because I was exhausted. Oh well, it was not like we had a lot to to do the next day…

SUNDAY AUGUST 19 (DAY V)

I couldn’t wait to get out of the van. Finally freed we fixed ourselves a great breakfast again. Rob already left for some lunch (but we wouldn’t see him again, he had to meet up with a girl, oooooh shit). We watched Oldschool (You can never watch too much Will Ferrel movies) and then it was time to play some more Guitar Hero. We had a couple of tracks to go if we wanted to finish Medium before we left. So that’s what we did. Sjef, Joost and I managed to finish the tracks. We’re true rockstars, no doubt about it.

Time to leave. We did set the house on fire, closed the doors behind us and drove off. Bye,bye Brighton.

On our way to the docks, we drove by a McDonalds. When we took the next turn we couldn’t find it anymore. We did pass a Burger King though. So the stupidest plan ever came up. We were going to ask directions for Mc Donalds at Burger King. As you might have guessed, they refused to give them out. Oh boy. We’re such retards. Interesting sidenote: The other visitors in the joint were Dutch as well.

We were an hour too early to catch the boat to the UK (we got sent back by NorfolkLine) so we decided to check out the castle we saw near the docks. It was closed so we couldn’t get to it, but hey, atleast we tried to do check out a bit of the scenery. We encountered a drunk lady at the parking lot there, who said some strange things about sleeping in the castle (atleast a part of her she said??) and stuff like that she know and saw things we couldn’t and whatever. We enjoyed the view on the city, Dover I think, for a bit and then returned back to the boat. We did cross the channel one final time. Out with the UK, in with the mainland. A long ride later, we were home.

MONDAY AUGUST 20
Returning home, sleep, sleep and sleep

We slept. A lot. That’s pretty much all we did on monday. Exciting huh? We’re so rock & roll.

And that’s it. Another amazing experience added to our life. We can’t wait to hit the road again. We’ll see where it takes us next time. But we’ll be going back to the UK someday for sure. The same goes for Spain (remember our trip in February this year?) by the way. Be prepared!

PS > If anyone reading this has any pictures (or video) from our shows there (or know people that do), hook us up!

PS2 > In case anyone is interested, we’ve got a couple of those UK editions of the LP left. Check the shop.

People asked us after our trip to Spain how it was, what we did between the shows and how Spain was etc. Because it’s hard to describe it with words we tried to give you an idea what us tourists did over there below. With lots of pictures. It’s nothing spectacular though. If anything it’s a nice way for us to look back at our trip to Spain, a time we’ll never forget:

When we got a message from Carles (Deathwishteam Girona) asking if we would like to come over to Spain to play some shows, we were pretty excited to say the least.

Below you can read what happened on our trip. Being the spoiled tourists we are, we ofcourse took a lot of pictures. They’re not even close to the images we have in our minds, the memories etc, but it’s a start.. Oh well, just start reading…

The poster for the entire tour. Posted on various internet sites.

20 FEB – TUESDAY – SINT ANTHONIS

Tuesday evening. 19:00. We decided to leave for Spain on Tuesday so we would arrive a day early in order to chill and look around a bit. After all, aside from playing we wanted to enjoy our stay as much as possible.

After picking up the van and our friend Peter (owner of the van as well) we were ready to load everything in the van and start the long drive to Spain.

When everything was stuck together nicely in the van (both people and stuff) it was time to start driving. But not without our life-saving device or should I say best friend… TomTom (GPS), without him we would have get lost like a zillion times. None of that though, because of this wonderful piece of technology we wouldn’t have to worry about reading maps etc. Okay, so we were all set, byebye Holland, Spain here we come.

21 FEB – WEDNESDAY – GIRONA

After a lot of rain, fog (to the point we hardly could see anything, oh well…), and mountains (driving as fast as possible on our way down so we would get up the mountain pretty easy…) the weather got better and better the closer we got to Girona. Pim, Remco & Joep took turns driving and around 15:00 a we arrived in Girona. We were a bit early though so first we started to look around in the city. We parked our van in a secure parking garage and off we went.

First stop was a cafe where we enjoyed our first Spanish beers. The sun was shining, we were in a foreign country, nobody telling us what to do, we were enjoying ourselves. The mood was set.

Around 17:00 it was time to meet Carles from Deathwishteam Girona, the dude that arranged everything for us. We gave him a call and he came to pick us up. Quickly we found out he was one of the nicest guys we’ll ever meet (we owe you dude!). He took us to the place we would be staying. An appartment he’s renting just for bands. Let’s see. A TV, playstation, couches, chairs, beds. Damn, this was going to be great!

After we got ourselves some food in the local supermarket (and totally forgot one bag with stuff in the supermarket, even before we had to pay for it… ofcourse we found out about it when we were already back in the appartment… typical) we chilled a bit. Most time was spent playing Bully (Canis Canem Edit) on the PlayStation 2 though. Carles told us FC Barcelona was playing a soccer match this night, so we decided to go watch it together with him and his friends.

We enjoyed some beers, had some nice conversations with Carles and his friends. As a bonus we watched his friends throwing ashtrays at eachother and slamming a knife into the wall. Nice!

After the match it was time to get some sleep.

22 FEB – THURSDAY – GIRONA

When everybody was awake and we enjoyed our first meal of some baked eggs we were ready to explore the city a bit more. This was going to be our last chance, so off we went.

First of all, DAMN, Girona is beautiful! We had a quick glance already on the first day, but now we had a better view of the city. We really enjoyed it. Let’s not spend too many words on this, but just look at the following pictures and you know exactly what we mean. If you ever get the chance to check it out, do so. It’s great.

After our trip into the city it was time for the first show, at Club Blau:

Club Blau is a disco. Nice! From the outside it looked like a gigantic warehouse but from the inside it’s a nice & shiny disco. The atmosphere was great, lots of people and we played a good show. Aside from us Burkah played, a heavy metalcore band that even covered a Born From Pain song! Nice to hear something Dutch far away from home. The coolest band was “Charles Bronson Discipline” though, great guys, great sound. We all loved it.

Pictures by Carles.

After our show the other room opened up as well and a big techno party started. Nice senorita’s all over the place, needless to say, we enjoyed ourselves. At the room where we played some alternative DJ was spinning his records. Not that interesting to be honest. Oh well, can’t have it all!

When a couple of hours passed and we were done partying, it was time get back to the sleeping place. For the last time. After a short drive and a long walk we chilled and talked a bit with Carles and then it was time to go sleep. We wouldn’t see Carles again after this. We’ll meet again though. One day.

23 FEB – FRIDAY – ZARAGOZA

Once awake, Joost and Pim decided to pick up the van. We didn’t want to leave too late, because we decided to go visit the FC Barcelona stadium, Camp Nou. Barcelona was kinda on our way, so it wouldn’t take us too far away from our original route.

On our way to pick up the van, we came across these nice graffity drawings. Girona has some nice artists for sure:

After that we got our stuff in the van once again and we went off to Barcelona. When we got there we just walked around the gigantic stadium and chilled a bit in the sun. We didn’t even go inside, we just wanted to check out the place. Luckily the fries and hamburgers were only 4 euro (!). Expensive, but that’s something you can expect over here.

When we left the stadium the sun was still shining but the closer we got to our destination, Zaragoza, the shittier the weather got. It didn’t look pretty when we arrived. Zaragoza is a really busy city traffic wise and it was raining a lot. People just park their cars in the middle of a crossroad, no shit! It’s insane. And weatherwise, after two days of sun we felt like home again. Rain, rain, rain. LET IT RAIN.

We had to search a bit for the venue, but when we found it, Carlos (Not Carles) from Real Crisis quickly arrived. After a short talk we decided to get our stuff inside the venue. After that we went to the place where we would sleep, Carlos his home. He lives really nice, cool place. Nice turntables and once again we found something Dutch. Carlos has lots of Dutch records He is a big Reaching Forward fan, so the dude has taste. Good to see some Not Just Words Records releases as well.

Ok, time for the show:

As you can see we were being announced as a mix between Cro Mags & Strike First (from the Netherlands as well) hehe. Nice! Check out Strike First by the way if you didn’t yet. Cool band, cool guys.

Carlos soon told us Real Crisis wasn’t going to play tonight because one of the bandmembers was feeling ill. Bummer, because we were looking forward to seeing them play. Luckily Enter The Nightmare was still playing though and they opened up the evening with a great set. Check this band out people! Great guys, good band! After our show they told us to set up quick and start the show because there wasn’t much time left. Ofcourse we were having techincal problems (Stef’s 5150 just stopped working all of a sudden) and a quick start wasn’t happening anytime soon… Oh well, when we fixed everything we had 10 minutes to play left. Those 10 minutes were damn great though. People sang along and we had a great time. The shorter, the better? We loved it.

24 FEB – SATURDAY – GIJON

After a good nice sleep and a fast breakfast we went on the road again. Next stop, Gijon. We started our trip together with Enter The Nightmare & Real Crisis but quickly we lost track of Enter The Nightmare though. A bit later Real Crisis was nowhere to be seen as well. Oh well, we knew where to go. TomTom (GPS) you know…

While driving we noticed people giving us signs and strange looks though… We know we’re insanely good looking but giving signs etc for that is a bit overdone though… So we dediced it was probably something else and stopped at the nearest parking spot.

The left part of the bumper was dangling behind the van, the damn thing was only still attached to the van with a really small cable. We probably drove like that for miles… Oh well, we just took the damn part off, threw it in the back and kept driving.

When we arrived at Gijon there was nobody at the place yet. No other bands, no people, nobody. So we just parked our van and started exploring the city. The haven was pretty nice, check it out:

Because we were getting pretty hungry we found ourselves a place to eat. After we enjoyed some nice French fries we went back to the venue. People were there now and stuff was being set up. The place looked really cool, like some sort of cave.

After we got our stuff inside we parked our van. On our way over there though we damaged a wheel. A bit of rubber was cut out of the wheel. There was no problem in driving like this but we decided we were going to change tires the next day and not worry about it today.

Ok showtime. Check out the poster of the show:

This was the first time we saw Real Crisis play and the last time Enter The Nightmare played. Both bands played a great set. We enjoyed it. People were totally into it.

These pictures by Mario Martinez.

Since we didn’t get to play a full set yesterday we went all out today. But even after we played our set people kept asking for more so we decided to try something different. We played a new song we are working on, for the first time. They seemed to dig it.

After our show it was time to get to the sleeping place. We would stay at the home of the Enter The Nightmare singer, Jairo. Which is a great dude by the way. We had to wait a bit though, since he was waiting for a key. When we finally got the key we started to drive.. and drive… and drive… up the mountain. To the top. When we got there the van with Real Crisis and Jairo stopped and Jairo got out… Apparently he was LOST haha. He couldn’t find his parents place… So we entered the address in our great TomTom (GPS) device and we started driving upfront. Soon we arrived at our destination. After a bord of “paela” and “straight edge beer” (0% alcohol) Jairo offered us we quickly lay down to get some sleep. We were pretty tired.

25 FEB – SUNDAY – DONOSTIA (SAN SEBASTIAN)

We awoke to this sight:

We didn’t have much time to enjoy it though, it was time to change the tire. Joep, Joost and Peter took charge of this operation and changed the tire without any problems. We just drove the van to a dry place (with a roof above our head) so we could change the tire without getting wet.

We quickly found out they made local cider at the place we changed the tire. The people that owned the place were so nice. Unbelievable. Right after we changed tires they opened up some bottles of cider to give us a taste. When we wanted to leave they even offered some bread with cheese as well. They also gave us 3 bottles of cider to take with us. These people were so nice to us, complete strangers for them. While we used their space… Amazing.

After we said goodbye we had to leave though. We left this wonderful family and started our drive to Donostia. Once again Real Crisis and us parted ways somewhere along the road…

When we finally arrived at the venue (we couldn’t find it with our TomTom (GPS) because it was in an other part of the city blablablala, we’re not getting into the entire story right here. But it involved getting into a local internet cafe and finding the place with Google Maps. So aside from TomTom (GPS) we have to thank Google Maps as well.) we enjoyed a great meal of pasta and paela again. It’s not like they eat anything else over there

Poster for the show:

We played our final show of this tour. The people present seemed to be into it and we really enjoyed this last show. After saying goodbye to real Crisis it was time to start driving home. Byebye Spain, or Africa as Carles calls it.

26 FEB – MONDAY – SINT ANTHONIS

After our final show we drove home straight away. 13 hours later we were back home safely. Tired as hell, but we made it.

After something like 4300 km, packed together with 6 people in a van, we can look back on an amazing experience. We had a blast for sure. A dream come true actually. The people in Spain are amazingly friendly, the great hospitality… We couldn’t have wished for more. We will never forget this.

Carles (Leuk skipak! / “This is Africa”), Real Crisis, Enter The Nightmare and everyone else that made this trip possible. THANKS A LOT! Hope we’ll see you again soon!

PS > If anyone reading this has any pictures from our shows there (or know people that do), hook us up!