European Transmission Part III

Well, I haven't had much down time since the last update so I figured now would be a good time to knock out a post. We have some time sitting around while it rains for the 30th time, why not.

Following the day off in Lille with our buddy Jeff, we headed out to spend our next day off in Amsterdam. Last time around, Amsterdam was one of my favorite cities to explore. I know why others really enjoy their time in this city but as I don't indulge in said things, its more about the architecture, culture and exploration. Overall, a beautiful city. I had a fun time wandering and showing Evan around during the day. The Grown Ups guys seemed overwhelmed with what the city had to offer but in a good way. After this long day we shacked up in the van overnight alongside one of the canals near the city center. I spent the following morning exploring the city a bit more, union station and a few museums on my own and followed this with some breakfast with Evan. We also shot a little "take away" show with Evan sitting on a boat in the canal that will be featured on Rock Sound TV in the near future. Great day off.

Our next stop was Drachten, Netherlands, about 3 hours or so east of Amsterdam. Iduna was a neat venue filled with really nice and accommodating folks. Show didn't have the best turn out but hey, it was Drachten, Netherlands. We departed from the venue, grabbed some late night eats and hit our hotel for the evening. During this hotel stay, Evan and I made a bet on the Flyers/Blackhawks series and proceeded to stay awake to catch game one. Needless to say, a lot of trash talking was going on from our neighboring beds. Our bet has the winner getting a brand new pair of Fred Perry shoes purchased by the losing party. You should know, I have an addiction to my Perry kicks.

We hit the road nice and early after breakfast to make the long trip down to Rosswein, Germany. We had no idea what to expect from this show as it was put together fairly late and we had limited details. We arrived after a long drive through awful rain (a pretty standard occurrence through out the next few days) to one of the coolest venues of tour thus far. as well as some of the coolest and nicest guys and gals. Turns out the promoter and company had seen Grown Ups when attending This Is Ours Fest last year in the States. Pretty awesome to see Lion of The North t-shirts and hear Lautrec playing on the stereo while eating dinner. Reminders of how great home really is. The show ruled and the conversations were quite refreshing. Post show we headed about 10-15 minutes over to Döbeln to rest our heads. Another fairly small yet awesome village. We stayed with our new friends at their huge house/cafe/community space and ended the night with drinks and plenty of great hang outs.

We had yet another day off but this turned out to be for the best. We spent the day at the same house/cafe/community center as the night before. We napped, worked, explored, ate, watched movies and relaxed indoors while avoiding the rain. I think the highlight of this day off was the foosball/kicker/table soccer tournament we put together. We've seemed to develop a bit of an addiction. Always turns out to be a load of trash talking and fun times.

Next stop: Krakow, Poland. We had to do a bit of emailing and googling before hitting the road. I guess because of all the rain most of Poland and Krakow had flooded. After figuring out that the show was still on as planned and not cancelled, we hit the road. The weather and traffic extended the drive to about 9 hours and we finally arrived at Tom's home where we were greeted with a wonderful dinner prepared by Tom and his girlfriend, Agata. We were a bit late to the venue but were surprised to find a bunch of people awaiting the show. Evan's (IIOI) set was quite amazing. Not only did he sound great (as always) but the crowd loved him. They wouldn't allow him to unplug his guitar and forced him to play more songs than originally planned. An amazing sight to see. Proud of him. Grown Ups set was great as well. Crowd was moving around and really seemed to be enjoying themselves. We sold some merch, chatted it up with some very nice Polish folks and headed back to Tom's apartment. Evening ended with some partying and such before everyone finally passed out. Poland overall is a very depressing place but the people are very nice and seem to not be effected by the state of the country and economy. Its refreshing to see.

We awoke bright an early to head back to Germany for the show in Dresden. Another long and boring drive through Poland. We ended up stopping off at a McDonald's to grab a quick bite. Now, you would assume this is fairly boring or normal but alas this stop was not. We walked into a weird, grand opening celebration filled with an insane amount of employees, the Polish Ronald McDonald (Clowns freak me out.. big time) and balloons. Tons of balloons. Mind you, this is in the middle of nowhere. Kinda weird. Made for an interesting lunch stop nonetheless.

The show in Dresden was at this pretty neat venue called AZ Conni. Hospitality was great as always, show was solid and it was awesome getting to see our Rosswein/Döbeln friends again. I wish I had a bit more time to explore the city though. A lot of history in Dresden. We were located a bit away from the city center and were running on a tight schedule for our long trip down to Vienna.

I think this is a good place to stop for today. I have some emails and post cards to finish up before bed.

Transmission IV: Austria, Czech Republic, Germany and more


Currently Listening: Marnie Stern - This Is It...