the tour was organized in order to run away from the famous Lithuanian winter. later we realized there was nothing to fear (no snow at all and +5 in December), but anyway we had really great time during these 3 weeks in Europe. one of the reasons was to support our officially released CD.
for the 3rd time we hit the road and for the 3rd time everything was started with a gig in our hometown Vilnius. this time we've played in our own so-called "Green" club. it's our rehearsal basement, but sometimes we arrange open parties with bands, djs, table tennis and its majesty Food. it seems people really like the venue, so it was the best place to start. the crowd was very active and happy, but they couldn't believe we were not gonna play more. we were saving up energy a bit. local russians SPICHKI were headliners that evening. and they rocked with honest melodic cabaret-style punkrock. it was really hot, but we left home to pack the stuff.
after all day driving we've entered Warsaw and found "B-65" club. the venue was almost empty. soon some punkrock band POST REGIMENT members, who arranged this gig for us, appeared. we've got a soundcheck and traditional Polish meal "flaki". the gig started later, though there was written on a poster "this time really punctually". it was a joke, isn't it? the concert was really nice and honest. it's a good tradition - the first tour gig in Poland is always very good. I don't know why...
there was some violence in the crowd, but it was turned off soon. it was nice to meet our old friend Pietia from QQRYQ Prod. (one of the first Polish, who founded us interesting and started to distribute our stuff) and lonely rasta Stepan (we smoked, ...slept, that is, at his place in Hamburg on our previous tour).
after the gig we were taken to same house we slept sometime ago. this time there was arranged quite a big, but cosy "imprezza". half a night some of us spoke real good Polish. somebody said our guitar player spoke Polish better than Polish do. my Polish was not so good, so I fell asleep somewhere.
the trip from Warsaw to Bialsko Biala was real trip, because Polish friends gave us some local mushrooms. they were trippy.
we've already knew that our gig in Bialsko Biala was canceled, because people around the venue didn't want any noise on saint day Sunday. sounds a bit strange even in such a religious country as Poland is. but anyway we were happy to meet our friend Jacek Zieba and have few beers in the venue where we supposed to play. the bar even wanted to pay us for the road, but we strictly refused. by the way, the next morning we got a call from Verona, Italy -- one more show was canceled...
tomorrow early evening without any troubles on a border we came to Brno. restauracja "U Alberta" seemed a bit strange at first - ordinary local pub for senior beer drinkers. in few hours it was converted in a boiling pot with a small stage. the man with moustache behind a bar was filling beer glasses all the evening. everything was really nice, except some skinheads who came to hear ska (and were probably disappointed). they really seemed like boneheads looking for troubles. and they found it. we must stop in the middle of our set, because there was something wrong in a crowd. somebody shouted at each other, we couldn't understand a word and felt really stupid. later we were told these so-called "apolitical" skinheads found the gig too "communistic". bullshit. anyway we've finnished this quite intensive, but nervous gig. we spent the evening at Bruno Ferrari's place (though there was written "Karel Gott" on the doors) watching videos and eating. by the way, Bruno asked to write this report then.
Czech-Slovakian border seemed quite neglected. Slovakians have found that there are no security belts for back passengers in our van. few weeks ago the same van was crossing Polish-German border with Lithuanians BRAMBORAK and Australians BY ALL MEANS. only two of the crew croosed the border in a bus. the rest were forced to hitch hike... knowing that we've tried to convince the official. it seems he was satisfied to get some cash.
our gig in "Devil's Pub" in Nitra was one of the hottest on the tour. though the gig organizer turned out to be naive teenager and didn't received any cash for diesel, there were quite a lot people, who were honest and active. some people even came from Bratislava or other places - it was very nice to meet and talk with them. in general, though Slovakia is quite poor country (like Lithuania), people are very friendly there and we had good time.
travelling to Croatia was more complicated. first thing we faced on the border was shouting "Litva! Passport!". the soldier didn't want to know that we gave our passports to other official already. then they started to demand cash from us - 250 DEM each. of course, we didn't have so much in cash and started to shout at them. it worked - we went through after hand-writing funny paper about instruments.
Zagreb met us with few car accidents. we called Hogar, the guy did the concert. soon two bikers arrived and led us to their club "Maximum". at first it was a bit frightening, but we saw lots of ready-to-act people inside. we were carying the stuff on a stage and they were standing and waiting. it was one hot and wet slot. one guy after the gig said: "yesterday I was at NY SKA-JAZZ ENSEMBLE show, but you was better. their patches cost 9 DEM". after people left the club, barman made a special biker's tribute to us - special strong drink. it was too much for me...
next day we went to "austrian farmers" (Croatian joke) - slovenians. Ljubjana made impression of a calm and cosy town. yesterday above mentioned Americans played in the same venue where we were going to play. so we knew there won't be many people. Italians hardcore guys KAFKA played with us. when they hit the stage there were something like 40 people in a hall, where yesterday were about 10 times more. the "Metelkova" complex situated near Central railway station in a huge ex-military barracks. there are few concert places, bars, art galleries, etc. - nice place.
Velenje - is a small town in the mountains (though Slovenians laughed when we said so). the concert took place in local "Mladinski Center" - very clean and quite luxurious place. it seems that Slovenian government very strongly support all youth activities, even more than in Germany. it's good that you can get money for some good activities, but it's a bit boring as well. the gig was attended mostly by teenagers, who came maybe because there were nowhere to go that evening. something like - we came to see you play, so play and we will listen. much more interesting was to visit local student club and drink some beer and talk with people.
we left Velenje on a sunny and warm morning and headed Postojna, the highest Slovenian town, in twin peaks - blair witch project mist and twilight. this is Slovenia - country of fairy tales. on the road we saw how rapid developing country cuts and slices its mountains to build new highways - really sad landscape...
In Postojna we've played in half-built another one "mladenski center", but people were more interesting there. such a small town (something like 5 thousands) gathered maybe bigger crowd than Ljubljana. of course, and NY SKA-JAZZ ENSEMBLE were not playing there day before :) local dopers-smokers were quite "strict", so smoked definitely too much shit and the gig for me was quite strange, though not bad. anyway not the best idea to play stoned. tomorrow we had a day off and hang in a so-called "club" watching videos and smoking local harvest. it was really smoked away day.
next day we had serious thing - entering the EU on the unknown for us Italian border. Italians tried to be very strict and careful, but after checking some stuff they waved us away. the only trouble was to take everything out of the van and then to put everything in. not the biggest problem for sure.
late evening after testing local vine we arrived at "El Paso" - famous Torino squat. people even found us some food there. they even had a kicker - table football. we got really addicted to this game. it's not very popular in Lithunian and not so easy to find it. next day we walked a bit in Torino and came back for marvelous dinner with baked onions, various oils and vinegars and 5l vine bottles. after the dinner we were taken out for real Italian coffee. Tuesday is not the best day for a gig and usually "el Paso" do gigs on weekends, but they made an exception for us, what we really appreciated.
before leaving "El Paso" we were invited to come on weekend next year. we really would like. to reach France we should cross the Alps and it was really impressive trip for people living in plains like us. the mountains were pierced there already with 10-15 km long tunnels and we should pay for it on the highway. in France we took national roads to avoid paid highways. takes a bit longer, but for free and you get more beautiful landscape outside a window. it's important when spend so much time on a road.
café "Le Sporting" was a small nice bar in center of Saint Etienne. it was really nice play there, only our drummer during breaks, should letting people to get into WC - its doors were stuffed by his drum set. it was nice to see very diferrent people moving around. it's difficult to explain, but i got an impression that French and Lithunian vibrations got together. i mean people reacted to our songs very positive. one more day off we spent in Saint Etienne ...watching videos again. one of them about takings streets away from cars and making wild festivals there was really interesting.
next gig we were supporting British anarcho-ska-dub band INNER TERRESTIALS in a huge Dijon squat "Les Tanneries". it was nice for us that people enjoy our music and ask to repeat, though they came for I.T. there was something like 300 crowd and I.T. gig was really amazing.
when we were saying we are gonna to play in Selestat, no French knew where it is. and here we are - a small town near German border. our gig took place in local pub "Le Tigre". it was not so big bar with a really spacy stage. and they got a kicker! paid, unfortunately... after playing two slots we were asked to play more. bar's owner said he would pay more money, but it was enough for us. merci, au revoir!
first German town we stopped was Frankfurt/Main. and the story we got is: on our previous tour we were going to play in Lille (France). Lithuanian, studying in Germany, and his German friends went to see us in France. our show was canceled, but it was enough. few hundreds meters from the squat they crashed their car... we met in the squat anyway, but only with sad smiles. so the same Lithuanian Nerijus made a gig in a place he lives - so called Monster barracks. the place is surrounded by big building and only half year left for them to exist. they were attacked by the police already. so we've played in "Monster bar" for Nerijus and his friends. after the gig we had really nice after-party with punky-girl armed with vinyls. and there was another kicker. real sexy game :)
"Gerberstr.3" in Weimar is one of the best venues I've ever seen. very nice people, small, but nice stage and hall, backstage with three-floor-beds. the show started a bit nervous and ended with broken guitar and bass strings. not the best day to play. this time we supported another band we really liked, German GUTS PIE EARSHOT, playing strange apocalyptic trippy punk-d'n'b with drums-violin-bass. really friendly guys playing very nice music. last summer I saw them for the first time and it was a huge surprise for me.
do you know where is the biggest "youth center" in ex-DDR? yes, you are right "AJZ" in Chemnitz. the atmosphere reminded Lithuanian gigs a bit: lots of leather clothes, drunk-pissed-away old-school "destroy" punks. of course, there were few hundreds people who made really good buzz. we met French emo-techno-metal-hardcore band MOLAIRE for the first. we've played few gigs more together in Germany. first impression was a confusion what is MOLAIRE about.
next morning we met Lenin, Mexican guy, who played in LOS CRUDOS before. he went together with us from Chemnitz to Dresden. it was very interesting to talk with him on the way. while it was nothing to do in the venue (a really small squat), we went to Dresden zentrum to see what left after the American bombing. well, it was very nice city before for sure.
the concert took place in a basement. MOLAIRE played first. intensive and interesting, always switching the speed. in the end of the gig the basement was full of moving and singing people. half of us jumped amongst the people, because there was no space on the stage. if you come here, you dance, because there is no place to stand. that was real keller-core spirit!
the worst gig happened in Zittau, small German town near Polish-Czech borders. first of all our friend-driver-distro man got strange "alien" under his hand skin. my voice was fading away, though I used some medicine that helped me the previous tour. so we went on a stage not in the best mood, but after few songs my voice came back and people started to move. suddenly I saw our guitar player with real pain in his face. he threw his guitar off and lied for the rest of the evening in the backstage. sometimes shit happens...
MOLAIRE played their best gig on our joint mini tour. the sound was clear so we could hear what these four strange guys do with their instruments. real powerful stuff. but headliners were American band NOVAK SEEN with their lights and sound engineer and sexy girl on vocals. they played really professional music, but nothing more. nothing behind it. our drummer and French bass player had real good fun while watching the show.
from Zittau we went to Berlin's suburb Elstal. local jugendzentrum was situated in forest. inside they had really nice small concert place and bar and few rest rooms. the concert was was stopped by young guy shouting "nazis are coming, nazis are coming!". everybody run out of the club to beat nazis. we were playing encore before that. until early morning we tried to know secrets of kicker.
next morning to said aur revoir to MOLAIRE and turned to Polish border. all the time i was trying to improve my voice, but in vain. we just came and said we must cancel our show in a small village near German-Polish border. two Czech bands should play there, so the gig wasn't wasted.
all night long we went through Polish "rally" and next afternoon entered our beloved "Green" club. the tour was over, but we have already have some plans for the future.
written by Domas
-- taken from:
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