European Tour September 2000 by John Franko NRSV tour was: Dean - vocals, Kent - Heavy Metal Guitar, Scott -Bass, Glen (Billy Club Sandwich)- Drums, Worm (from Germany) -Driver and Soundman, John Franko -Tour Manager, Alan Z. -Crazyman
August 31 -Arrive in Amsterdam at 9am on Royal Jordanian Airlines. We're picked up at the airport by Worm who has the van ready and packed - backline intact (saving us much time). OK now the fun begins. One of Glen's very important pieces of luggage carrying drum equiptment gets lost by the Airline. As it turns out Glens' box has gone on to Jordan in the Middle East. The Airline people don't help for shit and tell us to come back tomorrow. Bastards! We spend the night at a hostel in Amsterdam. Needless to say but the NRSV crew added much to the Dutch economy that night. (and I don't mean buying tulips and wooden shoes).
Sept. 1 -We pick up Glens' bag at the Airport and head to Maastricht in the south of Holland. Our friend Dave Reumers who lives in Maastricht had the T-Shirts printed up for the tour so we did a quick stop by to pick them up. We had to leave around midnight that night to drive to Switzerland and it's a good thing we left when we did because these NRSVguys could barely stand up they were flyin so high. Kent was so obliterated he forgot how to move his fingers.
Sept. 2 - Bad Ragaz, Switzerland The first show of the tour at an outdoor festival. Great show, great crowd, great city. Alan gave Europe it's first taste of his underwear wearing, mooning the crowd, and insane big guy dancing his lousy ass off- Something New Yorkers have known for some time now. After the show we got put up in the best hotel of the tour. Two suites in an amazing hotel. (It can only go downhill from here.)
Sept. 3 - Zug, Switzerland with VISION and others OK so this show was added late because of a cancellation. The best part about it was seeing Alan get up in his underwear and dance for Vision. (They asked for it and boy did they get it).
Sept. 4 - Hannover, Germany @Chez Heins with AS FRIENDS RUST This was our first meeting w/ A.F.R. and we (for some strange reason) thought they were a SxE band - we later learned that they were no more SxE than the NRSV crew - needless to say we all got along great. Great show in a youth center - packed house. This marked the first concussion of the tour for Dean, as he hit his head on the low ceiling above the stage during their set. But hey, by the end of the night, I'm sure he didn't even remember it because the club was real cool about giving these guys all they could drink (always a mistake!).
Sept. 5 - off day Went to some German town outside of Hannover to check out a show that AS FRIENDS RUST was playing in a squat. Glen and Alan went to some crazy Hungarian restaurant while Dean and I spent half the night wandering around searching….
Sept. 6 -Tuttlingen, Germany @Jugendhaus with SHELTER and others Our first of 3 shows with Shelter. Found out after meeting them that they weren't as weird as expected. (OK so I was expecting monks chanting while hitting Bongos). Really cool guys in Shelter; but the promoter was kind of being a dick not wanting to pay us. Finally got paid and slept in the club. Alan tried to pick up some local German chicks by snapping pictures of them in the dark. Ray of Today helped the fellas track down some …(well, you know…).
Sept 7 - Weisbaden, Germany @ Schlachthof with Shelter and others Cool Club in an old slaughterhouse. All the guys went totally crazy checking out the graffiti which was amazing. Also, we explored an abandoned warehouse and then Glen, Kent, Dean, and Scott disappeared into another abandoned building. Dean tried to ride a halfpike in a shopping cart while Kent broke bottles. Oh yea, the show was good. NRSV blew it up and so did Big Al's ass-shakin'. Slept in the apartment adjacent to the club. Had so much beer in the van we had to leave a case outside the club when we left late the next morning.
Sept 8 - Potsdam, Germany @ Linden Park. Festival with Shelter, Cold as Life, As Friends Rust, Length of Time and more Big festival in a huge venue. Hung out with a guy named Mosh who grew more and more drunk as the night went on. Also good to see the Cold As Life (Detroit) guys, who were awesome. NRSV blew the crowd away at this show. Fuckin Awesome!! Alan was in full swing and the insanity never stopped on stage. After the show all bands went to a Hostel and partied up even more. Turns out that there was a bunch of bees that were living it the ceiling lights and started attacking us after the lights were out (go figure). Dean first heard em landing on him and it was funny as shit watching all of these drunk and high motherfuckers going crazy killing bees.
Sept 9 - Potsdam, Germany. day off A sad day - Alan had to leave to fly back to New York to go back to work - so he was dropped off at the airport early. We went back to the same venue from the day before and saw Backfire, Ensign, Miozan, and others play.
Sept 10 - Ulm, Germany @Beteigeuze with Mob Style Crew and more They fed us something that we really couldn't tell what it was. After that the small club was loaded with skinheads. Great show!!!
Sept 11 - Freiburg, Germany @Atlantik with Ensign Cool fuckin town. Wandered around, did laundry, Dean and I checked out some stores. Show was good- Mostly skinheads who were into NRSV a lot more than Ensign. Promoter of the show was a guy named Mitch Nitz who would forever stay in our minds 'til the end of the tour. After the show we went back to Mitch's place. Cool guy who does the merchandise for the Exploited. Drank the night away listening to Mitchs crazy tour stories while watching the European gas crisis get worse on the TV news.
Sept 12 - Osnabruck, Germany @ Ostbunker Great show in an old German army bunker. The problem was that before the show started while we were backstage eating some scumbag stole some T-shirts from us. We went absolutely crazy searching for the person and I tell you we were ready to kill a muthafuka (oh, we're still gonna your ass!) . I was so pissed off that I was threatening anybody who even looked at me the wrong way. Of course, we never did find them, but the guys found a huge sack of weed - so all ended well.
Sept 13 - Bochum, Germany @ Zwischenfall Huge club and it was pretty weird. People were just sitting in the back like NRSV was some sort of lounge act. Best thing that happened was that Kent almost kicked some German guys ass because he kept fuckin with Kent's guitar pedal while Kent was playing. The jackass is stomping on Kent's pedal like he wants to break it so Kent finally grabs him and throws him down. The gut just smiles and does nothing like it is some kind of act. Afterwards he tells Kent "great show". He is lucky Kent didn't punch him. Freakin wierdo.
Sept 14 - Amiens, France @ La Lune Des Pirates with Right For Life and others We were lucky and just missed a huge gas crisis that France had. We had a hard time finding this club and got there a little late. No problem though. Came across a couple of transvestites who were digging Glens afro as well as Kents good looks (ha ha). The crowd reaction to all of the French shows were amazing.
Sept 15 - Rennes, France @ La Pyramide with Deformity, Fragment of Reality This show was nuts. The kids wouldn't let NRSV off of the stage. I think they played every song they know. The crowd was nuts and venue was hotter than hell. The guys met old friend David from Overcome Rec. - always a good time in Rennes - that's NRSV town, all the way.
Sept 16 - Troyes ,France @La Garage with Right For Life, Body Bag, and others Set up by our good friend Sebastion TCPC. A lot of bands on this show but things moved along pretty well. As usual all of the chicks were digging Glens' Afro. The kids went insane when NRSV hit the stage and they wouldn't let them off. (Really, I mean they were not letting them off the stage - the only way off the stage was through the crowd). After NRSV played every song they know the kids still wouldn't let them off and wanted more. At this point I think Glen was gonna start hurting people if he couldn't get through to get some air. Anyway, Kent played drums and Scott played guitar and they did one last cover song with the crowd singing while Dean and Glen snuck off. The show finally ended. Viva la France!
Sept 17 - Meer, Belgium @ De Mussenakker with Underpool Clan and more Small show but fun none the less. The best part was the fried chicken dinner we got before the show. Seems like that was the first meal with meat all tour. After the show we went to Antwerp, Belgium to stay with their good friend Ludo Maartens. You'd be surprised what a great apartment you can get in Antwerp for very little money. Hmmmm.
Sept 18 - Liecester, England @The Shed with Cannon Fodder and more Had to get up real early to catch the ferry to Dover, England. The sea was insanely rough and shit was crashing and being tossed around everywhere on the ship. To make matters worse, England was in the midst of a huge gas crisis and very few stations had any petrol left. At least we filled up the gas tank before leaving Belgium. Finally back in the land where they spoke "our" language. We met Special Move who we wound up doing all of the UK shows with - cool band, cool promoters, cool show.
Sept 19 - London, England @The Underworld with Knuckledust, Special Move, Ninebar Great to be back in London and see so many friends like Lil/Household Name Rec., The Knuckledust crew, Kerry, Mark from Freebase even showed up. London is always a good show and this time was the same. After the show a small fight almost broke out in the street when the Kdust boys thought they saw some drunk bloke hitting a girl but it was solved before anything happened. Afterwards we went to Pierre Kdust's flat to crash and listen to some HC cd's.
Sept 20 - Margate, England @The Ship with Special Move OK this was a weird, slightly abandoned, sea town. Kent spent every last cent he had trying to win something at the local Casino. (ask him what it was the next time you see him). Dean put on his pirate accent and blew the crowd away. Yeah, they're still talking about this one in Margate. Don't look for THE SHIP because I think it had since closed down (um, "sunk") with help from NRSV.
Sept 21 - Birmingham, England @The Foundry with Special Move and more Birmingham is always kind of dead on a weeknight (or just in general). Oh well, at least it was good to see Jock/ GBH and Huggy again. NRSV did half of the songs acoustic which was scareing me. Real weird shit going down onstage. I really think they lost it that night. It was NRSV unplugged in Birmingham. Ahh yes, the crowd loved it; but I still think NRSV's insane. Mark/ Freebase showed up and we crashed at his house that night.
Sept 22 - Nottingham, England @Old Angel with Special Move and Armour of God Cool Club and cool town. Armour of God features members of The Varukers and others. They are more close to metal than punk though. Wandered the town a bit which seems to come to life around 10pm with flocks of college co-eds. Suicidal Supermarket Trolley members were at the show and it was a fun time for all. Nottingham ruled, but right after the "after the show" activities, we had to start driving back down to Dover in the south of England to get our Ferry back to Belgium. Hail England!!!
Sept 23 - Kontich, Belgium @Lintfabrik with Right Direction Back in Mainland Europe, and Kontich is NRSV's Belgian home away from home. We met our friends in Right Direction at the Club and had a grand old time. Free keg at the bar because it was Bef from Downshot's birthday. Awesome show that our good friend Rudy set up. Gave my friend Dave a CD which he brought to the DJ to play and the DJ cocksucker gave it away to some kid who asked for it after he played one song. I guess that's what you get for giving your shit to a drunk guy. NRSV rocked the house! After the show Rudy played some bizarre film he had made. Weird!
Sept 24 - off day Drove back to Maastricht, Holland to crash for the night at Dave/ Right Direction's place. This was a day NRSV will never forget. As it turned out, those guys (Dean, Kent, and Glen) consumed enough stuff (illegal in most countries) to KILL most ordinary people. At one point, Kent went crazy in a coffeeshop and nearly passed out while puking all over the place. "Clean it up and get out of here" was the cry from the owner. I think Glen saved his life that night, but only God knows that. Dean almost fell over backwards while claiming he was only resting his eyes (this guy was flying). I think the next day, Dean also said he had no peripheral vision. Of course. none of this stopped them from adding more fuel to their party fire. What a bunch of nuts! Damn, that was a fun time! All of this and then we had the pleasure of Dave putting us to sleep with his hand puppet theater at bedtime. Insanity!
Sept 25 - Berlin, Germany @Wild at Heart Met up with Marc/MAD(tour promoter) and Mosh again. Cool show except we felt cheated at the Indian food they gave to us - we were hoping for Italian. We were gonna hang out in Berlin for the night but we found out that at 5am the next morning there was gonna be a huge trucker strike. Wonderful, 50,000 trucks surrounding the city and blocking all roads in or out of the city (another gas crisis strike). We left that night and headed for the Polish border.
Sept 26 - Katowice, Poland @Mega Club, missed show (read on) Almost banned in Poland ….We get to the boarder at Poland around noon. The Polish take our passports and stamp them. Then General Jackass (Polish border guard) instructs us into a garage to search us. He makes us get out of the van, empty our pockets and pats us each down. Then he searches a few of the bags and finds nothing. OK cool, now we can go right? -wrong. They make us wait for an hour while telling us nothing. (Good luck finding out what's going on, unless you speak Polish.) Anyway, they tell us to leave and the van can not enter. General Jackass who searched us will not tell us anything. We find out they want us to pay 500DM ($250) to get the right papers. We then drive back into Germany and get some other papers at a German insurance company (Worm took care of this). Now it is 4pm and we go back to the Polish border. They hold us up for another hour and then finally let us in. We're now in Poland driving on the worst roads possible, looking at Polish whores all along the side of the highway. We arrive too late (club is 6 hours from boarder) and miss the show. That sucks!!
Sept 27 - Warsaw, Poland @B65 with Schizma and others We get to the club early and go to check out Warsaw. The club promoter says we will never make it out alive wandering around Warsaw. Warsaw seems kind of dead and not what I thought it would be like. Dean and Kent argue over what they think the girls would "do for you" in the sex shops. Glen (the carnivore) is always on the lookout for meat (food that is - because most clubs serve vegetarian meals). By this time, we are all delirious and trek back to the club. We see Max who plays with Model Citizen in NY; but now he is in Poland playing with his other band Schizma. Killer show! Afterwards, while loading the equiptment out, all of the power goes out in the building and we have to load out with flashlights - brilliant!
Sept 28 - Nowy Targ, Poland Cool show in a mint youth center - this place was a resturant, bar, bowling alley, and concert hall all in one. We knew this was gonna be crazy because we had to drive back to the border (8 hours away, after the show). Best part was that Dean announced to the crowd that it was Kent's Birthday, and then coaxed the crowd on as they sang Polish birthday songs to Kent. I think this backfired - because after the show, Kent was forced into doing shots of vodka by the birthday well-wishers. Nice one! Before entering Poland, everyone told us that the money was useless, the kids would steal the merchandise, and we would get jumped and beaten up. Well, none of this happened. Vive le Poland! On the drive outta Polska, Kent kept "a highway whore count" by writing it on a banana. I think it was 26 (or maybe 36).
Sept 29 - Cottbus, Germany @Club Sudstadt with Full Spead Ahead When we arrived we met up with NYC's The Devotchkas who had played there the night before and were getting ready to leave for their next show - small world. Full Speed Ahead and the Leipzig crew showed up. The best part about this show was the partying afterwards. Everyone had a great time and eventually passed out - thank god.
Sept 30 - Leipzig, Germany @Conne Island with Full Spead Ahead, Rykers, Cold As Life, Born From Pain On the way to this show, at a highway rest stop, we ran into a bunch of Nazi skinheads. They took off after seeing the Full Spead Ahead guys sneaking up behind them. Anyway, this show was awesome. Every band kicked some serious ass. Rykers REALLY blew the crowd away - sadly, it was their last show (Dean says it was the best HC show he'd ever seen). This show was just a huge (really, huge) party because it was both Cold As Life & N.R.S.V.'s last shows of the tour. Dean uncorked champagne during the first song and the Party was Rocked! After N.R.S.V.'s set, some German guy got on the mic and started complaining about the dancing. Next time, calm it down guys. We stayed at Uli, from Leipzig's place that night. The next afternoon, we returned the equipment and headed to Amsterdam for a few days before flying back to NY. All of the time spent in the van doing 6 and 10 hour drives along the tour could be a diary unto itself. I mean there were some pretty weird conversations when you are trapped with somebody that long (I dunno who's the craziest - but ooohhh shit!) . Those carefree days in Amsterdam could make up another whole diary which would make most other tours look like childs play. Oh well, maybe next time. |
