There’s a comfort in laughing with a group of people, hell there’s even comfort in a collective sadness occasionally. Amongst mountains and turnpikes I live minutes of my life attatched to my brothers in music.
Europe takes alittle life out of me while I’m here from never being able to shake the jet lag. Europe makes me want take up smoking cigarettes. Different languages, different time zones, historical places, history in the making, europe gets a high five.
34,000 thousand feet above the atlantic and by a wierd twist of fate I’m sitting next to the drummer from We Are Scientists, we exchange festival stories and future touring plans, it doesn’t matter what style of music it is, the ups and downs of touring life is still the same ups and downs.
While I was gone The Swellers pulled off quite a coup, taking Max from Say Anything’s idea about people sending in personal stories and situations then making a song, difference was The Swellers didn’t ask for money. Score one for the mitten state. They wrote me a song out of the group that got put up, funny because a casual conversation about mexcian food being horrible in gainesville turned into a song. I never really knew that Motley Crue put there dicks in burrito’s but hey whatever Nick says I believe.thanks guys for the song.
Climbing through the window to get to the stage was just one of some the unique things happening in Lubjliana, Slovenia. We hadn’t been back to this city in forever and in our abscence an art collective took over a few blocks of old prisons and army base, mind you my facts are loose but close enough that when I walked around there’s a thriving community operating on it own terms, putting on shows and art openings. The show had kids diving from the stage, singing along, drinking in the parking lot, and just hanging out in a positive environment, I wonder if that would ever work in the states? I walked to the center of the city with Buddy to find a coffee shop called the Coffee Project, now for those aren’t in the know that is the same name of buddy’s side project. I broke my streak of not having coffee to have some there with him in celebration of how cool the coincidence was. Also in a complete sidebar, I will be releasing a Coffee Project 10 inch sometime this fall called “easy does it” on paper and plastick.
The castles in prague are walking distance over this bridge from where the club was, my first time in Prague,and it was a thriving city, known by drunks for having “real” absinthe. The city for me seemed over run with spider webs, in corners, on lamposts, in doorways. Spider webs. Friendly people from all over europe seem to flood the streets, I take some pictures for the first time in longer than I can remember and it feels great to look through a lense and snap some shots off of bridges and people and a great horizon line dotted with castles and green over grown trees.
Reading and Leeds festivals have always and will always hold a place in my heart, the first eurpean show we ever did where it actually felt like home was at Reading, huge memories of massive circle pits and 30,000 person sing alongs. This year we went into the lock up tent, defaulting that same place where that first amazing show happened, was it a 360 degrees moment? Did it end a chapter so a new one can begin? Was it like I remembered it? Those are all the questions I would have to write a small novel to answer.
Die artze is one of those bands that are massive in Germany but not in the US, we played a show with them and 19,000 people showed up, I mean that is massive by anyones standards. They are entertaining, they are loud, they laugh, they command the attention of all 19,000 people. I kinda get a band crush watching them play. Speaking of first european tours a few paragraphs up, we run into our first busdriver and he always made be laugh saying things like “.fucking hell…” and ” it’s can’t believable..” Its funny sometimes you don’t see people for years and when you do the conversation seems to pick up where it left off. That’s a great fucking feeling, and doesn’t happen often.
There’s hurricanes that blow in from the gulf while we are gone skipping Florida but headed to unknown places up the coast, but winds still howl and trees fall and doomsday scenarios get talked about in every circle. We drive through mountains to Switzerland and Austria as friends and family pace, we are detatched from all the drama back home only to embrace our own drama.
I’ve been getting the art together for the GNV/FLA deluxe box, I even took the front and back box cover pictures. Lots of surprises in there, out in November, but more details to come.
Oh mr svengali life can’t always be a parade held in your honor…Snap! Snap! Flash! Flash! Look at me I’m made of glass. Your 3 chords and clothing company won’t replace the fact that you have no integrity left.
posted by v.
