Team Rockit Germany Tour #2 diary - November 24-December 4, 2005

Day 1 - November 24 - plane ride to Germany / pick up gear.

Well, we made it to Germany...again! I'm always elated when we land, get through customs, and have been picked up by our driver. All of that happened without any problems, except for Joe almost getting us all thrown in the slammer. No joke. He dropped his huge duffel bag on the ground (it must have fallen off the cart) and the next thing I know we're being ordered by the military police to evacuate while they erect police barriers right there in the middle of the airport. Why? Any unattended bag left in a public area in Europe equals BOMB THREAT.

Police tape was out and dogs were being called in. It was insane! Then, Mark puts two and two together when Joe says "where's my black bag?" Holy crap! We had to claim the bag in front of a huge audience. The military police are yelling at Joe in German, but he can't understand them, so I'm the middle man because I can speak German. I'm apologizing profusely. I finally convince them to not lock us all up for the night, but they do call Joe's passport in through the embassy. Lucky for him he hasn't spent enough time in Europe yet to get a police record, that is, until now. Needless to say it made for an interesting start to this tour. Did I mention that I also forgot the cymbal case in the car that dropped us off at O'Hare Airport? Yeah, that was sweet too when we had to tell our driver friend to come back to the airport, and it was tense but he made it back in the nick of time for us to make the plane Germany with all our equipment!

 
1. Bad picture of the TEAM ROCKIT bomb threat.
2. Load the van, let's get outta here!

Alas, we're on our way to Herzogenaurach. It was the last gig on the tour last time and now the first gig on the tour this time. It's nice to go back to a place we've been. Franzy, our driver this time around, seems very cool. She's 33 and total punk rock. I can't tell if punk is really big in Germany, or if we just get the punk people driving/booking us. Nonetheless, we're excited to be here! We saw Matte, our booking agent, who dropped off the backline rental gear and he'll be coming to the show tonight. He even made little "backstage pass" tour laminates. I love that.

Day 2 - November 25th - Review of first show at Rabatz in Herzogenaurach

O.K., NOW I'm in tour mode. Because of the treacherous weather, there weren't a ton of people at last night's gig, but holy shit, it felt so great to play after being cooped up in the plane. We sounded great! Our rental backline for this tour is KILLER. Mark's amp is one of the best sounding we've ever heard, and my drumkit is a super expensive Sonor wood kit that sounds tight. Joe brought his Fender Hotrod amp from home, which is what really provides us with our true signature sound. I can tell this tour is going to be better than last time purely because of the quality of gear!

Also, the people in the audience were totally incredible. Marco from Deafcon-X works at Rabatz, where we played. He is super nice and seems to "get it." He was even nice enough to give us his discount card for the Adidas outlet store in town! (Herzogenaurach is the world headquarters for Adidas and Puma) I'm always amazed by the generosity of Europeans.

 
  
1. Stage setup for the first show.
2. Our new & improved mobile merch booth!
3. Mark's Trace 4x10 and 250W Acoustic head from the early 80's. Kick ass!
4. Matt's rented drums: a Sonor wood kit
5. Joe's Fender Hotrod from home

Back to the gig: there were people there that knew TEAM ROCKIT songs! A few people had seen us the first time around and were actually singing along to songs like "She Wants Us to Stay" and "Sunday Sweater." That alone was worth this tour!

I totally dug how tight the first band, The Phony McRing Rings were and they were super cool people as well. The singer of the band had downloaded our video off the website. That always freaks me out, in a good way, thinking of some kid miles away watching a TEAM ROCKIT video. The second band was from Munich and were called Marsh Melones. They were kids under 20 years old and were very nice. And of course, Smiley, the promoter, was very cool and accomodating. He gave us stickers from his band, Ragin' Diarrhea, and we presented him with a bottle of Jack Daniels upon arrival. What's so amazing is that promoters apologize to bands for the lack of audience. That's so different from clubs in the States who really don't give a crap about the bands that provide entertainment for their club.

We're currently on our way to Bad Frankenhausen and are a little bit quiet today because of massive hangovers. We drank into the wee hours, although I walked around in the snowy streets looking for a telephone booth. Do those exist anymore? Apparently not in Herzogenaurach.

 
 
1. TEAM ROCKIT LIVE!
2. Mark does shots with a Team Rockit fan.
3. Joe and the members of The Phony McRing Rings.
4. (L to R) Smiley the promoter, Marco, some crazy drunk, and Matt.