Last night we played with a band from Slovenia...SLOVENIA!!! Talk about meeting people from all over the world. They were called IN-SANE, a hard core punk band, totally DIY. Kultur Cafe was a weird place for bands to play in; it was extremely loud and all the people are seated at tables, like in a jazz club. Kultur Cafe is sort of a University coffee shop/diner, it mainly serves as an eating place and a hang out for college kids. It was cool that the University puts on free concerts like ours on Monday nights. They just moved risers around that had tables on them, pulled out a curtain and BAM! instant stage! I'm also impressed that all of these places rent a really cool P.A. for these gigs. If it's not a club, they get pretty serious with the sound and multiple monitors. A luxury in the States at most places.

1. Kultur Cafe in MAINZ!

I think the gig went well. Matte, our booking agent, came out with a few people. It was just hard with a day off to get back into the groove and people sitting down at tables didn't help. We pulled out three covers tonight to please some people. It's like you have to win them over with something they know. We also met another artist from Last Resort Music who was on tour in Germany, Morgan Finlay. He was a Canadian singer/songwriter. Amazing how many people realize how much better it is to tour in Europe.

Of course the sleeping arrangements have their ups and downs. We were supposed to stay in a hostel and we all show up with the band from Slovenia as well. Nobody could be found to open the door so we had to drive to the promoters place. He only had room for four, so the Slovenians decided to depart and drive all night back to Slovenia. I hope they got home O.K. They drove 12 hours for this one gig!

I was happy to be in a room, but it was definitely the smallest quarters we had yet. There were three mattresses and myself in a sleeping bag on the floor. That's just the thing; you have to be down with any situation when on tour. I find it pretty exhilarating not knowing what will come next while carrying around minimal possessions. Lord knows we're not doing it for the money.

1. Joe writes a postcard to his cat, Miss Kitty

One more small thing of note, we went to an internet café that was in a tanning spa. It was the weirdest thing. There were three tanning beds, two working computers, and then a post office all in the same little building. It was good to write home and see that the Bears won!

This morning when we got up we all went to Aldi (Yes, unbelievable that Aldi is here, but it's actually a German company). We bought some breakfast and assorted stuff for the road. There are cigarettes right at the check out counter. We waited forever to check out as an Arab lady customer didn't have enough money and then the cashier freaked out at her. The cashier was screaming at her, calling her names, and asking if she was speaking Chinese to not have understood. I see that a lot here; Germans seem to be of dealing with foreigners. The woman looked like she was from the Balkans or some Muslim related country with a babushka. I felt sorry for her as she was just trying to buy groceries. Someone else helped her out with a little translation, and disaster was averted.

Day 6 - November 29th - review of TR show at Klüpfel in Nürnberg

Everyone is in a great mood in the van today on our way to Berlin. Last night was the gig we were all looking for. We were tight as hell and there were a great amount of people for a Tuesday night. People from our gig in Herzogenaurach came to see us in Nurnberg! Granted it's only about 30 minutes away, but they still came to see TEAM ROCKIT twice in one week! On top of that, they even brought us a special dark bier from the region. Can I say anymore how crazy nice everyone is here? We sold a decent amount of merchandise last night and the promoter was pretty happy with us. Again, for a Tuesday it totally rocked. The gig was at Klüpfel, a kinder-jugendhaus (a kid's center, sort of like a YMCA/VFW, but with a bar and a lot nicer). They kicked some kids out of our dressing room that were playing Playstation. As we were relaxing they were making us sandwiches and assured us that our warm meals would come later. They also filled the fridge in our room with soda, juice, beer, whatever we needed. To top it all off they supplied us wiht a local hotel room as well.

The opening band was Magical Nose Goblins. We all laughed out loud upon hearing the name, but the band members were very cool. It was amusing to see these kids walk in with University of Illinois and Michigan sweatshirts on. Apparently some members of the band had studied in the States. They were good for their brand of rap-rock, playing originals and covers like "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" from the Beastie Boys and "Bombtrack" from Rage Against the Machine. I still find it a little amazing to hear Germans rapping in English. Max from the band M.I.GOD set up the show. We were happy to see him again as well.

 
1. Franzy is PACKING HEAT!
2. Joe is a schweineficker

We had a huge choice of meals after the show. Franzy, Joe, and Mark were impressed with the selection of food we could order. Upon finally loading out and taking the remaining bier (a whole lot of beers!) we went to the hotel. Franzy got her own room tonight, but we all partied in the room until the last bier was gone. We were laughing about the shower being in the room as there was no separate bathroom. The shower was literally in the middle of the room on one wall. It's always great to catch a little bit of German TV as it's totally different from our TV and the sex ads are totally uncensored in the evening. We all got a kick out of that. We got into some serious relationship discussions with Joe, Franzy, and me. By the end of the evening, between bursts of laughter, Joe made another "schweineficker" shirt (pig fucker) with a sharpie marker on a white t-shirt. It's always good for a laugh, Joe telling everyone that he is a schweineficker. We play Berlin tonight and we're on our way. Very exciting!