Team Rockit Germany tour diary - April 3rd-April 15th, 2008

CHECK OUT SOME AMAZING PHOTOS FROM THIS TOUR THAT OUR TOURING PALS FOOBAR THE BAND TOOK! We have good photos, but their photos are AMAZING!

  

Day 1 - April 2nd-April 3rd - Flight to Germany + 1st show in Balingen @ Sonnenkeller

Alas, European tour #5 has arrived. Our 5th record "Rockit Science" (which I think is our best) is pressed and with us in the van. We've had Killian in the band for over a year now and can actually return to Europe with the same line up. This is an accomplishment in itself with the revolving door of bass players over the years. We did didn't have to leave until noon today so I was able to sleep for hours last night after the gig. I don't think I've slept that long in years. It feels great! I guess I should back track to taking the flight over and the process of getting our gear before the first show. All I can say is that there haven't been any crazy surprises yet. We had a direct flight because so there was no problem with gear being lost and the only whacky thing at the airport was Joe being detained for a few minutes as they didn't think his passport photo looked anything like him. Joe used to be a lot bigger years ago. Joe had some great responses to the German border police as he mentioned if it was the other way around (i.e if he was fatter than normal and his photo was a lot skinnier version of him they wouldn't have said anything). And it is always so great to see Franzy when we come off the plane. I've fawned over how cool she is as a person many times in other tour diaries, but I'll say it again. She rocks and is like our little "tour mother". Ok the "mother" part is a stretch, but she's definitely part of the TEAM and we always get a long with her. The only other thing about the flight was that Killian and Joe are truly afraid of flying or at least feel extremely uncomfortable doing so. They were popping Xanax like aspirin. I think the 8 hour plane ride rules only because there's so much time to get stuff done. I always worry about us being stopped at the border with our merch for some sort of tax, but it was smooth sailing again. I mentioned to Joe that it's almost "too" perfect so far, but I guess we're bound to have some smooth sailing after the ups and downs that we've experienced on other tours.

Funkunstein on stage at Sonnenkeller
(Yes the photo is purposely blurry, I just like how it came out)

On to the show in Bailingen at Sonnenkeller....Patrick and the people at Zak-Konzerte are and continue to be super nice. They were the promoters for the show. The place we played, Sonnenkeller, was an old bomb shelter looking like place with a bar attached to it. The cieling was curved and it could fit about 100 people in the area where the stage was. I'm always surprised that there's these small basement clubs that somehow people know about in the town/cities we play in. The first gig always takes a bit more preparation. I tuned up the drums, set up the box of merch (t-shirts & CDs), pulled all of the stuff our of luggage that was jammed in there (and by the way there was a nice little note from Homeland security basically saying that they went through our stuff...they're always watching). The band Funkenstein opened up for us. They were from Balingen or at least close by. A quick aside on Balingen, it's a town located in the between the Swiss border and Stuttgart. Franzy thinks about 60,000 lived in the town, but Joe heard from someone that it was a bit over 100,000. Who knows, but they did have a little downtown area and some wild sculptures on the street (check out the pictures for this tour entry). Back to the show....

  
Interesting things to look at in Balingen

Funkenstein was pretty cool and played everything from punk to ska to straight up rock. They had a nice little crowd of people they brought out to check them out. It was a Thursday, but a good "start up" gig. We met a couple of people that just came after checking us out on the internet (I love that). I think we played well last night. It was very loud with the concrete ceiling, but we managed to turn down enough were it sounded good, but still was power full. We're still working in some covers to the set to just get some people's attention (i.e. we started with an AC/DC tune just to get everyone in the room from the bar area). I think they liked "There No 'You' In Team". There were a lot of smiles out there as we ripped through some of the new stuff. Of course we played Tequila and were served shots of the drink promptly upon completing the song (I took mine on stage while drumming as it was poured all over my face....there was cinnamon in that thing!).

After drinking a few too many "biers," some Absinthe, and bit of our friend Mr. Daniels (Jack that is), we loaded up the car and headed to the hotel. We actually had a hotel last night which was nice. A sink, a toliet, and a chance to shave in the morning is always appreciated. One thing though about last night. I met this guy Frank who wanted to hear our disc before buying it. No problem, but it was hilarious that he had a CD player on him. After hearing it, he did buy our CD. Here's the thing, it's no just him, but he had this ultra bad view of Americans. Yes, I get it, he doesn't like George Bush, well either do we and I told him and he was surprised to find out that was the view of most Americans. I would never I say I hate Germans because of something their president or chancellor did. It's wild. All of a sudden he was cool with me after I explained (in German) how we're all in a struggle with the government right now. It's like educate yourself man, how can one form an opinion of all Americans after meeting what...1...potentially 2 of them? I'm always learning. So I consider this trip a partial "US goodwill/change minds tour"...as always.

 

1. "Backstage" at Sonnenkeller (see Joe in the background?)
2. Healthy tour snacks (candy, fruit, and chips)
including the "Dreemy" bar (yes, spelled like that) which is like 3 Musketeers, the "Romeo" (Mounds), and "Knicks" (kit kat) - it's the alternate candy world!
3. Joe in the van

Day 2 - April 4th - Kulturhof Gig in Lubbenau (first gig with Foobar the band)

We're on our way to Bad Frankenhausen, but last night's gig was awesome! There were 80 people in attendance and for the small town that Lubbenau is, it was pretty good (definitely more than last time as well). It was also our first gig with the band we'll be touring with for the rest of the trip, Foobar the Band. They have their own small van with 5 people in it plus some gear! They seem like nice guys and deliver an interesting brand of rock, stoner rock, or as Franzy says "in the vein of the band Turbo Negro" (I didn't who that band was until I came here the first time). Most of them have beards. I'm assuming you'd need a beard to live in the frigid Scandanavian north. Did I mention they're from Sweden? It's going to be an interesting next couple of days to see how audiences react to both bands. We playd a crap load of covers last night as we really want people to have a party atmosphere. Of course there were a majority of Team Rockit "gems" and we're still extremely excited to play stuff off of the new record. What's always the most exciting to me is meeting people again that we saw last time. The local band Lothar opened up for us the last time we played in Lubbenau and the guitarst came out to see us again. He was really excited and wanted a picture with us before we played. There were also a bunch of girls that came the first time and the majority of them showed up again (you can even see some of them from the pictures in the last tour diary, it was the last gig of tour #4). The "kids" just have a great time here and flip out when we play. There's a lot of signing our tour cards and CDs here. We're like little rockstarts for a second here. It's a small town so I guess that's one of the few possibilities for entertainment on a Friday night (i.e. seeing a couple of cool bands)? Joe got approached by a gay guy which was a first for us on tour in Europe (I don't know why it was necessay to mention it, but we're talking about it in the van right now).

 

1. Kulturhof sign (the place we played last night)
2. Killian and Joe in the "backstage" upstairs

The promoter, Ingo, is a gigantic Rolling Stones fan and he appreciates that we like the Stones as well. We played the song "Jumpin Jack Flash" last night for him. He set up the Stones DVD "The Biggest Bang" in the backstage room in surround 5.1 sound. It was pretty cool. I came upstairs where the backstage was located and all of the lights were off except Joe and the promoter watching that DVD projected onto a big screen. It was pretty cool. We sold a few CDs, but I think it was a lot just for the kids to pay the admission to get in. We can actually see something "building" here and we're collecting email addresses left and right. I felt even better because one of the guys in Foobar the Band played at the same place with another band and he said only 5 people showed up...what a difference. I start getting in this mode of thinking that I could be on tour forever even though the conditions are sometimes less than desireable. Last night I slept in the van because there was a mattress on the "loft" part of the van. All of the couches upstairs were taken and it just seemed like a million people everywhere. I froze my ass off in the van, but apparently I had the luxury of not being woken up by a band practicing inside that started at 10am. Breakfast consisted of bread, meat, and jelly...it's sort of standard here, but anything is always welcomed. And again, I'll get it out of my system to say this (as I do in every tour diary)...money, a place to stay, dinner, umlimited beer, and sometimes breakfast on tour is truly something special that you don't get in the states. I'll go to my grave being blown away by the hospitality.

Watching the Stones DVD "The Biggest Bang" in 5.1 surround sound in the backstage of Kulturhof
 
1. Dude from the band Lothar that played with us the last time we were here
2. Team Rockit live in Lubbenau (photo credit - Jannek from Foobar the band)  

Meet some of "Foobar the Band": Jonny (vocals), Jannek (bass), and Anders(guitar/backing vocals)

As mentioned, we're on our way to Bad Frankenhausen to play at the White Pig. We love that place and this will be our 3rd time playing there. Cool place and cool people. The gas is crazy expensive this time, but there's something about those little sandwiches at the gas station you can buy (not the prepackaged ones) that I just love. And these random bottles of "mystery cola" with flavors we don't necessarily have in the states are always great. It's the small things in a foreign country that you notice. If the whole tour is like last night's gig, it will be a great one.

Day 3 - April 5th - Show at White Pig in Bad Frankenhausen

I'm getting older...Drinking until all hours and then getting up in a haze can get old quickly. When you're young, it's no problem, but when you're in your 30s, well, that's a different story. Enough about me, we had another great show in Bad Frankenhausen. It was our 3rd time there and it's all coming together as far as people remembering us. Zille is the owner there and he's ultra cool. With long dredlocks and an "easy" attitude we've come to know him, his wife, and even his daughter was there yesterday to check us out. They just came back from Indonesia and had traveled for months around asia. We have a fan that always comes out there or maybe she just likes hanging at the White Pig. Her name is Franzy as well. She was the first to notice us when we arrived. Franzy's friend Ellie came from Halle to meet us (or specifically to meet Franzy). We met her on the last tour in Halle. Apparently Halle is only about 80 kilometers from Bad Frankenhausen. It's weird that everyone can just hop on a train or a bus and get anywhere in the country. Obviously you can't necessarily do that in the states. By the way, we just went over the Poland border and there was no one there. Once they were in the EU there was no need for border patrol.

Live at the White Pig (Foobar the band)

Thomas is also with us now. He helped book some of the Poland gigs and is from Rabatz in Herzogenaurach. He had some free time and wanted to tag along for the Polish shows. He was there last night for the show as well. I have to say that the White Pig continues to be one of my favorite places to play. Check out the cool photos below of some funky artwork that is in the place. We're getting to know the Foobar guys as well. They seem like really nice people and they're helping us load the gear in and out of the club. I finally got to use the internet today. I had 50 emails, but most of them were junk. The computer was in a "Jungen Zentrum" or ("kids center" so to speak). The government funds a ton here and they have these places where kids can hang out, play pool, use the computer, etc. I think I was the oldest person in there besides the older lady that set me up with a computer. I had to sleep off the hangover this morning, but now I'm fit for Poland.

Crazy, cool artwork at the White Pig

More about the show...we started the show with joe pretending to down a bottle of Jack Daniels. We filled it with apple juice and he drank the whole thing. I loved that. The crowd like it too. I felt like I played a little sloppy last night, but overall the gig was good. We did have a Zugabe (encore) as we barrelled through "Let There Be Rock" by AC/DC. The Foobar guys watched our set as well. Joe did all of the usual cool tricks like playing over his head and jumping on the bass drum for extra effect. I can only imagine how tight we'll be by the end of this tour! I'm most excited about Poland and what awaits us there. Everyone keeps telling us horror stories about cars getting ripped off, but that the girls are pretty, and the kids flip out at the shows. We'll see. I'm super content during the drives reading a couple of books and getting this tour diary done on the road. Ah, if life could be this easy.

 
1. Foobar and the "Team"
2. Killian finds a mate