It’s a European vacation financed by The Bitter Tears. Myself, Alan, Mike, Greg and eventually John will hit many countries in as many days. Also joining us for this vacation is Greg’s new wife Esther, whose presence will add a touch of class to our behavior- but won’t! She will take over on keyboards after we kick John out of the band in Switzerland (but don’t tell John this yet, please). Where is John, by the way?
Berlin was not the grey, cold stereotype we wanted it to be. It is a quiet, polite, successfully recycling town. If anything we were the greyest thing there, skulking around looking for a goddamn drinking fountain while the sun melted the jet lag into our pours.
We stayed with Al Burian, a writer, cartoonist, and musician, who made us go to the Berlin Wall, drink great beer, smoke cigarettes, and enjoy each other’s company on our first day in Europe. Check out Al’s piece in a new anthology from Found Magazine.
The next day we did more sightseeing while wondering if John’s plane had crashed. Dem dere Deutscher Capitol Volke, The (Bitter) Tiergarden, Kaiser Wilheim’s smashed out church. I kept wanting to use the term “Deutsch-bag,” but again, everyone was very nice to us.
The van is a big blue Sprinter with 500,000 kilometers on it and no seatbelts for the back passengers. I write this just to ease the spirits of our wives and girlfriends back home. On the way to the club Greg thought it would be of interest to drive on the tracks of an oncoming streetcar. And it was very interesting.
Lido is a great club because that’s where John was. And they provide beer, food, and showers (with towels).
On the first half of this vacation we are the support for Magnolia Electric Co. They are wonderful guys who are letting us use their back line. And they’re also just good guys, albeit very busy. A lovely conversation we were having about Glenn Danzig had to be cut short due to an interview and performance for German public radio, which I hear is run by Deutsch-bags…no, no. They’re good people.
The show was a decent first show for us. We didn’t have to wear make-up because we were still pretty jet-lagged. Surprisingly, people applauded as we walked onto the stage. A first! It was a short half hour set that featured Alan’s new guitar and Alan’s brand new German guitar strap.
I learned there was no wall behind the stage curtain when I went to lean on it and fell completely off the drumstool and onto my asshole. Luckily it was during “Grieving” and Alan eventually ended up on the floor as well, screaming in the audience.
Afterward, we listened to Magnolia’s set, took turns at the merch table, ate delicious Indian food (the Mutton Josh was dumb yummy), accidentally sold a Magnolia shirt as ours, took turns in the shower, and hung out with friends and family that had come to say hi.
I'm glad to be hanging out in Europe with these Deutsch-bags.
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