#astrastube

2:00 AM

Based on a real place (Sternbrücke) in Hamburg, Germany.

Hamburg - Astra Stube

Day 10 on our „Courage“ Tour! Despite not much sleep and my clothes still smelling of smoke from the long evening last night spent in a old fashioned rock bar in Berlin, the travel party is in high spirits when we kick off the drive to Hamburg. We‘re playing at the Astra Stube tonight, definitely one of our favourite venues.

We pick up Maeve from itoldyouiwouldieatyou at her accomodation in Berlin, the rest of her band members drive the whole tour in the Flixbus which suprisingly seems to be working very well so far. Ok, to be honest. We‘ve already toured in the Flixbus several times too.

Maeve euphorically tells us about her wild party night without any sleep at all, two minutes (!) later then she covers herself in blankets and clothes, puts on a sleeping mask and sleeps through the whole drive without really waking up. That‘s professional touring. I really do admire people who can easily fall asleep and rest in cars. Our sound engineer Robert is also one of those guys. I could really use an regenerating nap now but kind of fail to close my eyes for a long amount of time.

We are in a bit of a hurry because we have to be in Hamburg relatively early to film an acoustic session with the nice people over at the legendary 'Hamburger Küchensessions'.

After an exhausting few hours in the van we arrive early and have some spare time left to kill. It‘s the only hour off during the whole day, so we try to calm down a bit and grab some food at the next nearby and most average Asian takeaway that we find rightaway. Ace!  

We‘re given a warm welcome at probably Hamburg‘s most famous kitchen, where we‘re gonna film the session. They've had more than 300 artists playing sets in their kitchen already which is mindblowing. They treat us with damn fine coffee and we rock the session in what feels like only 5 minutes, but it sounds super sweet.

We end up hanging out in the living room watching 'literal videos' of German YouTube legend ‘Luksan Wunder’ all together and we‘re in stitches.

Thank you so much for having us!

The late load in at the Astra Stube is no more problem for us by this time of the tour. We set up the whole stage in record time, do a quick soundcheck, ready. I think that‘s for the best since there are already people queing up in front of the venue and it‘s not even doors yet. In just a few moments the tiny venue is packed!

Itoldyouiwouldeatyou kick off the night with their definitely best show so far. What an unbelievable, tight , great,  interesting and inspiring band. We‘re so glad they're part of this run.

There‘s no real chance to warm up for the show and even less of a chance to relax before it. There‘s only a small and dirty restroom where we meet a few minutes before the set to talk the setlist through, high five each other and get in the right mood.

It feels great though when we enter the stage. Loads of good friends made it and seem to have a rad time, the spark is catching. I‘m stunned. Thank you so much.

We get two play two encores and seem to run a bit overtime, but we don't notice.

This leads to the next tour record. Only seconds after the last note had fade out, we build down our whole backline within minutes and manage to load out everything in just under 30 minutes. There‘s a club and party night on and all the DJ‘s are already starting to put their gear onto the stage that is still full of our stuff.  A massive chaos, rushing and shouting everywhere. When we‘re finally done I‘m bombed out and soaked in sweat.

Now here‘s the usual dilemma. Head off to bed or party? We have a day off the next day, so guess what I chose.

I‘m still not sure if I made the right decision though. A bit later I find myself in the middle of an 80‘s party in a packed and stuffy club that‘s filled with smoke again where instead of enjoying ourselves, we discuss further plans for the evening. I manage to even drink a few extra beers while we figure it out. We while away the evening at the famous 'Clochard', a totally run down and shabby dive bar on the Reeperbahn. Ok, now I‘m sure I definitely made the wrong decision. If you‘ve been there once, you probably know what I‘m talking about.

Surrounded by weird figures and in a very strange scenario we down our last beers. The unfortunate, under-represented non-drinkers in our travel party down their lemonades and we stumble off, our direction now to bed. It‘s at least 4 am. Good night and stay safe Hamburg!

Second night drive on this tour. Fun times ahead. We packed up our gear quite fast right after our show in Linz (AT) last night to leave the venue on time after a decent portion of chips were brought to us at 1 am by the master of late night munchies: Paul, our photographer. Hamburg is up next. Probably the longest distance between two shows and cities on this tour. After exhausting 15 hours in the van everybody is looking forward to finally arrive in the band flat which is located right on the Reeperbahn.

I spent the first part of the drive half awake half asleep in a horizontal position on the back bench of the van which is not really comfortable but definitely the best you can do when squeezed in a crowded van. When I wake up I feel like shit but at least the sunrise early this morning looks really beautiful through the car window.

I swap seats to the front seat next to the driver. Michi from Kid Dad is driving now and we talk about our life apart from being in a band. It’s really strange for me to pass my hometown Bremen on the last “1.20h” of the ride and I can’t stop thinking about my own bed until even the highway signs „Towards Bremen“ are out of sight.

Anyway, we made it. I take a shower and then open my laptop motivated to finish some long overdue work but everything All I can think about though is pizza. What else. One hour later Jakob, Martin and I sit in the best pizza place I know in Hamburg called “Pizza Bande” where  I nearly fall asleep over my pizza.  

Fortunately ‘get in’ is late today and we don’t need to hurry too much. Unfortunately we’re in Hamburg which is commonly known for its shitty weather and rain all the time and so we don’t even consider sightseeing.

A bit later we find ourselves in front of the legendary Astra Stube waiting for someone to open the venue. Sometimes I ask myself wheter we’re the only band that always arrives at the venue before the actual ‘get in’ time. Soundcheck by now is pure routine. Only a few minutes later there are so many people waiting outside this super small venue/bar for the doors to open. A couple more minutes later the Astra Stube is completely packed, still twenty minutes to go until the actual show starts. Wow. We experienced this before in Hamburg and it feels a little rockstar-like. 

Hamburg is such a big and beautiful city and we spent some crazy and long nights here already whereas our shows in this town usually left us with rather mixed feelings. We once played a support show here in a nearly sold out 500 cap venue and sold exactly 0€ in merchandise. We must have looked very pitiful after standing their behind the merch table so at least a good friend had some mercy, took one of our t-shirts and promised to pay the next day via paypal. I think we still haven't seen the money yet. Haha.

It‘s great to see some old friends again and it‘s awesome to reunite with many people who acted in the video to our current single „Makeup“ we filmed in Bremen a few weeks back (Thanks again to all of you guys. You did a great job!). Within fifteen minutes the situation the venue changes from being really packed to being really f***ing super packed. Unbelievable how many people actually fit in this tiny venue. I’m starting to get a little nervous. Time for a beer!

KID DAD are playing and I have the honour to be their Light-DJ. I don‘t really have a clue what I‘m doing but I started to get behind the lighting console a few days ago and so does Max from Kid Dad during our set. There are actually three knobs and two faders only that work and all I can do is to change between random background colours but it’s still fun. I’m always surprised by what a big difference a light show can make even under such circumstances as tonight.

The show is an absolute banger. Shout out to everyone who sang along. Definitely our best Hamburg show so far. I can‘t believe that today is a Sunday (!). Can’t wait to come back.

I end up sitting in a Bar on the Reeperbahn with Daniel from our management, Yoshi from Kid Dad and some friends from Lüneburg. Again I find myself falling asleep on the bar table like 12 hours ago in the pizza place. Time to catch up on some sleep, we’re heading off to Sweden in exactly 3 hours. Well. Worth a try though.