#thedeadnotes

-> ORDER YOUR ZINE HERE!

UK, 2022

7 days before our first longer tour in the UK after two-and a half (!!!) years of not playing shows and being able to travel due to the pandemic. Euphoria peaks. / 4 days before the tour is supposed to start: Members of our crew test positive and we decide to cancel the first three shows. Frustration peaks. / Day 1: Out of quarantine and straight back into the tour. Euphoria peaks. / Day 2: We get a call from tonight‘s promoter. The show is cancelled since the support band dropped out at the very last minute (????). Frustration peaks. So what.... / Day 3: It surely can't get any worse than this so let‘s finally get this thing rollin‘. Euphoria spreads among the travel party. / Day 4 – The Morning: We leave the hotel to find our van with all the windows smashed in. Someone had nicked all (!!!) our gear, worth almost 25k, overnight. I‘m crying. / Day 4 – Noon: Without windows in the car we head off to London and play a killer show borrowing instruments, pedals and backline from the other bands on the bill. I start to feel hope and euphoria kicks back in again. / Day 4 – The Night: Straight overnight we drive from London to Paris but get stopped at the border for over five hours and get charged an additional 6000€ of punitive tariffs from the customs department since our gear (the gear that got stolen) is not leaving the country with us. It surely can't be any worse than this. Frustration peaks. / Day 5: After 15 hours and no sleep at all we arrive in Paris. We‘ve made it and euphoria begins to spread. / Day 5 – The Noon: Incoming call from tonight‘s promoter. The show is cancelled due to a water damage in the venue. Frustration peaks. / Day 5 – The Evening: We arrange a last minute acoustic show with the help of our friend Tom and I feel the pressure slowly lift off my shoulders...I could go on like this forever!

Ostend, Belgium, 2015

I speak from experience when I say that there are certain things you really shouldn't - no! - mustn't lose on a three week tour all over Europe. Among the most important are ID's and van keys. In the morning after the show the ID of our old drummer Yannic is nowhere to be found. No chance to travel on to England and carry on with the tour if we don't find the document or get a temporary replacement at least. After stops at various embassies and police stations without any progress and prospect of success we decide to play all upcoming UK shows as a two-piece and as improvised acoustic sets only. The only problem is that our guitarist and singer Darius only passed his driving test two days ago and now has to find his way as the only driver on the left side of the road without any experience or driving practice. It works out surprisingly well though except smaller issues such as a hill start on the insanely steep ferry ramp (the port pilot loses his mind and patience and takes over the steering wheel). After a terribly long day of ups and downs and 16 hours in the car we arrive in Derby (UK) where we find out that no one at the pub we are supposed to play knows about our show since the in-house promoter fell into a coma weeks ago after a tragic motorcycle accident.

Russia, 2015

It‘s 4 am on a country road somewhere between Volgograd and Voronesch, far away from any civilization and infrastructure. We're all dead tired, slowly and carefully driving through the heavy Russian rain when suddenly our satnav, for no obvious reason, leads us off the street onto a small dirt track opposite to the main road. Since we have no idea where we are we trust blindly. Only two minutes later the car is stuck in the mud parallel to the regular street where we were driving on before. We have gotten ourselves into a desperate situation once and for all. We can‘t believe it when we realize that there‘s a small and run down police station right around the corner. We‘re literally in the middle of nowhere, how is that even possible? We try to explain our situation to the two senior officers using a 'German-Russian / Russian-German' dictionary that we got as a present from a super drunk and annoying fan at the merch table the night before and in the end get towed-off with a tow rope in Russian national colors. The two officers leave the unusual scenario in their Lada Jeep quietly without saying a single word. Lady luck is smiling.

South Germany, 2014

I reckon that the first and last time this band had coverage from all big German radio stations all at once was when on the first day of our tour the roof box on our car opened up because of heavy winds, our whole luggage including laptops spread across the motorway and we caused several rear end collisions and a traffic jam 8 km long.

Various Locations, 2014-2019

Various ‚remarkable‘ accommodations, e.g. a high rise porn building in the Czech Republic (don‘t ask!) already and officially cleared for demolition, a kebab shop in France where we got kicked out early in the morning when the sullen owner wants to turn on the fryer. One time we simply crashed in the center of a football pitch after a festival in Bavaria and at 4 am the sprinkler system abruptly wakes Jakob and Darius from a deep sleep.

Istanbul, Turkey 2016

Show cancellation -> reason: a military coup

Vienna, AT 2017

Our drummer Felix is by far the sweetest and and most good-natured if not to say best-natured person you could ever imagine. He‘s always seeing the good in people sometimes to a certain level where he accidentally maneuvers himself into very uncomfortable or even dangerous situation. This one time on tour a very nice but fully unknown person wanted him to join in on smoking a joint and Felix followed them to an outlying urban park, then locked himself into a public restroom together with this person ("we have to do this, there are cops everywhere"). Not until the weird stranger started watching porn on his smartphone as if it was a nothing, Felix noticed that something is wrong here and ran away while everyone else in the travel party was extremely concerned and already looking for him for hours.

Bilbao, Spain 2015

Sentences you really don‘t wanna hear after an exhausting 7 hours in the car driving all through Spain: "You‘re a band? A concert? Tonight? At this place? Hahahaha! The promoter here is a real 'speedhead' and on drugs most of the time. He frequently keeps forgetting about shows he  booked. I don‘t think that anyone is going to show up here tonight."

UK Tours 2017/2019

We‘re leaving for our UK Tour. The van we‘re traveling in is a rental from Europcar with roughly 400 km on the display. Technically a brand new car, fresh from the factory. After only half an hour it breaks down and turns out to be a total loss. One year later: In the meantime we bought our very first and very own van and can‘t wait to leave for the very first tour with it. On our way to the UK and after only 30 min the car breaks down and the motor turns out to be a total loss.

Kyiv, Ukraine 2016

After a 15 hours nightdrive and after ALL the bands got to play their sets the festivals is shut down by the Ukrainian police during our changeover. When at 4 am in the morning we carefully mention that we would like to drive to the accomodation to catch up on some sleep and to be prepared for the next 7 hours drive to be in time for get-in in Odessa the next day, we get insulted by the promoter who is far from sober at this point. "I have all the experience in the music business. If you‘re set time tomorrow is at 8 pm, a get-in at 7.50 pm is totally sufficient. We‘re not going home now!"

Well...I‘m pretty sure he knew what he was doing.

We stayed at Mario‘s (Blackout Problems) flat last night in Munich. The former plan was to head off to Vienna at 8 am latest to have some spare time to hang out in the city, which when touring, rarely happens. Of course the early departure ended up being unrealistic , since we arrived at the accomodation very late last night again and the next morning our travel party of six need showers!

Anyway, smart like TM Darius is, he knows us too well and factored in spare time that we would still arrive on time even when leaving with 1:30 h delay. Genius!

We arrive in Vienna in the afternoon with still two hours left until load in and the usual set-up routine starts. Even though the latest news and updates regarding Coronavirus are making waves everywhere, all the shops, cafés and bars are still open.

We‘re relieved when we receive the news that our show tonight will still be going on even though the same day the Austrian government has passed a ban for events and public gatherings with more than 100 people.

The capacity at the beautiful 'Rhiz' is now limited to 99 people but to be honest, even without any restrictions I don‘t know how you could squeeze that many people into the small venue. At this point we‘re still not really worried about the whole situation but a little shook up by the news and updates that come in any minute.

We park the van right in front of the venue and split the travel party. Darius, Jakob and Paul found a cozy café via Google Maps that seems to have free wifi so they can set up their mobile office there and get some laptop work 'off their chests' like Paul uses to say.

Anton, Martin and I decide to just stroll around, do pointless shopping and errands and eventually we find a cozy place to hang out at and have a beer.

I really need to buy some 'natron' to get rid of my heartburn and also find a new film for my new but actually very antique analog camera. Unfortunately I only find the 'natron', so what. I wash down the whole packet with an extremly fizzy lemonade which turns out to be a really dumb idea. I can‘t stop burping but hey… at least the heartburn is gone.

We try to find a shop that sells postcards to send them to our friends and family back home. Easier said than done. However it‘s great to finally have the time on this tour to get all this done. Slowly the time is running out though and we still didn‘t have a beer.

Luckily we then find a small shop AND a bar right on the next street corner. The postcards there turn out to be unbelievably corny and the bar is showing horse racing on a massive screen, but we have low ambitions and very few demands so that‘s just fine. I know my grandma will be happy about a little update from her grandson too.

Obviously at this point we didn‘t know we would be back home way earlier than expected and at the same time as the postcard.

On the way back to the venue I get the impulse to photograph one of these totally ordinary tram stops. The same moment I whip out my cam and focus the scene through the viewfinder, the doors of a tram open and someone is screaming 'Oiiiiiiii!'. It's Paul & all the other guys waiting in the exact the tram I just photographed, so we try to squeeze in too. It‘s so packed that it‘s nearly impossible to move. In retrospect it‘s really no wonder that the virus spread so fast.

Every f‘n time we stick to the schedule, we just end up standing in front of closed doors. I sometimes feel like it‘s so common for bands to be late that many promoters don‘t even bother to arrive on the agreed time anymore.

It follows a very stressful backline set-up and soundcheck. In all this hectic rush the nice people in Nervus from the UK who are also playing tonight receive a parking ticket while they are standing only a few meters away from their van that is definitely neither disrupting the traffic nor a problem for anyone else than two bored cops. I try to help out as a translator between both parties but the officer doesn't want to hear it.  

„They don‘t keep you safe!“

The awesome locals from Jeanny kick off the show tonight and play a great set. It‘s day 13 of the tour and i've now got huge blisters on my hands and fingers from drumming so much. Playing a headline tour with long sets each and every night is really something else. I go and tape my hands and try warm up for the set a little bit.

Literally every corner of the super small venue is packed with kids and next Nervus play an absolute killer set. I‘m pretty sure my whole kit is now detuned and my toms at least 50 Hz deeper due to Jack's intense drumming. Why am I am even bothering to tune them perfectly still. Haha. Anyway. It‘s the perfect evening. Our first headline show in Vienna ever and the kids are freaking out even though it‘s a Tuesday night!  

After all the gear is loaded out and everyone says goodbye, we end the evening in style and go for a few canned beers and some bog-standard falafels from one of the Gürtel' shops nearby. And again it‘s late when we leave for Zock‘s flat, who is our good friend (forever!) and host (tonight!). Shout out to you buddy, you‘re the best.

Good night Vienna! We‘ll be the first ones who are back when they open the borders again! <3

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!

I went to bed quite early last night in order to catch up on some quality sleep in Stuttgart. Flo at 'Juha West' even left us some healthy food in the artist flat which is located in the basement of the actual venue. I love it when you can walk off the stage and stumble into your bed in literally the same breath.

It seems my body was not ready yet for such good conditions and I start to feel very ill. My life seems to be cursed I kick off the day with a decent 'Grippostad' breakfast.

Fortunately the drive is short and very unspectacular. We are playing Frankfurt tonight and is our first ever headline show in the city. I always feel like it should be a town with an incredible music scene. It‘s such a famous and metropolitan city right in the center of Europe. However it seems like Frankfurt is more like the center spindle hole of a vinyl. There‘s a lot going on in the whole region but Frankfurt is definitely not where the action is.

That being said we are actually very surprised we've sold a lot of advance tickets and it looks like it‘s gonna be quite packed tonight. This is insane for a first headline show here.

The venue 'Nachtleben' is located right in the city center next to the 'Zeil', Frankfurts famous shopping mile. They print out a parking permit for us so that we‘re allowed to leave the van in front of the venue. This sheet turns out to be a lifesaver on this tour. From this day on we‘re just gonna park the van wherever we want with our universal fake permit behind the windshield.

We load in our gear into the café while dodging passerbys then down a long stairway down to the actual club. I love the 'Nachtleben'. From the outside it looks like a very sterile and posh café but when you‘ve made it down to the basement there‘s a small and a little run down concert club with more charm than you‘d expect at first sight.

We say hi to our friend Nico Laska who stopped by. I wish we had more time to hang out together. Every time we meet I can‘t believe what a nice and friendly character, so i'll forgive him that he won‘t make it to the show later, as he's going to see 'Milky Chance' who are playing the same night.

We set up, soundcheck, welcome the amazing 'Oh, Heaven' who are going to support tonight and then finally head over to a pasta restaurant nearby for dinner. We‘re all really keen on the homemade ice tea and the whole travel party orders themselves a big glass each. It turns out that homemade to them means mixing ice tea powder with water and garnish it with some mint. It tastes like horse piss and is a total sugar overload.

Doors are open and the venue fills fast. Many good friends in bands, friends from our time back in school, and even better, loads of unfamilar faces have made it out to the show.

Everything is set for a great night and 'Oh, Heaven' kick it off with a really sick set. It‘s their first show ever. Absolutely insane!

The fact that Yannic is suffering from heavy blisters on his fingers from drumming is making us a bit nervous. We try to push ourselves in the right mood in the tiny backstage room, enter the stage and then there‘s no way back.

It‘s the best sound on this tour so far, people really seem to be into it and watch the whole set which is not always the case especially as the night turns older and people keep drinking. After a few songs our sound engineer Robert starts dancing behind his desk and seems to have the time of his life and I can‘t help it but grin like the Cheshire Cat.

I really appreciate how Yannic despite his blisters held on for the whole set like a pro. When we get off stage he‘s crying in pain.

After we hang out at the merch table, sign various vinyl and even shirts. Why the hell do people ruin their shirts with our autographs? I still don‘t get this and basically feel very uncomfortable every time someone asks for it.

Anyway we can call ourselves lucky that people are so supportive and buy merch. It really helps more than you think. We‘re also glad that our friend Henry who plays in the band 'For Them All' is putting us up for the night.  

It‘s always a real hassle to sort private accomodation while on tour since we can‘t afford any hotels. Nevertheless no one ever in this band brings sleeping bags or at least a mattress with them, probably in order to keep our little rockstar dreams alive as long as possible in any way. That is until we‘re hit hard again by the reality of sleeping on a cold hard floor.

I mean there‘s always this one guy in the touring party who forgets to bring his sleeping bag and/or matress. The main problem is that we are all these kind of guys.

It requires a little liquid courage but in the end I‘m just fine crashing on the flokati rug. It‘s definitely not great for the sake of my body, but helps to stay grounded (no pun intended!). I‘m well aware that life could be worse and we definitely did worse things already.

…and sleeping on the floor in a tiny room with a travel party of 6 people, all smelly and snoring, this is definitely more rockstar-like than anything else!

Love y‘all!

It‘s a beautiful Saturday morning and I absolutely don‘t regret that I left the party earlier last night together with Jakob and Sebastian, our photographer.

Ok...that actually means while the other guys went to party at the 'Metal Sharks' club night at the 'Haifischbecken', we went home to Yannic‘s flat and ended up in a wild youtube session, binge-watching videos about famous musicians and plagarism until we were too tired to even hold our beers.

We've spent most of our time this last month in this flat, and it‘s wild and super appreciated that Yannic and his girlfriend Tabea are so open to letting us stay at their place on such a regular basis. I already feel like we should have to pay rent.

We‘re playing Münster tonight. A short drive. Loads of awesome bands and good friends are playing too and the most pre-sale tickets sold on this whole tour apart from our hometown show. A lot of good reasons to look forward to this.

We arrive at tonights venue 'Sputnikcafé', jump out of the van and fall right into the arms of our best friends in Shoreline and our good friend 'Smoky' who is putting on the show tonight. 'Smoky' did our sound for us a few times and he‘s also the sound engineer for 'Snareset' who are playing tonight as well. His official (!) Facebook name is 'Smoky McBongwater' which is why we call him that - Clearly the best fb name ever (and maybe the reason why he won‘t ever be able to work anywhere else other than the events industry and with bands, haha). His actual name is Michael, nickname Michi, whereas the guys in 'Snareset' use to call him 'Murph' for no real reason. Total confusion.

I think this is one of the only shows on this tour with real 'DIY' promoters and Münster is always really something else. I don‘t know why but the DIY Indie/Punk scene there is literally the best Germany has to offer these days. Every time I hang out here it feels like home away from home.

Everyone is trying their best to make the bands feel as welcome as they can. They even help us with settinf up our gear, providing snacks, dinner in the form of original and homemade vegan 'Neapolitan pizza' AND vegan waffles. What a treat! Everything is so chilled today compared to other shows.  

All the bands do their soundchecks and only minutes after doors 'Sputnikcafé' is already packed and it‘s only 6 pm.

There‘s a little issue at the door with two people who are bargaining for a discount on the entrance fee. They start a long discussion because they insist on getting a 1€ (!!!) discount on the box office price because they simply forgot (!!!!) to buy a ticket in advance. In the end they are forced to give in to our uncomprehending eyes, they pay the full price and enter the venue sulking.

Our new friends in 'Between Bodies' who just released the EP of the year kick off their show, followed by 'Cadet Carter', 'Swan Songs' and 'Snareset'. All the bands smash it and it‘s great to see people singing along and going crazy!

It‘s late when we start our set. It‘s day three of the tour, after the third song Jakob‘s bass rig breaks down, we can‘t really figure out the issue during the show. We just notice...nothing. No more bass on stage and it‘s hard to let the vibe not be killed by that.

I hate it that it‘s often the bad things that keep sticking in your mind. We actually play a long and super sick show and I‘m knackered, gasping and covered in sweat when we leave the stage.

We have the usual small talks after the show, hang around at the merch table, sign a few records and give numerous high-fives to good friends. On the stage that is now covered with curtains we desperately try to fix whatever‘s wrong with the bass all while there‘s a massive Alt Rock party going on in front of us. The DJ has a good taste regarding the tracklist but it sounds like either the speakers are broken or he's poured a beer over the equaliser knobs. The sound is horrible.

Load out takes way too long since our sound guy Rob thinks that NOW is the time to figure out the perfect loading technique for our van. He drives us mad especially because Jakob is still very down due to his broken bass amp. I‘m really tired and seeing Jakob being so pissed off makes me very emotional too. Furthermore I really start hating myself for getting so involved in this. It‘s been such a great day and I don‘t wanna end it feeling that way but I‘m already caught up in this downward spiral.

We've all had a few beers already so we can't drive - but our host, promoter and saviour of the human kind Hansol from 'Shoreline' drives our van for us at a steady walking pace safely through masses of drunk party people waiting in the queue to the club. It reminds me of herding sheep back to their farm

It‘s been a long day and it‘s been a huge family reunion. Thanks so much to all the legends that make our shows in Münster bigger and better every time we come back here. Can‘t wait to do it all over again! Hopefully soon!  

Playing hometown shows is always something special. We have two shows in Freiburg today: An acoustic instore show at the FLIGHT13 Recordstore in the afternoon and a full-band show at the Slow Club in the evening. It’s a rather short drive from Dijon to Freiburg but last night‘s show ended super late and we had to get up at 7 am again. Fuck.

We leave at 8 and I think the whole travel party can really feel the lack of sleep over the past 30 days. Doesn‘t matter. We’re playing two hometown shows tonight, it’s official The Deadnotes day. It‘s Funday!

We arrive in Freiburg a bit later than planned but the weather is beautiful which is amazing after a few cold and rainy days in France.  

The loveley people at the Flight 13 even serve us breakfast and coffee while everyone apart from Darius and myself uses the spare time to go home and wash their clothes. We end up feeling completely helpless setting up the merch and the pa without a a crew. There‘s still some time left to rehearse our acoustic set and have some chats with friends I haven't seen for way too long. We took an acoustic guitar with us in the overloaded van for over a month and promised to rehearse the set somehwere on the road but of course ended up doing this on the very last minute in the back room of the record store seconds before our gig.

 A lot of people made it to the acoustic show though and it was absolutely crazy. Thanks for the amazing show!

After the show we drive straight over to the Slow Club that is only five minutes away and start loading in, seting up and doing soundcheck. I‘m surprised with how routined everyone does his „job“ after 30 days of touring. We even have two sound guys tonight as our home boys Robert and Martin share the mixing desk. I think the guys at the Slow Club are quite happy that they have such an easy job today. However it seems that they worked really hard on providing us the best catering ever. In our backstage there is a table full with different food from salads, different types of bread, spreads over to lasagne and even a tasty looking vegan dish. There‘s literally everything and I think it‘s the first time we are playing a Freiburg show and don‘t have to take care of the catering ourselves as we used to put on on all our past shows without a promoter.

The worst thing about it is that I don‘t really find the right time to sit down for a few minutes to eat. I end up standing in front of the venue with two bananas in my hand. I’m always way too nervous when we play a hometown show and always too busy making sure everything is working out. It‘s a special night and we don‘t want anything to go wrong.

It’s 7 pm and there are already around 50 people lined up outside of the venue for the doors to open. What the actual fuck. 20 minutes after doors the venue is completely sold out. There are still a bunch of people left who aren’t allowed to attend anymore. We‘re really sorry about this. Fortunately there are some screens in the lobby that broadcast the show, haha. No joke! (see picture below)

Our buddies in Death By Shotgun play a banger set to a sold out Slow Club and it seems that the crowd really digs their music. My nervousness is now slowly reaching its maximum. There are a lot of friends and people you really like coming out to see you play which makes you feel a hundred times more nervous than playing any other show. I always feel like everyone is watching every little move I make on stage.

All this doesn‘t really matter though. The show is definitely one of the best ones on the whole tour. The whole crowd is singing a long to our songs, there are stagedivers while the bad luck with our equipment on stage we had on this run of shows continues. First of all Yannic breaks his kick drum pedal, the steel that holds the beater literally burst in two. It‘s also literally the first show on this goddamn month long tour where Yannic, don‘t ask me why, forgets to put his spare pedal next to his kit. Later Darius‘ pedal board is making weird noises while he hectically tries to fix it first with continous use of WD40 then eventually with duct tape.

It couldn’t have been any better! Thank. You. So. Much. Freiburg.

After the show I feel relieved. We drink too many beers and end up way to drunk to figure out how to fit all the equipment in two very small cars as our van is going back to Cologne tomorrow. I walk home with Yannic through the silent streets of Freiburg for almost an hour which helps calming us down and we talk about our band history and what kind of crazy things we get to experience day by day. What a night.

I‘m rudely awaken by the dreadful alarm tone of my old Nokia. It‘s 6.30 am, I slept two and a half hours max. It‘s not only that my brain is not ready to get up yet, but still I lay paralysed not able to move my arms or legs and literally not sure if this is gonna be the end of the tour. I instantly close my eyes again.

Honestly I don't even remember how I managed to get out of bed and drive the van to the ferry haven in Putgarden, Northern Germany. It‘s stunning what my body can endure when it‘s in tour mode. We survive the insane overnight drive from Austria to Hamburg, played a fantastic show there and then after we left the venue super late and in a rush of endorphines, decided to stop by another bar.

It all doesn‘t really matter in the end. We drive onto the ferry, the travel party is knackered but looking forward to the Scandinavian leg of the tour.

After a long drive we arrive in Gothenburg at Sekten. A Swedish friend already told me that it‘s definitely the coolest place to play at in the city and indeed I love it. It‘s not an actual venue but a huge rehearsal room built out into a small concert venue, with a stage made out of wooden pallets.

They seem to put on absolutely rad shows here and it seems like bands from all over the world have played here already. I feel a bit crazy loading out such a massive amount of gear into such a small diy venue...but our promoter Robert simply makes fun of us and it seems to be just fine.

It‘s a Monday night and we don‘t expect anything, but a bunch of people show up and it‘s awesome to see some friends at the show who we didn‘t see for a while. Due to the secret nature of the shows at Sekten alcohol is not allowed to drink beer here, which is not a common thing in Sweden at all. However the prices for beer here are really something else and I‘m starting to feel super ill so I decide to rather miss out on the after party while the other guys enjoy themselves. The last thing I see before I fall asleep on the backstage couch is Marius hoodie-covered head. He‘s jamming a rap-battle against Yannic while our soundguy Martin is blasting out some random hip-hop sample beats through the pa. What a way to spend the evening.

Another day, another long drive. I‘m not really feeling better so the other guys get behind the steering wheel for today. I only wake up for a quick service stop where I decide that from now on I‘m gonna live healthy and buy an apple every time we stop by a gas station which I‘ll give up only two days later. Sweden seems to be a real winter wonderland this time around, I get to see snow for the first time this year and we drive past some really beautiful lakes before arriving in Södertälje, described by our friend and promoter Lance while welcoming us as the arse-end of Stockholm. It can‘t be that bad. 

The venue is the exact opposite compared to last night. The stage is huge and the whole concert room reminds me of a church. There is a massive gallery opposite to the stage. I think we need more songs with guitar solos in order to properly use these chances. I want to climb up the platforms and be a real fucking rock stars.

We get treated with fine pasta and I get to eat some insanely good vegan parmesan for the very first time. I may have said this before but it‘s still overwhelming to be this far away from home and there are so many incredible people taking such good care of us. Thank you so much to the guys at 151 Booking and the amazing Panhandler who open up the show.

Funniest moment is when Marius from Kid Dad has a total blackout on stage and invites all the people in the venue to hang out after the show and drink beers together not being aware that it‘s a straight edge and strict alcohol free show. Anyway everyone seems to be very nice and easy here.

Before our set we play „odd zone“ with the result that Jakob is forced to prove his pop-punk jump skills on stage which is definitely not his habit and can be seen here.

I actually love it that straight edge and all ages gigs are such a thing in Sweden and that it allows very young and even underaged people to attend shows who are too often not included back home.

Another day. Groundhog day. „Long drives for low lives“. I‘m finally starting to feel better again after drinking 1,5 litres of smoothies and eating some classic Scandinavian flatbread with mustard-dill-sauce whereas the other guys bought some expensive cheese from the supermarket and then noticed that it‘s expired for over six months already. Who knows how this can happen in a big commercial shop.

Copenhagen is such a beautiful city and I wished we had some more time here. We‘re playing at Rahuset tonight where we already played three years ago. Our friend Petteri who also runs the online music magazine „rockfreaks.net“ organizes the show, he let us play an incredible support gig for the guys in Signals Midwest from the US five years ago when we had not even released a proper single yet. I don‘t know what made him do that but the punk scene definitely needs more guys like him. All in all it‘s our fourth show here already and I‘m always really stoked about it.

Our friend Thomas from “The Sigourney Weavers“ from Sweden even flew out to the show which is mental, the Danish legends from “Forever Unclean” made it out to the show, too. Also our friend and sleeping place host Lasse plays an absolute killer set with his new ska/punk band „Fall Back Down“. A big family reunion. It is no wonder that this turns out to be my absolute favorite Scandinavian show so far. I don‘t really know what it is but I literally can‘t stop smiling on stage and we even end up playing two encores. The guys in Kid Dad smash it again like they do each and every night on this tour. We hang out at the venue selling merchandise and chatting with friends until there are no drinking tickets left anymore and we head off to the sleeping place.

I don‘t know how Paul, our photographer/sometimes backliner and very best in-official tour manager handled this: but he somehow gets it done to still order pizza for everyone at 2 am in an completely unknown city to the accommodation which is far from the city center. Everyday is a pizza day.

Thank you everyone for being part of this wild last three days in Scandinavia. You know who you are. Thanks Ibu, thanks Grippostad.

We already can‘t wait to be back.

Photos: Paul Ambrusch

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.