mdtwn cncrte

In between writing songs, playing shows and writing confessional essays on my shitty blog, I also host a weekly online radio show on PunkRadioCast.com called ‘AbsoluteRant&Ruckus’ and i have a weird love for show promos and IDs but haven’t had much time lately to make up new ones.

So, to anyone reading this who has an interesting sounding voice, i need new promos for my weekly radio show & and am inviting anyone w/ a mic & a way to record decent quality MP3s, to produce your own SHORT (10 seconds MAX) promo for my show & send them to me at: skeenosacto@gmail.com. the only condition i have is that you include the following in your promo(s): Absolute Rant And Ruckus with Kevin Seconds, on Punk Radio Cast dot com.

You can include background noise and/or music but if you add music, please make sure it works within the show’s flavor which is pretty much punk rock, hardcore, rock & roll, pop, folk, country, old school rap, metal or indie shit.

I have ZERO budget for my show so I can’t pay you but I will credit you somehow and send you a new song or digital art piece via e-mail for your help.

Come on, people. You can do this.

I was with 7Seconds in Chapel Hill, North Carolina many years ago, probably around 1993 or something. We were playing at the Cat’s Cradle and had just finished our soundcheck there. We had a few hours to kill before the show started so I went next door to a record/t-shirt shop and had a look around. I looked at a bunch of music and found a used cassette of Billy Bragg’s ‘Talking With The Taxman About Poetry’ for $2.99. I started looking at the rack of t-shirts they had and found a white Boss Hog tee with the design from their first record: big purple letters that read ‘Boss Hog’ and a full-frontal nude shot of singer Christina wearing nothing but these thigh-high leather boots. I pulled it ut of the bunch and held it up to look at it and at that very moment, some dude walks up and asks, “Kevin Seconds, right?”.

I was mildly embarrassed and lowered the t-shirt but the kid had already seen it.

“Yeah man. That’s me. How’s it going?”,  I replied sheepishly.

“I’m stoked to see you guys. It’s my first time seeing you”, he said.

“Heh. Cool man. We’re stoked to be playing Chapel Hill again”, i sad, mostly truthfully.

“Hey, I’ve always wanted to ask you….are you guys still straight edge?”, he asked.

“Um….well, I don’t drink or do drugs but I don’t think we consider ourselves a straight edge band or anything”, I answered.

He looked visibly disappointed but I didn’t know what else to say. That was the truth. At least it was MY truth.

The kid just sorta stood there and look at me. I’m sure I didn’t come off overly friendly or anything but honestly, I couldn’t really think of anything interesting or clever to share with this guy, a fan, who had walked in on me oogling a naked girl on a t-shirt and was maybe hoping I’d go on a tear about how great it was to be living drug-free or whatever.

I felt pretty lame.

He continued eyeing me and I just kept the t-shirt down, hoping that he’d forget it was me clutching it in my stupid hands.

I started to panic.

“Well cool, bro. I’m going to keep looking around. I hope you enjoy the show tonight. I’ll see you over there in a little while”, i said, not wanting to be rude but just wanting the conversation to be over.

He smiled weakly and said, “ok, cool man” and out the store, he walked.

I paid for the Billy Bragg tape and Boss Hog shirt and went to find something to eat.

A little while later, I was on some Internet punk rock message board or Usenet newsgroup and I saw a thread about 7Seconds and stupidly started reading it. For the most part, it was just kids talking about having seen us at some gig or another but somewhere deep in the middle of all the posts, there was one from a kid who had met me at a record shop in Chapel Hill and said that I acted like a total stuck up rock star and blew him off because I was too busy looking at a t-shirt with some naked chick on the front.

I was furious.

I quickly went through my closet, dug out the Boss Hog shirt, gave it one last glance, thought about jerking off while looking at it (but didn’t),  doused it in some gasoline I had sitting in an old mayo jar near my space heater and then I lit the fucker on fire while cursing out myself, that kid, the band Boss Hog, nudity, thigh-high black leather boots and the entire population of Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

“This WON’T happen EVER again!”, I loudly promised myself, and up in flames the shirt went.

I cleaned up the charred bits and flushed them down the toilet. I then went downstairs and ate dinner and I remember thinking that mashed potatoes and veggie corn dogs never tasted so good as they did that night.

As far as I know, Boss Hog is no longer a band and no longer goes around, spreading their nakedness.

I am a better and cleaner man because of that.

October 7, 2009 fly to Chicago
I had a not so early flight from Sac to Chicago so that was cool. I knew Al was working so just drove myself to the airport and parked my car in the economy lot. It’s only $9 a day. Not too bad.

Caught my flight to Chicago. No layovers anywhere, thank god. It seems like every flight I take these days has a stop and a lengthy wait somewhere. Not this time.

Got into Chicago Midway Airport and waited a short time for the other 7Secs guys to get in from Reno. It wasn’t long before I got a call from Troy who said they were down at baggage claim so I headed that way. Met up with the boys and we grabbed a shuttle to the hotel the Riot Fest folks put us up at, the Fairfield Inn Marriott which was only about a mile away.

After a small bit of confusion over who would be paying for the rooms (we had to call Katie w/Riot Fest to clear it up), we checked into our 2 rooms - Stevie and Bobby in one room, Troy and I in another. I’m glad we all still like each other and are still close and enjoy hanging out in hotel rooms with each other. Some bands really can’t stand each other, from what I’ve heard :)

I took a shower and got online and basically just relaxed. I don’t think I’m still fully recovered from my European trip so I was feeling needlessly exhausted. Then again, I didn’t really sleep all that well last night.


October 8, 2009    Chicago
Woke up around noon  to a cloudy, rainy Chicago day and I couldn’t have been more pleased. We met Ben, the driver Riot Fest hired to drive us to and from the venue/hotel, downstairs. Ben drove us last time we played Riot Fest and is a really cool guy.

The drive over was nice. I sat on the back bench of the late 80’s conversion van Ben picked us up in and enjoyed the ride. Mike, Riot Fest’s founder, called me and asked if I wanted to play a solo set after our gig, at a club called the Cobra Lounge and I agreed to it, as long as he could find me an acoustic guitar, a capo and get me back to the hotel later. He said he would and we confirmed. At first, I sort of regretted saying I would play, not because I didn’t want to play, but because I know how much 7Seconds shows take out of my body, mind and voice and I was imagining being just totally wiped out and having no voice after the show.  Oh well. What the fuck, right?

It was only around this time that I started fully realizing that 7Secs were playing again and in a city that has ALWAYS shown us much, much love and which we love very much: Chicago. Tonight should be a great one.

Arrived at the Beat Kitchen, the club Kepi and I played at earlier this year (with The Bomb - Jeff from Naked Raygun’s other band) and Andrew Jackson Jihad. The club is on the small-ish side, holds about 400 people, but it’s really great, has a great staff and their veggie burgers are AMAZING!

Our homey and longtime one-man crew dude Jim D showed up and it was great seeing him. He looks great after all of the cancer drama that he has dealt with this year and I’m just happy and grateful he’s recovered and doing fine.

We sound checked and then waited around. The show was an early one so we didn’t have to wait around all that long. Various old friends showed up and we talked. I have many fond and amazing memories of our/my visits to Chicago and I always love being here. The people are great and the gigs are always standouts.

Chicago understands punk rock and always has.

I watched bits of the openers - Vortis and Das Kapital - both who were damned good. Ran into Amy Dumas and Phil (WWE’s CM Punk) and chatted with them for a few.

We went on and I thought we did a pretty good fucking job of rocking ass for an hour or so. It felt really good to me and the crowd were psyched and sang along loudly. I think I paced myself well and the energy level stayed throughout the set. I didn’t have any trouble with my voice at all which is always good. Steve, Troy and Bobby sounded really good. It was a great, solid set.

After, in the green room, there were these 2 girls hanging out and talking with Bobby and Steve. Turns out that they were Southwest Airlines flight attendants on the boys’ flight from Reno and they apparently, they all got a long just fabulously. The boys invited them to our show and they took them up on it. Pretty funny shit.

We gathered everyone up in the van and headed over to the Cobra Lounge for my solo set. At first, Stevie was just going to head back to the hotel but he decided to go and I was happy he did.

Got to the Cobra Lounge and ran into Jeff Pezzati who was leaving but stopped to say hi. The place was pretty crowded and I’m not sure if it always is on a Thursday night or if people were actually there to catch my set but it didn’t matter really.

Unfortunately, there was no acoustic guitar to be seen in the place and instead, the folks who set up this particular event had a Gibson hollow-body electric of some type, going through a Fender amp for me which would have been perfectly fine except that I couldn’t for the life of me keep the thing in tune, especially when I capo’ed it and the sound was pretty bad.

All during the night at the Cobra Lounge,  a tall, bug-eyed longhaired guy was there doing everything he could to help me get set to perform. He set up the guitar and amp for me, he found me a pick, he asked me if i needed water, he asked me to let him know when I was ready to start. He was really cool and his face looked familiar to me. Turns out that he’s Nash Cato from the band Urge Overkill and I’m not exactly sure what he has to to do with the club (if anything) but he sure was nice and helpful.

I played for about 45 minutes and had a really awesome time even though I couldn’t keep the electric guitar in tune, was standing to close to the amp and my mic and monitors kept feeding back. Still, this was one of those ‘fuck it, let’s just have fun’ shows and everybody cheered me on and really kept me excited to play. It was also really wonderful to have my 7Secs boys standing right up front, yelling, singing and clapping along. I’m sure the majority of folks here were drunk as hell but I didn’t give a shit. It was so much fun and everyone seemed in such a good mood, it didn’t matter. Somebody brought me an un-opened non-alcoholic beer and I was so thirsty, I guzzled it down quickly. Haven’t had one of those in a long time. 2 kids looked at me as I drank it down and I wondered if I somehow shattered my sterling “straight edge” reputation. I sure hope not.

After, we all hopped in the Riot Fest van and Ben took us back to the hotel for the night. Everyone seemed buzzed about the gigs and I couldn’t help but wish we were playing again tomorrow but….oh well. Still a couple more big 7Secs gig before the end of this year. I’m psyched.

September 29  heading home
I spent the rest of the night, sitting around, basically. I got online for a good chunk of the time and had hoped to Skype with Al but we just couldn’t get our time differences dialed. Finally, after I checked in and got through the security process of this flight, I Skype-rang her up and she answered. YAY! We talked for about 30 minutes and both marveled at how cool the whole Skype thing is and how clear and close by we both sounded.

I know. People have been hip to the whole Skype deal for years. Where the fuck have we been, right?

My flight finally left at almost noon. I was exhausted but mostly just ecstatic to be heading home. I scored another aisle seat and had plenty of room to sit for 9 hours. I watched various movies & TV shows and slept a good amount before landing in Houston.

Once off the plane, we were ushered into the customs area and were greeted by a MASSIVE clusterfuck of people, just like me, wanting to get into the country. Everyone seemed grouchy because they were missing their flights. It was terrible.

I got through and then had to go down to baggage claim, grab my big bag, re-check it and go through security to get back up to the gate where my flight to Sacramento was leaving from. All and all, I waited about 5 hours. Not great but certainly better than 13 hours.

The flight home was smooth and uneventful. I got in around 8:30pm, grabbed my stuff and sat down in the main area while waiting for Al to come pick me up. I didn’t have long to wait. Al texted me with, “look behind you” and I did and there she was! She brought Lulu along and they both seemed very very happy to see me.

Me too.

September 28  drive back to Amsterdam
Rob showed up downstairs at almost 8am and I loaded my stuff in the car and we headed for the ferry at Dover. For whatever reason, we ended up missing the ferry over to France so we hung around while killing a 2 hour wait.

Boarded the ferry and chilled for the almost 2 hour ride over. I always like this little trip. Dozed off a bit.

We got to Dunkerque and head northward towards Amsterdam. It took us about 3 and a half hours to get to the airport. We were suppose to have the car back to the rental office by 3 but we were waay late and just hoped that they wouldn’t charge us extra. The fucking car already costed us a fortune!

Rob caught a flight back to the UK and I had 13 hours to kill before I could even check my bag in so I grabbed an over-size locker for 6 Euro and stuck all of my stuff in it for the night. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do but then I saw the entry to the subway and checked into taking a train into Central Amsterdam for a few hours. Turned out it was only a 15 minute ride and costed only 10 Euros roundtrip (fuck! i could have done this on my first night over here).  I got my bearings and caught a train into the city.

For a Monday night, the streets were really lively and it felt nice to be out of the airport and just walking around the area. Naturally, I went looking around the Red Light District, mostly, because I’ve been here a few times and I know that I’ll be able to find my way back if I get lost. Looked around and watched people until I realized that, without doing this with someone I care about, it just really isn’t all that great. It’s always fun experiencing Amsterdam with band members and what-not. It makes me pretty sad that Al and I, as long as we’ve been together and for as much as we both love Europe, have never been here together. Shame on us! I headed back to the airport on the train.

September 27  Brighton, UK
Well, guess what? We got about to the halfway point of our journey, somewhere just south of Koln and our car began overheating severely. We tried stopping and letting it cool down and adding water but it didn’t work and before too long, we realized that we were pretty fucked, that the car wasn’t going to go anywhere. Various calls were made to the company who rented us this shitty car and they swore to Rob that the car was covered and had complete emergency roadside service but that turned out not to be the case, at all. We spent hours sitting at a Burger King, trying to figure out what to do and we finally decided to get a rental car, leave the junker behind and drive straight to Brighton to salvage at least one of the British shows. Matt and I stayed behind while Mike and Rob cabbed it over to a rental company at the airport.

It took almost 2 hours. They came back with a silver hatchback VW of some sort but in many ways, we had even less room for us and our stuff than we did with the Mondeo. The car is nice but it was a fortune for us to rent, basically the equivalent of $600 U.S. FUCK!! Who rents out a little car for 1 day for $600?

We squeezed everything in and took off for the ferry at Callie. Got into Dunqerque and got lost for a good 40 minutes, looking for the entrance to the ferries to Dover, England but the GPS system was failing us and it was impossible to get locals to speak in anything besides French. This is where everyone really started getting completely unraveled. Rob was stressed and his driving was a bit erratic which was a first on this trip. Poor dude. He started yelling at other cars and ended up scraping this brand new rental into someone else’s car. Everyone was in a bad mood because we had minutes to go before our ferry was shoving off from Callie. When we finally found the entrance, we saw the big ferry and pulled up to the check-in booth and the guy there informed us that we just missed the ferry, that the next one was in 2 hours which really made us late for our Brighton gig. The Brits all tried to persuade and even argue with the dude but you could tell he wasn’t budging and that we were screwed.

Then, we had to deal with the British customs people who wanted to know what I was doing coming in England. This one lady in customs really seemed to have a hard-on for me and I became a little more worried. Luckily, eh let off after a few minutes and let us through.

We parked in line to wait for the next ferry and everyone’s moods were at an all time low. From there, we contacted Buz, our Brighton friend and promoter and explained the situation and at first, it looked as though we were canceling the Brighton show because there did not seem to be any possible way for us to make it there in time. We ended up discussing it and decided that we would jam as fast as we could to get there once the ferry hit Dover and that is exactly what we did! In fact, Rob was going so insanely fast, I was starting to have an anxiety attack and my chest and throat started to feel tight and weird.

We got into Brighton and went straight to the Hob Goblin and Buz was in the parking lot waiting for us. He explained that the show openers  (including old Sacto pal Anton Barbeau) took turns playing songs, almost in an open mic style and kept it going until we got there. Went inside and there was maybe 20 people still there and the scene was super quiet and weird. I quickly tuned up and went right into one of my songs and i cannot even begin to explain how weird, uptight and even emotional i felt. I was shaky, exhausted, angry and I wanted to cry, laugh and smash my guitar into the floor. I seriously felt like i might ben having a nervous breakdown and I couldn’t wait to get done and out of there. How sad. I LOVE Brighton, love Buz and love the bill that Mike and I were on. It was such a shame to have such a horrid day ruin the show but i gotta say, it really did. I stumbled my lines and chords and managed to play about 3 songs, then turned it over to Mike Scott who did 3 songs. I played a couple more and asked Anton if he would play a song and he did. I finished my set and that was it. Everyone left and I felt relieved yet sad.

Mike and I’s last show of our tour together and it has to end kinda weirdly and not so greatly. Damn!

While the UK boys stayed at their own places and/or with families and/or loved ones, I stayed with Buz and his girl Em who kindly offered me their living room and I always enjoy staying at. We gabbed a bit and then they went upstairs to crash while I re-packed all my stuff for the trip the day after tomorrow. It’s so weird that the tour is over already. It’s been less than 2 weeks but in some ways, it feels like 2 months.

September 25  Berlin, Germany
Yannick the promoter woke us up for breakfast. Mike, Matt and Rob had all stayed up much much later, especially Mike, and drank a lot and weren’t looking like they felt too hot. We finished and loaded up the car and soon enough, we were on our way to Berlin.

The trip was a really long one but didn’t feel too terrible or anything. I drew quite a bit and slept a few winks. We got to town around 6 or so and went straight to Muttis Booking office and brought our personal stuff in. They have a band flat attached to the office and that’s where we are staying tonight.

Kai, one of Muttis’ agents and the one who did much of the work on this tour, hopped in the car with us and we headed to this awesome italian restaurant co-owned by Dave Pollack from Destiny Booking. It’s a great place with great food and has punk band-signed walls. Dave’s an American punk rocker who moved over to Berlin in 1981 and started a punk rock booking agency that has become the biggest punk rock agency in Europe. He handles all of the biggies. He was sitting at a big table waiting for us to show up, along with Mutti himself and others and we were introduced. I thought I had met him before but I guess I hadn’t. He said that he saw us back in the day, including the show at Sound Of Music in S.F. where we performed backwards, playing to the kids who we snuck in backstage because they weren’t old enough to could get in. It was fun shooting the shit with an old American punker my age who has really done a lot. Not only does he run Destiny and own the restaurant but he also has other businesses and owns homes in Berlin, S.F and Costa Rica. He’s done very very well for himself.

We headed for the club, Cortina Bob and there was a really good crowd hanging out. The openers were a full-on loud  1977 German punk band who played on forever. As usual, the club was thick in rancid cigarette smoke and I was dreading the idea of trying to sing/breathe in that foul shit.

Mike got up and played and did god. The crowd seemed weirdly indifferent and that worried me a bit. I didn’t really have high hopes for my set but the last Berlin gig was great so, who knows?

I got a really nice, warm reception but I have to admit, I didn’t have that great a time. The cigarette smoke choked and burned my eyes, my rhythm was a bit off, i felt fatigued and un-focused and the sound was so thin, deadened and crappy, I had a hard time getting into the flow of things. That said, the crowd cheered me on, shouted out requests I couldn’t play (7Secs mainly) and called me back for 2 encores before i cut it off. It was a good show and the crowd was cool but I didn’t feel that good about my performance. I hate when I think about things when I’m playing. It’s just wrong.

After, I did a co-op interview with Mike for this kid’s college radio show and got more annoyed at the generic questions and slight (un-intentional, I think) insults (”why do you play ‘old man music’ now?”). I just wanted to get it done, get back to the flat, shower and get online. I was more than ready to be out of smoke-land and away from some of the crazy drunks that were there.

Matt and I stayed at the flat while Mike and Rob went back to party. I showered and managed to find a random wi-fi signal and internetted for an hour or so before my exhaustion took over and forced me to get in bed and crash.

3 more shows left on this tour. Weird.

September 26  Nurnberg, Germany
Woke up around 7:30 feeling awake so I got online for about 30 minutes. At some point, Mike came straggling in from the bars. I don’t know how he pulls it off but he does. 

I went back to bed.

Woke up and it was already 12:30. We all got it together, loaded up the car and went to a little restaurant/cafe where Chris from The Briefs is a cook and who invited us to come have breakfast today, at last night’s gig. We found the place and ordered food. I had the English Breakfast which did me just fine. I love those damned things.

On the road to Nurnberg now. I’m in the front seat again. We have a 5-7 hour drive and I really would rather not. I’ll be happy when we’re out of Germany and somewhere in England. The next 2 days are going to be pretty fucking hectic.

Got to Nurnberg due to road construction and traffic. We had texted the promoter so he knew what was going on. The venue is a big, old, filthy youth centre building with tons of rooms of all sizes for functions of all sorts. It took us awhile but we found the room where we were playing. It had a bar and a nice little stage with a good p.a. and lights. We loaded in and then the locals had dinner ready for us. It was a pretty strange vegan lasagna with salad and it probably would have been better had I not found 2 long blonde hairs in the only 2 bites i took of it. Not good at all.

Mike opened the show and did his usual cool thing and then I came on. Originally, I was billed to headline but the promoter put a full punk band on the bill and we all kind of figured that it would make more sense more Mike to go on first. me second and the full band, last. My set probably would have been pretty fucking cool had I not broken a string after the 2nd song. Luckily, Mike had his guitar to lend but it was so hard to play and not very good sounding (at least, for my style of playing), I struggled through my set but found ways to enjoy much of it. Played a quick encore and was off.

Throughout the rest of the centre, there were other big events going on, it looked like a big DJ thing where a ton of young people gathered for the evening. Rob had been napping in the car for our huge 800+ km drive and we went and woke him up to load the car. Then we realized that our car had been pinned in behind 2 cars and it was starting to look as though we were going to have to wait until the people in both cars left for the night. Just fucking great! We have 2 shows in England tomorrow night and we need to be on the road immediately and now we’re stuck behind some complete strangers’ cars. This little piece of shit care really feels doomed. Luckily, we were able to find a super narrow way to drive behind 2 other cars and got out of the lot and on the road to Calle to catch the ferry over to England.

September 24  Darmstadt, Germany
Checked out later than normal, past noon even. It was nice to just lounge around. Got up, loaded the car and we went to find an electronic shop for batteries and stuff for the car’s CD player and also, a Starbucks.

Walked around the town center for awhile which looked much like K Street in Sacramento. The weather was perfectly cool with a slight breeze so it felt nice to be walking around, enjoying the day.

Back on the road for Darmstadt which is only about an hour and a half away. The show is at a big youth centre inside a big, weird old mansion-looking building on the outskirts of town. Tonight, the accommodations are in upstairs from the venue and is ‘band-flat style with a rows of bunk beds. We got there and basically sat, stood and layed around for a few hours before anything started and to be quite honest, it really felt fairly grim at first. It seemed as though no one was going to show up and I started to feel a bit down and dread-filled. Then, the promoter informed us that dinner was ready so we went and ate some really good vegan chili / couscous stew type stuff with fresh bread that was so good, i could have eaten a hole loaf. I felt quite a bit better after but the we saw the little boxy room that they had setup for Mike and I and I grew depressed again. I got a bit bored and didn’t feel very sleepy so I ended up watching a couple of episodes of The Office and that is always good for a pick me up.

Mike started his set around 10 or so and probably got the best reception of this tour. The crowd loved him and you could tell he was energized. That psyched me up quite a bit and by the time it was my turn, I was rare and ready to go.

I have to say, my set was pretty fucking killer. The sound was pretty crappy but i think the bigness of the hall room we were in, added to the natural reverb so my voice carried well. I enjoyed myself tremendously and i loved the AMAZING great response i got. I did a few songs I haven’t played on this tour  (“Tiny Shelter”, “Walk Together…”) and I ended up doing 2 encores (probably could have done a 3rd but why push it, right?).

After, I got to talk and hang with Chris & Birgit, the sweet couple who booked Kepi and I’s AU/Frankfurt show last year and who treated us so well. 

Took a nice shower and hung out on my bed, wrote a bit and then crashed pretty hard.

September 23  Karlshrue, Germany
We got up and checked out. Stopped at a petrol/mart place to grab travel food/drink and spend some of the francs we still had. As we left Switzerland, we all breathed a sigh of relief. It felt good to be back in Germany where it’s cheaper, the people nicer and the overall vibe is less shitty and weird.

Got to the hotel and rejoiced when we saw the actual room. It’s big, about the size of a 2 bedroom apartment and everyone was ecstatic and giddy. There were 2 bedrooms, one with 2 beds and couch which Mike and Rob took, and one with just one bed, which I grabbed. Matt ended up on the couch in the living room where the TV was. I didn’t even care about the gig that night. I just wanted to chill in my private bedroom :)

Headed for town and found the venue. It’s another small club situated in a big, industrial building attached to a bigger industrial building that is a full-on slaughterhouse. You could smell death all around and the place had a really dark, shitty vibe to it.

The promoter walked us into town (about a 15 minute walk) to another Italian restaurant where I had a kick-ass pizza. This time, I ate until I was full and then boxed up the rest.

Back to the venue and the place is dead and empty. I sat in our car for a few minutes but was joined by Matt, Mike and Rob and we BSed until the local opener started.

By then the crowd had filled up quite a bit.

The opener played and did it in an acoustic punk/folk/country style that I’m sure is influenced by Chuck Ragan and Tim Barry. He did ok. As with a few of the openers we’ve had on this trip, it’s just kinda weird hearing people sing in English with really heavy Euro accents, especially when they’re performing in their native countries. It’s perfectly fine, of course,  but sometimes it just feels a little to awkward and forced.

By the way (and speaking of the influence American punk/folk/country solo act have had on folks lately),  if I have to hear one more song about bottles (beer, whiskey, broken or otherwise), from yet another country-fied solo dude singer-songwriter, no matter where they’re from, I’m going to throw up.

Mike went on and the bar keep also doing sound had his vocals way buried. I felt the jet lag big time and hoped I would make it to my set.  I wouldn’t have minded just skipping the playing part and heading back to our lovely hotel room but I knew that wasn’t going to happen.

I got up and worked through a good 50 minutes or so. I literally felt my lungs struggle for clean air, the smoking was so toxic and thick. The crowd watched and were polite but the applause was light and kinda half-hearted and I lost what little steam i started with quickly. I should have just played some of the songs I haven’t played on this trip. Even if I fucked them up, who would have known or cared? At least I could hear what they sound like live.

Got through the set and got our asses back to the hotel, quickly. We did shit in  merchandise.

Got to the hotel. Took a quick shower and hand-washed a shirt and a pair of boxers. Paid 7 euro to use the Internet, this time, in our room. The signal was a bit slow but I didn’t give a fuck. It was nice to be in that room.

September 22  Zurich, Switzerland
We were awoken at around 9:30 by one of the guys who was at the gig and we had to get our stuff and get out, for whatever reason. It barely felt like I got any sleep at all. We drove into the town centre and found a Starbucks where I had an overly-priced coffee that tasted like sweetened creamy water. Yuck.

Hit the road for Zurich. We got in early and checked into the eTap hotel we had reservations for. Got up to the room and were shocked to see how ridiculously tiny and generic it was. One small room with 1 double bed and a single bunk bed over the top and the toilet and shower were 2 separate cube-like holes, similar to an airplane restroom or a sani-hut. Basically, the room was made for 2 people tops. I grabbed the upper bunk.

We head for the club, with a name I don’t even know how to pronounce (Hafenkniepe). It’s a small pub in the town centre and it seems ok. Of course, my first thought, after seeing all the early bar patrons, was just how smokey the place would be later.

The promoter walked us next door to an Italian restaurant and I had an amazing plate of penne pasta. It tasted so fucking great I just kept eating it, even well past the full point. That wasn’t too great an idea and I ended up feeling sluggish, thick and a bit sick during Mike’s set.

I still felt some of the effects of over-eating during my set but I managed to sweat my ass off and I felt much better after. The thick smoke definitely wrecked havoc with my throat though and I struggled to hit any of the higher notes or sustain anything. It was so fucking gross and actually made me a bit angry and resentful. The crowd response was ok. Nothing terrible but it wasn’t anything great either.

After, I could tell Mike wanted to hang around for awhile (a mate of his came to visit) but I didn’t feel like spending any more time in that smoke-filled dungeon any longer and I asked if someone would give me a ride back to the hotel.

We got back to the hotel and I showered right away and managed the difficult task of washing the pair of stinky jeans I’ve been wearing from day one of European journey by hand (and feet…grape crushing-style).

Later, I paid 7 francs to use the hotel’s wi-fi but I had to do it down in the lobby and the signal sucked complete ass and after about 45 minutes of trying to work around the shit connection, I went back upstairs, climbed up to the bunk and crashed out.

September 21  Geneva, Switzerland
Woke up about 30 minutes before the alarm was set to go off. We all got up, packed the car and after a quick market stop for our 8 hour drive to Geneva, we were off. I read through the Ramones book and am a few pages short of being done. I know i am going to want another book for the trip back, I just know it.

The trip to Geneva was LAME. 8 hours in a cramped, smelly car with one major stop for food and stretch. It really was a fucking bummer and I must say, i’m slightly irritated by how the traveling part of this trip has gone so far. I get along really well with these boys and Rob’s a great driver but 4 of us in one tiny car, especially big dudes like me and Matt sitting in the back seat together, well, that’s way too much.

We get to the venue - Tiki Bar - which is owned by Luke Hilley, the Chuck Ragan-loving acoustic guy who opened for us in Amsterdam, and it’s really cool. Kinda cheesily decorated retro-y 50’s diner vibe and almost too new feeling for it’s own good but a cool little place and everyone working there were great. If they get some decent lights and darken the place a bit, they could really have a pretty amazing little venue here.

Mike and I both had good sets. Quite honestly, the response, with the exception of Koln, has been almost exactly the same every night here so I can’t really much about the actual sets we play.

Afterwards, we were given directions to get to youth hostel where we were set to stay at but the front desk guy was a huge prick and we ended up not staying. He claims that we didn’t have reservations but I’m thinking that he just didn’t like us at all. Mike was PISSED and basically told the keeper to fuck himself. We went looking for another place to stay but all of the nearby hotels were insanely expensive and we ended up calling up this cool local guy, the guy who opened the show (and who I just bagged on) and he gave us directions to get to his house out in the middle of nowhere. It was after 3 by the time we got there but he kindly let us in and ushered us down to the basement where I grabbed the couch (Mike and Rob slept on the bed, Matt stayed in the car) and crashed fairly quickly.

September 19  Antwerp, Belgium
Got up and had what was left of the free breakfast the hotel offered, basically, bread, cheese, juices and coffee for me.

Left the hotel and someone pointed us to a garage a block or s away who might be able to work on the car. We got lucky, actually. Most garages are closed on Saturdays in Holland so we lucked out finding an open one and not far from where we stayed. The mechanic there couldn’t fix the overall problem with the locking system but he managed to disengage the alarm system which is what caused the battery drain. Very good news and they didn’t charge us for it even. Wow!

We hit the road to Antwerp in Belgium. It wasn’t a long ride. It was very hot and muggy in Antwerp and I was uncomfortable throughout much of the day and night.

Found the club - Trix, a decent-sized music room attached to this entire youth center complex were there were a whole bunch of other things going on all night. The staff were really hospitable and the dressing room was kick ass with plenty of couch, chair and table space, food, drink and free wi-fi. We had all of our stuff, including suitcases and what-not so we took up quite a bit of room. The Fake Problems boys showed up and we all sorta mosied about for several hour before the show started. We were fed a really great vegan meal with leek potato soup, potatoes and a veggie patty thingy. Pretty awesome.

I internetted for much of our wait time. Caught up on e-mails, Facebook, etc. etc. Got a disturbing e-mail from a very close friend saying that she was just diagnosed with cancer but not sure what type or how serious it is. Very sad news but hopefully it’ll be something that she can take care and be done with very soon.

Also, read that my ex-girlfriend Angie’s mom Lillie had had a heart attack recently and went into a coma and just today, Angie and her twin sis Angel made the enormously brave and unenviable decision to take her off life support because she would never recover. So heartbreaking. I loved Lillie. She was so warm and sweet to me. The girls just must be beyond devastated  :(

Mike ended up going on about an hour later than scheduled because the crowd was pretty much nonexistent at 8:30 or whatever. It never really grew larger, to be honest. 25 people max.

Mike played well and said some funny things.

I came on next and kicked a little Belgian ass. I least i gave it my all. I also debuted “Hello Square One” and it sounded good and the crowd was receptive to it.

Fake Problems went up next and did great. The crowd was up for them for sure. I caught a few songs and then went back and took advantage of our free internet situation. I’m addicted, what can i say?

Ended up not selling a damned thing. Wow. Nothing. Thanks a lot, Antwerp!

We packed up and got to the hotel, about 15 mins away. I must say, the car situation makes everything a little more stressful. There are too many of us in too tiny of a car and with all of the gear, baggage, trash and the boys collecting cans of beer everywhere we go, it’s becoming way too cluttered for it’s own good. We have a couple of big drives coming up and i worry about that a little. I know how I get when things get too crampy and loud.

Hmm….

ended up with my own room and that cheered me up. I tried to get online but not much luck. Watched a little Streets Of SF on my laptop before dozing off.  Mike and Steve never let me down.

Ever.

These are the little lifetime things that matter the most.

September 20  Koln, Germany

Woke up, disoriented at about 7:45 am. Decided it was perfect time to make a quick call to Al. She sounded surprised and happy to hear from me and it was beyond great to hear her voice. We didn’t talk long. This AT&T/iPhone international phone/data service sucks balls and I didn’t want to risk running up an enormous phone bill to come home to. Regardless, she’s doing good. It was about 10:45 at night in Cali.

Thought about maybe trying to go back to bed. I do.

Got up when the hotel manager called and asked if i was coming down for breakfast. Of course I was. Free food, juice and coffee doesn’t grow on trees.

We packed up and headed off to Koln. It was only a couple hour drive. Got into town and the venue - the Sonic Ballroom - was situated in a somewhat desolate part of town, nowhere near the city center where the great old black cathedral I’m obsessed with stands. We walk in to the place and it is an absolute shithole. Cigarette butts, wrappers and empty beer bottles everywhere. The guy working behind the bar shows us upstairs to where the band flat is and it’s almost worse. Unmade beds with dirty looking blankets and pillow cases, used tampons in the bin next to the toilet and more empty beer bottles. Yikes! None of us are really amused but what the fuck are you going to do?

I grabbed couch space and looked for and found a very weak wi-fi signal. Caught up on the latest and then leaned in for a nap. I kept waking up, dozing off, waking up….The jet lag is really bad this time around. We basically just sat and hung around until dinner (rice and some curry dish with veggies). The promoter or someone kept pushing back the start time for the gig because there weren’t many people downstairs but by 10, i seriously doubted that more would show up and suggested to Mike that maybe he should get started and people would fall in. There were about 20 people total. Nothing that new or different for us, so far.

Mike turned in a really good set. His song melodies are pretty repetitive at times but i think he writes good songs and his low, slow heavy South London accented voice works so well with it. He’s also a pretty great guitarist.

My set was slightly different. I added ‘Say Goodnight’ and ‘Motherfuckers’ to the list. The crowd applauded loudly and lengthily and it seemed that they genuinely enjoyed the show. I even got an encore :)

After, I talked with a few folks, shook hands, signed things and posed with peeps for pics. I had a really good conversation with an Australian guy who lives in Hamburg now. Mainly American political stuff. I find that many in Europe really follow what’s going on in the U.S. and they seem pretty well-read on things, even more so than a lot of Americans i know.

I went upstairs and decided a shower was necessary since there was so much smoking going on downstairs. I also handwashed my gig boxers and shirts and felt much better for doing both. Hopped back online and spent a couple of hours just enjoy the peace and calmness of the band flat while the boys stayed and drank downstairs with the locals. Got to sleep at almost 3.

September 18  Rotterdam, Holland
Woke up feeling pretty well-rested, or so I thought. We grabbed breakfast downstairs and then it was off for Rotterdam. The drive was a quickie, a little more than an hour. The second I hit the seat though, the sleepiness wave hit me hard and I dozed off to whatever bad music the guys insisted on playing along the trip. Sometimes, I think people just play music in their cars more out of boredom than anything else but I could be wrong.

Got to Rotterdam and found the venue - Watt. It’s a large, multi-room venue that has a pretty cold, industrial feel about it. We are set up to play in the basement room which is the smallest of the 3, probably holds 200 or so people. We look around and then head to our hotel room and stash our personal items.

Walked around the neighborhood where the club is looking for coffee but never found it.  Settled for juice and some snacks at a nearby market. Hung around the venue for a good long while until things got started.

In the biggest room, some pop chick singer was playing and drew a ton of people, maybe 600 or so. The crowd never really made it out for our show, maybe 20-25 people. It’s alright. That seems to be the norm for the solo shows i’m doing these days and it always seems to work out nicely, both in terms of response and CD sales, so fuck it.

Mike opened and did well. He acknowledged that the crowd probably didn’t know who he was but I watched a good amount of people get into his stuff.

My set went well. I felt good up there and the sound was fantastic. I noticed a couple people in the audience smiling and they appeared to really dig the new songs. One very attractive girl in particular, stood in front of me kept smiling her pretty smile and cheering loudly. You can’t NOT love that. I don’t care who you are.

Fake Problems (newer U.S. band on Side One Dummy) played last and did good. They don’t appear to have much of a draw either but the kids who were there dug ‘em. I thought they sounded good but admittedly, it’s hard for me to stand for loud bands these days. I hope that’s not permanent. I love loud live music, I know I do.

I think.

After, we had some major problems with our shitty rental car. For whatever reason, the locking system doesn’t work and we couldn’t get the doors of the car open to load our stuff up and everyone was starting to panic a little. Then, out of the blue, some big, semi-crazy looking thuggish local walked up and told us he could get the door open and managed to squeeze his large, bulky forearm through the 1-inch opening of the back window and unlocked the door. Then, somewhat menacingly, he hit us up for money and we gave him about 9 Euro for his trouble. The only problem was, the car alarm went off and would not stop. We tried everything and eventually, we got it to stop but every time someone opened a door or the trunk or started te car, the alarm would go back off. To make matters worse, the constant usage of the alarm was draining the battery.

We managed to get back to our hotel and settling in for the night. Everyone’s nerves were a bit frayed. A little too early in the tour was that kind of thing, I’d say.