2004 European Tour Diary:

 

JFK - Monday May 3rd
I've got a bad feeling about this... Erika, our bass playing wunderkind is in the hospital with an unkown ailment, and we don't know when she's getting out. Adrian, our lead guitarist has been denied boarding at the check-in counter, since apparently Filipinos need Visas to go to Germany. Of the five members of the Strines, only Georgia and I make it on the plane. Our amazing fill-in drummer, Jeremy Da, is already over in Europe and will meet us at the airport.

Berlin - May 4th-5th
We find out Erika's got a heart valve infection, and will miss the entire tour. Tour manager extraordinaire Sonja Sinterhauf hastily arranges a bassist for us, named Fred. While I express a pressing desire to meet with him before our first show, Sonja assures us he's professional and will learn the material. Still no news on Adrian's Visa status.

Passau - May 6th - Scheune
We meet our substitute bassist Fred the morning of our first show. We've got a 6 hour drive down to Bavaria for the show in Passau. We also find out that Adrian will not get his Visa for a week, and will subsequently miss the first 4 shows. I've written out bass charts for our whole set, and Fred's apparently been listening to our CD for two days. We rehearse in the back of our brand-new Mercedes tour van during the drive

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Passau's a lovely little town on the confluence of 3 rivers. Driving through town towards the venue, we're happy to see our posters plastered all over town. We're playing at Scheune, a club set in the base of the old city walls. We meet up with Superglow, our warmup band for the first leg of the tour. Great guys, and a great band that rocked the house. We get on stage to a small but enthusiastic crowd and promptly stink up the joint. It always sucks when your warmup band kicks your ass. Fred played a perfect show. He completely forgot every single song we played. So much for professionalism. Still, even with only one guitar and a musically-challenged bassist, we went over pretty well.

Nuremburg - May 7th - Rakete
We arrived in Nuremburg in the late afternoon. Our local booker, Lampe, set us up in a nice apartment and fully satisfied our tour rider, with 2 cases of beer, a bottle of champagne, wine, snacks and a sumptious dinner. Unfortunately he did nothing to promote the show. Still, we managed to draw about 40-50 people. Once again, Fred was pretty awful, but at least was able to play about 50% of the set this time. We managed to pull off a halfway decent show though, and impressed a DJ from Munich who asked for a CD to play us on the radio down there

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Zell Am See, Austria - May 8th - Karambar
Zell Am See is an Austrian village set in a stunningly gorgeous location, nestled between a lake and the Austrian Alps. In the winter, it's a big ski destination. In the summer, it's a big lake resort. In May, the town is empty. I'm not quite sure what our promoter was thinking, but he DID book us at the coolest bar in town, on a Saturday night. To our small but rabid fans, we played a great show. Fred now knows about 70% of our set, and I'm figuring out how to play both guitar parts at once. Our show featured 3 encores, and the debut of "99 Luftballons" deftly sung by Georgia in German. Finally feeling like we deserved it, we stayed at the bar until 6:30am, partying like rock stars.

Munich - May 9th - Erste Liga
We're definitely getting tighter, although there's still a ways to go. Once again, promotion was light, and we played to a small but extremely enthusiastic crowd. We must be getting better, since we're starting to sell more merchandise. Our crowd was doubled by the pleasant suprise of Uschi Brunner from New York with a large contingent of German friends. "99 Luftballons" went over gangbusters. The Germans seem to like that one.

Off Days - May 10th-12th
We spent our off days in Munich and Berlin, with a side trip to the fairy-tale castle of Neuschwanstein. Disney used it as the model for the Magic Kingdom, and it's portrayed on countless German tourism brochures. In Berlin, we get the good news that Adrian has gotten his Visa and is on his way to Berlin.

Hamburg - May 13th - Logo
Adrian finally arrives. We get to sound check, and he promptly blows out his guitar effects on a faulty transformer. Needless to say, this greatly effects our sound, pun unintended. The sound mix is dreadful, and overly loud as well. Having sadly left Superglow in Munich, our new warmup bands are Fuzzy Casino, an Oasis/Beatles type band from Berlin, and Hamburg local faves Uh Baby Uh. At least, we were told they were local faves. After anticipating a large and raucous crowd there to see the local "faves", we instead get about 20 people, 15 of which seem to disappear sometime during our set. Fred finally seems confident in the material, however, so there is a bright side to our show.

We stay in the the Hotel Kogge, a famous rock and roll hotel located in the Reeperbahn, Hamburg's world-reknowned red light district, and a short walk from where the Beatles played. Our hotel has a prostitute window overlooking the street off the lobby. We saw no prostitutes in the hotel window, although there were dozens outside. We did manage to get a nice photo of Georgia in the "ho booth", however.

Berlin - May 14th - Magnet Club
FINALLY. This is what we came for. A packed club, a full band, and an amazing set. Having repaired Adrian's guitar equipment, and with Fred having finally learned our set, we tore the house down. Folks in attendance included people from MTV, BMG, EMI, a few smaller indie labels, and Bild, the German national tabloid rag. Local friends Petra Feldmann, Nadja Narotzky, and Sarah Fischer were in attendance, as was Mike Salera all the way from NYC. This is one of those shows that you always hope for. The crowd was dancing throughout the show, the band was tight, and the sound system was crystal clear, both onstage and off.

Neuruppin - May 15th - Hangar 16, Rolling Wheels Clubhouse
This is one of those shows you never forget. Our originally scheduled open-air concert was cancelled due to lack of noise permit. Fred, now known simply as "the bassdriver", was able to arrange a last minute replacement gig for us; at an East German biker party held in an abandoned Nazi/Soviet airforce hangar.

Neuruppin was home to a major Luftwaffe fighter squadron during WW II, and the hangars were built camouflaged into the ground, much like Hobbit homes. After the War, the Soviets took it over and used it as an airforce base. After German unification in 1990, the base was abandoned, and the 2nd Division of the Rolling Wheels, Germany's baddest bike gang took over Hangar 16 as their personal clubhouse. This is without a doubt, one of the coolest venues we will ever play.

The Metallica/Deep Purple cover band warming up for us seems much more suitable for the crowd of burly bikers in jackboots, but we go over phenomenally well, especially Georgia. The bikers have been extremely gracious hosts, bestowing a gift of an authentic East German DDR flag, as well as plying us with food and Jim Beam. This was probably our most fun show of all. The bikers cheer us louder than any crowd yet, and bring us back on for double, triple, and yet a fourth encore, complete with drum solo. Georgia draped herself in the East German flag as we encored with "99 Luftballons," evoking more whistles than an Andy Griffith convention.

Rostock - May 16th - MAU Club
We've got our name on the billboard outside the club, just above Chumbawamba. Great performance for another eager, yet sparse crowd. Definitely made me think of those early shows by the Police where they played to 5 people in Poughkeepsie. Perhaps in 5 years from now there'll be 1000 people saying, "I saw the Strines in Rostock with only 5 people. That show was amazing!" At least, I hope so.

A long all-night drive back to Frankfurt following the show marked the end of our first jaunt through Europe. A big thank you to all of our bookers, promoters, fans, and tour manager. We couldn't have done it without all of you.

 

EK
May, 2004