6.28.08 & 6.29.08

***i had to combine two days together in one entry cause of lack of time***

Day 22,


...that picture is from the Lyon, France show with Envy. there are more pretty rad pics here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rax2/sets/72157605850462752/

so today, we woke up in our siq little hotel in Lyon and had our complimentary continental breakfast...(yeah that's right...if you haven't been keeping up with the blog, we are huge shit now). hah, shit was tight. packed all of our shit, probably gave Boss one of those close-fisted-pounds at some point in the morning when i first saw him, and hopped in our van. we were driving to Strasbourg, France today for our show.

i'm trying to remember what happened on the way there, but can't. so i'ma just make up a story. on the way to Strasbourg, we were stopped at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere and while i was pissin, i realized that the person one urinal over from me was none other than Lil' Wayne!!!!! he was all like "eeeeey! 'sup young blood??" and i was like "holy shit!!! you're Lil' Wayne!!!" and he was like "yo, 4 sho'dough! datz me! how u like my new single 'Lollipop'? "...i then broke out my knife and commenced a stabbing-storm. i left him there, i dont think he was ok. as i was walking back to the van...i dunno why, but...something inside of me, at that moment, made me feel like i saved hip hop. you're welcome.

we got to Strasbourg a few hours later and were greeted by the awesome kids there. i always forget that they are into the double-kiss-on-the-cheeks there. that's rad. showin love. i'm into it. we were playing at some community center/sports arena place at this like country club place. it was siq. when we got there, the kids had already started setting up for a sweet bbq.


...good times. i had this...


soon after, the Trainwreck kids showed up. and Andi was back in action for this show too! rad shit. before the show started, a few of us and the T-wrecks got into some heavy tennis compz. i figure i'm alright at Wii-tennis, shit i gotta be like at least maybe-ok at the real deal.


...team Wes-and-i did alright. i think we won once.


...the show started soon after and it went VERY well. we were playing like in a super small lobby of this room. there were a ton of people there and the lobby was packed (and VERY VERY hot and sweaty). during out set, many-a-shirts came off, and one dude got completely n00die.


...you can't see his dude in this pic, but you know, you get the point. (this was right after we were done).

after the show, we hung out for a while, had some awesome desserts, and danced to some siq dance jamz that they had going on in the place after the bands were done. it was way fun. kids there were way stoked. after a bit, and some goodbyes, we got in the van cause we were driving to Aachen, Germany that night.

"siq shit" top 5 regulators:
1. kids from Paris being at the show
2. the Footloose crew kids from Freiburg, Germany coming out
3. seeing Andi Trainwreck.
4. the naked dude crowd surfing.
5. the people under the naked dude, having to hold his naked body up.


****Day 23,

we got to Felix (T-wreck drummer) and Maria's (his siq gf) SUPER siq pad in Aachen, Germany at like 7am or something this morning. we went straight to sleep once we got there. after a few hours of sleep, we woke up, had some suuuuper awesome vegan cupcakes that Maria made and headed over to the venue.

today was the final, championship game for the Euro-soccer-cup, and Germany was playing, so the Trainwreck kids thought it would be a good idea to have the show be a matinee show, and when it was over, head back to Felix and Maria's to watch the game and have a bbq.

so anyways, we got to the venue (same place we played last year) and were greeted by the awesomeness of Jenny and her AMAZING vegan food (again!!!). rulez! check this out...


...SOOOO freakin GOOD. take that everyone who is looking at these pictures and not eating this stuff!!!

it was rad too cause a bunch of kids from Koln and from Mannheim came out to this show. it was quite filled up for a matinee show. awesome!

the first band that played were these awesome kids called Kontrapunkt. they were damn good too. apparently they are breaking up soon and having their last show at Cry Me A River Fest with us, so i'm glad i get to catch that. after that were Trainwreck (who were the hometown heros here) and they kiiiiiiilled it. super good. we played after that and it went very well as well. this was a kinda sad day cause this was our last show with Boss. (tomorrow, he is leaving for another tour and we are gonna get driven by our friends Felix and Gautier)...but anyways, after our set Boss said he was super stoked to spend the few weeks with us and hang out and that he had a really good time. it was way heartwarming...what a sweetheart.

so after the show, like planned, we headed over to Felix and Maria's place for the bbq. (and let me add, their place is SOOOO fuckin RAD. coolest pad EVER). so yeah, a bunch of other awesome people came over for the bbq and to watch the game too.



...and the food we had fuckin ruuuuuuled as well. no joke, this is just a few hours after we ate all of Jenny's awesome food...we were pretty much spoiled today.


...just awesome vegan-deliciousness! what chuu no 'bout that plate?!?!


so yeah, we watched the game as we ate and all screamed pretty loud when Spain scored a goal (and then again later when they won). apparently, none of us, especially the Germans that we were with, didn't want Germany to win. hah. good times.

after the game, people started leaving, goodbyes were said, i took a shower, and us, Felix, Maria, Chris, and Boss watched "Superbad". it was the first time that all of those kids had seen it. hah. i think it went very well.

we all crashed out super hard after that.

"siq shit" top fiiiiiivez
1. Felix and Maria's awesome place.
2. doub-ley, AWESOMELY, good food today.
3. watching Family Guy in German, but still laughing like crazy cause all of us know every episode and joke so well.
4. watching people watch "Superbad" for the first time.
5. Boss laughing INCREDIBLY hard at that one scene when they are in home-ec class and Evan is all being super cute with his partner (Maroshi) and puts like flower all on his face like a cat and Maroshi starts scratching like a cat and licks his paws. yeah, after the movie was done, we watched that scene 2 more times just to see and hear Boss laugh so fuckin loud.

6.27.08

Day 21,


3 weeks in. we had to wake up kinda early in Dornbirn, Austria today cause we had a longer-than-usual drive today and had to be at the venue early. we were driving to Lyon, France today (i think it took about 6-7 hours to get there). anyways, we had breakfast with the T-wrecks and people of the space in Dornbirn, then headed off soon after. after sneaking through Switzerland (cause me and Juan didn't have the right visa to technically be in their country), we got to France faster than we thought. on the way, we listened to some Dane Cook, Adam Sandler, and Against Me (kinda weird combo huh?).

anyways, when we got to the venue it got preeeeeeeeetty fuckin ridiculous FAST. we were greeted by Damien and all the other people who worked at the venue in Lyon (who were ALL really reaaaally nice by the way). they showed us all around the place...which was fuckin HUGE by the way. (the story is, we originally had a show booked in Lyon on this same day at some other space, but it got canceled for some reason, and then we found out that Envy were actually playing Lyon on the same day that we were suppose to be there. so our good friends from Lyon, Gautier and Seb, somehow worked some crazy magic and got us on the Envy show. which was just fuckin RIDICULOUS cause i, personally have been an Envy super-fan for like 6 or so years but have never seen them live...so yeah, it was insane to be finally seeing them AND getting to play with them). so aaaaaanyways, they took us to our "dressing rooms" (hahahahah!!!)...



...hahah, look at those guys! pffffff, no big deal, just like a "usual day on the Comadre tour" ya know. dressing rooms, working sinks, non-band-sticker-covered mirrors, whatevz. hah, then they showed us the "backstage" area where there was a ton of snack foods and junk...


...needless to say, the 5 of us spent a LOT of time here just killing all that food and free drinks there was. hah. then they showed us the show space/stage area. here is Envy's set up...


...after we saw that, we were hesitant to ask (but had to give it a try anyways), and asked if there was anyway we could play on the floor, and the dudes were just like "yeah!". fuuuuuck yeah! so we set up on the floor next to the stage...



...siq.

after we finished setting up and all that jazz, they took us upstairs to have a ridiculous dinner (even though we kinda all destroyed our appetites from all the snack food we ate)...



...but FUCK IT, i can always eat, i had this...


we also met the Envy guys and their driver and tour manager and they were all pretty fucking awesome dudes. the Envy guys were damn nice (i felt like a straight NERD-super-fan while talking to them by the way). anyways, after that, people started showing up. and it was crazy cause i randomly ran into my friend Ben (who plays in Mohoram Atta). apparently he was in Lyon visiting his g-parents and wanted to see Envy, so he bought a ticket and had no idea we were playing. RULED. i gave him a bunch of free beers. i also ran into Seb (who is the COOLEST fuckin dude ever by the way) and chatted it up with him for a while.

soon after that, we had to play. and it fuckin ruled. we had people circle all the way around us on the floor and it got packed pretty fuckin quick. it went very well and was quite fun. (the venue video taped it and put it on a dvdr for me, so maybe i can upload some shit on youtube soon). theeeeeen, after that, Envy played. and it was probably (no joke) one of the most epic things i've ever seen. soooooooo AMAZING and intense. (and they played shit off their "footprints" album too!!!!!!)...













after that was all over, we all hung out and chilled. talked to the Envy guys, they mentioned that they were gonna try real hard to make it to the West Coast next year and talked about their upcoming split with Thursday (hah, kinda ridiculous). and i got a shirt for Anthony, cause i told him i would get him one :) we also hung out with Seb some more. he gave me a Sinaloa record that he recently put out, so that totally ruled of him.

theeeeen, to make things MORE ridiculous...we found out that the venue (i guess as part of their "thing to do for bands that play there") had booked us and Envy rooms at this nearby hotel for the night. what?!?!?! AND, just for us, they gave us THREE fuckin rooms. what?!?!? yeah, ridiculous.

so we said our goodbyes, packed out shit, went to the hotel, and all of us hung out in me and Juan's room. that looked like this...



"siq shit", west coast is the best coast, top 5:
1. walking "backstage" randomly and catching Juan, Steven, Wes, and Jack just fuckin RAT-raiding all the snack food in that back room. hah. it was like turning on a light in a room full of cockroaches.
2. "borrowing" a bunch of beers and a bottle of wine from the venue for our siq telly ("hotel party" for all you lsr squares).
3. all 5 of us NOT staying up till way-the-fuck late in one room watching local French porn and laughing a lot.
4. seeing Envy.
5. the Envy guys...

6.26.08

Day 20,

woke up at Andy's in Nurnberg, Germany. we got ready, then headed over to another house in the same city to meet up with the Trainwreck guys and have breakfast. on the way, we picked up a buddy of ours who was catching a ride with us to the show tonight (he bought us all popsicles too...what a sweetie). we were playing in Dornbirn, Austria today (although the whole time i thought we were in fuckin Germany).

the drive went by pretty fast. we were pumping jamz by Converge, Trainwreck, Phantom Float, Who Calls So Loud, and a bunch of radio-comedy/bits things. i slept alot. and bought a .89cent bottle of juice. and it was fuckin good.

we got to the venue and it was like out in the cuts. kinda crazy setup, but the place TOTALLY TOTALLY ruled. we were greeted by David, Emi, and a few of the other kids that worked there. it was a state-funded community center. they had an awesome stage/show set up downstairs, then upstairs there was like a huge "hang out area" with kicker tables, pool tables, pinball tables, and a bunch of other crazy crap...


...they even had this 6-person kicker table! the place was really nice. and everything was paid/supported by the Austrian government (even the money that was used to pay the bands...yeah, crazy).

we found out that the kid David that put on the show was at our show at ABC No Rio last year in NYC. and he was also the one who cooked us dinner today. check this shit out!!!!!!


...vegan lasagna (that was stupidly good and there was a LOT of) and a siq salad. THEN, after all of us were just filled like crazy from the lasagna, homeboy brought out fuckin dessert...


...yeah dude, yeah...like strawberries in this doughy stuff with almonds and nuts sprinkled over it, in this vanilla/strawberry sauce. reeeeeeeediculous.

after everyone was just dead from eating so much, we all just chilled it hard in the lounge area. then we were told that if we wanted to, we could use their phone to make some phone calls back home cause their phone bill was also paid by the state. so yeah, rules! (note to self: if you are cool, you got a phone call. if not, keep trying). hah! jk (maybe).


the show started soon after that. here are some pics from the T-wreck set...







some kids drove out from Munich too, which was super sweet of them. it was good times. oh! and Jack broke another string today while playing. that is the third time on this tour! (and the third time in his life i think). insane.

after the show, us and the T-wrecks stayed at the place cause they also had mattresses for us and all that jazz. we drank some drankz, played some kicker and pinball. jumped on some computerz for nerd time, and played some siq jamz over the place's PA (and you know "captain save a hoe" was one of dem gemz). some dudes also took showers and crap like that. (there were also a bunch of bugs/mosquittos in and around the place that was kinda a bummer). a bunch of the dudes stayed up talking US politics and shit like that. (Steven is currently reading some crazy book about some retired US special agents/government old dude or some shit that is just spilling the beans bout all the fucked up shit that went on when he worked for the US gov). anyways, while this went on, i drank beer and got really sleepy.

"siq shit" top 5 of da day:
1. food by David.
2. talking to friends back home via telley.
3. not knowing we were in Austria until very late at night.
4. money spent by the Austrian government for of our dozen phone calls to the US.
5. me and Wes (while on the 2nd floor) hearing kinda loud things hit the window from the outside and saying "holy shit, those are some big ass bugs". then after a while of not stopping, realizing it was Jack throwing rocks at it cause he was locked outside.

6.25.08

Day 19,

today was our trip back to Germany. we were going to the city of Nurnberg. we woke up in Linz, Austria, had a nice breakfast, got into the vans and headed off. i remember we were listening to Saves the Day for a while...that was a good time. at some point in our drive, as we had recently got into Germany, we got pulled over by Zoll (the German customs police...same shit bagz that took our shirts). goddammit, i think we were in Bavaria. anyways, they asked for our passports and did a small search of the van. we joked around about how when they came out of their car once we were pulled over, the two Zoll police would be wearing the Comadre tour shirts. hah. piecez of shit.

after that we pulled over at some rando rest stop cause Boss had to call German customs (again) because apparently Murder by Death (who Boss is driving next) got all of their merch seized by Zoll too. (note to self: apparently German customs don't like sketchy-looking packages. weird). so while he did that, we were just outside walking around and then at some point Steven saw a light-post and said "Wes, climb that right now"...and then he just did...and then we all just did...


...there's Jack. it was a siq workout.

a few hours later we got to the rad venue (which we also played last year). good shit. looked like this...


and upstairs they had set up some "snacks" for us to hold us off till dinner. it was ridiculous...just like hella fuckin food (and it wasn't even dinner!!!)...


i made me a siq-ass sandwich...


...booya! cute as hell.

after that, we had a few hours before the show started cause today was also the Euro-cup semifinals and Germany was playing against Turkey...and we were in Germany...so the kids wanted to start the show after the soccer game. in the meantime, i went to some rando cafe and stole their wireless and drank beer outside (love Europe and your amazing drinking lawz!).

we had dinner after that i think. and that ruuuuuuled (i remember last year when we were here, we had one of the BEST meals eeeeever). and it was the same person who cooked us food this year too! she RULES.


...yeah dude. just straight vegan-deliciousness.

before Trainwreck went out, me, Juan, Wes, and a few of the T-wrecks found some rando-ass bar thing where they were playing the soccer game. we chilled it hard and got friendly with the locals...


Germany won. and it got fuckin stupid crazy outside (as you will see later).

so anyways, Trainwreck played and were awesome as shit. when we played, we had a special surprise visit from Drunk-bot. it was amazing. i think the kids really liked him and got along well with him. and dont worry, he was well fed (and kept alive) during his siq mosh-down.

after the show, we just hung around and chilled. we got some awesome falafels and as we were loading the vans outside, we almost got in our first ever co-band-street-fight!!! there were like tons (and i mean TONS) of shitty drunken bro-dawgs outside walking around all night. and at some point, a group of these broz came up and were talking a bunch of shit and upset the T-wrecks, then they talked back, and shit got all hot and there was a bunch of yelling and screaming at each other. (fuckin real soccer-hoolagins-style and shit). they pulled off the "you're lucky my gf is holding me back" move quite well. hah. one of them was in like full German-flag-color face paint and one of them was wearing a straight up white Kango hat (might as well have had a "hello, my name is douchbag" sticker pinned to his shirt). anyways, our "altercation" looked like this...



...but yeah, nothing bloody nor bruisey ended up happening. bummer :( after that, we headed off to our buddy Andy's siq pad and went to sleep bummed. (like you know, when you almost get in a fight, but you dont cause you're probably too much of a wiener to do anything anyways, then after it's all over, all you do is talk about it and are like "fuck, i woulda kicked that dude's ass too", all tough and shit...yeah, i think that's how we all felt). hah.

"siq shit" top 5:
1.
...apparently there were a few people pissed about their 500euro guarantee.
2. Wes catching a grape in his mouth that i threw out a window from 4 stories down.
3. Drunk-bot crowd surfing during our set.
4. "well, at least they didn't find the weed" - Jack Shirlz says as soon as Boos comes back into the van from after being hassled by the Zoll.
5. this AMAZING drawing i was sent by our friend Mima from Linz (where Euro Drunk-bot was born)...