6.21.08 & 6.22.08

***i didnt have internet access where i was yesterday, so i'm just lumping these 2 days in Italy together in one entry***

Day 15,

halfway point of the Euro-tour. today was a good one. we had a pretty ridiculous drive today. from Vienna, Austria to Milano (Milan), Italy...the whole trip took about 9 or so hours (although we did stop a lot).

anyways, we woke up in Vienna pretty early and left pretty quick cause of the long drive ahead of us. for the first few hours of the drive i was quite asleep. (not to mention, Lord of the Rings was STILL going on at this time). when we finally got to Italy, it got pretty fuckin nice outside...like really green, and mountain-y. it looked something like this...



...oh, and there were SO many rivers/streams and shit...with the MOST clear blue-est water i've ever seen. no joke. and we kept on seeing like little groups of kids all jumping in it and swimming and shit. bummer we couldn't go swimming though, we had no time :( apparently the water is cold as shit too cause its coming down from the alps, but pfffffff, are you kidding me...swimming is fuckin swimming...take me to Half Moon Bay on a nice day and i'll jump in the water at least once.

also, it started to get INCREDIBLY hot and kinda humid outside (and you knowwww the humidity was hurting us Cali kids hard).

at some point of the drive, we finally finished the first book of the Lord of the Rings!!! hor-fuckin-ray!!! i can't fuckin believe we sat through 16 goddamn audio cds of some rando English dude singing about fuckin Bilbo and Gandof running through the forest with awkward ass and confused Frodo. here's a picture that has absolutely nothing to do with any of that...


also, some of Steven and Jack's relatives who they have never met (but apparently have a lot of in Northern Italy) were maybe coming to this show and probably gonna set up a reeeeeal awkward situation for them :) "sooooo...you guys play like....the basements of squats and stuff???...that's like...real..."cool" that you do that and stuff...". hah. bummer that none of them ended up coming though.

so anywayyyyz we finally got to the venue hours later and it was pretty damn cool after searching for the entrance for like a good while. (this is us walking around looking for where the hell we were suppose to go in through)...


sure, it took us a while, but we managed to find the front of the RIGHT building after like 10-20 mins and met this awesome kid who put on the show named Simone. it was crazy though cause it was this HUGE factory that had been abandoned for years that was taken over and turned into like a huge community space. there were tons of things going on inside...a few bars, a huge arena/stage area where some DJs were doing there thing tonight as well, a little diy book store, tons of practice rooms, rooms that were being used for various lectures/meetings spaces and junk like that, a area where they had a TV set up (that we watched today's soccer game at...Netherlands lost, Boss was pissed), and downstairs in the basement was a rad show space setup where we played. the outside of the building looked like this...


so anyways, apparently everything in Italy (and especially at that place, i was told) starts super late. so this show began almost at midnight i believe. there were 4 bands that were playing in the basement and 2 folk/noise/rando bands that were playing outside upstairs in between sets.

for dinner, they gave us this pretty good couscous stuff and all the free drinks we wanted. so with that, me, Juan, and a few of the Trainwreck dudes partied on...




...that was one of the bar setups that they had in the squat. pretty fuckin siq. you probably wish you were there. sux 4 u.

the first band that played were pretty rad. really nice kids...kinda screamo/Blood Brothers-esq. the second band were these kids from South Carolina called At Half Mast. they had a Modern Life is War thing going. hardcore stuff.

oh and before i forget! before the show began, we were "stoked" to find out that Italy is one of those places that the toilets (for both of your "wantings-to-do") is just a siq hole in the ground when you get into the stall. hah. raaaaaaad. made for funny situations and really bummed out dudes that had to "do-the-do". (oh! also, also, note to self: if you are in Italy, always carry a roll of toilet paper with you at all times). yeaaaah, that was "fun" too.

hah...annnnnyways, Trainwreck played after that and ruuuuled of course. the shitty thing was that the place was so fuckin humid that it made the floor where the show was all SUPER wet and slippery. like with that and all the constant spilt beer by fellow party-ers, it was pretty ridiculous in that room. in the middle of T-wreck's set, i went back into the bar room where a ton of the kids there were all shouting and hollering about something. i soon (was stoked to) realize that they were all taking shots of whiskey. and you know, i didn't wanna be disrespectful or anything like that, so i HAD to join them. good times. one of the kids at the bar (that RULED) was named Stefano. way siq.

we played after that and it went well. it was crazy wet EVERYWHERE, but there were a good amount of kids and everyone was having a good time. so whatevz. after our set, it got even louder in the bar room. and this time when i went in there, people were, at this point (and remember, its like at least 2 or 3am) pouring beer and whiskey on each other. hah, remember that Stefano kid who i talked about?


...that is him drenched in various alcoholic liquids.

it was a damn good time. Boss also did a "midnight" pizza run for all of us after the show and got us all these thick, super big pieces of real, Italian pizza. ruuuuled...especially in the state i was in.

after that, they took us upstairs to yet another part of the factory where they set up beds and went to sleeeeeeeep.

"siq shit" on the top:
1. the amount of New-York-City-accent jokes/things that were said.
2. getting to finally meet Michele from La Quiete/Raien after first "meeting" him through a trade we did like 4 years ago.
3. asking Stefano what type of shot i was taking at the bar and him saying "super alcohol".
4. before our set, there was this crazy "noise" 2-piece band playing upstairs, i went up there to check it out and asked Steven "what's going on?" and him saying "uhmmmm...i think just a bunch of drugs".
5. Steven telling me not to take anymore shots before we play and me saying "alright"...then somehow, before we play, finding myself hanging out with Stefano some more and...


***Day 16,

this is day 2 spent in Italy. still hot as hell, humid, was bit by a few mosquitos (and i think it's safe to say i'm quite allergic to them), i also think i bruised my wrist...(as someone i know would put it), i feel like half of me is broken. but hey, could be worse...we could be in jail! still in good spirits though, tour is going great, everyone is doing really good. no one is (or feels) sick anymore so that's really good too.

so anyways, we woke up in what i think was a set in one of the "Saw" movies. kindaaaaaa creepy. we ate a bunch of pastries for breakfast and headed on the road to Carpi, Italy. it wasn't that far away from where we were, but we stopped a good amount to grab snacks and stuff to drink constantly. those frequent stops looked something like this...


after not-to-long we got to the squat that we were playing. it was no joke in the straight-up CUTS. like we had to cross this 1-lane sketchy-ass wooden bridge to get there, cuts (no joke). it was out in like the farm/super open fields area. it was this huge squat with a huge yard where there was this "open-air festival" going on.

we got there and the first thing we saw was this...


..."fun" eh? hah. it was quite the experience to say the least. tons of shirtless dudes who prob shouldn't have been shirtless, dogs everywhere, more mosquitos everywhere, and tie-died and pierced EVERYTHING. (hmmm, but now that i think about it, the ONLY dudes who walk around shirtless are the dudes who prob shouldn't be doing so...so i guess that's normal). it was a cool set up though, they had a bunch of tents/booths set up where people were selling their arts and crafts and stuff, you know, like the stuff you wouldn't buy if you were sober. that looked like this...


we spent most of the time just chillin hard (cause, homeboy, that's just the only thing we know how to do)...


...plus it was way to fuckin hot outside to do anything.

anyways, we played like right before the sun went down. Jack mentioned that like once a year we get the amazing opportunity to play the most awkward-est set possible. hah. so i really hope this was our "one" for the year. not a real big fan of stages and not a real big fan of outdoor shows. the Trainwreck guys were having a good time though! Marc pulled off a one-man circle pit very fuckin well, and between the 5 of them, they managed to even throw down a few stage dives...what punx.

heh. after our set, we actually got a few people who we had no idea were even watching say we did a good job and thanked us for coming and all that jazz. so that was actually really rad. damn Euros and their kindness.

after that was dinner time. and they were making homemade pizzas!!! they had this crazy oven setup in the yard and were cooking out personal-sized pizzas left and right. that looked like this...



...rad shit.

and during pizza time, they set up a screen projector thing to play the soccer game.


after that, Trainwreck played and ruled like usual. i got another pizza. it was rad. i went to sleep soon after that cause i was being destroyed by bugs.

"siq shit" top 5 of the day:
1. free, unlimited, cold Coronas all day.
2. finding out what Carrot-top is doing with his life these days...

3. hearing the guy in Carrot-top's shit band go off on the promoter: "do you know what a guarantee means?...it means you have to guarantee us that!". hah! 1,000 Euros?!??! who the fuck do you think you are?!?!? you have Carrot-top in your band not Hannah Montana...you d-bag.
4. Chris Crass getting bit by something on his neck and Wes having to pull the stinger (or something) out.
5. the amount of things i actually wrote in this post and deleted cause i dont wanna be that big of an "e-jerk". hah.