Nevertheless, it was the very contrasts from day to day, week in, week out, that kept our resolve strong and our determination pure in our pursuit to rock out all across Europe.   Our fascination with the whole wide world out there never wavered, whether we performed in a dungeon or at cavernous concert halls.  That’s why we play music and that’s what keeps a band like us going on for as long as we have.  There’s adventure in this life and it’s anyone’s to take – I’m just glad we’re able to share it.

Above is an except from one of the Hawaiian Punch Euro Tour galleries, 1 of 6 new photo galleries I just uploaded onto GoJimmyGo.com: 2 from Kokua Fest (pro photog Brian Bielmann’s pics are sick!), 2 from the Hawaiian Punch Euro Tour, 1 from the send-off party at thirtynine hotel and 1 all the way back from our xmas album release party for Holiday Hell Yeah! at Pipeline Cafe.  We’ve been busy, that’s for sure, so I’m finally glad to get these visuals up there for everyone to see.  The pictures themselves tell the most of the story.  If you want the full one you’re gonna have to catch me someday, pull up a chair and buy me a few beers for an unadulterated, detailed account of all the debacherous acts and incidents we got ourselves into.  Geez…I built that way too much — sorry — but, it was fun and exciting.  See…”fun and exciting” aren’t fun and exciting anymore.  I’m sticking with debauchery and dubious and that’s that!

Back to the beginning….our two bands first met sometime in April 2006 when Go Jimmy Go went to headline their first Japan Tour. The country, the people and the food all coalesced, joined forces to make that one of the best tours we’d ever been on. Being from Hawaii made the “land of the rising sun” somewhat similar in most respects and we devoured the rest deliciously bite after savory bite. And in the end, we met Oi-Skall Mates at the last gig in Tokyo, sold out and dangerously packed. We could believe the energy and firepower this band brought to the stage — it was both amazing and inspiring all at once. We shared the same war stories after the show with the Duty Free whiskey we had hoped to bring back home, but some things are worth sacrificing for the sake of a memory. Fast forward roughly two years to 2008 and a scene change and you have Oi-Skall Mates in Hawaii (America, even) with Go Jimmy Go hosting them for a two night stand at the venerable Anna’s and even a BBQ to boot.

So, make that tripled…the favor, and I’ll say no more. There’s no need because despite the huge language barrier we all faced, in the end it was the music that mattered.

Nothin’ Like A Little Fire-Breathing Lizard Shooting Lighting Bolts To Get Peeps To The Show

Oi-Skall Mates / Go Jimmy Go Crew “Backstage” At Anna’s

Tenor, Trombone, Now…Singing?!? Reviving The Tantra Days

Tony Trying His Best To Imitate The Old Japanese Guy On The Vinyl

John Being…Well, John

Oi-Skall Mates Lost Their Pants During Their 4.5 Hour Customs Ordeal; The Crowd Pays For It, Dearly.

Lead Singer Wataru Is A Fashion Genius — Look At Those Matching Bebs And Slip-ons! Tight!…Literally.

Da Japanese Bruddahs At Their Farewell BBQ @ Kaimana’s

This Is Almost Everybody That Came Out

Akira’s Hiding Behind Us But He’s The One That Leads The Charge For Us In Tokyo

Oh Yeah, It Was Also Shon & Ryan’s Birthday. They Forgot Their Ages But Remembered It To Be A Good Time.

Of further note was the general directing the sound attack, DJ Big Barr, a personal friend of ours from back in the day…way back! Also, The Spacifics represented as Honolulu’s only live hip-hop band with me and Ryan now permanent members on the horns. The crowd gave up huge support for this unique band as several guest mc’s whipped everyone up into a frenzy during the set. As for Go Jimmy Go, it was quite memorable as well. The most interesting part of the show came as we had Shon’s replacement on drums for the Europe tour, Johnny, sit in on a few tracks and Shon torching the mic unexpectedly song after song. I think he really dug not being stuck behind the drums like he has done the past ten years and he really worked the whole stage with his newly found freedom. Inspiration was short lived and a few songs later he was relegated to the back of the stage to his kit and keeping the rhythm tight as usual. No complaints there on our part and it was business as usual — to rock!

The pictures below probably tell the story better than I tried, so…have at it then!

Last Stop!: Hotel Street

Promote! Promote! Promote!

This Is My New Gig — The Spacifics

Here’s My Partner, Ryan, Throwing One Of His Signature Moves

Ha! I’m Still Learning The Music

I’m Seeing Double Here w/ DJ Packo In The Background

Oh My God, Who Gave Shon The Mic?!?

DJ Supastar In A Matter Of Minutes…In His Mind, Anyway

Bison Works The Front Row

Go Jimmy Go Rhythm Is Tight Ya’ll!

Everybody Gets Into The Act: Kelii & Shon Sing And Drink Beer At The Same Time — What A Concept!

Business As Usual

First off, I have to say what an honor it was to be on board for an event like this. It was easy to tell friends later that throughout the twelve years I’ve been with GJG I can honestly say this was the coolest experience ever. Let me tell you, we’ve had our fair share of experiences, but none quite like this. In fact, the first Europe tour was more fantastic as a whole — 39 straight shows in 16 countries — but for the three days of Kokua Fest 2008 you can’t touch it. I wish we played Kokua Fest every month — I’d be so stoked!

The funny story is — and Jack told it one time at a sold-out Pipeline back in 2003 (?) — Jack Johnson opened up for Go Jimmy Go back before he became a superstar. That’s right. We both played a mutual friend’s wedding up in Pupukea back in the summer of 2001 and we played with a Jack Johnson, a bluesy, folksy mellow guitar player. We played after and the best man ended up throwing the groom in the pool. Yeah, it ended up like that but it started with Jack. I remembered the name because it was catchy to me.

Anyway, so here we are at his festival and it’s the most hyped up musical event year after year. The stories were leading up to the festival were the tickets for both nights sold out in 15 minutes and they were going for up to $1,000 on Ebay and Craiglist. Whoa! Whatever the case we were in through the (back)door and were stoked to see Jack again and Dave & Tim for the first time. The other artists on the bill, Paula Fuga and Mason Jennings were class acts too. Matt Costa showed up for a few tunes as well to the delight of all the girls in the crowd. Ryan and I worked out some horn parts for the encore song and what more can I say? Oh yeah, thanks for having us and giving us an experience that we’ll never forget. Jack, Kim, Kokua Foundation — you guys rock!

Videos from MSN.com!!!

Go Jimmy Go Horns on Kokua Festival “3 R’s” Encore

Kokua Fest 2008 Jack Johnson Performance + More

Bison, Mason, Tim, Jack, Dave, Paula, Ryan @ The Press Conference The Day Before

Can’t You See Why We Were So Stoked?

Yeah! Showtime! Holy Crap It’s Hot!

It May Not Be The Silver Screen But This Will Definitely Do!

Did I Mention It Was Friggin’ Hot? Yeah, It Was Hot!

Bison Looms Over Waikiki

Nightfall And The Light That It Brings

Walking Around I Found Free Banana’s and Uncle Calvin’s Nose Flutes. Kelii and Bart Are Obviously Stoked For Me.

Ryan Called Me Out. I Never Back Down From A Nose Flute Battle! Never.

All 8,000 People Love Us….Nah, That Was For Jack

Last Song Of The Festival — How Do You Top That?

That’s A Wrap! Jack, Take Us With You…Horn Section For Hire!

Well, we were back where we started and it’s bittersweet to say the least. It feels like we’re just hitting our stride as a band, but now it was the last gig and we had no choice but to leave everything behind. I guess that’s the beauty of it, but I’ll get to that later.

I was particularly excited for this gig because not only were we going to play with the Pepper Pots for the first time but also because we were finally going to meet the rest of the band we hadn’t already met in Girona at the front end of the tour. This was their first show back after just finishing up their first-ever Japan tour. Our tour manager, Chris Storm, warned us to take everything with us into the club because the street we were on was notorious for break-ins and hookers. Nice. If there was a tour story waiting to happen this definitely would be ground zero for just that.

During the last tour I met a guy from Belgium named Colin at our gig in Lille, France. I remember we first talked about beer and how Belgian beer was hands down the best in the world. That was a huge statement and I told him I was of course up for the challenge. Little did I know how right he would turn out to be. The second thing I remember from that conversation was that he owned a little record label and also promoted shows in Belgium. One year later we find ourselves together again testing his theories on suds at his show in his hometown. It just goes to show the interconnectedness of people, places, conversation and the lubrication that makes it all work so great together, alcohol.

Upstairs was where the backstage was and it was like a huge kitchen and living room all rolled in one. The fridge was filled with Belgians and I tried a couple way too early in the evening just because I could. Later on in the night as the backstage filled up with all the performers and others the room would become one loud giant smoke pit. Hey, that’s Europe for ya. It was our last show with Red Soul Community and made sure I went down for to wish our new friends from Granada off.

I had regrets about the show and our performance, but — whatever — that’s life. Basically, the monitors in front of me and ran were feeding back in a way that I’ve never experienced and he eventually had to unplug them to make the situation somewhat o.k. We were about three songs deep, shrugged it off and enjoyed the rest of the set with everyone in the front row and the guys on stage with me. The Pepper Pots were later killed the show with one exciting bang. It’s quite a spectacle. There are like ten people on stage; the guys looking dapper in slick suits and the three girl singers in awesome handmade go-go outfits. The set was a mix of soul and ska and everyone was so lit up by the end they didn’t let them off stage until like two encores later.

Back upstairs after all the madness that is a ska show I told Ryan to check out the big hooker on the corner dancing’, singin’ and trying to pick up dudes as they drove by. She was quite a scene unto herself and Ryan took a picture of her from our third story loft. The hooker starts yelling at Ryan I think to come down there and pay her but he just laughed. She ended up confronting him at load out later on but we distracted her as he made his Bond-like getaway.

And so that was it, our Hawaiian Punch Europe Tour ended with a homerun. The place was packed, we met new friends, hugged and sang with the old ones, drank 9% Chimay Blue for the first time, survived the smoke pit, escaped from hookers, and lived on for another day. Like I said before, that’s the beauty of it — it’s gone but it’s the memories of all the people and places we’ve been that get us through another day back home where we play, but mainly work.

This Is The Final Stop! — GJG, Pepper Pots, Red Soul Community, and Friends

The Pepper Pots Kick Ass!

These Girls Kick Ass! Marina, Mercé, Adrianna

The Mighty Chris Storm Towers Over All, Terrorizes Friends And Patrons Alike

I Guess The Poem Worked

Brussels At Night With The Best Tour Guides Around — Charles, Mara and Colin

It’s Crazy How A Simple Alley Way Can Lead To….

…This!

The Belgian Wall Street

Belgian Waffles Fo’ Real!

This Is The Famous Shi Shi Boy Of Brussels. This Is The Source Of All Those Replicas. He Supposedly Peed And Put Out The Fire That Would’ve Destroyed The City Back In The Day.

See, He’s Everywhere!

The Whole Street Was Like This — Reminded Me Of Paris

Eh, You Guys Da Best! Charles, Mara, Colin

The Beer Cave Had All The Belgians and Some 2,000 Others. What A Great Way To End The Night, Tour!

No, That’s Not The Club But A Fortress Advertising For The Club (Note The Authentic Bullet Hole Straffings

I Love It When The Beer Stacks Higher Than Me or Don’t Disturb Me, I’m In Deep Thought

It’s Not What You Think

We’re Gonna Miss Our New Friends From Granada

Pulling into Club Kasablanca in Jena, Germany, was already proving to be a unique experience. Located near the city center and close to a railway station, it looked somewhat like a punk rock shanty town. Twenty-some rail cars lined both sides of the driveway spray-painted with mystical urban art and poetry. At the end of the road stood a building which may have been a church at one time fully-decorated in the same spray art. As we loaded in we noticed a number of kids cleaning, renovating and setting up for tonight’s concert. The stage and dance floor were huge. The sound booth and light station were located across the venue on scaffolding. It looked so industrial. Everyone who worked there were extremely nice and professional.

When we were done sound checking, a snack was prepared for us in the green room and it was full-on gourmet! When you are traveling like we were, good food is better than… well, it’s pretty awesome. In one of the upstairs rooms was a internet cafe. We all lounged there and caught up with our emails and drank tea waiting patiently for dinner to be ready. We found out some very interesting facts about the club and the surrounding area. Club Kasablanca was centered in a well known squatter district on the other side of the railway tracks. A few of the buildings around us had many artists and kids living in and maintaining the neighborhood. Likewise, the people inside working at the club were all residents and this was there punk rock capital.

Dinner was ready, so we all flocked to the upstairs of another wing in the building to find yet more rooms and our dining area. The place had concrete seats which were heated around a large table. The cook was sweaty and dirty, slaving away at our delicious meal which we were about to devour. Red Soul Community finished their sound check and joined us at the table. I asked Isa, the singer, if she could help me translate a poem I made for Adriana, one of the lead singers in the Pepper Pots. It was a tender poem and I didn’t want to massacre it with my rough translation skills. We all laughed and all the band members prodded me for such a sincere form a affection. The poem sounded beautiful in español and I couldn’t wait to hand it to her when we reached Bruxelles. It all came about in Girona, when we tried to communicate, but the language barrier seemed to difficult to bridge. She seemed so timid and sweet, I just wanted to talk to her! I figured this poem would be a nice gesture to let her know I was thinking about her.

We were all a little apprehensive about how many people might show up to such a large club. Red Soul Community just got off stage, giving hi-fives and shouting words in Spanish in a congratulatory huzzah. We entered the stage to a roar in the audience, the place was packed. We had Marcus, “Ahtza,” and our friends from Erfurt come down to the show and they were front and center. The show went great. Sound was excellent. Ian’s guitars were bright and shimmery and Bison’s stage performance rivaled James Brown. Ryan was wildly spin kicking and going bananas all over the stage. Eric’s smoky sax interrupted his trademark clenched fist, rocking head movement display. I sat in the soothing deep pocket of a groove so firmly established by Johnny’s raucous rhythm. As a band we moved and conducted the audience in a smooth, flawless flight of harmony and showmanship.

We hung out at the club for awhile afterwards dancing to the DJ’s and getting our fair share of German beer. We said goodbye to our dear friends from Erfurt and our new friends from Jena. Chris Storm rallied the buzzed-up boys and took us to our hotel, which was the nicest we have had on tour thus far. The next morning we had breakfast and a few of us went to the spa. It was so nice to take a cold shower and head to the steam room. Ryan soon walked in and we were aware of a few elderly people in there with us. We talked a little bit but abruptly paused our conversation when we heard one of the other voices was a woman. Our eyes got big and we looked at each other utter surprise. When in Europe…. I spent some time in the dry sauna and took a dip in the cold dunk tank. What a rejuvenating experience! We all convened in the lobby and set forth to our next destination.

Jayder Getting A Crucial Spanish Lesson From Isa

Gourmet Punk Rock!

Toni Taking Care Of The Merch

Chris Storm Not Taking Care Of The Merch Booth

Friends — If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em!

Harry Weber | Photography
http://www.harry-weber.com

Finally, the capital of Germany! Last tour we flew in at night, crashed for a few hours until The Toasters picked us up in the bus. Berlin was a blur. This time we were ready and had to time to run around a little both before and after the show. I guess most of the city was destroyed during the War so most of it looked like modern Europe with some oldness around every corner or so. The club was called Zapata and was in a cool sector of the city, just north of the city center. All the main monuments were within walking distance of the club but Chris, about a half hour away, but there wasn’t enough time before sound check for that. We hit a few places down the street and saw the biggest synagouge in Germany (really impressive), Berlin Cathedral (even more impressive) and a few closed museums that looked like they were straight outta Athens, columns and all. I used the map in this tourist book I bought from a street vendor and we got back just in time for the sound check.

Also, memorable was the pho from the Japanese restaurant? Yeah, pho from a Japanese restaurant! It’s kinda like that here — they mix the all the basic asian food genres. I was skeptical about this but I needed anything that resembled a saimin. That’s the one food I need to keep my sanity on tour. I think about the familiar saltiness of shoyu, the warm broth, the noodles and all the accoutrements and I end up being kind of obsessive about it. Not in a bad way, more in a longing way. To top it off I scored some sushi from Ian and was indeed in food heaven.

The promoter warned us about the Berlin crowd and how they are usually very cold and reserved, especially if it’s the first time you’re playing there. Lucky for us that was not the case — Berlin rocked! Everybody was dancing and singing along and there was even a flamethrower shooting it’s red flames over the ruckus crowd. Hmmm…no singed hair smell — all was good. We saw some old friends and partied away with some great German schnapps and Becks until it was time to scram.

We found out that our we would be staying at our booking agent’s offices (there was a separate room with bunk beds and a shower — cool) but we had two important stops to make before then. Straight from Zapata we loaded in the van with Kai from the agency who acted as eager tour guide to us good-natured tourists. With beers in one hand and cameras in the other we saw some of the best sights minus the crowds of tourists. It being 2 AM might have had something to do with it The two places we got out at were Brandenburg Gate and Checkpoint Charlie, some really heavy landmarks. I’m not qualified to give the history lesson, so we’ll just leave it at that. All’s I have to say was that everything we saw in that short amount of time was impressive and also in such unique fashion. That was stop one, that was easy; stop two was going to hurt.

The second stop after the show was our booking agent, Mutti’s, favorite watering hole. The first thing to strike me was the back bar which was hand carved and some ancient dark wood. Next to it was a huge boar’s head mounted to the wall with a rude hat hanging out up there like he was going to The Special’s concert. God, I was tired of beer — oooh, did I just say that? — and I was scanning the massive assembly of liquors in front of me and alas!…..Absinthe! Just the remedy for my beer blues. In fact, it was the same brand of Absinthe I had bought in Marburg just the year before, but only this one was much stronger. If you could’ve seen my face — Ryan’s was worse! — you could tell it was some powerful, fire-breathing stuff by the contortions and strain going on. Regardless, there was more Schnapps and we talked into the early morning and eventually called it a night. We were back at where we started one year ago and still have just a little more to go to get home.

The Club

Just Down The Road — The Biggest Synagouge In Germany

Sightseeing At Night Reaps Rewards

Zapata Had Fire Shooting From The Ceiling!!! That’s Definitely A First In Our Books.

After The Gig — Guerilla Tourists With Beers At The Brandenburg Gate!

The Cold War Frontline 1961-1989 — Check Point Charlie Is Right Behind Jayder

My Kinda Bar…Check Out The “Rude” Boar Up Top!

Berlin Wall!!!

Rolling up to the club the only thing that I noticed was how dead the town was on this Easter Sunday. The club, Hafenklang, was kind of a hip, soul, ska and punk venue — bar and DJs upstairs and the stage in the basement. We did our sound check and watched Red Soul Community check also. The RSC are our friends from Granada, Spain, and they will be on tour with us for the next week. It has been a wonderful opportunity to practice my Spanish with them. There was a flat there at the club which was basically one big room with about 10 bunk beds. That afternoon we met Ralph who is our great friend and also the owner of Scorcha Records who released a compilation album of Go Jimmy Go for Europe recently called “Essentials.”

Back in the club was a grand dinner of lasagna that Red Soul Community, Ralph, Chris Storm and Go Jimmy Go all got to enjoy. It warmed our bodies on that cold Easter day. We were all a little scared that no one would come out. Our fears were put to rest when we entered the club as RSC was already jamming to many people making the place jump.

Our set was A-squad. People were freaking out, weird dudes where grabbing Bison and we played like champs. The fans would not let us go home without giving them two hana hou’s. So much fun. We made a lot of new friends upstairs while the DJ was spinning some great old school ska and soul. Ralph decided that it was time to show us the Raaperbahn. So the band along with our new friend Vanessa and a gaggle of guys and gals from the bar spilled into the streets. The St. Pauli district of Hamburg is one of Europe’s largest and most famous red light districts in all of Europe. Stretching about 10 blocks long were many strip joints, sex shops, gay hangouts and some other crazy places that I didn’t even want to check out.

The Raaperbahn itself is a small street that women cannot visit. Oo la la… We walked by the most famous Polizie station in the world, it was lit by neon! The whole group tried to stay together, drinking and dancing but the whole area was crazy busy. The faction I ended up with was a cool little bar with a DJ spinning old sixites songs. There was only Jonathon and myself, a small group of girls and Ralph and Eric who where getting blasted at the bar. Ralph bought us some crazy shots, like Korn and a really spicy shot that was like a Bloody Mary on speed called Mexicano.

It was getting late, all the girls split and Eric was finished, so we departed with Ralph. He tried to drag us to a last minute strip joint but none of us could afford, mentally or financially. The sun was coming up and we laughed in the streets of Hamburg.

Tempting….So Damn Tempting!

Best Club In Hamburg

First Meal Conjuntos — GJG, Red Soul, Ralf (Scorcha Records) and Toni (Liquidator Records)

This Is How Scorcha Records Does Business — Random Hamburg Bar, 4:30 AM

St. Pauli’s Reputable Business Sector

Raaperbahn The Next Morning