Friday — March 28, 2008
Hanging On In Hannover
Hannover, Germany
Blogged by Eric White

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

Thursday — March 27, 2008
Gourmet Punk Rock!
Jena, Germany
Blogged by Jayder

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

Monday — March 24, 2008
Tours Come Full Circle And Then Some
Berlin, Germany
Blogged by Eric White

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!!!

Sunday — March 23, 2008
Well, There’s Always The Raaperbahn…
Hamburg, Germany
Blogged By Jayder

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