SCHORNDORF 1/15
I wish I had seen the place—not only is Schorndorf a place I had never been to before, but its name implies that it’s a beautiful village. The venue, you can probably get the vibe from the name—Manufaktur (funny how via rock clubs you can get the local word for factory—Fabrik, L’Usine, et al) –asbestos and non-central heating. Friendly tho'.
Here we were on our mission to convert Germany to the Posies brand of ecstatic rock and droll. By the time we rolled up, it was looking like we were going to be doing that to two people at a time. This night, we also had TMF, the Belgian music channel, recording our every move, and of course there was a lot of nothin’ going on most of the time. Club out in the middle of nowhere, freezing cold weather, most of us still jet lagged, and a dearth of good props. So TMF filmed me ironing, brushing my teeth, they filmed us staring at the walls, and trading quips with the interviewer, An Lemmens, who has been championing us there, perhaps our greatest media advocate in Europe. So of course I spent the whole two days she and her producer/cameraman were with us giving her insults, pranks, etc. She was really cool about it.
What they and 40-odd other folks got to see was a band rejuvenated by the holidays break, with confidence gained by the success of the Innsbruck show, and ready able and willing to do ‘Jungle’, read recipes in their underwear, and cover Depeche Mode. The audience there actually had a marvelous time, there were some very drunk, typical German skuzzy punk guys, with shaved sides and dreads and camo pants. They were sticking their heads in between the monitors and going into drunken, scuzzpunk bliss. They also got into a fight (almost) afterwards.
In the hotel’s entrance, there was a huge marble ball made to float on water…I still don’t know how!
REGENSBURG 1/16
This place had our buddy D who has been trying to get us or me or someone to play his club for some time, and here we actually did. Why did we wait? Other than German style pizza, everything about the venue was gold—they put the posters up, people came to the show, they gave us shots onstage, the sound was good, the place wasn’t an old factory (but it was part of an old brewery) for a change. We played for a long time, several encores, traded many, many insults with An from TMF, and did covers—I mean, we did ‘Route 66’ for gawd’s sake.
SAARBRUCKEN 1/17
This place, well…one of those many small towns in Germany that perhaps is like a small town in the US except it’s in Europe (small coffees, everyone drinks beer and is a vegan). Dominique lived here as part of a German language study program and claimed it was not the most exciting two months of her life. The Garage (one of two we’ll play at this tour) is a massive venue, they have boxing and disco and Lagwagon and whatever can fit in there. Of course, they also have a tiny room, the littlest place you ever did saw. For us, they could have chopped in ¼ and it would have still looked empty. About 25 paying customers. Actually I don’t think that many of them paid. There was a cool photographer there who was friends of people we knew. We gave it to them, hard as we knew how.
FRANKFURT 1/18
I happen to like the Nachtleben quite a bit. Low ceilings, lots of stairs, all the things that make a club hard to play in, get your gear in, etc. You know what? It was a great show, and that’s that. Afterwards, several of us, some local friends/fans, and the support band (the Amber Light) went to a great little bar called the Red Light. Really it’s just an unmarked door, and inside is a dark little bar, with a guy in a white coat mixing very reasonably priced drinks. Room for about 15 people and good music on the stereo. Highly recommended!
COLOGNE 1/19
Here was the legendary Prime Club, a place Matt always brags about having played at; evidently REM actually did play there in 1984 or 5 when it was called Luxor. It’s what we would call threadbare, I can’t remember what colors were inside but I seem to recall some kind of pastel blue and fluorescent orange. This was one of the better-attended German shows, but Cologne is one of the international crossroads kind of places, close to its western neighbors and thus benefiting from the polyglot milieu (see also, Berlin for polyglot milieu galore). Amazing what a little crowd noise can do for a band. We jumped on that sh*t and gave a real rock show, I spent lots of time on my knees, and perhaps even broke a sweat?
Afterwards, many of our party went across the street to a recommended bar with WAY too loud music and had some prosecco and beers. There were enough of us to be considered a (Posie) posse so we took over what precious and rare seating was there to be had. I got Hammi (long time friend who used to live in Seattle) to talk Essen football with our journalist friend Carsten; I caught up with the mysterious Hada Quimica, who I had written some music for in the past (it was while working with her in Spain in 2002 that I encountered the Euro for the first time—and, under the circumstances, having every bill on hand crisp, fresh and easy to roll up tightly was very handy!) and is still doing music, now based in Köln and making a family there.
AMSTERDAM 1/21
We spent two nights in this, perhaps loveliest of the regular tour stops (is Amsterdam, with all its waterways, even more gorgeous than Paris?), much to our delight. And the only night off of the tour, much needed. To add to the collective delight, we had a killer hotel, Le Meridien Apollo, which itself is balanced on a particularly wide and tranquil bend of a canal, where is also situated the Amsterdam rowing club, so, while you enjoy your lunch, you can see people who obviously don’t sense cold, and feel better about your choice to tear into some seared foie gras, with all the benefits of central heating wafting around your shoulders. I did that, but later. On this night, as if things weren’t already at the top of the top, along came Dominique, for a rare weekend sans bebe. First order of business was to sit down, in the fine home of our friends Alan and Allie, who set out a lovely spread of cheese and charcuterie, which gave us the fortitude to have another collective go at editing the Posies live DVD shot in Helsinki last year. The director, Juta, was along, and our publicist, Jessica. Once that was done, we said, a la Alan Partridge, ‘let battle commence!’ We all decamped to the American Hotel, were met by even more friends, and honestly, we had a great time doing little more than guessing who the hell was photographed on the wall (other than ZZ Top of course).
Dom and I managed, with some difficulty, to get up for breakfast, and then went back to bed…and got up again for lunch. Excellent day! And yes, I had foie gras, and two glasses of a fantastic white wine (details forthcoming).
Eventually we headed down to the Melkweg, where we were to play the original zaal, site of great Posies shows in 1994 and 1998 (remember the She Moves dancers joining us?), plus a White Flag show in 2002 and a Lagwagon show in 1997. That’s not counting two amazing Posies shows in the grand hall in 1996 and 1997, and the acoustic show Jon & I did in a tiny room upstairs in 2000. And Big Star did one of their only ever rehearsals in the original zaal…well, ¾ of us did…
Tonight’s show was in every way a special occasion, it was the birthday of a very devoted fan, Evellyn, and she submitted an entire set list of requests, and we basically played it as was—and then some. I think the set was well over two hours, to a packed house. We played a ton of songs we don’t often do, and closed the evening out with full-length versions of both ‘Burn & Shine’ and ‘Flood of Sunshine’. That’s killing it dead! It was superb.
BERLIN 1/22
…And naturally, we had to be up at freaking 7 in the morning and get in the bloody van and drive across half of…well, western Europe, anyway, to Berlin. We had had a highly entertaining time after the show, tho’ Dom & I got back to the hotel around 3, still, that wake up came way too soon. Tho we could sleep in the van, and did, we never really could wake up. As soon as soundcheck was done, and Frank Weber’s distinctive Plexiglas guitars were auditioned, and highly mediocre Asian food was dutifully eaten, we all sprawled on the dressing room couches and slept until about 5 minutes before we were to go on. Of course, there was no water backstage, and due to the nasty oversalted aforementioned Thai-like cuisine, I was dying of thirst. I drank as much Fanta as I could stomach. And went to the ready room, and had an entire bottle of Evian, and it still wasn’t enough. I had the impression during the show of sweating backwards, of absorbing ambient moisture (that which wasn’t frozen, as outside it was approaching minus 20 C, thanks to a Siberian cold front) and then having that dry up like a wadi in me somewhere. I didn’t need to pee til like the next day…and that includes our activity after the show…a nearly wild goose chase to find the Seattle Seahawks championship game being broadcast somewhere. We, with help of the hotel’s front desk (the hotel Estrel which is in fact purported to be the largest hotel in Europe) located a bar that was open, at 1.30 in the morning, and cabbed as a group there. They dialed in the correct Premier Sport Channel, and tho’ the commentary was in German, we could hear the helmets clacking and the coaches foaming at the mouth and all that good stuff, and by 4.30, we had a Seattle team going to the Super Bowl. Now—this is important—if anyone knows of a Sports Bar in Rome that will be showing the Super Bowl, you will be my guest at the White Flag show on Feb. 5, and drinks are on me!! I am serious!
HAMBURG 1/23
S…i….b…er….i….an Cold Front…k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k (sound of teeth rattling)…so cold my blood retreated from my limbs, like the animated, nearly sentient blood in ‘the Thing’. We were checked in to the best hotel of the tour (Le Meridien, thank you Kurt, and thank you Niko!) so we spent as much time lounging there as possible—I even skipped dinner and lived off a sandwich made at soundcheck time). We headed down to the club with great difficulty, all the oil in our joints and connectors was freezing solid….so, tired, cold, funky sounding club. So, it wasn’t our best show by any means. Of course, there was a friend/fan from back in the day, whom we hadn’t seen in ten years, and thus I didn’t recognize, who was in the front row, who was having a good time to be sure. But, when we attempted to play ‘Beautiful One’ I believe she was over the line—talking loudly (which was a distraction to me and an annoyance to anyone hoping to actually hear the song) through the whole intro and first verse. So I stopped the song, told her to shut it, and tried again. And she got out a lighter and did the Scorp’ s concert thing, which was so tacky I stopped the song and we switched tracks to ‘Fucking Liar’. Really, we just wanted to get out of there, at that point, we had played a set that was not what we thought was our best, and I doubt anyone who’d seen us before would disagree. So, by this, the second song of a two song encore, we sort of felt like it was time to cut our losses, and boot scoot to the hotel to rest our weary bones in the hopes we would arise refreshed and ready to deliver the real goods the next day. While selling merch I was lectured by the woman above. I had little sympathy at that point. You want to shut off my compassion valve, make an ass out of yourself in the front row of a show I’m playing, and see how much sympathy you get from me or the people behind you. And when you say the show belongs to the audience more than the performer, and that I should defer to their wishes, and you mean yours—take those wishes and cram ‘em where the onions won’t grow. You are being a selfish jerk and confusing your ego-trip wish to be special with the wishes of the audience to see the band/.artist just do what they do best. Get over yourself.
MUNSTER 1/24
Time heals all wounds? No, 12 hours of sleep does. Well, I got a good 9 , and in an INCREDIBLE bed at that, and got up for a healthy breakfast (the breakfast room at Le Meridien has a stunning view of the famous lakes in the city’s center—which were icy and piercingly beautiful that morning), went BACK to sleep for a 30 minute digestive catnap, and then for a swim, and a sauna, and a Jacuzzi…I was pretty damn prepped for anything coming our way. And, coming our way, was the venerable Gleiss 22, nearly named after a line in ‘Chattanooga Choo Choo’. Gleiss 22 is part of kind of activity center that houses, in addition to this incr3edibly well-run bar/venue, various studios for various activities---photography, metal working, woodworking, bike repair, music rehearsal, all for lo lo cost, like a couple of euros per hour. And the building isn’t that big, either. But it’s all in there. The venue is small, to be sure, 150 people in there and it’s packed. Low-ceiling’d stage, and the dressing room isn’t accessible while bands are onstage. Cozy. The booking is in much more international perspective than the average German venue—again, proximity to Holland and Belgium works in its favor—hence, Gleiss 22 hosted the only German date of the Posies acoustic tour, and had the good taste to have me open solo for White Flag in 2002. Our show was no disappointment. Packed house, a one-time rendition of ‘What Little Remains’, and a recently discovered stash of tour posters to sell. Via an email to this website, a fan requested we wish a happy birthday to her friend who was to be in attendance that night. And, gracious guy that I am, I did---I even dedicated a song to him! My reward—a ten minute lecture on how much the Big Star record sucks (in that very Germanic, ‘You didn’t ask for my opinion but I am going to spend way too much time giving it to you’ way) and how cool it would be if all the Posies catalogue was re-recorded with arrangements a la Pet Sounds. What the..?? You’re fucking welcome, prick! What kind of gracious good humor your momma give to somebody else when she was stuffing a bottle full of prick juice in your mouth?
BRUSSELS 1/25
With great excitement, we bobbled over the cobblestones of Brussels to the beloved Botanique (Posies 1998, Ks solo in the ‘Rotonde’ 2001 & 2004) and soon after that Dominique and Aden arrived! My girl was taller yet than when I had left just 12 days before. A joyful reunion indeed. Over an EXCELLENT dinner (I’m afraid I just eat the best in Francophone environments) of barely singed steak, which I happily shared with Aden (who also pilfered at least half of my frites), there we laughs, squeaks, and a great dinner theater show of Aden flirting with all the nearby tables. The show was truly packed, several hundred folks. They didn’t move around a ton, but they loved us nonetheless and we gave a world class rock & roll evening—afterwards, we sold a record amount of stuff for the tour (well for this leg anyway) and retired in good health to our hotel, where Aden showed me her talent for drawing (on paper, on the phone, on the table) and we even managed to get a little sleep in.
LONDON 1/26
Up at 7 for a quick breakfast with the family, and then in the van for the haul over the channel to London. This was to be a VERY quick visit. We checked in to the hotel, where I checked my email for an hour and then cabbed down to the Garage. History: excellent Posies shows in 1993 (last show of the Teenage Fanclub tour, we headlined a sellout crowd with the Gigolo Aunts in support), 1994 (two nights, with support from the Steamkings, Eugenius and Drugstore! Put that in your history tome and smoke it); acoustic show in 2000 (with Russian Caravan, featuring my friends Kite and Fly as support). And numerous Jon and/or Ken shows in 2001 upstairs. We had a very curry up the road; spoke to Bucketful of Brains zine, got some new shoes (thanks Neil!) and rocked the shite out of the assembled Britons. We had a very nice party in the adjacent bar afterwards, I saw many old and new friends, and despite the fact that somebody, presumably a fan stole the display T-shirts of the wall during our set, had a great night of sales at the merch table.
ZWOLLE 1/27
I was so tired when I got up at 5.30 that it didn’t even register how tired I was. I didn’t drink too much at the party, so I actually felt OK. I knew a long van ride was ahead for beauty rest catching up. By 6.40 we were on the road. Got on a ferry about 9.30. you can’t stay in your vehicle so I went up and had an English breakfast and watched the rolling, spraying waves. On the previous day’s crossing, I went to the upper deck and observed the sea and its deep green glass colors firsthand.
We stopped in Venlo to get some gear, I then went back to sleep and by the time we pulled up to the Hedon, a cultural center in the tiny town of Zwolle (whose center is an ancient fortress in the classic medieval European shape), I had gotten a good 7-9 hours sleep all told. I felt great! Now, I had never even heard of Zwolle before we had a show booked there, but I was pleased to see presales were strong and what the hey, when do you have a bad show in Holland? With state-funded cultural centers, no corners are cut, but with that European thrifty mindset, nothing is wasted either. I didn’t care for the chili they made for us, so I went across the street and had awesome BBQ ribs (no complaint, just needed some pure meat protein). Anyway, this was the best show of the tour thus far. No doubt, the best audience of the tour. People jumping, shoutin’, plus we were called back for 2-3 encore bits, and just got hyped…we were throwing ourselves and whale-like screechy guitar sounds every which direction. The Posies’ web designer, Taylor, was getting her Minnesota beer-high on, and spilled lager on our t shirt display (we donated the two shirts to the in-house charity auction…) but we moved some units nonetheless, and as a fantastic reward, I slept in today, waking without an alarm clock, at 12.25. Only 150km to go today to Eindhoven, so we didn’t even have to leave the hotel til 2pm. Home stretch, baby!
Love
KS
On the highway to Eindhoven, NETHERLANDS
