Croatia Pt. 1

I've begun to realize that as we are getting farther into this tour and deeper into Europe, the ability to access the internet has been diminishing each day. It's not something I am dependent on by any means, but I think losing contact with friends and family starts to make one feel homesick. I'm still having a great time and the shows have been going great, but it's starting to take a toll on me. Several negative things have happened to each of us that could have had better timing, but we're doing our best to keep the morale high.

We parted ways with Phil and met up with a new group to join us on our journey. They're an acoustic pop duo with some electronic beats by the name of Cargo City. They're a very talented and friendly group from Germany. Both of their names are... challenging to pronounce, so we have been calling them Simon and Johnny.

After playing in Switzerland and staying having a night off in Munich, we went to Vienna, Austria (3/24). The venue was called B72, and it was definitely different than the other places we've played, as it was a smaller place but had two floors for people to watch the bands play. We played again with Slimboy, a Swiss pop-punk band that we played with in Bern.

I'd say this was the show that started off all the technical difficulties to come, but nothing too major to prevent us from performing to our full potential. For example, during the show, each band member lost power to their own amp or keyboard at some point in time. We still performed as well as any other show, and I even got down on the audience floor to get the crowd to sing with me during "Untitled." I've never tried this before, but I'm sure I will do it again now.

I love the German food called doner, but I'm sick of it... Regardless, we got to check out Vienna during the day and even saw a castle. It was pretty interesting:





Our next show led us to Croatia (3/25). We performed at a nice club in Zagreb called KSET. Upon our arrival, I opened my guitar case to find that one of the tuning pegs on my guitar had broken. One guitar stolen, another one broken. Great times, right? I spent some time backstage working out the parts without the one string, however, and went on with no problems. We got to try the authentic Croatian style pizza that had some sort of ham and mushrooms on it. It was alright. Anyway, Cargo City played right before us, playing some very catchy pop tunes. Johnny's bass stopped working halfway through their set, so he had to borrow Alex's. Oh don't worry, that's not the last thing to go wrong. It's almost more amusing to me at this point, just to see what's next.

On Wednesday (3/26), we woke up and ventured into Zagreb to see the city. It was very, very different than the other European cities we've seen up to this point. There were a lot more merchants and small shops, with simpler architecture. We split off and did some souvenir shopping. I got a hand-carved wooden fish bottle opener and an amazing pair of shoes (made in Italy!) that I can't wait to wear, as well as a nice little gift for a special someone.









After wandering all day, we drove to Varazdin. The venue actually turned out to be in the basement of a high school, which naturally brought in a large crowd of students. We met a lot of great people at this show, both through the staff and the audience. The strange thing about this show was that it turned out to be a mixture of... well, our worst and our best show. What I mean is everything was working perfectly fine during the sound check, but as soon as kicked into the climax of our intro song, one of the amplifiers we were borrowing from the opening band just stopped working. We extended the intro to see if Zach could figure it out, in an effort to play it off as if nothing had happened, but there was no getting around it. One song into the set and we just said "Who cares?" and I played the rest of the set on keys.

That's what I would call the worst part of the show. On the other end of the spectrum, we rocked harder than I think we ever have. Our performance alone was... off the chain. There's no other way to explain it. Where we lacked in working equipment we made up for in our showmanship. And the audience really appreciated that, as the definitely showed how much they enjoyed it. They requested an encore, and "The Answer is Always C" came out once again. It was our best selling merch night too, and we signed several CDs and shirts and talked to a lot of new faces. It just goes to show how important it is to play through anything, no matter what may happen during a set, because you can't let it affect the outcome.

Switzerland: Basel & Bern

I may have spoken too soon when I claimed that Germany was my favorite country on this tour. It's really hard to say if there really is one that stands out to me anymore. Each country has its own amazing and unique qualities that leave me always wanting more.

We recently spent a few days in Switzerland, playing two shows in Basel and Bern, followed by a day off to see the scenery. The reception of Beautiful Lies in both cities was incredible, much to my surprise. The crowds have varied greatly in age as well, but supportive nonetheless.

Our first show in Switzerland happened in Basel on Friday (March 21), where we performed at a large club called Sommercasino. The crowd here was even bigger than the night in Cologne. I'm not really sure how many people there were actually, but the pictures can show that the club was definitely packed. The venue also had the best sound of all of the venues so far. And much to our luck, they spoiled us with great food and drinks.

We've taken on a pretty standard set at this point, and I was extremely shocked to see the crowd begin to mosh to "The End," as that may be one of our slowest songs. We altered the set on the fly as well to perform "The Answer Is Always C," in order to keep the intensity and speed going for those who wanted to jump around. We ended up meeting a lot of people at the merch table afterwards, even to the point where we were taking so long to clear out that the staff had to ask many lingering audience members to leave the venue. The band even ended up hanging out with a few of new people we met after we cleared out as well.

Saturday morning brought us to the beautiful city of Bern. It was a smaller acoustic show in the front room of the promoter's store, but it allowed for a more intimate and personal setting. Some random people we met the night before even came by to watch the show and spend the evening with us. Unfortunately, it was also Phil's last night traveling with us. He was so compelled to perform with us, which was quite alright because he's so talented... what I mean is instead of his normal appearance on "Save Yourself," he ended up playing seven songs in addition to this, all of which were completely unrehearsed but still wonderful.

After the show, a huge group of us went out on the town. Mike turned 21 at midnight, and even though it's not a big deal in Europe, we still made sure he had a great time celebrating his birthday. We definitely made some great friends and memories that night.



Since we only got to see Bern at night, we all decided to go into the city to see the sights and be tourists. As this is probably one of my favorite scenic places on the trip, I probably took more pictures and videos than anywhere else. Here's just a small taste of Bern:





As I'm writing this now, we're driving through the Alps after an afternoon in Munich, Germany. I really never expected to see so much in two and a half weeks... I have a lot of pictures that just aren't uploading at the time. I have been holding out on posting so I figured I would just post as many pictures as possible on a later date.

Back to Germany: Cologne & Mannheim

To be completely honest, I have to admit that I probably have enjoyed my travels in Germany the most. Not only is the area around very nice to observe, the people here have been very accommodating. Amazing clubs and amazing people... well, what more can you ask for?

We got to take another ferry back from Denmark, but unfortunately we found no ball pits or anything like the first ferry. We actually were the last car off the boat due to some of the others lagging behind.



We performed in Cologne, Germany at an amazing club called All Area. Pull A Star Trip opened the night off with a great acoustic set featuring Steffen and Philip, followed by Beautiful Lies. It was probably one of the bigger crowds we've performed in front of on this tour, as everyone was having a great time as they packed the room. It was also very nice to meet a few new faces, as our good friend and producer Phil had invited some old friends who came to the show. I also got to see a couple friends who I met last summer at a Beautiful Lies cafe show at Berklee.

After the show we ventured to see the Koelner Dom. I wish there was a better way to show the massive size of this church, as it was even too big for my camera to properly capture it. It was also a little difficult because it was nighttime. But I took a few different shots of it:







Thursday brought us back to Steffen's hometown of Mannheim. We played stripped down set at Cafe Nelson, which was just around the corner from Steffen's apartment. A band from Switzerland called Slimboy opened the night, followed by Pull A Star Trip and then Beautiful Lies. Phil from Pull A Star Trip accompanied us on cello for "Save Yourself." After we finished our last song, the audience requested an encore, and we played "El Scorcho." And after that... another encore was requested. We've never really had that kind of thing happen, but it was very flattering. Phil joined us for the second encore, performing the Pixies' "Where Is My Mind." We'd never even rehearsed it with him before but it worked out wonderfully.

The next morning, we woke up to an amazing home-cooked meal courtesy of Phil. Two days in Switzerland follow our Germany dates. More to come soon.

Sweden / Denmark

It's been a few days since the last time I posted about the shows, and a lot has happened as well. While the people in Germany have been amazingly nice to everyone of us, the scenery in Sweden has been beautiful. I was talking with Steffen about it all... I plan on coming back to Germany for as long as I possibly can... but we have to make a weekend trip to Sweden. It's just beautiful. I don't really know what other way to put it. Pictures always speak much more than words, so I figured I'd just let photographs explain our time in Stockholm, Sweden:


































Later that night, we played a show in Uppsala, Sweden. It was at a nice little cafe place called the Grand Cafe. The staff was very nice and fed us a great meal of authentic pasta salad. We followed a band that sounded a lot like the Strokes. Afterwards, we went out to a small pub in honor of St. Patrick's Day.

The next morning, we travelled a long, cold day over to Copenhagen, Denmark. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see much of the city. It turns out I woke up in the middle of the afternoon in the van and everyone else was gone. It was the first time I had slept all through the afternoon and didn't even wake up when we stopped. i just found myself waking up next to a huge store called the New Yorker in the middle of Copenhagen. I thought I was alone as well, but much to my surprise, Philip was sleeping in the bench seat in front of me. Even though I missed out on the daytime in Copenhagen, the city was very beautiful.

We then played a show that night at a small venue called Lades. It was much like a basement looking club. The opening band was really cool, combining live electric and acoustic guitars with a lot of electronics. We then played a nice electric set where we played El Scorcho for the first time on this tour. We've been working out an extended bridge during the middle of The End which we played for the first time on the tour as well. Even though it's a few shows into the whole trip, it felt like the group was finally becoming much tighter, as it's only been a few shows with Mike.

Afterwards, we talked with some of the locals and met a lot of nice people. At some point in the night, the whole group traveled to a blues bar down the road, where Philip ended up getting on stage and jamming with the local blues guitarist. I have never seen anything like it... Philip is amazing at what he does, and probably jammed for about 20 minutes on stage.... unrehearsed... just purely phenomenal. I got a good 10 minute video from the whole journey, too.

We followed that day with a long trip back to Germany. Beautiful Lies and Pull A Star Trip spent the afternoon with a nice journey by van and ferry (which consisted of over 9 hours). Much sleeping took place in the van, and thank goodness I never have to drive because I really needed to sleep. I'll miss Sweden though. It's cold there, but not to our surprise as we're used to the chill of the air in Boston. I do hope to go back. Two shows in Germany to report on in the near future. I'l be writing about those shows soon and very soon.

Sweden

As far as scenery goes, Sweden has been one of the nicest places I have seen in Europe so far. And much to my surprise, the locals speak very, very good English... even much better than a lot of Americans do. Beyond that, our travels in Sweden have been amazing. We got to take a six-hour ferry ride up from Germany, which I never thought could be so fun. We set up our acoustic guitars in a room and just played for hours. Many people walking by seemed both entertained and confused.

Some pictures from the ferry:








The ferry arrived pretty late in the evening, so we dropped all of our gear off at the hostel we were staying at. According to the others, it was one of the nicest hostels they had ever stayed at. Whether or not this was the case, I was just happy to get a nice bed and a shower.

Since we had the night of from playing, some of us drove into town to check out the local scene, and we stumbled across a huge venue, much like the Avalon used to be. It was a little expensive to get in, but it was well worth it. Good music all night. We lost Mike for a little bit, and met some pretty... interesting.... people. But once again, another amazing night.

The following morning we had to wake up early to drive up to Stockholm. I was sincerely impressed with the club, as it was a teen center and one much better than anything I had seen in America. It was great to see these people giving a place for youth to go to and have a good time.

The show was much better than the first night, and we put on an intense performance. There was a good crowd who seemed to really enjoy the set. We learned a few Swedish phrases along the way too. I definitely would love to go back to Black Sheep.

We have one more night to go in Uppsala, Sweden. I'll write again as soon as I get another chance.

Germany

Hello to everyone from Sweden! While it has been five days on the tour, this is the first time I've had a chance to get online to write about our journey in the past few days. But I've got some downtime, so I thought I would take the opportunity to do so. The connection here is a little weak, which poses a challenge in trying to upload photos, but at the next good opportunity, I will post as many as possible.

Our first day was purely travel. We flew from Boston into the London airport, which turned out to be a really fun trip. Aside from my efforts to get over being sick, I got to watch a few movies on the plane. I had never seen "No Country for Old Men," which I enjoyed, as well as "Juno." Upon arriving to the London airport, Mike and I noticed something unlike any American airport we have been to: it was so clean and so quiet. Oh yeah I mentioned Mike...he's touring with us as our drummer. He's a great guy and we've been having a lot of fun with him.

We finally arrived in Frankfurt, Germany on Wednesday night, and travelled to Mannheim, the town in which Steffen (Pull A Star Trip / Tour manager) lives. We had a great time meeting his friends from the area. We also got to experience authentic German (actually Turkish) food called a doner. Here you can see Steffen and his roommate Toby. After a round-robin tournament of beer pong, Team America came out on top. Victory was ours.




Thursday morning consisted of an early awakening and a trip to Steffen's parents' home for a lovely lunch. His parents were so nice and we got to see more of Germany. Steffen kept talking about his Porche, and after much anticipation... well it was a Porche... it just happened to be a tractor made by the same company.

Here are some photos from Steffen's house:







After this, we played our first show in Hamburg, Germany at a venue called Fundbureau. It was our first show, and while we played a good set, tiredness was still a factor for all of us. Despite the fact Hamburg is a big city, there were still a good amount of people there to watch, as well as buy some merch.





After the show, we got to check out the local pub scene, where we found two really nice places with good music and good people. I don't know if it's obvious that we're American, but we definitely brought a carefree vibe to the dance floors, getting many people involved in a good night.

The next morning we drove to Paderborn, where Pull A Star Trip started. Here we got to play at Bart's (Pull A Star Trip) bar called Wunder-Bar. It was a nice little place, but definitely not short of a good crowd. We played a great acoustic set, and got to meet many new faces. We also got to see some old friends Jonas and Iza, who we met on our first tour and were once members of Pull A Star Trip. They took us out and showed us some of the pubs to check out. For some reason we never even made it back to sleep. It was another great night in Germany.

More to come soon on Sweden. As for now, ciao!