Ephen Rian // A Special Referendum

2006/04/07 - WATERDOWN/NME MINE TOUR

posted by Ephen Rian, 2006/05/02, 09:24pm

It is always difficult to resume such a long period of being on the road. So many stupid, boring or even annoying things happen but on the other hand it is so much fun day by day. So I will try my best to write down everything that has to be mentioned or should not be told at all ;-)
The whole trip started on April 7th. Stefan and I had a party in Salzburg the day before and we where all quite exhausted because we did not get more than I think half an hour of sleep until we left heading towards Munich.

DAVONS (CH) w/Estate
I do not really remember much of the travel to Davos because I was sleeping most of the time. Looking back right now it was not the best idea starting a tour with party ;-)! Davos is a very beautiful small city somewhere in Switzerland. With an altitude of I think 1800 meters, you can imagine that the temperature was not that high as we expected it in spring. Unfortunately we did not carry our backline with us so we had to wait until our bodies of Estate showed up. The rest of this night was really nice. Going out with the guys from Estate always ends up in some small bar in the end (usually the only one still open...). Yeah and it was exactly like this. Finally we got back to the venue at about 6 in the morning where we had some mattresses to spend some hours of sleep.

NYON (CH) w/Estate
Next show was Nyon. I think everybody was really looking forward to this show and I am sure every expectation got fulfilled. Amazing venue, great people and another time with Estate. Klaus joined Estate on stage and so did Armin and Leo during our set. Leo even managed to do flips into the crowd... Unfortunately we had had to leave at 4 in the morning because there was a 12 hour drive waiting for us. But before leaving we decorated Estates bus in a I would say very special way, so watch the pictures!

NORDHORN (DE) w/Waterdown, NME Mine
Nordhorn was our first show with Waterdown and Nme.mine. So everybody was a little bit nervous. Arriving quite late at the venue everybody is already there and waiting for us. We get to know Chuck the Tourmanager who tells us everything we have to know. Then its time to do soundcheck and at 8pm we enter the stage. Looking back I think we only played 15 minutes of our 30 minutes because everything went wrong. Strings broke, amplifiers did not work... really bad day... except one thing: Jules joined us in Münster! She should be our balance for the next two weeks.
Waking up next morning Stefan had already left because he had to fix up his guitar (thanks to sascha and flo for helping me). Oh I forgot to mention that he destroyed another guitar in Switzerland...

SCHWEINFURTH (DE) w/Waterdown, NME Mine
Arriving in Schweinfurth everybody is quite impressed of the location. I think every band I like already played on this stage. Starting with Converge, Atreyu or Unearth to only name a few... The show at night seemed to be the death warrant for my amplifier because it did not work any longer. You can imagine how much I enjoyed playing this night. Afterparty was great though. We got to know each other a little bit and Jules even managed to sleep 3 hours at the toilet, good job lady ;-)! Because of my amplifier we had to leave quite early next morning. So we drove to the musicstore in Cologne. I got myself a new amplifier (that sounds much easier than it was because it is quite difficult to pay without having the money...) and Markus took a new guitar with him.

BONN (DE) w/Waterdown, NME Mine
The show tonight was in Bonn and I liked it much more than the shows before, maybe just because of my new amp. Chris and Frank from Umlauffs showed up and we had the pleasure to sleep at Chris´s home. We all ended up playing singstar until 5 in the morning until Manuel finally fell into the bed with the microphone still in his hand, we all were really tired, so let´s have a sleep! Next morning we got to see the Stock of Umlauffs and for everybody of us it was like spending some hours in merchheaven. So thanks again at his part of the Story to Umlauffs for all their effort and dedication. Thank you sooo much!

FRANKFURT a. MAIN (DE) w/Waterdown, NME Mine
Frankfurt should be our next destination. Very nice venue, only one problem. No place to sleep tonight. But thaks to Ingo (Waterdown) we got the opportunity to stay this night in a recording studio in Frankfurt where another band was spending the night as well. I think they did not really expect us, because as we entered the studio (after not finding it for half an hour although we where inside the right building) they sat in the kitchen drinking beer in their underpants! Very nice, drunken bunch of guys. This night we all experienced having a shower while your drunk because we did not want to waste time in the morning...

LINDAU (DE) w/Waterdown, NME Mine
Lindau was the last show before having two days off so we left after the concert heading towards quiet little Grossraming again. But earlier this evening We managed to defeat NME MINE in soccer (simply because of Werner can not run;-)) and they finally had to tell the audience what everybody already knew – "Lindau we would love to be Austrians";-)
Driving home this night was really exhausting and I really enjoyed getting out of the bus and falling into a big bed again...

ERFURT (DE)
Leaving Grossraming on Sunday in the morning everybody was really fit and relaxed again. We drove to Erfurt to play a show without Waterdown and Nme mine and it turned out to be a really nice place to play. The only, or lets say major problem was the acoustic inside the venue. I do not really think that you could hear more than just noise at a huge level of volume... We spend the night at a very nice youhthostel and leave towards Cologne in the morning.

COLOGNE (DE) w/Waterdown, NME Mine
Well, Cologne is a longer story;-) We arrived at the Underground at about 4pm I think just as Waterdown arrived. The guys of Nme Mine had already taken place in the backstage room. Markus (Nme Mine) celebrated his birthday this night but later more details to this. Tonight Werner mixed our sound and we all enjoyed having a person telling us how to adjust our equipment. The show was quite cool and we had great 30 minutes on stage. Then afterwards the big struggle began. I think it was Jules starting to buy Jägermeister... at least she was the first one to disappear on the toilet again;-). We also met our sweeties from Days in Grief and so you can imagine that they started a party ;-). Jörg (dig) and Max (dig) get sooo fucking drunk with us that night ...hehehe...Wow, this was areally an extensive night. We convinced markus to join us at the bar but after having some drinks with us he escaped.
Who cares we kept celebrating his birthday until we left the Underground (or lets say they closed for the night). Sven (who gave us some place to sleep) took us to a "Kiosk" to get some more beer. I wanted to go to get some money and all of a sudden I was standing somewhere in the middle of Cologne without having any idea of where to go. I called our Guitar player Steven and the only information I got from him was: "we already left with a taxi". Great. So it was just me, my sleeping bag and six beers standing there alone. Then there was this strange elderly guy who kept following me while I lurched through the streets. He offered me to stay at his house but for some reason I did not accept... well this is Cologne they told me...

KASSEL (DE) w/Waterdown, NME Mine
Kassel was our next stop. I think the slogan "make as much fun of the Austrians as possible" fit this night quite well. Ingo (Waterdown) did not miss a chance to make fun our escapades concerning the last night but everybody enjoyed the shows. This night it was only Jules (a.k.a KJ, a.k.a. "uarggg", a.k.a. "I kann nimma") who managed to enjoy her beer the rest was still weakened by the night before;-) A big THANX to Franko for giving us a really nice place to rest, we love you!

MUNICH (DE) w/Waterdown, NME Mine
Munich... another longer story;-) 2nd time a birthday to celebrate another time ... Moats (nme.mine)...backstage is a great place to play for sure and even a more amazing place to make party. Well after the concerts whe had already annihilated a whole fridge full of beer in our backstage room but there was still the Waterdown – backstagebeer left ;-) Usually Phil is (waterdown) really strict concerning his beer but this night he was really generous and soon the second fridge was empty;-) Then I think the highlight of this night was the revenge of Nme Mine. Manuel and Klaus provoked another soccer competition. This time table soccer. The deal was the team that gets defeated without scoring a single goal has to get undressed and lie down under the soccer table. Well just look at the pictures and you will soon find out how great Klaus and Manuel played this match! Then the backstage closed up and everybody left to get some sleep. Except guess who? Us again... Because of not having a place to sleep we decided to go out a little bit longer. Two hours later we where standing inside some strange Karaoke Bar. Max held a microphone in his hands and sang as if there was no tomorrow... well Klaus and I then chose to scream (instead of singing) all the small things... Then we left to sleep at a relative of Klaus... for two hours or something like that...

WEINHEIM (DE) w/WATERDOWN, NME Mine
Quite exhausted we arrived in Weinheim after having 4 traffic jams on our journey. Nme Mine where still stuck so there was no soundcheck for them this night... but good old Werner managed to make them sound as well as they always do. So our last "all together evening" did not have anything special to offer because everybody was quite tired because of Munich and everybody was starting to get a little bit sick as well...
So thanks to Nme Mine for spending this tour with us, for having so much fun, for face acrobatics, tracer bullet, bill, the dictating machine, ich muss kotzen, Werner, being Austrians, celebrating birthdays, getting tied up with tape, defeating Klausi and Man… and sharing stage with us! Merci!

FRANKFURT a. ODER (DE)
This night we decided to sleep in a Motel which was way to expensive but nobody of us was able to drive whole night another time. The next day from west to east Germany... Frankfurt an der Oder... For me, this is the worst day of the tour because I really felt bad. Not because of the venue or something like that, simply because of my state of health. We left soon after the concert to get as much sleep as possible.

HANNOVER (DE) w/Waterdown
In Hannover the venue is really big and Klaus is quite excited because for him it is like a big playground. Everybody enjoys the show and afterwards we mention that tonight was the last night to go out because in Bremen we would have to directly leave after the show to get back to Austria again. Chuck (Tourmanager) has to leave this evening so we say good bye to him by drinking some Austrian "Schnaps" together. The rest of the night was like everybody can imagine... I think Klaus, Axel (Waterdown), Phil (Waterdown) and Stefan stayed in the bar until half past eight in the morning. I decided to sleep in the bus and when I woke up it was already half past 3 in the afternoon. My breakfast was arranged out of everything I found inside our van... ice tea and potato chips... Half an hour later we left heading towards Bremen.

BREMEN w/Waterdown
The funniest thing this night was that nobody, not even Phil!, took a beer before playing ;-) The aftermath of the night before could for sure be seen in everybodys face and our show. Then it was time to say good bye to Waterdown and right now I am sitting in our van next to Julia who will also leave us tonight:-( So looking back this tour was really amazing! Nobody expected to meet this many amazing guys have so much fun and enjoy every single day on tour! I have to say thank you to everybody who made this possible, to everybody who showed up at one of the concerts and of course to the whole bunch on tour! Thanks it was a great time!

Thank you Waterdown for everything you offered us! For sharing stage with us, for showing us how to use our amplifiers ;-), for teaching us how to play waterdown songs on the guitar, for Confetti, for funny announces on stage, cigarettes, having somebody to talk to, Chuck, Matze, the backline, mosh pits, circle pits, for teaching us how to talk to girls, for finding sleeping places for us and everything I forgot right now! KISSES!

Patrick, Phil, Rob, Markus, Werner, Mats, Holger, Christian, Zacken, Ingo, Axxxel, Phil, Matze and Julchen! Hope to see you all soo. It good to find new friends...