LIVE BY THE SWORD EUROPEAN TOUR 2014
22 Shows 13 countries
October 3-Bremen/Germany-5th Psychobilly Earthquake
October 4-Copenhagen/Denmark-High Voltage
October 5-Moss/Norway-Queens Pub
October 6-Gothenburg/Sweden-Kom music bar
October 8-Cologne/Germany-Sonic Ballroom
October 10-Berlin/Germany-Wild at Heart
October 12-Valdoie/France-La New Tone
October 14-Pfarrkirchen/Germany-Bogaloo
October 16-Kiel/Germany-Schaubude
October 17-Essen/Germany-Turock
October 18-Regensburg/Germany -Goldenes Fass
October 19-Dornbirn/Austria-Kulturcafe Schlachthaus
October 21-Bratislava/Slovakia-SK Randal Club
October 22-Budapest/Hungary-Mika Tidvar Mulato
October 23-Vienna/Austria-Arena
October 24-Warsaw/Poland-Chmury
October 25-Krakow/Poland-Kotkarola
October 28-Ljubljana/Slovienia-Orto bar
October 29-Milan/Italy-Blue Rose Saloon
October 30-Munich/Germany-Kranhalle
October 31-Utrecht/Netherlands-dB
November 1-Sint Niklaas/Belgium-De Casino
Before we start,lets get a few things straight.Its hard sometimes to convey things like humor and sarcasm
when writing and so I will use these symbols to express myself as best I can here.Sometimes people read
things (especially on facebook) and don’t realize something is a joke or sarcastic.
If you see this- :-) it means I’m smiling or its supposed to be funny.
If you see this- ;-) it denotes sarcasm or I’m joking. Ok? Good.
We arrived at the Psychobilly Earthquake ready to Quake.The backstage was a who's who of psychobilly.
It’s always great to hang out with the people that we have been listening to and performing with for almost 30
years now. It was great to see Richie Taylor from The Nitros who was playing drums for The Pharaohs.
Richie played a few gigs with The Quakes back in the 90’s.
We didn’t get on stage until real late. I remember slipping on the wet stage and falling right on my ass :-)
Im hoping Billy Tombstone has the footage.
On To Copenhagen and a great club called High Voltage. Opening the show was our friend Peter Sandorff.
I talked about piano rebuilding and furniture refinishing with Mark and Onkel from Java Skull and last but not
least Jess from the Taggy Tones was the dj and he played all the coolest records (yes records).
I really enjoyed that gig. There was a good mixture of people in there.
Photo by Phillip B. Hansen
The Quakes with The Red Barn Rumblers in Sweden.
Farther north to Norway and Sweden for Sunday and Monday where we did our most rockabilly laden sets of the tour.
The hotel in Norway had the best coffee of the tour and I would have to say the breakfast buffet was
best in Sweden...after all the word smorgasbord is Swedish right? :-)
Day off in Hamburg,we did our laundry next to the hotel we usually stay at
when we are playing there....sorry we couldn’t make a show happen this time.
When we got to Köln we finally had some time to go see the cathedral. I have been there many times and never been inside.
Of course its unbelievable and you have to see it. The gig was at The Sonic Ballroom, a place I have played twice before but we had not played in Köln since 2007.
Opening the show was our friends The Dark Shadows.
We played our heaviest psychobilly set of the tour that night and it was a great gig.
Thanks to Lonesome and others for preventing the wrecking pit from ending up on the stage :-)
On to Berlin and to our friend Edu’s house where Juan’s barbershop was
open for business :-) I have played Wild at Heart many times. For some
reason I would always have a bad show there. (I mean myself) The last two
or three times have been spectacular.(meaning I didn’t make lots of
mistakes :-) so what ever the jinx was there, I nixed it.
We had the next day off in Berlin.The more time I spend there, the more I
like it. The city is alive! At 6am Sunday, the nightclubs were still open!
There was still musicians busking at the train station and people walking
everywhere. Truly a 24/ 7 city. I think I had a kebab all three day we were in
Berlin :-)
Is that the camera lense? Or is my head really that big? ;-)
Our one and only gig in France was a good one.(Valdoie) It was a Sunday night but people came out and they were very happy to see us.
I noticed that a trend was starting on this tour. At almost every show there was at least one person who came up to me and told me how much the music of The Quakes meant to them on a very personal level.
When someone tells you that and you can see they are sincere, its hard to come back with a worthy response.
I know how much music means to ME in my own life. To think that the music that we play somehow has a great
meaning to others is gratifying,amazing,mysterious,and also comes with a big responsibility.
I’ve always tried to put on the best show I could, I have always hated bands that would be on stage drunk or high on drugs.
Fans make plans, buy tickets, drive long distances etc. You owe it to those fans to be at your best.
It makes sense,right?
A day off in Stuttgart and to my favorite laundry mat. This particular
one is on is located right in the center of town and there is a
pedestrian promenade.While your laundry is in you can go
hang out and people watch and soak up the town.
Later that evening our friend Patrick (aka Wild Hank)
took us out to dinner.
We arrived in Kiel the night before the gig.After the very long drive
from the south of Germany to the north, I took Rok our tour
manager to an “authentic” Tex-Mex restaurant. With all the live
cactuses inside it felt just like home :-) I got a chance to walk
around town for a good 4 hours the next day( a rare luxury on tour).
The show was a small one but it was a very receptive crowd.
The Turock in Essen is a wonderful venue with a big stage,big lights
and big sound. This would be our third and final gig with The Dark Shadows.
I must nominate this venue as having the best backstage food on the tour,
it was Chinese and it was excellent :-)
Speaking of food, thanks to Tom for the great breakfast in Regensburg!
Sunday night in Dornbirn Austria was as quiet as you would imagine. The
venue was a good one, the opening band The Rebel Rousers were very
nice and brought their friends. I broke a string on stage which hasn’t
happened in about 15 years. We met our friends and former Phoenix
residents Amy and Dieter and posed for pictures in from of their car.
Our first show in Bratislava was a good one, not a big show, but a good
one.Next was Budapest. We had not been there since 2012. A good night
with good fans. The Arena in Vienna was weird because there was strange
“hipster” types there doing funny dances to songs like Psychobilly Jekyll &
Mr. Hyde :-).
Poland:The venue in Warsaw was small and packed.
It was a sweatbox, but in a good way, good for my voice.
Not a good night to forget my fan or my dry shirt for
after the show :-)
The fans were very enthusiastic and seemed to know all the words
to all the songs even the new ones.
The next day we traveled south to Lodz and the village of Romanow
where my dads side of the family is from.
Our first gig in Krakow was one of those surreal moments in time
that I can’t put into words. It was one of those
“you had to be there” events.
This was the best show of the tour for us
(with Warsaw being number two).When I look at pictures from
the show, they don’t capture the electricity in the air that night.
There were more beautiful women at that
show than any other Quakes show I can remember :-)
I’m very sorry we did not come to Poland on the Planet Obscure tour in 2012. We will never miss a chance to play in Poland again.
The next day we got a chance to go to the castle and do some sight seeing because our van would not start and being Sunday,
it was hard to find someplace or someone to fix it. It needed a new fuel pump so we had to wait until Monday.
It took a long time for them to get the part and install it and there was no way we could make our next show in Zagreb Croatia so we are sorry we had to cancel that show.
My voice was pretty bad for a lot of the tour. I thought I had gotten it into shape long before the tour started.Its hard not to get sick or a sore throat when you are traveling every day and playing lots of shows.It was to the point that I had my tea kettle right on stage with me. Many nights we had to delete songs that we wanted to play because I couldn’t sing them effectively. That is especially bad in the age of youtube :-)
Our first time in Slovenia, The promoter got us a tv interview and a radio interview. Nice gig even though this one was the worst one for my voice and our set list sucked.- (note; most all of the promoters and sound engineers on this tour were very nice and very professional.)
Last show
The Casino in St Niklaas was a great place to end the tour. Its too bad we
are not at a level to be playing in venues like this every night.We played
with The Long Tall Texans and Frenzy. We had some great backstage
pranks that you can see on youtube :-)
Next day, sorting out stuff, packing, last dinner with the band and tour
manager and then back to reality.
Now that I am home, of course I want to be back out on the road.
I love it, I want to play! There is nothing better.
A big thanks to Juan Carlos and Wes Hinshaw for giving it 100% every
night. Rok our tour manager for putting up with us. All the opening bands,
promoters and especially THE FANS! without out YOU, none of this is
possible-YOU are the scene, Thank you and goodnight :-)Paul Roman