PLANET OBSCURE EUROPEAN TOUR 2012 REPORT
13 countries 31 shows
Sept 28-Copenhagen/Denmark-KB 18
Sept 29-Gothenburg/Sweden-Henriksberg
Sept 30-Moss/Norway-Queens Pub
Oct 2-Helsinki/Finland-Lepakkomies
Oct 3-Turku//Finland-Street Bar 95
Oct 4-Hameenlinna/Finland-Suistoklubi
Oct 5-Pori/Finland-Bar Kino
Oct 6-Bremen/Germany -3rd Psychobilly Earthquake
Oct 7-Frankfurt(main)/Germany-Dreikonigskeller
Oct 10-Vienna/Austria-Viper Room
Oct 11-Bresso(Milan)/Italy-Blue Rose Saloon
Oct 12-Töging/Germany-Silo 1
Oct 13-Tannheim Egelsee/Germany-Schwarzer Adler
Oct 14-Dijon/France-Deep Inside
Oct 15-Clermont-Ferrand/France-Le Baraka
Oct 16-Madrid/Spain-Gruta 77
Oct 17-Barcelona/Spain-Sala Rocksound Bar
Oct 18-Montpellier/France-Secret Place
Oct 19-Solothurn/Switzerland-Kofmehl
Oct 20 -Winterhur/Switzerland-Gaswerk
Oct 21-Strasbourg/France-Mudd Club
Oct 24-Bristol/England-Exchange
Oct 25-London /England-Underworld
Oct 26-Hamburg/Germany-Hafenklang
Oct 27-Berlin/Germany-Wild At Heart
Oct 29-Prague/Czech Republic -007
Oct 30-Dresden/Germany-Chemiefabrik
Oct 31-Stuttgart/Germany-Zwolfzehn
Nov 1 -Leiden/Holland-L.V.C.
Nov 2-Kassel/Germany- K 19
Nov 3-Onsnabruk/Germany-Rock N Roll Hell Festival
Tour notes
The tour started off in Copenhagen playing with Hola Ghost. It was great to hang with the Sandorff brothers again.Niedermeier from the Horrorpops also came out to the show.The next day I was looking out the hotel window at a drunk guy walking up and down the street bothering people.It was entertaining until he approached our tour van and started looking in the windows and pounding on the glass. I yelled from the upstairs window and Fussl (our tour manager) also saw him from downstairs and ran out to stop him. He went away but later came back as we were leaving and again started pounding on the van. It was at that point that Fussl jumped out of the van and gave him a pounding in the middle of the street :-) I wish I’d had a video camera that day.
On to Sweden where we found that a lot of the rockabilly guys had beards and or mustaches.:-)
In Norway we had fun on a Sunday night with the Wild Bunch. We wore our bowling shirts and we did more of a rockabilly set.
I was very happy to return to Finland with the whole band. I was very surprised at the great turn out in Helsinki on a Tuesday night!
Upon leaving Finland there was a problem with the plane and our flight was delayed causing us to miss our connecting flight. We had to be in Bremen to play at the Psychobilly Earthquake festival. We got to Amsterdam and had to rent a car and haul ass to the show. We were very late but managed to make it.
In Vienna, I finally got a chance to see some of the city after all the years of playing at the Arena on the outskirts of town. Great show and beautiful city.
Riding in a van all day can be boring at times and you have to entertain yourself somehow.
We started to compose a list of things that opening bands can do to piss off the headliners.
Here are some of them. (this is humor people so take it easy ok?)
1.Put your stuff on every available chair and table so that there is no room for anyone else in the back stage.
2.Leave your bottles cans and cups all over the stage
3.Take down your drum set piece by piece right onstage.
Then we thought of things to add to our contract such as
1.Sound person must take a shower at least 24 hrs prior to the show.
2.Sound person must address band members as “sir”
3. A list of laundry mats within a 5 mile radius of the venue will be provided.
Then we thought, there is a GUEST LIST for friends but what if there was a ANTI-guest list of people you didn't
want at the show with a picture of the person at the door for the bouncer to check? :-)
One of the days we went into a large music store near Toging Germany to get something.
I saw a kid there with his mom. The kid looked like he was about 13 or 14.
The salesman was showing him a gig bag for the guitar and demonstrating all the pockets and straps.
The kid was very excited....you could see it.
It made me reflect on how excited I was at that age to be starting off playing music.
After all these years, Im still here doing what I like to do.
Im not a “star” by any means but lucky for me that we have enough
fans to make a tour like this possible.
Encourage your kids to follow their passion in life.
Check out the scenes filmed in Dijon France in our new video! I had never been there before. It was very picturesque.
After a 12 hour drive we arrived in Madrid :-)
Spain is always a great place to play. The fans in Madrid and Barcelona are top notch nice people and we
had a great time there. Santi from The Hellbilly Club joined us onstage in Barcelona.Pistachio nuts are so cheap there! :-)
For the next week I had a terrible sore throat that I tried to combat with medicine and hot tea.
Even after my throat was better, I was paranoid about it spending lots of time trying to warm up before the shows
and having hot honey tea onstage.
I did have to cancel a show in Belgium. Canceling a show is always a last resort.
I had a bad cold and my throat was raw. My vocals were terrible for about a week .....even more so than usual :-)
In Winterhur ,Hasu from the Peacocks came down before the show and we exchanged new albums :-)
Strasbourg was one of these places where the stage could not have been any smaller.(Mudd Club)
The way we line up with Juan at the front makes it difficult for us if the stage is not wide enough.
It was going to be one of those night where we had no choice but to line up in a strange way but we made it happen
(“make it happen” was something we heard a lot of on the tour) and the people were great.
On to the UK. We took the tunnel with the van on a train. A first for me.Very cool.
In Bristol there were not many people but our friends from Furious and the Coffin Nails made an appearance
(name dropping :-).
Speaking of names, at the London show was Grim Tim, the old Nekromantix drummer.
I have not seen him since he caught me banging on their chalet door and running away at a Hemsby festival
in the early 90’s. It was Halloween and the Quakes were up to no good.Throwing eggs,toilet papering and the like.
I was going over to the Nekro chalet and pounding on the door and running away. After about the 3rd time,
Tim was waiting and chased me down....I thought there was no way he was going to catch me but he did!
Hamburg had not been such a hot spot for The Quakes over the years for whatever
reason but this time was different. A packed house and a great show!
Wild at Heart in Berlin is always a great show. For some reason I've had bad shows
there personally over the years where I'm making tons of mistakes. This time I
thought we did a good job and I was happy about the show. We had the next day
off and I got a chance to explore Berlin a bit. I need to spend about a week there sometime.
Prague is always cool ...even on a Monday night. I got to shoot some video near the
castle and we had the biggest schnitzel you ever saw at the hotel...even “I” could not
finish it. :-)
On the final day of the tour we played at The Rock and Roll Hell festival in
Onsnabruk.The venue had been switched from where it was before.
Needless to say it wasn’t an ideal place for a festival.
Finally I was able to relax and have (more than a few) beers.
We had a great time clowning around backstage with the Tall Boys and Frenzy.
Typical day on the tour
Leave hotel at 9 am
Drive 5-6 hours- sometimes shorter some longer.
Check in at hotel 3 pm
Load in and sound check at venue 6 pm
Back to hotel 7:30 pm
Back to venue 10:30 pm
Stage time 11 pm set length 1 hour 15 mins usually
Load out and back to hotel 2 am
Repeat for 6 weeks
Days off were spent driving or doing laundry.
This picture taken by Nalle Westman probably depicts the fantasy of all those
who had to deal with me on this tour :-) It was a cool tour and we want to thank
all the people who came out to see us, also all the promoters and venues.
Thanks to Muti Climex and Aki Savolainen for use of their gear in Finland.
Paul Roman