Friday, April 1, 2011

Tour in Northern Europe

Hey Internet!

Sorry I haven't posted anything about my awesome tour in Germany and Holland. It was an incredible time, for sure, and it was great to see so many friends, learn about the places they live, party with them and make new friends as well. This tour really changed my perception of Germany. I'd been there before with THOMAS FUNCTION and ANDY DALE PETTY and always tended to have a bad or extremely weird time either puking up Jägermeister on the roof of some hostel in München, teaching a Tiki bar how to make cheeseburgers in Augsburg, or dancing with middle aged bikers somewhere in the Schwarzwald. This time was way different and way better! I saw many great independent cultural centers and indpendent spaces.
 

I was greatly saddened to learn that squats 15 year old me read about in MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL are slowly becoming a thing of the past in Germany and Holland while the extreme right is on the rise and neo-Nazis are using black-bloc and anarchist tactics to discredit people who are doing awesome things for their communities. But, I was also amazed at the ability of all these people to fight back against a whole heaping pile of bullshit that life has thrown at them and excel while doing so! I didn't get to see so many bands in my time in Germany (the ones I saw in Holland were fucking amazing and I can't wait to see them again!) but it was awesome to see so many creative and interesting people trying to create something new and exciting out of a really fucked up situation. 

Most importantly, I discovered Vokü... something that I for sure will introduce to all my friends in America as a way to develop closer ties within our community (and learn to become a better Vegan chef). Vokü taught me many things like not all sauerkraut is bad, nutritious food in a group setting doesn't have to be expensive and exclusive and that giving a punk scene ways to interact outside of shows is an extremely important thing that we should all work on in our homes! At our spaces in Italy we do similar things but with the ferocity that punks in Germany do it.... and in America, sure punks eat together sometimes but rarely in a situation outside of their houses with these amount of regularity across our communities. Y'all've got something good and special there. When people sit down and share a meal together they share more than food, they discuss ideas, form bands, look at problems around them, figure out ways to solve them, make inside jokes amongst their friends and help give greater credence to this whole idea of an "alternative" lifestyle. Vokü aren't the answer to all of our problems by far, but I've seen that they're a great place to start the conversation!

I'd like to thank all of these people/spaces/bands/cool shit for their support, hospitality, drugs, couches, toilets, frühstuck, local beers and inspiration:

Assaf, Ehud, Andrej, Hello Kebab, Dan, AZ Conni, that 42 euro universal regional train ticket, Clemens (seriously you were right about saurkraut... we're gonna drink spritz till the sun comes up in May, yo!), Gabo, Ulli, Similde, DEAD HAND, PISSED GOATS (rip), German Apple Juice and Pretzels (train sustinance), Hendrik, Extra-Blues Bar, Yoshi, THE MAKE-OUT, Scott (dude! you can buy weed with a credit card!), Merel, Robin, Florian, Michael THE BAT BITES, THE HOTLINES, THE MAYDAYS, RUINS, Innsbruck-Rotterdam pop-punk family,  Manu and his awesome housemates, THE NEXUS (the most inspiring punk run venue I've ever been to!), AJZ, Laura Devebber (I promise I'll see you sooner than 3 years this time), that cop who gave us a ride to Braunschweig after 30 seconds of starting to hitch, ARAK DEATH CULT, and Nadav Ben-Horin, Luca and Emanuele (cos without y'all I never would have met any of these amazing people!) 

  
Fuck you's go out to:  


Edreams, Lufthansa, Deutche Bahn, the people who wouldn't pick us up in Braunshweig, Nazis, the Dutch Government for closing all of yer squats and trying to go back on serveral years of progressive legislation, cigarette prices in Germany, and that fucking super serious East German dude in Leizpig that was pissed off that I'm America (sorry dude, I can't change where I got born)  
         
If I forgot anyone to thank anyone, I'm truely sorry but I'm sure I'll see you on the 5th of may and I'll give you a shot of cheap Tequilla or something.

I love all you and can't wait to see you this summer!

-David 

Rome, Italy 1 APRIL 2011 

p.s. Here's a recording of me in Dresden, Germany:
Live at the AZ Conni 20-3-2011 by Sigfriedandroidrage

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