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Baltic Tour Volumen 1's Tour Diary (2003)
(Tour:Baltic) - toured with Josh Vanek, Andy Smetanka, Mike "Private Dick, Dirty Finn" Valentine - Toured Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania |
09/13/2003 Enter Vilnius and Lietuva
Day 13 - Hello Vilnius!
Drive, drive, dive.... drive some more. I think it took us about 6 hours to get to Vilnius. Tomas, from Dr. Green, met us and took us to the show. He was a little gruff and it was hard to tell if it was an act or if he really disliked us. It was cavernous and white inside. Somewhat like a larger version of the milk bar from clockwork orange. While we waited to put our equipment onstage, Tomas and 5 or 6 strapping Lithuanian dudes removed a giant lego that was blocking our passage. I'm serious. I'll put a picture up to prove it. Anyway, it was like 7pm and there were already a fair amount of punks milling around, so we had high hopes for the show.
Once again, we split up and found food on our own. Vilnius is beautiful and wild with life. Their basketball team was doing well in the European playoffs and young people were running around with flags and whistles going nuts. There was so much energy in the air and it was making me a little nervous. So, I headed back to the club to get in the right state of mind.
When I got there, I was psyched to see about 30 random punks milling about. So, the show might be pretty good. I jostled my way inside and was stopped in my tracks by the sight of 100+ punk kids going nuts to Sloppy Livin' (local ska). There was tons of drinking, hollering and dancing (pogo, slam and regular) going on.
The energy on the streets was nothing compared to the level of excitement inside the club. Bacon and Bob showed up after the first band and we all watched Antimaniax. They were brutal metal, of the highly political variety. We started to get a little nervous because it seemed that the whole show was taking off in a pretty political direction. There was a lot of anti-EU and anti-US sentiment goin' down.
We were also starting to sweat because we were asked to play 3rd, instead of fourth. That seemed like a better slot, but that would put us next. Again, no big deal if we were a three-piece. Dug, Bryan, Miikka, Andy and Josh were all missing. So the three of us that were present started to break out in nervous sweat. It was a pretty rough combination of high energy, hot topic politics, booze, teenagers, general anxiety and fear.
Antimaniax finished their last song and still we were only three. So we talked with Tomas and he agreed to let us play last. So, Pledge Alliance started to set up and when they were halfway done, the prodigal boys arrived. There was a few minutes of panic and some harsh words exchanged (mostly from my direction) and we made an abortive attempt to take the stage. Then we accepted our fate and took the last slot.
I was worried because we were told that people usually start to leave before/during the last band because that,s about when the last trolley leaves the city. Also, Pledge Alliance seemed like the big draw and I didn't look forward to trying to follow them. They were a good hardcore/ska live show. They out to be, considering their exhaustive tour schedule. Anyway, after their third encore, we took to the stage while the crowd yelled for more.
I know that it probably sounds like I'm setting us up to fail, but failure isn't an option on the last night of tour. I apologized to Dug for my harsh words and we kicked out the fucking jams. It was nuts in there. Andy videotaped the whole deal. Before the show, I had met a teenage girl named Natasha and she asked me all sorts of questions about American bands. I was only the third American she had met and she was astounded to hear how much my knowledge of Good Charlotte, Avril Lavinge and the VMAs was lacking. Anyway, during the show, I dedicated a song to her and it seemed to make her and her friends pretty jubilant. Also each of the other bands took time between songs to make political statements. I, personally, don't think that it's an entertainer's place to offer political insight. I also think people should be careful of accepting messages from someone they paid to listen to, but whatever rows your boat. Anyway, I didn't want to appear mute, so between songs I offered my political views of alien overlords, robot mind control and mutant octopi.
We gave our all and then stepped down. I shook many hands, incorrectly pronounced many names and signed a few autographs. Some local dudes bought us a few rounds of vodka shots and we got back into the belly of the whale.
We spent the night on a hard floor that was stained with dogshit. I was too tired to care. There was a cute kitty and puppy (thus the stains) living in this flat. The puppy was adorable, but his teeth were sharp. Andy spent about 10 minutes really winding him up and then we made his escape, Vanek and I were laying on the floor with the wild beast and were torn to ribbons.
We slept and awoke and slept as the local folk partied till 5 or so. This probably wasn't the best way to prepare for tomorrow's 12 hour journey. |
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