we left NY on a friday. our van actually started, last 3 times we tried to go to the airport our van, President VANburen, as i call it, has said “no way” i think it’s jealous when we don’t take it to our shows.

lollapalooza on the next day. we opened the fest at 11:45 AM!

it was the earliest we’ve ever played a show, we pictured there would only be some people setting up some tents and a couple of hung over dudes stumbling in with cups of coffee, but there was actually people there

and then around 5 hours later we heard the bum out news that CSS got stuck at JFK airport (been there) and we were asked if we wanted to play again closing the citi stage, uhhh obviously even though kim feared it’d be a ton of people looking to see CSS straight hatin on us, but it ended it super positive and fun there was even a circle pitalooza. we saw daft punk play, stage production as crazy as everyone’s sayin, we kept seeing perry ferrell in the backstage area and kim said he changed his outfit 3 times that day! and we also saw eddie vedder was guest appearing with another band and kids started RUNNING toward the stage, lollapalooza still loves pearl jam.

monday kim, scott (our friend who’s on the trip with us, he also took these photos) fly to oslo norway, oya fest. it was the first time i ever egged a crowd on to throw shit at us as we played yea yeah, probably the last time as well! even though the show was super fun that stage was completely trashed after thousands of people were throwing tons of stuff at us, here you can see a roll of toilet paper in flight. kim shot daggers out of her eyes at me when i said that.

with Flosstradamus

and then in the spirt of playing twice at a fest. we were able to play again on this floating dock, room, stage thing that we tried to make like a little house party. but then halfway through the set i’m an idiot and jumped into the lake, got out, and water was running off me like i was pouring a beer in my keyboard, and it broke. daggers again.

the next day when driving to the airport to head to london, maybe it was because i was so stressed about breaking my keyboard the first day we were in europe, maybe it was car sickness, or maybe because they say that lake i jumped into is the most polluted water in norway, but the van had to pull over so i could throw up on the side of the highway.

kim stanks

then on friday in london we were suppose to play the underage festival, which was a festival or only kids under 18 that would have been a first but the stage we were suppose to play on was canceled. we ended up getting added on to a show that night with crystal castles and the teenagers.

the next day we took a 6 hour bus ride out to cornwall, england, on a bus with no bathroom, basically my worst nightmare, i have a bladder like a peanut. we stopped for a bathroom break at rest stop, when getting back into the bus the driver realizes he’s LOST HIS KEY TO THE BUS, ha! after the bus driver stressed out for a little while scott found the key and we continued onto newquay. it was a fest on the ocean with like crazy dirt biking and shit going on we played in what looked like a circus tent.

and there was these giant bongs

cliffside

newquay baggy jean punks

took the same bus back and realized only when pulling back into london the there WAS actually bathrooms on the buses but in the middle of the bus, so weird.

the next day we played at a place called the cuban bar in camden london. and man did that show go downhill quick… somehow we were able to break almost all our stuff within our 20 min set, and when your playing and things start going wrong it only leads to more things going wrong, you start forgetting how to play songs you played a million times and forget lyrics you know, well at least we all made it out alive.

from london then to amsterdam. this point our camera decided to stop working. awesome city, so many bikes! and no, drugs aren’t really our thing, and we ended up walking past the sex street, but only in the day.

amsterdam to rotterdam on a train, i got out at one of the stops along the way to find out where we transfer and the train started leaving with kim and scott and all of our stuff on it, i had to jump back on a random car, kim spent the rest of the trip thinking i got left behind.

rotterdam to our last show in belgium, at the pukklepop fest. which i guess that name has something to do with pimples. awesome fest. saw henry rollins speak. it’s bizarre though, all around the fest were troughs just out in the open that dudes could piss in, so many wieners.

next day we flew back to NYC, except i booked the flights so that we had to fly hours in the wrong direction to helsinki finland, and then transfer to fly back to new york. i’m no travel agent

then we’ve hung at home for a week or so and were getting ready for tomorrow, it’s back on the road for the US with against me! and david dondero and i’m super excited! that’s the story of our life right there. i definitely hope to see you out and about, we’ve got a couple new tricks up our sleeve were waiting to bust out!
-matt