Tour update part 4

01.11.2012 - Kursk, Russia

We left Tula before noon and arrived just on time in Kursk. We searched the venue for quite some time as it was for once not in the city center but in some kind of industrial park/zone. At least it was safe: just near the police station! The usual routine: we unloaded the backline and set up the stage as the promoter wanted someone to make the sound check. Nine Eleven declined and the opening bands did it while we chilled around with no dinner before the show. Hungry us... We chatted with the barman who was speaking french. The show started with maybe 40 to 50 kids and a local folk "singer". Then there were two hardcore bands who got the crowd in the right mood for Nine Eleven. The french machine delivered the goods once again and the kids were having fun. A lot of circle pits and no stage dives. After the show we loaded our stuff and went to the sleeping place. We cooked something to eat, had dinner and just chatted. I took a shower and went to bed afterwards. Someone slept in the van.

02.11.2012 - Belgorod, Russia

We woke up late (for a change) and took the road to Belgorod (only 80 km) with the folk dude from last night. We arrived very early in the afternoon at the promoter's appartment and ate all the delicious food he had cooked us. We then just took some rest and left for the venue around 5 pm. It was a bar near the downtown with a lot of security, a nice and friendly staff and an old crazy woman who I think was the owner of the place. We put the gear on stage and set up the merch table waiting for the other bands to arrive. Someone did sound check and the show started around 7.30 pm. There were around 70 to 80 people. The first band delivered their brand of punk to their die hard fans and then the local beatdown heroes took the stage. Unfortunately they didn't get a lot of reaction from the crowd. The third opening band was from Ukraine (they played also the next day in Kharkiv) and they played modern hardcore with a few melodies here and there. It was time for the French invasion. Nine Eleven were on stage and the kids were restless. A lot of moshing, a few circle pits, Remy was dancing everywhere and Jerome tried to do some back vocals on one song. A perfect evening for the last show of Remy with us as he had to leave the next evening for France. Our friend with his acoustic guitar played a few songs while we were packing the gear. All the guys went to the 2nd room of the venue to party hard and dance like crazy on Ska-P while I was figthing my growing intolerance to cigarette smoke. At one point me and Aurelien decided that we wanted to leave and tried to convince the others that it was a good idea. Fast forward almost 2 hours later and we were back at the promoter's appartment cooking a late night dinner. I ate some pasta with butter and went to sleep after taking a hot shower. Richard slept in the van. What goes on tour stays on tour, right guys?

03.11.2012 - Kharkiv, Ukraine

We woke up before 11 and went to a mall to buy some food and exchange all our money before leaving Russia. We finally left Belgorod after 2 pm and got stopped by the police at the end of the city. Vince negotiated with them and they asked us for one CD to let us go without a fine. We accepted of course and gave them a signed copy of Le reve de Cassande. No problems at the border but we still waited for maybe 2 hours before we entered Ukraine. We arrived in Kharkiv at 6 pm and stopped in the city center to wait for the promoter to come and pick us up. A few guys went to the McDonald's to take a dump and the promoter arrived in the meantime. We arrived at the venue that was very close, unloaded the backline and set up the stage. We went to a nearby restaurant and had some rice with vegetables (a very small portion). Remy left us just before the start of the show as he had to take a bus to the airport and flight back from Kiev to Paris. The show started and there were 2 local bands one of which had played the previous night in Belgorod. Nine Eleven delivered a good set, the people were into them. We ate some of our food after the show while resting, had a drink at the bar and left the venue. We dropped the promoter near his appartment and took the road to Odessa.

04.11.2012 - Odessa, Ukraine

Overnight drive. The 3rd of the tour. Vince and Richard drove for the most part, the road was very bad. I drove for 2 hours in the morning. I was very tired at one point and Vince took my place while I went to sleep for a little bit. Beautiful country from I what I saw. We arrived in Odessa at 2.30 pm and went for a walk in the city center. The weather was very nice and the Black  sea welcomed us with clear blue water that we saw from far away. I really liked the city center and the walk under the sun. We went to eat a pizza as it was still early for the show and we were very hungry. The pizza was good, so was the show! 3 local bands + Nine Eleven, a lot of moshing and pogoing (old school style yo!) in a very cool venue with a very tight timing. A good show and a lot of fun! I even managed to trade a few records with a fellow record label owner. We went for dinner after the show and waited for more than half an hour until almost everybody who was at the show got served their falafel before we got ours. By then we were very hungry and ate them fast. Afterwards we took our host in the van and he showed us the way to his appartment. We got our stuff and went upstairs for a shower while he went with Richard to park the van in a securized parking. I was ready for bed when they came back. I think I felt asleep around 2 am while some of the guys were still talking or checking their email.

05.11.2012 - Chisinau, Moldova

We woke up before noon and our host and Vyacheslav (the host for tonight's show in Moldova) had had breakfast. Those of us who were hungry ate, the others just chilled around. We left at noon and changed our money before leaving the city. We passed the border pretty fast and headed to the capital of Moldova - Chisinau. We arrived there early in the evening and it was already dark outside. Luckily with Vyacheslav we didn't have to search for the venue for once which was very cool. The unloaded our stuff and ate some local kind of croissants, not bad at all. The local band (there was only one playing tonight) did the sound check and the show started around 8 pm. I was on my laptop catching up after a few days with no wi-fi. The local band was the promoter of the show singing and a few young kids playing a mix of SOIA and Terror like hardcore. They got the kids at the show moving around. Nine Eleven went up on stage and had a decent show. A fight almost broke up during their set but Richard and then the promoter did their pit police speech. We stayed at the venue at least for an hour after the show ended, we chilled and talked with some local guys and girls. At one point we loaded the van and went to Vyacheslav's place where the promoter and some of their friends joined us for dinner. I ate some salad, took a shower and went to sleep. I also took Vyacheslav's pictures from the show. The local crew was up for a party but we were too tired.

06.11.2012 - Cluj Napoca, Romania

We had to leave early the next morning as we had a long distance to drive until Cluj Napoca + a border to pass. We managed to pass the border quite uneventfully (just the usual time spent waiting but less than on the previous borders) and we spent the day on the road. Romania is a very beautiful country and the mountais were particularly impressive. I spent the day between enjoying the sights from the van or watching a film on my laptop and of course sleeping. We arrived in Cluj at 7.30 pm and waited for Alec to show up at the venue. The Irish club was cool, some of us had a drink and we were speculating about tonight's show. Vlad arrived first and we set up the gear on the floor. Then Alec arrived and after some greetings we did what we were waiting impatiently for: we had dinner! She had cooked us something nice and we were eating while the local band was doing sound check. We had finished our meals and were back in the venue when the PA broke. We had two options: to go to another venue and maybe play there or go back to Alec's place. The guys chose the 2nd option because it was getting late and we were very tired after a whole day spent on the road. We went to Alec's place and met all the local guys and girls there. I took a shower and went to sleep in the van with Jeff. Some guys went out for a drink and apparently the barman tried to rob them but our local friends didn't let him do it.

Tour update part 3

28.10.2012 - Vologda, Russia

The trip to Vologda was really crazy. We were all tired and I was co-driver so I tried hard not to fall asleep (without success at one point I have to admit). It was snowing hard and at one moment we had to leave the main road from Petrozavodsk to St. Petersburg and took a small road in the middle of nowhere. There was enough place cleaned from the machines for only one car but as it was our lucky day we didn't meet any other cars during the next 3 or 4 hours. It was just us, the snow, the sky and the forest on the two sides of the road - like a fairy tale! Richard was driving very slowly and carefully and we managed to survive. On top of that we couldn't find an open super market in Petrozavodsk and didn't buy any food so we were very hungry when we arrived in Vologda around noon. Our gps was not working (again) and we stopped to check the route in a big mall with free wifi. True punks! We also had lunch, I ate some kind of Russian "pita" which was very greasy and I was really full afterwards (and happy of course). We hit the local supermarket and met some local punk kids when we were going to the car. They knew the dudes from their previous show there and we stopped to talk with them. Cool. We then headed for the venue which was a nice club/restaurant on the second floor of a building in the city center, big enough to welcome more than 100 kids for the show.
The show was cool. There were 2 or 3 tough guy metalcore beatdown mosh whatever you wanna call them bands and the kids were moshing hard (the frenchies like to say: "ca pit sec"). A cool pop punk band played last before Nine Eleven and a lot of kids were sing along while some others were stage diving their asses off. Then Nine Eleven went on stage and delivered their sound and power while everybody was dancing/moshing and having fun. No after party, we just loaded the backline as some kind of party was starting in the venue and they kicked us out. We went to sleep in the promoter's house which was one hour away from Vologda. At least it was on the road to Moscow so one hour less driving for tomorrow. We had some dinner and went to sleep.

29.10.2012 - Moscow, Russia

Of course when presented with an opportunity we were not to miss it - we slept until noon and left for Moscow then. The get in was early and we arrived just on time after taking the motor way and then to my surprise there were no traffic jams when we entered the city. The venue was under the ground with a very small staircase, just near a very big mall and rats running outside. There was no one from the promoters at the club for some time and we unloaded the backline with the help of an old friend of Remy. We then just chilled and waited for the sound check. We got the worst surprise till this moment at dinner time: we got only 16 veggie sausages (we were 8 people) and two breads (maybe 4 leafs of bread per person)... We were quite unsure if we had to laugh or to cry. There was a tough guy band with no bassist and one girl did a featuring on one of their songs. There was another band with mosh hardcore or so tell me my memories + a 90ies emo band afterwards and of course Nine Eleven. As usual in Eastern Europe it was party time during their set in the Russian capital. A lot of moshing, sing alongs, stage dives. Someone jumped on my shoulder and it hurt for at least 3 days afterwards. Hard times! We sold some merch and loaded the backline in the van after everybody else had left. The rats were still around. We went to a nice part of town and stayed at Sergey's appartment where he cooked us some good old fashioned pasta with tomato sauce. We were happy! Warm food, wi fi internet, hot water and enough place for all of us to sleep comfortably and on top of that no one had to sleep in the van. I took a shower and went to bed after dinner while some of the guys stayed talking for some more time.

30.10.2012 - Moscow, Russia (day off)

The only day off of the tour. Jeff had to take care of some personal affairs and left the flat early. Sergey left for work just after him. We slept till noon, just chilled around and left the flat with Maksim, our tour host and tour guide for the day, around 2 pm. We met with Jeff at the Red Square, took some pics and took a long walk in the city. We had also a big break for lunch at a nice vegetarian restaurant nearby. It started to rain when we had finished our lunch and it wasn't very nice being outside. We bought some souvenirs and decided to head back to the appartment. We cooked dinner and of course ate it all. We spent the evening joking, watching silly videos on youtube and chilling (some of us even used the time to talk with their relatives/family/girlfriends on skype). I went to bed around midnight after a hot shower.

31.10.2012 - Tula, Russia

We had only two hours drive to Tula and half of us decided to sleep till noon. I was part of the other half who woke up at 8 am and went to visit the Kremlin. It was cool and beautiful even though a lot of buildings were closed to the public. There were some nice views of the city too. We enjoyed our trip and were back home before noon. We had lunch with our sleepy friends and left for Tula around 2 am. We got kinda lost trying to find the promoter of the show in Tula. It turned out we had to drive maybe 20 km out of the city to the venue. It was a small youth club in the middle of nowhere. As it turned out later luckily for us it was just near a supermarket. We parked the van just in front of the venue and unloaded the backline. Three more bands played this evening but I was too busy to eat with the other guys in the "backstage" room. The promoter gave us a cucumber and two tomatoes, not washed and sliced in big chunks. Not surprisingly we didn't eat them and went to buy some bread, cheese and some beans and bananas. There were maybe 40 to 50 kids, some really drunken ones too. Welcome to Russia! We managed to have some fun, Nine Eleven played a decent set and we went to the sleeping place. I stayed there only 5 minutes and went to sleep in the van because a lot of people were smoking and I happened to find this gross... Aurelien joined me a little bit later while the others ate some potatoes and partied hard with the local guys. At one point it seems someone was seen shooting heroin in the toilet but there is no evidence of it :( This was my second night in the van and it was very cold. I managed to survive though and even went to piss early in the morning almost naked. Straight edge power!