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!
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!
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