Strain

Strain European Tour 19961996 EUROPEAN TOUR

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August 24th. The day it all begins. 14 hours of air travel hell. I HATE stopovers! We're plagued first of all with a stop over in Calgary to pick up more passengers, followed by an unscheduled stop over in Glasgow for fuel! We leave on the 24th and arrive in Frankfurt on the 25th.

August 25th - 28th. Chillin' with our homeboys Elision and Steffen from Navigator Productions in Wurzburg. Seeing the sights and hanging out! Our Swedish vegan t-shirt selling warrior, Olle, shows up, as well as our main man Florian from HeartFirst Records. Olle looks after selling t-shirts, assorted scheisse, and arson threats for the bulk of the tour. Florian handles the cash and the bulk of the driving. Oh ya' - almost forgot about all of those trips back to Frankfurt airport to get our equipment away from German customs. That and the 1300 deutsch mark bond we'll end up paying to be on our merry way.

Olle

Our man Olle.

Wurzburg

Wurzburg - Strain's home away from home. It's also home to Elision, and is perhaps the most beautiful city in all of Germany. Strain loves Wurzburg!


August 29th. Darmstadt. The tour seriously begins now. We hook up with Acheborn for the first of 5 shows we'll eventually do with them. This band is awesome. Check out their 7", The Demon Love, on Defiance Records. What an awesome way to start a tour. There must have been 300 kids. More than we expected - and the house goes off! Ahhhh - it's good to be back in Europe.

August 30th. Schweinfurt. We play again with Acheborn. They tear it up seriously. We also get the chance to hook up with Water Breaks Stone from Frankfurt. We played our first show with them on our first Euro tour - they improved immensely! Another awesome German band to check out.

August 31st. Ulm. We played this place last year with RKL - this year with Acheborn, who once again do serious damage. Why do they put cool stuff to skate outside these places?

September 1st. Filderstadt-Bernhausen. "All right! Awesome! There's a fantastic vert ramp right outside the venue! Let's skate!" Things heat up - everyone has fun until Johnny Franco decides to slam really hard. After his convulsions cease - we call an ambulance. Turns out his shoulder is dislocated by 4 cm and he'll need to spend the night in the hospital. OUCH. New band rule - no skateboarding until the end of the tour. Both of the "tools of evil" in our possession go on sale that night. We play without John and actually have a good set. Acheborn kick ass again - and leave before the end of the show forgetting Andre's bass. We won't see these kids for quite some time now.

Strain shirts!

Sean with a stack of shirts at Nastrovje Potsdam. We stopped by for a quick visit on our way from Filderstadt-Bernhausen (a suburb of Stuttgart) to Frieberg. The word of the day for the Strain boys - CONSUME!


September 2nd. Freiburg. We were here last year and it sucked. Hey - it was a Monday. 60 kids come out and rock with Strain. I hate these shows where Strain is the ONLY band playing.

September 3rd. Zurich. We're booked in Luzern, but end up playing a cool squat in Zurich. Our friend Ralf shows up and we meet one of the guys from Mine (Mani will be stoked on that...).

more than a man with a dipstick and a plan

Flo checks the oil on the van after the overnight drive from Zurich. We're stopped somewhere near Tuscany.

The typical Italian straw home

Chillin' in da' hood. The same rest area in Italy. We just wished someone would have warned us that there were no toilets there and that local practice was to go where you felt comfortable. Maybe then our shoes wouldn't have gotten so messy.


September 4th. Roma. We drive all night from Zurich for this?? We show up at the venue - for lack of a better word and check out the scene. This place is not fit for human habitation - yet we're playing there. Words can not describe the squalor. We find our posters to promo the show in a big pile. The promoter won't come out to the show until we threaten him! Some cool kids come to the show and everyone pretty much ends up having a good time. This is also John's first show with the band since he dislocated his shoulder. We spend the night in the squat, only to awaken to find out that Chris, in a moment of intense frustration with certain members of our party's snoring habits, had literally decided to "break down the walls". I guess that's what happens when you're locked in like an animal! 50,000 lire to fix the wall and we're on our way the next morning to see the sights of Roma.

Strain - Roma Style

One of the better moments in Roma. Somewhere on the way to the colosseum.

Roma - the Colosseum

Obligatory tourist in Roma shot - the Colosseum. Truly incredible... must be seen to be believed.


September 5th. Modena. We get stuck in a huge traffic jam for 3 hours. We're going to be super late! We arrive at 11:30 and there are cars all down both sides of the road to the squat La Scintilla! Holy shit! We played the same place last year and there weren't half this many people. The show, needless to say, rocks!

September 6th. The Pinky Bar.

September 7th. Epinal. The place is huge. It's like an arena rock venue. Jody does his Kreator and Venom impersonations during sound check. He sets up his mike like Lemmie - and when we walk out on stage the sound crew have it in his exact position! Stormcore and Kickback do the support. Kickback - these guys have the NYHC moves down.

September 8th. Sint Niklaas. Late again. This ends up being a rather usual theme for Strain on this tour. Afternoon matinee show with Kindred, Sektor, and Stormcore. We get to meet Edwin Mr. Hardcore #1 and the legendary Omer da mad Turk! Also in attendance is our great friend Ed of Goodlife Recordings. The place is hot, sweaty and smelly - but everyone has a good time!

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