Trike Euro-Log: Berlin, Prague, Zilina, Graz and Zurich

Okay, I just realized I haven't written about the last four shows. Before I do, I want to mention that we introduced our new song "Ice Cream On The Side Of The Road" in most of these shows, which was well-received... more and more so, the more we played it.

Berlin:
Played at Lokal with Robotron. We had a dramatic show-down with Ineke in the car, on the way to the venue. Xania and I were giving her opposing directions (the GPS wasn't that clear) when she had to make a turn. She didn't make the turn that I said she should make. I heatedly asked why and she said I told her to turn when she was already driving (not true. she was stopped) and then she was saying I was telling her to go straight - she confused what I told her with what Xania told her. I was angry because I felt she was accusing me of saying something I didn't say. Then she kinda blew up, stopped the car and said we could take the metro. We sorted everything out and went to the venue, but we were all trembling after the tension. Pity those moments are never captured on video. All ruffled feathers were smoothed over soon afterwards.

Lokal had a new, silver backdrop and disco ball. Robotron opened. Robotron is a crunchy, hardcore electro-punk duo from Berlin with a few little keyboards, 80's artsy-mullets and hyper energy. Then we played. It was a great, great show. Many people came. A group of hot dancing girls in the front. One of them was celebrating her birthday. The surprising thing was her friend's ability to dance like there was no tomorrow for the whole show while wearing a backpack.

We didn't sell any CDs, but the audience was great, and the energy was high. I felt like I reached a new plateau in terms of performance, crawling along the floor during Johnny B Goode and such ... Afterwards, I went dancing with Kitty, Kathrin and the gang til 5am (had a dance-off with a young chap dressed like Elvis. It was like Grease, dancing with a circle of people cheering me on) til I collapsed in an exhausted heap. Went back to Herrmann's but we had no pillows or blankets, so we took a taxi to my friend Kathrin's house. It took 20 minutes for her to hear the bell and let us in, but we finally slept for five hours or so. Kathrin, Jamie (her Irish boyfriend), Xania and I went to August for a buffet breakfast (only three euros!)

Prague:
Xania wrote a blog about Prague. We played at Chapeau Rouge with Undersound Earlines, who were great. They had more members, including a bassist and a tall, blond girl with an expression-less face (very Czech) singing back-up vocals. Our show was fun. A Monday night. A lot of the regulars weren't there (probably because it was a Monday night); Steve P, John Dodge, Lilly, Clabbe... but the people who did show were super high-energy and crazy, and aside from fucking up about 500 times (without anyone noticing; at least, I hope) we had a great night. The audience was crazier than usual. The next night we played at Antonio's place for his housewarming party. It was fun. Franco did an interview with us that was HILARIOUS. Our best interview by far. Antonio was interviewed too, and he threw in comments about meeting us in a sex shop and such. I got wayyy too drunk, way too flirtatious and fell into a table, later on, breaking a rib (I'm serious)... or at least fracturing it... the last few days have been hell; waking up in pain fifteen times a night and taking ten minutes just to stand up with all the pain.

The next day we went to the Franz Kafka museum which was utterly fascinating. With my intense rib/back pain, I identified with his tortured soul. TONS of students wandered through the museum. I bought two postcards for friends.

And, the day we had to leave, we discovered Ineke's car was broken into. Our video camera (unused thus far during this tour), two big bags of clothes and Ineke's mp3 player were gone baby, gone. We had a miserable time trying to get the cops involved. They took forever to arrive at the scene of the crime, and when they did, they claimed they didn't speak English well enough, and said "In ten minutes a cop will be here who speaks English" "ten minutes?" I asked, knowing that we were already two hours late for Zilina. "Yes. Ten minutes". A very frustrating hour later, they arrived. The cop who spoke English was very helpful though, and after saying that we could return to deal with the theft on the thirteenth, we took off for Zilina. I will always have a love/hate relationship with Prague. I totally empathize with Kafka.

Zilina:
In case you're curious, Zilina is in Slovakia. Therefore, of course, everyone speaks Czech; only their czech is slightly different from Czech Republik's czech. We arrived a few hours late due to the theft, and half the audience had left, but the ones that stayed were by far the best audience all tour. Of course, every show has people who really get us and get into us and let themselves go, but this was the first show all tour where the entire audience let themselves go. It was like that scene in Peanuts' Xmas movie, where everyone is dancing their own kooky dance. The people (artists and their friends) were amazing. Dancing from the moment we started, imitating our moves... it was great, aside from the guy who kept trying to steal my paisley tie. I often let people take my clothes if they really want them, but that tie has sentimental value. I found it on the streets of berlin and it goes perfectly with my light blue, semi-transparent shirt with the yellow wife-beater underneath. After the show I talked at great length with a french guy in a black shag coat who said I had great style and my energy onstage was captivating and, although he doesn't really get into synth pop, he was sucked into our show. He said he wanted to move to BC to become a famous scratch dj and perhaps even be my roommate... that is, if I ever move back.

The people were so kind. They were young entrepeneurial artist types, and Stalinica was an artist-run place with an art-room down below for kids, a playground with a funky, double teeter-totter and loads of graffiti. They talked about plans to build a theater next to the venue, out of straw.

Graz:
Ah, Graz. We arrived at 8:30. It was a show put on by Picture Eyes, whom we met last year at Lokal in Berlin. (They're really great). On the way, we bought a batch of slippers to make CDs out of. We drew robots all over them. I had decided not to drink, due to my broken/ fractured rib. Our show was well-received and the place was PACKED to the brim. The only unfortunate thing is that we didn't get to collect many emails or sell many CDs because we had to leave, so we could sleep enough before we left for our eight hour drive to Zurich. A small show-down with Ineke, who wanted to go, but our host wanted to watch Picture Eyes first. I asked if we could leave now, and Balmi spoke with Andreas, who agreed to leave then. Ineke had gone to her car, not knowing we had arranged to leave. She was upset. I spoke to her and everything was eventually smoothed out. We went back to Andreas and Suzie's house and slept for 7 hours. Then we awoke, ate a filling Austrian breakfast, thanks to Andreas, and left for Zurich.

Zurich:
Eight hours in the car for a show with 25 people. I'm not complaining. We met some groovy people, and it was our first time in Zurich, but it was costly (the highway tolls are nuts) and we made back half of what we spent to go there and back. Still, in the end, I'm glad we did it. We sold three CDs, met Rolle (the booker of Mars Bar, who dresses like the Ramones, looks like a Ramone, and plays in a Ramones cover band as lead singer... although they haven't rehearsed or played for a year) and ate delicious soup. It's funny because before we played there, Rolle said he couldn't provide us with accomodation or food, but in the end, he let us sleep in his house and they had food at the venue for us. And, he fed us the next morning. When we left he said "I hope you get famous".

The night before he said that we don't really fit into his bar, which is more about Indie Rock. He said every time he tries something different, not too many people show up. It's true. Not many people showed up, and a few times people poked in, heard a minute and left. Fuck 'em. He said if we played at Helsinki (Zurich club more fitting for zany synth-pop like Trike), we could get 100 people out, easily...

The show was fun. People weren't nearly as expressive as in Zilina, but some of them jogged into the other bar, Olé Olé with us, and they asked for three encores. We gave two, because I was exhausted and ill, with my rib condition.

The next day we drove to Innsbruck. I sat in the backseat and watched movies; "The Hunter" - Steve McQueen's last movie, half of "The Wrestler" (dubbed in German, reading the english screenplay that I downloaded) and some of "Music Man" and "The Fountain". We stayed with two Italian girls who made us pasta, played Joy Division and let us harass them by showing them our music videos. This morning, I slept in, since my night was such a fucking mess; waking up lots, tossing and turning... Ineke was annoyed that I didn't wake up earlier so we could get to Ljubljana earlier to explore a bit, but I really needed sleep. My back is killing me, and I have to take sleep when I can get it, because it doesn't come often, with this chronic pain.

Now we are en route to Ljubljana, where we made our "Mag Ik Met Jou" music video (see our youtube channel: www.youtube.com/user/stephenpaultaylor) last year and played two shows. We're thinking of doing a cover of the song "Life is Life" tonight, if we have time to rehearse it. We shall see. I hope I feel up to putting on a good show. This is the beginning of our trek eastwards, which will take us to Sofia, Athens, Belgrade and more.