TOURSTORY (by Oliver)09.03. START My brother of Metal, Jagger, was picking me up around 9 am. Minus 10 degrees and tons of snow makes it hard to get started. I had to push Jaggers Car back on the road to get on our way to Stuttgart Trainstation. In Stuttgart we were meeting the rest of the crew for this Tour. Apart from the Band, we also had a filmcrew with us to document the whole Tour. There was Andy (director), Henna (camera) and Patrick (sound). And last but not least my good old buddy from Metal Blade Records, Andreas, was tagging along with us. So we took a train up to Frankfurt airport and checked smoothly into our flight. On a stopover in Dubai, we had some time to get started/drunk for the next 2 weeks. 10.03. SINGAPORE Fahmy of Demisor picked us up at the Singapore Airport and brought us to our Hotel in the outer districts of Singapore. After a quick beer break, we immediatly rushed to the beach which was near the hotel, and swam our first couple of rounds in the Ocean. A beautiful way to start a Tour finally. Later on we crashed into my friends of Minus to hang out with them and get the first party started. 11.03. SINGAPORE Show Since some of us partied pretty much all night long, we didnīt do much during the day. Just sleep as long as possible and after that waiting for Fahmy to pick us up for the show. Unfortunatly he had to do it on his own, so we needed 3 rides into the city centre, which took quite a while until everyone was getting there. When I arrived, pretty much all Bands allready played. So I only saw the whole set of Minus. Unfortunatly everything was allready late, and Fahmy didnīt tell me to hurry up, since the club was closing on 10pm to change into a Dance night. So the Club owner only gave us a few minutes for our set, and we had to stop after a few songs, which was a shame, as the crowd was allready going wild. This was totaly out of our hands, since we didnīt know anything about a curfew. Sorry for everyone! Also we had to rush on to the Busstation in Joho Bahru right after the show to catch our Bus to Kuala Lumpur. We were allready awaited by Dickie and his van. Dickie helped setting up the Show in KL. 12.03. KUALA LUMPUR Show Driving during the night from JB to KL was a pretty hard drive, since Dickie wasnīt in his freshest mood. After a few nearly crashs, we adviced him to sleep a bit in the back of the van, and our Sound Engineer Patrick took over to drive a couple of miles. When Dickie got back on the drivers seat, he also forgot to check the petrol situation, and after a few miles, the van slowed down ... so there we are, sitting in the Jungle of Malaysia without any fuel in sight ... somehow funny, and we told Dickie that he shouldnīt worry, because we will kill him later :-) ... after a while, he managed it to get us to the next gas station, and we could continue our endless ride to KL. Around 5 am we finally hit our Hotelrooms and everyone was fallen asleep immediatly. Since the Show was held on early afternoon, the guys were picking us up after just a few hours of sleep. But after the first bunch of beers and Whiskey everything was going smoothly. Our friends of Apparatus were allready waiting for us, and we started the party allready before the show. The show itself wasnīt that special, as it was more or less a new Breed Metalcore crowd, which didnīt expect raw D-Beat style of music. It was a long discussion before that Tour if CBU should play with those Bands or not. My opinion about that is still the same. We play pretty much every show whenever we can. We are open minded about other music styles too. If someone doesnīt like the Band, just stay outside. You donīt have to marry them :-) Itīs just a matter of taste ... We did our best anyway, and some of the crowd even made it in the first row. So we had a good time. After us, some other German Band was entering the Stage: Boing (never heard of them). We were allready back for the party with our comrades of Apparatus, and since the whole show was over around 7pm, we started to search a nice club and we all ended up in the Waickicki Bar somewhere in KL ... and NO, I wonīt tell the complete story of the evening ... ;-) 13.03. KUALA LUMPUR Show 2 The Show in Serembang was cancelled the other day, so our friends of Apparatus organised us immediatly another Show in KL at Pauls Place (a famous Punk Club). Since this was for the crusty d-beat crowd, we had way more studs and spikes in the first row, and everyone was going extremely wild. You could see some Band members hanging upside down from the ceilling, fontanes of beer and a big Punk crowd on stage during our coverversion of GISMs "Nervous Corps" ... one of the best shows I played in my life!!! I will always remember that great time! After the show it was time for another night of party. We ended up with Apparatus and their friend Farida (+ another nameless girl) on our hotel rooms. Joking about the title of our last EP "Last Band Standing", noone really wanted to give up that night. Even Farida said, that she is usually the "Last Girl Standing" on every Party ... it was only Werner, Moritz and myself left to held the banner high, and I have to say, that I gave up at 9 am in the morning after a couple of beers and whiskey ... one hour later everyone else passed out somehow ... Moritz and Farida were hallucinating in the last minutes before crashing down ... it was wild ... 14.03. KUALA LUMPUR Studio After a sleepless night, we had to go immediatly to a studio, as Apparatus did book some time for both of us, to record a split EP ... it wasnīt the best idea to do that after a night like this ... so we wrote 3 new songs in 10 minutes and recorded them straight away ... Apparatus had to gave up after a few hours, as the drummer was nearly falling asleep while recording ... We should have taken a night bus again back to Singapore to catch our plane to Indonesia the other day. As everyone didnīt want to take my advice about a night bus, I gave up my responsibility, and we were booking an early day bus. After a nice final meal in KL we were heading back to the Hotel attached with Apparatus and Farida again ... time to smoke some stuff and drink more beers ... during the night my brother of Metal Jagger phoned me a couple of times to make a livetransfer of the JUDAS PRIEST Show in Germany ... good ol boy :-) .... "Whiskey woman donīt you know that you are driving me insaaaaaaaane?" 15.03. KL - SINGAPORE - JAKARTA Things started to fuck up allready in the morning, as noone did wake me and Andreas up. Werner entered our room at 9 am when we were supposed to be on the way to the busstation ... certainly we still made it in the last minute ... but the trouble really started at the boarder of Singapore, when we stood in a crowd in front of the customs, and NOTHING happened ... it took about 1 hr. to get back into Singapore, and after that we had another 90 minutes to get to the airport ... and we had only 90 minutes left until our flight is gone ... so much for not listening to me, when I advice to take a night bus ... anyway, since Fahmy is working on the Airport, he gave a phonecall to his friends there to make sure our flight will be safe for us ;-) ... and again we made it in the very last minute into the airport and got our flight finally!!! We got through the customs in Jakarta very smoothly, and in the waiting hall of the airport we got probably the best welcome in CBUīs History. Pretty much all my friends who I met last year in Jakarta were standing there with a big CBU "Welcome" Banner held high cheering and clapping while we were walking into the hall. I will never forget that in my entire life! It felt immediatly good to be back ... As we only had one night in Jakarta, we stayed at a friends house. 16.03. JAKARTA - BALI Show It was the hottest night ever!!! I was nearly drowning in my own sweat, and could hardly sleep at all. And at 4am the Muhezin started to chant his prays all over Jakarta. So I decided to stay awake then. Around 7am pretty much everyone was awake, and our friends started to prepare one of the most amazing breakfast Iīve ever seen. Tons of Tofu, Rice, vegetables for everyone. I have to say, that about 20 people were staying at that house, and noone left hungry. During the Jakarta Rush Hour (which is pretty much all day long!), we were heading back to the airport to catch our plane to Bali. Ari and Aca, our Tourguides for the Indonesian Part, allready took care of the tickets. As we arrived on Bali, we were immediatly picked up by the local promoter and brought to our Hotel in Kuta. Luckily it was located just around the corner of the club we are supposed to play. Itīs a small club named Electrohell. We didnīt expect too many people, as Kuta is nothing but full of Tourists. With around 80 people it was the smallest crowd on this tour, but still most of them were going wild. The bad thing in the club was, that they didnīt have any aircondition. After 20 minutes we couldnīt barely move, because everyone was totaly excausted. I think we played another 10 minutes, and after that I was falling over outside on the street and had to lay down, while everyone was pouring water over me. This was defenitly the hottest gig Iīve ever been to! One cool thing about it: we were the very first German Hardcore Band ever played on Bali :-) 17.03. BALI - MALANG After a long Party night with my drinking partner Andreas, I didnīt do much the whole day, but sleeping and buying DVDs with Werner. After a quick round of swimming, we had to move on to Malang. Andreas decided to stay in Bali - which was a defenitly good choice by his point of view. I figured out that the Memory Stick of my digital Camera got lost the last night. This was the onle big downer I had on this Tour. Itīs really sad to see all my pictures of the first week are lost now. It was the first time for us to go on a public bus in Indonesia to the next city. For some members of the crew it was a true nightmare ;-) ... itīs like driving for 7 hrs. on the edge to hell. 18.03. MALANG Show Arriving in Malang at around 6 am ... the guys from the Libertarian Collective were picking us up and bringing us to their shop, where we can take a quick rest for the upcoming show. Itīs again an early afternoon show, so there wasnīt much time to sleep. The folks were very kind and did some screen printing for us. Two thumbs up for my special CBU Bag! The Show was again pretty crazy, but afterwards some kids were stealing some of our shirts, and Werners Camera. Stealing from a Band (which allready looses all their money just to go on Tour!) is one of the worst things you can do. You fuckers better think about that!!! Unfortunatly we had to leave right after the show, and didnīt have any time to spend with our new friends in Malang ... I hope we can come back some day ... hugs to Indri and Nova ;-) So it was another night of crazy bus driving to Yogyakarta! But before we were able to leave, Henna, our cameraman, freaked out, because he was missing his passport and the flightickets. Ari was kind enough to stay in Malang to take care of that situation, since Henna wasnīt sure if the stuff was stolen or if he was just stupid enough to leave it at the Libertarian Shop. A few hours later, Ari met us again on the last busstop, and luckily Henna was just stupid :-) 19.03. YOGYAKARTA Show It was about 5 am when we hit the busstation in Yogya. Goofy, our man in town, and a bunch of girls on bikes were picking us up to the hotel. Everyone enjoyed the ride on the bike, especially Moritz. Dessy, one of the girls, was showing us a little bit around in Yogya during the day. But we were most of the time stuck on the streets giving interviews to the local school kids who were asking questions to every foreigner they could find (it was some sort of homework they had to do). So certainly most of the foreigners on that day was either a Band or a Crewmember ... The show was happing in the evening at the University Campus. We played with a bunch of totaly different Bands. There was everything from Hardcore to Grind to The Doors Rip off. It was also the first Open Air show we played on that tour. The crowd was again very wild, and one of them even tried to dive from a balcony off the first floor. 20.03. YOGYAKARTA - JAKARTA Show After an all night drinking with our friends in Yogya, we hit the airport early in the morning to catch our plane to Jakarta. We rather did book another flight instead of driving 15 hrs. in a bus. The flight was very entertaining, as we had some of the sexiest flight crewmembers Iīve every witnessed. "Wing Air - Fly is cheap"!!! What a classic! Arriving in Jakarta at 9 am, we were heading straight into our Hotel to catch up some sleep for the show, which was again in the early afternoon. It was again an Open Air Show, and this time we had the largest crowd at a CBU Show ever. When we walked into the area, the people were cheering and clapping. It felt again like The Scorpions ... and when we hit the stage there were around 1000 people waiting for us. Everyone was jumping around and going wild. We also tried to give our best performance, and Moritz tried a little bit too hard. After the show he was breaking down. But after a while he was getting back on track, and we were able to continue our aftershow party with our friends in Jakarta. Another funny part that day: the shops around the Festival were sold out with beer, because we were buying all bottles they had. Next time Bintang better stock up their quantities when the Germans invade Jakarta :-) 21.03. JAKARTA Day off! We didnīt do much, but hanging around with the Jakarta gang. 22.03. JAKARTA - BANDUNG Show We started again early in the morning to catch a train to Bandung. Some of friends in Jakarta were coming with us on that trip, so it was like a family picknick. In Bandung we did the usual check for the next store which is selling beer (itīs not always that easy in a Muslim country!). After a quick snack we headed back to the school where the show was about to happen. We played again with a bunch of different HC style Bands. Right before our show, Werner was coming up to me and told me, that someone has stolen some of his stuff again, and he refuses to play the show, if we donīt find this fucker! This time, one of the kids was stupid enough to steal Werners Super 8mm camera (I have no clue what someone wants with that OLD camera!?). So we told the people what happened, and they immediatly closed the doors for everyone and started to search. I didnīt expect them to find the camera. But after a while the really did find that kid, which was about to cry for help, when he faced Werner and Kelly in front of him. After a bit of arguing we started a bit pissed off with the show. This time we didnīt have luck with the sound. I barely was able to hear anything, and we really did play a fucked up gig. I felt sorry for the Bandung people, and I hope we can return and do it better next time. 23.03. BANDUNG - JAKARTA At 3 am I was sitting on the streets of Bandung and had one of Acaīs famous "Trust me" meals - which was fine as usual :-) After a short round of sleep, I was meeting with the filmcrew for a final interview of me and Ari on the Volcano outside of Bandung. I was very excited to get some sightseeing finally, but unfortunatly it started to rain really heavily, and I have to say, it was of absolutly no joy to get up that volcano and standing around soaking wet. The other Bandmembers and Aca were going back to Jakarta a bit earlier that day, as we were supposed to have another studiodate which was organised by our friend Eko and his crew. Unfortunatly I came back to Jakarta much later than expected, and was too tired to get into the studio that night. So we promised them, that we will do some recordings for them in our own studio, when weīre back home. 24.03. JAKARTA Day off The final day of the Tour. I had to do some shopping for me and my family at home pretty much all day long. Werner got really sick during the day, and had to stay at the hotel. Unfortunatly he felt so sick, that he even wasnīt able to come to our final party on the streets of Jakarta. Our flight was going very late, so we took the opportunity and met most of the Jakarta crew again for a final round of beers and the rest of my Jack Daniels. Later on we picked up Werner and our gear from the Hotel, and they brought us back to the airport. Just in time, Andreas came back from his Bali trip and met us again at the airport. And after a final photosession with everyone, it was time to say good bye. I promised everyone: WE WILL BE BACK!!! |