Colorado Springs, Co (Usa) @ Union Station

A thousand mile, 2o hours driving, and 1 time zone change later, we arrived in Colorado Springs. There's no clue Doctor Quinn was there but there are some kids hanging in front of the Union Station, things are looking great for tonight!!
We got no time to say we were a bit tired nor to get something to eat, the show had already started.
Life on tour is a constant sucession of new beginnings... We unload the trailer, get our gear all set up, take a look at the hundreds of cds glued on the wall in the back which gives this place such a shinny 70s' disco era look, we don't soundcheck, we are all grumpy because we can't soundcheck. In the end, we were just grumpy for the laugh because nobody really cares about soundchecks.... 1-2-3-4 and here we are again on stage!
Tonight was awesome, the room was full of kids singing their lungs out and moshpitting the entire show. Really awesome gig!!
We had fun after the show too, while people were moshpitting to the music of The Shilling and skanking on the A-OK's, we're having some beers with the owner of the bar... again we were having that delicious dark-brown beer... I have to get some back home!
Since we got no place to sleep tonight, Tiffany the trumpet player of the A-Ok's offered us to sleep at her house, in Denver... well, we can drive 75 miles more, so we loaded the trailer back and....blahblahblah ....
I don't think I've ever seen a girl's house in such a mess in my entire life... There are so many things left everywhere that everyone of us is not going to be able to sleep here, so half the crew spent the night in the van, some others slept in the basement, I slept in a sorta passage/hall/home of the cat place... I lied down where I could, where it seemed clean, and fell asleep right away.

Killeen, Tx (USa) @ The Sport Shack

Here we are back in Texas, after we drove 12hours, rather than wandering outside on the parking lot when it's 106 degrees(41°C), we decided to visit the Buzzkillers. It's great to see them again, we had a talk for a couple of hours, and as stereotypes about French people are particularly strong here, we reassured one of their girl friends: "Yes, French girls do shave their armpits as much as American girls do..." Then we hit the road back again, we only had about 125 miles (200 km) to go today. According to the increasing amount of people wearing lures and fishhooks on their caps, Killeen might be located more in a contryside part of Texas than Austin is.
We eventually parked in the Sport Shack's parking lot. The place is totally desert, and since it's getting pretty late, we started to wonder if a show was really going on tonight... After we went in the club to take a look and a quick investigation about whether we're gonna play or not, Sean told us the show was gonna happen, the only thing is that there's no audience... Well I' m exagerating a bit, let's see: if I don't count the guys from The Shilling, there is like 4 payed entries, 3 guys that put up the show and play in the local band, and the regular customers: 3 at the bar and 2 at the pool...
The 2nd local band has just cancelled so the hard task to open the show is now ours. Well, things look awful anyways so we decided to have as much fun as we could, and be as energetic as we could too. Apparently the audience liked it, the bar owner too, and offered us a round of a delicious 5% of alcohol dark-brown beer... at the end of the show Dirty Fredo told us that we sold as many cds as there were guys in the bar!! We watched The Shilling show that went the same way as we did, it's a little messy but the evening's as fun as can be! I would have liked to party a little more, but again, we're gonna spend the night driving so we loaded the trailer back and hit the road... even before the last band ended.

Baton Rouge, La (Usa) @ Insomkneacks

Even if we stayed up a little late last night and slept on the floor, the simple fact that we didn't spend the night in the van, got us all in a good shape to day. We all woke up at around noon, just in time to taste the delicious food Georges mom cooked for us. I guess I'll never know if that's something to put on her wonderful sense of hospitality or if it's all about the smell coming out of some of our bags, but Georges's mom offered us to do some laundry here.
So we arrived late afternoon at Baton Rouge all clean, fresh and fit. The Insomkneacks is a sort of open space for cultural events, that is, if you ever feel like showing some paintings of yours, recite some poems or play some chords; you're more than welcome to do it here.
Everyone treated us well here and the venue is nice; it looks like you're in some friend's living room: there's carpet on the floor, sofas everywhere, no stage at all, just a drumkit and a P.A in a corner of the room... it looks like a modest place but it's totally sweet and fully functional!!
The show starts early like every day because of the huge amount of bands playing. As the first two bands were playing, more guys were coming in, so that the room was packed when we got to play. There's no air conditioning, just a huge fan nearby the entrance door ... needless to say the heat is hardly bareable inside!! Nico (trumpet/back vocals) and Belzu (drums) got their shirts off and we started the show. Tonight is gonna be awesome, one of the best show since the one in Las Cruces. The guys here set the Insomnkneacks on fire, they skank, and sing the songs. We end up all sweaty and breathless. I wouldn't wanna play a second more!
We're playing back to back with The Shilling, they're playing in the same ahthmosphere as we just did. I sweated way enough already so I'm out to take some fresh air. Outside, I join the other guys from Freygolo. Nico found a hose, so we decided to take a shower on the parking lot... We stayed quite some time there, talking, drinking beers and taking pictures with our new friends from tonight. Then we loaded back the trailer and "took off", once again we're gonna drive the whole night!!

West Wego, La (Usa) @ Mvc

We arrived in Louisiana during the morning that day. We're staying at Georges's, the guitarist of one of the bands we're playing with tonight. His house looks as kitsh as can be! Everyone is exhausted and throw their sleeping bags wherever they can to get some rest. As for me, after I went to the bathroom to wet the velvet curtain of the shower, I found myself some room by the tester bed of some unknown guy's room. And as Georges's mom requested, I carefully watch out not to make any scratches on the wooden floor with the zip of my sleeping bag...
Later on that morning The SHILLING figured out a way to practice in the living room, they wanted to get some MURDER MAJESTY songs into their show to please their fans, since they had to cancel the tour. We just fucked around a bit, we didn't want to go out out and face the local heat and humidity, then it was time to go.
I don't know whether the van is freaking slow whether the distance estimation was totally wrong, but all I know is that the 45minute drive turned into a 3 hour drive....
West Wego is a small town west from the Mississippi, we got there by the end of the afternoon and the show already kicked off. This place is rather "countryside-ish", it consists in a field with: in a middle of it a "cabin" that apparently is a tattoo shop, and on its left, on the yard, a covered part with underneath, what looks like the stage. It soon got time for us to play because many bands have cancelled that night. Tonight again we 're not gonna soundcheck, we only have 5 minutes to set up our gear and try n' sound good...There is a lot of people tonight, the athmosphere is really good but unfortunately we put up a shitty show: lots of mistakes and we were not into the show at all.
Nobody wanted to stay here too long so we loaded the trailer and decided to go to New Orleans. Georges directly took us to Bourbon street in the French Quarter; it looks like a pedestrianized street packed with tourists, bars, restaurants, and strip clubs. That's the kind of place where you party 24 hours a day! We stayed there a couple hours, got some beers and fell the athmosphere, then we went back to Georges's house.

Houston, Tx (Usa) @ The White Swan

9 o'clock in the morning, and one hell of a mess is waking me up. I barely open an eye, still feeling too sleepy and what do I see? Shane and Mike fighting. It looks like the overnight thinking only lead to a fight...

As Shelco was weary of counting the points and convinced the situation could only got worse, he decided to take a plane ticket on the first flight to Vegas this morning. The tour ending up there for Murder Majesty, they decided to "fire" Mike and get him a ride to the airport along with Shelco... Mike, on a funnier note, decided to slash the tires of the van....

I really feel like I'm on a tv prank show, and expecting Ashton Kutcher to come out of nowhere shouting "you just got punk'd"... but it's real. Everything must come to an end, so there it is: bye bye Mike!

On one hand, I actually am thinking we're gonna have more room in the van, on an other hand, the athmosphere is grimmer now. I'm pretty pissed off that Shelco left so soon too... But as one moustache man who wasn't that much into dental care said: "The show must go on"... we load the van, say goodbye to the Buzzkillers, we're out to Houston!!

I didn't pay attention to anything at all during the 4 hour drive and slept the whole way through. The club is located in a sorta "ghetto" part of Houston. It's now 5:oo pm and there's really nothing to do before the show. We spotted out a Subway a little further in the street, so we decided to get our first meal of the day there.

Back to the club, it looks like the promoter did a good advertising job as there's quite some guys here. The first bands are playing, we're staying in the backyard sipping some beers, and we noticed that in general the athmosphere is more relaxed now that Mike's gone.

It eventually is our turn to play, we're lacking some room on stage to feel at ease, but a bunch of crazy guys are giving us enough energy to put up a good gig. The SHILLING, that played right after us, put up a good show too. The day ended up in a smoother way that it started, but I can't complain about it! Then, we loaded the trailer and left later on that night .

Austin, Tx (Usa) @ Red 7

It took us the whole night and a part of the morning to get to Austin. There, TJ and James from The Buzzkillers one of the band we're playing with tonight, give us a place to rest, so that we won't be too tired. The heat combined with the tiredness gets us all in a sort of lethargic/coma state of mind, nobody's doing anything till it's time to go to the venue.
The red 7 looks like every other bar we've seen so far in the US: it's huge, there are pools, some weird table football with 13 players, but most of all you're expecting to see a bunch of cow-boys going into the bar and ready to perfom a quadrille (some sort of old school dance) at any time. The show is gonna take place in the backyard, there again the place is huge, good PA, big stage... When we got there we unloaded the trailer meanwhile the last band from this afternoon show was playing, after unloading we went on sightseeing. The center city of Austin seemed to be dedicated to partying and music, there are bars, clubs and gigs everywhere!!
We ate some pizza there, we were sick of the burgers at the time, then we went back to the venue. The Shilling aren't going to play because the promoter didn't want more than 4 bands playing... the show starts with the band Al Shire a really good punk-rock band with horns, we are playing after Murder Majesty and before The Buzzkillers. It's fuckin' hot in the backyard and there's not so much audience there... We tried to give 100% in the show but we're all tired, so we just put 50% into the show tonight. The Buzzkillers were really full of energy and I don't know if that's the reason why Belzu skank his ass off or it if the reason is the 5% of alcohol beers he had, but anyway they rocked!!
After that we unloaded the van and went back to TJ & James's. Quite some guys followed us there and we 're having a party, I kinda feel like I'm not gonna sleep my regular 8 hours tonight!!!
The least we can say is that alcohol interacts differently on everyone, as an example here's just one: dirty Fredo totally passed out on the kitchen floor amongst the other guys partying after an hour... whereas we, whom alcohol gives a really wacky sense of humour, took advantage of Fredo's passing out to draw dirty things on his belly and put gherkin up his nose... French sense of humour !!
On an other hand, it seems alcohol is less fun for some other guys. At around 4am, Mike, decided to strangle Shane for some reasons that still aren't clear to me... The party then turned into a tragedy, Shane's face turned blue which got us scared and everybody tried to separate Mike and Shane the way they could. After a couple of minutes, and most of all after Shane begged for mercy several times, Mike eventually let him go.
The athmosphere got "better" after that, but I wasn't in the mood to party anymore, so I went to bed, it was 5:00am.

Las Cruces, Nm (Usa) @ Code red cafe

Scott and Brent took turn driving the whole night, and we arrived at like 6 or 7 am at Las Cruces. It's already freaking hot out here. The trumpet player from Second Class Citizen and his room-mate are kindly giving us a play to stay, they showed us the rooms where we can sleep, so I lied down on the carpet floor and fell asleep right away.
We woke up at around noon, hung around a bit in the neighborhood: Shane's got to get beers, there's a fast food we never had before in town, we have to make some laundry, we basically hung around in every air conditionned places we could find. We improved our English as well, Scott taught us the meaning of dingleberries... One might think it's a word that's kind of hard to come up with in a conversation, and yet, we manage to say it every two sentences!!
Then we slowly packed our things and left to join the code red cafe, which is a huge "bar/games room" place with a small venue next to it. There's a real stage big enough for us 6, a good PA, that's a great place.
Most of the people are watching baseball on TV and drinking at the bar. We decided to go with them and try the "Tecate", a mexican beer. The guys there are amazed to see French guys in New Mexico, in fact we're the first French guys they've ever seen, and they don't really know where France is located in the world either. Anyways the athmosphere is really cool, and all the guys are really super friendly.
Tonight Murder Majesty is playing before us and The Shilling are playing after us. Apparently Mike doesn't wanna play after us... We're all sorta surprised about it but we let them play before us anyway. They really kicked ass that night, they kicked ass so much that when we went up on stage the audience just couldn't wait to party more... Before the end of the first song, people danced, skanked, did circle pits... This show was really amazing, we're having a blast! This is the kind of nights that you wish would last forever, but apparently we had a long way to go to Texas, that's why we loaded the van and left right after the end of the show.

Tucson, Az (Usa) @ The Hangart

Departure: about 8.00 am, distance: about 400 miles to drive today, plus we have to get some merchandising for The Shilling on the way, and last day trip proved us mechanical malfunctions were something we couldn't ignore. As for the merchandising, Fred a.k.a dirty Fredo, joined the crew last night as the official merch guy for the tour, that makes us 13 guys on the road now.
Except the heat of the desert, the journey through Arizona is a piece of cake, untill we reached the customs at around 1:00pm. There things got trickier, the border patrol put up a roadblock, and in America, just like everywhere else in the world, the officers feel rather suspicious about 13 punk-rockers travelling in a van... And considering the smell of marijuana coming from the back of the van, their investigation might not last long! And to prove I'm right, after being held 30 seconds for an unbearable questioning that went like that: " OK guys, whose bag full of weed is it??"
Shelco turned himself in. Due to the fact he 's still under 21, he "only" had a citation, a bill, and his mother will lecture him for sure when he gets back home...
Even though we lost quite some time there, we're still on time to get to Tucson and get The Shilling T-shirts on the way.
The Hangart is like a big rehearsal room, with a high ceiling and no stage. I like those kind of places, and most of all, the air conditionning is fully working and even at 9 o' clock in the night, it feels so good. We're playing after The Shilling and before Murder Majesty again tonight. The show is pretty cool for everyone, there's not that much audience, but there's enough people to have fun. It seems like Mike from Murder Majesty is the only one who didn't have fun... We're supposed to sleep at the Hangart tonight but a local guy told us that the place is infested with black widows... So, after we ate at a mexican fast food we decided to leave to Las Cruces during the night.

San Marcos, Ca (Usa) @ The Jumping Turtle

We slowly woke up this morning, we're not in a rush as it only takes 5 hours to get to San Marcos, California.
We are hanging aroud till midday, then Sean calls us because it's time to go. We load the gear and the luggages in the trailer and the 12 of us gets in the van. I hope we won't have to spend too many nights in it because it might get hot pretty quick in there.
Shelco ( Murder Majesty's drummer) gets to drive first and we eat up the miles as fast as the locals eat triple whoppers, means fast as fuck! The weather's still freaking hot but the closer we get to California the lower the temperature gets... The temperature outside I mean, because the van is smoking really bad and I 'm pretty sure the temperature of the engine is higher than the temperature outside!!
Victorville, CA, its 3:oo pm and we screwed the radiator. Speaking of, there's only two ways of seeing things: either the American garage mechanics are really f***** skilled or the European ones think the customers are f***** idiots and that they can take your car for 15 days only for an oil change... Not only did they get to repair the van straight away but it also took them 1 hour and a half to get the job done. We're hitting the road again at 5:00 pm. The engine malfunction has some consequences and it's Scott, the guitarist for the Shilling, that is now at the wheel and the pace is much more slower...
We got to San Marcos in the evening, it eventually took us up to 9 hours to get there.
The Jumping Turtle is a real venue with a stage and all, but there again there's no soundcheck, only linechecks. Soon, comes our turn to get on stage, it's pretty early now, but once it's 11:oo.pm the show turns into a 21 + ages show ( no longer all ages).
We linecheck in 2 minutes, no need to say it sounds aweful and there are buzz and feedbacks in every monitors. We didn't put up a really bad show but we didn't put a good one either and to add a little extra to the disapointment I was starting the feel, Iwas told to stop the show because we're running outta time... I guess I'm gonna have a few beers and pretend I never played that show.
That night turned into a pretty long night and I was pretty happy to leave to San Diego. We 're gonna sleep at the house of the father of Mike, (guitarist for Murder Majesty) who is originally from there. I'm going straight to bed, tomorrow we're leaving at 7 am.

Las Vegas, Nv (Usa) @ East Side Joe's

We've been here in Las Vegas for 2 days.We 're staying at Sean's house, the singer of Murder Majesty, the band which we're gonna share the tour with. With the jetlag, the steaming hot weather of Nevada, the millions of dollars we lost at the casino last night and the night we spent sleeping on the floor, I' m waking up with the urge to go to bed again.
The first show of the tour' s tonight, so we're killing time before the show trying to get ourselves used to the American way of life. We're playing pool, eating hamburgers and drinking soda... a lot. We're finally leaving to the venue. Actually we're playing at some guy's house, Joe, apparently his place is "THE place to be" in Vegas underground scene. I feel like I'm back in the 80s' and in the movie thrasin'.
The wooden house is located in the middle of a waste ground right next to the military base. The walls are covered with tags, there's a half pipe in the middle of the room and the bands are playing on the floor, facing the skateboard ramp. It looks awesome ! There's at least 10 bands playing tonight, everything goes super fast, every bands got their own gear and nobody's really soundchecking. The house is packed with kids, it's so hot inside that I barely watch the bands, except for The Shilling: the other band we're gonna share the tour with. They play real good ska-punk ala Choking Victim/Leftover Crack... I have to admit I've seen bands play better, but there's something about this band, some energy and fun that makes it great. I think we're gonna have fun with those guys!!
It's our turn to play, we play 7 or 8 songs in a row, without any breaks. The people are reactive to our music and the house turns into a gentle mess. Considering there's no stage, the place looks even messier. I can't really tell if we're playing amongst the crowd or if the crowd's dancing amongst us! Joe screams: " Vive la France" ( long live to France), we're playing a quick encore and we let Murder Majesty play. They' re also playing some kind of bad ska ( Choking V/Leftover Crack sorta music ), but with a more melodic aspect and a horn section. They have to face lots of technical issues tonight which avoid them from giving 100% of themselves. We end up the evening talking with everyone, trying to know each others a little more, then we're going back to sleep at Sean's.

Midwest Us Summer Tour 2009

The SHILLING + FREYGOLO + MURDER MAJESTY US TOUR 2009