Thursday 24 June 2010

Evile Infecting Nations 2010 tour. Tilburg.

So Tilburg has broken me. Well, the ‘Mayor of Tilburg’ a certain Mr. Fozzy has. Fozzy is a good friend of mine who I met years back when he was drum teching with maybe Deicide? I was a bouncer at the place they played in London and we have bumped in to each other at parties ever since. At some point we started keeping in touch via email and I go to any gigs he works in London. The tables have now turned it would seem though because for the first time, I am in his hometown working with a band and he is on our guest list and coming to see me! Needless to say mayhem and trouble ensues, but first the day must begin and play out.

Freezing fucking freezing. I get up early after setting my alarm, which isn’t that early because I never changed time zones on my mobile. Dick. I sit myself up front, everyone else is pretty much asleep still I think, and I write blogs for hours. I am so absolutely freezing that this becomes a heinous task, my fingers are numbing, my toes hurt, I want to be warm so badly.
On arrival of Tilburg, and the venue we will be at tonight, I am over whelmed by how fucking great Holland is. In fact, I don’t want to leave. I want to live and work in this venue for the rest of my life. The best dressing room in the world is at our disposal, it’s not even a room, it’s like the entire fucking basement level of the venue. Showers, a kitchen with Chef, each band has its own fully stocked and spacious dressing room, wi-fi that works, and smoking rooms. Even Lyall has his own office!

The smoking room is a big glass box, with sliding door and massive ventilation duct, like a powerful as fuck distracter fan thing. It’s fucking rad, and they are all over Tilburg. Why for the love of god do we not have these in England. Other than the fact England is shit because the government don’t treat us plebs to such wonders in case we all suddenly become happy. Bastards.

I shower and spray myself yellow / orange and trot off upstairs to set up my merch stand. In the bar tonight so no gig watching for me alas. Not that arsed, Fozzy will keep me company. Near door opening time I start getting mega stressed. See, today I have to work with Euros, so all the labels need changing and I have to get used to another currency. I’ll be fine in half an hour but right now I’m freaking out. I get my food before the kitchen shuts and leave it in Evile’s dressing room ‘cause there ain't no time for eating right about now! It’s a go go situation and I’m on the stall just as people start streaming in.

I’m kinda nervous about the currency thing and it takes me about an hour to learn all my coins and then I’m all good. Warbringer are selling more, they have four European tours under their belt and Evile expected this but it’s grating on me that I’m not repping the Evile camp better. See, every night I wear a different bands t-shirt, and tonight I’m rocking Warbringer. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m sure that doesn’t effect sales, even though I’m banging hot and all but still, feel like I’ve defected slightly.

I stock up on Evile tour shirts during Warbringer’s set and these start flying off the shelves. Thank fuck. Once again there are minimal visits from any of the bands because the dressing rooms are so darn nice, which is fair enough, I wouldn’t leave them either. Fuck ‘em anyway, Fozzy is here! Turns out, Fozzy is going to be drum tech on the Over Kill tour coming up, the same one both Evile and Warbringer will be on! Sweet, I have to get myself on that tour, it’s going to be fucking insane.

At this point in the evening’s proceedings, I just want to pack up the stall and go out partying with Fozzy, especially since we have a poxy 1 am bus call today. Boo that. Ah well, work is work and mine fucking rocks. The sound in this place is off the fucking hook, all the live music from next door is fed through the speakers in to the bar area where I am and it sounds like a C.D playing. It is the crispest sound I have ever heard in a venue, it blew me away and helped me come to terms with the fact that I am going to buying every album on this fucking stand with my measly wage. I can’t skank any more off them, I already have t-shirts, there’s only so much you can get away with eh!

Adam comes see’s me after the Warbringer set and says he thinks it’s the best he’s ever played ‘cause he could actually hear himself. Laux on the other hand, freaked out because it was such clear sound quality. Perfectionist.

I introduce Fozzy to everyone throughout the night, he already knows Lyall form the Exodus, Over Kill tour that Gama Bomb were on so they chat for quite a bit and I introduce him to Evile after I have packed up the stand. Near the end of the evening, a young man named Rolf comes by to purchase some thrash goods and get this….He asks me if I’m the Merch girl who writes on Terrorizer’s website!? I’m fucking international ya’ll! So Rolf, I said I’d put you in, your taste is clearly impeccable, and hope you had an awesome night my friend.

We also had a couple of thrash kids who had been at the London show. How’s this for dedication? They bought flights and tickets as soon as the U.K dates were announced, only to find out later that the bands would all be playing their home town. So they came to both! And one of them was ecstatic to have broken his finger in the mosh pit during Evile’s set, winners! He was over the moon bless him.

Packing up time and you better believe I got that stand down quick smart. I take Fozzy down to the dressing rooms with me where I go about posting U.K blogs and fuck that up momentously because I had him breathing down my neck and telling me to hurry up the whole sodding time. I literally posted the Bristol gig and haven’t even finished writing it yet. Loser. I’m not even sure I spell checked a few of them? I have an impatient party buddy right here though, one that I rarely get to see and I have less than two hours to get fucked up with him and whoever else is in, so fuck it, rock n roll living must always come first.

And it does, I start getting pretty trashed immediately, along with Ol and Ben from Evile, Laux from Warbringer, Lyall and a friend of Evile, Mirna. Before we know it, Fozzy has got us all on our way to a blinding bar, The little Devil.

Holy fuck we got out of our minds wasted. We played pool and talked utter shit for hours. All shop talk about touring and music, which is proper sweet, about Over Kill, Exodus and any other bands that any of the guys there have toured with. Fozzy is full to the brim with funny tour stories, they were swapped, laughed at and forgotten through drunkenness all within the space of that evening. We were having such a good time that we didn’t even notice that bar had shut at some point and they were so lovely, they let us stay! Shots ahoy eh!

Too soon but probably a good thing since we are fucked up, bus call creeps up on us and we taxi it back to the bus. Fozzy comes in for a bit and we carry on drinking, listening to music and generally fucking about and behaving badly. I see off in his taxi and Lyall and me stay up god knows how long, shooting the shit until finally reality calls us to our bunks and I fall in to one of those uncomfortable drunk sleeps which you just know can only result in the worst hangover of your life. Ah man.



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