Stand Up, Fight Back (Euro tour with xTrue Naturex): Dresden, DE

"heavy metal or no metal at all! Wimps and posers leave the hall!" -manowar

A considerable drive brought us back into Germany, and immediately after crossing the border we were pulled over for the 3rd time on this trip (2 of them being in germany, once in france). The Police wanted to search our vehicle for drugs or illegal weapons, but after consistently assuring them there was nothing, and after seeing how packed our vehicle was they gave up and decided they didn't want to bother with it. They were surprisingly friendly, but that means nothing really. There's a good slogan floating around Europe that seems to fit here: "Still H'8ing the Police". yep, that about says it.

Played our show at another awesome once-squat now community space for shows and other events. Were treated like royalty once again (no idea why) and were given all kinds of food and a whole crate of different juices, water, soda and the ever so popular "vita malz" which is a popular non-alcoholic beer here in Germany. I don't care for it, but MDG loves it like nobody's business. In the same building is also a kindergarten, which is rad because there's all kinds of grafitti and pro-vegan/anti-fascist and anti-police stickers around but all these random, totally regular people take their kids there. A TON of people came out to the show, probably one of our biggest. as usual everyone was really nice and excited that we were there, and we watched a short video in between sets about the Austrian activists facing trial right now.

After the show ended I hung around for a little while downstairs, which has a bar, kitchen, computer room, hang out space etc., and kicked it with some nice kids. I met a womyn that I had a conversation with for quiet awhile, and we talked about the german gothic scene, dance clubs and music. Really excited about the idea of going to a gothic dance club with a beautiful girl, I kept hinting that I've been wanting to go out to dance a lot on this tour but no one was interested in taking me. She kept saying yeah, it's fun, but didn't invite me along. I said goodnight after awhile and went to our sleeping place (which is a separate building that was literally like a hotel room - our own shower and everything! so nice) and felt kind of bummed that I didn't get to spend more time with her. Well, as I was organizing my things I felt unsatisfied with how our talk ended and felt maybe the point I or she was trying to convey was lost in translation; so I asked everyone if they thought I should go down there, be more direct and say "Hey, I'd really like to hang out with you tonight and go to the club, but if you don't want me to then no pressure. it's totally cool either way". They were all pretty supportive of the idea, so I mustered up the courage, took the keys and went back to the building. The moment I walked into the room she began to walk past me in the hallway, surprised to see me she said quickly "we're leaving now. bye!" and walked out the door. Silent, stunned, and not knowing what to do I pretended like I had forgot something in one of the rooms, looked around for awhile, and then left. I don't know why I'm the most awkward and shy person ever, but it's rough sometimes. and I'm constantly afraid of making people uncomfortable or misreading a situation, so I generally just stare at the ground and walk away after a certain amount of time in a convo with somebody.

Why didn't you ask me to go? Will I ever get to share a nice evening with someone again? Sucks.

Maybe this happens to other people to?

For Love and Liberation,
Mike XVX