I don't have time post a new tour entry right now

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Stand Up, Fight Back (Euro tour with xTrue Naturex): Berlin, DE / Poznan, PL / Szczecin, PL / Hamburg, DE

Played a show at Vego Foodworld in Berlin which is a brand new (3 weeks old) all vegan fast food-ish restaurant. The food was amazing and the owner was really nice, so that was rad. Also, the building was PACKED with people. literally wall to wall full, some people even had to stand outside for both of our sets. Ate some more food at the end, drove someone from the show home, and stayed with another friend that night who ended up joining us for a few days on the tour. Reminisced about my awful "tour" in Australia with a super nice womyn from New Zealand I met at our friends flat. not so fun, but she helped me with some more contacts for another future tour so that was great.

Played at the famous Rozbrat squat in Poznan, PL which was pretty fun. the squat itself is massive, and everyone we met was really nice. After we had a slumber party at our friends flat - which is literally a room and a kitchen - but manage to fit 10 or more people on the floor. fun times.

Szczecin was another show in a super nice park. We had a massive banner welcome us as we pulled up which was a bit of a surprise, that was the first time I'd ever had anything like that for a show. A friend and I went for a long walk across the city and saw some pretty sketchy characters. Poland can be pretty rough sometimes apparently.

Played in a legalized squat in Hamburg on the university campus. As like the other German shows, this one had a ton of enthusiastic and excited people. Ate some vegan ice cream and hung around for awhile.

super exhausted so I'm going to cut this short. Goodnight!

for love and liberation
mike xvx

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

Stand Up, Fight Back (Euro tour with xTrue Naturex): Olomouc, CZ / Prague, CZ / Wroclaw, PL

"when my song begins to play I'm thinking everything is going to be ok until the smiles start to fade" -Kid Dynamite

Played a show in a basement art studio/venue type of place in Olomouc, CZ for a handful of people. A movie was screened behind us, and my voice was so coarse and raspy from being sick I was only able to play 4 or 5 songs before I had to quit. it felt like my lungs were on fire... sucks. Had another nice, relaxing and funny night with our hosts and the next morning we left for Prague.

We had to drive out to a tiny village in the middle of nowhere to get a part for the Deceptacon, but it was wonderful to be out of the cities once again and hang out in the countryside for a few hours. The garage we arrived at was like a Land Rover paradise and MDG was excited as can be to check out all the old trucks. Still not a big fan of cars, but I'm glad he liked it.

Our show in Prague was in a small cafe that was packed with people (and one really sweet dog). We were served an amazing dinner, and another friend brought us cupcakes (gluten-free ones for me) that were delicious! We met a Czech womyn that spoke english really well due to an exchange program that brought her to the states, but we noticed something strange about her accent. Apparently the program placed her with a family in Wisconsin, so all of her english is spoken with an accent like she's from the movie Fargo. So funny! I had a good laugh, but I realized that was kind of rude... but to me that's just a hilarious coincidence.

Stopped off at the bone church (Kostnice) in Kutna Hora, CZ and had the most epically metal day. I couldn't believe how doomy the place was... even the weather was dark and rainy that day. MDG walked in for free, and I almost made it myself but was snagged. Lucky for him someone asked if he could take a photo of them, so I guess the docent assumed he already paid. Went in and took a bunch of photos (up on my myspace), got some postcards etc. but wanted a little something more. As I was looking at one of the giant huts made out of femurs and skulls I thought to myself "well, that skull is within arms reach, no one is watching... I wonder..." and as I shot my hand forward through the metal gate an alarm sounded immediately above my head and lights started flashing like crazy. I pretended like I was just trying to get a closer shot with my camera when people looked over but I was so fucking scared! Managed to leave the church with no other problems and we headed on our way to the next show.

After a long drive we were back in Poland to play our show in Wroclaw at Poland's oldest vegetarian restaurant. It's in the middle of the city square directly across from a McDonalds, but the building that Vega is in is 3 times the size of it! So freaking awesome. Had a lovely dinner and played our show. Hung around at the venue for awhile, drank some tea and then headed back to our friends flat.

I can feel the tour winding down since we only have a little more than 2 weeks left. Almost got killed today for eating too much of our peanut butter, but other than that things have been going relatively well and we've all been getting along great. Still a bit sick, and that makes things a little more depressing sometimes; but looking forward to the future regardless. Take care.

for love and liberation,
mike xvx

Photos

To save time I haven't been uploading photos to this blog. if you want to keep updated with them visit my myspace.

Stand Up, Fight Back (Euro tour with xTrue Naturex): Krakow, PL / Olomouc, CZ

"There is no quiet place in the white man's cities. No place to listen to the leaves of spring or the rustle of insect wings. But perhaps because I am a savage and do not understand - the clatter only seems to insult the ears. And what is there to life if a man cannot hear the lovely cry of the whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around a pond at night?" -Chief Seattle

Drove out to Krakow, PL for our show yesterday. We originally thought it was going to be in a squat, but turned out to be in a club... which is all fine with me. everyone that worked there was super nice and there was a scheduled "vegan after party" that was advertised on the fliers! Had dinner with some friends at a squat near where we were staying, and then walked across town to the venue. Played to about 50 relatively enthusiastic people, and afterward a group of Polish kids and I had a dance off! They taught me some "traditional" Polish dances and I of course taught them how to moonwalk. The night was filled with dancing, laughter and silly games which means it was totally awesome for me.

The next morning we had some lovely vegan, gluten-free BLT's (or something similar) and packed our things for our drive back to Olomouc, CZ. Don't ask me why we've been driving back and forth, but it seems a bit unnecessary. Anyways, 2 days from now we'll be going to the bone church outside of Prague and I'm REALLY excited about it. The only thing I've set aside that I absolutely need to do here in Europe and nothing will mess this up for me. NOTHING.

for love and liberation,
mike xvx

Stand Up, Fight Back (Euro tour with xTrue Naturex): Vienna, AT / Bratislava, SK / Brno, CZ / Olomouc, CZ

"there were 3 of us this morning, I'm the only one this evening, but I must go on." -Leonard Cohen

Traveled to Vienna, AT and played a show in a basement venue called I:DA. It was also a benefit for 26 (originally 13) Austrian activists that have been put on trial for "running a criminal organization" and are essentially being charged with laws originally intended for the Mafia. All of these people are on trial for completely above ground, legal activism and they range from more radical animal rights activists to even slightly leftist animal welfarists. It seems most of the evidence being used against them is email and phone call surveillance that proves they've said they 'support' certain people or actions. There are some similarities to another case that's going on in the United States right now as well. you can read about the AETA4 here.


After that was our show in Bratislava, SK in a small cabin in the middle of a park. it was awesome not to be in a big, dirty, irritating and stress educing city for once. plus, a ton of people came out for the show and everyone was super friendly and excited we were there. Keegan broke a string, set his guitar down and was lifted up to crowd surf amongst the 80 or so kids that were there. pretty awesome.

Played tonight in Brno, CZ at a small club. the show wasn't my favorite of this trip, I must say, but our hosts have been awesome and getting to spend time with them at all has been super rad. Plus, it's been nice to just sit and read since no one wanted to come up and talk to me at the merch table today.

hope everyone is doing well!

for love and liberation,
mike xvx



p.s. sick with a cold as of yesterday. Not going to point the finger of blame at anyone, but someone else who was sick apparently thought it would be appropriate to try our food with the serving spoon and then put it back in the pot after having their mouth all over it. what the fuck.