Coalesce recently embarked on their first European trek ever, so we asked them to document the journey in the form of a few tour blogs. This is the first blog in a three-part series about their touring, with each blog written by a different member of the band. This final entry was written by guitarist Jes Steineger. You can also check out Part I and Part II of these blogs.
some of the crarzy art in our hostel in berlin
Day 11: Cassiopeia (Berlin/Germany)
I had been looking forward to Berlin for the entire trip. Really, I had been looking forward to Germany in general for the entire trip. Initially, my plan was to have our driver stop in Weimar on the way from Vienna so as to see some sites affiliated with Master Goethe, but there just wasn’t time. Neither was there time to see anything affiliated with Nietzsche, Hegel, Heidegger, Kant, or Schelling either. Of the 15 days on this tour, at least 12 of those days cumulatively were on the road. 16 shows in 15 days doesn’t leave much time for anything but driving. Since most of our shows were in Germany though, we were still able to see so much of the country (in all its over-graffiti-ed glory).
After getting caught up on laundry (and finally locating Spencer AKA Biddy AKA Big Perm, our roadie, after he had skated off and got lost thereby acquiring the physical deformity we term “scared face”), our driver Daniel took us to the Wall. It was a highlight of the trip for me to talk with Daniel as many hours as I did. Talking about East Germany with someone nearly my exact age, comparing the ways in which our lives differed and how our cultures had shaped us, was certainly time well spent during all those long drives. When he finally showed us the Wall, so many of those conversations we had had were given a concrete image.
The Berlin squat “compound” we played was incredible. A full blown skate park with bowl, street stuff, ramps, the works; old buildings equipped with rock climbing nooks and crannies; a club of about 300 capacity; a warehouse for late night raves; a cleared area in the center of the compound for squatters to stay; and the entire spectrum of German classes present for outdoor food and relaxation at the patio tables (so weird to see yuppie-like parents hanging out with their dirty kids at this place as if it were the most normal thing). We were finally able to meet our booking agent, Matthias, face to face, as well as a host of other really cool people, especially the guys from Vice and the guys from a band called Llynch (whose set I thoroughly enjoyed). This show, for me anyway, tied with Plymouth and London shows for my favorite. I loved every show we played except for maybe one, but these three were really free; they just felt great. We were far enough into the tour at this point that we were starting to feel the physical repercussions, but I took a fall off some dude’s shoulders in Berlin that probably cracked a rib and made it hard for me to breathe for the rest of the tour (and after). From then on I had sporadic breathing and a limp, compliments of Grimace. At one point Sean about had a monitor fall on his head when a guy in the front row graciously lunged in to catch it before it did any serious damage. None of the monitors or equipment made it out unscathed that night.
matze (our promoter), biddy, and daniel in berlin
After the show, we went to the hostel and got settled (adapting ourselves to the wall paintings of Sesame Street characters, Stormtroopers, and other unexpected personas, sometimes doing unexpected things). Biddy and I went back to the compound for drinks and food and hung out all night. The highlight of the night was watching the heavy metal headbanging party that went on into the wee hours of the morning. I’d never seen this in America (and don’t know if I ever will). A room full of longhaired metalheads, mid-to-late 30s, all standing around in something like a circle banging their heads and air-guitaring to a D.J. Thin Lizzy, Danzig, Slayer, Motorhead…all the classics. Surely a time that Biddy and I will never forget spending together. Later on we wandered into a rave, the first I ever remember dancing at. We eventually stumbled back into our hostel only to find the door locked with an angry Nellis eventually responding to our knocking. Wish that pic of his face when he answered the door would have turned out.
We were on the road again to our next show within a half hour.
Day 12 Pressure Fest (Essen/Germany); Feierwerk (Frankfurt/Germany)
Two shows in one day, and surprisingly, the day felt less demanding than any of the other days previous to that. The drive from Berlin to Essen was light. The Pressure Fest was surely a blast from the past, for me anyways. It reminded me of the hardcore scene I knew in the early 90s, equipped with all the vegan, straightedge, and other ideological agendas as well as the nifty sportswear and sneakers. I felt very much out of place the minute we arrived, but we were invited to play, so someone there must have wanted to see us (and judging from the audience during our set, I think it was about 20 people out of the 2,000 or so that were present; after each song, Sean said he would open his eyes or turn around and about 100-200 people would have left). Indeed, it was truly the 90s for us all over again (exempting the fact that we were hoisted on this enormous gymnasium stage, making me initially feel like I was part of a zoo exhibit; we didn’t play stages in the old days). Overall, the promoters and sound guys and other bands were really kind to us; we always enjoy playing regardless of how many people show up; and we got to see an awesome band called Kingdom that I actually really enjoyed.
steve from torche and sean, aka the bear
We made good time from Essen to Frankfurt and played a show more typical of a coalesce show: small and intimate. This was a quaint club in a luxurious city, and the majority of kids who came to see us play were much younger than us. We didn’t have an opening band which made the load-in, set time, and load-out all blur together in one motion. We were at our hotel eating pizza before 11:30 and trying to baptize Daniel into the cult of the Coen Brothers by way of O Brother Where Art Thou? He was much easier to convert to the cult of Pulp Fiction the morning after when he watched the immortal dialogue between Jules and Vincent (he easily had the thing memorized by the time we watched it together; coalesce quotes a lot of movies on tour).
Day 13 Jubez (Karlsruhe/Germany)
This town was incredibly charming, as were its people. The solemn and peaceful quietude in its streets was surely due to its being Sunday. After taking a while to find the club (and losing Danny Two Bills in the process; another victim to the scared face), we were happy to be reunited with the Torche and Kylesa people. This show was actually incredibly cool; a fest of sorts, but a bit more coalesce-apt than the fest the previous day. We spent the day walking around the town with various members of the Torche-Kylesa fleet. After checking out an old church, we strolled through the Red Light district (or better: alley), visited the local “castle” and its environs (come on, anything built in the 18th century can’t count as a castle), and watched Biddy, Dan, and Kylesa’s Dutch driver skate all over public landmarks. It was the first day it started to feel like summer; no breeze and lots of sunshine.
biddy and grimace
The show was great. Kylesa’s other guitarist Phillip finally made it from the U.S., so they sounded twice as enormous as the nights before. I saw Wolves in the Throne Room for the first time, but they were playing right before our set so I didn’t get a chance to participate in the trance that the attendees were in. For all intents and purposes, the show had quite a variety of sounds actually: some of the opening bands I heard were fast and of a grindcore bent; Torche really defies a category with the genres one hears mixed in their sound; Kylesa brings a unique sound with Laura’s voice and the way they organize her effects into their song structures; Wolves in the Throne Room give out a unique drone with the repetition and texture of their sound; and we sound like shit. So it was a great variety for a night out at a show.
some of the crarzy art in our hostel in berlin
After some more antics with the Torche and Kylesa peops during load out, we drove a ways out of town and stayed with an incredible family: the Bauder family. We followed Hagen Bauder, the son (and his super model girlfriend) back to their crib after we were loaded up. There’s was a metal family of sorts: metal posters framed all over the house, toilet seats with skulls and crossbones on them, and a stereo system that looked like it could’ve competed with that night’s PA system back at the club. Dad Bauder was incomparably hospitable, sharing the best of his beers and even better conversation. (Is it not the most humbling thing that all these Europeans we met knew English and could speak it with us? There is nothing more humiliating than not being able to carry on simple conversations in the language native to a given land.) Mom Bauder was making us a full-on meal when we arrived: AT 1AM IN THE MORNING! We were up until at least two more hours telling old stories and laughing with these wonderful people. We woke up a couple hours later with an entire spread of breakfast foods laid out for us. In the end, it is experiences like these that make being in coalesce so memorable. Some merch, some autographs, and some hugs always feel vastly inadequate to repay such kindness. (Thanks again!)
Day 14 Werkstatt (Cologne/Germany)
En route to Cologne, I had Daniel take us an hour or so out of our way to visit Kues, a small town that was home to a medieval philosopher I study named Nicolas Krebs or more commonly “Cusanus.” The town was beautiful, wedged in between a mountain range and the Rhine. We stayed for a couple hours or so, and although I didn’t get to see Cusanus’ library (missed the hours when it was open), I did get to see where they buried his heart in the chapel. Yep. Catholics.
The show in Cologne was the last night we got to play with Torche and Kylesa. After our set, we all loaded out together and took a pic of the whole group. How many half drunk people does it take to get one good photo of three bands together on one stage? Too many. Whatever that number is, it’s compounded when you throw in more than 6 people who need the pic taken on his or her specific camera. Overall, it was a great night, even sentimental, and we can’t wait to hook up with those guys (and girl) for some shows again someday.
some of the crarzy art in our hostel in berlin
The next morning we hung around Cologne, particularly the Cathedral that overshadows the entire city. We got some souvenirs for the kids back home, saw more Gothic items than you can shake a stick at, witnessed Michael Jackson talking to some angels (after hearing a white guy play “Beat It” a few blocks away with his acoustic guitar and thick accent), and sat by the Rhine for a while before hitting the road for the last show.
Day 15 013 (Tilburg/Netherlands)
013 is one of those clubs with multiple rooms in a huge building so as to put on more than one show at once. We played a smaller stage in front of about 50 people; across the hall were more than a thousand Hot Topic kids (do they even have Hot Topics in Europe?) clawing each other to see Disturbed. Only in Europe. AH–WA-AH-AH-AH! I wonder if Disturbed had a shower like ours? You know, the type that allows water to violently pass through only one of those tiny holes on the shower head? If you’ve never experienced it, it’s like getting pierced—all over (or, at certain junctures, like having your cock surgically removed with a laser).
I think the exhaustion from the trip hit us on this last night, for sure. We were getting a bit more impatient with each other, perhaps feeling the pinch of real life returning the following day when we would fly home. I know I was fretting the following day at least because I was traveling a different course than the other guys; they were going home, but I was off to Ireland to spend a few days and was completely worried about all the connections that needed to be made for me to actually get where I needed to be. All of that sort of condensed into the show itself for me. I was tuning strings to the wrong notes, totally missing Jr’s queues, getting in Sean’s way—all things that would have been fine at a normal show, but I didn’t have the frame of mind to make it all vanish like I normally do; in fact, I had a frame of mind at all, one of concern, which is never good for a coalesce show. In the end, one show out of sixteen that felt like the motions is not bad at all. In fact, I don’t remember there ever being a coalesce tour with that sort of ratio and so I can definitely say that this was by far my favorite coalesce tour. Ever.
drunk shot of coalesce, kylesa and torche on our last night.
That night our friends Sam and Asa rode back with us to Amsterdam, kindly sharing their apartment with us again. Despite not really “feeling” the show and having my head wrapped up in the next day, we laughed incredibly well the whole two hour drive home—all of us.
