CVLT Nation Exclusive
Embers Tour Diary
Part Three

After Embers’ show in Bologna we went to Ilirska Bistrica to play at MKZN which is the most famous and oldest underground music venue in Slovenija. The last time I had been at MKZN was when Kelly (Embers’ bassist) and I were playing in Lesser of Two. MKZN was known for having the best sound in all of Europe’s underground venues as well as for recording many live shows. Lesser of Two was recorded back then, and the recording was released in the partial discography, “Transmutation”. The Lesser of Two set at MKZN is available at http://lesseroftwo.bandcamp.com/album/lesser-of-two-live-in-slovenija-99 for those who are interested.

Back then I was keeping a tour diary much like I am now. This is what I had to say at that time in 1999:

“Nov 13
We got stopped at both sides of the Italian/Slovenijan border. Oddly enough it was the Italians who brough out the drug dogs. I guess they want to keep people from taking away thier drugs. We decided to rename our tour “Waiting for the drug dog.”

At the Slovenijan border we had to do a detailed inventory of our equipment in triplicate with the makes, models, and for some pieces serial numbers of our equipment. They even wanted to see receipts, but apparently it was only so they could give us a tax refund from the European Union which Slovenija isn’t a part of. We decided to pass on the refund and just get away from the border as quickly as possible. We also had to pretend we were Brother Inferior because we had somehow forgotten to get invitations into the country.
We went to a biker bar for pizza. It wasn’t the best and made me yearn for pizza in Boulder, Colorado which was the best I’d ever had. I passed on the coffee which was a really strong Italian style espresso which wasn’t nearly as refreshing as good cup of American or Turkish coffee as well as being way overpriced.

We arrived at MKNZ later in the afternoon. There was some really nice PA equipment and the room had a low ceiling and was completely constructed out of wood. We were told by Mattjaz that the sound here was really good and that we should take this opportunity to acquire a live tape. We did a really thorough sound check and were really happy with the sound and acoustics of the room.
We met Brother Inferior and there Polish companions one of whom was Pawel who we stayed with in Gdansk. The drummer from Brother Inferior was Jason from Fort Smith, Arkansas who had set up a show for us a couple years back. The singer Chad was very outgoing and friendly, and thier bass player Grant seemed to move in slow motion.

I was really surprised when they began to play. Their new material and new line-up had a very aggresive high speed hardcore energy. They played mostly new material but still played some of thier older material. Unfortunately the new line-up could only play a certain number of songs which wasn’t enough to satisfy the crowd so they had to play a long series of Misfits covers.

As their set progressed it became more apparent that Grant had a little to much to drink and was stumbling over some of his fills and their hooks. Their new material is full of synchronized kicks mingled amidst hectic driving rythms.

During thier set there were some really loud and annoying hecklers. They were grabbing the band members, grabbing the microphones, striking glamorous poses on stage, obstructing the band, taking down their pants, screaming; “Pizda klaki buraki!” which is a very vulgar statement, and being loud and drunken in general.

After some time I realized that the leaders of the hecklers were in fact Brother Inferiors Polish traveling companions. The drunken revelry was of the classic punk rock variety and was an exciting addition to Brother Inferior’s live show despite the fact that it completely ruined their opportunity to get a good live recording.

It was apparent that Chad was getting annoyed with all this especially when he was trying to talk about serious issues while being interupted by drunken screaming. After the show Dave asked him about this and he said that it was OK and that his friends were just having a good time. I’m not sure if we could be so tolerant.”

Upon arriving at MKZN on Embers tour I noticed that very little had changed. The show space we set up in much the same way. The only difference was that the backstage area was in a different room than before. On the bill that night with us was Jucifer another band from the U.S. Embers had been offered an opportunity to play with Jucifer in California, but we were unable to play the show. It was nice to be able to play with them finally.

Jucifer is a two piece epic sludge band whose members are on tour permanently. The drummer was pounding to the point of nearly exploding the drum kit. His volume was matched by the guitarist who played through both guitar and bass cabinets with what sounded like an octave pedal so that her tone filled the complete spectrum of sound creating a wall of heaviness.

After Jucifer the Grand Astoria from Russia played a set of epic retro stoner rock. They pretty much nailed it. Great party music if you like retro rock and roll with heavy rock riffage.

The show ended around 2 A.M., but the party continued. I spoke with the drummer from Jucifer for a moment. He told me that he and the guitarist decided to get an R.V. and go on permanent tour back in the ‘90’s because the were touring for 5 months at a time anyway often returning home to their house having been burglarized. The realized that the payments on the R.V. we comparable to their house expenses so they decided to just go on permanent tour. They didn’t ave their R.V. with them that night. I wonder if their R.V. gets burglarized while they tour Europe…

The next night we returned to the squat EKH in Vienna. Embers had played their before with Austin Lucas.

Lesser of Two also went to EKH on tour after a show fell through in Vienna which I included in my 1999 tour diary as follows:

“Nov 10:
We drove to Vienna the next day. Our show on this day had fallen through so we had nowhere else to go. We were told that the Ekh squat was the model for Austrian punks. The squat was in a multi level office complex that used to be the old communist party headquarters. We were directed to two floors. One floor had a room with mattresses for sleeping and the other floor was a big space with a kitchen, an office equiped with a computer, and various apartments for long term occupants.

There were many other levels with all kinds of activities going on. There was evidence of both communist and anarchist activities. We laughed at the communist flyers which had a picture of a stern man behind a podium juxtaposed on a big five pointed star in black and red. To think that activists would be endeared to such imagery seemed ridiculous.

Whoever this man was it would be silly to ask him to solve all the problems in the country and still call it communism. The imagery seemed more fascictic in nature. Still the same mixture of seemingly diametrically opposed ideologies happens often within activist communities. The obstacles here and now tend to take precedence over the differences in thier intangiable political theories.

We settled in for a few minutes and then left to try and sell some merchandise at record shops. At Sacro K-baalismo we looked at a calender of events and through a series of events jumped on the bill of a show that night at a popular local bar.”

This time around Embers was the only band booked. Upon our arrival we were greeted by Gwen. He gave us a tour of the building which was covered with graffiti art, murals, and filled with iron sculptures as some of which were functional such as the bar, tables, stools, and other furniture.

As we were loading the sound tech, Charlotte, randomly asked me to help them locate the source of a humming noise. Together we isolated the grounding problem and her friend installed a connection to a ground lift in one of the lines leading to the stage monitors. After that we talked about sound engineering for a while. Neither of us are professionals, but we both have had enough experience to share notes.

Charlotte was from the U.S. After the show Gwen broke out his home made garlic schnapps as Charlotte and I realized we had a bunch of mutual friends back in the states. After we were kicked out of the bar we went out to the back yard. Gwen explained the history of EKH which was too complicated for me to explain here. We then started talking about squatting around Europe and the U.S. After some time I went back to the sleeping room for the band. Most of our entourage was already asleep.