Another Past-blast: A trip w/ ZERO MENTALITY to meet the lovely SUNDAY INN

As a request by David Pankrath... here is an old MySpace-entry revisited:

SUNDAY INN - »ever fallen in love with someone?«

First and for all, if you came here to expect nothing - you came to the wrong place. This is just about me and how I liked being in one place at one time and sharing it with… whoever. I came to expect nothing - I even came to expect worse than that. I got out with ALOT more, hey, I even got a CD. Great! What the fuck, sounds like the cheesy editorial to a 1990s HC-fanzine ...hum, maybe that's why this is it: MY SHIT
I did not intended to go to this show with alot of excitement - other than that of being around the ZERO MENTALIY-crew and giving them the best I can: their hard earned money. It is an open secret that THIS GUY never was and probably never will be really a big fan of the »DDR« and its remains (for you stupid foreigners there: the happy Easter Germany), but after being a little bit - just a little bit - in a positive mode from last weekends experience, I took this trip to Saalfeld as an light-hearted way into the Pampas. After getting aware of why Adolf and his guys (yes, i know that this is historicly not that right) once decided that Autobahns are the best way of getting your car from here to there we pulled back the van in font of the club and heard strange noises. Yes, this must have been some kinda language used there by the indigenous people. Luckily, some of them also spoke German fluently, so we entered the club and the GAME got rolling. Lucky me, I sat up my table right next to THE ONE THING that made this night oh-so-special. Well, that would be a lie. There was alot more - but I just wanna make a point here. About the point device. Some smaller talks got delivered under the smoothing shine of old living-room lamps, and with setup-work gettin' finished, I came to rest. But my eyes found themselves caught in a ongoing tour de force.
The most interesting thing about the whole night is, there was a sheer overload of beauty in this room. Okay, there were alot of strange and ugly men, as usual, but: there was much potential to fell in love with a girl. I already knew a guy who is probably one hellova lucky guy because he got an astonishing one by his side that came from this part of our de-walled country. And I lately had to admit that I already got to know female beauty from »Ostzone«. But Saalfeld was like heaven - or hell, if you already felt like you had too less intimacy the last couple of hours. 

I sat down, and next to me appeared THIS ONE, a blond and shining little heap of charme and grace. I discovered, she is the singer to the band playing right before the ZERO MENTALITY, and i honestly did not expect that at this evening it would mean, the one in that position would be wearing high-heels. Okay, there was this second band, where the singer sported a bunch of orange cotton on his head - but that was not really as positive as I THIS. So, Catherine and me, we made some jokes about the idigenous, and I was once more aware that Berlin and the Ruhrpott share something. Well, later that evening I found out that maybe I shared a bit too much, but that's another story. This one here goes on with me getting to expect a little nice twist of the musical evening, also. SHE bought a record there of a older HC-project she did, and all her guys seemed to share the same upbringing. But as we »older« folks (referring to everone above 25 in this case - yes, very true for me) know, we don't really need all that noise anymore all time all day - or to be blunt we usually listen to alot of other music than Hardcore. This brings SUNDAY INNto this, and onto the stage. Catherine took of her nice shoes, and was almost as tall as me, being on stage and me in front. I took three songs off of my duty and was joined by also as much positively surprised Dennis. We witnessed a warm and spreading amount of good layback Rock-Pop with a voice that filled the room with a clear and smoothing tone. And I still do not believe she never took any lessons, at least in singing. Gettin' Emo here? Well, maybe just a little bit, also in the music, but all in all: it popped. Right after the first four to five songs, people kept coming to the tables in the back and grabbed their CDs. Even more, way more, than they came to pick the other bands stuff - alhough it was obvious that NOBODY came here to expect SUNDAY INN. They sold 5-times more records than ZERO MENTALITY, and that wasn't even a bad night to them. Honestly, even the show they put on later was also very good and people liked it very much. But, Berlin, Berlin, it was only Saturday - and everything was just a perfect setting for the ones to the left. I told HER, and just to pretend also two of the boys in SUNDAY INN, that after this experiece i would want to sleep with the whole band. She jokingly replied that there could be something arranged - I was luckly already that drunk that I only remember that now and did not expect that to really turn out.
The most interesting thing about the whole night is that I got a CD I could bring home with, and that now fills this room again. Love died, but I survived. If you still do not believe what I am talking about, here is a picture :

And yes, the guys also look fine, but you just have to believe it 
After the SUNDAY INN left right into the set of the last band, Confronto, I came to act like a yunkie on a party with all his favorite drugs gone: I kinda absorbed all the others. Hey, don't say I got an alcohol problem - I mean, I was talking to at least three other really beautiful girls and even came out with one email-contact by one (making here believe I just wanted her to sent me pictures of Z.M.'s set) and a kiss by another one - who I thought of having a little resemblance of a girl I talked in abstracts above this line. Not a blonde one, though…
Nevertheless, the SUNDAY INN - you gotta pick that up! DO IT! NOW!!!

ZERO MENTALITY the »invite your soul« - Tour, 2007

Further info: https://www.facebook.com/zeromentalityrulesok

Here is another installment of the MySpace-import, and another one by ZERO MENTALITY. There never can be enough. Very lengthy - I hope I can come up with enough pictoresquees...

touring w/ the angels

*by Sven a.k.a. Gonzo, the Merch-Man

First and for all, if you came here to expect a full insight on what we did on the shows, and how the shows were in specific: try to ask someone else. this is about me & the boys having something to do - something a man must do, …ahem, maybe that's just about something that was done to us and what happened next. be careful: might include some actual information. What the fuck, sounds like the cheesy editorial to a 1990s HC-fanzine ...hum, maybe that's why this is it: MY SHIT

  I am just sitting here at Marcel (drums) computer, and waiting for my midnite feast. what a perfect time to get things going. we will be off early tomorrow morning, to celebrate the joys of highway driving all the way down to Vienna. I am really looking forward to that, since I fancy that town alot. Only been there twice my life, but there was an instant love for the language, some of its' inhabitants (guess which one), and especially most of the food you'll get down there. so, food by food, we'll gonna be in the soon infamous "invite your soul"-tour

  The most interesting thing about the whole thing is, that »invite your soul«-tour has already taken shape. it has been a very family-friendly version of a tour so far. with some new found love (vanish with a rose, anyone?) on behalf of some of these comrades, we could do nothing better than that.

I spare you details about the two release shows, there was already alot of talk about those all around the internet. and to be honest: I only catched one - and well, it had some lovely people coming in, and some even more lovely money changed for items that crossed my tables.

next on was the show at Germany's epitome of culture, in Weimar. so we decided to make it a whole fucking history&literature day. famous quotes like "'tschuldigän siee, sind 'se SODOM fans" marked our way to the Lutherian Wartburg (some of you Hotrod-fanatics out there might know the car by the same name).

German Classics -
except the cigarette

 Later on we tried sips of Goethe, Schiller, the Bauhaus (no dead Bela Lugosi around), and missed Nietzsche. But the ZERO MENTALITY-boys did for sure hit the crowd that night at the right spot, and not only because there was SOMETHING INSIDE before going on. two pukes and alot of laughs later, we took our way back home.

The next weekend was bound to be filled (us vs. them) again, since the show in Backnang would see Z.M. play yet again with CRISIS NEVER ENDS, and to whoever reads these lines, you should be aware that there is for sure not only a musical reason those guys share a record with FINAL PRAYER. so, the story goes, and a very hormone rushed gig happend at that lovely place. not only due to stuff that was swallowed, but also because to alot of lovely sights in the way - and in the room. that might also include good friends to the band. the aftershow-party was rad, and i don't know exactly how i survided it - maybe because i left some of it already outside of the hotel. 

Up up and away to Ibbenbüren, where even the bands' youngsters were at least 8 years older than the average public. so, you'll see, i am not bullshitting when I AM SAYING "at some shows, i feel like i could be the father to 66% of the kids" - sometimes because of the age! anyway, show was intense. believe me, that was SAID & DONE (cool Dutch band, with TRUE BLUE- and CRO-MAGS-cover)! Extra props go out to the guy, who bought Merch worth 150Euro plus (exact rate is unannounced to protect the innocent)!!!

bam, bam, thank you Ma'am, and here goes a weekend I was looking forward to alot. 

I expected nothing about the crowd and the circumstances in Rotterdam, and for the first part, I was true. But even more truth lies in the beauty of WORLD COLLAPSE, and for the first time witnessing this ensemble from face to face, i was totally blown away. also, by the fact, that i could almost sing-a-long-a-lala-lala-long to all of their songs. remembering more words to this than to any of Z.M.s songs (maybe except for "nicht mehr", "alone again" and "vanish with a rose") and alot more than to my own lyrics for that yet again much recclaimed band LEBENSREFORM (check my friends, bastardz). W.C. had alot of stage presence in their acting, and I can only hope that the set of shows that is planned for Z.M.&W.C. will take shape. 

ZERO MENTALITY rocked a good and finally again tight set at the Baroeg (nice place, with top-notch sound and incredible kinda Indian food), but hardly anyone recognized. I guess almost everyone of the lost souls in fast-fuckers-trousers (I like it like that) and blingbling waited for LENGHT OF TIME playing their third reunion show. they did deliver a quality thing, spanning their whole career and giving insight into what may come. I predict that's more metal than your mom's kettle. 

After the show, we somehow ended up in Amsterdam, and did stay over (later, very much later) at the house of the fine tatoo-, piercing- & branding artist of www.lab360.nl - well, okay, that's my (ex)-wife, and she wasn't even seen in those hours, but her boyfriend, my former stepson, the devilish new kid Damien (who improved ZERO MENTALITY's singer Ben Fink's Dutch), and the two cats served a good hosting job. that night, I simply HAD to eat some fine sweets there, and that without using some smoky stuff before. Fink & bassist André were clutched to each other that night because of the load of vodka they killed before. and 6th musician Herr Göbbels (we like to call Christian, the tour-replacement for Thorsten on guitar) also joined the walking-around ranks, while leaving the second straight edger Dennis behind. to quote old NYC-gay pride GO!: "it was fun!"

The drive down to Belgium's Hooglede was not that far, and we did it before time. even enough time to have the guys trying to make fun of me with Tabascorizing my meal, without knowing I am quite much in favor of spicy stuff. to be honest, the first slice of bread was hard, but whoever survived Ring Of Fire Xtra Hotsauce like me would have made that one two. whatever, that evening was tooooo fucking long. 

We really liked the oldschool-thrashing LOSING X STREAK, and even more I was into what that LIFE OF AGONY-meets-QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE-combo called MAN'S RUIN (has former members of CONGRESS and RISE & FALL) had to offer. but with the rockin'screams of ONE FINE CAST also on the plus, everything could had been at least one hour shortend. as tiring at that evening was, the more enthusiastic and literaly shaking the crowd went to the ZERO MENTALITY-boys. yeah, I think they deserved it, giving a shit for the crowd and the shit to 'em. amazing to see almost the best reaction to my favorite parts of the band: the instrumentals. so, with the help of some very fine customers, one being from Germany, and some free beer from the CORE OF ANGER/MORDA-camp, I could live with that night very much. after listening to the LOSING STREAK, ONE FINE CAST and MAN'S RUIN recordings afterwards, I must say, those guys over there know about good stuff in any section. Support is recommended.

  The most interesting thing about the whole night is, that I had never seen so much smoke in a supposedly non-smoking environment. to me as a smoker myself, i got tears in my eyes - so I figure those times of hammering something down has gone for the Edge section at Hoogleede. but I don't complain, at least my eyes where able to witness some of the fine ladies' backs seated in front of me…

this brings us again to the very first abstract of this dittie, and I have to let you know, that I am much overtime, and fall to sudden death now! Vienna, ZERO MENTALITY is coming!

well, well, well...that night was fucking short. but i had my mind filled up with customer relation (yes,that´s special, not for your average) - somehow. but somehow i started the day i never left with a nice breakfast provided by Marcel and we soon hit off. to tell you the truth: the whole day was about driving. 10 fucking hours. alot of music and sleeping in between. some of the guys missed me hitting Bavaria almost, while listening to fresh downloaded and new revamped music by the different likes of ALAMBAMA TUNDERPUSSY, IRON SKULL (later day demo), NENEH CHERRY, ENTOMBED, ALL SHALL PERISH and a mixture of the originals to NOUVELLE VAGUE´s first album. great, how interesting you think? don´t ask "any of us" (TERROR-shout(out)) how we felt in those hours. but well, we´re in it for god´s sake, and our own will, and the very good reason to deliver quality entertainment & stuff to people who want it (sometimes they don´t even know before). 

that brings us to this night "happening" which was more than everyone involved expected. almost above 150% of people expected, and a crowd response I can only rate as "top notch for Vienna" due to my previous experiences there - and by immigrant Marc BID had to tell me later that night. ZERO MENTALITY really delivered a good set, sometimes abit letting loose of latetly found tightness - but that sound was not as solid in the "Arena" to make a really trustfull statement. indeed, the boys delivered alot of energy, for what was possible, and people seemed into it. 

I could not complain about much boredom also. i found my way of entertainment - in a liquid and a communicating way. thanks to everybody involved in that, haha. even more, people came up to me very frequently and where eager to buy the new record, and yet again, we had alot more sales during and after the set. that proves alot to me. and i can approve you: i really like to be your servant ;-) the treatment in that place and by the promoter guys was very nice and friendly also, and i must yet again state this: those people in Austria seem to know how to behave and how to approach people in a friendly way. i never get so much appreciation in this job as down here, which is only comparable to Switzerland. but somehow...

I am really almost getting a boner, when I hear this accent by a female voice. well, i was made to say, and do that with pleasure: the one Vienna-girl I like to talk to most is not living there for quite awhile. oh oh...almost forgot about the second-to-best part of the show: yummy yummy yummy food! i only wait for all the guys to fall asleep - than i will loose much weight, and all hell might break loose. damn...i am loosing my mind right here, but i am so occupied with thoughts - and that for sure is a good thing! to tell you the truth, i just asked about the first bands name, but i already forgot about it - and it won´t serve them any purpose to be mentioned here. to make it short (finally, you ask?): that show was all in all a good one, a real good one... everything worked out, and alot more than imagined happened. i am looking forward... to alot, but also in getting back here!

  The most interesting thing about the whole night was this blind guy, who really was into that whole shit. he came right before ZERO MENTALITY started and walked into the show-room. he stood all through the set next to the fucking moshpit & and had alot of fun. head-nodding, bouncing..whatever, he did it his way. and he simply did not care what was happening around him except for the energy. when somebody bumped into him, he smiled. when somebode was pushing him, he made his move back. so, i figure, to all those people who always complain and complain about how the don´t get in ther first few rows at a show (i am standing there whenever I care since my last stagedive in 1997), here is my advice: just close your eyes, go there, stay there, feel the energy, and maybe have some Stick with you for in-between pointing action! that guy was raaaad…

the night was short, but worth it. because we had an appointment with the second best thing there is in life: good food. so we headed over to the well-known Vegetasia with our lovely hosting couple. most of us really enjoyed our stay there, only two guys opted for a more meat dish.

 i guess after 2 hours and 5 plates (plus 1 with sweets), i had enough of my Sushi and delicious rice share. a coffee was needed, while André was eager to get to a record store, and I only could not withstand a sex shop - but that does not serve any purpose here. 

We soon afterwards headed for Budapest. as most bands sometime in their lifspan, also ZERO MENTALITY suffered from a borderline-syndrome. but that was really quick solved, and soon afterwards we experienced the fine thing of Do Not Understanding A Single Word. i now can totally see the alienation taking place with US-bands touring over here for couple of weeks. anyway, and on our way, there was for sure yet again the most played record of this tour blasting the stereo, and i can only recommend everyone to play out TYPE-O-NEGATIVEs "dead again" very fucking loud for at least three times in a row. we passed awesome places like Tatabanya (kowabunga?), and rolled into the very busy city of Budapest after a sunny trip. Crossing the river there and watching the great sights while doing so, we drove up right in front of the club. the Süss Fell Nap was surely the place where this show should find it's Zoli-dified outcome. and he did a real good job with that, with a estimated number of 300 people attending. the place was a real nice wine-cellar-like club, and there was for sure a lot of disco getting on that night. it's only sad, that nobody seemed to care for the discography of bands like Z.M., FALLEN INTO ASHES and EMBERS. but in a way, that is cool. 

But that night was maybe abit to much in a SLIME-described - " Samstag Nacht - Discozeit. Girls girls girls zum Ficken bereit.Eltern überall in großer Not". funny, on how much you get touched there, by thinking you won't get recognized in the hours before. but who am i to not like that - but since the show ended late, we had to get up early, and most of us are with fine girls at home, we opted for the bed zone very quickly. but to tell you the truth, we enjoyed, at least Chris and I very much, the joys of the Gym Nasties at the local Hustler TV screening. the other strange thing about the show was, that the No Smoking-signs were yet again not much taken for granted. well, at least, i guess, nobody did not even to care about wearing a Tuxedo, so maybe i am wrong. nothing of that really made this show not a well-received one, only the fact that it was hard to get booze when the backstage bar is literally backstage, haha. the sound was really good there, alot of people moved their asses, and when the HARDCORE JUKEBOX with Zoli and the guys were on stage, I had my singing moments in the back. A firestorm to entertain. all in all, you can say: Budapest was a good thing, only abit different.

The most interesting thing about the whole show was that among all those people there, suddenly there was a BOMBENALARM around.

after some real quick sleep, we were about to face the most inconvenient part of touring: long fucking drives. but we did it, and i spare you musical advise this time. everything was more or less tunneled anyways. when we hit for the show at the Kulturpalast in Wiesbaden, we all were pretty much on a downer. me especially, since i discovered that for this one time, we came later than BLACK FRIDAY'29, so this time David got to hang all of the stuff properly, and i had to kinda arrange with things. but that worked, and being around there, letting the impressions, the liquid, the guys&girls, and soon afterwards the money drop in, everyone seemed to get back to an high time life. it was promoters Jamba birthday celebration also, and he did a very good job with it.
not only for the show itself, but even more for the aftershow party - the booze, the music, and else. NOTHING DONE opened as a live act, and their Old School was very much solid, which were the DJ's actions on the other hand in between and afterwards. people were all about partying that night, and by witnessing BF'29 crank out a much rocked on set i can only tell you how happy i am to be able to be around those things. in a perfect world, there was no better thing than DIE KASSIERERs "blumenkohl am pillermann" from the boxes right before the ZERO-boys hit the stage. the place was packed, and from what i have seen, and heard, this set was soooooooooooo fucking amazing with everything. the audience went crazy - and ZERO MENTALITY were as nasty as they wanna be. as was the aftershow-party, which was a total blast - and some cool chitchats which whoever deserved the attention. well, some of 'em didn't even think so, maybe, haha. Shouts go out to that woman, who had to leave because of her work the other day. Fine way to end a night with a Jack Daniels in your hand...

 The most interesting thing about the whole night was that there was no better way to describe it than in those words of Peter Steele "I can't believe I died last night". But after some loading, a solid breakfast (only the two girls really should have brought the coffee, hehe), a beer, and a warm "thank you" to Mario JAMBA, all of us were in a really smiling mood and happy to have done that... or didn't, whatever, haha.

after a somewhat more or less simple sleep over at home, we got back into touring mood, with losing it abit in between somehow. i was looking forward to gettin' back to Hamburg. you know, i had my share there - and with that also being part in promoting and setting up shows i knew it's going to be  a tough night for ZERO MENTALITY. they even knew it, so in someway, i could not really answer the question a real cute girl asked me afterwards: "why even bothering going there?".

Okay, i try to have it like that: nice people at the Hafenklang-Exil, with a good sense of humor. extraordinary food, which really helped to lay the foundation for the real good beer, Astra of course, i was about to swallow. the actual venue is much nicer then the "real" Hafenklang used to be, in terms of size and stage and comfort. but as you might have figured before: too fucking big!!! when the nice cute little guys from MAKE IT COUNT started things off in the music area, they were glad to have some friends that made it, Count (Duckula)!!! a handful out of those 42 attendants really tried to have their fun, and gave the impression that the tight set of Berliners could be very entertaining - somewhere else.
i kept myself busy with talking to my oldest Hamburg relation Dania, and finally got to met again LEBENSREFORM-guitar hero Mr.Wehrmacht after all those years. a founding member of JUST WENT BLACK also found his way, while ex-roommate Sven Just Went Sweden.
whatever...whenever...ZERO MENTALITY tried to overcome illness, tiredness and spitted their way all through a nice set of rockers that inspired for beer showers and rumpelpogo. so, you'll figure, we had to focus on the walk to the Reeperbahn with those that still were in shape. i bought some bondage gear, and we dropped by Beat Club for two Mexicans and entered Cobra Bar for discovering André fingerfooding some fish-dish. he told us that the Magican brought it, and we took all the other stuff of leftover crack to feed the leftovers in Exil. a cosy nite later, i walked the sun and met some peeps again... you know, the usual Hartz IV-routine. talking about kids & school with TOMTE-drummer Timo, having a Portugese coffee, sitting in front of a Mall and barking at people...life in the street, it ain't easy, brother!

 The most interesting thing about the whole morning was that we where sitting right across the street from Porns Kitchen, and guess what they served: sandwiches & white juice...yes, sure, that's why you go to Hamburg!

whoever wanted to be daylight in my eyes did a good job afterwards on the way down to Nürnberg. i did all the driving like i was somehow addicted to it. really fell somehow in a trance while being Dead Again, but only two songs short of finishing that trip, Fink ruined it by starting to talk. i don't blame him, at least he does not let his voice untrained in a way. we drove up the Roten Salon at the Z-Bau only ten minutes after MAKE IT COUNT, and i had to set up quick in that nice red (funny, he)  room, because people already dropped in. with a slow beginning, that night really was a big seller. props go out to the Lady, who bought all the essential, and even more! those words she used really should be an advice to all you peeps, haha: "of course I buy all the stuff - that's why I go to work!".  yep, yep...

MAKE IT COUNT really proved to be an energy force and with the help of the slowly nutty going crowd they put on a real impressive powerhouse of set! people where crawling and jumping on each other all through the set, they two-stepped, they hit the walls, they sang along, they...even ruined my setup at the table. but the setup is a split - so i flip over to ZERO MENTALITY, and reactions where nothing but the same. for sure the guys literally rocked more, even delivering my favorite "past regrets & future fears".really really really impressive show, for everybody involved. i guess, it was one of the five best of all those i am with the guys. and with one of the other four being in Wiesbaden, i can only say: Invite Your Soul inflammed mine!

The most interesting thing about the night was, that there seems to be an undying love for handbags out there. every band should do some, and maybe there should be a contest of the best styles. we should really thing about fancy once. leather, fake-leather, with zips, four-colored, glowing in the dark...whatever! i wanna see that! GO!

my advice to anyone: never trust your Navigation-system if you are out for the shows in Nordhausen. but, as we already knew before, it is definitely worth going there, so we expected an awesome show after that run althrough the outskirts of Thuringia. driving all up and the way down of the Kyffhäuser was a interesting thing to to. my muscles got flexed alot in all those curves. muscles & curves - yep, somehow that's Nordhausen, haha. i had a just-in-time delivery of ZERO MENTALITY on a sunny day, and all of us were in a top-notch mood. the weather was sunny, and my jukebox-cd was randomly doing a good job right before the inevitable.
going into the dark-room at the Fischbüchse luckily gave us enoght time to refill the piles of stuff we sold already, and i had quite enough left for the setup between this awesome lineup of THE REALNESS, MYRA, TEAMILLER, NO TURNING BACK and BLACK FRIDAY'29. people came in early, and everything was packed pretty soon before the locals hit the stage. as mush as i really like those people from Nordhausen, i only was finding myself abit not-that-touched by the live-sound of THE REALNESS, which maybe also true because of the sound itself in the back where the merch was located. i liked the demo better, that was handed to me, and it shows there is much room to be floorfilling rocker in the future of this young band.
that really is much about it, as far as bands goes this night, i got to catch and remember, because there was so much more focus and just chatting, selling and celebrating the nite. ZERO MENTALITY got an awesome crwod-reaction and from what I heard, so did the other bands. all a really up-in-the-air show, with the only letdown of the not-happening after-show party! even the booze that the most cute local girl (and that's a good job to do) brought to celebrate that was left untouched.

 The most interesting thing about the event was, that we yet again found ourselves in Christoph's flat. even that being another one, there was a feeling of being at home somehow. just staying there and watching some tv, hanging around, and meeting him and all the guys & gals there is a  blast. if there is one place where you can say you feel around friends on tour / at shows, that's Nordhausen.

and this also was true for the upcoming night. even if that only happened out of bad luck (on the first hand). the promoter of the Leipzig show had to cancel that whole thing because he had trouble with the local authorities the night before. never experienced this whole Easter-thing in that way. but since we came to learn that there was not much to expect for that show, we were not that much letdown by that. it only sucks that it happenend right at the same morning, and that we did not got the proposed money which of course would help touring.
we discovered that there might be a chance to hop on another show. and since Hannover was also on our way back somehow, it would not be real hard to just get there even if ZERO MENTALITY and BLACK FRIDAY did not get paid. Björn and Fink could fix that deal somehow, so that we had to leave after we saw Nobody smashing some dudes. we had to be at the Bei Chez Heinz at 17-00, and there would be a big chance to be part of the MERAUDER, ENEMY GROUND and (yet again) MAKE IT COUNT show there. only the other bands had to agree on that. with being around MAKE IT COUNT on now 2/3rds of their tour, they for sure agreed. ENEMY GROUND are GSR-labelmates and it would have been strange if they rejected. and as far as MERAUDER goes, I guess they did not even recognized that the lineup was extended for that night. so, everything seemed to work out fine.
but as we drove upfront the venue, we saw the Police just leaving, and got informed that they pushed that new Easter-feel to the promoter. which means: show could only start after midnite, so that would be horrible long night. i instantly thought, if i would be in MERAUDER, i would like to have the band i tour with play before me, than MERAUDER, than the other bands - and that's how it was done. the promoter discovered that every year before they had shows at Easter-friday without that problem, but what can you do when your state is finally run by a party with a supposedly Christian background. i don't see that true in their politics in any other field, but whatever... doors were supposed to open at 20-00 anyway, with a happy-hour in between to make people stay. so i decide to setup in time, and got myself the one or other coffee. next to me was this girl Kitti with a promotion-job for Peta2, and she reaaaalllyyyy kept me awake also that night. there was alot of going on between us...talking, i mean! i always tend to say "people at shows could be my children", but having my first sexual intercourse with 19: she could be for real! funny, funny - the whole thing. finally, midnight. after 7 hours of already being at the club. ENEMY GROUND started off with yet another HipHopish intro, and all the baggy-pants with not memorable faces really seemed to be into hitting each other hard to that tough-guy anthems. some even left before MERAUDER started, it seemed, when they finally hit the stage. some in our company, and those with MAKE IT COUNT, killed the night and Vodka and Schnaps, to witness the legendary New York band, and made it happen with the rest of the crowd of estimated 200people. that's killer, master! but somehow, the sound was the worst during their set, don't know why.

 The most interesting thing about the night was, that people actually had the stamina to really stay and celebrate the sets of MAKE IT COUNT, ZERO MENTALITY and BLACK FRIDAY'29. all three where really still moving events and it made this whole thing really worth being part of. 

at 5 in the morning, BF and ZM vans started riding to Ibbenbüren do colleagues David parent's house. BF even picked up a kitten to take with, and right after sunset we laid our heads to rest in the cellar. silly me, locked myself into the garage after a phone-call after i got up at noon, but since Dennis' mobile was not occupied for one time (i guess that must have been my lucky 5 minutes on this tour), i was able to get into the shower pretty soon.
Black Friday had to play a set at the Let It Ride-Festival that afternoon, and we had to take Dennis to the Z.M. show in Hagen at the very same night. So, we drove up to the Scheune, and everything seemed more like a gathering of people with some music in between. which was fine with me, since my interest that afternoon was much more on the Bundesliga. but i also got to meet alot of people, with alot of them being part of the past trips of this tour. and some, like my ex-roommate Sven from JUST WENT BLACK, those of being missed at those. so, that appearance at this festival was in the words of Micha, when he and lovely Julia showed up, to me being around "endlich normale Leute". time ran by quick, and ZERO MENTALITY ran on stage for a set of three songs during BLACK FRIDAY's show. people started moving fast, but pretty much soon dropped out again, and I wonder how the rest of that festival was in that field.

Z.M. @ LetItRide-Festival.
Photo by Face the Show:
http://www.facetheshow.com/archive.php?file=20070407letitridefest

to be honest, i would have rather stayed there to watch WORLD COLLAPSE alienating people, and go to Hagen and feel myself alienated amongst the crowd there. but you just can't help it sometime. when we finally got to Hagen, doors already were about to open, and among the not so well-numbered crowd there was a big amount of brothers, girlsfriends, and friends of girlfriends to ZERO MENTALITY. on a sad note, Christian Goebbels had to leave the place early, but there was this blonde guy, who said that he plays in this band too. ah...wait...that's Thorsten...with hair shortened! so, in his home town, he hopped on in on this trip - and at the end of the night at least his alcohol consume was really as much Invite your Soul-tour as everybody came to know, haha. i really did not care to much about the other bands playing that night, and instead rather talked to members of GUNNED DOWN, who would be part of the next show. but most through the night, I had the honor of now facing the frontside of the one German girl that came all the way to Hooglede aeons before. she really shows ZERO MENTALITY support, and helps out their Merchguy to have a good time. Good night, just for that!

 The most interesting thing about the show was, that i actually catched the guys playing at the front row. after overcoming a shake-her-bumbum-attack by André's girlfriend, i had two singalong moments for "Urban Sins" (which is my live favorite right now, with "Past Regrets And Future Fears" not being played for most of the time) and got to spit for one time at Fink. did anyone recognize, those guy's spit on stage? haha...

the night was short, but worth it, and i had a very tired day. but i enjoyed the usual Easter feast at home. Dennis and I took our loved one's with us in my dad's BMW, and the only sad thing about it, that i drove up right after GUNNED DOWN played, so i missed that. there was yet again too many bands on the bill that night, so it took alot of cheekiness to wait until i finally got to bet after this leg of the tour. and i promise you, there was not sleep scheduled for that on this night. anyway, i guess out of the other bands, MAKE IT COUNT and DEATH NOT GLAMOROUS deserve a mentioning here, but i really decided to move not that much. people in the audience did, but it could have been more of those. i really enjoyed talking this night again, with people like the infamous porn-dealer Kerner and PER KORO's Markus, about the burden of older folks life,haha. BLACK FRIDAY and Z.M. really did some tight sets, and you could see that playing night by night really helps that. people seemed into it!

 The most interesting thing about the end of this extended part of the tour was, that something (lalala) made me drive back home from Bielefeld to Lünen, first, in only 40 minutes time. Amazing!!!

Another ZERO MENTALITY-roadtrip: Festivals of 2006

Further info: https://www.facebook.com/zeromentalityrulesok

The other day, I witnessed something that everybody else & their mother did: myspace sucks nowadays! At least it sucks alot out of your harware... and i saw it crashing quite regularly on webkit-based browsers and in Firefox. So, it's about time...
I really have to "import" all the important blog entries over here, and I am more than willing to. Especially with all these ZERO MENTALITY-tour diaries... Those days were more than just fun, they really were an important time in my life - although I already have been THAT OLD. One might say: on tour, you get older quicker due to all the temptations. But I was more than happy to succumb to.
Bring it one, one more time, my friends!

"it's all about the boo'z
FESTIVAL SUMMER
*by Sven, the Merch-Man

First and for all, if you came here to expect anything - i am glad you came at all. This is just about me and how I liked being in this place at that time.. What the fuck, sounds like the cheesy editorial to a 1990s HC-fanzine ...hum, maybe that's why this is it: MY SHIT

ZERO MENTALIY had a whole fuckin' fun festival furiosity going in the past weeks. it all started of on a different level, being a five day trip to Berlin and the far east realms of the former G.D.R. Surprisingly, the first show of that went down really well, although the guys had to take the opening slot on their adventure with AGNOSTIC FRONT - but not just because that was located at the infamous SO36 it turned out to be a good night. I can tell you, you can tell that those folks over there don't tell shit when they know how to crank out well organised shows. Sometimes it pays off really well to be some kinda old (in the business). Real good turnout, good response - medium sales, and some alcoholic experiences that were easy to handle. But with a glimpse into further desasters in that part, having the FINAL PRAYER-guys around.

At least, the shooting was succesful!

Next day saw the adventurous trip to the middle-of-nowhere lake in Saxonia for a underwater photo shooting. Sally CherryMuffins proposed that, and despite this place being a real hot spot for clandestine intentions - I guess she could have bitten her beautiful ass off at the end of the day. Not that the guys acted rude on her, neither did I - of course. Even the most silly routines weren't that disturbing. But - forget all the talk about »hot spot« - that water thing was really cold. Especially if you have to be in there with all five guys for at least 45 minutes, and I mean: one after another. So, if you know her and asked yourself what made her skin gone from ladylike (as she is) white to a red&blue all over for a couple of days - it'll be a good choice to buy the »Invite your Soul« Record. Lucky me took his time of killin' alot Lucky Strikes and being able to see a five-headed Swamp Thing at the end of it all - that about sums it up.

We went straight to Nordhausen for the show next day, where this fine guy Christoph let us invade his space for two days. I am not sure if he regrets it - but I can for sure tell you that ZERO MENTALITY had alot of fun there. Good show, veeeery good people there, exceptionally good food, good Bowling halls (one strike - one strip), as good as being totally stupid Nazis threatening us after the Nite Club visit.. good god, yeah! We got to see alot there, like Mental Hospitals at night and in the woods, like the Black Friday-mates in party routine, like the expected nice girls.
The most interesting thing about the whole day is that I even took my time to do some touristic walkaround and saw almost all the Nordhausen attractrions in about one hour: the Nordhäuser Doppelkorn destillery, the dome (i ran into a wedding,hehe), the neat late-medivial old-town, and André MAROON getting something from a pizza-place (i bet it didn't had cheese, right?).

You might wonder, what so festivalistic about all that, but to me that already was some kinda festival for the soul, being the first fucking few days in a long time that i actually laughed and enjoyed life as it is. But now onto something completely different - well not that much. The next day started with a fuckin' rain onslaught on our way to the Sucks'N'Summer. Yeah, damn right, that sucks in Summer. Arriving in Leisnig, I found out that the Merch-tent also had alot of liquid to offer. At the early stage of the day, it just wet my shoes - but setting up next to Herald and the BORN FROM PAIN-busload of stuff made me suspicious if people would ever be able to buy again at least the five layers of stuff at the bottom of their boxes. More liquidity turned out to be oh-so-fuckin' true after recognizing that we were surrounded by most of the bands that usually can be called our heavy-drinking buddies. B.F.P. of course now graced with Dominik to the left, HATESPHERE to the right, that one band with that one member in opposite, and next to them the always filled FINAL PRAYER - who did stay over, which was sadly not true for the missing company of THE SETUP. Anyway, it was a full night of beverages, officially topped by the legendary Pfeffy (or how they spell it). ZERO MENTALITY seemed to be the only band that not got hassled by rain for any song, which did good for the crowd - but after Nordhausen experience they weren't in their best shape. But most people did not seem to care and came up to me with alot of interest and made CD sales a big positive surprise at this point of time.

Me, Conny, Fink, Jacob

Somewhere at this early stage, i witnessed how Jacob of HATESPHERE got keys for their Hotel room - something I should have remembered later that night. Because after the whole craze had came to an end somewhere around sunset, we would have killed for taking over their spot once they decided to head back to Denmark. The funny thing is, Fink actually had to carry Jacob all thru' the mud and into their van. You just can't help it sometimes, I guess. But even that was not the highlight of Fink's actions at this day. I officially announce one of his moves to being THE BEST STAGEDIVE I EVER SAW. When MAROON really rocked that shit (this band has gone a long way from me making fun of them at a show still settled back in Hamburg, reciting their lyrics, to looking forward to each of their sets I can catch). Well, Fink did some headwalks there, which is a typical routine and doesn't thrill me that much. BUT(T): there was this one girl up on stage at a point of time. She was about to jump but somehow took a long time to be ready. With pushing her ass in a good starting position and bending over, she was almost done. Bam! - Fink hit the right spot from behind and suddenly the crowd was succesful in catching both of the main characters in this play. Me being enganged in a real nice conversation had to laugh out loud right in the middle of a sentence. Yeah, sure, you just should have witnessed that - this might be convincing as telling you a »palimm palimm« in sad mood.
The most interesting thing about the whole night is that I got a very good company after recognizing that I already am drunk. That saved alot of the rest of the night - or me falling over on my back and just rest. So I even catched the After Party, a flu, and an official record for talking to the most people about LEBENSREFORM in a long while.
And yes, the girl also had the good idea in driving the both of us around town to get more cigarettes. Awesome..

I spare you details about the rest of the waste, and get right into the adventure of this years Ieper festival. For the one time being there earlier than expected, we were ready for another party craze. Of course there was like 45 minutes hard work for both the band and me. But after them getting a real good response for a early afternoon band, I really got my selling routine into an undisturbed fun - which also might be due to the fact that this must have been one of the best selling shows I can remember for ZERO MENTALITY. To tell you the truth, the rest of this days bands did not interest me too much, being most of them ones I saw alot and knew are good, or ones I already experienced as so-lala. I thought the sunday had more to offer in that manner - not in quantity, but me looking forward to. So I took my chance and said yes to the opportunity to get home the other day and stay for the night at this reaaaaaaally impressing new Toxic Merch-building. Thanks to Hans for that, and of course, LIAR has to be mentioned here with their second-to-last gig. You wait for the booze to come in? We didn't, we just did it right from the spot and got joined by cool people again, like the infamous May and other British lads. Plus later on, cups were pilled up until almost 1,50m - especially after Fink and that one guy from that one band started battling on Ex-en.

May and me...
I wonder where are the drinks?!

ZERO MENTALITY only stayed longer for that reason, I figure, as they planned to - and I got told that André helped Fink in punch-lining the way back to the Ruhrpott. After me waking up with a headache (don't cry for me, Aspirin) I found out that the guys forgot to get their payment - a text message told the story of another wasted night. So, after a real good breakfast in Kortrijk, and free entrance due to Marco's help, I got that money shit done and prepared myself for that day to come. That started at surprising Jens Vegas behind the CLOBBERIN' TIME-table with my presence, and May with my knowledge about her »dancing on tables« at the after show last night.
It was a lazy sunday afternoon at first, with some much needed water and juice - even the sun got out. But just before I watched SIX FEET DIIIIIIIITCH, I thought I'd better had to get back into the beer thing. After that I was told that this Australian boys from PARKWAY DRIVE really crank out some good shit - and, hell, they did! To make you convinced, just listen to the facts that after their spirited energetic Metalcore-Set, their Merch tabled was occupied for about an hour and they sold at least 200 shirts that day. You know - that's the way I look at those kinda things, that's my profession. I than had to kill time again and decided to take a walk to that fucking awesome town center and get myself ready for the best attraction they have: pommes, chips, french fries - whatever you wanna call this feast. After gettin' back to the festival ground, I found out that it was a wise decision, because I ran into the CORE OF ANGER-company and suddenly were in drinking routine again.

Lucky me, I were able to finish this early enough to be ready for the one band I was looking for the most: RISE AND FALL. Haven't seen them in quite some time, I was curious how the »Into Oblivion« material translates onto stage. And boyeeeeeeeeeeeee: it rocked! The four-piece really took over the whole fuckin' place, especially alot of the younger kids were really into them. That came to me as abit of surprise, since I bet that not many of them really have this in-vein-feeling for ENTOMBED and INTEGRITY as I and RISE AND FALL obviously share. Even more, I bet the PENTAGRAM-shirt worn by R.A.F.-guitarist afterwards wasn't a big attraction. But anyway, I don't think that's uncool - I totally like the fact that kids are into one band that cranks out shit that really is that good, powerful, mayhemic, overwhelming and on-the-point as on this gig at Ieper.

Another year at Ieperfest, but also great!

The funny thing is to me, this not only was the highlight to the whole fucking festival, it was simply the best Hardcore-set I saw this year, at least! Call me a wimp, but when they finished it all of with »Bottom Feeder«, I almost got tears in my eyes - recognizing that after 20 years in this, HC still can move me that much. I even had to buy my first band shirt in years...
And smoke a cigarette as with all real good orgasms.
RISE AND FALL

I had to take a rest and spent most of the rest of the night with accompanying May in gettin' wasted again. With the exception of the infurious MAROON-set, for at least the part where it did not have rain pounding in once again. But, as I told you, they deserve this more and more to get witnessed and experienced - which seemed true for alot of folks out there who kick-boxed, slamdanced, circle-pitted and stagedived alot. Alot more than I have seen in quite some time, again.

That wraps this all up: Simply The Best - in quite some time!"

MY life on the road w/ ZERO MENTALITY & BORN FROM PAIN

Further info: https://www.facebook.com/zeromentalityrulesok

This next entry spawned a succesful myspace-blog (well, to this day the blog has at least over 8000 views). It was written on October, 7th of 2006 a.D. and is about a tour I did in my merchandising years. Of coure, I was the main-man for ZERO MENTALITY at that time, and later on helping out in the BORN FROM PAIN camp on a couple of occasions, so all is far from being any kind of objective - but it's a dairy anyway.
I still find it entertaining, although I cannot really understand some of it anymore, haha...
Well, so it goes:

"by Sven, the Merch-Man

First and for all, if you came here to expect more in depth about the bands and their shared tour - you might as well go waste your time somewhere else or try to get on a show with 'em. Which does not mean, that there ain't some interesting things amonf the following lines. I bet there are... but for the most part: it's how me, myself and I did it. What the fuck - sounds like the cheesy editorial to a 1990s HC-fanzine...hum, maybe that's why this is it: MY SHIT

Not an official part of the tour, but kinda like a nice warm-up have been the two record-release shows for BORN FROM PAIN awesome record »in love with the end« (the first one I really like that much - to be honest) the two bands shared with HATESPHERE and a couple of other bands. Amazingly enough, we at least shared the venue in the neat city of Tilburg, in the Dutch mountains, with well-known Gothic-Rockers WITHIN TEMPTATION and it did not seem that they drew that much more of an audience than the rough side did. I got to know the unbeatable Herald as my main contender at the selling station. Plus I discovered about the MENTALITYs Summer-Collection of handprinted Ladies-only Shirts. With the course of time, we knew we expected girls all over to be not that skinny - hey, is a 38 already a strong number? Nevertheless, the night turned out very well - for the fun part. Danish dynamite is rocking like hell, and with their help i was able to construct a carnival throwing-game of beer-cans right behind the display-item of »In fear of forever«-vinyl.
The most interesting thing about the whole night is, that I saw the nicest little lady of this tour at least there - black-hair, pony-tail, fishnet-stockings. And "our" Portugese shit-worker Ricardo (or Richie as he like to calls himself on his bands FOR THE GLORY's record) still owes me the contact to her...
Home-turf Bochum also brought the loveable CATARACT to the billing, which I found out have a very nice "colleague" at the selling-station. All in all, the show was a big party, including fights and many people we love and love to hate. Sharing time & space with the CLOBBERIN' TIME also proved that plastic-bottle beer is not thaaat bad either - but somehow that must have been the reason that later on, when the party was going to peak, I h-a-d to leave. Only one day later, I found out that i catched some silly disease that made me stay in bed - and for this time that disease was not called "a girl".
But the most interesting thing about the whole night was, that I stilled managed to recognize the nicest little lady of this tour at least there. But I am afraid she wasn't even attending the show, but the Matrix-Party...>
Some days in between, the tour was heading of to East-Germany and some of Scandinavia - which in the end turned out to be one date in Denmark with 40 people. There was no need to go there for me, especially since this was East-Germany - and well, yes, I saw the almighty RINGWORM one day prior to that. With flying Dutchmen all around, including the beatable Herald of B.F.P.-sales fame.So, i hooked up with the bunch after their days off in my hometown of ruhrpott-crown, Dortmund. We'd pick up some merchandise there and were off to this very old University city of Marburg, right in the middle of nowhere-land Germany. The show turned out to be right in the city-center and be a somehow mixture between a typical student-city show, a hard-rock place spectacle, and a usual HC-show in places were they do not happen to often. All in all, this means some kind of enthusiasm that the "knowing places" lack. Big highlight of the whole show was this 50-year old Biker-Rocker that commented on one of BORN FROM PAINs design »I would buy that shirt, if only these crosses were upside-down«. But with his head flying all over the space later on, he became a big fan of B.F.P. anyway - at least for a one-night stand. As expected, it was also Che, who was the closest of the whole bunch to get to choose from fans to practically do whatever...whatever...WHATEVER.

Picture borrowed from ZERO MENTALITYs Myspace-page,
see upper right of  the picture for actual reference

But the most interesting thing about the whole night was, that I recognize the nicest little lady of this tour at least there. Black hair, pony tail, red jacket - and always crossing Herald's an my place with her blonde girlfriend. Such a shame, she even just wanted to buy »the other stuff«, but at least she smiled when I commented on that with »Baby did a bad bad thing« and took a free ZERO MENTALITY sticker with grace
After a horrible night with fucking Hippies singing Beatles-Medleys to the place next to my window and a PortuGEESE guy moving and shaking every two minutes in bed above me, we managed to leave the place damaged - because of Soccer. A habit which was soon to become a regular spectacular. In a pouring rain we had to find a Titus-Store right in the mediaeval city-center because Fink needed a bag for his couple of bags, and Dominik and Rob tried to get a hold on the new CROWBAR record - which turned otu for dominik to at least be the last DIMMU BORGIR one. That made a good background sound to the Bundesliga radio-transmission on our way down to Weinheim. We got there that early that the Soccer-Ball once again smashed something - I am not quite sure whether this was Dennis or Karl. But for sure, Herald next to me was very sad he did not got to make it downstairs, because people keep pouring in like 2 hours before the show - which was at least »interesting«. Pretty much 1 hour later it was obvious, those kids were dedicated. They bought not only one shirt, or one sticker, but like whole packages of things. So right - I had to open some beers to give this a credit. The show itself turned out to be very very good - i got to catch the half ZERO MENTALITY set and was able to witness one of their most energetic performances with a moving audience all over. One of the sets you keep remembering years later - and what makes hardcore »your hardcore«. But only a couple of minutes later, this was going to be Punk-As-Fuck, because: "There are Nazis outside" right before BORN FROM PAIN were going to start. People were flooding out, and the handful of Right-wing party followers must have been really horrified. 20 minutes later everyone was coming back (hey, I had to watch the sales point! - well, of course I only beat woman by their command, not other people). And BORN FROM PAIN was hitting the stage at least almost intensive as Z.M. before. Later that evening, two official races began: Herald and I had to decide who of us would get more tips by people, and all the unbound guys (well.. yes... I am... yes.. competitive) were to see if there is at least a phone-number or something to get. Sorry Marcel did not make it in time before Dennis and the others called him to quit.
But most interestingly I was not thinking of that the whole night, but with leaving that place I met a cute nice bartender there that was like the nicest little lady of this tour at least. Tattoos, wife-beater and nice smile - she hooked me up with a couple of Beck's beer, so she seems to know what a man really wants, haha. I got her contact just minutes before Marcel was about to make it with his »choice of the night« - and since that involves also and foremost some professional reasons (like in »working on layouts« - leave your dirty minds behind, dumb face, haha) that's even possibly going to be more than a trophy

Spending the night in a croowded place with a very basic breakfast, we had all the time in the world the other day to make it into 1.5 hours to Ludwigsburg. Three hours early, we made it to a McDonalds in the city center and came up with shit about Punk Rob and Porn From Spain, or about the veganism of an Apple-Cake. Things turned out to be not that funny once we got back to the place, since that was up in a parking lot and our vans were too high. with the help of TEAMKILLERs van and the soundmans car, we drove some time to get stuff in. Into a Rock Club, with suspicious bartenders and some smeary promoter that talked alot - as I was told. I had to find a way to get the merch set up in these conditions, because i wanted to set myself apart from Heralds way of just pinning it to the wall. I am not quite sure, but I guess in terms of tips, he did better with that way. but with the other competition going one, i scored ++. That much, he even came up to me, and ask, if he is aloud because »that's yours, right ?«. More on that, later on... The show was a kinda let-down to the day before, because 4 bands on a sunday evening simply were too much. I did not know about OPPOSITION OF ONE, but at least they had their fans going off there - which was not as much true for TEAMKILLER. Surprinsingly enough, for a kinda home-crowd, they dragged out some like 30% of the people and with the exception for Jogges guest vocals weren't able to deliver a real highlight show. Sunday bloody sunday, I always saw home-bands find a tuff turf on that. ZERO MENTALITY rocked theri way to the set with a short disturbance by a real sick guy, literally, which later one became like a shadow over the whole thing. At least when I will be thinking about this show, I will always remember this guy - and his girlfriend. Although I got to know some really nice dude personally, in Orhun, and met some people I already learn to like a lot, like K-Rad and Cornelia. If she weren't the very-well-fitting girlfriend of Dominik, i had to say she was at least the nicest girl in there. There were some pretty ones - but well...
But most interestingly I was encountering a thing that never happened befor in my whole life. And the girl involved could have had the potential to be the nicest little lady of this tour at least (if she just were sane). She was the girlfriend of this sick guy, and he introduced her to me with right on leaving towards the door. She kinda gave me the promising eye right from the start, handed me beers, cigarettes, and very soon her mouth to kiss (i really cannot remember with what »reason« behind that, but hey - i already was on a weak spot) Like 30-45 minutes later into the night I found myself kissing her on a regular basis and than it happend: for the first tine in my life, i turned down an offered blow-job. That would have been right there on the spot, because the place would have also fit her right were we stand and be covered up by the posters I setup in front. I just did that for some aestetic reasons, but now I know, there can be more to that... In the end, I kept telling everybody about my achievement in life, and learned to know, i would have been like number 51 in a row of touring guys...

We got on rolling towards Vienna just in that night, with Dominik starting driving, but only half an hour before Munich he could not help but to fall asleep, so we kinda had to stop-over to let me get driving-sober again, since all the other guys had the tendencies to fall asleep and wake up 8 hours later. I then decided after the horrible Munich traffic-directions to choose a slower but more landscape-orientated way to Austria, so that I would be made to stay awake also. For that I also liked to cross history, and came close to the birthplace of the Pope, and decided to cross the border in Braunau, you know, Adolf Hitler was born there. Even the guy we had to buy the ticket from to get on Austrian motorways kinda seemed to remember this famous townie, but his looks. Dominik took over again, and after some 2nd world villages we found the straight motorway and me found the time to make appointment for my job-application/training-day that was going to get me off this tour in Cologne again. Arriving in Vienna we drove on alot of different roads, but basically never left any, because there is this ring-system to it. We came to that place and just discovered that the Toten Hosen has wasted the »Arena« in two days before - but at least we have the impression to have had shared the same showers. You know, showering is almost as nice as orgasm after those kinda drives, so i guess i kinda skip my sexual part for this show since my favorite girl from Vienna does not live their anyway, haha. Anyway, some more into the day, the hippie-punks there graced the whole thing with some mid-time BÖHSE ONKELZ records and we got some nice food that was part of the well thaught-off contract deal. A cheese plater, sweets and fruits - and hell yeah, some flesh for the boys. the guy in charge of the kitchen theri was rad, he really seemed like not just going tu fulfill wishes - he was running doing so. The evening meal was great also, at least for the Vegetarians, but I heard the Schnitzel was good also. The show itself was kinda lazy again, and some of us would and found the time to rather go to the TOASTERS show in the other venue there. But, Marcel, you really have to know more about professional American friendlieness - AS IF the guys really would have heard about the MENTALITY, haha. Well, Z.M. and B.F.P. cranked out some cool sets with alot of energy, but since the PAIN already has been there and obviously would fit more into the sort of audience, they got a far better response. but at least Hannes was there to keep it going into the Z.M.-pit.
But most interestingly I still saw a girl there that was like the nicest little lady of this tour at least. Black hair, black clothes. Unluckily enough, she was with the most late-1990s East-german vegan-Straight-Edge Mosh-kid I ever saw - and really disliked because of the habitus he just seemed to had. Might be wrong because i have not talked to him, but at least I would have treated this girl different althrough this night

Since the next stop was going to be Bratislava, we really had enough time the next day to get it a lazy going. Marcel and I ended the night before with a man's-night-out in front of a computer, some Jägermeister, Beer and a Joint on his part, so sleep was well although there was like almost everybody of us in one room. The soccer-ball was making it's way again, but i guess this time it was just personal damage caused, although we tried many. Anyway, we left a sunny Vienna, and found the border after some confusions - and pretty soon after that, just crossing the river Donau, we were at the place. Pretty soon later the promoter showed up, and seemed to be a nice guy at first, with just some bad day behind him maybe. Later on I found out, he seems to be on a constant bad mood - which might be understandable once you got stabbed in front of your house by Nazis and are willing to leave town soon. But I really had some problems with his attitudes later on. Not so much that he was kinda 90s Vegan-Edge but that he was that much fun about BORN FROM PAIN that he did not even want to have a free sticker or anything by ZERO MENTALITY. Given a personal taste, I still think it's just nice to at least crank up some smile or the other if not only talking to the bands singer you are obviously a big fan of. I kinda felt like »relieved« when at the end of the night everyone of all bands would like to go to McDonalds to get some warm food before the next horrible drive. That must have been a big mental disaster for this guy - but i guess in the end he is going to improve on that. Well, the show itself he did a decent job with, although the turnout was not that exceptional as he might have expected, but with the helps of some more Austrians (even Hannes solved his passeport disaster) the place was at least filled. And danced to the bands - like crazy. If anybody is refering to »Schweinepogo« for shows that don't fit a tough-guy dancing-code over here, i would wonder what they would have made of this pit. but at least people had fun and bought more stuff than we expected - with Z.M. even being on the girls-thing side. Into the PAIN set there was some fight going of, with a guy who is kinda a legend to the scene there, but that did not kept him from (almost - i am not quite sure) hitting the black girl from the night before - with her stupid BF just witnessing. But with people in our bands going off on him - and the show guys really talking amazingly quick care of him. never seen a drunk skinhead thrwon to the floor as quick as these. r.e.s.p.e.c.t.
But most interestingly I saw a girl there that was like the nicest little lady of this tour at least. Long brown hair, black clothes and interested in ZERO MENTALITY-zippers. Like all the other people there she was very picky about how the stuff fits and what might happen after washing it. Funny enough, she was not that picky about her boyfriend - he did not fit as well as Z.M.-related stuff might have
On comes a night with alot of driving included - straight to Cologne. And we almost made it without any longer stop-overs, just some short breaks, especially for Marcel who took over in the morning after Fink and I had our share. We finally got to Cologne like 4 hours in advance and who ever tried to find a parking-slot in that town's city center might now what horror this might be. We were lucky because after some confusion about what to do and were to go, we managed to park right in front of the club - with the ticket-machine damaged. We split there and everybody was going to do his own business there. I had to buy a hat, because my hair was not longer greasy because I wanted it - but because it could not do any better. After that I did some shaving and washing at the Train Station - finding myself watching in a mirror of a street-hooker boy. Almost - not as bad, but i kinda had a good laugh about it for myself. Got to the Cathedral after that to get some soul-food, and decided to go to a neat coffee-place were cool and knowing and strong-minded people could be met. That's why Dominik and Rob already sat there, I guess. Some more fooling around in Stores, we invaded the place and everything turned out to be very Cologne abvout the whole show - i figured. And well, emo-pussie time, I kinda was in a sad mood because of leaving this bunch of great people. I guess once again, the two bands cranked out a really good set and people enjoyed them. Sales were decent, and Herald got better tips. But i totally won the other game. I decided to stay in Cologne. I had no strong will to not to do so...haha... And since then I can extend my »I remind people of ... «-list (after Mike Patton, a young and shaved Robert DeNiro, a random turkish gay guy, ...) with new entry: Sean Penn. I can live with that...
But I can't live without this whole experience - and who ever has gonna have the chance, meet any of those people in these bands (okay,.some are hard to stand on their own, haha) and you gonna just enjoy life to the fullest!"