the italian job

one time about a year ago let down went to europe and played a bunch of shows, like 30+ of them. it sounds cool but it was kind of whatever. apparently we were supposed to get down on our knees and thank the lord that we had the "opportunity" to go over there but really, we paid for the fucking plane tickets. any band that can afford the plane tickets to fly to europe can essentially tour over there, as proof of that we played shows with crappy american bands that i'd never even heard of (and had, at the time, never even done a full US tour before). what was supposed to be a "dream come true" kind of scenario was really just an uncomfortable and very costly experience punctuated by lousy shows, even worse food, and many hilariously sketchy situations.

that's not to say the whole thing wasn't without it's charms, or that i would do anything differently if we could go back in time and try the whole thing again. well, maybe that's not true - part of me thinks that it would have been cooler if we took all the money we wasted over there (probably like $4000+ including the airfare) and just split it between the four of us and partied all spring/summer, but then i'd be sitting here a year later wondering "what could have been". the ability to NOT wonder that is priceless i guess, plus i have a bunch of dumb stories i can use to enthrall the people i meet. 

this isn't really about that though, this is a video of our show in italy, shot by our roadie from up in the stands in this strange colliseum near venice where we played some big festival. there were three bands, we opened before anyone showed up, but by the end of the show this gigantic venue was filled to the brim with people, including dudes riding track bikes around in a circle in some corner of it. the other bands were like less extreme versions of my chemical romance. we stuck out on the bill like a sore thumb but the five hardcore kids there were pretty nice to us, we got a lot of free food and later in the evening sold CDs to a bunch of people who hadn't been there when we played and had no idea what they were buying. 

this video is indicative of most of the problems i had with the shows in europe. it's all about the "pro" atmosphere - gigantic stages, huge lighting rigs, mandatory line checks/sound checks that you often have to be at the venue HOURS ahead of time for, and then crowds of 30 people. it's like, if there are going to be 30 people at a show, fine, no big deal. let down ain't comeback kid, that's pretty much par for the course. but don't patronize me with some inane sound check shit and then have a gigantic neon light that's as hot as the sun five feet from my face. even if they don't like your band in europe, they want you to play a looooooong time, and often do an encore. the whole thing is totally fucking weird but whatever. 

as you can see we knew this show was completely ridiculous and just did whatever the fuck we wanted, bob swings on the weird lighting fixture (and got yelled at), busts out a ric flair styled "WOOO" between songs and gives us some insight into what the song "problems" is about, and takes some dude's (alcoholic) drink out of his hand and throws it away when he runs in the crowd. meanwhile i jump up and down like a jackass and mosh repeatedly but a lot of that didn't make it on camera. nick captures the best moment of all, the little girl dancing in the stands. good times, good times. after our performance we were eating in this little dining hall and two 15 year old girls came up and chugged the bottle of wine that had been provided for us. pretty wild. one of us informed us that the other one "liked sex" and that "she is the bitch". crazy. after this show almost everyone else went to a club or something, i kind of wish i would have went with them but i just sat in the complimentary hotel room by myself. the next day we had italian pizza and it was mediocre at best, just like almost everything else in europe. oh well.