Jan 1
Today we did some packing and completed this web site. We worked on this all week and decided to have it ready for when we went on tour. We are in the process of adding more stuff. We decided to throw it up in it's present state just to get it up before we left.
Jan 2
More packing and we went to Empire Wok and had a blast. We learned how to play CHUMP.
Jan 3
Our plane was a little late but we made our connecting flight in philly with like 5 minutes to spare. We arrived in Franfurt right on time and had no problem with customs. The plane we took to Germany had these great little video screens for every person. You could pick anything you would like to watch. Gladiator, Shang Hai Noon, Spin City, Tarzan.. it was mad cool...
Jan 4
Crash!! Bang! Boom!
We got picked up at the airport by three kids. Heiko, Patrick, Verene. They had two seperate cars. Chris and Steve drove with Patrick. Allen, Jeff, Heiko, Verene, and I all piled into Franks Volkswagon(crash mobile). We were driving entirely to fast but there is no speedlimit on the AutoBon. . Allen was in the middle when we carrined into some dirt then across the road into the Jersey Barrier with the rearend. That collision spun us out into the road and we lost control again still going reasonably fast and slammed into the Jersey barrier head on and this stopped our momentum. Air bags deployed and saved Heiko and I from even remote injury. Jeff hurt his chest. Jeff, Allen, and Verena were pretty shaken up more than hurt. Everyone but me went in the ambulance to the hospital and I waited for the car with Steve and Chris to arrive and for the tow truck guy. I´m sorry this written so poorly but we are rushing. Here are some side notes. Allen fainted, yes, yours truly caught him on the way down :=) The language barrier is funny and interesting until you are in an emergency and you are trying to communicate injuries to paramedics or that you need to wait for your friends to the police man who wants you to go with him :) When the day is said and done we are all fine and Allan is spending a night in the hospital as just a precautionary measure. He should be completely fine. We have been up 33 hours straight so it is time to go sleepy nappy.
love Fragment.
Jan 5
Walking around Leisnig
Today we ran around and took photos of the town. Allan was still at the hospital.. he came home completely fine later that night. I think we are still on US time. We couldn´t sleep until 4am and woke up at 1pm.. we should get adjusted soon.
Jan 6
Went to Brothers Keeper/Cataract show!
This show rocked! It took us over 2 hours to get here but it was worth the drive. German kids know how to get their metal on! Cataract was mad good, they are from Sweden. Our first time seeing them. Awesome. Brothers Keeper Rocked! They are always pumpin! Go Keeper!!!
Jan 7
Web stuff and emails
We once again woke up at 1pm.. man we really have to adjust but we didnt get home from the show until 4am. Maybe we will sleep normal tonight. We took a cool panoramic photo today, we will try to post it soon.
Jan 8
Equipment Arrived!!
It of course was only 2 out of the 3 pallets that we sent. The 3rd one should be coming tomorrow. We went to the grocery store today and updated this damn time killer of a web site.
Jan 9
Last of the Equipment came today!
Today we were supposed to hit Leipzig but it might rain so we are going to hang back and move our equipment to the practice space. It will be so good to play again. First show is this Friday. Bro Keeps played there and said the show was killer! Werd up to Bill Cole Pindrop Records/Holdstrong. Keep the faith baby!
We hung out at the Youth Center tonight. It was cool. If every town in the US could have such a place for kids to hang out and be kids it would be great. We have met a lot of really cool/nice people here.
Jan 10
We got our practice on!
By the time we had gotten to the VOL Office Frank, Patrick, and Anna had moved most of our stuff to the Youth Center. They rock! We took the 10 minute walk to the youth center and started setting up our stuff to practice. We had some pretty minor issues with the transformers we brought to transfer our power to be compatible to European power. There is also a wierd glitch. If Chris or Allan touch any of us we complete a circuit of 220 volts.. Let me tell you.. it hurts.. in the US its only 110!! for the love of god it makes you squeal!!
side note: we drink entirely too much Apfel Saft (apple juice). I'm a junkie
We ended the night by all going out to Dinner. Our German Friends are super cool. Mad Funny!
Jan 11
We practiced some more today - more electric shocks
We practiced some more today at the youth center. Chris and I got juiced twice today by 220 volts. Not fun. Practice stoppped short due to Jeff having some pain in his hands.. We played a lot of ping pong and pool.. our first show is tomorrow it should be cool! We are playing Potsdam, Germany.
We went and got the van today in Leipzig. Half hour away. nice city! We walked around in this killer mall and even got to eat at Pizza Hut.
Jan 12
Fragment does English class.
Heiko (the crash car driver) asked us if we would come to his english class and talk to the students about America. Sure, why not sounded like fun and it was. Chris and I (Jay) went to Heiko and Verena's school. Chris and I thought we were going to one class but we got split up. Chris went to Heiko's and I went to Verena's class. It was super interesting to talk to the juniors and seniors. They had some really great questions and some great answers to some questions I had. This is definitely the way to see Europe. We have so much cultural interaction that a typical vacation could never give you. One of the toughest lines of questioning was about gun control and school shootings. One boy asked why this happens and why I thought these kids would just shoot at their friends and teachers. Whooo that was a tough one.I tried to answer the best I could but jeeze what can you say. They also told me a story of a young German school kid walking into a class and stabbing his teacher to death while the students just watched. I know this is supposed to be a tour journal but I thought this was pretty interesting.
Our Driver Bailed!
So at the day before our first show our Driver got a letter from the govt requiring him to go to work. Bummer!! Frank being da man that he is stepped up to the Challenge. Frank doesnt have a license so he can´t drive but his english is perfect and he booked the entire tour. It was rad that he said he could come.
Potsdam, Germany w/ Deadlock - Narziß(pronounced Narziss) - CopyKill - Self Conquest
The club ruled. Earlier in the week Bro Keeps said we would love this club...we did. The stage was huge and it was the best sound we had ever worked with. The light show was insane.. so funny.. they even had a smoke machine. haha the club was rocking and the bands were rad. I loved Narziß and Self Conquest although all the bands were great those two were my favs. The guys from CopyKill were super nice and gave us some cool tour advice when driving through spain. The shows here start so late. We didn´t finish playing unitl 2am. We headlined and kids stuck around and asked for an encore.. mad cool to play for these kids.
After the show we started our 20 hour (turned out to be 38 hour) treck to our first show in Bilbao, Spain.
Jan 13
Driving!!!
Jan 14
Losers try to steal our stuff
Chris, Steve, and I are the only ones in the van that can drive stick so we all take 3-5 hour shifts. Spain is so beautiful. The landscape is so nice. We drove through some crazy mountains. Night time driving through the "Perenise" mountains is not fun. I like German roads a lot more. Drive Drive Drive Drive Drive Drive.. Fahrvergnügen!!
We arrived in Bilbao to play our first spanish show. Carlos set up the show. He was a rad kid. We played with Neila. The show rocked. The kids were great
We stopped at a highway resteraunt in Spain. We spent almost an hour inside trying to order pasta without meat. It costs 7000 pasetas.. funny money sytems over here. I guess they are all converting to the Euro dollar next year. We walked out and saw a older man and woman trying to break into our van.. Real cool right. So we chased them off and they only managed to ruin our passenger side locks. losers.. now whenever we stop to eat we take turns checking on the van on a ten minute interval.
Jan 15
Fragment got put into lock down!
Carlos hooked us up with some great food and we all got a bed. Carlos had to go to work in the morning -- about 4 hours sleep for him --. We woke up and showered and stuff and ate some of the left over pasta. We all grabbed our bags and headed to the van. When we got to the cell door.. i mean the apartment door we realized that we had been locked in from the outside. Carlos doesn´t have a phone so we couldnt call him.. damn I dont even think we had the name of his work or even his last name. Frank and I tried to jump from the ledge but it was too high and far to make it to the side walk.. eventually someone called the police on us and the police got in touch with Carlos who came and opened up the apartment for us. He said he was so tired that he didn´t realize that he had locked us up.. funny stuff.. werd up to Carlos for the killer food and the nice beds.. thanks.
show time... we arrived in Andoin right on time. The kids were super rad. not too many kids were there but what can you do.. it was a monday night show.. the PA kicked though. We didn´t spend the night there as planned but drove to Madrid.(6 hours)
side note: almost every show that we play Dragbody from FL is playing the day after.. we should have just gone on tour together...
Jan 16
Madrid
Madrid was the smallest club we have ever played but it rocked! The kids in Madrid know whats up. We played with a rad band from Madrid called Inside Me. David the singer let us stay at his flat. He had the craziest damn cat we have ever seen.. it jumped through the air and stuck to steves stomach.. i dont think I ever seen steve laugh so hard. We also met some rad kids from Versus. They were all radical.. I think that night we had our best on the road meal. Inside Me knows how to cook.. We also got to play Dreamcast.. Frank is addicted to Crazy Taxi.
Jan 17
Alicante (Fort Lauderdale for Spain)
Palm trees and green grass.. We didnt want to leave! Jordi hooked us up with the tour and the show, he is a super rad kid. He runs Developing Dexterity fanzine.. look for the Fragment interview in the next issue. Mad props to Evan, Jordi, and William from Ricochet. Jordi ripped around on a 25 year old moped.. it kicked ass.. Frank and I walked through the Mediterranean Sea and we all checked out the craziest castle.. too cool
Jan 18
Drove 26 hours to Austria .. no rest for the wicked
We had to pull over for the police and they did a small search of our van.. being straight edge has some benefits... :)
Jan 19
We drove into Graz, Austria about 9am.
We are in the hometown of Arnold Schwarzenager. We are staying with Gregor, the guitarist for Bounz The Ball. He had a great apartment with places for us to sleep. Cool friends and Tony Hawk for PlayStation. His bathroom was full of Pam Aderson photos.. too funny..
The show was awesome. Thomas from Anti-Maniax rocked. He helped us out with a ton of power issues and was super cool to us. We met a lot of super nice kids like Chris from Pledge Alliance. Thanks for everything you guys.. Keep the DIY!! good luck with the studio
Jan 20
Vienna, Austria.
The kid who set up the show hooked us up with the sickest meal. It rocked, It was so cold in Vienna that night. We played with two other bands. Our place to sleep fell through so we headed back to Voice Of Life home. Leisneg.
Jan 21
Finally arrived in Leisnig, Germany about noon
It was rad to get home. Our temp home at least. We all took baths and changed our rancid clothes, Jeff had been in the same pair of pants for 14 days. hehe...
Jan 22
Leisnig, Germany w/ Narziß - Seirim
This show ruled for a Monday night show. It was awesome to play our "home town" here in Germany. All of our friends came out. It was ruling. Thanks to Patrick, Tom, Heiko, Verena, Julia, Mario, Anna, Frank, Susan, Ann(for the interview), Narziß. A special thanks to Mike for setting up the show. It was a super fun show.. If you get a chance check our Narziß. They were energetic HC/metal done well.
Jan 23
Did all of this web stuff and fixed FragmentMetal.com
Sorry the site has been down. Thanks to Jim Felix and Memmot for help with the problem. We just sat around and relaxed tonight. It was cool to chat with our friends.
Jan 24
We all went out for Chris Hill's B-day.
We went to Leipzig and ate at The Avacado. This place has killer Vegan Ice Cream. They even had English menus! Its kind of tough guessing what you are going to eat for 3 months.
Jan 25
Played Hamburg.Germany
Played a show in Hamburg that the Realign kids set up. Yan let us stay in his apartment. I slept on a couch! It was radical.
Jan 26
Our Show Cancelled like 2 hours before the show.
Despite that show getting cancelled we played an emo show down the street. It was nice for the emo kids to check out a metal band. Thanks to carson for the dinner and all the snacks and drinks!
Jan 27
Our Last Show Europe.
Gorlitz, Germany w/XmaroonX (awesome kids!)
Maroon rocked. The kids here were awesome.
Jan 28
Our Last Night in Europe.
Everyone came to send us off. We are going to miss these people. Most of them are coming to the states this summer to go to Hell Fest!
Jan 29
Travelled all day and night.
It took 1 van, 2 trains, 1 monorail, 2 plains, and a car to get us back home into our own beds.. long day.
