The Unknown 2003 Euro Tour. Week One.
Written mostly by Ken.

   The tour diary you are about to read was something that I wrote while we were on tour from March 20, 2003 until April 13, 2003. This was the longest tour we have ever been on. I wanted to chronicle it the best I could. At times it was easy, but a lot of times I wanted to sleep rather than try and type out words telling what we did that day. So here's the diary. All 13,000 words of it. There's a few photos among the writing, but I decided that it would be best to link most of the photos under the photos link for easy loading and organization. Plus most of the photos this time around were shot with Wayne's digital camera, and the quality isn't always the best. Lastly, I want to thank everyone that made this tour so amazing. If I forget someone, forgive me, there's a million people that deserve a shout. Thanks to: Aston and Julie and Boss Tuneage, Martine and Paolo and Self Made Maniac Productions, Mat and Dious, De Nartist, Frontline, Plan 9, Phillip and Tonya, Brian Walsh and Kelly, Camp Zeeburg, Matt, Tom and the PBS Collective, Cov John and Rooster, Chris, Silvere and the Muoy festival people, K-LINE(Zac, Ed, Rich, Paul, James), Dave and the Cavern Club, Monk Dave, Russell, Micha and MAC, Andy and Barefoot, Scott and Joyce, SASHA and Demzel, Kerrang, Paul, Linda and Clair, Rob, Dugong, Stefaan, and the rest of the bands we plyed with.
---Ken Blaze, April 20, 2003.

Day One:Thursday March 20, 2003 (Friday March 21, 2003).

   March 20, 2003. You know, I never even thought that I'd be standing here in front of you today ("Say Goodbye" from the Radio Lied To me CD, 2003). That's definitely how I feel right about now. Here we are embarking on our first trip to Europe and our second trip to the UK. This tour was booked by Aston at Boss Tuneage and Martine from Self Made Maniac Productions in Belgium. The band for the tour was Ken Blaze, Wayne Roscoe, Brian McCafferty and Pete Woodward.
   So we got to the airport at about 11 AM for our 2:50 flight to Atlanta and then to Brussels. Pete and Louis (Louis being from the Fun Machine and taking the flight with us cause he is moving to Switzerland for the year) showed up a bit later. We had some problems with the instruments (of course) and Pete and Louis ended up having to check their guitars in baggage, which is what we didn't want to happen. This was not a good sign. Brian made it through with his bass for the first flight but that was it. He ended up having to check it on the second plane. Right before we were to leave, the plane was delayed til 3:30 PM. This would not have been a big deal except that our connection from Atlanta to Brussels was supposed to leave at 5:55 PM. With our new delay, we were supposed to arrive in Atlanta now at 5:30. Not good. Just what we need, only 20 minutes to change planes. I knew right then and there that there was no way we were gonna get our luggage wen we arrived in Brussels. Pete and I played our first game of travel Scrabble, and it was an epic battle ending in a 212-212 tie.

Waiting at Hopkins Airport to leave

   So we got into Atlanta at about 5:30 and rushed to get to our connection. Now Atlanta isn't a little airport. In fact, it is one of the biggest in the country I think. So instead of getting off the plane and walking to the next gate, we had to take a subway to the terminal because it was so far away. So here we are running through the airport after the subway ride desperate to get to the connection. Louis and Pete sprinted ahead. We made the flight, with about 5 minutes to spare.
   The flight to Brussels was long. We saw "Welcome to Collinwood" as our movie (weird, seeing as it was filmed in Cleveland). We also got some sitcoms and Animal Planet shows as well. The flight was turbulent as hell, and it drove me crazy. We passed the time during the 8 hour flight with more Scrabble and failed attempts at sleep.

De Nartist

   We got into Brussels at about 8:25 AM local time. And to make a long story short. We had no luggage. I knew it was going to happen. When your connecting flight is delayed and you are going out of the country on the second flight, the luggage is always put through customs. If you are delayed at all, forget it. This is how we lost Brian's bass in Canada in 2000. This did not make me happy AT ALL.
   We walked out into the main concourse and looked for Martine and Paolo, the organizers of the Euro part of the tour. Paolo and I had the same ALL jacket on, Martine had a Pavers sweatshirt on. It made them easy to find. So we found Martine and Paolo and proceeded to fill out the paperwork for our lost luggage. Theoretically we were to get our luggage on Saturday. We'll see. Martine and Paolo took us to the city of St. Niklaas to hit a bank, and then we went to a sandwich shop called 't Spit in Lokeren. We had Spitburgers and man, they were the best hamburgers we have had in a long long time. I had a Lamsbrood with garlic sauce and other assorted combinations of chicken, lamb, and ham. Brian had a Duval beer, which was a delicacy of the town I guess. It was here that we had our first anti-American experience. We were trying to leave the restaurant when a ton of kids came walking down the street chanting "Fuck Bush" and "No American War" and the like. It was very strange. So we sat in the car and watched all these kids march past. We couldn't really move cause of all the people. The influence of America on the world is very apparent here. I always knew it was, but seeing it first hand is really quite odd. We searched out phones all day to try and get a message back home but so far we couldn't find any phone to connect us home.
   There was no show today so we had tons of time to kill. We took a nap at Martine's house and killed some time. We were going to be staying at a community center in the city of Temse. Martine hooked us up with the place that had 7 beds and was next to a pub. It was funny to see a poster of Integrity hanging in the room where we were sleeping. Even stranger it was a recent poster that had pictures of Brandon and Brett from Sidecar as part of the band. So we had three members of Sidecar with us all night... There's a field hockey field behind where we are playing, and there were kids hanging out the whole time we were there with their Soccer, er, Field Hockey moms. We did get more bad news too. The Italian and one of the French shows were cancelled. So now we had 5 days to kill with nothing to do.
   We went to Kortenberg to see some bands including one that we would be playing with on Saturday and Sunday. It was a long drive to the show, but we had a great time. We got to experience the fine tastes of Stella once again, and we hung out with a bunch of kids.
   Eventually we got back to the community center called De Nartist and hung out a bit more before we fell asleep. Louis and Brian stayed up with some Jupiler beer and Pete, Wayne and I hit the sack for a much needed sleep.

Day 2:Saturday March 22, 2003.

   We woke up at De Nartist with a full night's rest. We walked down to the corner supermarket got some fruit and finally got a phone card that would get us connected to the rest of the world. We have been pretty isolated as far as news, and we have no idea of what is going on with the war or anything. Today's show was about an hour away. As of noon we still hadn't gotten any of the luggage yet. It was on the way. But we were supposed to be at the club for lunch by 2 PM.

Martine, Wayne and Paolo at De Nartist.

   So as we were heading out to the show with Paolo in his tiny Ford (all five of us mind you, it was a bit of squeeze), we get a call from Martine and the luggage had arrived! So we made a quick detour to Martine's, and we gathered up all the gear and proceeded to head to Tessenderlo. Tessenderlo was about an hour or so away from Temse. We were going to go to the promoter Hein's house for a quick bite to eat before the show. We got little lost on the way but we made it. We met Hein at the club called J.C. 'Tmuuzaaike and proceeded to go to his house down the road. We also met up with an old friend of Pete's, Brian Walsh, who came down from Amsterdam for the show. We got to Hein's at about 4:30 or so and we were treated to one of the most amazing meals we have ever eaten. Apparently Hein's brother, Koen, studied culinary arts, and holy hell did he ever make us a meal.
   For the first course, yes I said first course. We had this amazing Tomato based soup with croutons. I don't usually eat this type of soup, but man, this stuff was great. It was a meal in and of itself. We could have stopped right then and there and been fine. But no, the next course comes. This was salad. Probably one of the most interesting salads I have ever eaten. There was a vegetarian and fish based salad. I had the fish. It was greens, fish, and grapes with a type of thick dressing. Who woulda thunk it, grapes and fish, it ruled. Next up, and remember there are 9 of us eating this meal, we had the main course of meat with carrots and potatoes. The vegetarian version of the meal included something called quorn, a fungus type food that was breaded. This was all amazing. We got spoiled. It was probably the best food we would eat on the whole tour. But wait it didn't end yet. We still had desert! It was an ice cream-chocolate-pear creation. Damn fine dining. We were all fat and happy.
   We got up to the club during the first band Room With A View. We unloaded and went up to the band room and got our gear straightened out. Pete had to change strings and get the guitars all set. We would be using Plan 9's gear, and they were playing when we came back downstairs. They were a good, tight 6 piece with two singers and they did the screamy emo thing, and did it well. They are supposed to open for Gameface in April. Next up was Car Hits Fire. After them was the Spanish band No Children. They were a good fat-wreckerds-like band and the did a cover of the Descendents' Rotting Out and Bad Religion song.
   We came up next and prepared for our first Europe show ever! We had a nice tight set ready for the night. 15 songs, we played 12. The set was: Listen To Me, Seven, Disappear, Do You Know That Girl, The Real Thing, Puzzles, Whether, Radio Lied To Me, Cyclone, Merry Go Round, Never Be The Same and Leave Me Now. We got a decent reception from the crowd and even had the crowd surfers going on. It was a great first night. It was hot as hell and Wayne was thrashed, so bad that we had to ice his arm later in the night. But we done good. Sold 3 CDs.
   Against Time from Holland came up last and kicked some ass with their Dutch hardcore. It was a night of very talented bands. And we got along very well with all the bands. In fact, Ivo from Against Time invited us to stay in Amsterdam if we needed to in the upcoming week. It was cool to hang out in the band loft with people from all over Europe. Spanish, Germans, Belgians, Dutch, French, it was pretty cool.
   Beer of the night was free, it was called something we can't remember, Schluten Something.
   We ended up back at Hein's house where we got more soup and some war-watching on TV. We all split up and slept in various places, Louis and I got the kids' room, no cats!

Day 3, Sunday March 23, 2003.

   Woke up after another great sleep. So far the accommodations have been superb, and we don't even feel like we are away on tour. After a quick breakfast at Hein's we left for Antwerpen to drop off Brian so he could get a train back to Amsterdam. We'll probably be heading up to see him later in the week. Monday thru Thursday we need to kill some time, and Amsterdam might be the easiest way to do that for at least a day. We don't want to make Paolo and Martine have to look after us for any more than they have to. They have done so much for us already.
   Back at De Nartist we got cleaned up and hung out for a bit. I played some games and did the email thing for sending later. Pete got the guitars ready and we did basically nothing. It was nice. It felt good to lounge around and have nothing to do.
   We got to Gent for the show around 6:00 PM and walked down the college town area to a pizza place called Mamma Mias for some great pies. I had the Exotic which was hest, kaas and ananas (ham, pineapple and cheese) it kicked ass. We all had good pizzas, except Pete, who had a giant bowl of macaroni and cheese with ham.
   Plan 9 and Demzel, the other two bands for the night, showed up soon. The club, Zit - Overpoortstraat, was small, but it turned out to be a comfy environment.
   We ended up running into Phillip who was in a band that appeared on a Dag Nasty compilation with us in 1995. Martine and Paolo told him about the show, and it was cool to meet him. We talked about the label that did that comp, and he was going to try and get us back in touch with him. The beer of the night was Romy.
   Plan 9 and Demzel played very well. Demzel was a good pop punk type band. Plan 9 was much better this night than the night before, and their sound was really growing on me. It was too bad that we weren't playing with them anymore. They didn't have anything to sell either so who knows if we will get to hear them again. We had a small but excited crowd ready for the set. The set from the night was Annie Mae, She's Sorry, Disappear, Seven, Listen To Me, Radio Lied To Me, Never Be The Same, Puzzles, Need To Know, Cyclone, Stare, Merry Go Round, Group Think, Friend of Mine, Leave Me Now.
   We played very well. Wayne held together despite the damage to his arm/shoulder. It turned out to be not as bad as we had all thought. Thank God. Wayne having a gimped arm for the trip would be, well, not good. The crowd response was phenomenal. We decided that we were gonna try and do Group Think tonight, and it turned out to be a great idea. Louis, the guys from Demzel and some of the Plan 9 guys came up and did the "Yeah Whatever" parts for Group Think. It went over amazingly well. Pete lost power for the very end but it didn't matter, it was great. They wouldn't let us leave so we did Friend of Mine for Phillip (the first time ever with Pete mind you, and the first time for us in a long while). We did it pretty well, a bit flubbed but otherwise OK. We did Leave Me Now to finish for good.
   Merch went well, door good, and overall we had a great fucking time. We stopped off for Frieten (Belgian Fries with mayonnaise that tasted like tartar) on the way home and sat up playing music, talking and drinking Carlsberg and learning a special cover song for the upcoming shows. Tomorrow is the first day off. Amsterdam here we come....

Day 4, Monday March 24, 2003.

   We woke up at De Nartist after a night of massive snoring and got cleaned up. Now when I say massiv snoring, I really mean it. When you are not asleep you are screwed. We all snore. Bad. The goal is to fall asleep first to try and thwart the noise.

Amsterdam

   We had nothing to do today so we decided to take a trip up to Amsterdam, and eventually meet up with Brian Walsh and do some sight seeing. We left the gear that we didn't need (the guitars and drum parts we brought) at Martine's. The drive up was uneventful. We stopped off at McDonalds to look for the infamous Royale With Cheese, but to our dismay it was still called Quarter Pounder here in Holland. But they had a McDrive through and signs that said "Dank U" everywhere. That was cool enough. We didn't buy anything from them. Eventually we'll find one, probably in France.
   The 7 of us went into the city that night for some sight seeing and all you can eat Chinese. Pete only had 4 servings... We went to town on that. We decided to stay the night at a campground near the city. It was about a 15 minute bus ride to the city center. The campground was called Zeeburg. It had these quaint little cabins that held between 2 and 6 people. They were simple, cold and worth the 20 bucks a person. It was kinda fucked when we got there cause I had to give the guy my passport, but it was the way they did things so I had to deal with itl. We spent the end of the night relaxing with music, beer (Juliper, Grolsch, Grafen Walder and Fink Brau) and Scrabble (Louis and Wayne versus Pete). Brian keeps mumbling something, "This Fucking Rules" I guess he is having fun. We all are.
   Tomorrow we hoped to get onto the internet for the first time and just hang out in Amsterdam checking out the tourist crap.

Day 5, Tuesday March 25, 2003.

   Amsterdam day. Did the sight seeing thing. Lots to see not much to tell. Saw most of Amsterdam is famous for. The hash bars, the red light district, tons of churches and canals. There's mimes performing all over the Dam Plaza, and we walked up and down the many streets of shops including Kalverstraat. Saw a real live prostitute, many in fact. It's insane how they sit in the windows and smile waiting for business. Louis was actually startled to the point of almost falling down when he saw them. Pete was remarking how we were in Amsterdam, and we hadn't seen any whores. Then the next corner we turned down - BAM!

The Unknown at the Torture Museum.

   Before the trek through the red light district, we went to the torture museum. What a treat that was. They had every kind of torture device you can think of, plus pictures of how they were used. I don't normally get freaked out but man some of that shit was intense. The second last exhibit was a giant saw about 8 feet long that had blades about 6 inches thick. They would hang you by your feet upside down and start sawing you in half staring with your ass. Man people are fucked-up. That was one to never forget.
   We had dinner with Brian at a Pancake restaurant. It was really great. Pizza-like pancakes covered with meats and cheese. Had Bell-Vue Kriek beer-cherry flavored. Caught the late 22 bus back to the campground and hung out all night with some people at the campsite. Brian listened to a jazz band practicing in the bar on the campsite.

Day 6, Wednesday March 26, 2003.

   We woke up at Camp Zeeburg and made the trek out to the bus stop with all of our luggage in hand. It was annoying but a necessity. We had to take the gear with us because we had to be out of the campground before noon, and Martine and Paolo couldn't pick us up until 9:30 PM. It was no big deal cause we planned to go to Amsterdam for another day of the tourist thing and lunch and dinner with Brian.
   We used today to buy most of the trinkets that we would give to our families and friends. Amsterdam and Holland have really cool coat of arms and flags. The Amsterdam XXX flag is way cool. It makes buying magnets and buttons easy to buy. Oh yeah got the famous wooden shoes too, my mom shoul like that. We had lunch with Brian and his roommate Kelly in their neighborhood. We had Tostis (toasted cheese with assorted add-ons like ham, egg, etc.) I spilled coffee on Louis. That was really funny.
   They have a Sex Museum on the main tourist road of Damrak. We couldn't pass that one up for the world. It was totally worth the 2,50 euros. It was basically looking at three floors of porn, but what made it fun was that there were old ladies and all kinds of kids just walking through the museum looking at all the penises and boobs and sex on TV. Amazing how long ago people were making statues and drawings of penises and naked women. Europe is different. I kept imagining what some American couple would do if they walked into this museum by accident. "Oh look dear, it's the sex museum, let's go!"
   There was a purse snatching while we were walking by a department store on Kalverstraat. Some dude came running out of the store and a girl was chasing after him. It was totally out of a movie. We did the internet thing, Pete and Louis hit a guitar store and Brian hit Cafe DePub where he had De Konnick beer. We had another fabulous dinner at a pub called Finch. 3 of us had the burrito meal and 3 had the salmon meal (zalm met pasta tomatensaus & salade). Again, the food was superb. For desert we had an apple cake dish called, appelgebak van kuyt. It was very decadent.
   Martine and Paolo picked us up at the Central Station at 9:30, and we drove back to Belgium to De Nartist. Tomorrow, Paolo, Wayne and Pete are driving to Germany to get the gear. 6 hours each way. The rest of us are gonna do nothing.

Day 7, Thursday March 27, 2003.

   Wayne and Pete left early with Paolo to go and get the gear in Germany. The reason it was Pete and Wayne was that they needed to make sure the drums and guitar gear were what we needed. Pete could handle both the guitar rig and the bass rig, Wayne was needed to do the drums.
   The rest of us did nothing all day. It was great. Got some laundry done and had a great dinner at Martine's house. Got to check the internet again. We are gonna realize how spoiled we have been when we get to the UK and don't get check a computer everyday. Hell, we even got to watch CNN for a bit and get the latest war news.
   We went over to another Belgium club where Pulley and Belvedere were playing, and we hung up flyers for the show at De Nartist on Friday. Ran into the Plan 9 guys again and it was like being at home hanging out at a show.
   Later that night we met back up with Paolo, Wayne and Pete at Philip's house. All the gear was got and all was well. Philip is a guy who came to see us at the Gent show. He was in a band called Innerface years ago that was on a Dag Nasty covers compilation with us. It was really great to hang out with him and talk about music and everything. He has similar tastes to me so it was like a long lost brother. I never in a million years thought I'd be sitting in a living room in Belgium listening to 7 Seconds' "New Wind" talking with friends.

Unknown clan at Phillip and Tonya's

   After a long night of partying with Philip and Tonya (his wife from Norway) we retired back to De Nartist. Tomorrow's show was at the pub at De Nartist.