After the interesting sleep sharing rooms with last night’s band, we rose early for the 4 and half hour drive desiring to check into the hotel before load in. The drive took longer than that. There’s a mass exodus happening in Syria at the moment and Germany has closed it’s doors after offering refuge for a million, many of these people don’t know they can’t go to Germany anymore so places like Austria cop it. We had to prepare for this as vans once again are a target for smuggling. Sure enough the traffic built up and we eventually got flagged. It wasn’t bad though, a quick search and a few questions and we were on our way. The address for our hotel in Bad Freidfrichshall was incorrect with the tomtom so we asked for some directions and worked out way to the hotel, which ended up being 10kms from the venue. Boo.

The old mate in the office spoke maybe 2 words in English so this was fun, we got our room and upon entering the room hadn’t been made up yet, messy bed sheets and towels everywhere. With how tired we were and how little English the guy spoke, we couldn’t be bothered doing anything about it. We chilled for a bit then head back into town for the load in at the place called Lemmy’s. Yes, after Lemmy Killmister. Awesome.

The load in wasn’t too good, as we had to park on the footpath and use an elevator for a second level load in. Made easier by the bar owner as he helped out. Small place with bench seats around but pics of Lemmy and Jack Daniel’s made this place ok for me. The sound guy was a classic here, he didn’t speak much English either but clearly wasn’t a good engineer. Not understanding a lot, foldback not working, things missing, what should’ve been a quick line check turned into 2 hours of fiddling around. Anyway it was done. While this was happening we got word that our show next week in Paris with the awesome Glenn Hughes, wasn’t to happen anymore. The manager pulled us from the opening spot due to the promoter not confirming with him until that day. We had been confirmed to the promoter for 3 months, but there was a lack of communication so we got pulled from the opening spot. Major shithouse. After souncheck Higgsy wrote to the promoter saying how bummed we were, especially as being fans. Also we have a bunch of people actually going to the show for us, and also some important people booked to see the show too. Maybe the word would get to Glenn himself and he’ll understand a little rock band on the road really still wants to play the show? We’ll see.

We have dinner delivered to us and it’s showtime. Now, this would have to be one the quietest shows we’ve played. The promoter put us on the same night as a massive German soccer game, everyone stays in for these. Ah well. We did however have two regular KOTN fans, a couple who always travel to see us this time an hour, both in KOTN tees headbanging at the front. Legends.

We end the show and hang with them for a while, and plan to quickly pack up and get some sleep. They and the bar owner help load the gear and were off to the hotel. Much needed sleep time. Koln tomorrow! To a place we’ve played before, should be good.

X

-Danny