Everything And Nothing.

Words cannot describe how crazy and hectic these last few days have been since my last update.

I ended in St. Petersberg...so we'll start from there.

St Petersberg show, insane, small, hot, sweaty, tons of kids, Russians being crazy. Right after our show (ended at 11:45) we had to catch a train to Moscow at 1:00 AM. We walked to the bus station from the venue. That sucked...but our tickets were paid for so we couldn't complain. Cue: 8 hour train ride over night to Moscow. Cue: Employees getting drunk, people sleeping under benches and in vents on the train. Absolute chaos turns into tossing and turning with little to no sleep on an over night train ride. Woke up with a sore neck and back...whatever, I'm on tour.

Moscow: Arrive at 9ish...get on the subway...first thing I notice is blood splattered on the subway doors from some drunk Russians fighting earlier in the morning...we then go to the promoters flat and hang out and play a round of Pride Fighting for play station (Guess who won?). We meet Dima our tour guide for the day, the guy who tells us where to go and where not to go do to Nazis and other dangers in Moscow. We march red square, see lenins tomb, other candy land looking buildings, take some pictures, go to the biggest church in Moscow, see a mummified priest. Get kicked out for loitering and looking like heathens. We walk around more (literally like 6 hours of walking)...take the subway, walk through with out paying. Head to the venue, huge stage, huge venue (hatebreed could have played there), huge back stage, meet some friends from our previous night in st. petersberg, even our little hand tattooed 16 year old friend. Amazing kid. Show starts and surprisingly it wasn't awkward to play on a stage that high...bunch of kids having fun, a kid jumping off the balcony. Apparently Nazis came in during our set and they got stomped on. Good to hear. The anti fascist movement over here is crazy and makes the states look like a joke. People actually die over here, molotovs, bombs, fire bombs, beatings, stabbings, etc. etc. After our set, we have to leave to the train station again (8 hour train ride to Bryansk) this time we have beds and it was way more relaxing. It was fun, regardless. Head to sleep and arrive in bryansk shortly after (no sleep till...bryansk?).

Bryansk Russia:
5AM wake up and head to the flat we were staying at. I made the mistake of trying to catch up with people back home...I wait till people are finally awake and we eat some food. Cue: Ipod shitting out and my life being in shambles. Words cannot describe how sad I was/am. Life. Plug. Regret. Anyway, head to the venue, the show was in a museum and it was insane, again...that's the theme of eastern Europe so far. People stage diving, making the roof fall through, and they don't even know the words. They just love the music. Anyway...we hang out outside until our rides show up. What happens? A drunk fight happens...it was over as soon as it began, people exchanging numbers, emails, and other things knowing we'll forget them/erase them/wash them off our bodies. Finally our rides arrive...we head to the promoters house and we try to find tickets home (thinking we were all going home cause up till now, tour has kind of sucked). No dice. For a second I thought the world was coming down on me and I quickly realized that I'd rather go through this then sit on a couch and watch t.v. all day.

Fast forward a couple hours...get in a van and head to the russian/ukraine border...anticipating the outcome of us being able to get in. We can either get in and it's smooth sailing or we can get denied and be stranded in Russia for days. After a couple minutes of brief paranoia and dealing with a driver who didn't speak english...we get through.

Half way there...we meet Dennis, our Ukrainian promoter and he guides us through the process of entering into his country. Fill out a few papers, lie about money, and we're 3/4 of the way in. Now to passport control...Ukrainian soldier asks if we're American and with hesitation we all say yes...a big smile lights up his face and he says "OBAMA!" with a thumbs up. He asks to see our bags and asks if we have ganja, we say no. We're through. We take three cars to our first stay in Ukraine. The name escapes me, but we got to the flat and we head to sleep. The late afternoon sun has a way of waking you up whether you want it to or not. Regardless we all wake up and watch the Ukraine version of MTV, waiting for our crazy host to get to his 1 of 4 houses that he owns. He's always in a rush, but he's always late. Gotta love the irony. Anyway, he comes by (2 hours after he said he'd be there) and tells us 7 people can go with him. Me and 2 others decide to stay and watch more television that we do not understand, except for the occasional Justin Timberlake video that pops up. An hour and a half goes by and still no sign of us being picked up. Apparently Alex had forgot about us and he finally has to be reminded to come get us. He comes and gets us and we arrive to the venue (which is basically just an abandoned garage) and immediately we are greeted with smiles and hand shakes. We don't look Ukrainian and we don't dress like them so we have to be American. We make small talk with the locals who are stoked on us being there. They love America, grunge, seattle, Nirvana, Pennywise, NOFX, and others that I stopped caring about in 9th grade (except Nirvana). Time to play. Chaos, again and again and again. It was more chaotic post set. I was kissed by at least 4 guys and a few girls...I did not consent. I was signed and I signed stuff as well. That's always weird. But these kids were just grateful that we came to their country to play music. I was happy to make them happy. After the chaos and the dust settled we headed back to the flat we stayed at and made pasta with pasta sauce that was literally ketchup. I couldn't complain. Here you eat what you can, especially with our dietary restrictions. Eat. Sleep. Wake up. Shower. T.V. Get in another van again.

Kyiv, Ukraine:

Here I am typing this in one of the nicest apartments I have ever stayed in. Dennis our promoter is a computer wiz I suppose and it shows. We have 3 days in the Ukraine at this very nice establishment. Hopefully all goes well here. The show tonight was fun and not as chaotic, but still worth all the hard ships we've gone through. I think it's time for me to stop writing.

Pictures to come.

P.S. My ipod was restored (sadly my music is gone, but I'll have it back).

I think I can live with 15 gigs of music as opposed to 78.

Currently listening to Jarboe and Neurosis. This is fantastic.