lino, patron saint of tour (andrew)
berlin graffiti jubilee
Berlin was, as always, a city of dreams. The venue we played, Astra, was burrowed in a graffiti paradise beyond my wildest dreams.
We reunited with some favorite faces from our past, from the old Creaky Boards/Darwin Deez tour of early 2009. Our friend Johannes from Halle had traveled two hours to come see us, and he came bearing the ultimate gift, Lino, German pharmaceutical mascot and patron saint of tour. I also reunited with my friend Maria from Bochum, whom I met at the same show that led to Lucky Number Records discovering Darwin Deez. Maria, her boyfriend Toby, and her friend Natalie had sewn and designed three different shirts for me. They are the best! We dashed off into the night, drinking Klub Mate and posing at photobooths that, in Berlin, can be found right along the sidewalk.
At Tegel Airport, we once again went through the unavoidable Deez ritual of trying to force our abundant belongings, merchandise, and gear past the ticket agent and onto the plane. Smaller carry-ons are stuffed into larger carry-ons, until each Darwin Deez member is hobbling beneath a comical quantity of cargo. It’s like trying to push an elephant into the front door of your apartment. Next, we a ran into some bureaucratic red tape regarding passport stamps. We were seconds away from missing our plane entirely. Despite this, Darwin still found time to send our driver, Seb, on a Burger King run. Seb ran back I with a brown bag full of burger goodness. “There are only six,” he reported to Darwin. “Is that enough?”
Johannes anoints the band with Lino
Flying above the Atlantic Ocean, Miles and I were waxing nostalgic about our adventures, and how this has been our first time hanging out together. Miles had read this blog before ever meeting me, and so I asked him: “Am I what you expected me to be from reading my blog?” Miles paused and smiled. “Not exactly… out of every 25 things you say, one of those things will end up on the blog,” he explained. “But then there’s those 24 other things that complete the picture of who the real you is.” “I’m goofier,” I offered. Miles laughed in agreement.