41 DAYS IN THE LIFE OF A sound man ON THE ROAD WITH KILLSWITCH ENGAGE / 36 CRAZYFISTS / FIVE POINTE 0 IN EUROPE October 18th to November 27th 2002 by mark von sound INTRODUCTION This tour was a few years ago so remembering a day to day journal of the events is tricky so Ive just documented particular occasions which stand out for me from one of my favourite tours I..ve ever done. It was the first time over here for the bands Killswitch Engage, 36 Crazyfists and Five Pointe 0 .. This was the first Roadrage tour of Europe from bands on Roadrunner Records who are one of the worlds biggest heavy metal record labels .. they have since done several more under the successful Roadrage banner .. So out of the blue I get a phone call asking me .. do you want to come on tour for six weeks tomorrow ? .. I was home alone as my then girlfriend was in Thailand for a couple of months .. I had nothing else on so I accepted .. heres what happened .. HEAD BUTT TO THE NOSE So the tour was already in full swing before I joined in Bradford .. things didnt work out with the previous soundman so they needed a replacement .. on two buses there were seventeen new people to meet who were the three bands and crew and one old friend who was the tour manager .. he goes by the name of Big M .. hes the person who gave me the phone call .. my debut show with all the bands went well .. I was hanging out back at the bus when guys from 36 Crazyfists came back and told me about an incident that had just happened .. they were hanging at the bar chatting to kids after the show .. basically just having a good time until this one drunk six feet five goth idiot through a spanner in the works .. he started giving one of 36 guys verbal shit which got ignored .. not happy with being disregarded he got more and more in his face .. then physically started pushing .. bad move .. the bandmember is not a violent person but comes from an Alaskan deep sea fishing community which work hard and play hard and if you have to .. you stick up for yourself .. well with one simple move this guy was on the floor with blood pissing from his face .. he had received an Alaskan Agro Kiss .. yep a HEAD BUTT TO THE NOSE .. this guy just staggered off moaning .. when back at the buses he came round asking why ? .. well its obvious why .. you are drunk .. you are an idiot .. you asked for it .. you got it .. and so the unwanted guest was lead away by his broken and bloody nose and told to go home otherwise things could get a lot worse .. he didnt have much choice so disappeared into the night .. well Ive now known the band member for many years and know him to be such a lovely genuine guy .. but this was day one and first impressions were .. this man is trouble ! .. if something is gonna kick off it will be him .. how wrong I was .. That was my day on October 18th 2002 ACROSS THE NORTH SEA Following shows in Birmingham and Newcastle we start on our journey to Norway .. during the morning we drove down to Newcastle docks to the ferry port .. we board the ferry and start to start our seventeen hour journey to Kristiansand in Norway .. I have been on many ferries all over Europe which have been reasonably flat crossings .. but this goes ACROSS THE NORTH SEA .. holy shit ! .. to say it was choppy is an understatement .. the boat went thirty feet up then sixty feet down then fifty feet up then forty feet down .. I think you can see the pattern .. it was rough .. youd be walking along and leave your stomach somewhere else for it to return mushed up and twisted a minute later .. trying to carry a tray of food in the cafeteria was nearly impossible .. as these are overnight crossings you get cabins .. our budget wasnt huge so we got the cheap ones under the car decks with four people to a cabin .. As we so were close to the bottom of the boat you could really hear the waves crashing against the hull as we rose up then smashed down .. it was deafening and sounded like the hull was gonna cave in any second .. some of our posse faired worse than others .. merch guy Timbo probably suffered the most .. he decided to stay in the cabin for the duration of crossing .. he mustve been sea-sick a hundred times .. he was beyond bile ! .. I never usually get sea sick but this was too much for me .. I got myself a two litre bottle of water and sat at the back of the boat outside in the fresh air with my eyes transfixed on the horizon for hours .. I didnt feel great but this got me through .. we eventually arrived in Norway the next day where winter had already taken hold .. on our approach to the ferry port we were breaking the ice as we travelled up the river .. it was freezing cold and snowing .. and hoped the icy roads would not stop our journey up to Oslo .. Those were my days on October 21st and 22nd 2002 POLICE RAID This was our last show in Scandinavia after Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki and Malmo .. we had arrived in Copenhagen .. this meant one thing for the smokers on the tour .. the wonderful Christiana .. the said smokers on the tour were not morning people .. you get up when you need to which means .. wake up .. toilet .. brush teeth .. start working and load in .. but today everyone was awake much earlier to make the journey across town to get to the weed heaven of Christiana .. stalls and stalls of hash and weed .. I love taking people there for the first time .. its like watching the faces of kids on Christmas morning .. they just light up like an army searchlights ! .. Its mad how this place was tolerated by the Police but over time this had become less and less .. on this day we wondered round bought some goodies and smoked some goodies so we were pretty baked and taking life slow and mellow .. just in case of raids there are many lookouts .. and on this day the dreaded shout of .. POLICE RAID .. was heard .. just in case of raids there are many lookouts .. under normal circumstances you know what to do but when you are in a foreign country in an area where there are probably thirty to forty different types of hash and weed .. well you shit your pants .. we got the f*ck out and managed to regroup on the outside .. it turned out to be a false alarm .. but when stoned the thought of being in a foreign jail is quite a scary concept .. we cut our loses and got back to the venue with a plethora of combustible goodies .. at the start of the show we had some problems with the bass guitar amplifier blowing fuse after fuse but we got it fixed and the show got going .. it sold out .. and rocked like a bastard .. That was my day on October 29th 2002 BLACK VULTURE After Hamburg and Berlin this was my first time in Poland for a few years .. you already read about my eventful previous visit to the big square country on the right of Germany .. on this one we were just playing the capitol Warsaw .. the day was cold grey and miserable which is how I remember the country from before .. it is not a wealthy place so unfortunately crime can potentially be bad .. so the promoter had paid some guys to look after us .. these guys were I..m sure gangsters .. dressed in black .. seven feet tall .. wearing huge overcoats .. I don..t know what weapons they were carrying but I guessed just being big wasn..t enough to protect us .. one time I had to go back to the bus .. once onboard I watched through the one way tinted windows as some of these men were doing some deal from the back of one big black Mercedes car to another .. packages that could have been drugs or guns were being passed over .. the wedge of money was so big there was probably more paper than goes into a copy of War And Peace .. these were major league gangsters I was observing .. Im just glad to say thanks to our promoter they were on our side .. in the dressing room we often got a bottle of liquor and today was no different .. we are in Poland which is the home of some of the worlds best vodka .. and so we did got vodka .. but was it Polands finest .. no it was strangely from Spain of all places and called BLACK VULTURE .. it was rough .. the majority of it was used for cleaning guitars .. but thankfully the day passed without incident before we loaded out and drove down a very bumpy road through the Czech Republic to Vienna in Austria .. That was my day on November 1st 2002 CLOUDY DEATH We made it through the shows in Vienna and Munich to Zurich in Switzerland ..Today sticks in my mind for the session after the gig .. we still had some smoking goodies left from our shopping in Copenhagen .. the party was in full swing in the 36 Crazyfists and Five Pointe 0 bus with guest of honour .. Mr Jack Daniels making an appearance .. it was time to leave so pretty buzzed I returned to the Killswitch bus .. sat in the downstairs lounge was Joel one of the guitarists and Howard the singer .. Joel was about to crash out but to quench his thirst drank a bottle of Smirnoff Ice in one go .. I was in party mode .. the next day was a day off .. I wasnt tour manager .. so decided to keep going .. but it got a little out of hand .. already Im quite wasted and just witnessed Joel neck a bottle .. then the competitive drinker in me took over .. so I drank a Smirnoff Ice in one go .. this went back and forth until we got through all twenty four bottles in maybe ten minutes .. Howard told me afterwards each of my eyes were looking as far sideways as possible so much so that my line of vision was more behind than in front .. with the case of drink completed I made the correct decision to crawl to my bunk .. when going to bed drunk often the case is get in fully clothed which is what I did .. I kicked my shoes off and pulled my jeans as far as my ankles .. I passed out within seconds .. I had nothing to do the next day so all good .. during the night we crossed into Italy .. the border guy checked the passports to make sure we were who we said we were .. he came on the bus to save us all getting off and also to have a nosey around .. they couldnt wake me so just pulled back the curtain to my bunk .. well getting back to kicking my jeans off and passing out .. well unknown to me at the time my boxers came down too .. with my curtain open my bare ass was there on show .. ooops .. I did wake and show my face so he could match the photo .. I passed out again until the next afternoon .. by this time we had parked outside the next venue in Milan .. I felt like shit so decided just to stay in my bunk and sleep it off ..which I did all day until 1am when I felt a gurgling inside me .. I got up .. down the stairs and out the door to the back of the bus .. I threw up like never before .. there was gallons of the stuff .. the Smirnoff Ice was cloudy and fizzy when I drank it the previous night .. and thats exactly how it came out .. oh my god I felt so much better afterwards .. it felt great to get the CLOUDY DEATH out .. needless to say I have not gone near a bottle of it since .. Joel told me that day we were at a service station where he was taking a dump and was sick at the same time .. worst case scenario .. Smirnoff Ice had beaten us .. I discard the fact we drank a whole case in ten minutes I chose to believe it was out of date ! .. Everyone has their night and that was mine .. oh brother ! .. Those were my days on November 5th and 6th 2002 IT WAS A JOKE It was my birthday and I was in Milan .. thirty two years young .. the highlight of my day was managing to speak to my then girlfriend in Thailand .. but as per usual if there is a gig on my birthday it sucks .. and this was no different .. the venue was a posh nightclub directly underneath a block of apartments which people lived in .. and so therefore we had severe sound volume restrictions .. so bad that even the drums on stage were too loud for the decibel meter ! .. it was a farce .. the whole show was filmed for an Italian TV rock show .. the organisers of this thought it would be a great idea to have the bands names revolving on a huge projection screen at the back of the stage .. but unfortunately they had not done any research into the incredibly difficult task of how to spell the bands names .. instead of Five Pointe 0 they had Five Pointes 0 and 36 Crazyfists got 36 Crazyfistis .. I was fuming .. even a child of six wouldnt make these kind of errors .. IT WAS A JOKE .. on the brightside thankfully Killswitch was spelt correctly .. we couldnt wait to leave ! .. That was my day on November 7th 2002 HOT BAGGING This venue was in an really old part of town with narrow tight streets .. we only just managed to get the bus there to unload .. as we blocked the street the traffic behind us became a huge tailback of horn beeping shouting angry mad Spaniards .. once the equipment was out .. the buses had to drive and park elsewhere to return at the end of the night .. after sound-check some of us walked round the corner to a cafÈ to get some food .. I ordered a margarita pizza which was very greasy and not too nice .. but when hungry a man must eat .. afterwards we returned to the venue .. I felt my stomach gurgling in not a nice way .. but I had three bands to mix so was too busy to act on it .. I guessed my pizza was gonna leave my body before I was gonna leave the venue .. we had no backstage toilet so once the people had left I would use the regular toilets .. these were downstairs under the venue and during the evening flooded .. it was a foot deep with all kinds of liquids .. yuck .. so this became an obvious non starter .. the bus returned with many more cars parked there than before .. the driver did his best to get down the tight street .. but loads of car wing mirrors were taken out so we had to load and leave as soon as possible .. on our way out we drove passed the Barcelona Nou Camp football stadium .. I told the driver of my situation of needing a toilet .. so the first service station we came to we stopped at .. well as we were so close to the football ground this was somewhere that the hooligans had got to first .. I have never seen anything like it .. all the stalls were smashed up and rats were running all around the toilets .. so this was again an obvious non starter .. I retired to my bunk to try and sleep until the morning .. but the gurgling in my stomach got once .. and I knew what I had to do .. I ran downstairs grabbed a black dustbin bag .. took it to the bus toilet and did what I had to do .. ran to the front asked the driver to slow down .. I returned to the back of the bus to through it out the back door when we reduced speed .. then back to my bunk feeling much better .. from bunk to bunk the whole operation took less than 25 seconds .. not a nice story but still a memory I have from the tour .. and this is the only time Ive ever needed to perform the action of HOT BAGGING .. oh the glamour of touring ! ..That was my day on November 8th 2002 EIGHT CIGAR SIZED NEAT SPLIFFS Following Madrid, Lisbon, Paris and Kontich in Belgium we arrived in Tilburg in Holland .. and again the smokers were up and ready for action .. I took them for their first Dutch coffee shop experience .. we got directions and walked several streets to one called Africa .. if I remember correctly there were eight of us .. we all purchased different types of the green goodness .. got a coffee each and as it was their first time in such a great shop each person had to roll one up .. American..s dont put tobacco in them and neither do I so between us we had EIGHT CIGAR SIZED NEAT SPLIFFS .. oh my god ! .. before leaving we smoked them all .. I was so high they needed to borrow an egg flip to scrape me off the ceiling .. In this coffee shop they were well prepared for the foreign smokers to come in .. I walked to what I thought was the door out .. only to discover in my baked state that it had in fact been painted on the wall .. I turned round to see the rest of the guys in single file behind me expecting the door to be there as well .. looking further inside the people who worked there were killing themselves with laughter .. yep .. there joke had worked again .. we eventually found the door and started walking back to the club which was just a couple of streets away .. but we were far too stoned to remember the way .. after time we managed to find our way back .. on returning back to the bus I had to have a lie down to get my head back together .. while I was in my bunk Mick and Steve from 36 Crazyfists had a wonder around the venue .. they walked out onto the stage for the big room and high fived each other in celebration .. but this was short lived .. what they didnt know was there is two different sized rooms there .. one of the crew for De La Soul who were playing there said .. you guys in the other room .. still nice but much smaller .. Mick and Steve laughed in the face of defeat and left .. That was my day on November 16th 2002 HE TRIED TO WRESTLE HOWARD Back in Germany for a couple of days we had played Stuttgart and today was Frankfurt .. my friends who crop up in lots of my journals were here .. Jenny, Mitch and Mike brought us a bottle of Absinthe .. After the show no one would really touch the stuff apart from Mick from and me .. well we consumed quite a bit and I was OK but Mick was on another planet .. he was raging .. out side he was causing havoc .. HE TRIED TO WRESTLE HOWARD the Killswitch Engage vocalist .. Howard was having none of it .. next his was trying to hug him telling him how great he was .. not long after he had passed out .. the next morning we had arrived in Cologne .. I have never seen anyone look so rough .. he puked so much he lost all of his internal organs and most of his skeleton .. Roadrunner had done such a huge promotional job for the tour and part of it was a competition to win a quad bike .. it was at this show that some lucky guy won it ! .. every went great that night .. which is no surprise as Cologne always is the best city for live rock music in Germany .. Those were my days on November 18th and 19th 2002 RESULT We had arrived at the big one .. the London show .. originally booked into the 1000 capacity venue The Mean Fiddler the show had sold so well it had been moved up to a sold out 2000 capacity Astoria .. and even years later when I write this it remains one of my favourite shows Ive ever been a part of .. I have worked this venue several times and always loved it .. this was my first sold out headline show there and will always have a special place in my memory .. it really couldnt have gone any better .. all three bands played their socks off .. RESULT ! .. That was my day on November 26th 2002 EIGHTY EIGHT TOILET ROLLS The last show of the tour was in Brighton at a fantastic venue right on the beach .. let me introduce you to Jeff Hill he was the crew guy that 36 Crazyfists brought over .. today was his birthday .. Big M the tour manager got him good .. on a paper plate he had sprayed a huge pile of shaving foam .. told Jeff it was his cake .. Jeff was pleased as he held it in his hand .. Big M told him to smell it .. for whatever naÔve reason that I still dont understand he did .. Big M pushed it straight into his face .. very childish but you cant beat a bit of old school slapstick humour .. then the real cake came out .. As this was the final show of the tour the two other bands decided to have some fun with Killswitch during their set .. 36 Crazyfists drummer Thomas sprayed water at the Killswitch drummer Tom for several songs while still playing drums .. he got soaked to the skin .. then the toilet paper war started .. 36 Crazyfists had found a cupboard with EIGHTY EIGHT TOILET ROLLS in it .. every single one were thrown at Killswitch during their encore .. they looked like Egyptian Mummies by the end of it .. The great end to a great tour .. to Mike, Joel, Adam, Howard, Tom and Dice with Killswitch .. Brock, Mick, Steve, Thomas and Jeff with 36 .. Daniel, Sharon, Sean, Eric, Casey, Tony and Timbo with Five Pointe 0 .. thank you all for fantastic time .. That was my day on November 27th 2002 I have a vivid imagination so please dont believe everything I say certain things are fiction ..