Europe Day 3

Phew! Where to begin...I just walked in the door after taking yet another run through the cobbled streets of Lund...the snow let up for a bit and the sun is doing wonders to give the town a bit more..life. There are folks biking through the streets, kids playing in what's left of the snow banks, and old men trekking around the local park in droves. Not a bad look at all...now on to last night!

After a bit of a frantic excursion to several local music stores in search of some last minute supplies, Johan, Grieves, and I made the 15 trip down to Malmo to link up with Supreme (of Looptroop Rockers fame), his wife Anya, and their 6 month old daughter. I had heard a lot about them while we were traveling through the states together, and it was really nice to finally meet them in person. Supreme walked us to their local Sushi spot, which was located in the Malmo equivalent of Williamsburg...quite a sight, and a bit comforting/terrifying to note that hipster-ness is more of a universal affliction than I had previously thought. Ahh, the comforts of home. While the sushi place suffered from a bit of an unfortunate name (Chill Out...), the food was incredible. Coincidentally enough, they "just so happened" to have a Looptroop CD on the stereo when we walked in the door...which gave some credence to a statement made later on in the night by a Danish dude, which went something along the lines of "You know Supreme?? Of the Looptroop Rockers?!?! They are Scandinavian SUPER HEROES!!"  Amazing. 

After the sushi spot, and following a warm goodbye from Anya and the baby, we all piled into Johan's Mazda station wagon and began the trip down into Denmark. 45 minutes, 1 international border, and one of the longest bridges in the world later, we found ourselves in the heart of Copenhagen. Our route into the city took us in from the North, and allowed us the pleasure of driving right past the famous Tivoli grounds, which were just beginning to light up as the sun set. A bit of extra time to explore would have been wonderful, but I was grateful to get to see it, however briefly. As much as a truism as this may sound like, it's really incredible to be in the midst of so much OLD stuff...churches, houses, streets...hundreds and hundreds, and in the case of the Stave Church here in downtown Lund, thousands, of years old. 

We pulled up to the unfortunately named Club Rust, and began the process of unloading our equipment into the venue. There was a massive wrought iron gate in front of the club which, I was told, had been installed the previous year after a molotov cocktail attack destroyed the original building. They don't fuck around here. 

Load-in itself was a breeze, but soundcheck was a bit more of an ordeal. Just before leaving the states, i.e. at the tail end of 4 sleepless, heavy driving, show/vegas filled, days, we stumbled into the local Target in Fort Collins, CO and purchased as many US-European power adapters as we could find. 5 in total. Good? Not exactly. Plugging in our equipment on stage, everything briefly powered up...a couple of crucial pieces of gear, including a guitar pedal and line mixer, just as quickly powered down. A slight burning smell followed and, try as we might, we could get anything to turn back on. Thanks entirely to the incredible level of professionalism and sheer helpfulness of the sound tech at Rust, we discovered that while we had, indeed, purchased the correct adapters, we had purchased anything that was capable of down-converting the European 220 voltage to the standard American 110 voltage. In short, we had fried our shit. Great. The line mixer problem was solved with a couple of DI boxes...not a problem for the keyboards, but the guitar, which also had to be DI'd, ended up sounding like well tuned elephant trunk run through a megaphone on top of a Nixon for President truck. Not good, but not as terrible as it could have been.

Debacle (somewhat) averted, we headed upstairs and got to spend a bit of time getting acquainted with the rest of the folks on the tour. Ali was wonderfully gracious. Such a strong presence, it was truly an honor to be chopping it up with someone I've admired for so long. BK-One was a pleasure to meet, and the rest of the folks behind the scenes on the tour are the model of professionalism. I have a feeling this is gonna be one of those tours that spoils a person....and there's nothing wrong with that.

The show:

Grieves and I were pretty fucking nervous, standing on a stage in front of a sold-out crowd full of folks that literally had no idea who we were. Thankfully, a shaky first 30-seconds gave way to wonderful set. The crowd was incredible, participating and engaging in a way that you seldom see in the states. The sound was great! All in all, I couldn't have asked for a better forum to introduce our odd-ball brand of live hip-hop to a foreign audience. We're really lucky to have the opportunity to stand on these stages, in these countries, opening up for Brother Ali and BK-One. Truly.

I'm in a bit of a hurry, having spent too much time elaborating on the earlier parts of the day, but I'll leave you with these thoughts:

1. The bridge between Denmark and Sweden is much longer at night. 

2. Supreme and Johan are 2 of my favorite people in the world

3. Danish people LOVE to give you beer. At one point I was holding 3 full pint glasses, none of which I purchased myself, and none of which I ended up drinking.

4. Mat, our tour manager, has a Sprinter that is much, much more awesome than our Sprinter. It has a bed!

Now off for a quick shower, and then a two block walk up the street to the Meijeriet to soundcheck for our show tonight in Lund!

More tomorrow, folks!