the night in the hostel was good, the breakfast, too and somehow everything seems more relaxed today. Maybe because we had more than three hours of sleep. Once again, Lee sleeps until the very  last second and if hadn’t woken up than we probably would have had to use cold water. But we can check out on time and get to the car. No traffic jam on the way to Hamburg. I still think that’S suspicious.

Thanks to GPS, the hotel is not hard to find. It’s a tad bit shady, but it’s fine for a night. And it’s clean (the most important thing to me), so I can deal with the rest. The bathrooms reeks of cigarettes though which is a little borderline but as long as you don’t stay there for too long…

One thing that is really cool is that we only need to step out of the door and we’re at the venue. For me as a lazy bum a definite plus. The weather is very sunny and even warm. A tiny bit of summer is still around! The mood seems relaxed overall, so we’re off trying to find lunch. Our choice is a Spanish-Portuguese restaurant, mainly for its cheap prices. The food is DAMN good! Totally worth spending the money on. I’m feeling stuffed but great. Knust here we come.

Just as I sit inside, sound check starts. The gear seems to do its job but Ryan’s worried about his voice. That day off tomorrow will be good for him I guess and for everybody else as well. Ryan is not the only one who’s feeling a little sick. My cold can use a day off just as much. Elias is sleepy, maybe that’s why he forgot his bag, wallet and passport in the restroom. Luckily, everything is still there. Wouldn’t have been too great if the stuff was gone.

Once again, I’m writing at a bar but I gotta move as the show starts in the other room. That’s not bad though cause there the action is broadcasted on a large screen and I can see everything. Attendence is the hightest os all shows so far (I think. I suck at making guesses), and a filled area always looks nice. Mayfield and My Passion’s shows are appreciated by the crowd and the mood is good. iPunk does his last DJ set for the tour today cause he’s got some commitments of his own he has to attend to. I think it’s sad he won’t be there any longer but I can’t change it unfortunately. Then it’s time for Julien-K to present their show. During Futura, Ryan accidentally unplugs his microphone, so today the audience experiences a special insturmental chorus. You need to see the positive in it, right?

As a part of the crowd, you barely notice but obviously the show experiences some ‘technical difficulties’. That’s at least what Elias said afterwards but you could have guessed from his reaction. You usually don’t knock your drums over at the end when you were pleased. The setlist was shortened by a song (No telling which one though. I don’t want people to be upset) to spare Ryan’s vocie a bit. In the beginnig it was even planned to leave out the two last songs but apparently the audience made the band change their minds. Good for the people, hopefully not bad for Ryan’s throat. During the encore a part of Elias’ drumkit falls off the platform, this time unintentionally because said platform is smaller than usual. But everything comes to a good ending.

The performance is followed by the usual signing session and some hanging out with drinks which was moved to a bar later on. But I’ll skip the details, I’m not a paparazzi Not that there is a whole lot of stories to tell. Just the stuff that happens if you put a bunch of people in bar. Sometime in the early morning we get back to the hotel to get a few hours of sleep. No hurries cause we have a day off, too!

That day is spent at Thomas’ parents’ and thanks to wlan, we can catch up with all the stuff we missed out on on the internet. On julien-k.de, you can find photo galleries of all shows up to date. Let us know if you like the pictures!

That’s it for the Germany part of the tour. Tomorrow, it’s the Netherlands.

And because it doesn’t fit at all, I’ll say good bye in Japanese: Mata ne!

Laura

I don’t feel exactly refreshed after that tiny bit of sleep, but it’ll be better soon. There’s a shower waiting in Berlin. A few more hours of driving and we’re at the hostel where we have to wait for our room for a while. At least there’s wireless LAN, even though I need to play aroung with my iPhone the whole time since I didn’t bring a laptop unlike the two guys accompanying me. But time goes by and then I had my shower. Nice!

After that, we take the subway to the venue. I like the way Columbia-Club looks and it looks even cool from inside. The stage is very high up, so you can see everthing from every place in the club. And it’s big, too so you don’t have to squeeze all the stuff on there.

‘Technical difficulties’ occurred during soundcheck. Not everything works how it’s supposed to. After a bit of going back and forth, it’s all sorted out and there’s something special about today’s session: Lee plays the guitar for the song metioned above. The poor guy was so nervous…but that’s understandable, isn’t it?

The weather sucks today. It’s cold, rainy and windy. Great. So I prefer staying inside, much better there. My stomach is killing me, cause I haven’t eaten anything so far. My eating habits have grown a bit strange on tour, I don’t recommend copying. But Daniel turns out to be the saviour. Food gets ordered and I can get something as well. The joy has to keep my spirits up quite long, somehow food takes three hours and arrives just when Julien-K hit the stage.

So I eat my Spaghetti al forno during the show on the floor. I guess you don’t see that too often, but I didn’t feel like waiting until after the show. I was starving. The crowd is in a good mood, though they can’t beat Cologne. But it’s nice to see people dance during iPunk’s set as well. Thumbs up!

After the show there’s a quick signing session but the guys are very hungry and want to grab something to eat real quick. A small street team legation can occupy a room backstage to party a birthday. Mayfield and My Passion join the fun until it’s time to get kicked out of the venue. It continues next to the bus but Thomas, Lee and I are tired as hell (Well, Lee actually slept for hours in the backseat, he shouldn’t be too tired) and we get back to the hostel.

There’s not much else to tell, cause I got to sleep way quicker than usual. I really like that. That’s why this blog entry turns out a bit short but let’s see what happens tomorrow

See you next time,

Laura.

P.S.: More pictures will be added!

After a refreshing night in a nice hotel, I feel almost human again. The bed was comfortable and the breakfast good. I could get used to that. We packed up our stuff and off we were to Cologne. Again without a real traffic jam. That’s suspicious and I feel like something bad about travelling has to happen on this tour. Maybe my train from Paris runs off the rails or it delays about three hours. Though number two is quite likely to happen, as we all know how Deutsche Bahn works…

Mayfield

I’ll stop getting side-tracked. At some point we finally find the MTC. What does MTC stand for by the way? After the show Elias and the rest of us came to the conclusion that it probably means “Motherfucking Tiny Club”, because that’s how it is. This tiny basement room with a super-small sized stage somehow made it to a club. But I think these basement clubs have a certain charm. The lights were also a real understatement. Using three colored lightbulbs would have been about the same, much to Churchman’s dismay. But he made the best out of it.

With Thomas, Lee and Jonas I did a little promo for the show right at the Dome. The people from Cologne really shouldn’t miss the show of the year, so we needed to let them know.

Sometime in the afternoon we headed back and I got started on typing, typing and typing. Looks like I am predestined to write at bars. Not that I’m complaining, cause you still have a nice view from there. In the small venue there’s hardly enough space for the cases, instruments and and musicians, so setting up the stage becomes a little adventurous.

Fu at work

Soundcheck is relatively uneventful. My Passion’s Lawrence has to look out not to bump his head on the low ceiling while using his stool. Six inches of space left. Ryan shouldn’t try to jump either or he’s gonna dent his head.

The band

When it’s time for the doors to open, there’s more people than the other days and most of them are very excited. Good sign for the show and it turned out to be really good. The audience was already partying during Mayfield’s set, My Passion use their energy to excite the fans even more. But colliding with the ceiling had to happen. Somebody just had to hit his head. During Julien-K, the party is at its peak. And I really want to give the crowd in Cologne kudos, you kicked some serious ass. The fans sang, danced and cheered from the very beginning through the whole set. Hardly anybody stood still. Awesome, it’s a lot more fun if everybody shows that he or she is enjoying the concert. The band looks like they’re having fun as well, Ryan smiles and talks a lot to the audience.

Because of curfew, the band had to end their set after Technical Difficulties but people kept calling out for an encore, so that Julien-K were allowed to perform the last two songs as well. And the fans kept partyig. The signing session was crowded, too. From today on, you can buy a limited photo poster of the band. They look great and are high quality, so you should buy while they last!

Karaoke

After the show there’s a little time left until bus call, so after some Döner Kebab people end up in the karaoke bar next door. Mayfield’s Zigg and Lee do a rap performance, My Passion’s drummer makes everyone else look completely incapable of singing and five minutes before the bus leaves, Elias does a nice job at presenting Bon Jovi. The song has definitely more style with Elias on the mic. But then it’s time to go, it’s a long way to Berlin. Yay…not.

For us, the drive is just as long, so off we go. At a gas station near Hannover, we finally get some night’s rest. Or rather morning’s rest, because it’s already half past six. Two and a half hours of sleep are much better when you get the passenger’s seat into a nearly horizontal position.

Thats it for today, until next time!

Laura

Did I sleep well? No, but that’s bound to happen sometimes. Cars are not good places to sleep. My happy dance about the REAL bed in Schwäbisch Hall is already known among you, so I’ll shut up about it. After two hours on the Autobahn we can check in to our hotel earlier…Jackpot!

Break

A shower and some free time later, the world seems much brighter. Outside it’s nice, too, the sun’s shining and it’s quite warm. Warm enough to hang around on the loading platforms or sitting in camping chairs. Churchman’s chair is very comfortable, evern though it’s been used for years. Gotta thank him here for offering it to me when he had to work

The seemingly sent from heaven football is put to good use straight away in a Match between Mayfield, My Passion and some fans on the club’s large parking lot. It didn’t end without a few harmed players but it was obviously fun. I stayed in my chair because I’m a lazy bum. And I have no talent for sports at all. That combined makes mere watching more fun.

Streettam

Our julien-k.de webmaster Thomas was promoted to delivery boy for crew and musicians since he owns a car and GPS and was sent on a mission to a famous fast food chain. His services were highly appreciated, because there was nothing that resembled food within a 10 mile radius. Not that much of a surprise, the town is also in the middle of nowhere. And that’s putting it nicely. And I know what nowhere looks like, I live there. But the old town center is nice though.

Wireless LAN was hard to get, but the bigger the joy when our allmighty Daniel turned up with THE key. All of a sudden, you saw a lot of people outside with laptops. And yes, I was one of them. That’s my job, you know? After a group photo session initiated and directed by Daniel, the weather thought it was time to change. Cold and rain coming up right away – so I decided to continue this inside. For a club in the countryside, the NCO is quite big. The room, that is. The stage, not really. But the equipment fits somehow.

iPunk

Right now, I’m sitting in a little corner at one of the bar counters and typing up all of this while Mayfield already starts playing. The old school Grunge gets me to nod my head a little more day by day though I’m normally not into that genre. But these guys do a great job. My Passion once again spend countless amounts of extra energy on stage, I can’t remember seeing such an urge to move from a whole band before

New Songs

Like everyone else, Julien-K hit the stage one hour later today. You can see that Ryan’s getting slowly better, the energy seems to go up but personally I think the audience in Munich was a little livelier. Today the in-ear equipment doesn’t seem to work how it’s supposed to but the guys don’t let their performance suffer from that. They give their best as usual. Cruel Daze of Summer becomes better the more I hear it. That song caught my attention so badly…I guess you can tell? I have the impression I’m mentioning it every time haha.

After the show the daily signing session starts and develops into some nice and relaxed chatting between the guys and the fans. But at some point, you want to go to bed when you have one available for you. There’s none tomorrow, so I gotta enjoy it. But as long as I can shower in Berlin, I’ll be fine.

Good night!

Laura

P.S.: Buy Julien-K bags from Marika! That’s an order!

…from a relatively sunny Munich. At least the weather is better than I expected. After my cold got a little better overnight, I now suffer from stiff shoulders thanks to hauling my luggage around yesterday. But whatever, I prefer that to the cold.

Ryan

At ten in the morning we travelled from Aschaffenburg to Munich via car. The drive was long, but uneventful aside from a traffic jam and a few drivers who should be stripped of their licenses. Not like that’s news to you.

Here the sound check just started and Amir and Fu raise the roof with the beginning of Technical Difficulties and if I was sensitive to strobe lights, I’d need to leave the venue because there’s no holding back. After Elias battered his drumkit for a while, Ryan tested his sound distortion module for Someday Soon and his guitar. That done, I get a near full performance of Systeme de Sexe. But someone’s playing around with the female voice in a rather salacious way… Cruel Daze of Summer and Someday soon are played as well. Daniel’s very fascinated by a glass of water that keeps dancing to the vibrations of the soundcheck. That glass can dance quite well, actually!

iPunk

Following the soundcheck, a journalist takes some pictures of Elias and his drum kit for a magazine. Outside, the weather has stopped being nice and it’s freezing now. The number of people in the line keeps growing anyways.

At 8:30 Mayfield open the show and once again they can win the audience over. You can see that cause most of them are nodding theit heads to the rhytm. My Passion play at full power again, they show a lot of energy and animate people to participate.

Last, but not least, Julien-K. I know that I already praised their performance yesterday but today they guys found some additional power and put it on top of the 100% they already worked at. Every song sounds more powerful. Ryan – in a new stage outfit – kicks his sickness’ butt and even though you couldn’t notice yesterday that he’s not feeling too great, he’s even better now. The audience seems more lively, too and they show it. Cruel Daze of Summer seems to become a favorite among the new songs and I can only agree to that. The song just sticks in your head, refusing to get out again. Aside from that, it sparks pure energy. Maybe one of the best songs the guys ever wrote – most definitely the stuff a hit is made of.

The show runs along smoothly and during the little signing session at the merch booth, somehow a small party is born that has to be taken outside since the venue staff wants to clean up. Well, there’s a bar outside, perfect for a party, huh? If it only wasn’t this cold. Next stop: A room of the backstage area where the party between fans, crew and bands goes on for a good while before we wre thrown out again. With everyone’s fiends Jack and Daniels we are off to the last stop next to the tour bus. All the bullshit that’s been going on doesn’t need to be told, just this one: Say no if Daniel offers you a cooling stick

Amir

At some point, everyone calls it a night and goes to sleep – in my case in a car seat with a rug. Not exactly a warm thought with temperatures like that. But since I can’t do anything about it, the next gas station becomes our hotel for the night and after 200 different ways of positioning your body kinda comfortably, it’s possible to sleep for a bit. Not the greatest sleep in the world, but at least it’s something. But I didn’t freeze to death and I guess that’s th most important thing. But it’s not likely to become extremely cold when you’re in a tiny car with four people.

Schwäbisch Hall, here I come. A hotel! Real sleep! Kind of a dream come true”

Until next time!

Laura

P.S.: As I promised, I will now praise Churchman, who’s hanging up the Julien-K Germany flag so willingly

P.P.S.: Pictures and stuff will be added later on, promised!

Now it’s time to start with the part of the blog we all waited for…right? The tour kicks off!

Meet & Greet

The travel to Aschaffenburg was a little adventure itself, thanks to Deutsche Bahn. Trains getting delayed and delayed is always a lot of fun. Not. And dragging around what feels like ten tons of luggage in a bag that’s barely holding together is not so funny either. But I’ll stop complaining, I arrived and that’s the most important thing. And if I hadn’t managed to catch a cold exactly today, I’d be completely satisfied.

Elias & Daniel

By the way, the merchandise looks awesome, it’s totally worth spending your money on. Which I will do. I can already hear my wallet crying. Aside from a Hoodie and two shirts there’s a really cool looking tote bag, Death to Analog and the new Dreamland single. But today, the merch is not the most interesting part. What’s really important: How did the show go?

Mayfield, who filled in for Murder.fm, opened the show with a grunge performance that bore a distinct resemblance to Nirvana before My Passion took over a warmed up the crowd for the things that were yet to come. And how they came.

Around 10 pm Julien-K hit the stage and began their first performance ever in Europe. If you didn’t know, you wouldn’t have noticed for a second that Ryan is actually sick. He performed at full power just like everyone else. I won’t tell you the setlist cause I know that some people like to be surprised and I don’t want to be a spoilsport. I’m just going to say this much: It’s a long, nicely chosen set and the four new songs fit in there really well. The people liked them as well which is a good sign for the new album. According to Amir they’ll try to finish the new stuff until the end of the year and that’s quite a nice prospect, isn’t it?

Ryan

And if you wondered who is doing the back-up voals now that Brandon is not a part of the band anymore: It’s not Fu who took over, but Elias. And he’s doing a great job!

And now, I’ll get back to my hotel and try to get rid a little of that stupid cold before we hit the road to Munich tomorrow. From tomorrow on there’ll be something new to the shows: The Austrian DJ iPunk is the official tour DJ and he’ll do a set before, between and after the bands. If that’s not a nice addition, huh? And we want to see you dance! All of you!

See you tomorrow!

Laura

Merchandise

Less than a week until the tour starts and as many of you might have already seen on Twitter, the guys are already in Germany – Hamburg to be exact which they like a lot – to prepare the last bits for the shows like press and rehearsals. Today was the first day of rehearsals and the band practices hard, these are the first concerts in Europe after all. It’s actually been a while since Julien-K played live and this tour is the first with the “new” line-up. No doubt that Fu will do a great job on stage!

The new merchandise just arrived at Tiefdruck’s and awaits its buyers. There will be more than just hoodies and t-shirts but no telling. That’s gonna remain a surprise!

Something else found its way to Tiefdruck Musik: The Dreamland singles! Those are available from Friday on Amazon Germany and a number of stores. It should be mentioned again that the CD is limited to only 1000 pieces, so you shouldn’t ponder too long whether to buy it or not. For only 3,99€ there’s nothing to think about anyways. Buy it!

Dreamland

Julien-K are not the only ones working hard. Tiefdruck is busy as hell, too because they’re in the middle of the last preparations for the tour. Tour books and passes are in the works just like another million things. I have a load of things to do as well and I doubt it’s gonna change before the shows start. Keep your fingers crossed for my Germany flag – I hope it’ll arrive until Monday at the latest ot else we have JULIEN-K GERMANY without a flag on tour and that’s a big no-no!

And now, I shall go and prepare food for my sister’s birthday tomorrow. See you soon!

Laura

The raffle

Some days passed by but now I’m back and I have once again prepared some more or less profound news from the Julien-K tour headquarter for you. Let’s start with a few visual allurements… As you know, the winners of the meet & greets are being announced daily, and I wanted to give you a look into how Tiefdruck-Musik selects the lucky winners:

Your responses to the contest are great, by the way – we get more and more entries day by day, and we are pleased about the fact that it is received well! So yeah, let’s keep the photos coming!

Elias' rehersal drums

Furthermore, Elias was so kind to provide us with a pic of the drumkit that he uses to rehearse for the tour. In addition, he also sent us a picture of himself joking around at the kit! Typically Elias ;D

Elias being silly

In other news, the guys have just decided on the final setlist for the tour. Of course we won’t give away the real deal because we want to keep up the excitement But as the guys have already stated on Twitter, Julien-K are gonna present two to four entirely new songs on tour, and this means we Europeans are gonna be the first lucky people to listen to the new stuff!

At the moment, the guys are busy with some more tour preparations and are currently hiding in the studio programming the keyboards. Amir and Fu have taken some pics of them working that I also want to share with you here in this blog:

Amir in the studio

And some more cool news that I’m sure will please many of you (me included): There will be new merchandise for sale which will enable us to get ourselves some new cool shirts, etc. So far, we had only been able to import the stuff from the USA. Reliable sources have also reported that the designs are gonna be really amazing

Fu at work

Regarding my personal touring plans, I can tell you that I’ve taken some huge steps forward. And sometimes it drives me crazy. My flight for London is booked now, by the way, so in the morning of September 11 I will fly out there from Frankfurt-Hahn, and will land only 20 minutes later, thanks to the lack of a daylight saving time in Great Britain – ha! Unfortunately, it was a bit more expensive than expected, but you know Ryan Air is the king of charges… and yet cheaper than their competitors. I’m actually quite nervous because this will be my first flight ever!

Amir and an Orange amp

Besides, I’ve finally booked all my hotels and hostels for quite tolerable prices, and I’ve even survived the service jungle of the Deutsche Bahn in order to get myself train tickets for Holland and France. Not so easy – especially if you want special conditions. On top of that, you also have to struggle with rude and incompetent staff at times. But after all, I’m now the proud owner of (almost) all train tickets, and the last one should arrive within the next days. Hopefully. If the Deutsche Bahn makes it. Then I’m done with the transport issues, at least.

Lots of fancy electronics

What I need now is an endless packing list that I can work off, and I need to make a new JULIEN-K GERMANY flag. The old one was stolen after this year’s Dead By Sunrise show in Berlin and unfortunately hasn’t resurfaced until now.

So long!

Laura