20110102

Day 8_02.01:
The drive to Berlin was wayyy tooo long. Actually we crossed the borders of 3 countries (Austria, Slovakia and Czech Republic). 11 hours driving non-stop in order to reach Berlin for today's afternoon matinee at La Casa.
La Casa is located in Berlin's suburbs, around 20km away from the city centre.
I dare to say that La Casa is probably the best venue I've ever been in my life. It used to be a squat but now is something like an autonous building owned by the state. Whatever it is, is awesome.
We had a delicious vegan meal and I tasted one of the best vegan cake ever!
The show started at 17.30 since it was a matinee, as I stated above, and IWYD played first. Their performance was way better than last night's show and the sound was ace, I really enjoyed their set that I attended along with 50 more nice girls and guys.
Empty Handed from Leipsig played afterwards (melodic modern / emotional hardcore a la More Than Life) and xUnveilx from Switzerland after them. Their set was fucking tight, 90s influenced vegan / straight edge hardcore at its best. They are one of the most active hardcore bands nowadays, keep an eye on them.

Well, we are about to have some sleep since we desperately need it and the bands' room of La Casa is really cosy. We are tired as hell, but fortunately tomorrow we don't have to drive at all, because IWYD are playin' a show in the legendary Koepi squat along with Boredom from Austria and Sandcreek Massacre from Holland.

Goodnight, we miss you but, to be honest, these moments can't be traded for the world, we don't wanna get back in Greece at all, haha.
Hugs.

Van essentials:
Current 93, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, greek punk rock.

Day 7_01.01:

So, the night of new year's eve was undoubtedly CHAOTIC. No comments.
We crashed in a hotel somewhere in Romania's countryside, around 50km away from Cluj. We woke up in the morning (after sleeping for 4-5 hours) and started the trip to Budapest, Hungary, where we arrived at around 16.00 and reached the venue after a while. Budapest is a terribly beautiful country and it's a shame that we had to stay there for less than 12 hours... Nevermind!
The show was cool, even though we were tired and cold as hell...
The local bands Dance or Die and Human Error (some of you may know them from their greek tour last May) opened the show and IWYD played third in the row, around 23.15. They played an OK set, it could be better though, but it was nice after all with a good feedback. Aussitot Mort from France delivered their post-hc / screamo tunes afterwards and around 1 o'clock it was time for the awesome Japanese band Heaven In Her Arms. To be honest, we lost our temper waiting for them to do soundcheck (2 of us were sleeping in the van, by the way), but they played a FANTASTIC show. Damn, melodic yet emotional post-hardcore music with some screamo parts, check 'em out, I consider them as one of the best bands nowadays...
So, we crashed at a guy's (I don't remember his name, sorry...) house for a couple of hours (maybe less) and then we started the trip for Berlin at around 5.30 in the fucking morning. Dead.

Van essentials: reggae + I don't remember.