Hannes Grossmann of Obscura Tour Blog for Sick Drummer Magazine – Hannes will be sending short blogs throughout the current American Defloration Tour with The Black Dahlia Murder, Augury and HateSphere.
March 8th – Portland/OR, Hawthorne Theater
I’ve been to Portland before, but I didn’t notice how much of a hippie town it is. At least the part of the city called Hawthorne is. The good thing about hippie towns is that they care a lot about healthy food and good coffee. I’m not sure if walkin’ barefootin’ allday is really healthy, but maybe if you eat all that veggie crap every day, it doesn’t matter anymore…
Well, nice theater we were palying in. The audience was really enthusiastic and finally I got the chance to catch Augury. Even though they lost their rhythm section right before the tour started, they sound tight. Tommy really can play the drums. We were all very tired because we had an overnight drive from San Francisco, so we packed our stuff as soon as the concert was over and drove to the closest Motel 6.
March 9th – Seattle/WA, El Corazon
El corazon…that must be Spanish for THE BUTTHOLE. The most rotten stage we played on this tour so far, two of my tom mics didn’t just fell off, they literally fell apart in its single pieces. Steffen got hit by his microphone stand in the mouth because the audience went totally crazy. At least one really cool thing about that venue, as long as you don’t have to sing. No seriously, the audience was great and I really would love to play in Seattle again. Maybe in another club.
Later after we’d played we experienced the whole assholeness of the security there. I mean, I fully understand that you need to show your ID to make sure you’re 21+ when entering the bar. It’s the law. I can’t help myself being raised in Bavaria where you can legally drink by the age of 16, I have to stick to the laws here. Though I thought it might be a little odd that they wanted to see our bass player Jeroen’s passport. He’s 38 and though he lookes younger than he is, he definately looks older than 20. Sorry, Jeroen. But after we showed our German ID cards the door guy said this ain’t enough, he needs a traveller’s pass. If actually makes no real difference, unless you don’ t need to see our work visas, which are in that passport. I can travael out of the US and everywhere in Europe only with my German ID card. And besides there is a work visa in the other passport, both are identical. So don’t get me wrong but I felt really offended, when the guy just took a look at the same identical ID card. Then they won’t let us out with a Sprite. I know that Sprite is probably a pretty dangerous drink for Americans, but in Europe Sprite ain’t that bad. So kiss my ass, EL CORAZON, we smuggled the Sprite out of that bar. And I would do that again!
March 10th – Boise/ID, The Venue
Boise isn’t really the hell of a city. We had another overnight drive which was really tough this time. We usually travel during the day, but from Seattle to Boise means 10 hours driving. So we arrived at 10 in the morning and took a motel 6 – our favorite place to be. We woke up at 4 pm and had breakfast ( I ate a tasty Cheeseburger at Denny’s – if you think that’s gros…it is) before we checked out the venue. There was good food in the club too, so I saved a little for myself and ate it after the show.
The show itself was kinda lame, since there were really not many people showing up. The promoter didn’t really make promotion for the concert, what I found out later on. But that’s what a promoter is supposed to make…promotion. At least we played a good set and acted really professional. No matter how many people come to the show, even if there are two guys who payed, they payed and thus have the right to be entertained. That’s at least how I see it. Finally this attitude was refected in our merch sales, which were pretty good.
March 11th – Travel day (Boring!!!)
March 12th – Denver/CO, Marquis Theater
That day was really long! We got up at 8:30 and drove to Denver’s famous Breckenridge Brewery, where we had lunch. We played pretty late so the time between arringing at the club and going on stage seemed to be endless. But it was really worth the waiting. My hands felt a little sored out, days off always make it harder for playing. The crowd was amazing. It was a sold out show and I had the impression that everyone in the venue cheered for us. Denver definately is a great metal town. I also met some nice fans and talked a lot.
It’s unbelievable how much more our music is apprechiated by American people. I hope one day we’ll have a concert like that in Germany (we already had two wicked shows in Paris, so I guess that French and Americans share a similar taste in music). But it’s more likely that I become the Gouvenor of Colorado within a few years.
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