Sneek

Woke up this morning, after four hours sleep, feeling like shit.

We were up at 8am to catch the ferry to Calais and then make our way to Sneek, Holland. A long day of travelling ahead. I'm really starting to feel it now. It wasn't even a hangover this morning, there have been a few of those on this tour, it was more just feeling knackered. Run down.

I drifted in and out of uncomfortable sleep for the best part of the long drive to northern Holland. When I was awake I had a hard time focusing on anything. Each of the other other guys in the band at some time or another during the day, would come up to me and pat me on the arm in a comforting way. It seemed like they were worried about me. They didn't need to be, I'm just a bit fucked.

We get to the venue in the small towen of Sneek and are greeted by some really friendly people on arrival. The Municipal guys were leaving after us this morning. I think they were out partying last night. The venue people tell us that the Waste will be here right before doors. There is a local band soundchecking as we get in and we're told we only need to do a line check. Wonderful. That means we can just chill out in the dressing room in peace and quiet for a couple of hours.

This venue is a really fresh building ran by proffesional people. Typical of the venues around Holland in my experience. This place is a lot like the magnificent 013 in Tilburg. We hang out in the dressing room drinking good coffee, not saying much to each other. I think everyone is feeling the burn a bit today. Only Jon is drinking beer and even he is taking it slow and easy. We're playing two shows tomorrow and we have yet another early get up. I can't deal with being hungover tomorrow. We'll probably have an end of tour party after the show in Amsterdam tomorrow night anyway.

We enjoy some good food from the venue's kitchen, a short while later the Waste guys turn up. They all look pretty hungover, even Dave was partying last night. We help them load in and then all chill out together in the dressing room, talking about the usual stuff. Tony is talking about bringing us over to Virginia for his Best Friends Festival in August, would be awesome if we could make that happen.

The show tonight felt way better than last night. Amazing really, here with these people in Holland, we get a two minute line check and the sound is fucking ace. Last night we soundchecked for an hour and it sounded dog shit. Strange. When the sound on stage is as good as it is tonight, the gig almost feels like it plays itself. We play really well and everyone is really pleased with the show. Probably has a lot to do with the fact that we were a bit down after last night. Tonight makes up for that. The crowd gave us a good response too, so it's all good.

The Municipal boys are already getting in the mood for the end of tour antics. Tonight, during our set, Dave and Tony were throwing fruit at us during the gig. Every time I looked over to side stage, I'd see Witte there, with a mischeivous grin on his face.

Not to be outdone, we've been planning ahead for tonight. We hit back with some oranges as they're playing. Johan creeps behind Witte's drum kit and throws an orange at him, which lands perfectly on his snare. To his credit, Dave laughs it off and then even pulls off some move, where he flips the orange off his snare, up into the air, and then hits it away with his stick, not even missing a beat in the process. What a fucking drummer!

When the Waste guys leave the stage with the crowd begging for encores, Johan sneeks up on stage and tapes bananas to all of their microphones and covers Witte's drums in cheese. They come back on to play a couple of more songs and they all crack up. The only one who doesn't notice is Phil, who is such a mellow stoner guy, he just gets on with banging his head to the songs. Only during the third song, when he has a vocal part does he notice. He almost swallows the banana down, as he's screaming away. He looks over at us, all confused. We're all side stage pissing ourselves.

Municipal seem to have a good show. Plenty of stage divers as usual, which is how they like it. Until people fuck their stuff up. One guy sort of falls from the crowd on to the stage, right in front of Ryan. I don't see exactly what the guy did but Ryan kicks him sqaure in the arse. The guy doesn't notice, he just stands on stage dancing. Ryan chases him, whilst playing his guitar, and kicks him in the arse again. This time the guy notices and runs back in to the crowd.

After the show is done and I have a wash, I drink the first beer of the day. It tastes good. It shouldn't reallly, but it does. It's been one of those classic tour days today. Feeling like shit all day, not knowing how you're going to get through the show and then as you hit the stage and the sound is great, something else takes over and from somewhere, you find the energy to get through it.

Whilst drinking that first beer after the show, I feel good for the first time today. I don't really know if that's such a good sign. I'll need a break when I get home. But tonight we're still on tour, and when Dave offers me a shot of whisky with him, I don't turn him down.

There's another really good distro here tonight. God knows how many records I've bought on this tour? I pick up a Conga Fury and a Talk Is Poison record tonight anyway, can't let them go. We seem to have made plenty of money from merch on this tour anyway, so I think my bills are covered when I get home, even though I'll get next to nothing in wages from work next month. If we did this well on tour consistenly, we could live off the band. That' never going to happen though. My days of wanting to go on tour all year round have long since past. I've done that. I like being home too much these days. Even work is kinda fun..

We hang out for a short while after the show and then we leave for the hostel. The Waste guys are staying at the same place and they want to hang out and party. Dave seems to be thirsty. I would love to but we're getting up at 7.30am to drive to Belgium and play the Ieper Fest in the afternoon, before driving back to Amsterdam for the last show of the Waste tour.

Nothing like winiding down at the end of a tour...