What do Brazilians, mass public karaoke and beer in the park have in common?
Berlin.
About 5 minutes from our flat is Mauerpark. The name literally means “Wall Park” – which comes from the fact that it used to be part of the Berlin Wall. More specifically, it was part of the infamous “death strip” – a raked area about 30m wide complete with guard dogs, barbed wire, beds of nails, floodlights and watchtowers.
Once the wall came down, the place was turned into a park. But in typical Berlin fashion, that park has evolved into a crazy, multicultural, cosmopolitan place where people from all over the world come to party. No judgement, no negativity. Anything goes – even mass public karaoke on Sunday (check out the vid 
).
People from all over the world literally sing, dance, drink, smoke, create art and challenge conventional thinking on the ruins of the one of the world’s greatest symbol of xenophobia. That, people, is nothing short of fucking A-W-E-S-O-M-E. Damn I love this city.
P.S. thanks to Stefan for putting me onto this spectacular vid
Our first Dutch adventure – Breda Barst festival
Here are the pics from our first show in The Netherlands, that wonderful land of coffee shops and delightful distractions. Thanks to our mate Edwin van de Rijke (www.edwinvanderijke.nl) for the photos.
There were other pics from later that night, but we decided to deal with those Hangover-style. In other words, view them once and delete them forever…. hahaha. We’re playing our first Amsterdam show tomorrow – so I guess we couldn’t stay away.
An evening with a skinhead
I popped downstairs to our local store for some Macadamia Nut Brittle Haagen-Daas last night (as you do). While I was waiting to pay, a very drunk and very skinned-of-head beefcake waddled up to me (gangsta style) and grunted at me from 2cm away from my face. I think it translated to ”me no likey you” – my German isn’t that great yet. As he waddled away I realised that was the first time I ever felt physically threatened because of my skin. A very strange feeling indeed.
Germans are awesome people. And Berlin is the most amazing place I’ve ever lived. Pinning the actions of a small group of idiots on an entire country is no different to what this guy did to me. However, none of our German friends would deny there are still problems here. The great thing about Berlin is that it constantly rages against fascists. That’s one of the many things that make this place feel so alive. If you want to see how most Berliners deal with people like this, check out: http://bit.ly/nzd5ud. Geil.
It’s a shame my German wasn’t good enough to have a proper conversation with the guy. Otherwise I could have congratulated him on representing Jamaican culture so proudly. After all, the original skinhead movement was inspired by Jamaican “rude boys”, listened to reggae and represented the common people. I could have also thanked him for adopting the sacred Ancient Indian symbol for luck and well being – the swastika – as his own. I wonder if these guys realise how ridiculous they look, representing themselves with things from cultures they purport to hate?
Australia has it’s own issues too – let’s not forget One Nation won 9% of Australia’s vote in the 1998 election. Even The Netherlands, the shining beacon of European liberality, saw Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom take 15.5% of the vote in 2010. The question isn’t where these people are, but how we deal with them. I say laugh – hard.
Hamburg showcase this Thurs. FREE ENTRY, 16 bands + aftershow party
We’re playing a showcase gig in Hamburg this Thursday (22nd Sept) with 15 other bands from around the world.
Best of all, it’s FREE entry – just RSVP on facebook and we’ll add you to the guest list: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=274998605861233. It’s not a part of the official Reeperbahn festival program, so you’ll need to RSVP to our facebook event. If you’re one of those “facebook is evil” people, just send us an email via www.thesunpilots.com/contact and we’ll add you to the list the old fashioned way.
Showcase details
where: Location Town, Grosse Freiheit 27, Hamburg (near Kaiserkeller)
when: Thurs 22 Sept. Doors open 6pm, The Sunpilots play 8pm – 9pm (1 hr)
cost: free (RSVP required)
Check out the flyer below for more details. So…invite your friends… and cya there!
The price of pursuing dreams
People ask me what it’s been like – leaving family and friends behind and moving to the other side of the world. It’s a tough question to answer when I’ve missed a so many birthdays, celebrations… even a funeral. I usually reply that my time in Europe has been amazing (personally and for the band), so it’s been hard but worth it. I’m loving life over here and with the way things are going for the band, I can’t see myself moving back to Australia any time soon. I don’t usually talk about the harder side of what we’re doing, but I’m feeling philosophical at the moment…
We’re doing it Rolling Stones style and living together in one flat (in Berlin). We’ve all got separate rooms, which helps keep us sane. The flat doesn’t have any chill-out space though, which is tough. Plenty of people have housemates- but not many work, play, spend 20-30 hours a week in a little van and party (we do almost all our socialising after shows) with their housemates as well. The guys are more like family than friends, but that makes it harder too. Being around three brothers 24/7 is more difficult than being around three mates.
Our schedule is pretty brutal. Leave on Wed or Thurs, drive 8 or 9 hours, set up / soundcheck / play / pack down for 3 or 4 shows (and drive 4 or 5 hours between each show), drive back to Berlin on Sun (another 8 or 9 hours), work on the ‘business’ side of things on Mon and Tues… then do it all again. On bigger legs things get even more intense – our 2 week tour of France ended in Nice and we did Nice to Berlin in one day (and drove through 5 countries). Most nights on tour we’re sleeping at someone’s house on air beds and couches or staying in hostels (hotels aren’t really in the budget just yet). It’s an amazing way to meet people, but sleep deprivation is pretty standard. Getting to bed around 3 or 4am every night doesn’t help!
To put things in perspective, you might not know that we’re touring full time (yep – every week of the year). So we’ve been doing this every week for the last 10 months… crazy times.
Life on the road is an awesome adventure, but we’re usually never in one place long enough to develop deep friendships with people. Now that we’ve been here for a while that’s starting to change (our amazing friends in Geislingen, South Germany are a perfect example) – but it’s a slow process. We haven’t had a lot of spare time in Berlin to meet people either. So yeah, things can get a bit lonely sometimes.
That being said, the other question I get is “so, is it worth it?”. Despite the insanity, my answer to that has never changed. Two words – HELL YES.
-Raj