3 September, Immerhin, Würzburg
After quite an easy and trouble free ride to Würzburg we found our way to the Immerhin. Frank met up and directly ordered pizza to fill our starving stomachs. The stage was not very big, it felt more like a rehearsal room with a bar and some nice friends. Just before the gig a sixth member of the troop arrived, Jean. After the show most of the members tried to be DJs for a while, Tomas played a lot of punk and Chris went country during the late hours. In the bar shots of different kinds were offered. We spent the night at Frank's place, sharing the room with his spiders and poisonous frogs. Both Tobbe and Chris had some serious nightmares that night...

4 September, Hauptquartier, Aachen
After Immerhin we all thought that it can't be any smaller than this, but how wrong we were... The Hauptquartier in Aachen had an even smaller stage. Although the place looked really cool with lots of colorful textiles hanging on the walls and in the ceiling, the stage was so small that Tobbe could barely fit his drums there. The rest of the band had to stand on the floor, which worked fine for the band, the only problem was for anyone wanting to go to the toilet, they had to walk around Chris to get there during the show. But on the good side was that the sound was really good there and the owners were great! Some delicious vegetarian casserole was appreciated by everybody in the crew. We met some local Turbojugends who promised to spread the word  about On Parole. After the gig we had a whole apartment to our selves. The owner had an interesting collection of old amplifiers and colorful shirts.

The Hauptquartier was located in a part of town that you normally wouldn't walk through at night. Besides the hookers on every corner and the drug dealers there were quite a few gay bars around. Since the cash was running low, Tobbe kindly volountered to offer his services.
Walking up and down the street all night was the local pimp and drug dealer. When we first noticed him he seemed a bit hyped up walking back and forth. The second time we saw him we started to get anxious; in one hand he held a huge knife and in the other hand an even bigger carrot that he was cutting pieces from. Zvonko had problems deciding which to be most afraid of, the knife or the carrot...

5 September, FZW, Dortmund
We were served a great breakfast in the apartment where we spent the night. Lots of fruits, some very nice pastrami and veggie burgers. The breakfast was not only good, it was also very entertaining since the owner didn't know that much english. So in order to communicate with us he used his arms and an extensive repertoire of sound effects.
The drive to Dortmund was just a couple of nice hours along the Autobahn. For the first time it felt like we came to a real venue and not just to someone's living room. FZW had the largest stage so far and everything was really professional. The backstage area was set with food and drinks and the schedule was ready so we just had to load everything in and then we could relax for a while. During the night it was three bands playing. First a local band of youngsters, after that it was time for On Parole and head lining was Five Horse Johnson from the US. Tomas who had had some problems with his voice the last few days, had gotten hold of ginger tea, some fresh ginger and some kidney rinsing pills from Chris girlfriend. We shared the backstage area with the young local band so after a while the room smelled of weed and ginger in a weird mix.

Tobbe brought his Ipod and portable speakers so after the show was over the party continued in our backstage room. We spent the night in an apartment on top of a bar called Subrosa. Once again we ended up on the bad side of town.... Even if the area was a bit rough, the apartment was fine, with proper beds and a fully equipped kitchen. The only one of us who had any problems was, once again, Tomas who had some sort of silk linen in his bed which turned out to be really really warm.

6 September, Rosenkeller, Jena
We got to Jena during the early afternoon and decided to go shopping for a while. After being picked on for having pink shoes and a shirt with glitter print on, I decided to buy myself a new belt buckle, naturally a pink one... Zvonko, Tomas and Tobbe went through the used record stores and Christian spent the entire afternoon desperately and unsuccessfully seeking some Red Bull.





The load-in at Rosenkeller was tough. First it was quite a walk to get into the place and then there was a really steep set of stairs down to the stage.  Once again On Parole opened up for Five Horse Johnson. Since Tobbe and Chris's old band Awesome Machine had played here a few times before there were a number of old friends at the show.
The following day was going to be a day off so everybody took the opportunity to have a few extra beers after the show. Half of the band stayed at the venue and the other half went to a bar in the neighborhood. I just remember still sipping at a bottle of sparkling wine at 5.30 in the morning...

7 September, day off
The day off started with an angry maid that came into the apartment and let us know that we should have left two hours ago. After that we just hang around in Jena for a few hours, I slept in the back of the car to try to get ready for the afternoon drive. When we had packed everything back into the van we took off for Chemnitz, about an hour away. There we had some dinner in the city center just before the rain came, and what a rain it was, for the first time it on the tour it felt like being back in Gothenburg. That night everyone fell a sleep at about ten and we had a good twelve hour sleep.

8 September, Basta!, Görlitz
Görlitz was another hour to the east, right on the border to Poland. Just outside the venue there was a river, and on the other side of that river was Poland.
When we arrived to Basta, they were in full progress of repairing the place. Well actually, to me it seemed more like they were building the place. In front of the stage they were putting up small lights, the one you usually find at a building site, so the boys were up for some seriously warm show. On the outside we found some other guys putting together the cabinet's for the P.A.-system! At least we would play on fresh equipment... So, since there was no point in loading our equipment in, we decided to take a walk and get some food.
A nice walk through Görlitz's old parts was interesting. Once back at the venue another problem accrued, the opening act had been told by someone, god knows who, that they could use our backline. That was mildly said, not popular. The atmosphere was getting tense while phone calls were made back and forth to try to solve the issue. Sometimes it's good to know some German, so when the other band was talking to each other we were sitting there and understanding most of what they said. Anyhow, after some discussion they decided to go and get their own equipment. We tried to explain that we had a lot of shows coming up and really needed the backline all the way.
Under the circumstances, I guess none of us had any expectations about the show that night. But after some opening problems with very low lights and the vocals disappearing a few times, it turned out to be one of the best shows soar. The crowd went totally crazy after about half the show. People started head banging and pogo-ing like we've never seen on the tour before. The local tough guy tried to get away with a t-shirt without paying for it, but Jean successfully managed to sweet-talk him and get it back.

9 September, Café & Bar Unikum, Halle
On the way into Halle I somehow managed to end up on the wrong side of the street in a roundabout(!), I don't think I ever managed to do that before. My excuse is that there was some construction work there and so far the Germans have not proofed themselves being superior at putting up road signs.
Meeting us at the venue was Mirko "Hard Rockin' Man" Baderke. After the gig we got split up, some took a cab to Mirko's apartment where his girlfriend arranged the sleeping facilities, and some went to a party with Mirko.

10 September, Roadhouse Café, Wildthurn
GIG CANCELLED!!
What a day! First of all the drive took for ever, with small roads and construction work made us arrive at the venue after 7 pm. We got everything in and tried to set up the equipment. The owner wasn't really helpful and just pointed to a room and said "There is the mixer" and then he took off. It felt a bit weird when we had to use extension cords and duct tape to get power to the stage. After a while we managed to get everything going and then all hell broke lose. First Christian got electrified when he came to close to his microphone. We all thought that it was just a coincident and went on with the sound check. Then Zvonko started to hear some weird noises in his bass amplifier. So, after changing electrical outlets and bass cables back and forth, we tried the sound again. But when Zvonko got knocked to the floor by the electricity in his microphone the gig was over before it even had started. An ambulance arrived and they discovered burn marks in both Zvonko's hands and took him to hospital over the night for observation. There was no point in staying at the venue so we packed everything in the van again and just took off. We felt really sorry for the Turbojugends and all the other people that had started showing up at the venue, some of them had driven very far to get there.
So, with no gig, no dinner and nowhere to stay for the night the adventure continued. I hooked up my computer and tried to find some accommodation. To make a long story short, my computer died and then my cell phone died and we were almost out of hope when we finally stumbled on a Autohof Hotel where we spent the night.

11 September, Arena, Vienna
We were all a bit shaky after last nights episode, but the band decided to go to Vienna and to the show anyways. Arena was a really cool place, with many different stages. When we started loading in our equipment a jazz band started playing in the house next to ours. Opening up for On Parole was a Norwegian band called The Cheaters.
Zvonko  played with his hands taped and although he felt a bit of pain in the end of gig he managed to complete the set. The most hilarious thing happened during the song Emergency. An older man dressed in a Uriah Heep t-shirt stood in front of the stage and Tomas held his microphone out during the chorus to let him sing along. When the man started singing in the mike his teeth popped out! I don't know how Tomas managed to continue with the song without dying from laughter. .