reubens (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} reubens) wrote,@ 2005-10-19 14:26:00 |
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Bropium to Aberdeeeelicious
So, we made our way up to Scotland...the drive was wicked (that's a good thing over here). I was kind of asleep as we drove in to Edinburgh, but I woke up just as we were getting into the city and as we passed a vista from a high point in the new town looking into the older part of the city I think the entire van looked over and said "holy shit...". It's gotta be the coolest looking city I've ever seen. The "new" town is nothing cool to look at really, but is still very nice...the "old" town, however is crazy...just buildings stacked on top of each other staggered on a a hill, with all kinds of winding staircases and steep cobblestone streets snaking all around. Really fun stuff to explore.
We got to the venue, which seemed kinda in the middle of nowhere, but in actuality was only a block from one of the main drags in town. The crowd was pretty good and while our show was going on in the smaller room upstairs, there was a crazy dance party going on in the main space downstairs. This was something I don't think any of us have seen in the States: a dance club set up for UNDER 18 year olds. You'd think that it's some alcohol-free, innocent little kids party, but don't be fooled...it might not have been filled with drunkards like most clubs, but it seemed to be overrun by sweaty, slutty, horny, half naked kids, grinding on each other and dancing in a shockingly sexual manner. It kinda freaked me out...these pre-pubescent teens in their underwear showing off their stuff while pole dancing on a stage. Really weird, but at least it is for only those UNDER 18, so you don't get a bunch of sleazy 30 year olds in there gawking at it all.
Our show was fine...it got done pretty early and some of our crew went to a club called Opium, while some of us hung around the venue being mellow. I don't particularly like the noisy club/bar scene and I'm not single...actually, I think it was only the single dudes of the group who went to the club. We got some chips, stopped in at the club to see what was up and soon called it a night by following a girl someone met at the show to her dorm room at the local Uni and sleeping on the floor in the common area. It was comfortable, we slept well, and we got up refreshed and happy.
From here we drove up to Aberdeen, almost at the very tip of this isle of Great Britain. Weird looking city...it's pretty much all built out of granite, so it's just gray and kinda dismal looking. It's actually a bigger town than I expected and we had a great time that night. The show was cool...also ending pretty early. The highlight of the show was Ryan deciding to organize a stage dive. I say "organize" because there just weren't enough people in the club to be able to dive safely, so he had all of us on board to crowd the area in front of the stage to catch him. It went pretty well...actually very dramatic...we kinda shuffled around for a while, carrying him around until he was satisfied and set him down. It was almost as if Ryan was some sort of messiah or something, with us his unworthy followers lifting him up to the heavens. Shit, maybe he is the messiah.
That night we quickly loaded our gear in the van and went across the street to a cool bar that was once a church. It was all decorated with creepy weird stuff and the bathrooms were behind bookcases and such. A little cheesy, but pretty cool nonetheless. I had a Scotch whisky and was satisfied. From here we went to Exodus, the club that all the locals said was the place to be on Sunday night. I was skeptical at first (as I've mentioned, I don't like clubs per se), but it was actually a total blast. I think in previous live journal posts I've explained some of the clubbing antics this group is capable of, and I certainly wasn't let down in this instance. We got to the club, hung out nursing some beers for about an hour, and then Jeff, Chris and Mark starting tearing the place up. The club was typical for a younger sort of crowd, with most people milling about and NOT dancing, but these dudes just starting tearing it up with reckless abandon. There was robot dancing. There was pogo-ing. There was the ubiquitous backspin by Chris. It escalated to a full on smoke machine enhanced romp that grabbed the whole club's attention, which then resulted in the whole club joining in. It was pretty amazing to watch. I acted as documentarian, video taping the whole thing from a little perch up some stairs, and couldn't stop laughing. Eventually the whole club was jumping and our boys kept raising the bar with every song. The culmination for me was Mark screaming the lyrics to a Foo Fighters song at some random dude and Jeff doing a blindfolded pogo dance. Good times. Fun stuff.
That night we wound up at the flat of some friends of Sam's. They were super cool and much appreciative of our clubbing antics. They told as that Exodus never really went off like it did that night...that people generally didn't dance and it was usually pretty boring. Let's hope we started a trend over there. All of us slept well at their place except Ryan. Ryan actually ended up staying with some girl from Aberdeen. Go Ryan! I won't reveal the details, but Ryan was very proud of himself. We were proud too.
That Monday we had a much deserved day off, so we picked up the Ryman and drove from Aberdeen back to Edinburgh. We had reserved hotel rooms in Edinburgh that night right in the center of town, so we were all super excited. Nothing too off the wall happened, as days off usually end up being monopolized by stuff like checking email and rehearsing some songs and stuff like that, but we did have fun. Ryan, Chris and I spied a vegetarian restaurant just across from the hotel and decided to check it out. It was a super nice place (especially for being on tour) and we ate very well. Yum. I convinced the Dopamine dudes to accompany me to a bar in the old town that served over 100 Scotch whiskies while the Reubens crew rehearsed some songs for the Germany shows back at the hotel. We all enjoyed a couple delicious whiskies and ended up going back to the club the dudes hung out two nights before. They had a pool table, so once the Reubens crew joined us, we taught the Welshmen how to play Showdown, a three ball, hands on billiard game that Chris' brother Mike and Jeff made up. I won't bother explaining it to you, but it's super fun, and Dopamine was into it. We're hoping it catches on in Wales.
That's about it...we stopped by the local chip shop for late night eats (as we do every night, wherever we are) and called it a night. It was nice to have hotel rooms for the night and not feel like we were imposing on any strangers we met at a show. Edinburgh is amazing. I feel like we only scratched the surface of what it has to offer, so I really hope to make it back someday soon. You should try to go to...it's so rad.
Well, we're on our way to Sheffield now...winding through some really beautiful scenery in Scotland and northern England. The UK portion of the tour is almost over...it seems like it just began! We'll keep you posted, so keep checking in with us.
Cheers...
So, we made our way up to Scotland...the drive was wicked (that's a good thing over here). I was kind of asleep as we drove in to Edinburgh, but I woke up just as we were getting into the city and as we passed a vista from a high point in the new town looking into the older part of the city I think the entire van looked over and said "holy shit...". It's gotta be the coolest looking city I've ever seen. The "new" town is nothing cool to look at really, but is still very nice...the "old" town, however is crazy...just buildings stacked on top of each other staggered on a a hill, with all kinds of winding staircases and steep cobblestone streets snaking all around. Really fun stuff to explore.
We got to the venue, which seemed kinda in the middle of nowhere, but in actuality was only a block from one of the main drags in town. The crowd was pretty good and while our show was going on in the smaller room upstairs, there was a crazy dance party going on in the main space downstairs. This was something I don't think any of us have seen in the States: a dance club set up for UNDER 18 year olds. You'd think that it's some alcohol-free, innocent little kids party, but don't be fooled...it might not have been filled with drunkards like most clubs, but it seemed to be overrun by sweaty, slutty, horny, half naked kids, grinding on each other and dancing in a shockingly sexual manner. It kinda freaked me out...these pre-pubescent teens in their underwear showing off their stuff while pole dancing on a stage. Really weird, but at least it is for only those UNDER 18, so you don't get a bunch of sleazy 30 year olds in there gawking at it all.
Our show was fine...it got done pretty early and some of our crew went to a club called Opium, while some of us hung around the venue being mellow. I don't particularly like the noisy club/bar scene and I'm not single...actually, I think it was only the single dudes of the group who went to the club. We got some chips, stopped in at the club to see what was up and soon called it a night by following a girl someone met at the show to her dorm room at the local Uni and sleeping on the floor in the common area. It was comfortable, we slept well, and we got up refreshed and happy.
From here we drove up to Aberdeen, almost at the very tip of this isle of Great Britain. Weird looking city...it's pretty much all built out of granite, so it's just gray and kinda dismal looking. It's actually a bigger town than I expected and we had a great time that night. The show was cool...also ending pretty early. The highlight of the show was Ryan deciding to organize a stage dive. I say "organize" because there just weren't enough people in the club to be able to dive safely, so he had all of us on board to crowd the area in front of the stage to catch him. It went pretty well...actually very dramatic...we kinda shuffled around for a while, carrying him around until he was satisfied and set him down. It was almost as if Ryan was some sort of messiah or something, with us his unworthy followers lifting him up to the heavens. Shit, maybe he is the messiah.
That night we quickly loaded our gear in the van and went across the street to a cool bar that was once a church. It was all decorated with creepy weird stuff and the bathrooms were behind bookcases and such. A little cheesy, but pretty cool nonetheless. I had a Scotch whisky and was satisfied. From here we went to Exodus, the club that all the locals said was the place to be on Sunday night. I was skeptical at first (as I've mentioned, I don't like clubs per se), but it was actually a total blast. I think in previous live journal posts I've explained some of the clubbing antics this group is capable of, and I certainly wasn't let down in this instance. We got to the club, hung out nursing some beers for about an hour, and then Jeff, Chris and Mark starting tearing the place up. The club was typical for a younger sort of crowd, with most people milling about and NOT dancing, but these dudes just starting tearing it up with reckless abandon. There was robot dancing. There was pogo-ing. There was the ubiquitous backspin by Chris. It escalated to a full on smoke machine enhanced romp that grabbed the whole club's attention, which then resulted in the whole club joining in. It was pretty amazing to watch. I acted as documentarian, video taping the whole thing from a little perch up some stairs, and couldn't stop laughing. Eventually the whole club was jumping and our boys kept raising the bar with every song. The culmination for me was Mark screaming the lyrics to a Foo Fighters song at some random dude and Jeff doing a blindfolded pogo dance. Good times. Fun stuff.
That night we wound up at the flat of some friends of Sam's. They were super cool and much appreciative of our clubbing antics. They told as that Exodus never really went off like it did that night...that people generally didn't dance and it was usually pretty boring. Let's hope we started a trend over there. All of us slept well at their place except Ryan. Ryan actually ended up staying with some girl from Aberdeen. Go Ryan! I won't reveal the details, but Ryan was very proud of himself. We were proud too.
That Monday we had a much deserved day off, so we picked up the Ryman and drove from Aberdeen back to Edinburgh. We had reserved hotel rooms in Edinburgh that night right in the center of town, so we were all super excited. Nothing too off the wall happened, as days off usually end up being monopolized by stuff like checking email and rehearsing some songs and stuff like that, but we did have fun. Ryan, Chris and I spied a vegetarian restaurant just across from the hotel and decided to check it out. It was a super nice place (especially for being on tour) and we ate very well. Yum. I convinced the Dopamine dudes to accompany me to a bar in the old town that served over 100 Scotch whiskies while the Reubens crew rehearsed some songs for the Germany shows back at the hotel. We all enjoyed a couple delicious whiskies and ended up going back to the club the dudes hung out two nights before. They had a pool table, so once the Reubens crew joined us, we taught the Welshmen how to play Showdown, a three ball, hands on billiard game that Chris' brother Mike and Jeff made up. I won't bother explaining it to you, but it's super fun, and Dopamine was into it. We're hoping it catches on in Wales.
That's about it...we stopped by the local chip shop for late night eats (as we do every night, wherever we are) and called it a night. It was nice to have hotel rooms for the night and not feel like we were imposing on any strangers we met at a show. Edinburgh is amazing. I feel like we only scratched the surface of what it has to offer, so I really hope to make it back someday soon. You should try to go to...it's so rad.
Well, we're on our way to Sheffield now...winding through some really beautiful scenery in Scotland and northern England. The UK portion of the tour is almost over...it seems like it just began! We'll keep you posted, so keep checking in with us.
Cheers...
