Haarlem

This country to chalk full of beautiful architecture. That is Saint Bavokerk Cathedral in Haarlem's town square. I wish I could immerse myself more in cities like this. Call me a nerd, but I'm instantly reminded of the Zelda game franchise and the land of Hyrule. Fuck these ancient market town's rule.

This has been a great show overall. I was getting a very good vibe right off the bat when I woke up and realized that the bus was parked inside some sort of structure. The venue (Patronaat) actually has a garage in the rear so that two tour buses can park a secure zone. What a novel idea. Normally our buses are parking in shady back alleys or fifteen minutes away from the venue, so this is great.

The club itself is very nice and Dutch people in general seem to be incredibly friendly. They collectively, as a nation, ride bikes. Apparently bike riders get the right of way even over cars here. Leave it to the freaky deaky Dutch. Ian, Gaz, and I walked around the town square a bit and saw the sites. I have noticed that The Netherlands, at least this area, is big on toy stores. I counted four within the few blocks we walked. This impresses me. I am equally impressed with the selection of Lego products contained within said stores. Let me take this opportunity to say "fuck you" to all of the Lego haters out there. Real men play with plastic bricks.

I was almost dragooned into going to Hamburg's red light district last night. I went to McDonald's and had a Big Tasty Bacon instead. In retrospect, I probably should have gone for the debauchery. Alestorm came back with slippers with little stuffed penises on them. I'm not sure any sandwich can compete with that. Well, maybe Wendy's Baconator...

Backstage Beer Info:
Haarlem:
Dommelsch Pilsner

Cheers
~RedRum

Hamburg

Hamburg, you have the most ridiculous Starbucks in Europe. Nay: the world. I'm told this historical building that has been raped by this international corporation used to be a Burger King. I think Burger King was more fitting. Much more suited to royal nobility. Perhaps the hierarchical leaders couldn't pay the rent. Zing.

Walked around downtown Hamburg with Nobeard, Ian and Gaz from Alestorm searching for some sort of guitar shop. We found none. However, we did find plenty of fashion outlets catering to women of fanciful high class taste. Coincidentally, on the other side of town we found many sex shops eagerly willing to draw us in with their private video booths and dildos a plenty. We begrudgingly turned down their invites and headed back to the venue.

'Twas a sold out show tonight. We're a bit beside ourselves as our tour date shirt has already sold out and the replacements will not arrive for another two days. This misfortune aside, it's a great sign. w00t.

There are rumors of us coming back to Europe before our confirmed stint at the end of December with Dark Tranquility and Heaven Shall Burn, but I can't go into any further detail yet...

Backstage Beer Info:
Hamburg:
Grenzquell Pilsner

Nürnberg

Pissed I slept in late. Crashride along with the lads in Alestorm went into the city to check out the awesome medieval castle type stuff. I'm fairly bummed out that I missed out on that quest.

Finally caught most of Unleashed's set. Those guys are crazy heavy and crazy awesome to be around. Great dudes.

I also caught most of Korpiklaani's set, along with my favorite song Pine Woods. That tune will ALWAYS put a smile on my face.

Onward to Hamburg.

Backstage Beer Info:
Nürnberg:
Hirsch Premium
Becks Gold

Catching up

So we have reached Berlin in our first journey across Europe. This venue provides me with adequate net service to be able to update this efficiently. We had such poor wireless connection during the first show in Munich and no service available yesterday in Leipzig, but we are making due. And by "we", I mean me, because the rest of my band is caught in the stone age and are without computers. And by "stone age", I mean they get women while I hobble off to feed my nerd urge. And by "they get women", I mean none of them really get women.

I've got three days to catch up on here. Hopefully this won't be a recurring trend.

Right off the bat, we started this venture with a fucking overcomplicated flight itinerary to get to Munich. We flew from Newark airport in New Jersey to Dulles airport in Washington D.C. at 6am. This meant getting up and driving to the airport at 3am. We where then subjected to a 10 hour layover before our flight that evening to Munich. Boredom set in quickly, and anyone who has been to Dulles knows, there's not a whole lot to do besides ride those ridiculous shuttle/monster truck school bus/AT-AT Walker things between terminals. So that's what we did.

When we arrived in Munich we met up with Maurizio and the rest of Ex-Deo and shuttled to our nearby hotel. We spent the better part of the day recuperating from our flights and then drinking in the hotel's bar area. Crashride made friends with a drunkard who looked a hell of a lot like Rob Halford. He bought us a bottle of red wine and then we got him kicked out for being trashed. Boarded the tour bus the next morning and set a course for the first venue.

The kick off show was arguably the most important. Representitives from our record label where there and we of course wished to make a good impression. Show went great. The crew is spectacular at what they do. The professionalism that is exhibited shits on what was seen in the American Paganfest. Merlin from Eluveitie is our drum tech and he has got to be the most devoted person I have ever seen to his or her craft.

The tour bus is interesting, it is a double decker with coach seats and tables downstairs and 22 bunks upstairs. I was told by people working the American Paganfest that they would be worse to sleep in that then buses in the States, but surprisingly, the beds here are larger and more comfortable.

The catering has been incredible. In the States we would be handed money and we'd be on our own to find nourishment. Here, we are welcomed with a wonderful spread of food, practically anything you could want is at hand.

Anyway, the show in Leipzig was great. Really good crowd. Interestingly though, the venue is surrounded by abandonned warehouses and factories. I did a bit of exploring with my camera.

Today in Berlin we woke up fairly early and went into the downtown area of the city with Alestorm to check out the culture and such. We saw some left over parts of the Berlin Wall and the Brandenburg Gate. I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing more landmarks and such along the way.

I know the backstage beer info was a staple of my posts in the past. I haven't forgot about it, but I need to do a little research on what they were for the first couple days and get back to you...

But for now:

Backstage Beer Info:
Berlin:
Berliner Kindl Tubilaums Pilsener

~RedRum

Orange Fanta in Europe is better than Orange Fanta in America

4 hellish Economy class flights later, we have returned to the US from our Wacken experience. I can honestly say, with no reservations, that during those three magical days, that festival is the best place to be on Earth. The Medieval stage (the one we played) & marketplace alone were worth the trip. It kicked the ever loving shit out of any renaissance fair I've ever attended. I was impressed the most by this metal mecca's own brand of beer! Amazing.

Wait no, what impressed me most is the sheer size. There's nothing quite like driving over a hill, the tree line clearing, and seeing an endless sea of camping tents that 80,000+ people call home for three days.

We had a slight hiccup in Hamburg as none of our checked baggage arrived with us. After waiting around for the next two consecutive flights from Frankfurt to collect our missing pieces we made waves for the Courtyard Marriot. To our surprise our booking company got each of us in the band his own room. Score. Then, as we casually awaited our shuttle to the festival grounds, we realized our hotel was a haven for pretty much every kickass band playing Wacken. Under the same roof was the likes of In Flames, Turisas, Destruction, Saxon, and Whiplash. And thats only who we saw come and go within a window of 30 minutes.

The set went off without a hitch. Our shark and parrot came out during Cruise Ship Terror to suply beer to the crowd via Supersoaker and Garden Sprayer, who undoubtedly appretiated it. Thanks for the kickass reception everyone. Biggest wave of death and circle pits I've ever seen at one of our shows. We respect the shit out of all of you. We also respect the shit out of your far superior Orange Fanta soda. Don't get me wrong, Orange Fanta in the states is "okay", but certainly lacks the magical essence found within your elixir. I brought three bottles home with me.

We stayed one night in Hamburg and then another night in Frankfurt. There was a police convention going on at the hotel we stayed at in Frankfurt. Your cops look like our guido "bro's". Whats going on with that Germany?

For those interested I believe the setlist went something like this:

Hoist the Mainsail (Intro)
Scurvy Back
Back to the Noose
No Prey No Pay
Drink Up
Splash-n-Thrash
Cruise Ship Terror
Peg Leg Stomp
Walk the Plank
Rounds of Rum
Upon the Spanish Main
Crewed by the Damned
The Grog Box
Dead Men Tell No Lies
Attack!!!
We Sunk Your Battleship
Whirlpit
IT CAME FROM THE DEEP!
"X" Marks the Spot
Nautical Nonsense

Encore:
Jolly Roger

Wacken

So a last minute bit of luck gained us a prime spot on this years Wacken Open Air! We're playing Friday at 8pm on one of the larger stages. Details are still filtering in, but I have to say I'm fucking stoked to get back to Europe, and for the mightiest metal festival of all!

I remember the night, 5 years ago, when Swashbuckle was formed, in a seedy galley in Jersey. And now, to be able to share it with the masses, and fucking play Wacken is simply an amazing feeling.

See you at the fest!
~RedRum

Fuck

I am just now realizing that I neglected to make a post of my travels in Europe. Zoops!

From what I can recall, the flight to Munich was quite average. From LA is was about 11 hours. Not half bad. I've flown to Japan before several times and that flight is around 14 or so, so anything under that is cake. However, I was squashed next to the Admiral for the whole trip, and this did not bode well with me. He is a large man. Upon landing, we were met by our companions Magnum P.I.rate (who did a bulk of the auxiliary percussion on our upcoming album) and Cabinboy Arsewhipe (our short lived keyboardist). We also met up with our driver Marc Raner with the tour company Vans for Bands, who turned out to be the coolest dude ever. After a debacle with too small a vehicle (somebody didn't get the memo that we were traveling with all our gear coming off the Paganfest North America tour) so we had to wait around for another driver to arrive and made arrangement for our friends to stay at a hotel by the airport with some of our gear to await for her. The pirates three, most of our shit, and Marc started out trek to Switzerland.

We arrived in the middle of the night to our tiny ass hotel in the same town the festival was going on in. The euro's really know how to condense space, not as much as the Japanese, but they still cram the fuck out of everything. We woke up, got to the Metal Dayz festival and we're the first band on the main stage. We were a bit apprehensive as to how the Swiss, and Europeans in general would accept us, but it was ridiculously positive. I think they called for something like 5 or 6 wall of deaths throughout our set. Circle pits were all over the place. It ruled. So worth the trip. Unfortunately, our friends missed our set by about an hour, but we still got them in and enjoyed the rest of the festival. We had a brief signing session after we played. A major highlight for me was Textures. I've been into that band ever since their first album came out, and they did not dissapoint. Kick ass guys as well. Slightly after our return to the states, I learned that they had just signed with Nuclear Blast, so it's an honor and a pleasure to share a label with them. We dipped out of the fest during Sodom I believe, and missed Arch Enemy, knowing that we'd have 2 more chances to see them because they were also playing the same two more fests with us that weekend. Stayed the night again in our little hotel room, this time with Magnum P.I.rate and the Cabinboy on the floor. Tight quarters. But we managed.

The next day we had about a 7 hour drive to north east Germany, the town of Dessau for the Legacy festival. We saw castles! REAL castles! When we got there we were pleasantly greated by the likes of our friends in Alestorm. Ran in Merlin from Eluveitie as well. Hadn't seen him in forever. That guy is magical. Anyway, hung around backstage for a bit and then played in the middle of the day. Not as good as a reception as in Switzerland, but still largely positive. We had a signing session again after we finished up which went very well. Nuclear blast reps really took care of us this fest. Apparently, lots of split demos were given away with us and Ex Deo on it, and they had huge Swashbuckle posters of our album artwork to give away. This was a big deal for me, I've had Nuclear Blast band posters up in my room back home forever (most notably Blind Guardian and In Flames ;)), and to see my bands poster with the little Nuclear Blast logo at the bottom just made me feel all sorts of happy. Eluveitie took the stage during the signing session, and then the heavens opened up and it began to downpour. Most of the crowd ran back to the campgrounds and we all just huddled within the Nuclear Blast tent. Good times. After the weather clamed down, I walked around the festival shops with Dani from Alestorm taking it all in. We have nothing like these festivals in the states. It was simply amazing. We stayed in another small hotel, although not AS small, which was coincidentally the same hotel Alestorm were staying in. Those guys all rule and I can't wait to get back and tour Europe with them in September.

It was another long drive to the final festival in Austria. On the way Christina, our other driver, informed us that we were playing AT a real castle. Fucking awesome. This was probably the biggest fest of the three. Something like 7500 people+. We showed up, and found out that we were headlining the small stage, were on after Arch Enemy, and had to play for an hour. What a way to finish off the night. We don't even have an hour of written thrash material I think. We met with some other Nuclear Blast people, had another good signing session with people who already knew us, Alestorm was there again, we signed the bassist's ass. (Man that kids got a white ass.) We drew dicks on him. lolz. Afterwhich, we had a photosession with some well known photographer chick inside the castle. She did good work.

We threw together an acceptable setlist of all our songs, took the stage, and thrashed peoples' faces off. Packed our shit up, drove back to Munich to catch our flight, got ass raped on overage charges at the baggage dropoff ($2000+ to ship it all back when somehow we payed NOTHING to get it there, go figure), had a stop over flight in Zurich, the Admiral almost beat up some guy who asked him the score of some Mets game, then had a 9 hour flight back to Philly, thankfully not right next to the Admiral. All in all, an intense trip that really showed us just how awesome Europe is. I'm amazed at how it's legal to drink alchohol anywhere, even in a moving car. Can't wait to get back.

~RedRum