MRR Sept 2005

Erika Ransom

7/5/2005

Time Burn

There is a dull roar in my head, loud as a jet engine.

I am traveling over the Atlantic, thousands of feet up into the atmosphere, following the curve of the Earth, headed west.

At 300 miles an hour I am strapped in, the nylon belt of seat 36E holding me down, as the days of the past month traveling in Europe burn and blur together in my mind.

I spent the heat of the previous afternoon packing my things while looking over the London skyline from a tower block in Hackney. In a few hours, I’ll be back in Boston, with plenty of time before last call.

The changeover always fucks with my head, traveling so quickly to another part of the world. Jumping into the next time zone, flipping over to the next page of my life.

The sun begins to set, and the sky flames outside the windows. I am surrounded by sleeping families and business people; heads bathed in the glow of small computer screens.

Time collides into a fusion of bright and hard moments, and I try to grasp a few images to pin down and hold tight, like butterflies under glass. I listen to the white noise of wind and machine, and put down black pen scribbles in a little red notebook, a lone letter E standing on the cover. There is too much to say, and I am lost, not able to write anything.

So, for now, here are just a few rambling images. I will save the full report for the DVD!

Overall, the tour with BEHIND ENEMY LINES was absolutely amazing. They played well every night and people were excited to see them. The van didn’t break down and we didn’t get seriously lost. The food was excellent, the beer free, and fourteen people, including ALL SYSTEMS FAIL from Utah who were touring with them, friends, and drivers–all got along for three weeks straight. None of the shows were canceled. Things went so smoothly I almost didn’t feel like I was on tour.

Every day I prepared my video equipment, taped the bands, interviewed people, and hung out. It was excellent.

And, before I say anything else, thanks to everyone who I shared a conversation with, took care of me, or was a friend. Also, biggest thanks to BEHIND ENEMY LINES for being such amazing people to travel with, and a kick ass band with right-on politics to boot.

The Joys of Traveling

Damn. I stood outside the huge train station in Hamburg at nearly midnight.

I put down my red vanity box full of video gear and my black backpack with a few clothes, tripod and sleeping bag, and reached for a cigarette. The last train to Bremen was gone. I saw it pull out of the station about ten minutes ago. At least, I had a full pack of smokes and a lighter. Comfort stimuli for the tobacco addicted.

I was tired, and I was just glad that I wasn’t moving anymore. I was running on only a few hours sleep, as I was in Boston only yesterday morning.

Things were getting blurry.

That afternoon I had taken a London city bus to a tube station, where I caught a coach bus to Stansted (a small airport about an hour away with cheaper flights), to an hour-long flight to Lubeck (same deal, but an even smaller airport that looks more like a redone warehouse), and then another coach bus back south to Hamburg.

So here I was, at the end of the day, worn out, sick of carrying my gear, wondering what the fuck to do.

Sitting down and just smoking until morning seemed like not a bad possibility.

Luckily, I had a cell phone, and the number of a good friend of a friend who lived in the city. Eventually, after much cursing and attempts, I figured out the German code for my American phone, and Andi answered on the other end.

Three stops on the Hamburg subway and then a young woman with short blonde hair was banging on the car window yelling at me, “Hello! Erika! Get off the train!” It was Andi, making sure that I didn’t miss her stop!

Andi smiled, immediately grabbed my backpack, put it on her shoulders and started walking towards her place. For this moment, I am eternally grateful. Having someone I’ve never met before rescue me at midnight at from a closed train station was pretty damn cool.

We spent the rest of the night talking about life and laughing, until my eyes just couldn’t stay open any longer. And I got to hear how funny and ridiculous “Pirates of the Caribbean” sounds dubbed into German. I went to sleep happy to be back in Europe–and already I had been lost, and found amazing people.

Dijon, France

The music blazed as the masked members of PEKATRLATAK started into their next song. The line between band and audience blurred as Les Tanneries was filled with hundreds of punks, most of them singing and shouting along to the choruses. The energy in the room was contagious, and for that glorious moment, I didn’t want to be anywhere else in the world.

I was taking it all in, balancing on top of a tall barstool next to the sound booth. Les Tanneries is an enormous ex-factory building, now a collectively run autonomous space, and I needed the height of the barstool to see over the mass of punks dancing in front of the stage.

My right arm was looped through a welded metal sculpture made out of bike parts, keeping me steady while standing on the small seat, and my right hand held my video camera. My left hand alternated between camera work, holding my beer, and waving a fist along to PEKATRLATAK!

The show was also special was it was to be PEKATRLATAK’s last performance, after several years of playing anarcho-punk. I was moved by what they had to say on stage, even though I don’t speak French. I caught one phrase that seemed to summarize the feelings of the moment– contre des capitalistes!

Cheers to Pauline, Chico and Eloise for their interviews about the Maloka collective, as I was inspired by all of their work. Also cheers to Christophe for playing some kick ass records while we all waited for people to get ready to leave in the morning.

I have always loved LA FRACTION as one of my favorite bands, both for their music and what they stand for, but now realize there are so many French anarcho-punk bands that I need to hear. J'aime le bruit!

Living Loud

Julia, Ralph and their collective set up the show at KTS, a large community center in Freiburg, Germany. The food they made before the show was amazing, vegan koodle with pickled beets and sauce, yum yum! The show that night was small, but exceptionally fun with lots of dancing and crowd surfing silliness and everyone wanting BEL to play more–until they literally didn’t have any songs left!

At 4am Crusty Caesar from Mexico and I were behind the bar, and the small concert room was empty except for a couple of punks passed out on couches against the wall. Caesar was playing his favorite mix CD, and DOOM was channeled loud as fuck through the speakers of the PA system.

The music was as loud as if the band was actually there on stage, shaking the very walls, drowning out everything else like a sonic explosion. It was so loud I could actually feel the songs.

It was ridiculous and over the top and unnecessary and probably damaging to my hearing but kick ass and amazing all the same. Caesar and I looked at each other and smiled at the beauty of noise while shaking our fists in the air to the changes.

Meanwhile Julia, Mary and Matt played kicker out in the hallway and other people sat outside. The sleeping room (full of bunk beds and mattresses for the bands) was far enough away that we weren’t keeping people up.

There were no cops, or bar owners, or officials of any kind telling us what to do. The place was self-regulated. What a liberated feeling! Even for something as small as playing music loud late at night.

Usually, in the States, there is always this feeling of someone watching, and the constant worry of the police shutting things down, or being in a space that is not yours, only temporarily rented or borrowed. Things are so tightly regulated, land and property so tightly controlled, that it is stifling. There are very few places that punks or anti-authoritarians or activists can call truly their own. There is always the landlord or the pigs that have the final say in what you can and cannot do!

It was refreshing, an American and a Mexican listening to punk, loud as hell in a dark basement in Freiburg.

Every once in awhile, someone ventured into the dark room and we give them beer and they give us a few Euro coins, and the music went on.

Longest Day of Tour

In the morning BEHIND ENEMY LINES and Timo drove to the AU squat in Frankfurt to play the annual festival there. I went with ALL SYSTEMS FAIL and Goran to the Anti-Fascist Rock Action festival in Stuttgart. The plan was for BEL to play at AU, and then later meet us in Stuttgart to play there as well.

The yellow van arrived at Stuttgart about one in the afternoon, at the beginning of a very, very, long day. Luckily, Etzel had thought ahead and brought along an extra crate of beer!

It was beautiful weather, and I was able to spend some time sitting on the grass talking with Pera from Ljubljana and Kelly from London about their activism and lives. It was a nice moment, three women from different parts of the world, eating lunch together in a field in Germany.

It was also nice to see Stachel again, who made me laugh!

The show started around 6pm with CLUSTER BOMB UNIT, and then continued with NULLA OSTRA from Croatia, BURIAL, DOOMTOWN, PERTH EXPRESS, MADAME GERMEN from Spain, CWILL from Switzerland, ALL SYSTEMS FAIL and then BEHIND ENEMY LINES.

Usually, German punk shows have two bands, maybe three, and each band plays for about forty minutes, sometimes more. So, this particular show, with nine bands, was a monstrosity!

All of the bands were good, but I particularly remember the catchy punk of DOOMTOWN, the powerful female vocals and heavy music of MADAME GERMEN, and the haunting melodies and violin of CWILL.

By the time BEL started their set, it was past two in the morning.

I had been at the festival for eleven hours, and had video taped all of the bands, except BURIAL who I managed to miss entirely while finding dinner. At this point, I already had about four hours of footage from the festival, and had been standing on the side of the stage for about six hours. I was tired as hell, but the occasional beer, piece of chocolate and the energy of the crowd and the bands all kept me excited and wanting to document the show.

This was the second show for the day for BEL, after sixteen shows with no days off. I think it would be a challenge for any band to play their best after such a day, especially after over two weeks with no days to rest.

But as soon as they started their first song, I felt, after all the shows I’ve seen BEL play, right now is the best I’ve ever heard them.

I was standing on the side of the stage with my video camera, right next to Bill wailing on his guitar, and could see over the heads of the hundreds of punks who filled the large hall, and a sea of people and friends dancing up front. It was a beautiful sight that I’ll never forget.

Mary and Matt guitar rocked out on the other side of the stage while Matt furiously hit the drums in the back. Dave stood in the middle, pounding his cane into the stage while singing about the injustices of this capitalist world based on fear and hate. The band was loud and together and everything flowed, and I caught it all as best I could through the lens of my camera.

It was fucking amazing.

They finished playing around 3am, and had to leave for the Frankfurt airport to catch their flight home in only three hours, at 6am. What a schedule, but someone had to work on Tuesday, so they had to leave!

But before they left, I had to do my last interview of the tour, with Matt the guitarist. I had already interviewed everyone else in the band, and Matt was the only one left. We had meant to do it yesterday morning, or sometime today, but now there was no more time left! So I interviewed Matt at 5am, at the end of the festival, with the sound of punks dancing and singing along to a 80s dance party in the background. Another great moment!

I went to sleep that morning on the floor of a hallway overlooking the hall, with people walking next to me most of the time, and listening to the sound of the stage being dismantled and hauled off.

However, it was glorious. I was so happy to be lying down that it was the most comfortable floor I’ve ever slept on. And, the next day when it was time to get up, Stachel brought me a cup of coffee. Hell ya, thanks!

Not Enough!

As always, there is not enough space in this column or time before the deadline for me to say anything more. But there is so much more to say!

I didn’t even get to talk about Bill and the Darth Vader mask, the strange but fun after-show 80s dance party at EKH, or my time in Bremen or London afterwards. Well, guess I’ll save it for later.

Right now, I’m back in Boston, packing up to leave for the CLITfest in Minneapolis in only a couple of hours, and I need to turn this in. The few days I’ve been home have flown by. I was riding on the Boston Harbor cruise with Gro and Bev when I should have been finishing this up. Oh well! The ocean waves were calling.

For my last words this month, a big hello and thanks to:

Haggel at the Lobusch for recording audio for all of the bands and his great laugh that makes me smile, also the Lobusch bartenders for talking to me about life, fascists, punk and so forth until dawn (when I began to hail Hamburgers in the street on their way to work– guten Morgen!),

ALL SYSTEMS FAIL for proving to me that not all people from Utah are religious freaks, and being sincere with their music and friendships,

APATIA NO for the great interview in Spanish, and Julia for all her energy!

Ethan in Prague for the place to stay, good times, conversation and demonstrating the effect of absinthe on the human body while laying down in the middle of the street,

Nina for coming out to the show at the 007 to say hello, even though she had shingles (don’t touch-eek!),

Christian and Silja for the interview in Munich about Kafe Kult,

Everyone at Kopi! What a great night hanging out! Hopefully see you soon…

Timo for being so well organized on the tour, and dedicated to DIY music with a real message (these types of folks inspire me),

AZ Conni folks in Dresden for having a ping pong table and being so amazingly hospitable, with great food and a comfortable place to stay,

Goran for driving, and just being cool,

Philip for the interview about the EKH eviction (all I can say is good luck, but by the time you read this it may be all over…),

Oliver and Aldina in Innsbruck, Austria who live next to mountains, put on DIY punk shows and make kick ass coffee,

Jamal for the interview at Kleiderfabrik in Bremgarten, Switzerland (this squat has a resource/information room, a bar, a concert room, a café, sleeping rooms for the bands–and an indoor skate park. No joke. Not to mention, damn good cider available at the bar),

The La France Pue crew in St. Etienne for the good times in the punk apartment building with the great patio garden (also the wine and bread, I think required in France for all citizens to buy in bulk) and Elsa and Cecile for the great interview,

Daniel and Beni for the interview about Juz Piranha in Mannheim, Germany, a collective over twenty years old (and still going!),

The Friesenstrasse, Bremen, Germany crew! Hello and big hugs to Stivie, Nicole and Katia for putting me up–lots of coffee, vegan bacon sandwiches, late nights smoking cigarettes and pasting show flyers while watching out for the cops, talking about life and traveling, and putting subversive stickers up,

All the London folks, especially at 56@ and Pogo Café! (“I love vegans” and anarchists too,) thanks to Jon for the excellent picnic in Victoria Park, view from London Bridge and the harrowing bike rides across the city, Marta for the movies and great food, and Robin for always making me laugh,

And anyone for lack of memory or space I forgot to mention!

Ya Basta! Solidarity and blazing guitars,

Erika

(e_bitchcrew@yahoo.com)