International Insanity parts I & II: Hamburg & Berlin

So for those of you who don't know (or didn't believe my 'Upcoming for February' post), I am in Germany. Last week I was in Jordan for work and I was able to fly Amman - Paris - Berlin (and return via Munich and Atlanta) fairly cheaply so I jumped at the chance to see some of the rescheduled Coheed dates here. I just barely made my flight to Berlin and of course there was some kind of problem with my hotel reservation here in Berlin, so I wasn't able to get out to Hamburg in a timely fashion, as planned. The *cheap* train (47 euros, one way) to Hamburg took almost three hours, so I arrived well after the box office of the club had closed and the big dude at the door was not helpful.
So there were a few kids hanging around at the door - since you could still hear the show from there - so I stood out there until it ended and we were admitted to buy t-shirts or bother the road crew or whatever. Only Chuck knew I was coming so everyone was very surprised to see me. I hung out a little with MP and Josh and then spent an hour or so watching 'Return of the King' and bothering Pete while he was trying to work on the bus. (I have some pics to put here but I can't figure out how to get them from my flash - there's no way to open the drive since I'm at an internet cafe with only krazy deutsche keyboard and monitor) After they left around 3 am, I wandered around the Reeperbahn (a/k/a St. Pauli) which is what I suppose Bourbon Street would be like with legalized prostitution. It was pretty crazy there. Anyway....the first train back to Berlin wasn't until 6:40 am and around 6, I really really thought I was going to die because I hadn't eaten or slept in about two days, but somehow I made it back to my base here in Berlin.

When I got back here I did manage to get some sleep and then I headed out in search of food. I had some Vietnamese food and beer (Saigon) and then went shopping for a few hours. I have to say - there is awesome shopping in Berlin. It's not terribly expensive either. Yesterday I bought some stuff I needed (socks and shampoo) and this makeup which is like the MAC of Germany (but cheaper) and some Naomi Campbell signature perfume (Naomagic) which I really like.
After hours and hours of shopping and walking around I headed over to SO36 for the show. Berlin's U-bahn is so graffiti ridden in some places it's like being in 'The Warriors' or something. The stop where the club is located was particularly bad. Anyway, I had no idea how big the place was going to be from the outside, but it was probably about the size of the Ottobar or maybe a little larger and without a balcony. I got there early enough to get a spot up front and I have to say that the crowd was surprisingly polite (except for that one guy who spent the entire JR Ewing set with his middle finger in the air and then got kicked out) and non-crushing (though there were paramedics on hand, just in case). The ticket taker was this dude with a dual mohawk (a good look for those with male-pattern-baldness, I think) and a Turbojugend patch. The bouncer in the front had a big ol' neck tattoo - which of course, I had to ask him about. Apparently the neck tattoo is not so common in Germany, though I saw at least two last night (and when I went with Dave to get food, there was a dude there with one whole side of his head tattooed in some kind of tribal design). Damn, these Germans are tall though. Some skinny-ass Minnie Driver looking chick came up and stood in front of me and then of course, her boyfriend had to be one of the tallest dudes I have ever seen - if he put his arms out during a rainstorm, I could stand completely underneath like a tree branch. I could still see pretty well, though I got hit in the nose by this crazy?/drunk?/retarded? guy who headbanged the entire time. I do have to say that it was nice to see a wider range of ages at this show - there were some people there who looked older than me and appeared to be there sanz children. There were also several metal dudes and some annoying hipster types, in addition to the usual emo type kids (one of whom I was going to mug for her 'Ulitsa Sezam' messenger bad which was so cool, even if it had Elmo on it).
JR Ewing has been called a Scandinavian Mars Volta, which is pretty close I guess. I thought they were good, though I can't really recall anything specific right now.
Finally, just after 10 pm Coheed hit the stage. They brought the light show (and John) with them but not the whole stage set. They've also got Gabe from the Blood Brothers' tour on their roadcrew now...I've yet to determine if he can do the entire 'Billy Jean' dance. I don't think the set was as long as the US headlining dates, but they covered a good bit of the new album and also did 'Devil in Jersey City' and 'Everything Evil' from SSTB and of course a couple songs from IKSSE:3. I think there were some problems with the sound set-up - Pete was very unhappy, Claudio didn't wear his in-ear for most of the set, and Mic got unplugged somehow. They did do an extended 'jam' on 'The Final Cut' featuring none less than MP playing the maracas against the hi-hat. Very nice! Travis also has a slide guitar which I hadn't previously noticed. Anyway, I thought it was awesome and it was certainly the best Coheed show I've ever seen in Germany (so far). Forgot to add previously that what Claudio is yelling into the frets on 'Everything Evil' is 'Don't let them scare you' - I was finally at the right angle to see it and I've got some video of the final jam.

Today, I tried to find Check Point Charlie (never did, I've seen replicas twice though) and I walked around the Brandenberg Gate and the Reichstag ('Not the Reichstag!') and along the Spree, until I found a bus back to this neighborhood. I can't believe that even on Sundays their buses run every 7 minutes or so and there are signs telling you what is the bus route and electric signs stating when the next 5 buses will arrive. Amazing!

Tomorrow I'm heading down south to München for my 28th Coheed show and some fine southern (German) cooking. In the meantime, enjoy some umlauts....äöüäöüäöüäöü