catl's tour in Europe is winding down, and coming to an end...one more stop to go!
"We hopped in a van to get to Serbia, where we met our
first, official, border hassle. The rather large Serb, with the machine
gun, asked us for our papers for being musicians. We handed him the
only things we had - our very ripped up itinerary, that had been in
Sarah's purse all tour. That seemed to be enough, and off we went."
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| Near the outskirts of Belgrade at a toll booth. An incredible fog had
descended on the city, which had lasted two weeks by the time we got
there. This is one of many stray dogs. #fogdog |
"Our
host Aleks was waiting for us on the curb, outside his place in a suburb
of Belgrade, called Zemun. He put his arms up, and exclaimed, 'fucking
yes!' which made us feel incredibly welcome. He quickly whisked inside,
where his mother had made us delicious soup. Aleks chain-smoked, fried
us some salmon, and poured us shots of Serbian brandy (Rakija)."
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| Jamie and Sarah posing outside the venue - Kuglas |
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| Sarah and Aleks, with the poster Aleks made for the show. This man did an
amazing job advertising! On a Monday night the place was RAMMED! | | |
"We
were then driven to the club in a very small car, with a lot of gear.
The speaker in the amp we got was torn, which Jamie thought sounded good; but
the sound-man insisted he use another solid state nightmare."
"The show was
incredible. Packed out by 10:00pm.
The opener was this Serbian guy named Iggy, who was a one-man
band/harmonica player, called 'Harp Explosion'. He was a really good harp
man...really knew his shit, and sat in on about 4 songs with us. He knew
our records up and down, and totally killed it."
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| Pre-show calm before the storm. |
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| Iggy! |
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|
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| Jamie with the King |
"Again, the hospitality was over the top - lots of drinks and shots, and apparently smoking hash in the clubs there is a-ok!"
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| Post-show, Sarah looking slightly Quasimodo-esque, bending down to sign merch for the outstanding audience. |
"Another
encore, and the Serbian people would have stayed there all night if we
kept playing! Did I mention its a fucking Monday! Sarah blew out her
snare and had to fix it (repeatedly) with duct-tape, which the audience
loved, because 'that's the way we do it in Serbia!". Funnily enough,
that's also the way we do it in Canada!"
 |
| Duct Tape fixes everything! Sarah's snare blew pretty early in the show.
With every hit, she'd break threw the tape, repairing it again between
songs, until it was almost entirely made of tape. The Serbians went
nuts, they loved it! |
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| This is what it looked like with all that tape. We gifted it to Aleks
for all his amazing work and hospitality. He is truly the rock n' roll
king of Serbia! |
"We have now sold out of almost all the merch we brought with...one more show to go!"
"We
were driven back to the hotel, and wandered around outside in search of
pizza, which in Serbia they love to smother in sweet ketchup and mayo.
Alright... when in Serbia! We immediately got lost, and were lucky to
stumble randomly into our hotel, or we would have been sleeping on the
street."
 |
| Some of the buildings in Belgrade were crumbling, from days of war gone
by, and lack of money to fix up these old gems. Another time, we saw two
buildings across the street from each other, that had been hit by bombs,
and were just left that way to crumble further. We didn't manage to snap a
shot of them. It was mind-blowing. |
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| Lots of beauty among the decay. We would love to see these buildings in the summer, when the ivy is green, and the sky isn't grey |
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| Church of Saint Sava |
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| Another stunner downtown. |
"Aleks is the nicest guy in the world,
and really knows how to take care of bands top to bottom. Great guy. He
calls his promotion/booking company, 'Bad Music For Bad People,' which is
of course a Cramps reference. What a cool guy."
|
| Aleks - the man behind 'Bad Music For Bad People.' |
"The drinking and constant playing is taking its toll, and we're both on our death beds with bruised swollen livers."
"Off to Novi Sad!!!! Last show!!!!"
