We went out again. This time with our friends from Batushka and Uburen. 16 days, 16 shows. I don't need to emphasize here how nerve-wracking it can be to be on the road with 23 men in a moving wasps' nest. 3 Norwegians, 6 Germans, 13 Poles and one Tunisian. Many a good joke could start like that.
However, the fact that this tour is no joke or even funny has been proven in the last few days. Most of the shows sold out, boiling crowds in front of the stage, electrified air, sweat and ecstasy. I speak for myself and my bandmates when I say that these days are the most exhausting days we have ever experienced.
Little to no sleep, only junk food, too much alcohol and endless loading and unloading of tons of music equipment. Setting up and selling merchandise, preparing the stage show, keeping the instruments and technology in good shape and, incidentally, jumping on stage once again to release the last bit of energy left in the shaken body.
It's every aspiring musician's lifelong dream to go on tour in a nightliner like the one we currently call home. But let a disillusioned Noise tell you that the word "comfort" now seems as alien to me as my private Facebook posts from 2011.
Hygiene? We wear the same sweaty uniform day after day. I'm already starting to tighten my trousers for fear that they will soon start leaking on their own. The jackets are stiff with sweat and stand in the corner by themselves. Showers? A luxury. Doing laundry? When, please? To put it in a nutshell - WE STINK. It's a mystery to me that it doesn't corrode the nose hairs of our spectators in the front row. I've never felt so dirty in my life as I have in the last 10 days. The tour bus resembles a battlefield and I'm sleeping between empty water bottles at eye level with countless well-worn, strange-smelling shoes. My body aches from head to toe, I'm covered in bruises, I haven't had anything to eat for 10 hours - but somehow I'm still fine.
We fight our way from show to show, from city to city, from stage to stage. We get through it together. We are a well-rehearsed team, a unit. Everyone knows what they have to do. Everyone relies 100% on each other. I've rarely felt so close to people. We share everything. Food, beer, stage and emotions.
To look up from the stage every evening and see beaming faces, to listen to the chorus of the masses and to conjure up a new, energetic show - the feeling is hard to describe.
I'm happy for every single person in the audience. Thousands of people have come to our concerts on this tour. That's hard to realize. But I am grateful. You, as you stand in front of the stage, are worth heaving this broken body out of the bunk again tomorrow lunchtime and looking forward to the next feat of strength. We'll give you everything we've got. Sit back and enjoy the show.
Next stop: Erfurt.
