Eurovision: A Musical European Oddyssey Part Three
Images and words by Dougal Gorman
Presented by Hung Supply
When touring through Europe you found yourself in such a variety of locations.
One moment you’re standing in the Adriatic Sea drinking an Aperole Spritz the next you’re sleeping on the floor of a squat house with half a pillow and no blanket. Right now I’m in Venice, looking out our accommodation window as small Italian ladies reel in their washing lines strung between buildings. To make things even more serene, someone nearby is singing opera at the top of their lungs. Yesterday and today have been very peaceful, for once. The last 5 odd days have been spent playing shows in Budapest, Prague, Dresden, Berlin and Copenhagen. Tonight, Mini Skirt supports our good friends Amyl and The Sniffers in an Italian town called Padova. From there I will be jumping ships to cover four festivals with Amyl. Am I scared of the debauchery to come? Maybe. Am I going to miss Mini Skirt? Absolutely, it’s been a blast and I am very grateful to have been apart of it all.
‘DAY OFF’ AKA HUGE ASS DRIVE TO BUDAPEST
As expected, we did not get up early to begin the 9hr drive. Considered splitting the drive into two days but decided against wasting two days vs. one.
Italy has been amazing. Looking forward to coming back for Amyl and The Sniffers support show in roughly a week's time. Best service station stop yet. Halfway to Budapest. No border control into Slovenia, once again no need to get passports out. Why doesn’t anyone want to see my passport? Instantly mountainous and luscious carpet-like grass as you enter Slovenia.
Once you hit 5 hours in a car you almost enter a numb trance state of ‘when the fuck will this ever end’ Cranking the new Action Bronson Tiny Desk in the van. 8 hours in, officially all lost the plot. Usually get beers and snacks an hour out from the destination to boost morale. Finally arrived. Staying at a local girls house called Eniko, proper legend. Jacob is sleeping on two yoga mattresses. I on the other hand am snuggled between Cam and Jacob no. 2. Lucky me.
KRIPTA, Budapest
Sleep in. Tourist morning around Budapest. It’s a super cool city. Got told off by cops for walking on the grass of fancy Parliament House. Budapest is big on Turkish baths and saunas so we hit the ’Rudas Baths’ for full relax-o mode. Very cool experience but it was basically a water park for grown adults wanting to bathe, sweat and re-bath. Kinda weird.
Tonight's gig is at a DIY punk venue in what used to be an old money printing press. There’s so much honesty and realness in these DIY venues. No frills. Perfection! Two epic local support bands.
Show was the rowdiest in a while, nothing better than people moshing to Australian music on the other side of the world. Merch desk popping off tonight, the new currency is really throwing a spanner in the works though.
Traditional Hungarian herbal shot of ‘Unicum’ to end the night. Not the best, but you can’t say no to locals offering you a local drink. Jacob tells stories of a Tasmania pub owner feeding platypus ham. Apparently. Do Budapest people love platypus?
First late night Maccas run, quite honestly the best Maccas we’ve all ever had. And no it has nothing to do with how drunk we were. First accidental wrong side of the road situation. As expected, it was a late start this morning. Think it was that shot of herbal mind wiper last night.
UNDERDOGS, Prague
Aldi groceries and McDonalds coffee for breakfast/lunch because realistically it’s 12:30 pm. We are 100% running late to the next show in Prague today. It’s stressful making a ham salad wrap on your lap while the van is going 130 km per hour. My knees are starting to lock into a 90 degree angle from all the sitting in the van. If you're lucky enough, the back left seat is the far superior position for comfort.
New ritual of reading out facts about the new country we approach. Here are some: Prague invented the Pilsner beer and they burn witch effigies on the 30th of August every year. There is also a graffiti wall dedicated to John Lennon which we will 100% not be visiting. Shithouse traffic, causing some tension in the van. There’s always traffic when you can’t afford there to be.
Vegan restaurant for dinner, we are now the epitome of health. Once again not sure if anyone is tuning up for this show then it turns out to be great. Another currency to last night just confuses our tiny brains more. Another local shot was offered to us at the end of the night called ‘Slivovitz’. Worse than last night's offering. Basically pure petrol.
Hotel stay tonight. Everyone is discussing who snores the most to avoid being bunked with them. Staunch breakfast lady was not impressed, we rocked up to the free breakfast 1 minute before closing.
OSTPOL, Dresden
Spent the day walking around Prague and saw the Astrological clock. Fun fact time: the designer of said clock did such a good job designing it the local council burnt his eye out so he couldn’t make more for anyone else. Rough. Mini Skirt boys bought NRL player babushka dolls. Most Australian thing ever to buy. Super chill drive to Dresen today. 2 hours feels like nothing when you’ve been doing 9 hour drives.
Dresden is a super cool place. I have a good feeling about tonight's show. The venue ‘Ostpol’ is the closest thing we’ve seen to an old Australia pub. It’s been a music venue since the 60’s and still has a lot of its original wallpapers, furniture etc. Home cooked dinner at the venue. Everyone is signing the ‘band visitor book’ whilst eating. The previous page is signed by fellow Australian rockers Gee Tee who have scattered the pages with seriously impressive penis cartoons. Saw a local hardcore show around the corner. Apparently everyone here will then come to Mini Skirt show.
Turns out most of them did. Definitely one of the better shows of this tour. Sleeping upstairs to the venue tonight, always handy. Just as I’ve finished cleaning my teeth, Jesse walks in with a kebab and chips for everyone. Cam woke up, ate some garlic chips, then went back to sleep. Watching the Matildas quarter final game on the drive to Berlin. Most intense thing that’s happened all tour.
AUTOBAHN, Berlin
Meeting Joey in Berlin, a good friend of Jacobs who will be joining the remainder of the tour. Visited Static Shock Record Store, very worth a visit if you’re in Berlin!
Tonight's venue is so DIY that we can’t find the address nor are we allowed to share on socials. Mini Skirt is pretty stressed about no one coming but I have faith in the Berlin punk scene. Venue is up 5 flights of stairs, not great for loading in music gear. Joey is a tattooist back in Sydney (@joeytattoott) so the afternoon was spent watching him tattoo Jacob in the front of the van.
As we’re all gathered around the new tattoo shop (the van) a girl who is meant to be interviewing Mini Skirt this afternoon just happens to walk past. ‘I’m guessing you guys are Mini Skirt?’ She asks. The interview is then conducted whilst Jacob gets inked. Two INSANE support acts played tonight - ROUGE from Berlin and a young band from Iceland called SUCKS TO BE YOU NIGEL. Both we’re so so good
Easily the hottest show of this tour. It’s so hot in here I’m not sure what is cigarette smoke and what is steam coming from people. The windows are dripping with condensation. Yet again the boys were worried no one would come. But yet again they were proven very wrong. Tonight is basically sold out. You can’t move in here. Biggest venue show and last night of the tour.
THE BASEMENT, Copenhagen
Sadly I am approaching my final days with Mini Skirt. It’s been such a good time with good friends. We booked the wrong Ferry to Copenhagen. Probably something to do with booking drunk at 2am this morning.
Fear not, we amazingly got a refund and booked the correct ferry on the drive there. Smooth sailing if you will. After tonight Joey will be left with the van to drive back towards Antwerp to later reconvene with Mini Skirt. The only thing is, he can’t drive manual. Jacob and Cam baptized him in fire with a quick lesson through the busy streets of Copenhagen. Poor bastard.
Thai food for dinner is something our taste buds haven’t experienced in a week. Pretty tame show and night for us all, I think everyone is pretty tired. I’m pretty photoed-out tonight. Tomorrow Mini Skirt and I fly to Venice, Italy for a day off before the lads support Amyl and The Sniffers in Padova. From there I will jump tours to spend 5 odd days with The Sniffers.
VENICE, DAY OFF
Today was the first time we’ve had to wake up early to make sure we don’t miss our flight. It’s also the first flight we’ve needed to take on the whole tour. It’s a classic RyanAir flight - a $50 ticket but $150 for baggage. I am the only one who needs to take all my luggage though as I’ll be sadly parting ways with Mini Skirt after the Amyl show. Mini Skirt on the other hand have only packed a tote bag each and will borrow all of Amyl’s equipment, which we all find quietly hilarious. It’s fucking hot in Venice today, lucky me I have three bags to drag around cobblestone streets. There’s nothing an Aperole Spritz or 4 can’t fix though. The remainder of the day off was spent sleeping, eating and drinking. Venice is super nice and pleasantly surprised us all. We’re all hyped to see the Amyl and The Sniffers crew tomorrow.
