European Tour 2006 Diary

In my 20 years of touring, I've only done Europe a few times, so I was quite excited for this trip. My friend Hiro and I travelled exclusively by train to all the shows in protest of oil prices and to show the punk rock community alternative modes of transportation. To be honest, I had so much fun on this tour. Thank you to all the people who came out and sang along at the shows and supported the ideas of peace through music. Danke, Mike Park.



September 7th, 10:23 am. I'm sitting in row 39 on flight number #1049. There is nobody to the left of me and there's nobody to the right of me. Yes, that's right ... total freedom to stretch every which way. The flight is about 70% full and this is the first time in quite a long while that I have had such a spacious flying experience. I've already slept 30 minutes and now I'm drinking ice water watching "Mission Impossible 3", which is dangling from a 10 x 14 monitor just a few feet from my head. My flight arrives in Newark NJ at 4:30 PM. Just 3 more hours. How wonderful it would be if that was my final destination, but then it's another 8 hours to Zürich, Switzerland. Long way to go!



September 9th, 2:15 pm. I'm in Luzern, Switzerland. Let me see, back to yesterday: Most of my day was spent in misery. In two days, I managed less than 6 hours sleep. It was catching up with me, as my mind started playing tricks on me. My friend Benno had picked me up at the airport. He was the promoter of my show that evening. But with at least 7 hours to kill, we went to his office. He runs a record label and it was a good chance to try and use his internet, but I couldn't think straight so I surrendered to the thought of writing back someone with crazy sleep deprived answers. My attempts at sleeping on the office couch were thwarted by the constant ring of the telephone and the sun shining bright through the window. I killed time by walking around the block aimlessly, attempting to sleep, using the restroom, and then repeating. Like a machine I tell you! There were over 500 people at the show. Surely not because of me, but a Swiss band called NGURU, who were quite popular. It's always difficult playing my acoustic set at Ska shows. Though I love Ska so much, it's just so different than my acoustic music. Promoters all over the world still love putting me on these Ska bills. It's just a little tough knowing that the young audience wants to dance and here comes this old man on stage with an acoustic ready to rock out some Woody Guthrie jams. Yee haw! Anyways, I played and I felt uninspired. But I still appreciate the chance to play music. I met some really nice people, a young woman made a homemade Mike Park shirt, nobody threw anything at me, I sold 15 CD's, and damnit! I'm in Switzerland!! So all is/was good. The surprise for the evening is that Benno had SKAFIELD learn songs of my past. i.e. SKANKIN' PICKLE, THE CHINKEES, THE BRUCE LEE BAND. Uggghhhhh ... I couldn't believe it, but there I was going on stage to sing songs of more than a decade ago. Silly, but to be honest I had fun. It was neat to jump around on stage and pretend it was 1996. The rest of the evening I enjoyed the music. Trying to keep my body moving in fear of passing out. The show ended late around 1 am. By the time we loaded up and made it to the hotel it was already a quarter past two. One look in the mirror displayed one tired old man. A salt ringed DILLINGER FOUR T-shirt with blood shot eyes finally would be sleeping. Amen.



September 10th, 2:36 pm. Switzerland is expensive! The Swiss Franc is almost the same value as the US Dollar. But here is a sample of the pricing difference:

- 3.40, Bottle of water at a convenient store

- 2.50, advertised bargain cheeseburger at McDonalds

- 12.00, Gin and Tonic

- 25.00, price to get into the shows I played in Switzerland.

Holy moly! Good thing I haven't had to spend any money. Take that back, I bought a pretzel this morning for 4 Francs. Yesterday's show in Luzern was at a place called the Schuur. Located down by the river, the place was packed. Along with the normal concert area, they featured a backyard patio for more drinking fun and a fancy smoking lounge downstairs. There had to be close to 1,000 people in this building. I just learned the drinking age is 16 in most of Europe. As for the inebriated youth last night, I thought it was just kids stealing from their parents liquor cabinet. Like in the US. I played first last night, which never bothers me like it bothers some bands. It's the same line-up as the previous night, so I have the same fears of playing to a young crowd eager to dance. And not listen to me play my acoustic guitar. But there were definitely some Mike Park fans in the crowd as I hear some sing alongs and screaming. Again, uninspired performance on my end but nonetheless a decent showing and I'm always appreciative to play. After SKAFIELD, I again jump on stage to play 3 songs. And again it's fun to jump around and play make believe. It's weird to see the crowd go friggin' crazy for the Ska. Ha ha. We stayed at a hostel a short walk away from the club. It's been awhile since I stayed at a hostel. I could only think of the recent horror film with such name. But it was nothing like that. No hot European girls waiting to kill me. Just a bed with some sheets for me to put down and a pillow the size of an airplane pillow. So sleepy I was. I crashed out quickly, only to be awoken a bit later to the singing of the drunken SKAFIELD members. Both Hiro and I laughed and fell back asleep. Fun, fun.



September 13th, 2:02 pm. Had two days off in Switzerland to be a tourist and am back on the road for 14 straight shows. We're officially in Germany! The language is difficult, but I want to learn. Is it possible? Last night we were in Karlsruhe. There were no openers for the show. Just me. Kind of fun to be the only one playing, but at the same time it's always nice to meet local musicians. The stage sat 6 feet high and really had no center place for the musician and audience to connect. There were small balconies on both sides of the stage, so there sat people to the left, right, and in front. It was hard to get comfortable in that respect, but I played quite well. Filling an hour acoustically is quite difficult, as I played nearly every song in my repertoire. I even got an encore, which is always nice. And here I sit with an hour left on the train til' we hit the small town of Turkishmuhle. So far nobody has even heard of this place. But we know the promoter and we are looking forward to hanging out. They have promised a BBQ for tonight. We will see if this holds true.



September 14th, 11:29 am. Turkismuhle rules! Yesterday was a frigging wonderful, fantastic, and beautiful experience. We actually were in a town called Otzenhausen. Very small little place, just east of the French border. Joe from Fond Of Life Records came to the train station to pick us up and then we headed off to his friend Macus' home where we would sleep for the evening. The small town had a midwest feel to it. Joe asked if we'd like to go swimming in the lake. Is it clean? Yes. The lake is beautiful, but so cold. I take baby steps as I make my way through the murky water. There are very few people in this area. Perhaps 5, that I see through our short stay. A man a few hundred feet to the right of us joins in on the swimming by stripping down to his birthday suit and just diving in. Geeez ... He's the real master as we stood there waist high, hands clenched repeating cold, cold, cold. But after seeing the master jump in I knew I had to at least submerge once. And of course I got used to the water and it was all quite refreshing. Hiro asked if it was ok to shiko (urinate)? Sure, why not. I was going to. But just 10 minutes later, Joe tells us this is where the area gets their drinking water from. Doh! Won't be drinking tap water. Schwenker is the name of the local style of BBQ. I've never heard or seen anything like it. But it was fuckin' amazing. We ate like crazed motherfuckers and I'm still recovering. The club was just across the street from where we were staying. It felt like I was just hanging out with friends and we decided to go across the street for a drink. Was I really here to play? The locals drank Cola Weizen. Yes, coca cola mixed with wheat beer. Huh? But one try and I'm hooked. And I don't even drink. The show started and I got to experience two great acoustic acts called COMMUNICAUTION, ACTIONMANSAFARISET. And then it was my turn, but again it felt more like a party amongst friends than a show. I played well and besides the incessant smoke that fills Europes finest, I managed to sing well and give a good show to the town of Otzenhausen.



September 15th 1:50 pm. Friday? Yes, we are officially in France. Je suis tres ... We are aboard the TGV train towards Paris. We arrive at 4:10 PM and hopefully will have some time to be a tourist. Yesterday we went to the oldest city in Germany called Trier. We walked through the city and marvelled at the massive Cathedral that supposedly houses a robe that Jesus wore. A little bit east of the church is a fountain that an artist made many years ago. The ruler at the time didn't pay the artist what was agreed upon. In retaliation, the artist subtly created monkeys that are:

-Defecating

-Showing their arse

-Looking pissed as can be

You'd never know it if somebody didn't tell you the story, but upon further inspection it is indeed a crazy, crazy work of art. We then headed off to Luxemburg. We were travelling in a car with our friend Joe and his girlfriend. Did you know that the highways in Germany have no speed limit? That's fuckin' insane! We arrived at the venue at a bit past 6 PM. The place used to be a squat, that the city took over and renovated a few decades ago. It now houses a cinema, a café, a bar, a practice studio for bands, and a large music venue. They rented out one of the small movie theatres for my show. What a perfect place. The sound was really good and they played movies during the opening acts. Act 1 consisted of "Reservoir Dogs" and Act 2 consisted of "Cable Guy". Dinner consisted of rice boiled in a pot with a tomato sauce and frozen vegetables. Not bad to be perfectly honest. The opening act had told me that he had played there 5 times previously and every time it's the exact same food. How funny! The crowd seemed a bit apathetic at times, but the locals whom we had hung out with earlier told us that they enjoyed the show and that's the way they react at shows. Hmmmmm ...

September 16th, 1:36 pm. We are somewhere in Belgium travelling on the Thalys train line from Paris to Köln. Trains to and from France require a reservation which has a fee involved. To get to Paris, we paid 5 Euros each. To get out of Paris it cost 32 Euros each. Damn, that's 64 Euros just to make a reservation! Upon arrival in Paris, we scrambled out of a jam-packed rail station. I just needed to call the promoter and let him know we were there. But I couldn't find a friggin' phone booth. Are you kidding me? No phone booth. And when I finally found one, it was for phone cards and didn't accept coins. I ended up walking for nearly 40 minutes shouting profanities to myself whilst trying to find a phone that took coins. Back to the club, the cigarette smoke had already consumed every square inch of the venue. My lungs had enough, so I had to go for a walk. I walked in circles to just stay out of the smoke filled area, checking back frequently to see if it was time to play. The club was so hot; I was already dripping before I had even played one note. Setting up, the power went out, but I had no more patience, so I just started playing. It was nice to just strum away. I had felt tense as it was a long travel day and I just wanted to rock out for a bit. The power eventually came back and I played nearly every song I knew. The crowd was great, as I was completely drenched in perspiration upon completion. Unfortunately we didn't do any sightseeing. It was late when the show finished and I was so tired by then, I just wanted to sleep. Zzzzzzzzzzz ...



September 17th, 12:01 pm. Back in Deutschland, I am sitting in the lobby of the Steigenberger hotel in Dortmund. The club gets a deal at this 4 star hotel and last night we got to stay in luxury. It was nice to be in a hotel after a week straight of staying at people's homes. Don't get me wrong, I love being put up by different people. Meeting new friends and getting a chance to talk and learn about their lives, but it was nice to just sit in my underwear watching "Lost In Translation" in Deutsch. Scarlett Johanson saying "Danke" is still the most sexy thing in the world. We had taken the train from Paris and after 6 hours, made it to our final destination in Bochum. Nothing more satisfying than being able to get to a club without the use of a motor vehicle. I had played this club twice in the last 9 months. First with the ALKALINE TRIO in December and then again in February with ANTI-FLAG. Both were great shows and I was looking forward to playing there again. The staff at this place has always been so nice. They really take care of you with tons to eat, lots of beverages, and a huge back stage area that is quite clean and comfortable. It was an early show. Just one opener called SODA POP DIARIES who consisted of one guy named Michael. He had a very pretty voice and it was nice to hear his sweet melodies. The show was lots of fun. I tried out some new songs and the interaction between the crowd and myself was a lot of fun. Sold a lot of CD's and met a lot of genuinely nice people. After the show, the club got ready for Metal Night. Just a DJ spinning metal on 4 different dance floors. The temptation to stay was quite tempting, but I didn't want to stick around too late, as I wanted to take advantage of the nice hotel. We woke up at 9:30 to catch the free breakfast. Though I could have slept much longer, I am glad to have taken the initiative to make to breakfast. A full spread of hot and cold foods. Varieties of drinks including tea, coffee, juices, champagne and sparkling water. I'm not a breakfast guy, but I forced down as much as I could and now I'm beyond full. Anyways, I'm showered up, feeling clean and ready to enjoy the day. The train ride to Köln is only one hour, so I'll take my time here in the lobby as I wait to take a later train this afternoon.



September 18th, 1:47 pm. It's the first day in Europe that the sun isn't shining bright. The rain started last night in Cologne and now it's dark and wet as I peer out the window of the train. It feels nice being warm and safe inside. It's a strange feeling to be honest. I woke up early to the sounds of traffic and rustling going on outside of our sleeping quarters. The club I played at last night has a flat that provides lodging for touring bands. I slept with the window open and it provided me an early alarm of around 7:45 am. Not the best night of sleep for me. It was a strange feeling going to sleep in this place. There were ten camp style bunk beds that were littered with random coloured sheets, pillow covers, and blankets. The night before, a Finnish metal band played/stayed there and I wasn't sure which beds were not slept in. I could only do a smelling test and pick the best out of the bunch. Just feet from my head read the following grafitti: The Joke Is In Your Hands. The club I played at was called Underground. We strolled in at a bit before 6 pm. We were greeted with pleasant smiles and offered beverages. Hiro smiled loudly and said "Vassa". More eager to see if he can understand what he is saying. And the bartender said: "Really? Most people want a beer or juice or something more substantial." I think the excitement of Hiro saying "Vassa" is what confused him. Water is free and here is a stranger offering you any beverage and you want water. Again, no opening act tonight, just me. At 9 pm, I started playing to a small but enthused audience. There was no real stage, so opted for a long microphone cable and a long guitar cable. And I just kept moving around the room, giving different vantage points for the live show. Whether this was something viewed as interesting or not is another question, but I did it anyways. And during my last stretch of songs, my low E string broke. I managed four songs under these conditions and then called it quits. Now we are less than an hour from Berlin. The sun is breaking through, hoooray! Perhaps we'll get that sun after all.



September 19th, 4:18 pm. We rose early to check out Berlin, hoping we could find remnants of the wall and to see Checkpoint Charlie. The sidewalk gives a historic timeline from the early 40's to present day Germany, but unfortunately I could not get through all the literature as my time was limited. We found a long stretch of the Berlin Wall and visions of the media coverage from 1989 filled my head. The parallels of divide in Korea and Germany are/were so similar. I wonder what people think of all this now? The city is so vibrant, with no hints of the past, but the reminder of Charlie and the thousands of tourists that flood the city weekly must be strange or even bothersome to the locals. We had arrived in Berlin fairly early. 3 pm ish and my friend Kai came to the main station to meet us. We took a local train and then a subway down to his office. Actually, Kai is my booking agent in Europe. The agency is called Muttis Booking and they do mostly punk and ska bands. Bands like ANTI-FLAG, THE CASUALTIES, THE SLACKERS and a slew of European bands. They have a small sleeping quarter at the office for their bands and that is where we stayed. At 6 pm, the owner (Mutti) would take us to an Italian restaurant called Il Due Forni. Some of the best Italian food ever. Four courses, starting with Pizza, followed by a pasta dish, and then a meat dish of lamb, potatoes, spinach, and green beans. My gut was hard as a rock, but I couldn't stop eating. A final dessert course of mousse, tiramisu, custard, and a dairy kind of thing with strawberries came and I was in serious trouble anyways, we take a cab down to the venue. It was a free show inside a placed called TWH, which is technically a squat for the last 25 years. With no time to kill, I set up, drank some bubbly water and got on stage. Fortunately the food stayed down, though I could still taste the garlic between versus and found myself burping between breaths. But it turned out to be an amazing show. I feel these Europe dates are some of the best shows I've ever played in my life. It's hard to explain the transformation of performing solo, but I truly believe this to be the best I've ever played. It's become joyful to be on stage singing and being able to relax and really enjoy music. Fun, fun ...



September 20th, 3:45 pm. I'm a bit tired. Very little sleep as I battled a feisty mosquito that I believe was flying solo. At 6 am, I woke up scratching and then heard the buzzing of the damned blood sucker. I got up to find and destroy. We stayed in a really nice hotel in the small town of Roth, Germany. Brand new, sparkling clean, hardwood floors. It was a strange location in this small town of 200 or so people. It was situated just minutes from the promoters' home. We met up at 10:30 am for breakfast and then took a lovely walk through his farm and around the bordering trail that swept through the woods. It was relaxing to hike through the forest and hear stories of his youth in these parts. Back to last night. As is the norm, smoking is loved by Europeans so I was relegated to standing outside and missing the opening bands. So I have no idea if they were good or not. The show was later than usual. I didn't get on til a bit past 11 pm. I set up quickly and started through the set. And though I had fun, there was something lacking from me. The performance was a bit off for me and though nobody could tell, I am always disappointed in myself for not performing as well as I should. I'm gonna try and take a nap. This is a short train ride today. We are in Munich. Oktoberfest is in full swing. Wonder what it will be like there?



September 21st, 9:24 am. Oktoberfest! Nothing more depressing, than seeing mass amounts of belligerency in one place. To be honest, I'm not a big fan of this kind of events, but I thought I should at least see what it was about. Last night I played at a youth co-operative called Feierwerk. The city helps pay for this huge complex to provide activities for the youth. They have four different stages of various sizes, a half pipe in the back, and lodging for all the touring bands. The first words from the guy in charge was "Sorry, but the promoter is sick. I will be in charge?. Followed by "I don't know how many people will come tonight. The show was kind of last minute and I don't know what will happen?" Ahhhhhh ... encouraging. I told him not to worry and that I was just glad to be there. Which was pretty much the truth. There was no opening band, so just me playing an hour set starting at 10 pm. Perfect. Spend the night exploring Oktoberfest, get back at 9 pm. Rest up in my private flat til' 9:40 pm. Come on down to the club, set up and play music for an hour. How easy can this be? At 9:40 pm I walk in the club and doh! There is just a handful of people inside. I set up and in 10 minutes I am ready to start playing. Eyes closed I begin the journey and when I open up my eyes ... Doh! There's only 12 people there. I thought I was seeing things at first, but it was true. But out of the 12 people there, 9 of them bought CD's. People still marvel that Hiro and I are travelling by train. Which is puzzling to me, as there's no reason to pay the high prices of gas and sit in a vehicle for hours when it's just me playing solo. I think I need to tell more US bands to travel this way. I love trains!



September 22nd, 6:37 pm. My body is friggin' tired. We ended up walking around 15 kilometres yesterday in hopes of seeing as much of Vienna as possible in a 24 hour period. With no tour guide, we just walked and walked. Taking random pictures of pretty buildings and thinking "Nice... click click, nice ... click click ..." The show was nothing special except for a young man who travelled from Budapest to see me play and knew every word I sang. It's always a kick to know there are people from far away places willing to drive even farther just to see me play a random show in Europe. My mind is getting tired too as I wind down the final two shows. Deep breath as tomorrows train ride is 8 hours including 4 changes. Argghh! Be well people. Be well.



September 23rd, 12:40 pm. We were in Wiener Neustadt last night. The hostel we stayed at was occupied by a deaf European sports team of some sort. They wore matching warm ups and this is my only clue. Perhaps I should examine my assumptions. Maybe they just like wearing the same clothes?? But it was a difficult thing to wake up to. Starting at 7 am, the loud thumping of chairs and then the deafening banter of Deutsch being spoken by mutes. Is this politically correct? But I didn't have to get up til' 8:30 am! I'm down to zero articles of clean clothing. Washing a few articles in the sink every night before I go to sleep and hoping it dries by morning has been my daily routine. I ended up taking a nap from 7 til 8:30 pm last night. It felt so good getting a bit of rest before the show. It was a short walk to the club and I didn't go on til' 10:30 pm, so I wasn't in any hurry to leave the hostel. The opening band was a young quartet from a neighboring city in Austria. The drummer was only 15 years old and the others not too far off in age. They were a good band. It seems they were influenced by bands like MINERAL and SEAM, which is strange considering their age. Impressive, the fact that they weren't listening to FALL OUT BOY and other crap that fills the airwaves. Starting from the very first note, I had some technical problems. There was something wrong with the guitar cable or DI box and the sound kept cutting in and out throughout the first song. On song #4 my A string broke. Try playing without that one, but I finished the song somehow. Song #6, I'm playing way out of tune and then at the end my beamer presentation cut out. But through all the adversity the show still went over well, even though I was going crazy throughout. Back to the hostel, we took a towel from the club to shower. My socks weren't dry from an earlier wash, so I hung them up by the window, but when I stood on the bed I broke the supporting boards near the rear due to my massive girth. A bit of reading, a drink of bubbly water, and lights off. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.



September 24th. I had no idea how to get to the show in Buchloe. I would simply call the promoter when I got into town. But to my surprise, the promoter (Thorsten) was there waiting for us when we got off the train. How did he know? Magic?? It surely made things easy for us. Just 5 minutes from the club, we headed inside and had dinner at the adjoining Italian restaurant. Pizza and Greek salad. I love pizza. And feta cheese is delicioso ... si si ... yah yah ... They asked if I wanted to do a sound check and I passed, opting to go to the hotel to relax a bit. The hotel was exactly 2,7 kilometres away as I watched the odometer, hoping it was close enough to walk to and from the club. It was only 7:30 pm and I didn't go on til' 10:30, so we had a few hours to just relax. Hiro and I lay 2 feet apart watching "Kill Bill" in Deutsch. Even in a different language, the movie is kick ass. At 9:30 pm, the promoter came to pick us up. We probably could have walked, but it was getting a bit chilly and was glad to have a ride. The owner of the club let us hang out in his flat above to avoid the cigarette smoke. And then 30 minutes later it was time to play. Avoid the smoke until I have to play. It's the only way. I feel bad missing the other bands/artists, but I can't deal with smoke anymore. I belted out almost every song I knew and hopped up and down to show my approval. It was the last show of the tour and I was just having fun playing my music all the way in Deutschland. Danke. Hope to see you when I come back in 2008. Peace and Unity.

Mike Park