Ass-End Offend: 2005 Summer European Tour Diary
Nice patches, dude. An interloper’s guide to squatting Eastern Europe.
(this just ran in the Winter 2005/22006 issue Tom Elston's Shafted By
Society, write to him Telston AT gmail DOT com to get a copy)
Howdy. My name is Josh, and between 1997 and 2000 I spent about two and
half years living in Latvia, a Baltic Sea-bordered land of enchantment.
I was a high school teacher with the U.S. Peace Corps. Since leaving in
1999 I’ve been back four times to visit friends, see music and to bring
back my friends. The following thing struck me as a hopefully a good
complement to what I’m positive will be a thorough and interesting
European tour diary that Tom and Matt have done. The following is my
highlights reel with some complementary (free) analysis and, well, you
know, context about all this, if you’re interested.
Some Background:
I met Ass-End Offend at some point in the year 2000 in Missoula. Aside
from having a daggone unwieldy name, they’re a ferociously awesome punk
group. Hang tight, there’ll be some more explanation about that later.
Between 2000 and 2004 they self-released three great singles. After
witnessing them get tighter, better and take more and more musical
chances, I asked them if they would record an LP for Wäntage. They said
they would, drove down to San Francisco and came back with 12 songs. At
some point in late 2004, working with Ass-End Offend on the “Character
Assassins” LP, and seeing how hard they worked to tour the entire U.S.
behind it, we started to discuss how to get them to Europe. Ass-End
Offend are Tom, Brent, Dan and Matt. They play hardcore DIY punk, and
are for the most part from Montana. Most of them now live in Missoula,
with the exception of Brent who lives up in Kalispell, near Glacier
National Park. Their music is heavy, fast, desperate and alternately
violent, hopeful, gloomy and inspiring. Probably for me, most important
hook is that the songs are interesting, short and tonally, always
really satisfying. Tom invested in good bass equipment at some point,
and added a thick, deep dimension to what had started only as a pretty
solid hardcore group. Brent is a punk vet whose playing is really
unique and musically ambitious, Matt was a later addition who came from
some good angry screechy punk groups (Venal IV and the Antidifrancos)
his second guitar added substantial heft and power to AEO’s attack. Dan
Lawlor well, Dan is a Lawlor, and Lawlors can drum.
At some point, we started talking about it, and lo and behold they were
all excited by the idea of going to Europe, knew it wasn’t going to
happen easily, and were committed to working hard at it. For close to a
year, we met monthly to plan, set out tasks for ourselves, update on
our progress and rethink our strategy. After doing some early
budgeting, we knew that in order to make it work, we’d need a couple of
things in place 1) additional dollars to rent a van and equipment once
we got there, and 2) plane tickets. The rest, we figured we could get
taken care of.
After deciding that plane tickets would be our individual
responsibilities, the real hump to get over was finding the dollars to
make the van and equipment rental reality. We decided to ask our
friends if they’d help us raise money, and folks resoundingly came out
of the woodwork and put together the Punk Rock Prom (II). 6 total
Missoula bands played, each played a couple of another’s songs. Punk
Rock Prom, after all was said and done, was a blast and raised just
over $2000 for the tour.
Originally we wanted to spend our time split between western and
eastern Europe, with the idea that we’d make better money in the west,
and spend less in the east. For numerous reasons, none of them
particularly interesting, touring the west didn’t work out. We’d hoped
to tour with some other bands and then we’d hoped to get help from a
hardcore booking company, and both didn’t materialize. We regrouped,
and decided that we’d focus on Poland, the Baltic countries and
Finland. After getting back, I honestly am glad to have gone where we
did.
Euro-Highlights Reel
Just after the fourth of July, we boarded planes for Warsaw, Poland and
spent the next three weeks tooling around eastern Europe’s
Midwestern-style farmland in a hot Mercedes van named “Biedrona”
(ladybug in Polish). The whole damn thing was a lot of fun, and it
opened my eyes to DIY culture, squatting and modern society’s best
example of conscientious objection to capitalism. I think overall what
I enjoyed most about it, was going with a purpose, rather than just as
a vacation. I’m all for vacations, don’t get me wrong, but having the
objective of getting to shows, and making things work as best as
possible, having fun, with a bunch of people from my home was
incredibly satisfying now that I look back at it.
Moreover, setting up shows over the internet, and really only
communicating with people over email, and finally getting to meet them
was a strange and pretty exciting experience too. Having the reason for
being there with a band gave me a reason to easily meet people, which
really enriched the whole thing in a way that traveling as a tourist
hasn’t really ever done for me. Honestly other than one or two cheesier
promoter types, everyone we met was really interesting, proud of their
towns and scenes and incredibly hospitable. My favorite towns and
venues, and the reasons are as follows:
Elbląska Squat (Warsaw, Poland)
“Elba” as I think it’s called was the administrative offices for a
trucking company, I believe. It’s a two story building on a three or
four acre piece of fenced land with some dilapidated warehouses and
loading docks. The place is well along in the dis-use, disrepair end of
things, but functions well and houses between 10 and 15 folks. This was
the first place we went after getting off the plane, and it was my
first ever, real-deal squat. The folks who lived there were really
welcoming, after the initial, “what’s the deal with these clowns” sort
of once-overing. A couple dudes were out in the yard welding bike
frames together, other people were reading, a few friends came by to
drop off some furniture, and there was a big weedy field where we
played Frisbee until passing out from exhaustion. In the morning, a
nice girl named Daria cooked us pancakes, and we went to try to do some
shopping at Warsaw’s legendary market. It started to rain buckets and
we aborted the mission.
Kino/disco (Ciehanowiec, Poland)
One of the first exchanges we had upon meeting Wojtek (“voyteck”), our
driver on the tour, was learning from him that the first show that I’d
booked, in Bialystok, en route to Latvia, had been cancelled. In a
pretty excellent introductory move, Wojtek put out a call to folks
involved in the punk scene to see if there were any shows the band
could get on. Within a few hours we learned that there was a show in
Ciehanowiec (“chee-ha-nov-its”) and that the promoter was happy to add
Ass-End to his bill. The town was due east from Warsaw, about two hours
drive. Ciehanaowiec is a town of maybe 4,000 people, with a nice pair
of lakes at its center and a big ethnographic museum. The promoter’s
name wad Darek, and he had done a good job getting the word out. Rural
eastern Poland on a Saturday night! I was a little apprehensive, but
the turnout was great, we were treated to some vegan pasta and sauce,
cauliflower salad and Lech beer. Darek is an incredibly nice guy, and
he threw a good show. Most of the openers were decent rock and roll, or
punk. Ass-End slayed and sent the crowd at the former disco into a
spastic frenzy. Darek’s band, Oreiro, who have a record out on Trujaca
Fala from Sopot, were excellent, melodic, heavy, dramatic hardcore.
Definite hometown favorites who had the kids literally bouncing off the
walls. The show had to be over by 11PM or so we ended up at a beer
garden, where we were approached by local, middle aged women and told
we must dance. I did. Tom did. And that was that. We spent the night at
Darek’s aunt’s home by the local school dormitory. In the morning,
while Wojtek installed a new stereo and a fan, we went and checked out
the mill pond, old farm equipment and houses at the ethnographic
museum. To have somewhat happened onto the show, we came away ahead in
about fifteen ways.
Rockiklubi (Valga, Estonia)
Valga, Estonia is a little border town of about 15,000 people.
“E-stonia” as its called because of it’s tech saavy population, is by
far the furthest along of the former soviet republics. That’s largely
because it’s right in Finland’s back yard, small, ethnically pretty
homogenous and concepts like good government and transparency were
piped in for years via Finnish television, so that when they had the
chance, Estonia new what they wanted to do, swallowed the toughest
pills earliest, and have seen economic growth steadily every since.
Arrr, so anyway, Valga is a town down in the south end of Estonia where
a guy named Ivo had set us up as how at his “Rockiklubi.” The venue was
the second floor of a public sauna in one of the shitty ubiquitous
apartment buildings that are all over the former Soviet Union. The
space was a great DIY venue, and Ivo was a really nice guy who did
sound, and let all the bands stay at the venue so they could return
home the next day, after missing the last buses. Most of the bands had
come from nearby Latvia, and after the show each 17 year old member
proceeded to drink close to 6 gallons of beer and smoke 45 cigarettes
over the next 7 hours. I’ve experienced this type of deal before and
its appeal lasts about 37 minute for me. So, I found a nice quiet
landing above the club part of the venue, and crashed for several
hours. Meanwhile the local teens got plowed and swore a bunch and
polluted themselves, which is what you do when you get away from your
family (with whom you live in a three room apartment until you’re 25).
Hey-ho! Rockiklubi has a really unique feel. Go there and watch a band
if you get a chance.
Zabadaks (Kuldīga, Latvia)
After having spent the better part of four of five days in Rīga, and at
the beach, I was ready for Kuldīga’s small-town charms. Zabadaks is a
large retrofitted barn that some ambitious locals have turned into the
country’s best punk rock venue and community center. When I lived in
Latvia, I lived just up the road from Kuldīga, and have some great
memories of seeing cramped, wild shows in crazy basement spaces, and
walking the town’s old winding streets with friends, so Kuldīga is
always a bit of a homecoming somehow. The venue itself was given to
NEKAC –an nonprofit dedicated to supporting noncommercial music and
culture- by the city, and it was improved using hours of donated time
and a decent sized EU grant. Now it functions as a truly positive,
low-cost center for kids (mostly) from all over the region. Since I was
there last with Volumen, they added lots of sleeping space to
accommodate the kids who miss the last bus to stay for a show or movie.
Zabadaks is thoroughly good vibes, and is an example of what more of us
should try to do in the U.S. Their website, www.nekac.lv, has all kinds
of pictures and explanation.
Laura Ziemele and EdĹľs run the place, and do so flawlessly. Laura is
also responsible for some great silkscreened designs, such as “less
hardcore, more music” and “dari pats” (Latvian for do-it-yourself). The
show was well attended, however I missed most of it to catch up with
friends who’d driven down to say hello.
Alytus Region (Alytus, Lithuania)
To say this deal was way the fuck in the sticks, is to put it mildly.
We got to the town nearest the camp, and were provided with the
requisite drunken, swearing-in-Polish (“kurwa”) local guide to get us
the final 6 miles. Darius, an Alytus guy and hardcore.lt contact, had
set up a summer camp called “Kolonija” for young people from his town.
The theme was DIY, and they’d spent the week learning to cook,
discussing politics, learning to blow fireballs and hanging out in the
beautiful rolling hills of southern Lithuania.
The show was literally played on grass, much to the chagrin of the
Antimaniax who were on this portion of the tour. It struck me as
perfectly invigorating, we were fed, given beer, and paid fairly. There
were about 20 kids, mostly 15 -17, or a bit younger, I’d guess. They
seemed pretty into Ass-End and went perfectly apeshit for the more
accessible songs of the Antimaniax. At some point Darius made it clear
we could have a second show, if we wanted at a night club in
Druskinkai. We accepted and drove for a couple hours further to this
resort town, to a beautiful, high end club called Kolonada. Sure we
were mistaken, and a little worried about what would happen if we
weren’t, we found the manager, and asked what the deal was. Sure
enough, this was the spot. Punk music on after the flamenco band!
Everyone from the bands were pretty sketched out, just anticipating
that a) reactions would be only negative or b) this was just some freak
show type attraction for the yuppie clientele. Ass-End took the stage
and cleared the place of all but five or six folks, one of whom was a
well-known academic who took the mic and did some screaming. Antimaniax
seized the opportunity to lecture Lithuania’s nouveau riche about their
excessive lifestyles, albeit with far to much pompousness to be at all
effective (for me). To see privileged western Europeans lecturing the
emerging middle class of the former Soviet east about their excessive
consumption is something I will always cherish for its sheer absurdity.
The club’s manager fed us all extremely well, paid us fairly, and
arranged us a free spot to spend the night. Weird, but positive,
somehow.
Fabryka Squat (Warsaw, Poland)
Fabryka (factory) has got to be damn near the top of the list of the
most ambitious projects that punks have ever been involved with. The
place is a four story building sitting on a 10 acre plot of land right
in the middle of Warsaw, Poland. Pulling up to it, my jaw dropped about
three or four times, each further than the last. We pulled up and went
up to check out the fucking castle of DIY squats. The first floor was
pretty well bombed out, and the second was where the action happened,
with a huge bar and distro area, a large hall with a stage and a big
rec-room with couches. The third and fourth floors were all filled with
apartment/studio type living arrangements. We climbed up on the roof
with the drummer from Against Me! The place was fully set up to hold
off attacking forces! Stacks of rotten eggs and empty bottles were all
set up and ready for use, behind plywood battlements. The show was
awesome, with a little head-bobbing for Ass-End Offend, and an apeshit
crowd for Antimaniax and Against Me! This was my first experience with
Against Me!, and the couple of them I met were pretty nice, though
pretty spaced out after some massive drives across thousands of miles
of shitty eastern Euro roads. The couple of songs I’d heard previously
hadn’t grabbed me at all, but seeing them at Fabryka made me a
believer. They play with the same kind of telepathy that bands like the
Minutemen did.
A couple of other notes: the sound man was in Dezerter, one of the most
famous punk bands to come from Poland! We saw our friend Darek from
Oreiro at the show, and he informed us about the preparations for his
marriage to his sweetheart in a couple weeks. Kraszan organized the
show, and did an awesome job getting the word out.
Since we were there, I think the city government of Warsaw has taken
over the property -which not surprisingly had a high commercial value-
and sold it off to a business.
Commentary/Analysis:
The more I think about the crusty/squatter/hardcore scene in eastern
Europe, the more I’m really fascinated and excited by it. The
philosophy of most folks, mostly from my conversations on this trip,
and what I’ve read, is to live as much as possible outside of the
capitalist system, which they equate directly with exploitation. I can
see that philosophically there’s some credence to that, however I’m
still pretty convinced that capitalism is a natural way to swap things,
services, etc. with other people, and to date, there’s been no better
way explained to me. The fact that every DIY show has a market place
where cash is exchanged for records, patches, shirts and zines strikes
me as a simple, but pure message about the inherent utility of
currency, and that a market place has a real, honest freedom about it.
If you feel like something’s not worth what they’re charging, don’t buy
it, or see if they’ll sell it for less!
What excites me most about the squatter/DIY/hardcore scene is the
monumental will these folks muster and ingenuity they draw upon to put
together everything necessary to live a life outside of mainstream
society. The folks involved with the DIY hardcore scene in eastern
Europe get involved, and really, without 100% participation, there
isn’t a scene. Fabryka squat was an awesome place, volunteer run, and
across the board a real community undertaking. That community work part
of things has always struck me as really the most valuable commodity
within punk rock. You don’t like the cost of beer at the store, figure
out how to make your own, or buy the old ones that are still alright,
but past the use-before date. Don’t like paying rent? Find an old
building and occupy it. Don’t like working as much as normal folks, or
don’t like the type of work they do? Find work that suits you better
and do as much of it as will meet your basic needs. It’s pretty ballsy
stuff for the most part, and I salute people who figure out how to make
it work and live it. There aren’t many of us who can figure out how to
align our lives that much with our values, and while there are people
among them who get preachy, there are jokers in every scene, and they
shouldn’t speak for it. It does strike me, that for as active people
are, folks tend to be active in a pretty stock set of ways: anti animal
oppression and pro-veganism, anarchist or, anti-organized government,
anti-war, pro-bike, pro-dreadlock and pro-metal hardcore. While I
either agree with or respect most of those things, I’ve always been
somewhat let down by the lack of dissention within the political
philosophy and little musical experimentation within this scene. I dig
power-chord metal rock as much as the next guy, but there’s much more
to be done, and if DIY’s going to be more than a fad that people grow
out of, then it needs people to start talking about realities like
better government, and not just some bullshit “no heroes, no masters”
sloganeering. Ahem!
I also really enjoy that folks from the DIY/hardcore/squatter scene
practice the utmost in thrift, figuring out little scams for every damn
thing from riding the trams without tickets to dumpstering vegetables
for meals to living essentially rent free and tapping in to water and
sewer. It’s a little naïve to assume that water and sewer don’t at some
point present themselves as costs to other, normal people down the road
(say through higher water and sewer costs), but, nothing’s perfect.
Eastern European folks spend there summers canning the extra food their
gardens and forests produce, so there’s already a pretty strong
tradition of doing it yourself there, where nutrition and meals are
concerned.
The few kernels I took away from this trip are as follows: 1) Never
wait for somebody else to do it for you. People with far fewer
resources than we have at our disposal in this country are doing double
the grass-roots work than we are here. 2) Want to save money? Get
comfortable not spending money, and making other entertainment for
yourself. 3) Most vegan food and European hardcore is good (especially
Infekcija from Wrocław), though the fact that Europe hasn’t produced
bands like Lightning Bolt or Deerhoof is pretty telling about the state
of musical creativity. One major exception is Super Girl and Romantic Boys from Warsaw. Maija, our co-captain turned us on to them, and they are excellent.
Thanks for reading, friend. Email me (wantageusa AT yahoo DOT com) if
you want any contact information, want to debate some part of this, or
want to hear any more.
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