Nov. 11th, 2006 @ 11:36PM
Our tour in Romania kicked ass. By the end, we had 5 shows (we had 7 booked but 2 got fucked up....hey it's touring), got to see Bran Castle and Castle Hunedoara, and made friends and fans across the country of Romania. Thanks goes out to Loudrage who we toured with and who set up us coming there, and Petrut Alin who was our tour manager for 4 of the dates. We brought over 100 cds and 36 t'shirts, and sold it all. The fans loved us and Loudrage and we loved them.
I'm not going to lie, so much happened over there it will be hard to put in an email. It would likely read like a novel with chapters…. But that won't stop me.
Day 1 Wednesday Oct 25th
Airport: Me, Jeff and Ria drove down to the Chicago O’Hare airport. We dumped Jeff's piece of shit he calls a car (like I can talk) and went by bus to the train terminal then by train to the international terminal. (the parking lot in Chicago is fucking huge so they have a system of buses and trains to haul your ass around). We met up with Dave and Jana and when the gates opened, dumped our luggage and ate and off we went. We flew Air Alitalia (Italian airline) to Milan--about an 8-hour flight.
Day 2 Thursday Oct 26th
We arrived in Milan that morning for a somewhat of a culture shock. The Airport was very busy but very plain and very open with hard cement floors met metal walls and ceilings. All travelers had to go thru a security check before transferring to the next flight. All travelers from every landing plane went thru the same bottlenecked line and it was a fucking zoo. Okay so we survive that, and we waited for the next flight to take us from Italy to our beloved Romania. So here is the fun part. When our gate opened, and we are called up, we passed thru a door and hallway, not onto a plane, but onto the runway! There, all passengers on our flight waited in a pile to be picked up by a bus, and shuttled right up to the plane on the runway! We exited the bus and climbed a staircase into the plane! It was priceless! We got video of that shit. The plane was very nice and it took only 2 more hours to get to Bucharest, Romania. We landed, checked bags, exchanged $, and met up with Adrian of Loudrage. He was to be the nicest guy we have ever met in our life. The most hospitable host ever. He had rented a car for our bags and bought us bus tickets to go to downtown Bucharest. The city was amazing. Bustling around were people and cars and trucks and it had the feel of New York or L.A.. It was enough to make your head spin. Next thing we knew we were on the rooftop of a huge building drinking beer and eating some food waiting for the first show. The rest of the Loudrage guys (Adrian, Bogdan, Adi, and Sergiu) met us and they are very friendly and fun. Loudrage is a four piece band and they had along with them all their gear and clothes and food the week. We headed to the first show at the Club Utopia. Along the way there were people signing a petition against the government who is trying to ban heavy metal in Romania. We all signed it. It was a reminder that we should never take for granted our freedoms and all fight for our rights. The bar was underground and very fucking metal. Loudrage opened up with a very solid set, then we got to play. The crowd loved us and we loved them! We sold a lot of stuff and many people wanted our autographs! It was crazy because we had to literally run out of the bar and jump in cabs to meet a train at the train station to get to the next town. If we missed the train, our tour would be fucked up! So there we were, bagging up our shit right after our show, and jumping in these little crazy cabs with all our shit, racing thru Bucharest at 11 pm! It was nuts.
Day 3 Friday Oct 27th
We board the train at midnight and it was neat. It was the first time I have ever road a real train before so it was cool for me. The compartments were private and the seats were comfy enough you could doze off in them. It was similar set up to the “Harry Potter” movies when the kids ride that train to school in the beginning, except that this train had a more modern motif. We rode the train for about 4 hours, then we switched trains in the middle of the night to finish our journey to Petrosani. My favorite part of the train was the bathrooms had a toilet that pretty much ‘dumped’ right onto the tracks. When you sat on it, you got a great breeze! We arrive in Petrosani, that morning with mist in the air and wild dogs roaming about. Great stuff for a novel! Turns out that morning mist is common in the valleys and the wild roaming dogs are offspring from sheep dogs of the old days and most of which are very friendly and want to be petted. I got pictures of Ria petting the ‘wild’ dogs (wagging their tails and all) . We met up with Alin (our tour manager and also a member of the well-established band Gothic) and he helped us load our stuff into his Dacia his wagon. Romania makes a car called the Dacia. It is small and has 3 lugs holding the wheels, which was strange to us. Now that Romania is no longer communist, the car company makes a sleeker and more stylish car with ‘glossy’ paint, and I got a great picture showing the old and new design side by side. Sad thing was that his car was still better than what I drive J. We headed into town and we get a hotel and finally get our first sleep in Romania. Our rooms were cheap so me and Ria had a room with heat, but no light; Jeff, Dave, and Jana had a room with a TV and light but no hot water; and the Loudrage guys had a room with it all, except heat (I think). After resting Bogdan took me and Dave to the local grocery store to buy some stuff and it looked just like a Pick and Save around here. Anyway, that night we went to the Barock Pub for our second show, and the place was packed! The crowd loved both Loudrage and Rictus and they bought a ton of our stuff! We got pictures of the rabid fans standing on tables and stuff to get a better view. It was such a killer show and once again we signed autographs (and 1 pair of boobies) into the night. What was wild was that the bar had no driveway or path to the entrance. You had to climb thru a thicket and enter a unlit doorway to get into the bar. No signs outside or anything, but everyone knew where the show was! It was so metal. That night the hotel was filled with hi-jinx and pillow fights when I heard someone pounding at my door, I opened it up and got pummeled by own band! (traitors).
Day 4 Saturday Oct 28th
In the morning, Bogdan took Dave and myself back to the store so we could get some food for the road. We had not noticed before because it was either hazy or dark but beautiful mountains surrounded the town. Near the store we also noticed one of the many ‘Bank of Transylvania’ branches. (killer) Most of the towns we saw were in the valleys with picturesque scenery. The pace slowed down a bit and the travel between shows was much shorter, so we check out of our hotel and stopped to have a coffee at the local diner. The tour bus arrived and we loaded our shit into it. It was an extended van with about 11 seats and a driver who didn’t speak English. But he was cool and the bus was very comfortable! We travel to Castle Hunedoara this day and that castle is so fucking cool. I got pictures and film up the ass of it. It had a huge wooden bridge to get inside going over a small river. The funniest part was we thought we found a secret tunnel, right? So we snuck down inside the small tunnel thinking we’d see a dungeon or skeleton or something, and it emptied into a gift shop. Good times. Later, we arrive in Deva which was a very pretty town overlooked by a huge mountain with an old castle on top. You can reach that castle by ski lift, but we didn’t go. We got our hotel and ate some traditional food that reminded me of a crepe with Mexican meats in it. Near the hotel a traditional wedding was going on and the reception hall was in our hotel. The clothing looked very stylish and tough and the bride and groom led the precession from the church to the hall. People followed (including myself because I had to get to the hotel cause I forgot something) with sparklers and a band followed with accordions, strings, and horns. It was fucking cool…but, back to the metal. The bands played at the Rock Blues Jazz club that night and it was a great show for both bands. We sold more stuff and signed more autographs…it was a kick ass time! While I was playing, someone wearing a priest outfit came up to me and gave me his costume, so naturally I put it on an finished our set dressed as a Romanian priest with the hat and everything. They called me the Judas Priest! Killer. That night in the hotel the wedding party raged on until 4 am. A mist settled in the valley, and the stray dogs howled in to the night (Steven King, eat your heart out)
Day 5 Sunday Oct 29th
The next morning we checked out of the hotel and went back to the downtown area for a morning coffee. The town had a festival in full swing with music and shops spilling into the streets and food and beer! They were celebrating Rictus and Loudrage coming to town!! No, just kidding. It was an autumn festival and we happened to be there. Sergiu was funny cause he ordered little deep fried fish and he was picking out the eyes and eating them with glee! It was funny and gross! We headed off to Timisoara for our show at the Metal Box. This town was much larger and had more modern décor than the previous villages. It had many historical sites and electric trolley/trains that ran right down the middle of the street! We got a hotel a little ways from the downtown area and it was very cute. The Metal Box bar was underground (like most of the venues we played) and it sat near the bustling downtown of Timisoara. For supper we had pizza with eggs on it! It was good! I also had my first shot of Tequila where you suck the lemon and lick the tits, or whatever. I also smoked a cigarette like a Romanian that night…had to….I felt left out without one (everyone there fucking smokes….so bust them out if you go)! I finally had a better chance to hang out with Alin our tour manager and he is a good shit. For those of you who are ‘old school’ Rictus fans, he looked a lot like Larry Gammil before he cut his hair. Alin says that any band seriously interested in coming to Romania, drop him a line and talk to him about it. He can get ya shows! You can email him at gothalin@yahoo.com He was incredibly cool and helpful and I’d recommend him any day! The Metal box show was an awesome show for both bands again and we sold out of t-shirts at this show and we eve got a backorder! We still had about 10 cd’s left after this show, but I think going thru 90 cd’s in 4 nights was pretty fucking good! However we broke the skin on the snare drum and had to figure out where to buy some replaces stuff! Did you know they sell beer in 2 liter bottles? It kicks ass in Romania!
Day 6 Monday Oct30
We went to the mall in Timisoara and it was pretty huge. It was bigger than anything I have seen over here, but I haven’t been to Mall of America or anything. It was very modern and was most impressive! We also walked downtown to a music store and bought a new snare head. We got back to the Metal box to pick up our equipment and strapped on the new snare head. Turns out the snare we were using was an old school metric snare and the head was English! So Jeff, Sergiu and Adi had to literally take the entire snare drum apart and customize it to work with the odd head. It took a long time. That night we traveled to Lugoj but there was no show at the club because the owners of the club didn’t promote it and no one was there. By this time Adrian and me were pretty hoarse and sick from singing all week so we took the night off and got a hotel in Lugoj. We slept it the same room as Alin and man did his feet stink! haha I think the hotel was actually a hostel with 1 bathroom at the end of the hall everyone in the hotel shared. It was a decent place, but different than what I had ever seen!
Day 7 Tuesday Oct31
They don’t celebrate Halloween like we do in the States over there. They have something similar to a ‘Day of the Dead’ on Nov 1 or 2nd. It’s a celebration remembering those who have passed away. People gather at cemeteries bringing flowers and candles to the graves of loved ones to remember life lost. During our travels we seen many graveyards decked out in flowers and banners and people walking around in them. Earlier on in the trip we also passed a funeral procession. It was somber with each person in the line carrying a large banner as they walked along single file along the roadside. It was a tradition that seemed very meaningful although we didn’t understand the whole process. Also in our travels, we passed by a nuclear power plant. It must have been only 100 yards from the road. I got some great footage of it! We traveled to Sibiu to the largest club in Romania, The Stage Club! It took a little while to get there, and along the way we stopped by an abandoned DC3 prop plane on the side of the road. It was a huge surprise to find out that the owners remodeled it into a small café to have coffee in and we stopped in and had some coffee on our way through! Later that day we ate in a college cafeteria and it was cheaper than the other food we’d found and very very good! Sibiu was college town and we couldn’t find a hotel room, so we just went to the club to get ready. The place was HUGE like the Rave / Eagle’s Club in Milwaukee. The stage even had a runway! Good times. We played with Darken My Grief who is from that area of Romania and they kicked ass! By the end of the night, the driver was able to find us a place to stay.
Day 8 Wednesday Nov1
We find out that the last show was also screwed up in Brasov from lack of promotion or something, and we felt bad not going to play it, but by now Adrian from Loudrage was pretty sick and I wasn’t doing much better and the troops were pretty haggard. We went site seeing thru the mountains to take pictures and stuff and we went to Bran Castle! This castle was very impressive and we tried to get band pictures there, but we look pretty whipped so I don’t think we’ll be using them! The air felt cooler from the mountains and we ended up changing into heavier clothing. I got the best pictures of the castle, mountains and scenery. We stopped along the way back to Bucharest at a café in a very ritzy and touristy part of Romania where the prices for things were triple what we had seen in the first villages. We had time to kill because our flight would leave at 6am with a 4am check in that night so we also hit a mega store (like a Wal-Mart around here) and we found that 2 liter bottle of beer comes in six packs!! But after a while we did ultimately have to leave beautiful Romania. On the way to the airport, we passed by another nuclear power plant in Bucharest, with 8 cooling towers! It was tough!
Day 9 Thursday Nov2
This day for us lasted 35 hours because we gained 1 hour for daylight savings and 8 hours for time zones! haha. The flight home was generally uneventful but one crazy thing happened to us. When we were in Milan, we were seated and ready for take off for the 9-hour flight to Chicago. We powered up and started charging down the runway and got about half way down, then the plane powered down, and the pilot turned us off the runway and into a maintenance area! Something went wrong so the pilot had aborted take off! He apologized and after 45 minutes we tried again—this time with success!! Also, when we go back to Jeff’s car in Chicago, we go lost trying to leave O’Hare. It would have made for some great video how crabby we got at that fuckin’ airport! Jeff drove us home and I’m glad cause I slept!

Overall, the people in Romania were extremely nice and friendly and they all wanted to hug hello and hang out talking over a good cup of coffee or strong cold beer. The Loudrage guys were very kind, generous, polite and they helped us every step of the way…from hauling all our shit around, helping us find our way and introducing us to their many friends and fans along the way. They would literally take our luggage out of our hands and carry it for us. Alin was incredible with his organization, his ability to do everything from sound to door to merchandise and he did it all happily! Like I said he’ll gladly help out any band who is looking to tour Romania and you can contact him at: gothalin@yahoo.com The girls at the shows gave kisses on cheeks and were very delicate and quaint and they guys were so easy to talk to that we immediately felt we made friends just stepping into a bar or hall! Everyone we met showed us kindness and generosity beyond what we could have ever hoped for or expected!!! In Romania many people walk arm in arm with each other. Something we should do more here! If you were at a show in Romania and saw us play please stop by and say hi on our website or through email. We miss your country and want to keep in touch!!!
www.rictusgrin.com
www.myspace.com/rictusgrin