Colombia linda!

Wow....Colombia is a blast! We arrived in Bogota a week ago and ever since it has been the best of times! The hospitality we encountered here is incredible. When we got to Bogota we had only three shows confirmed. Now it looks like we're gonna play seven shows in Colombia.
Last friday we played in Bogota in a rehearsal space and it was absolutely crazy! The place was small but packed and the energy of the crowd was incredible! It didn't even matter that one of the guitar amps broke during one of the last songs. Everyone enjoyed the singalongs, crowdsurfs and pile-ons.
The next day we took a plane to Medellin. At the airport we got picked up by our friends of "Son De Arena" which we got to know in Cuba two years ago. It was the most beautiful welcome I ever experienced! Their whole band came to pick us up at the airport and they brought their traditional drums and pipes to play us some welcome tunes. It took us about an hour to drive to Marinilla and it was just one insane ride! During the whole trip they played traditional songs in this tiny van. Beers and aguardiente were passed around and before we even got to Marinilla everyone felt kinda dizzy, but in the best possible way! And it got even better: the guys from Son De Arena rented a finca for the weekend! It was located a little bit out of town on top of a small hill and was surrounded by a nice garden with orange trees and offered a beautiful view on the Marinilla area! And when we got there, there was already a lovely smell coming out of the kitchen. And just a couple of minutes later we got served the best colombian style homecooking food that you could imagine! It was so delicious and it was a lot. So after the meal everyone took a little nap.
Later in the evening we played at the Ocelot Bar in the city of Marinilla. It was a saturday night and the town was really busy. The streets were massively crowded and the traffic was insane! Just standing in front of the bar and looking at the scenery was like watching a movie.
Anyways, at some point it was time for us to finally play and like in Bogota it was one insane experience! People danced their asses of, sang along and went totally crazy! So far we never came across such enthusiastic crowds as in Colombia! We're so excited about the next shows to come!

Adios Cuba - Bienvenidos Colombia

The Brutal Fest Tour has ended. After two weeks in Cuba we are now on our way to Bogota. Cuba has been a blast! The last three shows in Havana and Pinar Del Rio were probably the best out of all the Cuban dates. In Havana we played at Maxim Rock which is in fact an old movie theatre that has been turned into Cuba's only venue dedicated to alternative rock music. It can hold a crowd of about 800 people and specially on the second night it was packed!
Pinar Del Rio on the other hand was special because the stage was actually small compared to the others we played in Cuba - which in fact appealed to us because it's what we actually like better than big stages. We had the honour to play at last that night and therefore close the curtains of the summer edition of Brutal Fest 2015. There was a really cool energy in the crowd and when some guys of Joliette and The Strapones joined us on one of our songs, it became a really crazy party!
Cuba was not only about the shows...they were all great but it's not gonna be the only thing we'll remember from this trip: it was a truly great pleasure meet with the people that are putting so much effort into the Cuban Punk/Hardcore scene - regardless all the obstacles such as expensive and bad internet access or legal restrictions. Jalbierto Ramirez and his webzine www.rompiendo-muros.tumblr.com should be specially mentioned here.
It also was great fun to catch up with old friends like the guys from Adictoxs, Switch or Blinder. And we are so happy to have been able to tour Cuba with a bunch of so cool bands. Not only our Swiss buddies from Vale Tudo and The Strapones but also Joliette from Mexico and Get The Shot from Canada. They made hanging out in hotel lobbies and at shady hotel bars quite e
an experience. We really hope to meet those funny and warm-hearted guys again soon!
We also wanna say a huge thank you to David Chapet from Brutal Beatdown who made this all happen and to the whole Brutal Fest Crew that looked after us throughout the whole trip!
We are honestly a little bit exhausted from the whole Brutal Fest experience but on the other hand we are truly excited about getting to Colombia! On Friday, we will play in Bogota and we can't wait for that! Stay tuned.
Überlove/Überyou

Santa Clara - Brutal Fest en la calle

Our next destination was Santa Clara. It's a city located pretty much in the center of the Island and was the last city that was conquered by the guerilleros during the revolution. We stayed at the hotel Santa Clara Libre in the center of the town. Some of the last battles of the revolution took place right there and you can still see a lot of bullet holes on the walls of the hotel. We already played in Santa Clara two years ago and so it didn't take us long to run into some friends of the local bands such as Eric from Blinder or Pollo from Adictoxs.
We were looking forward to the gig in Santa Clara for a long time because Santa Clara is kinda the Punk Rock capital of Cuba. But...to make a long story short...the gig didn't happen...just like in Bayamo it started to rain just when the first band was about to start. Even though the rain stopped after about fifteen minutes it was not possible to play because the power strips were soaked with water and the Brutal Fest crew decided that it was just too dangerous. It was a really sad moment because a big crowd was there and was eager to see the bands. We were trying to make any kind of a show happen. So we talked to Pollo the singer of the local band Adictoxs. He tried to move the show to a venue called El Mejunje which is probably the only independent cultural center in Cuba. But unfortunatly it was not possible because they already had another line-up for the night. So we figured that the only thing we could do was to do an accoustic set of some kind. We went back to the city center to the local Malecon where the local Punks and Metalheads use to hang out every night. Pollo brought his accoustic guitar and Marc started to play some Ramones covers. In no time a lot of people gathered around us and started to sing along. Every couple of songs the guitar got passed around, bottles of rum were shared... and Brutal Fest was finally happening! Not on a stage but in the street...it was a really crazy experience to do a kind of a flash mob street gig in Cuba! I think that's what Punk Rock is all about and the kids in Santa Clara really got the spirit!
It definitely was a night to remember! Even though there was no regular show, we'll never forget this night! Let's hope we can make it back to Santa Clara some day!

Brutal Fest

Where should i start...? It has only been one show so far but the Brutal Fest tour already blows our minds! From the moment when all the bands met in Havanna it has been one big party! Besides Vale Tudo and the strapones that are good friends from Switzerland, Get The Shot from Canada and Joliette from Mexico are joining this trip. The first day of the tour was a very long travel day. It took us about thirteen hours to drive from Havanna to Holguin. The bus broke down after a pretty short time but you could tell from the reaction of our drivers that this was not an unusual thing. They stayed very calm, got their tools and had the bus fixed within an hour or so. Finally we got to the hotel in Holguin. The first show was about to happen the next day. Because of the heat the shows start pretty late so there was a lot of time to hang out at the hotel pool....and the 24 hours pool bar. We were the first band to play that night and so we had to go to the venue a little earlier to set-up and soundcheck. The venue was actually pretty epic! It's located in the centre of Holguin on a rooftop where you can overview the central square of Holguin. Big clouds started to build up when we were soundchecking and soon some lightnings started to flash around us which made the whole scenery really epic! Luckily it didn't rain throughout the night and the show could happen as planned. Pretty soon the venue was packed with people and both the crowd and all the bands were really excited to get it going. For us it was a really fun show! The first show of a tour tendd to be a bit hard sometimes but this time I felt comfortable from the very beginning. The fact that the local soundguys did a great job helped a lot! The stage was made out wooden planks and already during our second song some of those planks cracked which left us on a stage with two holes...it looked kinda scary and i was a little worried because we were only the first of six bands that night. But again, the Brutal Fest crew managed the situation in no time and fixed the stage within our next song.
To play first was kinda cool because so we could enjoy the other bands after our gig. They all did a fantastic job! But I have to mention Joliette! Those four guys from Mexico - that are the nicest dudes to hang out with - absolutely killed it! Their "mexikanisches handgemachtest glutenfreies krößt" was one of the best live performances I have seen in a long time! Their energy was overwhelming!
Right now we're on our way to Bayamo where the next show is going to happen. I can't wait! We're so stoked to be part of this!

Even though the internet situation improved a little bit compared to our last trip to Cuba, it's still hard to get online. So I don't know when I'll be able to upload what I'm writing right now....anyway...stay tuned. More stories and pics will follow.
Cheers! Überyou

Santiago de Cuba

After saturday's bad weather we hoped to be more lucky with the show in Santiago. We arrived pretty late and so we unfortunately didn't got the chance to see a lot of the city. Again it was already dark when we got to the venue and again the sky looked kimda menacing. Lightings were flashing but luckily they seemed still quite far away. The venue was called "Anfiteatro Parabailar". There was a huge seating area - which easily could have held a couple of tousand people -  surrounding the dancefloor in front of the stage. There even was a massiv LED screen behind the stage where they were showing videos of the bands that were about to play. This night it was Joilette's part to set off the party. But then halfway through the soundcheck...it started to rain again. It wasn't heavy rain but it was to much to just go with it. So all the PA stuff had to be covered with plastic and the backline had to be taken off stage...and we had go wait. After the Bayamo experience everyone got pretty nervous and feared that we had to cancel another show. But the rain stopped soon and the backline was set-up and Joliette got ready to play again...and just before they were ready to start the next raindrops fell. We already knew the deal: cover the PA, backline off stage and so on. This game had to be played three more times before Joliette finally could start the show around half past twelve. The crowd that has been anxiously waiting was going crazy really quickly and we knew that it was going to be a good night after all. Vale Tudo was up next and they nailed it and left a really happy and warmed up crowd! Then it was our turn to hit the stage. Because it was already so late all the bands rushed during the changeovers and it was pretty much a plug and play thing...which actually worked quite well. A couple of guitar strings broke throughout the night but all the bands were really supportive and were lending their instruments or helped changing strings.
After three songs of our set Ian said that we would give away some CDs for free on stage and invited the kids to climb on stage and get them. I guess we kinda underestimsted how desperate the Cuban kids are to get new records...a internet connection is slow and still nearly unaffordable and there is not exactly a virgin store around any corner...anyway, the kids were raiding the stage to get a CD and the Brutal Fest crew was running on stage as well to protect the backline and all the equipment! Luckily everything was still working and from that point on the show was a real blast!
It was already late but there were still four more bands on the bill! By the time we finished and got back on the bus it wss around four in the morning and bus call for the drive to camagüey was only five hours later.
So it was a short night but right now were 10 kilometers outside from Camagüey. We got the night off so let's see what happens...

No show in Bayamo

Yesterday we travelled from Holguin to Bayamo. It was only a short ride and so we had some time to relax before we went to the venue. When we got there we could hardly believe what we saw: the stage was enourmos and about one and a half meters high and in front of the stage was a huge square with almost the size of a football field! I guess they like it big in Cuba...right next to the venue there was some kind of street food festival with a lot of locals hanging out and there also was a pretty cool Cuban band playing traditional music. So of course that got our first attention. Meanwhile the local audio crew was preparing all the gear for the show. Soon we got word that there seemed to be a problem with the electricity. I wasn't to much worried at first but it turned out to be a more serious issue. Apparently there are limited contingents of electricity for events and there seemed to be not enough left for all the bands to play. A lot of phone calls were made by the brutal fest staff and the mood got kinda tense. But finally it looked like the show was about to happen. We just had to wait for the official electricity tech to sort things out. A lot of kids were already hanging out in front of the stage and were waiting patiently but anxiously for the show to start. Around midnight the power could finally be switched on and the first band prepared for a quick soundcheck. But it was not kent to be...pretty much when they were about to hit the first note it started to rain. It only rained for like five minutes but it rained heavily! Because the stage was not covered all we could do was to get the backline out of the rain as quick as possible. After the rain stopped it quickly became clear that there would not be any show that night. There was to much water on the stage and dangerously close to the electricity sources. All the bands especially all the kids were really bummed out about this fact. We went into the crowd to hand out some records at least and it was really sad to see the disapointment in tbe kids' eyes. Besides the Brutal Fest there is pretty much no alternative live music in Bayamo which means that the kids have been longing for this event for half a year! It was really sad but there was nothing we could have done...
Let's hope that we'll be more lucky in Santiago de Cuba tonight.

By the way...it turned out to be quite an epic night after all...including a lot of horse taxi riding, snakes and the local CSI branch trying to solve the case of a stolen mobile phone...

Off the grid

Dear friends and gentle hearts
in a few hours we're gonna fly to Cuba and start our South America tour! We don't know yet how often we'll be able to get online during our stay in Cuba. So you might have to wait a couple of days for our first tour update. Stay tuned!
Überyou

South America Tour!

It's really happening! Only a couple more days and we're off to our biggest adventure so far: 3 months of touring in Cuba, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile. We spent almost a year planning this trip and finally everything seems to get together. We will start our journey in Cuba where we'll be part of the Brutal Fest Tour. We will play eight shows in seven different cities. A huge thanks to David Chapet for making this happen!

After Cuba we'll travel to Colombia. This is gonna be the least settled part of the trip but things are slowly comming together. We'll be playing in Bogota and Marinilla for sure and some more dates are in the making. Anyway, we're really excited to visit Colombia, a country where none of us has been before.

Brazil will be next. Together with our friends from Under Bad Eyes and Better Leave Town we're gonna travel hundreds of miles and play ten shows from Belo Horizonte all the way down south to Florianapolis. https://de-de.facebook.com/events/1454774858158012/

And further south we go! Argentina will be next. Another country we haven't been to. We're looking forward to epic shows in and around Buenos Aires, Moron and Rosario with Beautiful Sundays and Los Caidos! HACIENDO LO QUE VOS NO TE ANIMAS A HACER!

After that we're gonna cross the Andes ¡Hola Chile! We'll be playing 5 shows in Santiago, Concepcion, Talca and Rancagua. https://www.facebook.com/events/110457279302382/ And we are extremely excited and honoured to be part of the Furia Festival.

A big big thank you to everyone involved in this adventure. We can't wait to meet and high five all of you!
We'll share news, stories and pics of our trip every now and then on this site. So stay tuned,
Cheers - Überyou