We played 27 shows in a row on this trip and that is a trip in itself! We had loads of fun and saw a lot of friends along the way and made new ones as well, as the surf enthusiasts just keep coming out of the woodwork. Amazing to me and a big thanks goes out to all in attendance at the shows. We brought along some copies of our SURF ADVENTURE TOUR ö LIVE FROM PRAGUE CDâs and came home empty handed and we are thankful for the support. The official album release party for this CD will be at The Pitcher House, in Hermosa Beach on July 26^th. All the usual shops should have them available before that though.

So, hereâs how the trip looked from where I was sitting·

---- 3/25 Club Iota  Arlington, VA

We arrived at Newark Airport and were met by Ray and Kate Dukes with a 15 passenger van to drive us to our shows in Arlington and New York. Man, I cannot say enough about these people·they are GOLDEN! We drove straight to the Iota in Arlington, VA and arrived just moments before Atomic Mosquitos went onstage. Perfect! Those guys were really good and it was fun to kick back and enjoy their show while stuffing food down our pie holes. There were lots of people at the show and we even signed some Jon and the Nightriders and Los Relampagos CDâs! That rocked. Iota is a great room and I highly suggest any instro bands to contact them regarding playing there. The crowd was very receptive and we got thru the first show jitters. We drove by the Pentagon after the show and it was an emotional experience for all of us. We stayed with drummer Craig from the AMâs and had a great breakfast the next morning including a healthy serving of fastnatch.

--- 3/26 Brownies  New York, NY

This show was set up by Irreversible Slackâs drummer, Greg and we were stoked to finally play New York. Great club and right in the thick of things. The Gadgits were on the bill with us and they are really cool guys out on an extensive tour, which included a show with Sam and I a couple of weeks before this in New Orleans. Great surprise to see them again. Iâve known Greg for a few years but never got to see him play and I was blown away by The Irreversible Slacks. They are incredible!! Think party band with great chops. Dancers on each side of the stage added to the choreographed moves and lots of crowd participation made their set fun to watch.  The Nebulas and 9^th Wave were among the many folks in the room and it was great to see them again. We stayed at guitar player Steveâs house and him and Kelly have a great pad in Brooklyn with a basement rehearsal room complete with a wet bar and tiki lights! Awesome.

--- 3/27 Fly to Brussels

Kate and Ray drove us to JFK and we had plenty of hugs and happy tears before we left them. The plane was a good place to sleep and we all took advantage of that. Thanks to Dave Arnson for hooking up the travel arrangements for us again!

--- 3/28 KultuurKaffee  Brussels, Belgium

 We were picked up by our promoter, Freddy Spaepen and went straight to the hotel to sleep some more. Thanks for that Freddy! We walked around town after a nap and went to the Musical Instrument Museum and that was very cool wearing headphones that played samples of the instruments you looked at in each display case. The show was at the University and it was packed with 250 kids all dancing and freaking out to surf music. We gave away a bunch of our drink tickets after the show and you would have thought we were giving away gold bars instead. Funny. Dinner was upstairs in a quite restaurant overlooking a huge pool with boys in Speedos playing water polo. Interesting.

 --- 3/29 Bat Cave  Tilburg, Holland

This place has 3 rooms and we played in the small room, thankfully. Excellent stage and sound, about 70 people showed up to check us out. Freddy was the DJ after the show and it was fun to hang out with everyone afterwards. Cor, who we met last year in Amsterdam was there with his fiancŽ and we had a blast talking. Also sold a grip of stuff to an Internet record store, which was cool.

--- 3/30  N9  Eeklo, Belgium

First support surf band, Hawaiian Astros were on the bill. They were cool, mostly traditional stuff. Steve from Revelairs, Bart and Jenz from 50â Combo, Fre and Alexandria from Speedball Jr. all came out and we had us a good damn time. Place was packed and we shed a lot of sweat

--- 3/31  Wollewei  Turnhout, Belgium

This was a super cool club. This was a Pop Festival with 12 clubs supporting 12 bands and everyone just got wasted drunk and walked from club to club (think mini SXSW). We played 4- half hour sets and that is a lot of notes I tell ya. More friends in attendance, Eddie and his son, the 50â crew, even Fabulous Frankie came out! We hadnât seen him since he supported one of the first Jon and the Nightriders shows there years ago. Food was exceptional, complete with a pancake, whipped cream and strawberry topped desert. Yummy!

--- 4/1  JH Palias  Zoutleeuw, Germany

Small room but very enthusiastic crowd. Salmon and ribs down the street was memorable. We came out for multiple encores, which was a good thing, but I forgot my shorts and played in long pants (which I NEVER do) and I got a little bitchy and as a result started the Slacktone Police moniker which took a while to shake. Make note: do not ever forget shorts.

--- 4/2  Dreikonigskeller  Frankfurt, Germany

This club is always empty. Donât come back here! (personal note). Heard about alternate club, AU and will try that next time perhaps. Talked with a local regarding a group of Germans who bought a ghost town, Lobo, TX between El Paso and San Antonio and they are setting up an art colony there, sounds cool. Martin Schmidt came and we all went out for Donner Kabobs so it wasnât a total loss.

--- 4/3  Beebop  Paris, France

Howâs this? The promoter tells us the curfew is 10:30. OK, no problem. Opening band plays until 9:45. Whatever, we set up fast and start by 10:00 and figure we can go over a minute or two. Still no problem. Light crowd but they are all dancing and having a good time. Somewhere during the set, Daveâs power goes out and heâs trying to figure out whatâs up, then Sam notices his power is out too·.then we realize they pulled the power on us! We looked at the time and it was exactly 10:30. Hmmm. Guess itâs time to go home. Paris is not high on my come back to list.

--- 4/4  Manuscript  Oostende, Belgium

This is on the eastern coast complete with a marina filled with pleasure craft. Wonderful town, lots of shops, etc. The place was packed and we had a great show. All 4 bartenders had Slacktone shirts on and that was a beautiful site!

--- 4/5  Waterfront  Rotterdam, Holland

We opened for The Apemen and that was cool! Huge room totally full and great sound system. Actually most of the clubs in Europe have really good gear as a lot of them are subsidized by the government·I still havenât figured out how that works·I was in the audience talking with Bart and Isabelle while watching the Apemen and the guitar and bass player came out into the audience and were playing an extended jam section and Dave the bass player walks up and puts his bass around my neck and then starts playing the guitar with Jeroen while I played the bass! They went directly into a bit of Miserlou and we were laughing our asses off. I told Bart, see, anyone can play the bass, even drummers! Too much fun tonight.

--- 4/6  Witte Theater  Ijmuiden, Holland

Another instro band supported this show, The Annacandas from Amsterdam. They we more jazz improv influenced and damn good. This was a bitchin venue and the sound was exceptional. Kind of a light crowd but we had a blast and the promoter was cool and let us check email from his office so what more could you ask for???

--- 4/7  Hammer Muhle  Bielefeld, Germany

Openers, The Triffids we very cool. Lots of surf songs and some old school garage vocals i.e. Sonics etc. 2 girls in the band, bass player and tambourine/triangle player. No shit. Guitar player was from the German Astronauts and really ripping it up. Very fun evening and lots of surf enthusiasts here. I dug this place.

--- 4/8  Blue Saloon  Tubingen, Germany

This town rocks! We had fun walking around and shopping before the show. It was so crowded that we loaded out of the side window behind the stage after the show as there was no room to get to the door through the crowd! Promoter Michael was a major music fan. We crashed at his house and he played DJ for as long as we could handle it· Kill Allen Wrench, Peepshow, Bombshell, and lots of bands that he was promoting.

--- 4/9  Angi Pub  Trenton, Italy

Vineyards everywhere! This was our first trip to Italy and the people were very enthusiastic. They donât speak English for shit, though and we had some fun making up Italian for our own amusement·äSpumoni, Spaghetti, I work-ed-ded so hard-ah·ä These people loved us and wanted to carry on conversations with us even though neither party could understand a single word being said. Beautiful snow capped mountains behind the club. Quite amazing.

--- 4/10  Jack the Ripper  Ronca, Italy

This place was packed to the hilt and I think everyone in the joint bought something after the show. We stayed here at the club, which is owned and run by Alberto and his entire family. We did some laundry here but no one has dryers over here so we had wet clothes strung out all over the van for the next couple of days. Raining and cold.

--- 4/11  Madly Pub  Castelnovo, Italy

Promoter, Gianni was total comedy. Tom Cruise look alike and full of energy. He even did the Nipple Dance for us, which we had never experienced before and canât say that I would like to see it again actually. When we finished playing a very drunk gentleman came onstage and started talking shit to me and then hit my cymbal really hard with his fist and I thought he was choosing me on or something. He looked all pissed off, but I found out he just wanted us to keep playing and the bouncers carried him off. Pretty funny. We stayed in an old castle, which is now the office for the City Mayor. Really fun snooping around all the town records in a store room on the top floor late that night. Kinda spooky too·

--- 4/12  Safari Beat Club  Chur, Switzerland

This place goes OFF!! Unbelievable! The dance floor was bouncing the whole night and packed to the back walls. Promoter, Michael got the whole room to bow down and start chanting some weird foreign gibberish, trying to get us to come back out for encores and I gotta say in all my years playing, I have never experienced anything quite like this. Waaayyy too much fun! We walked around town the next day as this is a wonderful city. We all split up and ended up in a restaurant several hours later and when we showed our goods, all 3 of us had purchased Swiss Army Knives so we had them out on the table acting like silly little tourists. You gotta love that! More Donner Kabobs.

--- 4/13  Remise  Wil, Switzerland

This was the biggest show we played on the tour. Huge venue and impossible to get from one end of the club to the other. Amazing. Everyone stayed after we finished and danced to a cool DJ spinning old school soul and 60âs fun. The stage became part of the dance floor and our Merchandise Queen, Raina, got up and did the pummel dance with several of the drunk Swiss boys. More fun than I can explain here, but you get the idea.

--- 4/14  Le Fonqu  Stuttgart, Germany

This was a small room but totally fun show. Everyone loved us and there were lots of girls dancing so no complaints here. We walked around town and bought some stuff. This is a really cool town and would love to spend a day or two here checking it out sometime.

--- 4/15  Jena, Germany

We were supposed to have a day off here, but our promoter Freddy is opposed to such things so local surf band, Los Banditos, set up a show here for us. It was a restaurant, small and impossible to play the way we like to play so I was being a baby about the whole thing. Whatever. I donât even know the name of the place, nor do I really give a shit about ever coming back here to play. We were told the cool club here is Casablanca and if we ever play Jena again, I hope we go there. The town is cool and we had a totally bitchin hotel, complete with a freak bartender who did magic tricks and told us he had 7 girlfriends scattered across America while trying to convince us he spoke several languages. Quite amusing.

--- 4/16  Klupfel  Nuremburg, Germany

This place was packed! Wonderful sounding room with good stage. Last year the room was about ¸ full, but this year there were lots of people saying they heard about the show and they werenât going to miss it this year. Very cool. Promoter, Peter is a great guy and helped make this one of the best shows of the tour.

--- 4/17  Wild at Heart  Berlin, Gemany

I love this room. Full of funky posters, lights and Elvis stuff. Owner, Leah met her husband in Venice, CA! The opening act from Ireland cancelled at the last minute so we played 2 sets. We had a lot of fun shopping up and down the street before the show. Berlin rocks!

--- 4/18  Nyx  Oslo, Norway

Our first time in Scandinavia and we loved it! The Beat Tornados helped put these Norway shows together and it was a real treat to share the stage with these guys. They were awesome! Decent crowd and what a wonderful location·right in the heart of downtown. We walked around the next morning and had a great time checking out the Parliament and the King and Queens pad. Oslo was just swarming with people and I really liked it. Promoter, Steiner was a very cool rockabilly guy and made sure we enjoyed ourselves, which was very helpful.

--- 4/19  Zappa  Arendal, Norway

Our 2^nd show in Norway with The Beat Tornados. I think this is where some of them grew up, and they had the place packed with very enthusiastic people. When we got to the club, it was set up for an off track betting place and it was a  bit shocking, but as soon as the last race went off they set up the PA and we were off and running. Great food right around the corner. The show seemed fairly normal until we tried to quit playing and everyone was yelling and clapping and would not let us quit. I donât know how many encores we did but it seemed like forever before they finally decided they had had enough. Whew, what a night!

--- 4/20  Loppen  Copenhagen, Denmark

This club was in a community called Christiana, which was an old army barracks that some squatters took over in 1971 and have developed into a ÎFree Cityâ which I donât fully understand just what that means other than cops donât patrol thru there and so they sell hash and mushrooms without any worry of being busted. Even more bizarre was walking out of the club after soundcheck and seeing Cowabungun, Jim Murphy from Santa Clara! We had fun walking around and tripping on the whole place. Another instro band supporting tonight, The Baywatchers from Copenhagen. These guys were cool· loved their version of Squad Car.

--- 4/21  Nijdrop  Opwijk, Belgium

Our 27^th show in a row·Wow! This was a full on surf show with Ward 69, who played pretty aggressive and sounded good, and Los Venturas who are a well polished traditional sounding band, great tones and matching shirts. Sebastian was quite impressive on guitar. Lots of friends showed up for our last show and it was cool to talk with everyone about our month spent traveling around Europe. Thanks to our promoter, Freddy Spaepen for putting the tour together and to all the people that came out and supported us along the way.

March 29, 2002 - Slacktone on the East Coast!!!
Yes, we are indeed stopping over on our way to Europe to play The Iota Club in Arlington, VA with Atomic Mosquitos on Monday, March 25th; and Brownies, in New York City with The Irreversible Slacks Tuesday, March 26th. This is our first time in the Northeast and we are hoping to meet several new faces so we have a couple of incentives to get your asses out on a school night. Ray Dukes has offered up free Devlar Surf Internet Radio T-shirts for all those who say the password, COFFIN CLOSER. Also, this will be the very first opportunity to purchase our, "LIVE SURF ADVENTURE" CD recorded in Prague, Czech Republic last year with Mike Sullivan on bass. Don't try to tell us that you can't make the shows because you have to work in the morning and all that shit because I have been living on 3-4 hours a night sleep for the last millennium and I'm doing just fine. For all you Euro surf heads, check our Events page for dates and come out and shake it with us!
Sore, but stoked!
dusty

January 4, 2002 - I feel it............
I just like saying that, sorry. Home for the holidays and it's always buzzing this time of year. Missing some dear friends, but thankful for what we've got, that's for sure. Sam Bolle from Agent Orange has been playing bass with us and he is sounding better each time we get together so we are very lucky to have him with us.
After our Hard Rock Cafe shows with The Thrusters, we've been laying low and trying to finish mixing the tapes from our show in Prague, Czech Republic from this past summer. We have a March 1st date for release so we are plenty stoked about that. The Celebration of Life Compilation is near complete and should be released around the same time.
Dave recorded a solo track for the upcoming Morricone Tribute Compilation and that will be worth buying for his contribution alone. Man, is it ever sweet!
It's snowboard season again and I expect we will be heading for Mammoth soon but don't have any dates on that yet.
The European dates are being confirmed now and will be posted on the events page as we get them in.
Thanks to everyone who has supported us this year and we hope to see you out in the halls of reverb soon.

Happy New Year everyone!!!
Still Stoked,
dusty