Life On The Road Part 2 - On Tour With Living Dead Lights
Published
We're on tour with LDL and so far we've experienced Paris and naked ladies running down the streets in the middle of the night, whatever next... well Russia was the next stop on the tour, what could possibly happen next? Russia
We landed in Russia and we jumped in a van with some crazy Ukranian driver, who's English really sucked (but then so did our Ukrainian). We asked a few simple questions and he answered "Guys, guys...I have one job and one job only, to drive you to your shows... that is all!!". Welcome to Russian hospitality. So after making friends, we embarked on a long 12 hour drive or so to Lipetsk, just to be taken into the woods to an abandoned campground. At first glance it was interesting but as we got out of the van there was some crazy Russian mobster shit going on with money or something!
We were escorted into these old run down cabins that looked like a scene from a horror movie where homeless squatters and heroin/crack addicts live, no bathrooms, no showers! There was a simple hose in the woods and stray animals running around clawing off insects... rock & roll.
We reluctantly followed them deeper into the woods and every second that went by it got worse and worse. We started peeling back the bedding on the mattresses because it didn't look very clean at all. Just to find blood, feces, and other stains of God knows what on the beds.
Russia was a logistical nightmare too, there were several overnight drives like the 15 hours from Moscow to Saint. Petersburg right after a gig (with no shower etc) in the freezing rain. We encountered numerous trucks over turned on the side of the road and on fire along the way and had a few close calls ourselves with passing trucks on the wrong side of the road where we all saw our lives pass before our eyes. At one point our driver fell asleep at the wheel... Ya know just the normal shit!!
Hanging out with the Russian International Kickboxing Team
It's not all doom and gloom though. The shows in Russia were great too, the crowds were very appreciative of us coming out to their corner of the world. There was this one night in Saint Petersburg where Nick (our drummer) defeated 15 guys in arm wrestling (our bassist Martin scoured the bar rounding up the strongest Russians he could find). Some of them said they were pros and even had gloves and the arm wrestling gear, yet Nick still remains undefeated.
Lesson learned... don't arm wrestle the drummer!
Later that night Martin left the hotel room to get his cellphone charger out of the van and he got jumped by 5 or 6 locals, he fought them off but he woke up the next day to realize those thieving bastards stole his iPhone!
Right away the band was considering changing the name of the tour to the Spinal Tap tour!
Words by Alan Damien (LDL's Guitarist)
