Head's Hate Blog!

We got to the hotel around 6:30 and one of the rooms wasn’t ready. It still wasn’t ready when it was time to leave for the club. No bathroom in the room, just a bidet! Gross!! It’s what a European prison cell must be like (har!).
We had the longest sound check ever. Massive feedback problems. While eating dinner, a TV crew came and interviewed Touch and Tulu! Must’ve been a slow news day.
I Ramoni played first. They do Ramones covers in their native Genovese dialect. Before we started I told the crowd we were going to perform our own songs in our Seattle dialect. There were plenty of technical problems tonight but everybody seemed to have a good time anyway. The highlight was “Spend The Night Alone” where not only did the crowd sing along, they added additional harmonies not in our version. It sounded incredible! Thank you for making it so great!

Tomorrow we continue on to Villadosolla or as Big D calls it Villadosedosalla.

This is the first show Franz has ever booked in the town. It was held at some communist club. No joke. They had some hot pics of Mao, Lenin, Ho Chi Minh and that Che dude that all the college kids dig. The club made us dinner consisting of locally caught swordfish and a local version of lasagna that was great. We talked to the opening band, The Ratbones about The Ramones and other things. The Ratbones played a solid set to a packed room full of locals looking for anything to do on a Monday night. We helped clear some of the people out. We played OK. Still haven’t nailed it shut.

Lenin!

More commies!

Scene outside the club

We spent the night at the promoter, Alessandro’s family vacation place In a nearby town

Then went back to the club to get the gear and walk around before we left for Genova.

Head with Alessandro

Franz backing up the hate van

I guess Sunday shows start early. The Photogenics played around 7:30 and we played around 8:30. We’re still trying to figure out the locals taste for music. “Spend the night alone” gets the best crowd response by far. When we played “Minnesota Strip” we got nothing. Another fun show. John, Devil’s Den co-owner crowd surfed at one point. After the show, the bar fed us a ton of amazing food which meant it was time for another one of Head’s world famous eating contests.

We made it to Salsomaggiore for tonight’s show at the Devil’s Den which is a really cool little bar run by a Ramones fan named John. After we loaded our stuff in the bar we ate some of their amazing pizza. We then headed down the street to an gelato shop owned by Franz’ buddy Fabio, another Ramones fan. Being the trained monkeys that we are, Franz had us make a fake commercial for “Marky Ramone’s Cookies”; a flavor of ice cream Marky has endorsed. The commercial for the ice cream stars Marky has the local Ramones fans wincing. The ice cream is actually pretty good. I think his commercial and Franz’ fake commercial with us can be found on YouTube.
Salsomaggiore is a beautiful town. The hotel is great and has real mid-century furniture I’m thinking of taking with me.

Here we are outside the hotel.

Here’s the spa where we threatened to have a soak.

Typical street scene

Took off from the Barcella’s house and headed for Cortemaggiore for the show. The Fillmore used to be a movie theater that has been converted into a big rock club.
A second stage was set up on the huge floor because the place would look empty even though there were over a hundred people there when we played.
We had some problems, but people dug it. The place filled up when The Manges took the big stage. The Queers finished things off. We met lots of fans and sold some merch.

Here’s a pic of us leaving the Barcella’s pad.

Here is the Fillmore club

The Leeches playing the small stage

The Manges on the big stage