Thursday, February 15, 2007

Anthrax leaving Russia

Ok here is where it gets kind of crazy…When we left we where flying with all of our gear (A shitload) on Auroflot (Russian national airlines) when I go to check-in I did the band first because they are all a bunch of rockstar motherfuckers and then I'm trying to get all the gear on the plane as well. Management had told me that I was on my own to make these arrangements at the airport (bribe). We where still traveling with 'Smirnoff' or 'Stoli' or what ever that dudes name really was…the Lady behind the counter didn't speak a word of English so all information was going through Stoli. And there was a lot of it, first they didn't want to take the gear at all…Then Stoli and I had talked them into it but there was about 35 pieces and no Carnet the document you need for transporting equipment across borders so you have proof of ownership of your equipment in foreign country's (carnet: manifest ours had gone back with the bus and the rest of the gear).
We where a traveling party of 12 people, we where only allowed 2 bags person and the weight allowance for each bag was about 45LBS because of their crappy old planes. The charge for all these extra bags was appprox. $7000 by the (fuck the American 'book') but after a lot more talking in Russian, Stoli had brokered a deal that was $2500 in cash ($ U.S.) paid straight to the lady behind the counter and some dude with a cart (and I think Stoli got a piece of the action too) that was great…except I didn't have it I had tried not to carry that kind of cash into the country.
So I was pretty much back to square one and $7000 on the band credit card. The weird thing is, Apparently, for some crazy reason in the Moscow airport you can take an unlimited amount of currency out of an ATM (Either Euros, Dollars or Rubles) Stolli was kind enough to point out…By this time everybody in the band and crew except me had received their tickets and where on their way to the gate so I was alone to empty my savings account to get the gear on the plane…Fuck…Fucken basterds…So I do it…All right problem solved…about to miss the fucking plane…I guess when you give somebody with Auroflot $2500 in cash, security means nothing anymore and you get some kind of super secret pass. I got escorted through some door and past security by the lady behind the counter fuck those metal detectors…..Mission accomplished, we are off to Bulgaria.

Each and everyone had requested an aisle seat (the Band members had demanded) during the negotiations for the gear I had reminded her several times of the seating request. But I guess they had skipped that part of the negotiations. Everybody except 1 tech had a middle seat for the 2 ½ hour flight to Prague, now after dealing with the gear and the emptying my bank account not to mention having some exotic flu I could really care less who had to sit in the middle…Babyhead warned me that the band was pissed…They had all had middle seats and they wanted answer. What ever I need to find the place where we get our connections to Sofia…Find it, huge line about…Oh 150 people in it…I get in and Frankie (Bass player) needs to stand next to me a berate me about the middle seat and how he is claustrophobic, and he has "been in Anthrax for longer than anybody else" "so he deserves respect" and "we come from a good Family's not one of those punk bands you usually work for" about 2 hours in this shit in the fucking line…Kill Me…
Finally we get to Sofia (all Band members on the Aisle thanks to Frankie) We get met at the airport by this crazy looking guy with a shirt that says something like 'I'm with stupid', that's going to take us straight to the gig, a big festival we co-headlining with White Snake (they had played the night before) the site was some crazy looking stadium that had been built before the great war I think by the Romans. We get set up and sound checked everything is going smoother then anything in Russia had.
After sound check off to the dressing rooms, about a 10 min drive away from the stage. Festival starts a bunch of crazy eastern European local metal bands play. It starts getting closer to our set time and the sky starts getting darker (storm coming) about ½ hour before we our suppose to go on, a fucking Typhoon hits…and hits hard probably one of the worst storms I have ever been in, and the stage barely covered by some small tarp was taking on water fast, both the P.A. company and our backline guys started pulling gear to safety, and that meant packing it up and getting the hell out of there…Cancellation, lets get the fuck out here…I tell the band that we have cancelled because of weather and get them out of there right away to the hotel, fearing some violence from the approximately 800 people that are waiting out the storm in the bleachers.
Now here is the problem, they still owed Anthrax $15,000 and I had to get it off the 'I'm with stupid' dude. + I had to get all the gear on a commercial airline with no Carnet and a bunch of bribes to work out.
The guy off course had no cancellation insurance for this kind of thing and also had not full filled our contract with say- a roof- and proper weather gear so we had no choice but to get the hell out of there, he wanted us to play the next day but everybody in the bands wives where meeting us in Germany so that wasn't an option, then he want me to make a deal with him for less money…Also not going to happen…band can't afford it…I remained calm the whole time and just let him know there was not another option other paying the money, finally after about 3 hours of phone calls to the Los Angeles, New York, London and Budapest I got a the cash from him.
I really didn't expect them to meet us in the morning to take us to the airport…But he showed up looking more resolved and saying things like "better luck next time" and "you win some you lose some".
At the airport things went much smoother with getting the gear on the plane and everybody getting Aisle seats, after we got all checked in and ready to go I was informed because we didn't have the correct paperwork I needed to get the officers a present from duty free…Huh?...So these two soldiers again with automatic weapons walk me to duty free to get them and the lady behind the counter a 'present' I can't wait to see what they are going to pick out…5 bottles of the crappeist Irish whiskey they sold 'Paddy' As I'm standing in line with these two guards (again with heavy artillery) and 5 bottles of whiskey in my basket I'm like "…I'll buy you guys the good shit if you want I'm on a budget, that shit will make you go blind…"
And the answer was "that that is the good stuff' "buy it."
…5 bottles came to about $33…

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