After a shower at the hostel, we walked down the street to find coffee. We found a bakery on the corner with a pretty Croatian girl behind the counter who seemed very amused at our pointing and six-word vocabulary. We walked back to the hostel with our small coffees and large pastries and hung out on the patio until Josip collected us around noon. We went to a music store (a brand-new Peavey/Paul-Reed-Smith-type store staffed with metal heads, the kind you can find in any mall in America) to exchange so Josip could exchange some cables. We had lunch at a sort of swanky hipsterish restaurant that served really good Croatian food. The boys ate various kinds of fried meat.
After lunch, Josip dropped us at their practice place so we could get a feel for their gear and run through a few songs. By the time we got things sounded pretty good, Damir (Joe 4 drummer) showed up. After a couple of more songs, Josip returned with bassist Sasha. We hung out and watched them run through a few songs and then we loaded up and went to the club. Tvorinica Kulture was a brand-new club with a brand new sound system and some kind of stand-offish bar and sound staff. The promoter Nenad was super cool though. We sound checked and then hung out on the sidewalk patio out in front of the club.
The night’s technical difficulties began with the first band’s first song. Nikki Louder’s bassist broke a string right out of the gate and Bill came to his rescue. The rest of their set was great though — a frantic Sonic Youth inspired ball of noise that we all quite liked. They were from Slovenia and we’ll see them again in a few days when we play there. Joe 4 was up next and despite a fried bass amp and several broken strings, they were great. We are lucky to be playing the entire tour with them and having the privilege of seeing them every night. We had to use the club’s bass amp since ours died, so Bill had to figure out his sound in approximately 60 seconds. I broke a string during the second song and the sound that had seemed so great at sound check now seemed sort of thin and oddly disjointed. We played fairly well but it was a bit weird. We sold one LP and three CDs, which, according to merch guy, Bruno, was “quite an accomplishment in Croatia.” After the show we stayed at an apartment owned by the club for housing tour bands. A bit spartan, but more than adequate. We are definitely not used to people taking care of us here.
