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People ask me all the time what it’s like to be out on tour overseas. It’s like driving in a van all day long, looking out at the country side, standing around for hours not knowing what the plan is, or if there is a plan, walking, walking, and walking, sweat, drinking, people screaming at the top of their lungs in a foreign language before and after the show, butchering their names, and staying up until sunrise. The time you have on stage is a relief in many ways. That is pretty much it.

We were talking after the show with one of the opening acts the
Mistaken. They were commenting on how powerful we were on stage. “Watch you American bands, buy the same amps and guitars but we can’t get that kind of power” As I have said so soften it is how you play and not what you play that makes the difference. I hope us old men can pass on a little rock education to these upcoming kids.

Coming back and playing these shows has been really amazing. Maybe better than I expected. Really it’s about being around these “brothers” again and having more good times. We have been through so much in the past and this is another chapter to add. Also I can’t tell you how many people come up and say, “I have been wanting to see you for 15 years and now I am getting the chance!” In our home town a lot of the scensters had heard of the history and then they got a chance to see the Mono Men were all about. And we did serve a dose up in true Mono Men fashion. Hard, fast, loud. Full ‘o sweat liquor and ear splitting amp volume.

For those of us who saw the Mono Men for the first time. You are welcome. This was or IS a true representation of the shows the Mono Men smashed over peoples heads for years.

For those of you who caught us in the past… Thanks for remembering and we hope to see you again in fewer than 10 years!

-mort

Will be putting up a lot more stuff in the next weeks from the Spanish Attack Shows and from the past.

Have pictures or video of the Mono Men? We want to post it! Send them to mort@monomen.net.
Check back every once and while. I’ll see if I can keep you all up to date on what everyone is doing.

The part of Madrid where club Gruta 77 is located in is under heavy road construction. So it was a complete nightmare to get to the club. To make matters even worse it was Good Friday and the Procession was on. So many streets were barricaded off making Miguels job of getting us to the club next to impossible.

From our hotel it took 2 hours of winding around and getting lost to finally get to Club Gruta 77.
Sound check was great. With out a hitch. Then it was off to a bar for the meal. Great stuff as usual. This was the first day we saw any rain.

Because of the holiday attendance was down a bit at the club but these were REAL Mono Men die hard fans. All of them wanted to take our picture with them and sign singles. I can’t tell you how many people came up to me and said they saw us 15 years ago and asked when we were going to come back.

Our trip to the show in Ponferrada started off with a big traffic jam. Not sure if this was because of the upcoming Easter Holiday or what. Dog played DJ opening his powerbook and playing cuts. We spotted more castles and cathedrals on our journey today. Miguel was excellent at making up time only putting us a little late at the club.

Ponferrada is a beautiful small town located up in a valley surrounded by snow capped mountains. When we arrived some of the crew and door people yelled at us “We cannot believe the Mono Men in our little town of Ponferrada!”
The Mono Men kicked off the 3-night Freakland Festival with some local acts and the Demolition Doll Rods opening the night. Sound check went very well. The on stage PA guys came over to me and pointed at the master volume setting on my Marshall and said. “you do not have to play at this volume setting”… I did not have a response for him other than “I need to hear over the drums”. Yea right.

From the Gruta Show - Your Eyes:

We blasted into the set no stop. This was by far the best sounding club we had played at in Spain this time. And our best show yet. Really was probably as good an any Mono Men show of 10 years ago! A fitting end to this little jaunt.

Adios Madrid! Thanks for remembering!

Our trip to the show in Ponferrada started off with a big traffic jam. Not sure if this was because of the upcoming Easter Holiday or what. Dog played DJ opening his powerbook and playing cuts. We spotted more castles and cathedrals on our journey today. Miguel was excellent at making up time only putting us a little late at the club.

Ponferrada is a beautiful small town located up in a valley surrounded by snow capped mountains. When we arrived some of the crew and door people yelled at us “We cannot believe the Mono Men in our little town of Ponferrada!”
The Mono Men kicked off the 3-night Freakland Festival with some local acts and the Demolition Doll Rods opening the night. Sound check went very well. The on stage PA guys came over to me and pointed at the master volume setting on my Marshall and said. “you do not have to play at this volume setting”… I did not have a response for him other than “I need to hear over the drums”. Yea right.

From the Freakland sound check - Lie Detector:

From the Freakland sound check - Burning Bush:

One of the opening acts was a guy in clown suite riding a bike, playing a kazoo and electric guitar. As he pedaled he kept some kind of contraption hooked up to the bike that would keep a beet. Apparently he was in some big Punk band back in the day but now makes more money doing this Musical Pixie act. At least we didn’t open for him.
The sound was really good inside the Cotton Club. Plenty of power to keep up with us. As per usual here in Spain we ate dinner around 10pm and took the stage after 1:30am.
The crowd smashed up against the stage barricade and started pushing over the top. Guys were getting dropped on their heads as they climbed over the barricade. At one point some guy threw all his clothes on stage, then jumped up on stage and proceeded to leisurely put his clothes back on right in front of Aaron’s drums.
Later in the set some dude jumped up on top of the PA Side fill on my side of the stage. He was probably like 12 feet in the air rocking back and forth. My spider sense told me to get away from that side of the stage and I was right. A song or so later the PA main cam crashing down right above my Marshall smashing right on top of my stage monitor. Just missing Ledge. The dude was swinging like a monkey on the light grid as the sound guys wrestled him down. I knew that guy was gonna fall. The next day in the van the joke “What was the last thing that went through Morts mind before he died? the PA sidefill” was told. Just a bit after that a different guy went crashing into my side of the stages PA main. I watched that 20 foot column of speakers rock and roll back and forth, threatening to crash down on the crowd.
This was certainly a no non-sense set from the Mono Men. We played straight through the set with out stopping at all.

Our good friend Charlie (Radio 3 show host) wrapped up the night DJ’ing playing stuff you certainly would never hear in a club in the states. I noted catching a Miracle Workers song I had not heard in years.

All the bands on the bill stayed in the same “Hotel”. It was more like a multi floor boarding house. A bunch of scantly furnished rooms with shared bathrooms. Basically each band had it’s own half of a floor that had it’s own key. Pretty nice actually. I shared a large room with Aaron and Ledge. Snorkestra! It was cool to see all the bands loading up around noon and getting on their way. Of course we were all just waking up at that time.

The journey from Madrid to Vitoria was no sweat with Miguel at the wheel driving at break neck speeds. This foray into the Basque region was full of the sites of fields, a few castle remains and jagged mountain peaks. Ledge described the countryside as Colorado like. After a quick jaunt through the tight streets of the old city of Vitoria, busses squeezing past us in the tight streets. After a quick stop at the hotel, it was on to Hell Dorado.

Hell Dorado is a private club located in the city of Vitoria in the Basque region of Spain were members pay a monthly fee but no cover charge to get into shows. It is definitely a rock club.
After the mandatory backline gear juggling and sound check, Gorka and boys took us to a late (and i do mean late) dinner. Totally amazing. After the long day of travel we all were staved and left completely crammed full o’ pork, these great olive oil potatoes, asparagus egg dish, prosutto and salad. I am not much of a coffee drinker but it is so good in Spain you just can’t pass it up. Then it was back to Hell Doradao.

Local boys Soul Gastapo opened the show. Really great band. Their bass player had a bad ass Orange Bass head.

The Mono Men took the stage around 1am and again I had gear trouble. After the first song everything stopped for me. After a couple of song wrestling with the Marshall and having to sing Right Now sans-guitar, with help form the guys from the great Soul Gestapo I swapped out amps and cables and my head and got stuff up and running again.
We tore through our set with wreckless abandon. This was certainly an Estrus and Mono Men educated crowd. On many of the songs I heard the lyrics coming back to us sung by the crowd. Especially with Gypsy Woman, a crowd favorite. We wrapped things up with Rumble and a very memorable version fo Jack the Ripper.

From the Hell Dorado show - Powerage Woman:

From the Hell Dorado show - Remind Me:

I was amazed with what DJ was playing after the show. The liquor flowed freely to the sounds of Dead Moon, Lyres, and Sonics. Thanks to everyone at Club Hell Dorado!
Adios Vitoria!

Thanks Charlie for the wine and crazy radio fun! See you tonight in Vitoria!

Hello from Amsterdam Airport!

-mort