Monday, November 17, 2008

Hands Tied live in Bochum, Germany 1/3/1998


Geoff, Tim, Espen and Ed (where's Dan?) with the HT merch in Euro

In January of 1998, nearly 11 years ago, I hopped on a plane with my band Hands Tied and two other bands, Ten Yard Fight and One King Down for a European tour. In all honesty, I could write a book on that whole tour. It was a great time and an experience I will never forget.

Now is not the time for that story, now is the time to discuss the following video. This was our second show on the European tour. Our first show was in Leipzig, Germany on January 2, 1998. Although the Leipzig show wasn't particularly bad for us, the crowd was definitely more into the heavier more metal sound of One King Down. After that first show I remember looking at the rest of the band and the guys in Ten Yard Fight and saying, "Man I sure hope this entire tour is not like this!". Again, not that it was bad, kids liked both us and Ten Yard Fight, but they REALLY like One King Down.


Ed and Espen walk the streets of Germany two strong

The second show we played was in Bochum, Germany on January 3rd 1998. I remember rolling up early to the club in our tour bus. Eventually all of us started making our way out of the bus and into the club to get a look around. After hanging out for awhile, sound checking and setting up our merch, word inside the club started circulating that a crowd was forming outside. Considering it was only our second show of the tour, we were all kind of excited to hear that a crowd was coming together nearly two hours before the doors were even supposed to open. A few of us ran over to a window and took a peek. What we saw was a sight I will never forget, it was like a virtual army of straight edge kids plucked straight out of a line at the Anthrax in Norwalk, Connecticut circa 1988. As far as the eyes could see, it was an ocean of varsity jackets, champion hooded sweatshirts, bleached tops, X Swatches, BOLD and Schism shirts... the whole deal. The Hands Tied and Ten Yard Fight guys all looked at each other and agreed, tonight was our night.

As for the actual set, for the most part it was a blur of stage dives and sing alongs. I remember the club being pretty long and what seemed to be 600 to 800 people packed in there. It was a big stage with lots of room for us to move around. The energy, excitement and intensity was thick in the air. As you will see in the video, Ed, our bass player, dives with his bass. If I remember correctly, that dive took out a few teeth from one exuberant German fan.

This particular show in Bochum, Germany remains in my memories as one of the best shows I've ever played. Of course there were other incredible shows that we went on to play on this 98 Euro tour and I can think back to a lot of great shows that I played with Mouthpiece, but this one here with HT was definitely one that rates high. I know the video quality isn't so hot and I'm not so sure this video completely captures the full feeling that was in the air, but this is the first time I've seen a video from this show turn up on YouTube. -Tim DCXX


Hands Tied - "Rearrange" Bochum, Germany, 1/3/1998

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh yes. sweet memories.
you forgot to mention how kids were running to your merch table in panic, just to get a copy of the tour press (px rip-off). the guy next to me was like "can I have 10 copies, please?"..."not really, no."

the show then really was a total killer. i know a lot of people who are still referring to it as the best sxe hc show which has ever happened in germany.

search youtube for "ten yard fight live germany" to find another clip of that show.

best of times.

Anonymous said...

I want that red Hands Tied shirt in the top picture!!

Great story Tim.

Cargawar said...

Oh well...
Not trying to start a riot here, but it seems a lot of american bands didn't realize there was a thriving scene going on in Europe, it just started to swell later. After the Youth crew era had past, Europe woke up and a tsunami of SxE scenesters had the last laugh.
Too bad we seem to be determined to copycat everything that happens in the US: That '88-feeling we experienced in the mid-late 90s has been ruined by hatecore/violent dancing.

I guess at its peak, the european scene was a whole lot bigger than the american was at anytime!
Difference was, that over here, we didn't mind audience blending (skinheads, bangers, punx, SxE, squatters or just plain type people). Talk about unity!

Too bad a whole lot of better(!) euro bands have always been ignored by americans. Youmissed out on a shitload of good music.
Sure, it all started in the US, but europeans put some musical quality in it.

Anonymous said...

hey, that's "my" video being used down there.. ;)

great show for sure. probably one of the best for me, ever. hands tied & TYF kicked major ass that night. (I liked OKD as well, though)
still got some more songs by all bands on VHS, but as you can see....bad bad quality.
I think I might also have some pictures from that night..somewhere. great pics, lots of jumps & stagedives included.

Anonymous said...
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baby gorilla said...

my girlfriend wears that handstied longsleeve to bed

Clevo said...

the best of times

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