DIPLOID spent July 2023 on the road throughout Europe on a gruelling road trip that included appearances at Obscene Extreme and Fluff Fest.

Robert Fitzsimmons talked bassplayer and singer Reece into compiling a tour diary of the band's adventure...

Footnote from Reece:

I'm writing this all after the fact, so I'm sorry if I mix up events, bands, places, people, memories and just existence.

 

Day 1:
We landed down in Prague, I believe in the early arvo. It was a pretty easy day for us.
We checked into our hotel, saw a little bit of the sights, and we were basically all in bed asleep by like 7pm.

Day 2:
This was our first full day in Europe. Mariam and I woke up super early, we went on a walk and saw a lot of Prague and the surrounding area.

We all went to a punk bar later in the day and picked up some "matchsticks" and had a chill rest of the day. We were probably all in bed asleep by like 7pm again.

Day 3:
Alright, so here is where the actual tour kicks into gear.

We went over to Fluff Wheels (a backline/van rental place, yes they are associated with Fluff Fest) we finally met our lovely driver (and basically tour manager) Tim.

After packing the van for the first of many times, we were off to Trutnov to play our first set at Obscene Extreme. We got there in the afternoon, and checked into the accommodation, set up merch, and just saw what Obscene Extreme had to offer. It was really fuckin cool, and I got to see Carcass play while being side of stage.

We were the last band of the night, with a time slot of 2:30am (you could say Carcass opened for us). We were thinking we'd be playing to no one, but a fair few people stuck around, and watched the set.

It was a really good start to the tour.

Day 4:
So after one show, we all needed a break. We spent this whole day driving from Trutnov in the Czech Republic to Postojna in Slovenia.
I don't remember too much of the drive, but it was about 7 hours of beautful landscapes, some weird ass fuckin McDonalds and Castles.

We arrived at TRNJE Fest that evening, and were able to meet Erik & Jaka from OUST. They were the people responsible for booking our tour and making it all happen. It was a pretty easy going evening if my memory serves me correct. We crashed at a venue about 20 minutes from TRNJE Fest.

Day 5:
We had a pretty easy going day. We got some food together and had some coffee and then we went to Croatia for a swim. The water was so nice and clear, it was insane.

We then got back to our accommodation and drove to TRNJE Fest.

TRNJE Fest was held in a forest in Slovenia. It was a bit of a mixed bag for the lineup and it was a fairly small festival. It was super fun though!

We played fairly early, and got to finally meet our tour buddy Son of Seth (Tiago). We had unfortunately eaten some brownies that were a lot more intense than we expected. All three of the Diploids were basically knocked out and useless for the rest of the evening.

I was lying it bed with the Spongebob quote "are you feeling it now Mr Krabs" running through my head - I was fuckin feeling it.

DAY 6:
We basically got up and drove to Zagreb in Croatia. It was only about a 3 hour drive, so we took our time.

We got to the venue in the afternoon. It was a crust-fortress called AKC ATTACK. I spent the whole day saying "watch out for the ack attack" in a Marge Simpson voice, to the point that I would get frustrated at myself because I just kept repeating it.

It was a pretty cool show! And the venue set up was really impressive. We got to stay in this weird room on the roof of the crust-fortress.

It was also very hot, so we had a fan running in the small room with us all. Tiago said we shouldn't keep it on all night, as the fan will make us constipated. Tiago’s first language is not english, so it took a lot of laughing and talking to realise he meant to say “congested” instead of constipated.

DAY 7:
It was off to Budapest in Hungary!

We left fairly early, so we could sight see in Budapest. Tim and Tiago went to the public baths, while the Diploid's went for a walk around the tourist part of the city.

From what little we saw of Budapest, it seemed to be a very beautiful city.

We then went to the venue, which was in a bit of an industrial area. It was called KRIPTA and seemed to be a warehouse/bar/creative space.

The local opener was amazing, I wish I could remember their name. It was like noise punk, and the singer sang through a phone. They were really awesome.

We ended up crashing at an apartment and getting some ok sleep haha

DAY 8:
We got up fairly early and were off to Vienna. It was about a 3 hour drive.

We got to the venue very early, so it was shut. We parked the van out the front, spent a lot of effort to make sure we had paid for a parking ticket and then we went for a walk into Vienna.

It is a very beautiful city, we just walked around. Eventually Tim needed to add money to the parking back at the venue.

When he got to the van, we had a parking fine, as it turns out we didn't buy the right ticket for the parking zone.

After chilling by a river for an hour or so, we all went back to the venue.

The opener was a band called Argon. It was really cool screamo, post-hardcore sort of stuff (I mean actual post-hardcore, not metalcore with clean vox post-hardcore).

The show was great and we had a fun night. We ended up staying with some members of Argon. They live in a very nice apartment, with a balcony inside of the apartment, and a very strange and big bathroom (we joked it was used for porn or a brothel… it probably was tbh).

We also basically walked into someone else's apartment when loading our gear in. We misheard the directions to the apartment, and we just opened someone else's place and walked in. Luckily we didn't run into the owners of that place, and we were quickly told we were in the wrong apartment.

DAY 9:
It was off to Munich in Germany. This was a bit of a longer drive, probably taking us about 6 hours or so.

We got to the crust-fortress, which was called Cafe Marat. It was a really lovely place, and the show was only a two band line up. Just Son Of Seth and us.

We ended up booking accommodation at a hotel about an hour out of Munich.

DAY 10:
It was off to Frankfurt, which was about a 5 hour drive for us.
We arrived at another crust-fortress, with the venue aspect of the fortress being underground in an old basement.

The venue was called Exzess.
It really had the vibes of an old torture chamber, it was really cool, but very dusty.

We didn't get to see much of Frankfurt, and I was unable to have any sort of hotdog or sausage, which I consider a massive failure on my behalf.

We played with a band called Bolzenschuss, they were a really fun band, with a lot of the members switching instruments during the set.
They were very friendly, one member was from Kansas City, and another member complimented me on my Halsey T-shirt. (Halsey makes great sad sack music, fight me)

We ended up splitting into two groups at the end of the night, with Tim and Tiago staying at one apartment, and the Diploids at another.

Day 11:
It was off to Cologne today. It took us about 2 and a half hours to get there, which meant we had time to go sightseeing.
We had a look at the venue, which was shut, so we went into Cologne and went to the Cologne Cathedral. It was a lovely massive structure, there is nothing really like it in Australia, and anything that resembles these types of cathedrals in Australia, are nowhere near as old as they are in Europe.
We got back to the venue, met the booker, and ate some food
The show started, the opener was a crusty doom band called Sepsis. I kept pointing to their name on the poster and saying, “we got one of these at home as well”. Which was me referencing the band Sepsis from Melbourne.
Once the show was done, we got all the mattresses out and slept around the stage and venue area.
Tim decided to play us some Gabba, which jogged my memory about Thunderdome (the techno/Gabba fest in The Netherlands). It was funny to bring up and talk about it, as Thunderdome is basically a meme to me.

Day 12:
We woke up, ate some breakfast, and then it was on our way to Amsterdam in The Netherlands. We played at a place called OCCII, which was once a squat and is now this massive fortress, with a lot of things to offer.

The venue was fairly big, and we played with an amazing band called Dooie Mus. It was some really sick skramz.

We didn't get a lot of time to see Amsterdam, we basically were on one street the whole time. But in Diploid fashion, we made multiple stops to the coffee shop down the road.

We got to sleep at the venue, and it was our last night with Tiago for a while, as we set off to England the next day.

DAY 13:
We left Amsterdam to head to London in England. We had a big transit day ahead, as we had some major boardercrossings and England had a bit more work needed with visas and being allowed entry into the country.

The England leg was a little different, as we were touring with a local band Casing.

Turns out this band has two Aussies in it. I knew Alec was one, but didn't realise Dom was as well.

We got to Londan and arrived at Dom and Alec's place. The first thing I did was hug Alec and say "hey, where is your toilet" as I was about to pee my pants.

After that, we went for a walk, got caught in the rain (rain is a big thing in England) and stopped at a pub for a drink.

Then back to Alec and Dom's place for bed.

Day 14:
This was day one of the England leg of the tour.
We woke up, got some coffee into us, and got to meet the final member of Casing.

Liam was not an Australian, and was a proper English bloke.

We chilled for a bit, then got in the van and went to Bristol.
Bristol was a pretty cool place. We grabbed some food, and checked out a synth store.

We played at a venue called the Crofters Right with a band called Cainhurst. They were sick Skrams, with trans/notCIS people, which is always nice.

We got to see Casing for the first time, and they were/are farkin amazing. I hear a lot of Dystopia in their sound, and with noise on top of that.

We then grabbed a Kebab after the show, and split into two crews and crashed with a friend of Casings.

Day 15:

The next morning we met up, got into the van, and drove for about 3 and a half hours to Brighton.

Brighton is a beach town, so we hung out by the beach for a bit.

We then visited Liams relatives that lived very close to where we were playing.

We played at a place called The Pipeline, it was a very VERY small venue.
Mariam had blown their voice out the night before, so I had to take over their vocals for this set.

I had also drunk A LOT before we played. But we played pretty well all things considered! But, I was shit talking on stage, and drinking during the sludge parts of our songs.

We decided after the show to just high-tail it back to London and crash at Dom and Alec's again.

It was a late night, but meant the next day was super easy, as we were playing London that night.

Day 16:
We all slept in pretty late. Then got up and went for a walk to a record store (I forget the name) grabbed some drinks, dropped off some records.

Before we knew it, we had to get to the show. I stupidly smoked a massive joint as soon as I arrived at the venue, which basically knocked me out.

We ate some pretty good pizzas and drank some decent beer. Tim got a lesson on fist bumping.

The show went pretty well! We then proceeded to have a really late night, stayed up and partied a little too hard.

Day 17:
After a bit of a big one the night before. We finally got everyone together and went on a fairly long drive to Leeds.
We were all pretty messed up (maybe not Scarlet).

We didn't have much time in Leeds, but we got some food from a convenience store and hung out at the venue.
The venue was a rehearsal space that had a stage set up in the main area.

We played with some really cool bands, but hands down my favourite was BELK.
Farkin' heavy, emotional and short set. That is a WIN for me.

We ended up crashing at the singer of Mortuary Spawn's (George) place. It was a bit of a squeeze, but we all basically slept on the floor in the living room.
I had to use a couple pillows, and a bit of a couch cousin as a bed. It wasn't the best sleep, but better than I was expecting.

Day 18:
After a bit of a rough night's sleep, it was off to Sheffield, which was only a little over an hour's drive.

We had booked a hotel room for us, as we weren't able to get any free accommodation. Once arriving at the hotel, we had to roll up a bunch of new T-shirts that we had picked up in London, as we were running low on merch. There was an issue with the order, and instead of getting like 40 T-shirts, we got something around 100, and some were long sleeves. We aren't sure what happened, but we were rolling up T-shirts for ages.

We then headed to the venue for sound checks. The venue was a bit of an odd one. It reminded me of places like the Colonial Hotel or Royal Melbourne Hotel. It was big, with many rooms, and didn't seem like a venue for a metal/punk gig.

It wasn't a big turn out for the show, but the sound system was amazing! All the bands sound massive, clear and heavy.

Once the show was done, the venue turned into a bit of a nightclub. It was one of those emo/nu-metal nights as well, so we were hearing classics from bands like Slipknot, Sum 41, Limp Bizkit and My Chemical Romance.

We were also celebrating Mariams 30th! We had a few drinks, a few laughs. Then it was off to get some food before heading to bed.

We went for a bit of a rambunctious stroll to find any sort of food. It was raining and we were all being a little silly.

We got to a place where the rain had made the concrete kinda slippery, which resulted in us pretending to roller skate. Scarlet, who is an actual in-line skater, was starting to pull off some sick tricks, but unfortunately, fell on her face.

We all saw what had happened, but Scarlett just sort of jumped up being like "woah, that was something" she did not notice that blood had started pouring from her eyebrow.

We ended up in Sheffield's A&E department. It was a late night, but we got Scarlett all fixed up.

 

Day 19:
We got up fairly early to head to London again. We had no show this day, and it was our last day in England.
It was a bit of a drive from Sheffield to London, a little over 4 hours.

We dropped off Liam, then Dom and Alec and it was goodbye to the Casing boys.
We needed a decent night's sleep, so we booked accommodation for the Diploids and Tim.

Mariams sister had flown over from Italy to come see Mariam on their birthday.
Mariam was gone all day, while the rest of us, caught up on some sleep, and then went and drank beer and ate food.

We were in bed fairly early, and I got a little too drunk!

We had a fan running in the room, so I filmed a video of myself that I sent to Tiago, telling him “I'll make sure to turn this off, so we don’t get constipated”.

Day 20:

It was back to mainland Europe! We had a long day of transit ahead of us, and had a show that same night in Leiden in the Netherlands.

I woke up, and my stomach was doing back flips. Was it the beer? the chicken wings? anxiety? Probably a mixture of them all really!

I had a bit of a rough time always having to run to the toilet for the first half of the day haha

We had a big transit day, but rockin up to the venue, I couldn't help but be really happy to be back in the Netherlands. It's such a beautiful place, and their coffee shops are amazing!

The venue was a place called Resistor, which I believe was once a squat, and had been turned into a nice community space. We were even able to stay at the venue.

The show was really fun! The bands were super cool! It was just great to be back on the mainland.

Day 21:

This was another day off. I had been waiting for this day off for a while, as we didn't have to travel far, we all got beds, and some slight privacy.
We went to a city called Groningen, which was Tim's home town.

He dropped us off at the hotel we had booked, and he went home for the evening (so we thought at the time).

The three of us went to a laundromat, got some lunch together, had a bit of a walk, but then basically we all kept to ourselves. Going for walks through the lovely city, getting food, and enjoying the lovely things you can get from the coffee shops in the Netherlands.

It was a nice day to recharge.

Day 22:

Tim came to the hotel in the morning and picked us up, and we then went to his apartment and ate some breakfast.

I finally got to see his extensive record collection, and found a number of LPs that I wanted, particularly Iron Lung's - Sexless/No Sex (it is what we listened to while eating breakfast).

We then left to head to Hamburg in Germany. We drove for about 3 and a half hours, and arrived in Hamburg. We arrived at the venue, which was a place called Fahrstr 105. It was a residential building, with the venue part being in the basement.

It was a small and awesome looking DIY space.

We had no idea what to expect show wise, I believe it was like a Tuesday night and it was just us and a local band called TIAO. But the room filled up and everyone was super lovely and accommodating. Tiao were a really cool two piece Hardcore/PV band.

It was a short and fun show. We then split up for the evening and stayed at separate apartments.

 

Day 23:

Tim and I had stayed at one apartment, while Mazz and Scarlett stayed at another.
We ate some breakfast together at an artist space close to the apartment.
There were some cute cats hanging out.

We then got into the van and left to head to Weimar (Wee-Ma).
It was a bit over 5 hours to get there. It was a lovely little city.
We got to the venue which was called Gerber 3, which was a crust-fortress.

We played with a band from The Netherlands called Suffering Quota and a band from the UK called Trading Hands. We also got to meet back up with Tiago (Son Of Seth) and we caught him up on everything that had happened for the past week or so.

The show was super fun! We all drank a fair bit that night and had a good party.

Day 24:

It was a rough start, as I was dealing with a hangover, but it was up for breakfast and off to Berlin.
We were driving for probably around 3 hours or so before arriving in Berlin.

We got to the venue, which was a really cool warehouse space. It wasn't open just yet, so we parked the van and went into Berlin.
We grabbed some donuts and coffee, and went and saw the Berliner Fernsehturm and the surrounding area.

Tim then went off to a museum of some sort, and the rest of us walked back to the venue for load in and soundcheck.
When we got back to the venue, due to how the van was parked, we couldn't get our equipment out.
None of us knew how to use a manual, so we had to get a member of Botulism to move it for us.

We all loaded into the venue, and set up the stage, and just waited around for soundcheck.
The soundcheck never came, because the sound person hired for the show decided he wasn't going to do sound anymore.

We were unaware this was happening, but apparently he took all the mics and left, a sound person had to be found quickly, and Turtle Rage ended up providing the mics for the evening.

It wasn't until later that we found out this happened haha
The show was great, but I was so tired. The bands were all super cool and nice and a fair few people came to the show. Which was great.

We all ended up staying at an apartment, and got some good rest and a nice shower.

Day 25:

We all got up and had some coffee and breakfast, and then it was off to Leipzig.
Tim had told us that the venue which we'd be crashing at didn't have a shower/he didn't shower when he played there.

We were all pretty keen for beds and a shower, so we ended up booking a hotel.
We arrived in Leipzig after a 2 hour or so drive and checked into the hotel.

We chilled out for a little bit, but we had to head off to the venue pretty quickly.
The venue was a place called ZORO and it was in a part of town that had a lot of squats and venues, it was a pretty cool place.

Zoro was this multiple story venue/record store/place for bands to eat and sleep. It was really cool.

It was a three band line up and a show that I was very excited to play because we got to play with Doldrey from Singapore.

The South East Asia punk/DIY scene is closely tied to the Australian scene.
South East Asia is usually the tour a lot of DIY bands down here cut their teeth on.

The show was just the 3 acts Son Of Seth, us and Doldrey.
The show was super fun, a lot of people came, Doldrey were amazing, like so good, I felt we were blown out of the water haha

After the show, we all hung out for a while before heading back to the hotel.
I was the last one to have a shower and since we were all in the same room, I didn't want to wake everyone by turning the light on.
I fell off my bed while trying to get down off the top bunk. I think I woke everyone up.

Day 26:

This was the last one, the last show for us. While I was exhausted and needed some privacy, I was still sad to see it all end.
We got up fairly early, as we wanted to spend a bit of time at Fluff Fest.

It was roughly a four hour drive from Leipzig in Germany to Rokycany in the Czech Republic.
The Czech Republic is an amazing country, I really recommend going and seeing it.

We got to Fluff, I think in the early afternoon. The weather had been pretty wet throughout the whole festival, and today was the same.
While it was wet, I had never seen something so cool before. It was a multiple stage DIY fest, featuring a lot of amazing DIY underground, Punk, hardcore, Grind, Industrial, Screamo, basically anything under the DIY banner.
It really was something very special!

I spent a fair bit of time behind the merch and smoking.
But I did get to see some amazing bands. OUST were amazing, it was so cool to see a band like that in an open air fest with so many people going crazy for it.
Doldrey were amazing again.

The band I was super excited to see was Jeromes Dream.
They blew it out of the park, it was so heavy, so intense, the sound was amazing.
I really hope they come down to Australia at some point, I really want to see them again.

We hung out and did some more merch selling, but then it was pack up and off to Prague as Fluff had sorted a hotel room for us.
We got there in the early morning, I think around 3. Had a shower, and off to sleep.

Day 27:

It was a bit of a hard hit, but we had finished the tour. So many years in the making, as this was originally booked for July 2020!

It was a pretty quick morning for us, a quick breakfast at the hotel restaurant and then it was time to return the van and backline gear, as well as goodbye to Tiago and Tim.

We dropped everything off, Tiago had to run off quickly, as they had a train ticket booked. Once we sorted all the payments for the gear and payment to Tim, it was goodbye to Tim as he also had to get onto a train, and like that, the tour was done.

It was back to just the three of us, we had booked a hotel room for our last 2 nights. We went there, couldn't check in, but left our gear and bags and went for a walk around Prague.

Prague is a beautiful city, it's something out of a fairy tale, especially at night when all the buildings are lit up with lights.

We chilled out for a bit, and Scarlett made a call to T.K from Divide and Dissolve, and organised her a flight to England to record!
We then went off to meet up with Doldrey for food and beer.

It was a really fun night, we drank and smoked a fair bit, and it was just fun all around!

It was then back to the hotel, some chilling and then bed.

Day 28:

This was our last day, so we decided to go out and see Sedlec Ossuary, which is a church filled with human bones.
It was about 1 and a half hours by public transport from our hotel.

It was really cool, but pretty small, and considering how long it took to get there, it was a little bit of a let down.
Still, human bones all stacked up and made into sculptures, isn't something you see everyday.

We made our way back into Prague, had a bit of a chill and went out for dinner.
We started packing our bags and getting ready for our flight the next day.

Day 29:

It was basically off to the airport and goodbye to Scarlet as she was on a different flight and heading to London, instead of Melbourne.
It was a very long flight ahead!

DAY 30/31??

Mariam and I arrived back in the land down under, very jet lagged.
To me it felt like early evening, and since it was like 5am, it kind of looked like the early evening.

I was ready to wind down and go to bed, but sitting at home, instead of it getting darker, it got lighter and lighter, until it was the middle of the day, and I couldn't stay awake anymore.

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The tour was a lot better than we were expecting. We really want to go back again!