Thanx to Sarah Mason, who went through this text.

P.O.BOX went on its 4th European tour this last July 2005. 5 weeks of touring, 15.000km driven, 24 gigs in 10 countries.

Well, a gig to be forgotten. One of the worst we have ever done: small crowd, bad conditions regarding the PA and backline used (the venue could hold approximately 1,000 people).

The "fête de la musique" is for us a rendezvous not to be missed. Every year, we put on a punk-rock-ska stage with 2 local bands we like. The weather is great, the party is there. We played some of our new songs, lots of people showed up, it was fun.

To celebrate the release of the compilation In Defense Of Rock 2, our label Winged Skull Records organized a festival with 10 bands at the KulturFabrik. We played the new songs, in preparation for our debut album. The crowd was happy to hear some new stuff from us. We were also damn happy... hehe

As with every tour, our tour's kick-off happened in our hometown, Nancy . We played all of our new songs (well, people were waiting to hear some new stuff since we haven't had the opportunity to play the new songs yet). It seemed the crowd enjoyed it. Our new merchandising was there! As well as our new trailer!

Tomorrow, we're leaving for 4 weeks, so we've been getting prepared, checking the backline, saying good bye to our girlfriends, families, friends... Indeed, we can't wait to leave...

Skalimoucho canceled, so we were the only band playing some melodic music for this festival called "Festoche eud'la truite", all the other bands playing that night were mostly hardcore (especially Walls of Jericho who drove the crowd totally crazy). It was a great atmosphere, and I guess that mixing different genres is a great thing.

We usually come to rock in Breda about once a year, but every time at a different venue. Today, we played at a particular time, in the middle of the afternoon, with 2 supporting local bands (one of them being Jeremy, check them out, we really appreciate their music). We had some technical problems with the PA, but the gig was ok. We then went to eat and party the whole night, as only we know how to do, haha.

A beautiful summer day, we drove the whole day to Berlin, where we spent the night at Jana's, a friend of ours who offers us a place to stay every time we come here. We do not have any air conditioning in the van, so all the windows remain opened the whole trip and enabled us to breathe all the wonderful toxic smokes...

This was the second day we spent driving... We dove to Valga, and reached the city after around 30hours of driving. We made a stop in Poland to get our exhaust pipe repaired, and as the guy was fixing it, we took some time to do some band pictures in front of the "van of our dreams". Nothing much then...

Valga is a small border town between Latvia and Estonia . We're playing in a squat called Rock Klubbi (the venue was a former sauna). Usually, we tell you that there are a lot of people at our shows, so this time, we must admit that there wasn't that many people (about 30), but they were all totally crazy (and drunk haha). The show was awesome, we went to bed at about 4am (the sun was starting to rise). Estonian people spent the whole night drinking in front of the venue. This was the first time we played there, and definitely not the last time.

The day started with a sunny wake up. The weather was damn hot, and once again, we took some band pictures in front of the club. We drove to Riga (city that we now know kinda well, it was the second time we played there). We were playing in the one and only rock club of the city, the Depo. The support band this night was Voizek Voiska (latvian ska). We didn't played that well because the venue was sooo damn hot, we had to tune the instruments several times... But we had a lot of fun with that incredible crowd. Then, party... as usual !

For some of us, going on tour means "waking up earlier than usual"... We drove to Saldus (which means "sweet" in Latvian language), small town where 2 local bands (emocore and punkrock), 2 polish bands (hardcore and crust) and us were playing. About 100 people showed up, and once again, were totally crazy. Jaws did his first stage dive... Party time!
Something to notice: during the summer, the sun shines from 4am to midnight , so usually you just skip sleeping. The first of us went to bed at about 6am, whereas Jay and Yul went swimming in a lake with a... sailor who was definitely having some strange psychotic experiences...

We left Latvia and drove to Lithuania . We would like to thank the Lithuanian police for not having given us a fine as we were driving too fast (can you imagine we were driving too fast with our 15 year old van??? haha). We arrived in Klaipeda , we were playing in a square. A band from Vilnius , Vai Tap Vat (former members of a popular band over there, Sloppy Livin) did our support. They'll be playing again with us in Vilnius . We had to stop our gig during the last song, as some Bone-Heads (nazi skins) irrupted and started to fight with the organizers, and the crowd... We were told that these things are kinda usual in the city, and happened at every gig. Nazi Punks, Fuck off! However, the promoters told us that it has never reached the level of violence that it did this night... 4 people were sent to the hospital, some were caught by the police, many got hurt.

At the promoter's where we slept the previous night, we discovered a bad-ass French hardcore band called The Sons of Saturn. We then left and drove to Siauliai , where we played last year in a small squat, with a band who totally blew us away, The Plague Mass from Austria . This time, we were the first band playing in that brand new venue, an old shoe factory. Great venue, great atmosphere, great crew! WAKE UP SIAULIAI ! was the name of this gig, as there hadn't been any punk rock gigs in the city in almost a year. Lots of Mohawks and kids in front of the venue, it seemed the show would have been totally packed. Some P.O.BOX tags on the squat's walls... Not to mention about 50 kids asking us to tag their shirts, bags, caps, skins.... Wooow.... Our gig was one of the most energetic we've had since the beginning of this tour. Chalk It Up To The Experience is kind of a hymn over there that everybody was singing. We must admit that the people in the crowd knew the lyrics better than some of us, haha. All right, we had it! The best show of the tour for now. After the show, we talked with the people there and learned that lots of them came to Siauliai for our gig, and would follow us the days after in Alytus and Vilnius (by cars, train, hitch hiking...). That warmed us up sooo much.

What is great in those gigs is that we do not have to drive a lot to reach the next one... We reached Alytus under a burning sun. We had no rider, we didn't know the name of the venue, our contact's phone number was wrong... We searched some posters, and found them quite easily. We arrived at the venue which was a pub/restaurant, and learned that we would have to play 2times 20minutes, on the smallest stage on earth, in a bar where smart type people were eating. The kids from yesterday were there. During the first part of our show, we played some slow ska songs; during the second one, we played all the tough songs we have. We then went to have dinner in a small but nice restaurant, then drove to Vilnius (100km to drive) to reach Agne's place (our official translator in Lithuania , haha). It was Party time in the van, with Dj Fendu (aka Olivier), but everything was going too great. As soon as we arrived in Vilnius , the axe of our trailer broke. Luckily this happened in the city, so we were driving slow... If that would have happened on the highway, i guess we would have been out. 1am , shitty time, we called a garage, they came to pick up the trailer... We'll see what to do tomorrow.

We woke up, called Europe Assistance (our insurance), the French Embassy, looking for someone who could fix this trailer as soon as possible, and with the "cheap option". The guy told us he would repair it, but only 2days after. This meant we would be able to leave Vilnius only on Thursday night... And as a consequence, it meant we had to cancel our gig in Kiev , Ukraine ! Grrrrr.
All the tough time we had gave us a damn great willing to play. We met Vai Tap Vat once again, as these guys were supporting us on this show. The gig this night was the best answer to the question "What is the aim of what we're doing?". The show was soooooo fucking great that we played 6 songs as a bis, and ended it with an "acapella" Chalk It Up during which every single people in the crowd (some of them were having their 3rd P.O.BOX gig in 3 days) sang. Seeing sooo many people happy to see us playing, sharing so many emotions with this crowd, knowing that those 30 15-16years old kids followed us on the road during 3 days... This means soooo much to us.
We spent the last days of our Lithuanian trip sightseeing in Vilnius , drinking, partying, with Agne and Vai Tap Vat.
Thanx to all of you, we had a blast in the baltic countries.

The problem we had with the axe of our trailer made us being obliged to cancel the gig in Kiev , Ukraine ... We were sad, definitely sad, as it was a real honor for us to play in Ukraine , after the "Orange Revolution" which happened some 6 months ago. We tried to find a solution... That was totally unmanageable for us to play there

Unluckily, we also had to cancel the only Poland gig of this tour because of the trailer. We picked up the trailer (repairing it cost us sooo much), and got ready to leave Vilnius ... But, as we were leaving, we noticed a nail in the tire... Definitely, this was a joke... Anyway, midnight , we left, driving to Hungary . 1.100km to drive, 5 countries to be crossed... in one night !

The road was tough, we drove at an average speed of 60km/h. 1100km in 23hours, and the exhaust pipe broke again! We arrived in Százhalombatta, in the suburbs of Budapest , at about 10pm , but the thing is that we were supposed to play at 4:45pm . The promoters offered us to play as the last band, at... 4am !!! After having talked about it through with the whole band, we decided to accept the deal. We met so many people who were at our last show there, one year ago; they made us promise to stay awake (and sober) until we play. And so did they! We played at 4, in front of about 50people, half of them sleepy, the other half drunk. Anyway, this gig gave us an awesome opportunity: starting to play at night, finishing as the sun was rising. Time to go to bed !

We woke up at 9am , took a shower, and hit the road again for several hours of driving. There's no doubt, summer was here. At the Croatian border, the custom officers made us an agreement that we should give them a cd... And we did it as we didn't want to be blocked at the border. Still driving... We passed 100.000km with our van! 100.000km driven in this little Vanette in 2 years, on the European roads, hehe (our van has done for now 320.000km, pfiou!). The 6th Dirty Old Festival had already started for some hours when we arrived there. As soon as we parked the van, we saw a very popular emo-punkrock Croatian band (Debeli Precjednik). The organizers told us there was around 1.000 people on the festival. Then the American Against Me! came on stage and drove the crowd crazy. Also to notice, the amazing performance of the German from Mad Sin. We ended the festival, energetic show, totally crazy: a big party which made us forget about the hours spent driving.

A cool night in a hotel. We drove to Czech Republic .

This night was a special gig as it was a birthday party. Fido (that's his name) organized a gig in the club Bogotta for its 27yo b-day. We were playing with a metalcore-SxE-Vegan band called Confronto which had been on tour in Europe for 10weeks. We are always a little scared by these differences in the kind of music at a gig, certainly a typical French fear, as the 100 people's crowd here danced as hell for Confronto as well as for us. We're getting exhausted... Definitely exhausted... We didn't even finish the bottle of vodka that Fido offered us.

It was raining. This day, we had to drive all of Europe from East to West... Boring.

Wallonia, oh Wallonia ! Nice gig, with a lot of Belgian friends who showed up at the show, thirsty to hear our new songs. Tom (THE man from www.europunk.net) even told us that some of our new songs are hits! We can't wait for the studio! There were some great bands on this festival, especially The MoonShine Playboys who delivered some American standards with a country touch: guitars, banjos, bears, Connecticut accent... Awesome!

National day in Belgium .
We have 2 days off, some of the band members went to see their girlfriends, families, friends, others took some rest, and others decided to party.

Those who choose to party spent their whole day going from pub to pub in Ath.
The others had a great time with their girlfriends, families, friends whom they haven't seen in so long, after all this time we've spent on the road.

Great show tonight, with tough sound! Goodbye Heroes, a young emo hardcore punk band, was astonishing. Smooth Lee, as usual, awesome ska-core with 4 horns. Glowing Beavers, ska-core "à la" Chocking Victims or Antimaniax. We did our best to make the crowd mosh et spread our message over. Thanx to our friends from Nancy who showed up.

After a night spent in a hotel in Longwy (54), France , we drove to Herselt, in Vlanderen. We were playing in JH Choke that night (which is kind of a youth center, but nothing compared to the French youth centers), where approximately 100 kids gathered on this rainy Sunday evening. Great show, great atmosphere, great crowd... as usual in Belgium . Well, we kinda feel at home in Belgium...

As we were having 2 days off the following day then a gig in Germany, near Strasbourg, we decided to go back to our bad-ass hometown Nancy, and were able to wash some clothes for the last week of this tour.

Reading our emails and getting in touch with our booking agencies gave us the basis of our 2005-2006 season: recording of our debut album at the Loko Studio in December, lots of gigs added (Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, suppor of Streetlight Manifesto in Paris...). Damn, here we come again!

After 3 hours of driving, we arrived in Offenburg, small town in Germany, just in front of Strasbourg, but on the other side of the Rhin. We're playing in an AJZ (Autonomes Jugend Zentrum). The promoter showed us an awesome article about us in the local newspaper. The venue was awesome; once again the atmosphere was great. Our support band for this night was Suicides 54, a metalcore band. Our show went great, and we gave a lot of energy as we knew that our tour would be over soon. About 100 people skanked like hell. 2 months ago, we played in Strasbourg , at le Zanzibar. There were about 50 people. Once again, we were amazed by the difference there can be in music mentalities through Europe . End of the controversy.

After a great fruhstuck (breakfast), we left offenburg . Usually, on our days off, we always have some technical problems, and that's what happened to us, once again: the engine's temperature was too high, and we had to stop. We searched for a Nissan® garage, found it, but it was closed at that time: we had to wait until the next morning, so we decided to camp in front of it.

8am, the garage opened. We had to come back at noon . Nothing serious, but we will never know what it was. Anyway, we drove to Altheim which was only at 100km. We arrived at the festival, while H-Blockxx was already there. H-Blockxx? An enterprise band (very popular in Germany and other countries), with H-Blockxx crew shirts for the roadies, an enormous tour bus, women on board, lots of guitars tuned by several roadies on stage, laptops on stage, DAT, in-ear monitoring... Well... show business, as we like it! We started to play just after the rain stopped (and before H-Blockxx), and 3.000 people were in front of us (!). We had some difficulties to get into the show because of that biiiiiig crowd, biiiiiig stage... That reminded us of the Dour Festival. But we soon gave the maximum, thanx to the support of the crowd. The end of the night has been great, with a damn great catering, drivers, restaurants, showers, and our own fridge full of drinks...

This gig in Belgium was the last of the tour, because the gig in Hamburg has been canceled. The Flemish crowd is one of our best supports, that was a good thing for us as well as for the Belgian people, that we ended the tour there. We decided to drive the whole night to prevent the engine of the van from getting hot again, and as at night, the trips go faster: when some of us drive, the other sleep... The stage was on the principal square of the town, under a tent. Awesome gig, awesome crowd, awesome night!! This was the last show of the tour, so we were kinda nostalgic. Soooo many Belgian friends we hadn't seen in a while showed up. We gave the maximum ("tomorrow, we will be home, so let's have fun tonight)". Our buddies from Another Guardian Angel came on stage to sing Chalk It Up with us. Last song, end of the tour, loading out, last drink... It was hard to leave... We'll miss everything.