PIKE BROTHERS Bundesländer Tour 2010-2011

[dr.house]

Thanks for your updates. Like I've said on MN, the PB reminds me a lot of some Nudies. Not bad at all but nothing to get wet about imo.

[ThinFinn]

^true story mate...

Great updates there max though I'm a bit nervous about that waist...

[Max Power]

^there's still time to regain your swimsuit-figure ;-)

[dingo]

So, I took the Engineers on stage today! I´m not sure if I had mentioned this somewhere, but I am the percussionist and one of the singers of a small local band. We cover Rocksongs from the 70s to the 90s, stuff by the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix as well as Jethro Tull and Crosby, Stills and Nash. That stuff.

Our most current project is a very small stageplay involving two actors who perform a fictional interview with Eric Clapton about his biography, and the band plays his songs that played a major role in his life. This project is actually quite successfull – we have done it 7 times in a row and have always had a full house.

Anyway, these are the pics of the day:

Me getting ready for the assembling of the instruments on stage

on the way to the club

instruments on stage

again, another shot of the stage

the barstools in the club – aren´t those ugly as hell?

Blame my paleness on the cameraflash…

[dingo]

Part 2:

our audience – since we play classic rock, our audience usually is a bit older than me ;-)

On stage – left to right: Hans (our guitarist, as you can see) Jenna (our female singer, obvious as well) and me

me singing

and again

the whole team

after the gig – notice our actors on the right

after the gig, everything has to be packed and transported back to our rehearsal room

me being exhausted

So much for now, hope you enjoy the pics.

[Max Power]

great update!

[Obbigood]

^^Cool stuff, Dingo!

Always wanted to be a rock star since young

Why not get someone to take a video, upload youtube and post!

But if it is too troublesome, sorry that I suggested

[beatle]

Dingo - ur a drummer ?

[dingo]

I wouldn´t consider myself a drummer, rather a percussionist. I play the cajon and the conga, and I can sing alright. I just don´t like being the leadsinger of a band, somehow.

@James: there are a couple of videos on youtube, actually… they´re just really bad quality, I think somebody might have taken them with his cellphone… Anyway, if you´re interested, search for the words Pardon (that´s our name, don´t ask me why…) and Kassel on youtube, and you´ll find some videos there.

[dingo]

Here´s a little teaser from tonight´s upcoming update:

[dingo]

Here we go again…

First things first: my leg of the tour got me on the wrong foot, so to speak (sorry for the bad pun), as these are the last weeks of the semester and I have to prepare for many exams in university. This means that I don´t have much time to do interesting stuff, let alone taking pictures. But I´m trying…

I had to spend the whole day in the library to study, but I took my camera to take some pictures on the way there. Throughout Germany, Kassel is not exactly wellknown for it´s beauty. But there are some really nice spots, for example the Karlsaue – a big park which I happen to live close to. Hope you enjoy those pics, as I probably will show you some more spots of this park during the next days.

This is the "Orangerie", a palace from the early 18th century that was used as a summer residence for the gentry. Parts of it were used as a greenhouse to grow orange-trees in it, hence the name. Today it is used as a technical museum, including a planetarium.

This is a memorial for the soldiers that fell in the World Wars.

Every 5 years, Kassel is host of the Documenta, a great exhibition of modern arts. Everywhere in the city there are pieces of art left over from these exhibitions, some interesting, others not so much. This one is not really one of my favorites, but it´s sort of touristy, as it provides a picture frame for the Karlsaue.

That´s what I meant… I know, it´s not spectacular this time of year, but try to imagine it during summer :-D

Well, that´s what I did the whole day… Working on a project for university and studying. Wish there was more to show you this weekend… I have some more places up my sleeve, I just hope that I´ll find enough time. If not, there´s still fairylicks here… :-)

[Max Power]

beautiful pics, Dingo. Will you do a meetup with Felix?

[dingo]

^that´s certainly a good idea – don´t know if we can manage to find the time, since I´m sure he´s busy with his studies too. But I´m sure we can work something out.

[dingo]

Hi guys, sorry I kept you waiting for so long… I really have to apologize for posting so few pictures. but I have to deal with some serious private issues currently, plus I really have to do A LOT for university these days, so I don´t get around too much. I haven´t even had the time to take some close-up pictures, but I´ll do that during the weekend, I promise! There´s also another "tourist attraction" coming up, if the weather doesn´t f*** up too much.

That´s not to say that there are no new pictures at all: yesterday I took the camera to work to give you some insight in my job. Besides studying I work in a local Mediastore that specializes in trading second-hand-rarities, which can get really interesting at times. See for yourself:

I´m one of those people that hate so smile on pictures – I just can´t help it, sorry. Still not my best side, I know… ;-)

Heaps of Vinyl – and that´s just a tiny tiny part of our stock!

Again, just a small part of the inventory – we store up to 40.000 CD, not counting duplicates

Lunch at the nearby caf̩: turkey bagel and chai latte РI could eat that stuff any day!

I spent the afternoon scanning the inventory, looking for potential rarities. Pro-Tip: If you scan your CD-Collection and come across a label that looks similar to this one (not necessarily the colors), chances are that the CD might be worth a lot more than what you paid for it. These label-patterns are called "target" because of the similarity to a crosshair. They are often collectibles since they can be first issues or really rare. Don´t be disappointed though – some still are quite wide-spread.

Currently our most expensive specimen: a really rare children´s-CD. Somehow ridiculous, I know – but then again, we all know how crazy people with a "special taste" can be ;-)

and lastly, one of the WORST self-portraits that I have ever done:

I´m not really that fat, I´m just sitting in a very unfavorable pose, trust me! :lol:

Well, I hope you liked the little excourse to my little world of music-trade… Close-ups of the Engineers are coming soon, so stay tuned!

[redX]

this tour looks like a lot of fun, too bad i lost so much weight that the jeans just wouldn't fit me anymore

[Max Power]

The store looks great, Max! I would love to check it out. You got Metal and Punk too? The Tabaluga CD is insane :lol:

Anyway, all the best to you, hope you can work your problems out.

[beautiful_FrEaK]

And I thought Tabaluga is from Peter Maffay

Thx for the updates!

[Max Power]

^only the cheap ass version apparently

[dingo]

Of course we have metal and punk! :-) I´d be glad to give you a small "tour" if you visit Kassel one time!

No, you´re right, Tabaluga was written by Peter Maffay – The Chris Thompson-version is the english adaption, as far as I know.

[Max Power]

^Ok, good to know...

[edchen]

Hey guys I'm new to denim and a friend recommended to me the Pike Brother's Jeans and so I bought a pair but they turned out to be too small so I had to return them. Not gonna lie though this thread was mainly the reason as to why I purchased a pair. I took 4 years of German in high school and it made me very interested in everything that had to do with the German culture. I've traveled to Germany also with my German class in December 2007 and we visited mainly southern Germany and cities such as Munchen, Nurnberg, Rothenberg, but my favorite was probably Garmisch-Partenkirchen. But yeah sorry for rambling but this thread just made me super excited and I love the tour that you guys are doing.

Mein deutsch ist nicht sehr gut, aber ich konnte ein bisschen sprechen und schreiben. haha it's been a while.. but yeah sorry if I made a fool out of myself!

-E

[Max Power]

Hey guys I'm new to denim and a friend recommended to me the Pike Brother's Jeans and so I bought a pair but they turned out to be too small so I had to return them. Not gonna lie though this thread was mainly the reason as to why I purchased a pair. I took 4 years of German in high school and it made me very interested in everything that had to do with the German culture. I've traveled to Germany also with my German class in December 2007 and we visited mainly southern Germany and cities such as Munchen, Nurnberg, Rothenberg, but my favorite was probably Garmisch-Partenkirchen. But yeah sorry for rambling but this thread just made me super excited and I love the tour that you guys are doing.

Mein deutsch ist nicht sehr gut, aber ich konnte ein bisschen sprechen und schreiben. haha it's been a while.. but yeah sorry if I made a fool out of myself!

-E

Heeeey, you know what? I come from Nürnberg, lived close to Rothenburg and worked some years in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. (I visited at least Nürnberg, München and Rothenburg, was planning to go to the Zugspitze with the tour jeans as well, as I still got a voucher for the train up there. So I would have covered all places you speak of). And I still love these places. Thanks for your interest in the tour! And your german is not bad at all, really.

Cheers,

Flo

[edchen]

Heeeey, you know what? I come from Nürnberg, lived close to Rothenburg and worked some years in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. (I visited at least Nürnberg, München and Rothenburg, was planning to go to the Zugspitze with the tour jeans as well, as I still got a voucher for the train up there. So I would have covered all places you speak of). And I still love these places. Thanks for your interest in the tour! And your german is not bad at all, really.

Cheers,

Flo

No way! Nurnberg was amazing.. Nurnberg style Bratwurst were definitely my favorite.. way better than Thuringer style! I saw the pictures that you posted when you went to Rothenberg. I actually did the same tour around the walls of the city and it was very cool. The Zugspitze was very cool too.. there was even a little Biergarten up there as well. By the way.. curious question, what kind of cigarettes do you smoke? (good way to enjoy a cigarette by the beach haha)

[dingo]

Yesterday, between all that studying I found some time to take the Engineers out for a drink… See for yourself:

Had some whiskey…

…and Guinness…

… lots of Guinness! (I did NOT drink out of that pitcher, even if that picture looks as if I did :-D)

Cheers guys!

And today, finally, I took the chance to take my family on a very short trip to the Herkules, which is probably the most famous monument of Kassel. It is located on a hill, giving a great view over the city and overlooking the "Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe", Europe´s largest artificial mountainpark. The monument includes large cascades, but they were out of order today. They only run once a week, as far as I know… One little secret: Even though these cascades are one of the largest tourist attractions of Kassel, I have never actually had the chance to go see them. (Not to self: go see the cascades in summer some time…)

The weather was crappy and cold, and we did not go for a walk unfortunately. On the other hand this is a good chance to come here again during a later leg, maybe in summer...

The Hercules has been under construction for quite a while, and I´m not really sure what they´re doing. I know they polished the statue of Heracles last year (it was a great deal in the local media that the builders had taken the statue´s head off for a couple of weeks), but I don´t know what they´re doing now.

I once saw an interview with some local painter who said that the backside of the statue was her favorite view of the monument. She was an artist, so it must be true… :-P No frontside pic of the statue though – as we only went to the other side of the monument, the angle to the statue was too steep to take a decent picture, sorry.

My son and me…

Enjoy the view!

[dingo]

I know I´m probably the worst host the Engineers will ever have in this tour, and I really have to apologize to all of you… it´s just that I´m in a sh*tload of work for university, and I don´t have time to do jack. At least I was able to do some pics of the current state of the jeans and the patch, and I´ll try to take some nice last pics this weekend, including the posing and all that obligatory stuff. Next week I´ll send them of to the next participant, which should be Rotbart, right?

As you can see, you don´t see much… Being the fourth participant, I am a bit disappointed about the almost complete absence of fadings whatsoever. But the patch kicks ass, in my oppinion! :-D I´m not sure if the "stitching" will make it all the way through the whole tour, though…

I have not forgotten about the trip to eastern Germany that I promised, and I will keep that promise… I´ll have to do that in my second leg. Maybe we can time this right that I can have that second leg NOT during semester? Then I could make a lot of things up…

Cheers!

[dingo]

As my first leg comes to an end, I took the "posing pictures" today… I considered to have these done by a professional photographer around the corner who specializes in 50´s and 60´s-style photography, but his timetable was too packed, and he also charges a lot for those pictures – so in the end I had to come up with some pics myself. Hope they turned out fine…

This one came out a bit blurry, but I kinda like the effect

and, finally, some color:

[dingo]

Came home from university today and got a little surprise:

Tadaa: the Joe Hill-Belt from Unlucky, custom made – thanks to mikecch! Also in the package: a great thick coaster and some homemade balm – awesome!

handcrafted damast-buckle…

Production-No. 12 – and a picture of Joe Hill

This baby is thick! For comparison, top to bottom:

some cheap Italian belt

Obbigood Tour-Belt (don´t worry James, I´ll still wear it until I ship it together with the Engineers! :-D)

Unlucky

Iron Heart Garrison

Atelier Ladurance

Some crappy first "fitpic" – don´t wanna pull my shirt up too high at the moment, gotta start working out again soon… :-P By the way: notice the "funny" fit of the Engineer´s fly? That´s not because I´m too fat, they really fit great otherwise! They´re just "funny" that way…

And last but not least, I also signed the Engineers today:

Tomorrow I´ll take measurements (and pictures of the process), and thursday I´m going to mail them to Rotbart. Can´t make it tomorrow unfortunately, hope that´s fine by y´all…

[dingo]

The show must go on: I today was my last day with the Pike Brothers Engineers, so I took the last measurements and packed a little parcel for Rotbart. Here goes:

Waist: 86 cm / 33,8"

Inseam: 85 cm / 33,5 "

One more pic of the belt…

… and another of the patch. Not much change there since the last picture…

I was wondering what to put in the wallet – and since I wore the Engineers to those concerts, what would be more fitting than some musical stuff? So I chose a guitar-pick, as well as a little metal plate that came off my tambourine on stage and that I kept for some reason.

So here´s all the stuff that´s now in the wallet:

I admit that I didn´t use it much, because I usually carry too much stuff in my Red Moon than would fit in the OGL-Wallet – what´s more, I was afraid to crush the shell that Max Power put in it. Hope you agree.

So, when all that stuff was done, I put it in the little cardboard box, together with a postcard and a little surprise for Rotbart ;-) …

…took it to the post office…

…and now it is on it´s way!

Hope I did not disappoint you guys too much – I´ll think of some cool stuff to do during the second leg, and I´ll go to Eastern Germany then too, promise!

Some last words about the Engineers: the fact that they´re fading so slow is a bit disappointing. Then again, this might be due to the washing, who knows. I did enjoy the soft denim, and I would definitely recommend them to someone who is looking for some "beginner´s dry denim" as an interesting alternative to Nudies.

[ThinFinn]

The show must go on: I today was my last day with the Pike Brothers Engineers, so I took the last measurements and packed a little parcel for Rotbart. Here goes:

Waist: 86 cm / 33,8"

////////////////////////////

So here´s all the stuff that´s now in the wallet:

I admit that I didn´t use it much, because I usually carry too much stuff in my Red Moon than would fit in the OGL-Wallet – what´s more, I was afraid to crush the shell that Max Power put in it. Hope you agree.

…and now it is on it´s way!

Hope I did not disappoint you guys too much – I´ll think of some cool stuff to do during the second leg, and I´ll go to Eastern Germany then too, promise!

Some last words about the Engineers: the fact that they´re fading so slow is a bit disappointing. Then again, this might be due to the washing, who knows. I did enjoy the soft denim, and I would definitely recommend them to someone who is looking for some "beginner´s dry denim" as an interesting alternative to Nudies.

at first thanks a lot for the effort and time you've came up with for this. i really enjoyed every update so far...

@rotbart - would be nice if you could measure the denim (before washing!) BIG-style all the way so the big guys know if they can fit or not

and about the small presents and things the guys already send along with the boy...you don't need to wear these with you so don't be afraid of crushing the shell

and about the denim...even if i haven't handled it myself till now, i will agree on your statement, just from looking at those pics!

[dingo]

Thanks man… Sorry I did not take more detailed measurements – I thought waist and inseam would be enough… :-( Yeah, I seem to have a lot to learn still…