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  • FRIDAY FEBRUARY 25 2005 8:50 AM

Greek Punks lay siege to The Vandals

Submitted by Telepathboy

Edited by Sean

The punk rock freight train that is 'The Vandals' found themselves trapped in a glorified basement, surrounded by a horde of Mad Greeks just after Valentine's day. Scheduled to play their unique brand of edgy, fast paced humor-punk, they instead found themselves scrounging for rescue. The doors of the club had been beset by a group of 'organized Anarchists' who felt The Vandals had no right to play after their recent stop in Iraq.

Joe on TheVandals.com:
During sound check the owner of the club interrupted us to tell us that things were getting very ugly outside the club which was called "An." He showed us some protest material. Like the flyers in Milan , it contained lies about us. Here's a tip for all you progressive punkers out there. If your movement has to tell lies, you are going nowhere and you are worse than anything you are trying to tear down. When I see my picture on something with a dead baby and prisoner abuse, I know I am dealing with losers and it just makes me want to do whatever will piss them off in the future.

After a little while longer he said the show was cancelled. Then it started to get weird. There were a couple hundred people outside threatening us, the club and our famlies with knives, chains, and sticks, etc if we played our music. The security said there were an additional 500 "peace protestors" at a nearby park waiting to ambush as soon as the violence started with an attack on us in front of the club. Here's your peace movement.



Eventually, the protesting let up, and enough security arrived for the band to make it out to a heavily armed shuttle waiting outside.

Joe again:
It was a very strange but efficient exit with very brave security guys securing a clear escape route. They were even jogging outside the vehicle until we got to the main thoroughfare. It was very secret service like.



Similar protest flyers were distributed in Italy, and a Vandals show in Austria was cancelled just two weeks before.

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Comments
mydogfarted

mydogfarted

Oakland, NJ
June 2003

FEB 25, 2005 09:01 AM

Who knew there were Iraqi punk fans? surreal

Glad to see that stupid people exist outside of America. "We're for peace, so we're going to kick your ass!. Yeah. surreal

pharaoh

pharaoh

Los Angeles, CA
August 2002

FEB 25, 2005 09:08 AM

that wouldn't have happened in Mohawk Town... (sound of whip cracking)

hee-yah!

ARRR!!!

Idjit

Idjit

HOPEFUL

I'm lost

FEB 25, 2005 09:11 AM

Wow. How totally fucking stupid.

ether_medius

ether_medius

Toronto, ON
November 2004

FEB 25, 2005 09:19 AM

??

where's the rest of the story?

I'm still confused as to why those "peace protestors" were waiting outside for these guys.

PointBlank

PointBlank

New York, NY
November 2004

FEB 25, 2005 09:21 AM

ether_medius said:
??

where's the rest of the story?

I'm still confused as to why those "peace protestors" were waiting outside for these guys.


The Vandals played in Iraq, for the American troops. It hasn't gone over too well with European Punkers.

DaGhost

DaGhost

USA
December 2003

FEB 25, 2005 09:23 AM

Yay, ummm lets practice what we protest, I mean preach, no I mean protest.

WTF

PointBlank

PointBlank

New York, NY
November 2004

FEB 25, 2005 09:26 AM

Just remember, all the info in this article is from The Vandal's own website, so it's probably not the most fair or balanced reporting on what actually happened.

The Vandals are certainly milking this one. . . .

TheG

TheG

Somerville, MA
February 2004

FEB 25, 2005 09:35 AM

Point_Blank said:
Just remember, all the info in this article is from The Vandal's own website, so it's probably not the most fair or balanced reporting on what actually happened.

The Vandals are certainly milking this one. . . .



Good point. Still, given what they were protesting, it sounds like these people took a very misguided approach. They couldn't have just not gone??? whatever

Keith

Keith

Hooker, OK
August 2002

FEB 25, 2005 09:37 AM

I can kind of see the point if it was like, I dunno, some really political band like Bad Religion or something, but it's the fucking Vandals, man. I love the Vandals, but the whole point of their entire existance is NOT to be taken seriously.

nonbillable

nonbillable

Brooklyn, NY
September 2004

FEB 25, 2005 09:38 AM

Not that I in any way condone any physical intimidation that may or may not have gone down, but, seriously, why did these guys play in Iraq? And whatever the reason, did they really expect it not to piss a lot of people off?

Projecta119

Projecta119

Stewartstown, PA
January 2004

FEB 25, 2005 09:39 AM

ether_medius said:
??

where's the rest of the story?

I'm still confused as to why those "peace protestors" were waiting outside for these guys.





As you will note..."peace protesters" is in quotes.... I'll not give an english lesson... because I'm sure with that little hint.. you can figure out the rest. (just imagine someone making quote signs with their fingers)

[Edited on Feb 25, 2005 12:51PM]

Cash

Cash

USA
OLD SKOOL

FEB 25, 2005 09:45 AM

Greece, Fuck yeah!

Jimbo

Jimbo

Austin, TX
August 2003

FEB 25, 2005 09:46 AM

They went to Iraq to entertain the troops. You know soldiers like punk too.

I just don't get the violence. Whats kicking their ass going to do.

Cash

Cash

USA
OLD SKOOL

FEB 25, 2005 09:48 AM

nonbillable said:
Not that I in any way condone any physical intimidation that may or may not have gone down, but, seriously, why did these guys play in Iraq? And whatever the reason, did they really expect it not to piss a lot of people off?



I'm not aware of the situation at all. I didn't know that they played in Iraq, much less the reasons why. Perhaps they put on a show for troops? I'm not saying they did...but would it be so terrible if they did? Sort of like "We know it sucks for you guys over here...so here's a little something for your morale"?

I'm just thinking out loud.

erroneous

erroneous

Cleveland, OH
October 2003

FEB 25, 2005 09:52 AM

I myself found the most telling part of this story to be "organized Anarchists". I think they should have thrown themselves in front of the fleeing bus.

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