Ever heard of Good Charlotte? If not, read their Biography because it would take me too long to explain who they really are. Just know, they had all of the females between the ages of 14 and 21 moist last night in Berlin. Moist and screaming. Well, not all females. Jasmine and her girlfriends for some reason “hate” this band. I was always curious, why do they hate them so much? Then I realized, you couldn’t have hate with out a tad of love in there somewhere. I mean, you really have had to love or care about something in the past in order to whip up such a strong emotion as hate, know what I mean?
Petra is doing so well, she is actually on tour with Good Charlotte as their German tour manager (most bands have a main tour manager and one from each country they tour). She called me to come massage the lads and I gratefully accepted. They played at my old Berlin stomping grounds, Huxley’s Neue Welt, a club in Kreuzberg that was closed down for a few years, but is now open again and looking (and sounding) better than ever. I have seen so many shows there in the past, Oasis (where Noel and Liam got their first EVER massage in their life from yours truly) Iggy Pop, Blur (snobs!) Hot House Flowers, Andrew Strong, Van Halen, Steve Vai and it goes on and on.
As soon as I got there, the singer, well, one of the singers (there are two, and they are twin brothers) wanted a 90 minute rub down asap. His name is Benji and he is a cutie. 25 years old, from Maryland, but lives in LA when not on tour. He has amazing tattoos all over which kept me entertained. He wasn’t offended when I told him Jasmine and her gal pals hate his band. He laughed and said I should call her to invite her down to the show, that maybe she would change her tune if she saw them live. I think Jasmine is just into older groups like Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Beatles and Nirvana, so she just doesn’t take too kindly to new groups.
Benji allowed me to photograph his awesome tattoos, as words just couldn’t do them justice, feast your eyes on these
That’s Benji Madden ^ (sweet heart and super polite to his fans!)
Then I massaged Joel Madden, Benji’s twin brother. I was surprised when he said he was the singer. Oh, two singers, got it. Hey, I have only seen one of their videos and not even the whole video at that. I somehow think they were relieved to meet a girl who didn’t know all of their songs and whole life story. There were HOARDS of young screaming girls lined up out side the venue when I pulled up by the way. Joel had a 40 minute massage and had to be told a few times by his other tour manager to wind it up, as it is ‘show time’. I know he would have wanted a two hour massage, he was diggin’ it!
^ Joel = fine!
DOH! I only found out when I got home and googled them that Joel and Benji are twins. Makes sense now that I think about the similarities. They both had Irish flag tattoos and are both 25 and from Maryland and from the audience (yes I watched a few songs to see what all the screaming was about) they kind of looked alike on stage. Now I get it, duh! lol
^ Paul, the bass player holding a home made gift (a sign with his name on it) from a German fan
After the show I massaged Paul, the bass player. He put on “Dark side of the moon” on his lap top during the massage. Gorgeous images kept appearing on his lap top, all of which he took with his own camera. He is an amazing photographer! The tattoo on his right arm (well, you can’t see all of it) is a Salvador Dali image. He didn’t seem to mind that people kept walking in and out the room during his entire massage. Nice disposition on that guy. I was massaging his hand and someone knocked and said “can I come in” and I said, “sure, just givin him a hand job” we all burst out in laughter. Love pushin’ that envelope.
I didn’t have time to massage everyone in Good Charlotte this time as they were leaving shortly after the show (only had time to massage bass player) to drive to Sweden. Must be a wicked long drive!
^ Billy Martin, guitarist of Good Charlotte
Towards the end, I got to chatting with the other guitarist, Billy (don’t shoot me if I got his name wrong, I am a Zappa/Beatles/Zeppelin/Floyd fan after all! I said ” hope you aren’t offended, but you look like you are a member of Marylin Manson’s band”. On the contrary, he took that as the highest compliment, he “LOVES MM!”.
While Good Charlotte was on stage ( I did see SOME of their show) I massaged the opening act called “The Explosion” a punk band from Boston. Nice guys. A few of them were so thin; I could have broken them in half if I wanted to. I am sure you will be hearing more of The Explosion, they rocked! And I want to thank them for letting me scam all of their chocolate from their dressing room. They didn’t want it (obviously they don’t eat anyways) and I told them I need it as a weapon to bribe Jasmine 🙂 You gotta do what you gotta do.
Anyhow, yesterdays blog took me more than 4 hours thanks to DIAL up hell, and this is heading towards 4 hours too, so I have to stop and get to bed. Good Charlotte asked me to come to Hamburg (which is a 3 hour drive from Berlin) this coming Sunday to massage them again, but I doubt I can go as I have to move on Monday to my new flat (shit hole). I do have a great massage assistant in Hamburg anyways, Maren. When I offered her to the tour manager, Mark, he said “no, we only want you!”. By the way, Mark is sweet, calm and the most polite tour manager (besides Petra 😉 that I have met in a LONG time. Not bad on the eyes either. All in all, it was a great night, in every way.
I love it when I am backstage in Berlin and I am introduced to the band and start chatting and they all get this look of wonder on their faces and say “wow, you speak great English!” lol. I like to wind them up a bit before I tell them I am American.
Help, Berlin is growing on me again! Yikes! Maybe cause I know I am just passing through (?)