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Vice Blog

WE NEVER LEARN: Behind The Iron Curtain

_Some people experience Europe and all the beauty and wonderment that a confederation of open-bordered Socialized states has to offer from behind the confines of an eye-opening semester abroad program. Then there are the ones who saw it from underneath the rubble of the recently fallen Iron Curtain. Steve Sherman (formerly Steve Pallow née Haunted George) of The Beguiled and Necessary Evils scrawled out this story for _We Never Learn. Sadly, during an 11th hour editing binge to deal with space constraints it was cut. But here it is now in all its glory.

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The Beguiled played in this weird town in East Germany with Fireworks. This was just a few years after the Berlin Wall came down. It was really weird for us as Americans. As soon as we crossed from the West Side to the East Side the roads were narrower and filled with potholes. We got to this town called Halberstatt. It had this huge medieval section of town where all these squatters lived in. All the people were dressed like Lemmy from Motorhead or one of the Ramones--black leather jackets, sneakers, and long hair. They all wanted to get into the show for free. They still didn't get the whole capitalism thing where you pay to get into a show so the band can get some money for the gas and gear and the time they spent getting to your town.

Both bands played, and as soon as we finished this crowd outside went nuts. They were outside throwing rocks and bottles at the club and trying to break into the place. We were running around hiding our gear thinking that it would get stolen if the mob broke in. It felt just like a zombie movie. We were on the 2nd floor looking out of the window to see how big this crowd was and stones flew at us--broke the windows and whizzed right by our heads. We turned off the lights so they couldn't see us. We realized there was no security in this place, only the club owner and his wife, so we ran down to see where he was and found him in a long, narrow hallway with a baseball bat. The mob had broken through a door that gave access to the club through a hallway only about a yard wide. The owner was beating back the crowd all by himself. We ran over to back him up. I remember him nailing this guy across the forearm. The guy yelped and grabbed his arm. I'm pretty sure it was broken. The owner beat this crowd to the door and then barred it shut. It was straight out of a zombie movie, only instead of zombies or the infected it was these Euro-rocker Huns.

We ran to the van. They were beating on the van with their fists and kicking at it. It was only a matter of time until somebody thought of grabbing a rock and breaking the windows. Out of nowhere these cops show up with billy clubs and just start beating ass. They were like the cavalry. They chased people down and just wailed on them. The club owner was all bloodied. It was nuts. We slept with our boots on that night.

For parts one and two of our We Never Learn Series click here and here, respectively.

INTRO BY AARON LEFKOVE