Wow! From last post about xVCx you have no idea how much respondence I`ve got from die hard Vaseline Children fans! I mean, my mail box was fuckin`n full with letters! Yeah, I mean the real letters because die hard xVCx fans refuse to use internet because they are real punk rockers and some really mean motherfuckers!!! Anyway, one of the most asked questions from die hard xVCx fans was like: "Hey Snake, how many bandanas were there? How many bandanas did you use during playing with Vaseline Children!?!" And I`m looking at these letters and I`m like, are these kids serious, whatta fuck!?! But, why to keep all these questions unanswered, why not tell the whole bandana xVCx story to all xVCx fans!?!
So, first what you must know is this: I have never played not one single Vaseline Children gig/show without a bandana on my head, OK!?! Got it?! Not one single show! And preatty much the same goes for xVCx rehersals, maybe on few early rehersals I didn`t have bandana, I`m not sure, but the rest of the rehersals were done with bandana all the way. If somewhere you see a picture of me playing without a bandana or with a bandana hanging around my neck, that is not Vaseline Children, that`s probably Evazija or some other bands where I have played, OK!?! If some kid wants to trade with you for xVCx score cards and if he/she`s offering you some The Snake on drums card and is telling you something like: "Hey dude, look at this rare Snake card playing with xVCx but without bandana, wanna trade!?", don`t buy it! It`s a bogus card and it`s a fuckin` bootleg, OK!?! So, I think we`re clear, now that I`ve said it. Next important thing you have to know is that in whole Vaseline Children existing, there were four bandanas that I`ve been using. And I`ll discuss each of them.
The first bandana. On this picture you can see me playing with the first bandana that I`ve used for the first 9 Vaseline Children gigs (from 06th May 2006. to 20th September 2006.). This photo is from our 6th gig in Zagreb, Croatia on 07th July 2006. We were playing in front yard of the "Green Action" activists, it was some benefit show and later police close down the show. Punk rock! Actually on this photo I`m sort of screaming and looking somewhere at the sky so it`s definitely more suitable for some good black metal photo, but nevermind that... And if you`re wondering where is the floor tom (iliti indijaner na balkanskom :)), well, for some reason on that night this floor tom was getting on my nerves and I just removed it and played whole gig without it. Anyway, this first bandana wasn`t mine originally, the infamous Tucman brothers gave me the bandana and I played few times with this bandana while I was still playing in Lasting Values (2000. - 2005.) including the infamous show that we played with Hatebreed (haha, no kidding!) in "Metelkova", in Ljubljana, Slovenia somewhere in 2004. So, this was clasic Mike Muir blue bandana and it suited me just well and xVCx played some furious gigs during this bandana but still nothing tremendous happened concerning the gigs during this bandana. Then I lost it after playing with Theysuck! in "Leglo", Novo Mesto, Slovenia at the end of September of 2006. And that was the end of the first xVCx bandana.
With the second xVCx black bandana things started to hook up! I don`t know but often I think of this bandana as something special, it wasn`t just the ordinary bandana. I mean, this bandana was black (you know, black magic, black metal, black sabbath, black flag...) and I definitely looked more mean, angry and vicious with this bandana. I mean, I wasn`t just looked that way, I really felt vicious and angry when I played with this bandana. Some most furious and some of the best xVCx gigs were played with this bandana and I don`t think that is a coincidence! This bandana was something special, no doubt about it!!! With the black bandana I played 17 Vaseline Children gigs (from 30th September 2006. to 07th July 2007.). This photo is from a show in "Monte Paradiso" club in Pula, Croatia on 02nd November 2006. This was a third year of a Anti-FA festival in Pula and we played first day but stayed whole weekend on festival and had a blast mostly hanging with our dearest friends from Rijeka! I must mention that this bandana also wasn`t mine, but from my sister Mirna (also known as HC Mirna, Mirnosica, Mirna Ubij Me! and she sang in Evazija) but she had other bandanas in the stock for herself so it was cool. Then later, Mirna gave this bandana to Kupa who sang for Mladina Kina and he wore this bandana on Vaseline Children/Mladina Kina - "Never Gonna Shut Up!" European tour in August of 2007. And I must say that when Kupa had this bandana, his performances with Mladina Kina were fuckin` furious and with that bandana MK had some of the best gigs, no shit!!! I think he wore this bandana later on Balkan tour in April/May 2008. and lost it somewhere in Serbia or Romania, I`m not sure... But I`m sure that today this black bandana is probably floathing high in the clouds of Transylvania waiting for another suitable person to fit in and to play and destroy! And yes, this photo is sooouuuuu hardcoreeee dude!!! :)
So, the third bandna! Since Kupa was using the black bandana at the time, again Mirna borrowed me this blue smaller bandana that was hers or her friends bandana, I`m not really sure. So, this bandana didn`t look nothing special or aything like that but it suited me just fine and with that bandana Vaseline Children played some preatty cool furious gigs and some fun gigs. With the third bandana I played only on Vaseline Children/Mladina Kina tour which happened from 17th August 2007. to 29th August 2007. and included 13 gigs/shows in Slovenia, Austria, Slovakia, Czech and Germany. This tour was some of the best times of our lives (both VC and MK) so I`ll remember this bandana with a smile on my face. This photo is from a gig in practice place of Nervous Breakdown guys in Munster, Germany on 25th August 2007. It was a weird show because very little people came and we played with two Italian gore grind bands that were just horrible and they were just you know, weird Italian dudes that are into gore grind, whatta fuck!?! As for the photo, actually, if you`re thinking that is me The Snake on the photo, you`re wrong! That is actually Arnold Swarceneger! He happened to be visiting Munster at the time (probably because of some government stuff, who knows?) and we met him while he was joging in his home made Black Flag shirt and we just asked him out of the blue: "Hey Arnie! Will you come to our show, we`re playing tonight with some creepy bastards from Italy and we would like to kick their asses!" He was like: "Yeah sure, hasta la vista baby!" We didn`t think that Arnie would really show up, but he did after all and we were so happy, escpecially when he kicked some butts of those weird Italian dudes, haha! So, during the VC gig, we invited him to play a Nervous Breakdown song from Black Flag with us and he immediately jumped (like in Commando!) and sat behind the drums and just kicked the fuckin` drums! We were all like, yeah, way to go Arnie!!! That was really cool!
And we finnaly came to the fourth and the last Vaseline Children bandana!!! (now imagine that sound from The Lord Of The Rings when the riders of Rohan are approaching and are getting ready to run over and smash the Orcs :)) The fourth bandana lasted in xVCx on 29 gigs/shows (from 22nd October 2007. to 20th September 2008. which was the last VC show!). This was first bandana that was really mine. I bought it (on flea market (Hrelić represent :)) for 5 kunas which is less than 1 euro!), I cherished it and I`m still having it and proudly wearing it being playing with bands, riding a bike or just randomly posing with the bandana. This bandana is same like that first one, a clasic blue Mike Muir bandana but this one is much better quality than that first. With this fourth bandana, Vaseline Children played some really cool gigs but then some also not that cool gigs (mostly some of our last shows on our European tour with Fx Px Ox in September 2008.) but still, this bandana suited me (and it still does!) really cool and as I`ve said, some awesome gigs were played with this bandana. And not just xVCx gigs but also gigs that I`ve played with Evazija, Leid, What They Fear, M & G and all gigs with Junk Messiah. I will probably continue to play with this bandana untill I fuckin` die, of course if I don`t loose it, heh. This photo is from a gig we played in "MC" Brežice, Slovenia on 08th March 2008. Also Evazija, Final Approach, Growing Rats and Mladina Kina played that night. It was suposed to be a fun hc/punk gathering but the show turned out almost into a few fights and there were a lot of tension in the air during the gig (especially when Evazija and Mladina Kina played). Well, some rednecks, metalheads and drunk mall punx were being stupid and violent in the pit and were shouting some sexist bullshit so some of us almost got in a few fights during the gig. Now, as I think about it, I regret that we didn`t kicked their asses in the end, but what a heck, it was interesting show after all, haha! And few more things about this photo. Look at the poster above me with some metalheads on it. One of them have Dimmu Borgir shirt, whatta fuck, how lame is that!?! If i knew that when I was playing this gig, I would like, tear this poster apart and with an evil look in my eyes and with a demon voice shout something like: "That is not true Norwegian black metal!" But even without that I was preatty much pissed on this gig. Oh, those sweet memories.
Well, that`s it! I hope you enjoyed reading the whole Vaseline Children bandana story. If you didn`t, then you`re not the die hard Vaseline Children fan and we don`t want you for xVCx army! And one more thing, what`s the deal with the Black Flag bars shirt on all the photos, i`m not really sure...
I am... The Snake
