Road Report: One for the Team Butcher the German Language

Minneapolis rockers One for the Team are touring Europe and keeping track of their travels for Spinner. In the first installment, frontman Ian Anderson has trouble speaking German while checking out bars, sculptures and architecture in Berlin and Bielefeld.

Thursday, July 2, 2009, Berlin

The first thing we all noticed when we landed in Berlin and started to interact with the locals was the unexpected warmth and kind humor we received from everyone we met. In the subsequent hours leading up to our television performance, I had never received so many thumbs-ups and "You Cool?" queries before.

Beyond that, I can't help but feel a bit silly when I do my best to stumble through a simple greeting in German. Rather than, "Hello, my name is Ian, how are you today?" it sends the message, "Hello, I clearly do not speak German, can you help me out?" Immediately, a German-speaking stranger will switch into perfect English and, well, at least I tried.

We landed and immediately hit the streets for some fun. Our booking agent, Alex, brought us down to the river for a quick picnic and we came across a great park with a giant slide and sculptures. We spent the evening roaming from bar to bar, but found this garden one to be particularly interesting with its large lawn sculptures that reminded us of all of some artist whose name escapes us. We spent most of our time at this bar piecing together German phrases and butchering each word our guides attempted to teach us.

Today, we caught a ride to Bielefeld to perform on a television show called 'Kanal 21,' and we also picked up our new van. We were very excited -- I thought we all looked like cats that discovered a new litter box in the house. Next to the television studio was an apartment building that had an entire rock climbing wall embedded into its face.

Tomorrow, the band recounts its first real shows of the tour.