Dirty Windshields - Ch 26 - I'm In Love With My Knife

In this final chapter, the Smugglers meet the ghosts of their future at a freezing arts collective in Switzerland: the rapidly rising garage rock 'n' roll band The Hives. 

NEW ZEALAND! The Land of the Long White Cloud! WE MADE IT!!! This was one of the Smugglers most exciting and fulfulling touring destinations in our many years on the road and in the air. Shows were packed, songs were shouted, Kiwi friends and lovers made. All this even though Beez barely made it into the country despite our endless internal crossing-borders training. 

The Smugglers embark on their first tour Down Under, supporting Oz punk legends the Hard-Ons, but all does not go to plan due to a series of calamities involving various Australian wildlife, both human and otherwise, culminating in the Smugglers suffering their first-ever robbery on the road. 

This chapter finally answers the oft-asked question: "Did any of the Smugglers ever get it on with any of the Donnas?" Also: the Smugglers make a triumphant return to Japan to begin their epic Pan-Pacific tour for "Rosie", infamously dubbed the "Pacific Rim Job Tour."

If you've ever wondered what it was like to tour with *The Donnas* aka the American Teenage Rock 'n' Roll Machine, this chapter is for YOU. It was wild! It was skintight! It was non-stop party action! It was all over the U.S.A.! WHOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! 

ROUGH PATCH! After years of slowly building up the Smugglers into something one might consider 'successful', the house of cards collapses when two members of the band quit. Upheaval at both Mint and Lookout Records doesn't help matters. 

Ever heard of Isny? Neither had the Smugglers! The band comes down from the huge crowds of Italy to going up up up into the Alps for an out-of-control show at a tiny ski chalet in Bavaria... if they can find the town.

The Smugglers arrive at the most remarkable, filthy, amazing, huge, and impossible venues the band ever played: Forte Prenestino, an apocalyptic castle-like socialist squat, on the edge of Rome. 

The Smugglers discover the smash 'em up demolition derby that is... Madrid during rush hour. Also, the band teams up with "Rock n Roll" Jimmy Garcia to help navigate Spanish clubs overflowing with elicit drugs and wild fans. 

The Smugglers head to the Continent for their "Selling the Sizzle" European tour with mixed feelings. Would this tour do as poorly as their first trip to Spain a few years earlier, or would their newfound association with Lookout Records save their collective touring asses?