Philadelphia Grand JuryRecently reunited cult heroes the Philadelphia Grand Jury have had a less-than-wonderful start to their stay in Berlin, where they arrived this weekend past with the intention to write and record their long-awaited second studio album, following their wildly successful Returns In November fundraising tour.
However, upon landing in the German capital after 28 hours in transit, members Simon "Berkfinger" Berckelman, Joel "MC Bad Genius" Beechson and Dan "W. Sweat" Williams discovered that they wouldn't be able to get down to business as quickly as they might have liked, with Berkfinger making the questionable decision to put his house/studio keys in his checked-in baggage — which was consequently misplaced by the time they arrived.
We made it to Berlin. Minor problem. Berkfinger’s bags all went missing en route and they contained his home/studio keys.
— Philly Jays (@phillyjays) November 17, 2014
The bags eventually turned up ("It was stupid and I learnt my lesson," Berkfinger explained in a comment on Facebook) and the Philly Jays have since posted pics of instruments and such - but the journey hasn't seemed to let up as far as minor misfortunes go, with the band's planned attempts at a casual afternoon bike ride also suffering setbacks. They did run into ex-Powderfinger frontman Bernard Fanning, though.
Bumped into @bernardfanning when our ill-fated attempts at afternoon rides were foiled by flat tyres & unhelpful bike stores w/faulty pumps.
— Philly Jays (@phillyjays) November 17, 2014
Berkfinger has been battling this bike for the last 3 hours. Only time will tell who has actually won.… http://t.co/BSc65uHfWD
— Philly Jays (@phillyjays) November 17, 2014
Finally, the band's catch-ups with Aussie expat and former triple j announcer Vijay Khurana couldn't quite be captured for posterity, despite their best efforts, for a kind citizen had all the good intentions, but none of the technological capability to pull it off.
On the plus side, they've got to be building up some kind of karmic credit rating that will see the rest of the indie-punk trio's Germanic stint start going a little more their way. Godspeed, Philly Jays!
