OUR SCREAMING YOUTH

It took half an hour before anyone knew they had illegally crossed into Croatia, when the border police, humorless and armed to the teeth, caught up to them.

By then a confrontation erupted, with the most violent burst being between two band members on the far-back bench seat. The year was 2002, and the band was the legendary Pageninetynine. That tour would have taken them to 52 shows across a dozen countries in nine weeks. But after numerous setbacks, any one of which would have derailed a group with less grit, the band ultimately canceled their remaining dates in the U.K. and flew home, defeated, to Virginia from Wolfenbüttel, Germany.