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Archive Sunday #65

Added 2024-09-08 16:00:15 +0000 UTC

After a week or two off from the previous tour, we were excited to play a couple of hometown shows at a familiar venue. We got booked for two consecutive nights at the Showbox Market, which also happened to be one of the venues I occasionally picked up shifts at between tours. It was at a time when the venue's future was in jeopardy, because developers were planning on tearing it down for some new condos. But a big portion of the Seattle community was doing everything they could to keep it around. We decided to work with an artist and come up with an event-specific t-shirt and poster for the shows that highlighted the venue's unique architecture and donated the proceeds to support their efforts. I'm not sure how much it helped, but ultimately the developers backed down when faced the overwhelming support backing the venue, and the Showbox is still one of the best venues putting on shows in Seattle.

I remember we played a couple of new covers, Hey Ya by Outkast and Bullet With Butterfly Wings by the Smashing Pumpkins, to keep the sets a bit different between our Twin Fantasy heavy lineup. Both shows went over really well, and it was super fulfilling to play the stage after working/attending a bunch of shows there. I definitely made sure we left the green room as nice as we found it, because I knew firsthand that having to clean it after a long shift could be a huge bummer haha.

Starting in the beginning of November, we flew out to Europe for another tour. This time it started in Paris where we were set to play the Pitchfork festival there. I remember meeting the guys at the Paris airport because I got a separate flight to visit family on the way. The festival was held at this giant building called Grande Halle de Villette, but we used most of our first day there to get acclimated to the time difference. We played our afternoon set the next day which went pretty well, but we probably could have benefited from additional rest beforehand. I remember checking out a few acts afterward including Blood Orange and Kaytranada, but I was a little bummed I couldn't catch Panda Bear.

The next morning we had a short drive north up to Amiens which is a small city only a couple hours away. We played this cool venue called La Lune Des Pirates that had this tiered section in the back to elevate part of the audience. It was one of those times that once we loaded everything in front of the stage, it pretty much filled the entire venue. But we made it work by cramming together as closely as possible on stage and then storing all the empty cases back in the van. I remember we all grabbed dinner before the show at a small restaurant down the street, and Bas who was driving the Naked Giants van told us he didn't like the orange carrots because they were cross-bred in order to match the national Dutch color but didn't mind the purple and yellows ones haha. The show later was super fun and we did this long intro into Cosmic Hero to start the set.

The following morning we woke up early for a travel day to the UK. We took the Chunnel under the English Channel and then drove an hour or two towards the west coast of Great Britain. We arrived in Cardiff the next afternoon and loaded in to this neat venue called the Tramshed. I remember the crowd was particularly rowdy which was kinda surprising for it being the middle of the week. It was a great night, and I think that particular take of Cosmic Hero ended up on the Commit Yourself Completely live album we put out in 2019.

Next up we had our first show in Nottingham which was where our tour manager Luke was from. We played this classic rock venue called Rock City that reminded me of a bunch of places we've played in the States. The show definitely wasn't as energetic as the night before, but we had a great introduction to the city and had loads of fun. From there we went back to more familiar territory and drove down to Manchester. This time we played the historic Albert Hall which looked magnificent in the daylight with the sun pouring in from the tall windows on both sides, as well as the skylights above. In the center behind the stage sat these huge pipes from an old church organ. I remember the old rounded wooden stage scared me a bit because at around eight feet tall it seemed like it would be pretty easy to take a wrong step in the dark. But we made it through without any injuries, and played and excellent show thanks to the highly receptive crowd!

For our last show in the UK, we saved the biggest for last. We played the O2 Kentish Forum once again, but this time with our expanded lineup. It's always nice going back to a venue because you see a bunch of familiar faces and don't have to relearn where everything is for a change. For some reason I remember when we were setting up the stagehands were chatting and asked Henry if he had a favorite London soccer team. Henry said, "I guess I'd say Arsenal because they had that player named Henry" not knowing it was pronounced differently in French. It took them a second but they quickly realized who he was talking about and laughed haha. It ended up being a great show, and the room sounded amazing as always. I'd say I even enjoyed it more than our last London show at the Roundhouse, but maybe that's because I was so used to having a great time there.