Archive Sunday #52

   The day after the Porto show, we hopped on an early plane to Paris, France much to Ethan's dismay. There we were scheduled to meet up with a rented tour bus, so that we could travel long distances overnight while we slept. This would allow us to bridge the gap between spread-out festivals and venues and offset the extra cost with the added savings from hotel rooms. So we landed in Paris and went to arrivals to meet our bus driver. I remember it took us a second to meet up, but we eventually connected with Thomas our German bus driver who guided us to the correct parking lot. Thomas was quite a character who had recently retired from driving tanks in the military to driving tour buses in the summers to fund his laid-back life in Thailand.

   Right off the bat, we had about a 5 hour drive to the festival that afternoon in Saint Malo. So we all loaded in the bus and checked out the new digs on the journey. There were two main rules to follow. First off everyone had to sleep with our heads towards the back. That way if there was an accident, we would less likely to get seriously injured. The second was no one could shit on the bus. This was to prevent any unwelcome smells coming up from the septic tank that would only rarely get emptied. The front of the bus had a little lounge with a coffee station, small table, and a mini fridge. The middle section was full of sleeping bunks stacked three high, and the back had another small sofa lounge and a non functioning TV. We all collectively decided to use the back lounge to store most of our luggage, so we pretty much just threw our bags there. We took some time picking out our bunks, and I immediately regretted choosing one on the bottom. Mostly because when Andrew and Will noticed they had an empty bunk above, they realized they could make a "mega-bunk" by removing the divider between the two.

  So yeah, we got to la Route Du Rock pretty wiped from the long day of travel. But thankfully they had a nice artist area stocked with refreshments that we checked out after a short promo interview/photo. The catering was held in this old stone farmhouse and had some delicious french bread and cheeses that I definitely ate too much of. I remember randomly running in to my old bass instructor from Richmond in the artist area. Turns out he was playing with Foxygen on their European leg, so we chatted for a bit to catch up and reconnect. Shortly after, we headed to the stage for a quick line-check before the set. The show went well and I remember being stoked that we were able to enjoy the festival's built-in crowd especially for this unventured territory. Afterwards I caught Foxygen's set from sidestage. It was kinda awkward cause the singer striped down naked backstage for a costume change and got super mad when he realized the festival's camera guy was still filming. We also got to catch some of Thee Oh Sees and PJ Harvey before we had to be back on our bus for the night.

  The next day we woke up on the road heading towards Belgium. None of us really slept well, but at least it allowed us to catch the tail end of another festival. Pretty sure this is where we met back up with our merch person Kata. She was a great fit last time so it was great to have her back out. We set up everything on stage during the changeover and played our 50 minute set to a pretty jammed packed tent. It was definitely one of those festivals I wish we could have stayed longer at, but I do remember watching Death Grips with Andrew in the same tent later on. The mix was a bit washy with all the high-end bouncing off the tent, but the energy of the set was crazy. Afterwards we went back to the bus parked in a field behind one of the stages for the night. But I wish I would have just stayed out longer, because I couldn't fall asleep with the music still pumping dance music all around us haha.

  The bus headed out around 4 or 5 am towards the next festival in the Netherlands. This one was called Lowlands. It was a super cool spot with these massive colorful circus tents for each stage. There's nothing quite like an ice-cold shower from one of those portable foot-pump showers to wake you up after a bad night's sleep. But at least it gets your blood pumping haha. It was always a little adventure wandering out from the bus in a random field to try to find some breakfast in the morning especially when there was a language barrier. Sometimes we would accidentally just walk in to the stage-hand and staff catering, but they probably noticed how rough we looked and didn't have the heart to tell us. But yeah, the show in our giant tent went surprisingly well and had a really great atmosphere. I wandered around a bit with Andrew afterwards and caught most of Nicholas Jaar's set in one of the electronic tents.

  We woke up in a small parking lot in Dortmund, Germany the next morning. This time we were playing at a venue which was a nice change of pace. But it also meant that we had to wait till the early afternoon to get venue access so we could wash up and use the bathroom. I think I wandered around and found a grocery store to grab a snack and kill some time, but it was a welcome sight when the venue sound guy let us inside. They had tons of local beer waiting for us, as most German venues do, but we were more excited to try the soft pretzels and bread laid out. The show itself was way smaller than the festivals beforehand, but it cool to be back as the main headliner.

  The next day we drove into Hamburg, and I remember feeling so bad for Thomas as he weaved this giant bus through the narrow streets and did a 15 point turn to finally back it in close to the venue. We were playing a venue called Knust that was a noticeable step up from the last venue we played there. I remember my dutch friend Paul was in town for a bit, so he came out to hang out with us. The show was super fun, and it was cool to have the balcony add another level to the crowd. Our schedule said the bus was staying overnight at the venue, so we all went out for a bit afterwards. Andrew and Ethan went to a bar nearby and got to know some locals. Paul and I went wandering around the city to explore for an hour or two. I remember getting back to the bus pretty late and being so surprised when it started moving shortly after I got on. Apparently Thomas got a different schedule, but thank god everyone was actually onboard by the time we left haha.