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Archive Sunday #40

Added 2024-03-17 13:00:08 +0000 UTC

We finished the month off with a few days in the studio to record more of Twin Fantasy (Face to Face). Pretty sure we worked on High to Death and Famous Prophets during our time there, along with some pieces of other stuff. We went back to the familiar studio where we knocked out most of Teens of Denial and met back up with Adam Stilson from Chicago to help with engineering and production. I remember at the time the studio was always on the verge of closing down to be redeveloped into condos or something, but somehow is still kicking to this day. Funny enough, I think Ethan is back there right now working on the next Toy Bastard project.

The next week or so we headed to New Orleans for our first time to play a festival called BUKU Music and Arts Project. It was partially taking place in these huge warehouses that were used to store upcoming Mardi Gras floats. We had an early afternoon set that made it possible to explore everything later on. I remember being surprised we were included in the lineup with mostly hip hop and and dance music, but it was cool to check out some of the stuff after us like Big Wild and Zed's Dead once it was dark enough for all the lights and visuals to start. I'm still kicking myself for not seeing Sophie's set, but I guess we were packing up and loading out.

Just a few days later we were starting another European run, so I'm pretty sure Will took the opportunity to visit family in Virginia on the way. The rest of us met back up with him in DC a couple days later on the way out to Amsterdam. We were slotted to play the Paradiso again and were super excited to headline the main room. Our first day was pretty chill as we adjusted to the new timezone. First we met back up with Luc and went to the warehouse to grab the backline, merch, and van. Then we went back to the old hotel we were staying at to rest and were introduced to Dutch toilet shelves for the first time. They still kinda confuse me, but it's cool they have their own style. Luc told us Amsterdam gets an unusual amount of sloppy shows, mostly due to the fact their super cheap airport influences bands to either start or end tours there. Hopefully that wasn't the case with us, but even with an extra day to adjust most of us were still pretty jet-lagged. Luckily once we get on stage the excitement and adrenaline kicks in, and the crowd seemed super into it.

From there we headed west to Belgium to play Le Botanique in Brussels. This was probably the first run that we actually had a dedicated merch seller. We met Kata through our booker, and were super relieved we wouldn't have to deal with different currencies/languages and credit card systems (since ours never really worked abroad.) But it was awesome to be back at Le Botanique especially when we were billed for the bigger upstairs room. We also had more time to chat with TRAAMS out of Sussex that were supporting most of the run. The show went over super well and their hospitality is always great.

The next day we drove to Germany to play Gebaude 9 in Cologne. It was a cool little industrial venue that ended up being super fun. I remember trying a version of Something Soon with this old slicer pedal I had. In theory it should have been sweet, but the less than ideal monitoring situation made it hard for Andrew to follow the tempo. But hey, it was worth a shot.

Berlin was our next stop. And I was super surprised when the venue turned out to be a nightclub I recognized from our last visit that was pumping music till at least 6am. We definitely weren't their usual act, but it was a cool space with several rooms and a devoted crowd. It was a great night, and always easy to find late night food nearby.

We had to make our way south from there, so we decided to try out a market we never checked out before on our way. So we played this really nice venue in a the relatively small city of Schorndorf called Manafaktur. The food at the attached restaurant was amazing and I still remember the goat cheese salad they made. The venue seemed to get a kind of built-in crowd that probably had never heard of us. But we gave them a taste of what we offered and they seemed really receptive to it.

All the way down towards the southern end of Germany, we finally made it to Munich or what they call Munchen. There we played at this upstairs venue called Feierwerk. I remember the venue being a little isolated, so we mostly just hung out with TRAAMS in the green room. They were super nice and great to be around. The show wasn't huge, but it was a great time especially considering it was probably the entire audience's introduction to the band. I'm realizing now that we used this tour to venture out into some unfamiliar territory since it wasn't too long from our last European run. But something about exploring new areas and trying to win over the mostly built-in crowds makes it super rewarding when they start getting into it.