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Archive Sunday #22

Added 2023-11-12 17:00:05 +0000 UTC

SD: So straight from the East Coast, we flew to Amsterdam with a layover in Dublin. We must have been worried about losing money on another Europe tour, cause we opted for the heavily discounted flight with a 10 hour layover in Dublin's airport. Needless to say it was kinda miserable. I remember for the first few hours we scoped the airport for the best place to lay down, but the best available option were these circular padded cubby holes that we all deemed way less comfortable than they looked haha. I don't think we managed to get any sleep, but we finally boarded the next flight without going off the deep end.

We met up with our sound engineer Luke at his flat in Amsterdam. They had a room full of bunk beds usually reserved for the performers of their independent music venue called Occii, but since they weren't booked for the next couple days they graciously let us crash there. The next day we picked up the rental equipment from the warehouse and brought it to Occii to test it out. After Luke did a quick soldering job to the spring reverb on Will's amp, everything was set and dialed in. Next Luke brought us down the road to check out his workshop while he grabbed some cables that we would need. He showed us an all-tube Ampeg Svt he was fixing up and some other weird electronic projects he had laying around. It totally makes since he makes guitar pedals now.

Our first show was at the Paradiso again, but this time we were in the bigger room. It was such a treat to play there with a packed room even if a lot of the people were there for the other bands on the bill. The next day we drove to Ghent, Belgium where we played a festival under the bridge of a massive highway by the river. The whole festival kinda looked like a skate-park, and the fact that our stage was fully-enclosed in concrete meant the sound was pretty unwieldy. We made the most of it though. That night we all went out to grab some Belgium beer, and it was probably the best I ever had.

We woke up early to head west to Paris, but the bad weather and traffic still put us a little behind getting to the venue. When we got there we met up with the film crew with La Blogoteque as we were loading in. They had this idea for us to play one of their impromptu shows on one the morning ferries into town, so the other three guys grabbed guitars and a snare to head off. We didn't really have any way to amplify a bass, so I offered to stay and help Luke set up for the show. From what I've heard it didn't go well haha. The ferry was full of commuters headed to work, and the ferry conductor quickly put an end to it before they even finished the first song haha. Unfortunately there wasn't time to scout another location, so they had to scrap it in order to get back in time for a soundcheck. The show was great though!

Next up we went to Lyon, France where after we backed the van into a pole we loaded in to the next venue. But this time, the venue was on a boat! We boarded with all our gear and carefully lowered everything the through the tight staircase. It was such a trip having everything slightly swaying back and forth on stage. It was a great experience and a super fun show, but after waiting 40 minutes to use the one bathroom I guess I realize why boat venues aren't much of a thing.

From there we had a long drive down to Barcelona to play one of our favorite festivals, Primavera. Our spirits gradually got better and better as the weather got warmer and sunnier. The festival set us up in a nice hotel, and we sound-checked in the morning before the crowds arrived. Everyone working the festival was top-notch and they even had several engineers helping us get our monitors just right. We played to our biggest crowd yet, and had a great day eating as much catering as we could get our hands on between several interviews that were scheduled. I remember catching a few shows including Empress Of, Tame Impala, and Lcd Soundsystem, but unfortunately we couldn't stick around for more because the next day was stacked with even more.