Archive Sunday #16

The Car Seat Boys head to the rest of France!

France has always been fun to tour in because food is such a high priority for the French. Every venue we went to we were fed like kings. Instead of crappy plastic-packaged goods from a grocery store we were fed home-cooked meals and fresh breads and cheeses. One notable night in Lille the green room had a kitchen and the promoter's chef friend came over to cook us a meal. It was an amazing chicken curry (they made a vegetarian version for Seth and the other vegetarians, including our vegan driver) with breads and cheeses on the side. This meal was especially memorable because our European driver flipped out at the French chefs because they apparently didn't make him enough food. He was a vegan body builder and required a lot of calories every day. The bowl of food came around to him and he started to dump the entire thing onto his plate. A few people mentioned that there were other vegetarians that needed to eat and he was upset because the entire bowl wasn't sufficient even just for him. Things got awkward... The show went OK.

SD: From Paris we headed to Saint Malo to play La Route du Rock festival. This was probably our first experience playing a show that was subsidized by the country's art program. This meant the accommodations and venue were a step up from what we were used to. They had some local cheeses and chocolate waiting for us in the greenroom that were a welcome sight after a long van ride. The large stage and bright lights took us a bit to get used to, but the show turned out well. Plus, I remember checking out Kevin Morby's set afterwards and really enjoying it.

Things mostly went back to normal in Besancon where we played in another venue-style festival, but this time in a location more our speed. Our set took place in a small art gallery space with glass ceilings, but the stage couldn't fit everything in our setup so we opted for putting a couple amps on the floor.

The following day we headed up north to Lille to play a venue called la Malterie. The hosts were super nice and made us a homemade dinner before the show in the upstairs greenroom. Then a little later we played the show in the basement venue for the evening crowd under the low ceilings that were arched upwards for extra support for the floors above.

I remember chatting with some locals with Andrew after the show.  Andrew mentioned being excited to visit the Netherlands again because Utrecht was his favorite European city so far, but the expression on their faces revealed they had no idea what we were talking about. A few minutes into describing everything we knew about the city, their face lit up and said "Oh, you mean Utrecht!" Turns out Andrew was just pronouncing it wrong the entire time haha.