Let me start off by saying I’m eating some ketchup chips, and they are, surprisingly, not that bad.
Sadly I’ve been lax on the picture front. These are Guzy’s snapshots of this mini-tour we are on. I’m afraid he has none from the Rough Trade conference in Dortmund, which was like a wedding tent. Only men, and none from what I would call one of our most memorable concerts, at Lido in Berlin. Why so memorable, you ask? Well aside from the fact that it took four hours to sound check because of a blown-out speaker that couldn’t be replaced (we thusly had to use just 75% of the system, which was imbalanced highs to the right hand side of the venue), within one minute of our set, our power step down converter came loose and we lost power! I was mortified. Luckily all it takes it just a quick replugging and all is swell. But wait, it seems right as this happened, T also broke a bass string, which is a nightmare to change. Dan and I were suddenly left having to entertain the audience while T ran off stage to fix his string. A few weeks earlier, in a semi drunken late night moment, Dan and I sort of worked out a cover of my favorite band ever (whom I already blogged about)–Hot Chip’s “Boy From School.” There were forgotten lyrics and a bit of confusion, but all in all people really liked it. Berlin was a very sweet crowd. So then suddenly we were back up and going, and within thirty seconds of starting again, the coverter went off again!!!!! MORTIFIED.
We triple duct taped it, and all went on smoothly. Just a strange way to start the set. Lucky for us the crowd was great and really loving it. Phew!
Ok, on to pictures. The guys at Rough Trade Belgium are the nicest people ever. They had a full day of promo and a nice lunch lined up; everything ran extra smoothly in Brussels. Here’s the lobby of their building, which is really the Sony BMG building in which they have a small office on the ground floor. This is us doing some interview; I’m not sure with whom. We managed to grab some JT “SexyBack” stuff from the major label honchos in Belgium, which I WOULD post, but the last time I posted a jam (Nelly Furtado), it fucked our bandiwidth and server, so now I have to post things that 95% of the world doesn’t want to download. So with that, how about my new favorite song ever “Young Folks,” by Peter Bjorn and John, which I already guest-blogged about at IGIF.
Peter Bjork and John – Young Folks
This song rules me and shall rule you. The whole band is in agreement that is rules. Let the ruling begin.
This is also Brussels. We did an acoustic session for national radio Studio Brussels.
This is from our show with Radiohead. PSYCH! Just kidding, but wouldn’t that be fun? Our manager Guzy is obsessed with Radiohead and Thom Yorke, and since these are all his pictures, I suppose I should include just one of his thirty pictures from the Radiohead concert he saw in Paris (he then went the next day to Amsterdam to see him again).
Guzy says someday we’ll be as big as Radiohead. Then he laughs in our faces. Sigh. Here’s a Radiohead song–but which to choose? Let’s let Guzy pick it. Guzy’s favorite Radiohead song is . . .
Radiohead – How I Made My Millions
Our concert in Brussels was a free concert in a park, and we played on a gazebo to about 1,000 people, which was really exciting. The sound was great, the food was amazing, the spirits ever-flowing. A good time. From behind.
From the front.
This is Fat Cat artist Tom Brosseau, who opened for us and is also playing with us again in Paris and Brighton. He’s wonderful. Here’s a great track of his.
Tom Brosseau – How to Grow a Woman from the Ground
And with Belgium comes Nessie. And with Nessie comes joy and bliss. Us on the gazebo.
And last but not least, here are two wild girls. The one on the left is the sister of TOURRRR Amelia!!! Amelia rules and is doing a design for our new tote bag merch item. Yes, that’s right. We are branching out in the last of merch to totes. Please, simmer down; I know you can’t believe how exciting this is. Amelia’s sister is equally sesh, and she was in Brussels and came to the show. Helloooo, Eleanor!
And standing to Eleanor’s left (your right) is Caz, our lovely sound girl, who is asleep right next to me now in the van as we steadily plow through rural France and face various areas that smell like either horse or pig shit.
I’d like to end this post with this picture of Bear and Dan just relaxing. We haven’t had much time to relax, but we will soon, once we get home on the 10th of September. I think we’ll all fall into a deep sleep for two weeks and re-emerge for our Bowery show. Then we trek across the States with TV on the Radio. I have some more pictures of Amsterdam’s photoshoot and a day about town for posting in the next couple days. Until then.
