Don't ever try driving in Paris. I managed to almost kill a few people...
We played Paris last night. It was a long drive from Wurzburg, Germany, along this highway that has toll booths all over it. We paid SO many tolls. The show itself was so so cool though, great crowd and it all sounded great. We played at this venue called 'Regines', which is 50 years old and was originally owned by this lady who 'invented clubbing in Paris'. It was a club night sort of a thing, but it was quite different to the NZ and Australian club nights we've played. For one thing, the people there weren't all really young. We've played in Melbourne and Auckland at these indie club nights where everyone is 18. It makes for a weird vibe. But this was different, a whole bunch of grown hipsters... really friendly crowd.
We played with a British band who were really friendly too. It was a shame we didn't get to see any local Parisian bands play, but we'll be back at the end of July after Midi Festival, so we might find a few.
There was a guy there taking pictures, and it turned out he used to live in Wellington, and play in Fur Patrol. Small world! Gonna go have a coffee with him later
The guys that ran the show put us up in a hotel in the middle of Paris, but we didn't have any time to check the city out. We'd only had 4 hours sleep the night before, and drove 6 hours... I've never felt as tired as I did last night. Between soundcheck and playing the show we went back to the hotel to have a rest and watch a bit of Dexter on the laptop. We fell asleep and when we woke up we were so incredibly tired and cranky that we kept trying to think up reasons not to go play the show. It all seems a bit stupid now. Hopefully I won't fall asleep at the wheel today! Got to drive to Kassel in Germany for another show. I think we've kind of over extended ourselves in these first few days... but it's so much fun!
Even just two shows in and I'm totally blown away with the hospitality we've received. Everyone we've talked to has been helpful and friendly, and the promoters have gone so far beyond what they need to do. And the crowds at both shows have been really great.
One thing I've noticed is that at both shows people clap for a very long time. Like, we finish playing and they clap and they keep going. I wonder if this is what happens all over Europe? A different culture of clapping. It puts my golf clap to shame!
We've got some big news, we're moving from Wellington, New Zealand to the Netherlands! We're actually on our way already, I'm sitting in LAX as I type, hooning their free net.
We're doing a 2 month tour starting tomorrow, about 40 dates in Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and France. That'll be the longest tour we've done by a looong way (we did 6 dates in Australia last year?), so it's our first proper tour I guess.
Johanna has a Dutch passport, her mum is Dutch. I've got a working visa. Johanna has a few reletives that we can stay with at first.
We're moving to The Netherlands to try and get a new perspective on everything. I love New Zealand, but I've been finding that lately I've started becoming quite cynical about a lot of stuff, particularly music things. So by dropping ourselves in the deep end I might be able to shake off those cynical feelings and get a new take on it all. Also, how much fun will it be to live in Europe? Lots!
We'll miss all our friends in NZ, and it'll be really sad not to have all the people that have supported us. But maybe that change is just what we need? Who knows!
We're going to update the blog really regularly with a tour diary, so add it to your reader or what have you and see a little bit of what it's like to tour through Europe :)
Oh and check out how LA uses celebrity rape to market themselves. Genius.
Like I was saying in the last post, we pretty much exclusively share bills with rock bands. You know, bands with drums kits and guitars. This show was a bit different. We were invited to play with Tourettes, who's this excellent poet, writer and rapper. Opening the show was Tommy Ill.
There were no drum kits, no guitars. In fact, the other two acts just used their mics and had DJs backing them. And it was lots of fun. There was a solid turnout, people were really into it. And not one person had that look on their face like "WHERE ARE THEIR GUITARS DID THEY EVEN HAVE TO REHEARSE TO PRODUCE THIS MUSIC". Am I getting bitter and twisted about that? I think I am. I really need to relax, haha!
Anyway, the next day Tourettes and his friends who performed with him came over to my place to record a few verses for a mix tape we're putting together. It was a spur of the moment thing, so they did a few verses of their own stuff, which we're putting into some of our reworked stuff for this free mixtape. Anyway, they were a real pleasure to work with, it was interesting and exciting, and we'll do some more stuff with them real soon!
So this is the second half of our little four date New Zealand tour that we did with Connan Mockasin. This time we were joined by Sir Liam Finn, of international Letterman and Jools Holland fame. He played guitar and sang with Connan in the band for both these dates.
The Wellington show was at Happy, which is this tiny little folky bar down a back street. I really like it there. Johanna and I felt for the first time on the tour that we were pretty badly mismatched with Connan at this show.. People were there to see people strum a guitar and sing a harmony. You know, that sort of musicianship. And there we were using laptops and such what. It actually went pretty well for us and we had fun, even though we felt that people weren't too interested. Perhaps we should stop playing with rock bands all the time? Perhaps the expectations of the kind of labor going on onstage are too different. Aaaanway, Connan was of course fantastic. In his Snat suit and all, made by the lovely Thaana!
A week later the local University magazine published a review that SLAMMED us mercilessly. This is just one in a series of really rough reviews from that magazine. At one point the reviewer expresses surprise and disgust over hearing us layer an acapella from one song over our own song. Which comes back to that whole expectations thing (as if a mashup is something remarkable??). Anyway, Johanna saw that reviewer in the street a while later and the girl looked away awkwardly. So.. there. Hmm
The Auckland show was the weekend after. We drove up to Auckland with Thaana, with all the other guys up there already or flying or something. When we got there we went around to Liam Finn's parent's house where people were hanging out. I'd never been there before, and it's really really impressive. Liam's dad is of course Niel Finn (of similar Letterman and Jools Holland fame), and he's turned their inner city house into this big recording complex. It's amazing. The guys from Wellington band Family Cactus were up there recording something or other at the studio, so we hung out with them and killed time surrounded by Crowded House labeled flight cases, Wurlitzers, Paul Mcartney's old bass guitar, sensual studio mood lighting and more things like that. Even the studio's kitchen sounded lovely.
For this Auckland show Lawrence Arabia was joining in Connan's band, along with Elroy Finn (Liam's brother). Opening the show was The Family Cactus, and Bear Cat played too. It was a cool show, there was an appreciative crowd there and everyone had fun. Connan's set was a huge party on stage, partly due to the fact that the stage is teensie tiny. But also because the combination of Liam Finn, Lawrence Arabia and Connan Mockasin along the front of the stage is dynomiiite!
So that's our little tour with Connan. It was great to get to know those guys, and to see Connan play a whole bunch. Keep an eye on him, next thing you know he too will be of Letterman and Jools Holland fame. I kind of miss him already..
We just got back from a really great trip down to the South Island to play a couple of shows with Connan Mockasin and his great band Ricky, Will and Dan. Plus Connan's good friend Joseph aka The Snat. We drove down in the van and ferry together, had lots of good times.
We had to get up at 5am on the first day to get down to the Ferry on time. The car was packed to the brim with Connan and Joseph squished into the back with a whole lot of equipment. Took the 7 hour trip down to Dunedin, lovely drive.
Turned up to the venue in Christchurch, The Dux, to find that our show hadn't been promoted at all and that it clashed with an overseas band. But the venue still gave us some really nice dinner, and we set up all our stuff and the what not. In the end we got about 30 people through the door which was enough to feel ok in the venue, but made for a very small and low key show. But the people that did come were into it, which was great. We stayed at Ricky's parents place, and it was niiiice. Got a great sleep, ready to leave early the next day for Dunedin.
By this time we could see no promo had been done for the South Island shows, so we called ahead to our friend Matt. Matt saved the day on this show, I'll tell you how. The venue we played at, Arc, is not set up properly for live music. Even though they say they are, they're not. When we turned up, all the gear from last night was still setup on stage with all the mics and leads still set up too. Bad start. The guy doing sound was a guy called Tim, who is apparently the resident sound guy. It was clear from the get go that he didn't know a whole lot about sound, and was possibly also a little bit slow. Connan and his band started setting up, using Arc's Dick Smith $15 mics. But the sound guy couldn't get the PA to sound ok. It was all distorted and awful. Half the speaker cabinets weren't even plugged in. Ricky asked Tim the sound guy whether maybe people from last night unplugged half the PA or something, and wanted to go ask the bar what had happened. But Tim the sound guy told us he did sound the night before and that he doesn't know whether stuff was plugged in or not... how could you not know?? He indicated multiple times that he didn't really know what he was talking about.
This is where it gets really bad/funny. We go to set up our stuff but there are no DIs. Lesson learned, travel with DIs. So we set up on the floor next to the mixing desk. This works really well actually. Also, there is only one mic stand in the whole venue, so our friend Matt comes through and brings some stuff in including a guitar amp, mixer, mic stand and mics. Thanks Matt!! So we're sound checking our gear and the PA is really quiet and super super distorted. You couldn't really hear any music. It was ridiculous. But eventually we get it sounding ok (read: still distorted and awful) and decide to start the set. There are like 100 people or something in the venue, thanks to Matt's last minute promotion efforts on student radio. We start playing but things are freaking out, all distorted, really full on unlistenable. But we struggle through, make the best, people are still into it. But Tim the soundguy just stands there drinking beer, not trying to fix it. So we get our friend Matt over to fix it up, and he does a good job. Tim the sound guy then tells our friend Matt to fuck off.
And then Tim the sound guy just walks out, in the middle of our set with poor sound. I've never seen anything like it. Ricky goes out to find him, and he's sitting out in a booth in the cafe part of the venue with his head in his hands. Ricky asks him if he's ok, but Tim the sound guy ignores Ricky. So we finish off our set, Matt helps out heaps and it ends up being workable. So Tim the sound guy comes back in to help set up for Connan Mockasin. But he seems incapable of patching a mic to the mixer and making it work. So Connan comes up to him and asks him what's happened. I mean, there are now more than 100 people there to watch the show. Tim the sound guy says he doesn't even want to be there. So Connan says that he can go. So off he walks into the night. Sound guy-less, I take up the role of sound guy and get the Mockasin's stuff going. The PA is so broken that only Connan's vocal mic can go through it, and even then it's distorting heaps.
Connan and the guys play a really great set, everyone's into it, it's an awesome show in the end after all the fiddling around. Everyone comes together to make it work out, especially our friend Matt. Awesome! Here are a few videos from it:
Also, here's a video of Matt, our friend who helped out so much. He was having a GREAT TIME:
On the same night in Dunedin the Little Bushman are playing over at a different venue. Connan and the guys are friends with them, so they call them up and Little Bushman offers Connan a slot playing after them. So we pack all the gear and drive across town to the other venue. There are lots of people there and Little Bushman are just finishing up. Connan sets up and they play a great set to a really appreciative crowd. Johanna and I get up on stage and have a play with them, and so does Warren from Little Bushman. Everyone has a really good time.
But that's not where the evening stops. Connan and his band decide to head off into the night to have a few drinks while Johanna and I go back to Matt's place to rest up for the 13 hour trip the next day. I text the address of where we're staying to Connan in case they need somewhere to sleep, but Connan says that they'll be able to sort it. Then we get this phone call at 5am from Connan. It turns out that they spent an hour wondering up and down the street looking for the place, and then when they found it they went into the upstairs flat. It was unlocked so they let themselves in. They crept through the house and found an empty room with a mattress and decided that was where they were meant to be. But then they had a look through the flat bills and couldn't find Matt's name. So they started getting worried. Then they heard someone stirring in the other room. Ricky peaks his head in to this stranger's bedroom to try and say hi, but at that exact moment Joseph aka The Snat lets a huge fart loose. The group explode into whispered laughter and have to run out of the flat in order to not wake anyone up. In the end they find the flat, get the keys off me, and decide the sleep in the van.
The last day was Connan's 26th Birthday. So we got him some pies and hotdogs. We spent 13 hours traveling home, talking crap in the car, debating the musical merits of backing tracks and all the rest. The ferry crossing on the way home was super intense, with huge swells. We all got a bit seasick so went up to the decks to pass the time. Here's what happened:
The trip ended up being a lot of fun. Will, Ricky, Dan, Joseph and Connan are all really great guys with lots of interesting things to say. Everyone pulled together and helped each other out in Dunedin, and turned a terrible show into an excellent show. Will even took us over to his friend's place to find a DI.
I was pretty nervous about playing in front of Connan and his band. These guys were all jazz school guys who were really into performing music really well on their instruments. While we use backing tracks and samples, a completely different logic of musical thingy thingy. But they all said nice things to us in the end, which was really great.
We've still to play a Wellington and Auckland show. I think Liam Finn will be joining us for these shows. Should be lots of fun. Will keep you posted!
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EDIT: As an after thought, to Arc's credit they did make us dinner for free which was really nice of them. And they made us free coffees in the morning when we came to pick up the gear which was super nice. But they need to sort out their sound stuff if they want to be a viable option for live bands. The space at Arc is really nice, but the gear is all broken and poor quality. And that in house sound guy was a joke. Not in a mean way, just in a 'hey man why don't you walk out on us mid set' kind of way.
A month or so ago we got this weird email from Sprite. You know, the soft drink? They wanted to include a song of ours in a ringtone website they were making. They were offering us no money. Here's what's wrong with this offer:
-They claimed it was a 'not for profit' thing, and that's why they weren't offering us any money. WTF? It had Sprite's brand name all over it. Do they think we're retarded?
-Which band in their right mind will associate themselves with the Coca Cola Company for no money? It doesn't make any sense
-Along with the email they sent us, they accidentally sent us some past correspondence they'd been having with other Sprite manager people. It read something like
Goon 1: "Haven't had much luck in the states or UK" Goon 2: "Don't worry, you can expect Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines to be paths of less resistance"
Dear Sprite, next time you ask us to associate ourselves with some random giant company, please offer us lots of money.
We had so much fun playing at Camp A Low Hum this year. We played in the forest, and I played a saxophone solo and I was pretty much this guy:
We tried out a few new versions of old songs, plus some new tunes. We did a couple of mashups which was new for us and was fun. People got dancing in the forest. Thanks so much to all our friends and everyone who came and saw us, we really really enjoyed ourselves :D We even played that Weezer cover, which came out ok in the end.
But man Camp was great. Particularly loved Bonaparte and The Show is the Rainbow. Awesome international stuff. Go see them sometime!
There's heaps of video and photo stuff of us playing so I'll get it up soon :)
