Antillectual

Finally it’s here! Our adventures on the road when we went to the UK, The Netherlands, Belgium and France a month ago. Read this tour report and it feels like you were there with us!

ANTILLECTUAL – TOUR REPORT – APRIL & MAY 2010

Ever heard of a band called High Five Drive from Canada? We did! These guys were aboot to tour Europe and kind enough to ask us to do a part of their tour together with us. It was supposed to be the last 8 dates of the tour, but a last minute addition to the MacBeth stage at the Groezrock festival in Belgium made it 9 days for both us and H5D. This year’s Groezrock had amazing bands on the bill like Face To Face, Bad Religion, Strike Anywhere, Sum 41, 88 Fingers Louie, Static Radio, The Bronx and a million more awesome bands. We all left for Groezrock on Friday and would hook up with H5D on Saturday. The travelparty consists of 9 people. The Canadian part we’re talking aboot are Greg, Marty, Steve the bassplayer, Steve the drummer and Randy. We are as usual Willem, Riekus and me. We brought our buddy Boris from This Routine Is Hell, to drink our beers and drive us safely on the wrong side of the road.

Friday the 23rd of April

Boris, Willem and Riekus took the van together with some Tarrels to Meerhout, while I was travelling with the Breda party crew. After arriving at Groezrock, we set up a tent at the camping and went to see great shows by Banner Pilot and Face To Face. Too bad the crowd at the Face To Face show was more looking for a fight than enjoying one of my favourite bands. Guess they needed some action after the Agnostic Front show was over. Anyway, Face To Face gave a brilliant show! Lucky for him, Riekus managed to snag a backstage pass and watched them from the side of the stage. Asshole! Back on the camping it turned out to be extremely cold. Ofcourse I forgot my jacket, good job! Drank a few beers and went to sleep early. Tomorrow the first show of the tour would take place.

Saturday the 24th of April @ Groezrock, Meerhout, Belgium.

Waking up was not that hard. Still a lot of drunk people screaming and after an arctic night the sun made the tent as hot as hell. I got up and walked to the van to get our equipment to the festival. Next to our little stage I heard a band play Gangster’s Paradise by Coolio. Must have been the worst cover ever. Even worse than the Final Countdown that’s on Youtube. Anyway, we played a short set containing some old and new songs and people seemed to enjoy. I was trying to show my football skills on stage and I kicked the monitor, which resulted in walking like a crippled for the rest of the day. After our show I’ve been watching awesome shows by Strike Anywhere and The Bronx. Sum 41 was a bit dissapointing and I missed 88 Fingers and Static Radio while paying a visit to the first aid. Got some bruised bones in my foot. Good start of the tour. While I was watching Sum 41, I missed High Five Drive, but I would get enough chances the next few days. Without watching bands like Bad Religion and Pennywise, I went to bed. Giving my foot some rest and trying to get some sleep. The next day we had to leave at 9 AM to catch the ferry to the UK.

(picture by imagehunters.eu)

Sunday the 25th of April @ Ryan’s Bar, London, UK

We were told that PJ Bond (unfortunately J is not for James) needed a ride to the UK, so we decided he could join us. He turned out to be a real nice guy who had been travelling around the globe for more than a year: from the USA to the UK, to India, mainland Europe and now on his way to the UK and back home, he played shows with his acoustic guitar where he could. Together we went to the house of Greg, the promoter of the show. Greg and his girlfriend cooked us wonderful food. Tonight we played with Apologies, I Have None, an awesome band that really reminded me of old Against Me! Me like! Really last minute, PJ Bond was added to the show too. Despite some tuning problems, PJ played some nice songs. It was nice to hear the man sing, who was in our van the whole day. Today was my first chance to see High Five Drive live. Man did they rock! I was really impressed by their playing skills and the way they tore up the place.
The next morning, a couple of us went shopping for breakfast. A real English one! We got baked beans, vegan hashbrowns and Linda McCartney vegan sausages. They were the best I ever had!

Monday the 26th of April @ The Swan With The Two Necks, Macclesfield, UK

Tonight, the show was set up by Dave from Winnipeg, who turned out to be native English and had never been in Winnipeg before. Alright! We entered the bar and set up our gear. Tonight we played with Dave’s band, The Shuffle. They played a really nice set of punkrock! We were up next and H5D played last. We decided to change the headliner each night and today was their turn. After the show we got a crate of beer from the bar, which was really appreciated! Too bad I had to drive. We discovered the bar had an online stream juebox that actually had some of our records. That was kinda strange. Anyway, we heard enough of ourselves, so Boris and I decided that Bon Jovi was worth a quid. We gave love a bad name!
Tonights sleepingplace was at Claire, who lived in a mountain village nearby. The nice drive uphill resulted in a beautiful view the next day. We spent the night having some drinks, getting lost in the big house and by the time I went to sleep, people started watching a movie I can’t remember. When I woke up, the movie was turned on again. We thought it was time to leave, so we loaded the van and took off. Next stop: Lincoln.

Tuesday the 27th of April @ The Library Bar, Lincoln

Last year, a show of my old band in Lincoln got cancelled a day before departure to the UK, so I was kinda anxious, but I know that Matt from The Living Daylights did our show today, a real nice guy! I saw Matt at Groezrock, but we didn’t have the time to chat, so we could catch up a little bit this time. The first two bands played some good rock and punrocktunes, but I forgot their names, sorry! During our set, there were some people singing along, that’s always nice! At the show, all the guys in The Living Daylights were there and it was good to see them again. Sam, their old singer had his birthday, which resulted in a drunk Sam and friends, which resulted in massive human piramides and licking beer off the floor. Strange guys, those English.
We decided to skip the after party and left for Matt’s house. Matt gave us some toast and some whiskey. Yeah! When the High Five Drive guys arrived after their visit to a bar, we all went to sleep. The next morning we woke up to the sound of The Living Daylights preparing for their rehearsal in Matt’s house. We could see and hear their new bassplayer/singer and their new songs. They really blew me away. Looking forward to the new record. After some breakfast and coffee we left for Manchester.

Wednesday the 28th of April @ Retro Bar, Manchester

We arrived in Manchester at the Retro Bar. I was hoping for a place like “Derrick”, the ’70’s, ’80’s and ’90’s disco I always go to in my home town. This place was different, but a nice venue in the basement. Tonight was my turn to drive again, so I drank some orange juices. While we were playing Raisedfistfuckyou, our anthem aboot homophobia, I was screaming from the top of my lungs and suddenly Dave from Winnipeg ran to me and started kissing me. Think I was so in shock that I didn’t hit any right notes anymore. I must admit he’s a great kisser though! Luckily for us, it turned out we were sleeping at Dave’s place in the worst neighbourhood of Manchester. We parked the van safe behind the guarded gates of a students appartment. We hung out at Dave’s place with Claire and Adam and James from Leagues Apart. These guys told us some good things to piss off Jordy, the promoter of tomorrow’s show in Peterborough.

Thursday the 29th of April @ Club Revolution, Peterborough

We arrived in Peterborough pretty late. Two reasons: the weather started to be English for the first time, raining like hell. The second: Marty Five Drive forgot his laptop, so we had to pick it up before we left Manchester. The show tonight had Andrew on the bill, a singer songwriter who sounded really good! The Alkaline Trio cover was a nice surprise. Next up was Sammy’s Fatal Mistake, the band of Jordy, the promoter. During our show I called Jordy a Newcastle United supporter, which resulted in some angry on stage phonecalls to Adam of Leagues Apart. I also mentioned his love for Sonic Boom Six which resulted in me being told to sleep outside that night. Fortunately we discovered we both loved “I’m Alan Partridge”, so I was allowed to sleep inside again. After our last UK show this tour, High Five Drive ripped again on their last UK show as well. During the show, I met Jonesy again, supporting the good cause for Sea Shepherd. We all went to Jordy’s place, had some drinks and watched an episode of Alan Patrridge. We didn’t get much sleep, the next morning we had to catch the ferry and drive through 4 countries on our way to Naaldwijk, The Netherlands.

Friday the 30th of April @ De Flaat, Naaldwijk

We woke up damn early and drove off. On our way to Dover, I decided to play Dookie by Green Day. Boris didn’t recognize it and when we told him what it was, he showed his disappreciation. Klootzak! On the ferry, we ended up in a bumpy boatride. I was hoping for an iceberg, but with no Kate Winslet around, it wouldn’t make sense.
When we arrived in Naaldwijk, we headed for the pizzeria, first pizza on tour! Unfortuantely we missed the first band, but when we came back, Sweet Empire just kicked off for their set of punkrock. These guys are getting better and better! After them it was up to Drunktank, with their skatepunk with some metal riffs. Same goes for these guys: better and better each time. Think we played a decent set and after us, High Five Drive nailed it again. This time they played an encore, The Trooper by Maiden, yeah!\m/
After the show, we drove to Breda instead of partying with the Drunktank and H5D guys. After a nice breakfast and a sweet kiss goodbye, we continued our tour. Next stop: Oostende.

Saturday the 1st of May @ OHK, Oostende

Oostende, home of Just Lick Your Mom. Last time I played Oostende, everything smelled like fish. This time was better! On tonight’s show was Go Rampage from Germany. I saw these guys in Utrecht before and I must say I was quite impressed by them. We played second and there were people singing and screaming along to our songs. It’s always nice when that happens! High Five Drive soundchecked with some of our songs, even from our new record that is not out yet. WTF? Guess Steve-O could play “Every Combat Is A Mortal Combat” better than me…
Hanging out at the merch after the show resulted in conversations in West-Flemmish aboot football. I sneaked out and left Boris with the Belgian guy. When we took off, we went to Casa Lick Your Mom, were Maureen gave us vegan paaseitjes and gave me a vegan Cornetto. Like! We found out that Etjen and Maureen’s dog is called “Parking prohibited” in Welsh. Good name for a dog. When we woke up, Etjen was already home from driving other bands around and it was nice to see him again. We left Etjen and Maureen and drove off to the last show of our tour in Le Havre, France, where I would finally meet the people behind the long awaited no-pants-party!

Sunday the 2nd of May @ MacDaid’s, Le Havre

When we arrived in Le Havre, the Canadians were already there. We got some help with unloading the van from them, Bertrand and the Rude Boys, the opening band of the evening. They played some nice punkrock and I especially liked their cover of American Jesus by Bad Religion with the drummers father on vocals. He had his birthday and this was a nice present! We decided to play second, bcause it was H5D’s last show in Europe. A lot of people came out to the show on a Sunday, awesome! People seemed to enjoy our set and luckily everybody stuck around for H5D, who played an amazing set again. Best part was some Canadian guys screaming along to our The Dog Ate It and some of us scream along to their Vengeance Theme. Bertrand bought a bottle of whisky and we collectively drank it, sharing the love with H5D on stage. Think that was a good start for the rest of the evening.

We all went to Bertrand’s place where we would spend the night. During the no-pants-party (I finally attended one) Riekus got married to Greg and changed his name to Riekus Rekus. After some good kissing (who wouldn’t want to kiss that moustache!) and one hell of a good party, I went to sleep. The next day we woke up pretty early, woke up the others who were still in some kind of a coma, said Bertrand ‘au revoir’ and left for Paris, Charles de Gaulle airport. Seeing the terminals multiple times, we dropped off Greg, Steve-O, Marty, Steve and Randy. Too bad we had to part in a few seconds but we continued our way home with our van and their car. The toll free way took us a few weeks to get home, but finally we made it. We had a full blast of a tour together with those wonderful guys. Seriously, I would do it again tomorrow if I had the chance.

Thanks go out to everyone involved in booking this tour, especially Joe Peter and all promoters. We also thank Randy and the H5D boys and of course Boris “Kankerband” Tarrel for driving us around, selling our merch and drinking our beer. You’re a sweetie!

Tom