Antillectual

We are currently on our ‘tour of the Americas’, covering the USA, Canada and eventually Brazil. In this first tour report, Glen shares his experiences of his first ever visit to the States.

En route to Albany NY, a 24 hour trip from Nijmegen

As I am writing this we have reached day 5 of our tour in the USA. Anchors, our touring partners from Australia, are playing their set to a crowd in Worcester, Massachusetts. Later tonight, No Trigger will be playing a hometown show here in Ralph’s Diner. Needless to say, the upstairs venue is quite packed with people.

I’m not too sure how big a city Worcester is, as the sun was already down by the time we drove into town. Before the show we had a nice family dinner at Eric from Smartbomb’s parents’ place. They’re very hospitable people who live in a nice (to my understanding typically American) home on the outskirts of Worcester.

Anchors @ Ralphs Diner – Worcester, MA

Over dinner I had a conversation with Eric’s dad about how overwhelming the States have been to me, because I’ve never toured here before. This is Riekus’ 3rd USA tour and Willem’s 4th, so they obviously have more experience with the American culture than I have. At times I will just wander around like a kid in a candy store, trying to process all the new impressions. Like the cars people drive here, which are just huge! Or the all-you-can-eat diners, and even the 24/7 Wall Marts where i heard you are allowed to sleep in your car on the parking lot. At the same time a lot of things seem familiar, because we’ve apparently incorporated quite some aspects of American life into our own European lives.

Crossing the Canadian border, AKA ‘The end of America’

The first days of the tour have been better than we expected: the show in Montreal was well attended and a lot of people sang along to our songs. Quite surprising on our first Canadian show ever! It definitely made us think about doing a longer stretch of shows in Canada the next time we come over. The shows in Albany and Rochester also turned out nice, although Riekus and I have managed to slightly loose our voices already. I lost my voice due to being a little too keen, Riekus probably lost his to cheap cigarettes and beers.

We spent most of the last few nights at Will and Jimmy’s place, just outside Albany. Will plays bass for After the Fall, Jimmy plays bass in Will’s other band, Bad Friends. They live in a nice old house, I believe from the 1870’s and it’s all wood. That’s new to me: most European houses are all brick. All in all it’s a rare luxury on tour to have a ‘home’ for a few days in a row. And the surroundings are just straight up beautiful, with the fall setting in on woody upstate New York.

Outside Will & Jimmy’s house

For this tour we’ve arranged our own transport, because the After The Fall van only holds 2 bands. Our rental Chrysler minivan is nice and spacious for our baggage and the 4 of us: Willem, Riekus, Glen, and our Scottish friend Mark McCabe, who is travelling with us. He’s playing Fest too, and he decided to tag along, playing his acoustic songs in between sets whenever he can.

That will be all for the time being. Tomorrow we leave for two shows in New York City: ABC No Rio in Manhattan and The Place in Brooklyn. I can’t wait!