Text by Riekus, most pics by Tom Roelofs:
On this day in 2013, we could cross another item off our bucket list, or two items, in fact: our first-ever nightliner tour with Propagandhi. That’s two dreams coming true in one sentence. While travelling in a hotel on wheels with a dedicated driver is nice, there are some challenges: the bus is basically a collection of bunk beds on wheels, and the beds themselves are about the size of a coffin. More often than not, you wake up not knowing where the hell you are, and the only way to find out is to check your text messages for “welcome to <insert country>” messages or to ask one of the drivers. There are upsides too: since the bus had room for 14 people, we were able to bring more crew than usual on this tour. Roos and Thomas both joined, and for the first part of the tour, our English friend Dave March joined as our sound engineer; on the second part, he was replaced by our photographer friend Tom Roelofs. Another upside: travelling overnight sometimes gives you a bit more time actually to go around and explore the cities you’re playing in.
The tour would begin with a festival in Sweden, where only Propagandhi and The Darkness would play. Our first show would be in Arendal, Norway. On the way to Scandinavia, we dropped off our van near Hamburg, boarded the nightliner with driver Helmut – or was it Wolfgang? – and picked up Propagandhi at Copenhagen Airport.
Both bands were perpetually hungry, so we stopped for some groceries first. When everybody had returned from the shop, we checked the score to see if we had missed any vegan treats. Chris Hannah, Propagandhi’s singer, had bought some bread, which, after translation, turned out to be part-baked. Willem always claims I made my best joke on that tour when I asked him, “So Chris, who will help you bake this bread?” (Take a look at Propagandhi’s How To Clean Everything album tracklist if that doesn’t make you laugh). Since we had some time to kill, we also visited Christiania, a famous autonomous area in downtown Copenhagen, a very inspiring place!
We were a little disappointed not to be booked for the first festival date in Sweden, but when we saw Propagandhi play to a seated audience – pre-COVID, mind you! – that disappointment quickly faded. Up in Norway, we witnessed the Midnight Sun in the northern city of Trondheim, alongside the impressive World War 2 Nazi U-boat bunker DORA I. In Gothenburg, we were joined by Inge Johansson (of Refused, The (International) Noise Conspiracy and later Against Me!) for drinks on the bus after the show. Living the rockstar life!
The show in Bochum was interesting. The venue sounded like an echo chamber, and the local crew assured us it made a great setting for tekno parties, not so much for a punk show. Despite Dave’s best efforts behind the desk, the sound was terrible, and I even remember stopping halfway through a song because I simply couldn’t hear what Willem and Glen were playing. There was also an incident with the promoter. Anyone who knows Propagandhi knows they hate capitalism, especially in the form of shows and festivals sponsored by big brands. They simply refuse to play shows at overly sponsored venues and festivals, and they are big enough a band to have this demand met. Imagine their surprise when someone came to the merch after the show to have their ticket signed, a ticket with a huge logo of an energy drink brand on it. I don’t think they’ve ever played that venue again.
In Paris, we once again witnessed Etjen’s genius. As it was the closest show to the Netherlands on this tour, he and Lisa Gritter of our Dutch record label at the time, Suburban Records, arranged a press day: they invited Dutch journalists on an all-inclusive bus trip to Paris to cover the show and the tour. Lisa, Etjen, and we set up our press camp somewhere outside the Petit Bain boat and spoke with the journalists about our experiences on this tour, our upcoming album, and so on. The result: a nice report in the largest Dutch music magazine, OOR, and another in the national newspaper, NRC.
In Marseille, we experienced another interesting side effect of travelling on a big bus: the infamous cross-load. Because the bus was too big to enter the city centre, the only way to get our gear, merch, and people to the show was to unload everything we needed from the bus into vans provided by the venue, then hook the trailer up to one of the vans, only to repeat the ritual the other way around in the middle of the night. Oh, lovely Marseille…
The tour ended with Propagandhi and us both playing Punk Rock Holiday in Slovenia, at one of the most beautiful festival sites I’ve ever seen, by the bright blue Soča river, looking out over the Julian Alps. It was our first visit to the festival, where we played the beach stage – right next to the aforementioned river – and had a great time hanging out on a day off, watching tons of our favourite bands and witnessing Todd Kowalski and tour manager Jason “Keebler” Colwill wrestle in the car park.
After Punk Rock Holiday, our ways parted: Propagandhi would fly out of Venice to play a couple more shows in Greece and Spain, we continued (in the nightliner on our own!) for one last show in München, and then home. All in all, the tour was a great new experience, and it was an honour to play alongside and see Propagandhi play each night! We have kept in touch since this tour and have played together on a couple of more occasions. One of my favourite Propagandhi memories is not even playing with them, though: when we played their home town, Winnipeg, in 2015, most of the band actually came to our show to catch up and hang out.
Jul 4 2013, Arendal, NO, Grand (no Antillectual)
Jul 5 2013, Trondheim, NO, Verkstedhallen
Jul 6 2013, Gothenburg, SE, Sticky Fingers
Jul 8 2013, Bochum, DE, Matrix
Jul 9 2013, Paris, FR, Petit Bain
Jul 10 2013, Toulouse, FR, Dynamo
Jul 11 2013, Marseille, FR, Molotov
Jul 13 2013, Tolmin, SI, Punk Rock Holiday
Jul 14 2013, München, DE, Backstage (no Propagandhi)
Mannheim
Nijmegen