Antillectual

Written by Willem – Last week we did our first tour through Turkey. We were over for 5 days, did 4 shows, in 3 cities: Izmir, Ankara and Istanbul twice. We had never been to Turkey before and were really excited to visit the most Arab/Middle Eastern influenced country we visited to date. It’s a cliche to say that in Turkey east and west meet, but we were really curious how this mix would translate to the punk scene, with its usually western focus. Despite the fact that not many punk bands from Turkey make it over to Europe, just like Turkish city life, the punk scene is relying on European/North American influences like bands, music, merchandise, etc. Nonetheless a lot of local bands sing in Turkish and they seem to include non-western influences like ska and reggae as well.

Of course, touring Turkey is not like touring Europe or North America. Especially compared to Europe there’s less touring infrastructure in Turkey. Venues are usually local bars with a small PA and just like when we toured South America, Russia and Japan, the venues provided the backlines. Meaning guitarists and bass players mostly get to play transistor combo amps and drummers get to play cymbals and drums slightly or brutally abused by drummers before them. When arriving at the venue, you never know what you’re gonna get. But I’m quite happy with the skills I grew to create a decent sound from a 30 watt transistor Crate amp. Fine tuning has become a new form of art for me.

Photo by Stormlit

The Turkish scene is surprisingly young, which is awesome to see! The audiences we played for, the bands we played with and the people in the organizations that booked our shows ranged from ages 17-30, on average definitely younger than what we’re used to. Resulting in dancing, movement and sing-alongs at every show, during the whole set. Despite being a partly Islamic country the amount of girls at the shows was higher than expected. It’s too bad we didn’t play with any bands with female members and some of the mosh pits and the dancing were rougher than you’d like to see at an inclusive show. But that happens all over the world unfortunately. The other bands we played with varied in styles a lot, from raging metal/hardcore to the expected skate punk rock sound to more grunge and stoner sounding bands. It’s nice to play mixed line-ups when they work out well, and they did!

Photo by Stormlit

What struck me most about the country in general was the huge variation and inequality between people living in rural areas and the city populations. Where the cities felt pretty European when it comes to modernity and wealth, the outbacks featured a lot of poverty and seemingly ruined houses. As you do on tour, we saw a lot of highways, which in Turkey means you will see a lot of people hitchhiking (and not only young alternative people), people riding their bikes on the highway, and traffic lights popping up out of nowhere. Many sheep and shepherds are making their way through the beautiful landscapes next to the road. It occurred to me that the roads follow the slopes of the landscape, where in North-Western Europe bridges and tunnels even out the highest peaks and deepest valleys. Funny trivia: renting a van without a driver is more expensive than with one included.

Photo by Stormlit

Unfortunately we also experienced an aspect of Turkish society/politics that we feared: repression and police brutality enforced by an authoritarian leader. After our show in Ankara a big group of the “moral police” started harassing a street vendor outside the venue. After interfering with the harassment, members of the Parazit Kolektif (our tour booker) and staff of the venue were beaten with batons, pepper-sprayed, handcuffed and arrested. The police even started to attack and spray random guests at the terrace of the venue and chased people down to the venue’s basement. An awful and completely uncalled for show of force to display their power. Padme, the band featuring members of the Parazit Kolektif wrote down what happened that night. At another instance we witnessed a peaceful feminist protest by a group of about 50 women minding their own business (pun intended), getting encircled by riot police without any obvious reason.

Check some more photos below, click here for a song from our set in Ankara (before the riots started). We are incredibly thankful we could do this amazing tour through Turkey, meet a lot of great people and see a lot of beautiful aspects of a country that has many issues. If you haven’t visited, go there, and attend a show! Many thanks to Parazit Kolektif for having us and making this awesome! Çok teşekkür ederim!