Antillectual

We came back from the last tour at the beginning of May, washed our stuff, did a show in France that didn’t happen, packed our bags again and left for a new tour. This time, Germany, Austria, Italia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Poland, Belgium and The Netherlands will be our home for the next 21 days, our longest European tour so far. Our tourparty consists of 5 people. Willem, Riekus and me are accompanied by Thomas and Rudy. Leuk!
We’ll try to update you once in a while with our stories!

Wednesday the 26th of May @ Haus der Jugend, Freiburg (Germany)

Woke up, kissed my girlfriend goodbye and took the train to Nijmegen, where we would meet to take off for our longest European tour so far. We started good with the longest drive on tour on the first day. Did some quick shopping and left for Freiburg. During the ride we encountered heavy rain, lots of traffic jams and when we finally arrived in the city of Freiburg we discovered that the Dutch national footballteam was playing against Mexico. In the massive traffic jam (2 kilometers took us 45 minutes or something) we made some Mexican friends.
When we arrived, we unloaded the van in a storm, scheisse! We met Christian, the promoter. His mother cooked us some amazing food! Christian’s band Far Off The Zoo opened the show with some nice punkrock tunes and some cool intermezzos. We were up next. During our show somebody yelled “Optiefen ouwe graftak!”. It turned out to be Marius who we met before in Rastatt. I’m still wondering why we teach foreigners “Neuken in de keuken” when there are so many better options!
After the show we went to Christian’s place. Drank a beer, drank a whiskey, listened to good music and went to sleep. Tomorrow we would have a nice drive ahead of us, which would take us through the Schwarz Wald.

Thursday the 27th of May @ PMK, Innsbruck (Austria)

We had to be in Innsbruck at 5 PM, so we left pretty early for a long drive on small roads that took us through a beautiful landscape in South Germany. We crossed the border at Lindau and the first thing I did in Austria was buy a bottle of Almdudler, best drink ever! Drank it as a kid on holidays in Austria, and still buy it every time when I’m in Austria. When we arrived in Innsbruck, the venue was still closed and it was already past 6 PM when the promoter arrived. Promoter Maurice turned out to be Italian and had to drive from Bolzano to Innsbruck. We got some Italian pasta, like! On the bill were three bands. The first one was U.C.D.T. From Italy. The played pretty loud hardcore music. We were up next. Played a bit shorter than the day before, because after our show it was up to Traktor from Sweden to finish the evening. They played some rocking hardcore screamo mixture. Pretty awesome! After the show there was going to be a party until 5 or 6 in the morning, but I was so exhausted that my bed in the basement was the best option. We were planning to have a long sleep, but the promoter and his friends woke us up because we had to leave early. We headed for the supermarket where I bought millions of vegan sausages and of course, ate them all in one and a half day. Bought some fake Almdudler and we continued our way to Poirino, Italy, where the sun always shines!

Friday the 28th of May @ MT Beer Festival, Poirino (Italy)

Today would be the day that Rudy finally did a number two. Sorry Rudy! After a few stops and a search through the van by the financial police (huh?) we arrived in Poirino, where we would play the MT Beer Festival. An outdoor festival with a stage with no roof. We soundchecked the drums and afterwards it started to rain. We covered the equipment and were hoping the rain would stop. But no, the rain turned into a storm and the weather turned out to be the worst I’d seen in months. We got a real nice pizza, we got drinks, but we didn’t get the chance to play the show. The rain continued the whole evening. Second show in 7 days that we couldn’t play, damnit! Good thing was that while we were watching some episodes of Dutch TV show New Kids in the van, we learned the Italians who were watching with us what “Stoma” means. Another fine piece of the Dutch language. Dario, the promoter took us to our sleepingplace and we had a good night sleep. Next stop: Milano.

Saturday the 29th of May @ LeonCavallo (Dauntaun), Milano (Italy)

Leon Cavallo is a huge building in Milano with lots of different venues in it. Our show today was in the basement, while upstairs in the big hall some kind of rap contest was held. On our show there were supposed to be 5 bands, but due to some miscommunications, Total Abuse was no longer on the bill tonight. We played with Kontatto. Some d-beat stuff with hardrock influences, which was pretty cool. The other two bands played more rock ‘n roll and hardcore stuff. I think all bands played pretty nice! What was not so nice, was the fact that the venue served cans of Oranjeboom, the worst Dutch beer ever. In The Netherlands, you can’t get it anywhere anymore, but here in Italy they still had it. The people at the bar claimed it was the best beer ever and one guy was actually thinking about getting an Oranjeboom tattoo. Dude! We all drank one can, decided it was really bad and moved on to other brands of beer. After the show, we were taken to our sleepingplace inside the building. In our sleepingroom, I accidently stepped in or on a snale. Leuk! The next morning we had to get up really early, because there was only one person that could open the gate for us. We waited for two hours and when we were still locked in the area of Leon Cavallo, we kinda broke out. Good to have an ex-squatter in the crew. Makes it easier to get out of a squat. After breaking out, we had to drive for almost 30 kilometers, what a distance!

Sunday the 30th of May @ Spazio Milk @ Melegnano (Italy)

After leaving Leon Cavallo, we went into the city center of Milano. Parked the van pretty cheap and strolled around like tourists. Drank some coffee, saw the Duomo and relaxed in the park. The weather was really nice, so it was a real relaxing day.
After checking out the city, we continued our way to Melegnano, where we would play at Spazio Milk, what looked like some kind of library. Tonights show was organized by Ste, from our Italian label No Reason Records. His girlfriend Sara made the best food ever! She even made vegan yogurt pie for dessert, yeah!
First band tonight was A Theory Of Justice who played hardcore with a male and a female singer. After their show, we played second. It was a strange place to play, but we had a great time. The last band played some more experimental punkrock music. Thought they were really good! After cleaning up we drove to the office of Dami of No Reason Records and we spent the night there. Playing stupid games with bandnames and drinking a couple of beers. We all had a good sleep and a freezing shower in the morning. For some of us, it was the first shower on tour. Imagine how the van smells right now! We said goodbye to Ste and moved on to Bologna, where a show with The Cute Lepers was our next stop.

Monday the 31st of May @ New Lazzaretto, Bologna (Italy)

Mondays can be really hard for shows, but hey, bands don’t tour only in weekends! Fortunately we had a show in the town of Bologna with The Cute Lepers, with members of The Briefs. When we arrived at the New Lazzaretto, we were wondering what this building used to be. Some of us thought it was a lighthouse, some thought it was a flower shop and some thought it was a UFO that landed here and never took off again. For dinner, we had pizza again! I like it when we have the local food! We killed some time drinking beers outside the venue, having conversations with some lepers. First two bands of the evening both played some punk ‘n roll, which really matched the sound of The Cute Lepers. Guess we were the odd one on this show, but there were some people that came for us. Again I saw some people singing along. One guy knew that I was the new guy, because the old bass player screwed too much. Sorry Rudy! After our set The Cute Lepers played. I was really exhausted, so I watched it sitting on a cabinet. They played a nice set of punk ‘n roll. After the show we left together with Claudio, to sleep at his studio. Riekus and I decided to sleep in the van and have a romantic night. Problem was that we parked the van somewhere where it was illegal, so I had to get up early to park it in a better place the next morning. Problem with sleeping in the van is that you can’t go to the toilet. You don’t want to know the solutions I came up with when someone needed to do a number 2. Luckily I could do it in the morning at the place where the others slept. After a while Claudio picked us up and took us to the music store and we grabbed a coffee with him. We explored the city center of Bologna, the towers that are leaning over and enjoyed the nice weather. Tonight would be the last Italian show of the tour, so we headed for Vittorio Veneto.

Oh yeah, for those interested, the venue used to be a vegetable shop.

Tuesday the 1st of June @ Spazio Mavv, Vittorio Veneto (Italy)

Vittorio Veneto is a small city in the Northeast of Italy. Actually, tonights show would be in Tarzo, an even smaller city, but the promoters moved it to Vittorio Veneto. Tomorrow was a holiday in Italy, so a lor of people came out to the show. Who said that Tuesdays are bad for shows? Again the Italian promoters, Patrick and Tomas, gave us Dutch beer. This time it was Royal Dutch beer. Never had that one before. The food this night was amazing! We had some salad with tomatoes and bread and after that we had probably the best pasta I ever had. Those Italians know how to make a pasta! We drank a coffee and after a while, Gargantha opened the show. I never heard of these guys before, but they were fucking awesome! Best band we played with this tour so far! Some parts reminded me of Satanic Surfers, like! The venue where we played was really big, but still really hot. Might have been the hottest stage of the tour. After our show I spoke to some guys who saw us at Groezrock and drove down from Verona to this show. Really cool to see that people do that for a band like us! We were taken to a youth hostel, drank some beers with the Veronians in the garden and got some good sleep. There was a great shower, so I finally could have a shower after Freiburg. Think I smelled really bad.

Wednesday the 2nd of June @ Club Baza, Ajdovš?ina (Slovenia)

Today we would leave Italy and their crazy drivers again. Next country on the list is Slovenia. First stop is a city called Ajdovš?ina (easier to type than to pronounce). On our way we were talking about that you have to put your lights on when you’re driving in Slovenia. Willem told someone that while driving in the UK, it’s illegal to drive without the wipers turned on. Sorry Thomas, but what goes in the tourreport, stays in the tourreport!
Todays show was done by the guys in Real Life Version, who I saw in my hometown last December. Great band! Because of some strange new laws in Slovenia, it is getting harder to do ‘legal’ shows and because of this, the guys made it a ‘private party’. We were the only band and I was afraid that no one would show up for a show of an unknown band in a small town on a Wednesday, but I was wrong. I think about 30 people showed up and they seemed to enjoy. After the show we had some nice talks, a few drinks and we loaded the van in heavy rain.
Jani and Aljosa, the promters, took us to the house of their drummer where we could sleep in the rehearsal room. Some people had a jonko, some people had a beer, some people had the internet. Satisfied we went to sleep to get up pretty early the next morning. After a quick breakfast we left for the capital, Ljubljana.

Thursday the 3rd of June @ Tovarna Rog, Ljubljana (Slovenia)

Around noon we arrived at Tovarna Rog in Ljubljana. We found out that the Cockney Rejects were playing at Metelkova tonight. Might not be the same kind of punk we play, but it sucks that there are more punkrockshows on the same night in the same town. We walked to the city center where we had some coffee and sandwiches. I love the Thai Sandwich at that one place in Ljubljana (don’t know the name of the place, but I know where to find it!). Since we’ve been to Ljubljana before, but no one of us ever visited the castle on the hill, we decided to climb the hill and enjoy the view over the city, awesome! Hanging around for some time, we took the train downstairs and ran into a roommate of Dario where we would sleep that night. That resulted in some free beers, yeah! Pretty bummed out that the organic store was out of vegan cornetto’s I ate some vegan magnums. Back at the venue, Dario arrived pretty soon with delicious food! A mixture of goulash and chili. Before we played, there was a puppet show in Slovenian and French, but I had no clue what it was about. I was not really interested because there was some catching up to do with Dario and Shaggie of In-Sane. I also met Rita, a Portugese girl that made a shirt design for us. There were not that many people at the show. I guess there was 1 paying Slovenian guy. Other people came from The Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Portugal and Canada. Strange… Riekus had the best snaredrum sound ever, so tonight was still a good one! We loaded the van, got some Burek and veggie kebab and left for Dario’s place to spend the night. Last time, their dog was 20 centimeters high, this time he was big, BIG! We immediately fell asleep and had a wonderful shower and breakfast in the morning with rucola from their own garden and good tea and coffee and homemade bread with some spreads and vegetables. Touring is so much easier when you have mornings like this! Although I had quite some beers and a bit of Slibovic, I felt pretty fine. We said goodbye to the guys and continued our way to Oh Vienna.

Friday the 4th of June @ EKH, Wien (Austria)

The drive from Ljubljana to Vienna was the longest of the remaining drives this tour. So getting to the next show is getting easier and easier. We arrived at the EKH squat in Vienna, a really big and awesome place! We brought our equipment in and did some relaxing in the garden. We found out that there were some people from Amsterdam and even an Austrian girl that spoke Dutch with an Amsterdam accent. During dinner, one of the best lasagnas I ever had, we had conversations about squats and squatting, which unfortunately is illegal in The Netherlands since this week. Although it’s really bad news for culture, underground music and everybody that is hoping for affordable places to live, we’re pretty sure that “Kraken gaat door!”, squatting continues.
The show was a benefit for the Anarchist Black Cross. Always nice to contribute to a good cause. First band with promoter Andy played doomy crust with keyboards next to the guitar violence. Pretty cool! Second band, Pistole played more oldschool hardcore like Youth of Today and Circle Jerks. We played last and during our flughafen, someone told me I had good looking shoes. Nico van Montfort, leest u even mee? After the show we went to our sleeping place and we found out that Propagandhi played this venue in 1996, sweet! The next morning in the computer room we found out that RKL played this venue in 1992 or something, sweet! We had probably the best breakfast I ever had on tour, holy shit! After breakfast, the rest of the gang occupied the internet while I was reading a book in the sun on the roof. Touring is not glamorous? It shure can be relaxing! The ride today was less than 90 kilometers so there was no rush. We took it easy and left for Payerbach somewhere in the afternoon.

Saturday the 5th of June @ EntroP’s, Payerbach (Austria)

Todays show was supposed to be at the new EntroP’s Extended in Wiener Neustadt. I heard from some Neustadt friends that there were problems with the local authorities concerning live misic, so Oswald, the promoter moved the show to EntroP’s in Payerbach, where there were problems with the neighbours instead of the local authorities. Guess Brat Pack would have been the perfect soundtrack for tonight, because the neighbours started to complain. Payerbach turned out to be a village where a lot of rich people from Vienna had their second home and they’re there for some weekend a year and they start to complain when the local kids have a show 2 times a year. Anyway, we had some chili and beers and then the show started with Second Effort who I played with before in Wiener Neustadt. These guys really improved since the first time I saw them. Same goes for the second band BHF. I saw them almost 3 years ago and today was the last show of their singer. I think they played some cool hardcore punk. When we played, Dominik, the drummer of BHF joined us on Testimony by playing keyboard in the bridge of the song. That was a really cool experience! It was also great to see that some Neustadt people came to the show in Payerbach. Always great to see some people again!

After the show, we headed for the EntroP’s Extended, where we would spend the night. Second time in Wiener Neustadt today. In the afternoon we already went for shopping (vegan wurst and Ottarocker beers), getting cheap gas and cleaning the backside of the van. Anyway, we ended at the venue where the show was supposed to be, had a few beers and crashed on the floor. The next ‘morning’ we woke up Oswald, who was kind enough to offer us beer and sake, but we thanked for that. Did get some Fritzl Cola and Jägermeisters and took off to our next destination where we would run into an old friend. Next stop: Sankt Jorann im Peru.

Sunday the 6th of June @ Casino Rockbar, Sankt Johann im Pongau (Austria)

Ever seen the movie Cliffhanger with Sylvester Stallone? Never mind, I tried to make a cliffhanger at the end of Payerbach’s day. We had a nice drive through the Austrian landscape and arrived at the place of the drummer of Killing Oma, where we would meet Luk, tonight’s promoter. When we entered the building, we were welcomed by our old friend Lux, who used to play guitar in Rentokill. Lux quit the band over a year ago and tonight he was playing with his new band Igel Vs. Shark. After delicious food, some kind of vegetable wrap, we went to the venue, the Casino Rockbar. We unloaded while there was Rammstein on the speakers. Mmm… Igel Vs. Shark did the soundcheck and I was already blown away by their hardrock! Like! We had a couple of beers while catching up with Lux and Julia and found out that there wouldn’t be a large audience tonight. Guess Sundays in small towns are hard. Anyway, there were some people that came to the show which made it nice and cosy. I was really surprised by Igel Vs. Shark. Too bad they didn’t have a record yet. We played last and it was good to see that some people were amused. After the show, we drank a couple of beers while enjoying the music in the pub. Rammstein was replaced by Queen, Dire Straits and Ricky Feestje. YouTube turned out to be our friend, or enemy. Genohot!
Luk fixed a sleepingplace at the Killing Oma rehearsal room in the basement of his house. The next morning he gave us a good breakfast and some wonderful band and crew pictures with the great Austrian scenery in the background. We waved Luk goodbye and left for Graz, city of Schwarzenegger!

Monday the 7th of June @ Sub, Graz (Austria)

I’d really like to advise you, to say the bold sentences out loud, like Arnie would do. Come on, do it!

We needed to get out of here! We got to the chopper! We headed for Graz, city of the Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger. When we arrived at the Sub, we met Klaus who booked the show, together with Robert. They made awesome food with chickpea curry and salad. Yummie! The other band tonight would be The Frantic Arts. I never heard of them before, but they sounded great! They played a None More Black cover as their Flughafen, supertoll! There were really a lot of people for a Monday show and fortunately, they stuck around! It was great to see so many people that came from far. My buddies from Soey were all there and there some other familiar faces. I really enjoyed this evening and I think it resulted in one of the best shows we played so far on this tour, although it was hot as hell inside, AAAAEEEEHHHHWWW! After the show we had a couple of drinks and said goodbye to our friends and to the people from Graz: Hasta la vista, baby. We’ll be back!

Willem drove us to Puntigam where we stayed at the Puntigang house. The dog almost ate my hand, we drank some beers with Klaus, Hirschi and Dominik of Soey and crashed on some nice beds. A good sleep this night would be really welcome, tomorrow we would have quite some driving ahead of us.

Tuesday the 8th of June @ Jugendcafé, Zwiesel (Germany)

A long drive through the biggest part of Austria and through Bavaria in Germany, took us to Zwiesel. We arrived at the Jugendcafé in time and since there was some time to kill, we decided to watch “Backstage Passport” by NOFX. Thomas promoted himself to be our manager on this tour, so we thought that Kent of NOFX would be a great source of inspiration to him.
The first band was Punchers Plant from München and they played a cool set of melodic punkrock. Today was even hotter than yesterday, so at the end of our set, I had to take off my shirt. Sorry ladies! Sorry boys! Immediately after the show, I threw water over myself which resulted in a wet boxershort. Sorry me!
Afterwards we had some drinks outside and heard that our friends in Sweet Empire had played the Jugendcafé a couple of weeks before us. A girl there told us about their favourite German word. Can’t remember it. I know that mine is Gummiüberziehe and that Fahrvergnügen is Riekus’ favourite, and he can’t even drive! When everybody left, we watched some more Backstage Passport while the local Bram van Montfort-clone was sleeping outside in the cold. We tried to wake him up, to no avail, then put a blanket around him and went to sleep. During the night, he woke up, closed the door too loud a couple of times and woke some of us up. Next morning the soundguy came to lock the door after we loaded our stuff. We tried to get some cheap gas and left for Hradec Králové, Czech Republic, my first Czech show ever!

Wednesday the 9th of June @ Putika Club, Hradec Kralóvé (Czech Republic)

On our way to Hradec Králové we passed the city of Plžen, where they invented beer. We also drove through Prague, one of the most beautiful cities in Europe and finally we arrived in Hradec Kralóvé. We found the venue and stole some wifi outside. Tonight there would be two bands and a debate about the Palestine-Israël conflict. Too bad this was in Czech language, because I’m really interested in the subject. Instead of listening to an unknown language for one and a half hour, I stayed in the van. After the debate, the first band, Just For Being, opened the show. These guys played some nice poppunk songs, and a great Rancid cover. When the bassplayer broke a string, I gave him a spare bass. Later I realized, that the strap that was attached to it, had the worst smell ever. Sorry Rudy! There were not so many people at the show and I was a bit grumpy at first, but in the end we had a good show.
We went to the promoter’s small house where we had to sleep with 7 people and a dog. After a weird night with possible Hylco-Douwesjes, we packed our stuff and took off to Poland. Breslau was up next!

Thursday the 10th of June @ Wagon Club, Wroc?aw (Poland)

Today we would play at the Wagon Club in Wroc?aw, a place I had been before. The venue is not easy to find, but I recognized it from a year before. Promoter Lukasz was already waiting for us and prepared us wonderful food. We went to the supermarket to buy us some beers too, really nice! Lukasz showed us an old train and we had some talks about Wroc?aw and the history of the town, being German, Polish, German and Polish again. From what we heard, Warsaw still owes Wroclaw quite some bricks.
The other band tonight was All Wheel Drive. They reminded me of some old Ignite and old AFI. I thought they were really good! Although the show was not that crowded, people seemed to enjoy our show and there was even a small moshpit.
After the show, Lukasz took us on a trip around town. We had a nice tour with beautiful sightseeing of the city by night. We were also looking for pizza, but all places that sold pizza were closed. What is wrong with these people! After being stopped by The Man, we ended up at the sleeping place, ate some bread and salad and decided to grab a pizza for breakfast.
Next morning, Lukasz told us he was gonna kill Riekus. I guess sleeping next to him is not a treat. We went to the pizza place and had a great breakfast indeed. We bought some water, because the temperature was killing us, waved goodbye to Lukasz and took off for Berlin, city of vegan food vreetpaleizen!

Friday the 11th of June @ Subversiv, Berlin (Germany)

Imagine there is only one highway in Poland. Imagine it goes from Wroc?aw to Berlin. Imagine there is one point where that one highway turns into two highways. Imagine your GPS doesn’t know this point. Imagine there is no Berlin or any well known city on the signs. You’re fucked! Ofcourse we took the wrong way and ended up somewhere at the German border, where we had to take small roads to make it to Berlin. When we entered Berlin, we had a good view of the city center. Subversiv is pretty close to Alexanderplatz and all of Berlin Mitte. According to Basti and the guys over there, we were in time and there was no hurry. We got delicious pasta salad, but best of all, we had some soysteaks. Man were they good! I think I had a million of those! We drank some cold beers and had a great night. First, Tiger Youth played a set of acoustic songs in German. The guys had just moved across the country from Ibbenbüren to Berlin and played a show in their new home bar. Cool stuff! After them, Smile And Burn played. They might have been the best band we played with on tour. Dammit, I saw so much awesome bands, but these guys really blew us away. They ended with a cover of the Baywatch theme song. Leuk!
Somehow, Riekus managed to break a cymbal stand and ended up pulling a Nico van M on stage. Willem and i played a great show. Loop maar door! After the show we had some more beers and Basti showed us the sleeping places. The room was small, so I could sleep in his bed. Yeah! Next morning I had a good shower and for breakfast, there were more soysteaks. Sweet! We drank some coffee and jumped in the van to score a vegan burger at Yellow Sunshine, in my opinion Berlin’s best vegan vreetpaleis. I had a double chicken vegan burger and the rest ordered some drinks. Seeing me enjoy the burger, everybody ordered some food and I took a double wheaty cheese vegan burger. Or something that sounds like that. Man, I was stuffed! But I’m not in Berlin everyday, so I had to eat it all! With a full stomach we ran to the van and left for the last German show of the tour in a small city called Holzminden, somewhere between Kassel and Hannover.

Saturday the 12th of June @ U-Rock, Holzminden (Germany)

The drive to Holzminden took us, again, over small roads. We arrived in time and when we got close to the venue, we found out there was some kind of a wedding going on. Were we really playing a weddingparty? Thought punkbands only played Bar Mitzwah’s. The party was upstairs, our venue was in some sort of basement. Four bands on the bill today and it started pretty late. First band played more than an hour I think. Think they played a New Found Glory cover. They sounded like NFG too. Call Me Names and Enesty were the other two bands. I watched a part of their sets and I was hanging out outside with the guys and David and Sabrina from Fair Trade Merch. They drove from Bielefeld to Holzminden, to deliver our new shirts. Everytime we order merch, we just put them on the guestlist and they show up with the merch. Cheap shipping, haha! David is a really friendly guy and he is working on the artwork of our new album right now too. I saw some parts of it and I must admit he’s talented!
We played last and by that time, there were boys and girls from the dance school party upstairs. No wedding, but still it was nice they showed up. Rudy was filming some songs and I hit him or his camera with my bass. Sorry Rudy! We got a couple of beers from Specki and the people at U-Rock and went to the sleepingplace. Next morning we woke up to the sound of a woman speaking German through speakers. There was a health convention going on in the building next to us. We tried to thomas a German flag, because the World Championship of football started. Football that is, soccer to Yankees, no fake Rugby. We got in the van and it felt kinda strange to me. Tonights show would be in Heerlen, Netherlands. Although I can’t understand anything people in Limburg speak, it’s “our” country so it feels a bit like going home.

Sunday the 13th of June @ Café Bluff, Heerlen (The Netherlands)

We drove straight to the German Ruhrarea and entered Limburg. When we arrived in Heerlen we found café Bluff pretty easy. We unloaded and Max, the promoter, showed up. I’ve known Max for quite some time, but today I would finally see his eurohousehappyhardcorepunkrockzwakkmosh project: Ravedigger! I was stoked as hell! The last three days of tour, we’re playing with Hot Water Music, Down By Law and Ravedigger. First band was Bronson. They sounded Limburgian to me. Hardcore with some MOC influences. Not really my cup of tea, but they did a good job. Stetson from France were added last minute and they played real rocking hardcore music. Sweet! We played third and it was a decent set I believe. But we were just warming the crowd up for the almighty Ravedigger! With a videoclip projected on screen, drumcomputers, two guitarplayers, a female singer and the lyrics in the background, I was liking this band from beginning to the end. The “slide show” was absolutely briliant! BA Baracus approved. Best part is that my photo was in the video, during a 2 Unlimited song. BOAH!
When we ran out of drinking tickets, Marcel gave us some free beers and he bought lots and lots of our stuff. I must admit that he was a really friendly guy! Thanks to him there was a real nice atmosphere at café Bluff. Great place!
They only bad thing I can say, is that 34% of the people in the area of Heerlen voted for a racist party. Watsmetjou? Geef me je nummer! Of je MSN. Anyway, we tried to deliver a message how to see things in a more positive perspective. We were on a mission!

Monday the 14th of June @ Trix, Antwerpen (Belgium)

After a good night party at Max’ place with YouTube-leed video’s (Zanger Rinus? Anita en Ed? Wilbert? Zanger Bob? Tuut Chips? Ricky!) we crashed on the floor. Next morning we said goodbye to Stetson and we watched The Netherlands – Denmark in Max’ livingroom on a big screen. Ofcourse we won, moved our asses to the van, bought stuff in the local musicstore, found cheap gas in Belgium and drove to Antwerpen. Tonight we would be playing with one of my favourite bands, Hot Water Music.
We arrived at Trix right after HWM was done soundchecking. We built up our stuff and Break Of Day did a soundcheck as well. We got great food, prepared by Ursula, who I used to poke way before you had a facebook (no erotic poking intended). I was kinda nervous to play, because we were playing with HWM, my predecessor Yvo was there and I saw my girl again after almost three weeks. Break Of Day played a solid set, think we played okay, keeping in mind we were pretty tired from the last weeks. After us, it was up to Hot Water Music. I think Chuck Ragan is one of the friendliest people out there. I noticed George was not there but I didn’t know who was filling in, until I heard it was Dave Raun. Did I just play the same stage as a guy from RKL is doing a couple of minutes after me? Dave Raun destroyed his kick and had to use ours, but all geeks who are following Riekus on Twitter already knew that. We had a great night, which was supposed to be the last show of our tour. But, a couple of weeks before we left another show was added. Tomorrow would be our last one, playing in Arnhem, close to home, together with Down By Law and Bro Hymn Pack.

Tuesday the 15th of June @ Willemeen, Arnhem (The Netherlands)

Last day of tour, although I already slept in ‘my own’ bed in Breda. Next morning we woke up, did some grocery shopping, got some ice cream and picked up the van. We drove to Arnhem where we heard that Down By Law would be late due to a missing guitar at the airport. Brat Pack were also late, punkers! Brat Pack opened the show. I didn’t see them play for a long time, so it was nice to see one of the best Dutch punkrockbands again. Rock ‘n Roel broke all of his sticks and got a pair from Riekus. I think you can whistle to them! Think I played one of the worst shows of the tour, man I was so tired. Think I added a post-apocalyptic vibe to the show. Tried to point out some differences between us and Dave Smiley (Joooonaaaas, 2010) but the DBL guys weren’t there. Missed that opportunity. When we were finished, they still weren’t back from their hotel. Can’t really blame them after being awake for a million days (pun intended). I must admit, I haven’t been the biggest fan of DBL (I’m more the Counting Crows type of guy) but I enjoyed the show and especially enjoyed the Montfort Bros enjoying. When they played Values Here as an encore, I went berzerk. Great to hear that song with the ‘original’ vocalist. Had some smalltalk with Dave afterwards. Turned out to be a nice guy after all. Packed some stuff and headed for the train together with some Utrecht and Amsterdam folks. I was just in time to catch the last bus to my house. Fell asleep right away and woke up the next morning to the sound of my alarmclock. Tour was over, time to go to work.

I would really like to thank everybody who made this tour possible. All promoters and people that came to the shows. In particular I would like to thank Thomas and Rudy for driving our van, doing merch, “MA-NA-GING” us, hanging out with us and – of course – drinking our beer. Many thanks go out to Ste and Dami from No Reason Records for hooking us up with cool shows in Italy, grazie mille! Also thanks to Bas Adriaan Verheijen for using your basscab. Hope you enjoy the beers!

See you on the next tour! LEUK!
Tom and Antillectual

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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

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I could imagine that our stories bore you as much as my stories bore the rest of the travel crew, but we’re still with Willem, Riekus, Maltix, P. Titty and me. This last part contains our four last shows, all in France, featuring more police, Burlesque strippers… The complete tour report with videos and pictures is right here

Thursday February 11th 2010 – Bayonne, Basque country (the French part)

Pasaia to Baiona, should be 60 kilometers, so not that long. Luckily we left in time, cause it was snowing, slippery roads and a car crash on the peage highway, meaning: a traffic jam. It took us a couple of hours to get there. When we arrived, we could hang out at Manux’ place. Got some coffee and had some good conversations about punkrock. The show this night was part of a music festival in the city at different locations. We played at bar Embuscade. Sounds like a place for Dutch punkrock! Marnix and Manux got the van to drive it to the street, but they didn’t seem to find the right way. I have been waving for half an hour at the corner of the street and they passed me 3 or 4 times. Aaaaargh! I thought I was blind!

We were supposed to be the only band playing at the bar, but after two and a half song, the police thought that it was one band too much. Again the police showed themselves your best friend! Result, we had to quit. So we decided to get the acoustic guitar from the van and play some acoustic songs. After all, there were people that came for the show and we didn’t want to let the filmcrew of the local Basque TV channel down. Willem and Riekus were used to playing acoustic songs with Yvo. For me it was new, so I focussed on drinking whisky and eating peanuts and do an ocassional vocal harmony. Kinda weird, but fun. We drank some local Basque alcoholic drinks, got our picture taken with the bartenders and went back to Manux’ house, got some food and had a good night sleep.

Friday February 12th 2010 – La Rochelle, France

Today we were heading north again. The van took us to the beautiful city of La Rochelle. On our way we passed Cognac and since we got used to drink local schnapps, we got some this night! We arrived at Barbarella and saw two showposters for this night. One was the Antillectual tourposter, second was a Burlesque strippers poster. Huh? We went inside, got a beer from the bartender and he confirmed that there was going to be a Burlesque show that night. We got picked up by Antoine from Mel Team Plugs to eat at his place. After the food we were back in time for the first Burlesque show. Imagine you’re in the 50’s with pin-ups. Was weird to see that at the punkrockshow, but I guess there was a double booking. There were two local punkrockbands on the bill and after them, there was another pin-up show. We played as last on the small stage. Willem stood in front, I wanted to do the same, but people were standing in front. I decided to play on stage and during the first song, I fell off. Fail! I got up and continued the rest of the show as if nothing had happened. We got great responses during and after the show, which is always nice. We said goodbye to the rock ‘n roll bar and got back to Antoines house to spend the night. Drank the Cognac, busted the water reservoir in the toilet and went to sleep.

Saturday February 13th 2010 – Brest, France

We got up and took off to Brest, the most western part of France. I did not realise this city is more to the west than the largest part of Wales. We found the venue and met promoter Plume, the singer of Speedball. Unloaded the van, got some cheap gas for the van and had great food. The dessert was a vegan banana kiwi pie. Yummie! Petit sstarted to drink most of the wine and got a little drunk I guess. Firsts band played streetpunk with a couple of more influences. Not really my cup of tea. Speedball played melodic hardcore that reminded me of bands like Bane and O’Hara. Actually, Plume and his outfit reminded us all of Pitter O’Hara. When Riekus sent Pitter a textmessage, he turned out to be in Brest. We hooked him up with a guestlist spot and Pitter was right in time for our show. We played after Last Exit To Brooklyn, who played more modern hardcore. I was really impressed by the amount of people at the show. It’s always nice to play when there are lots of people. I saw some people dancing and we had to play two encores. Didn’t know my old body was able to do that. After the show we said goodbye to Pittter, met another Dutch guy who was a t the show and tried to get away from drunk girls. We slept at a friend of Plume and had to wake up really eraly. Tomorrow was going to be the last day of tour, meaning a 750 kilometer drive to Lille and after Lille the drive home, with stops in Lembeek, Breda and Nijmegen.

Sunday February 14th 2010 – Lille, France

Today was the last day of tour and the trip was tough. First we had to go from Brest to Lille. We drove through Bretagne and Normandy to get to Lille. On our way we past Dinan and Caen, reminding me of bad music. We arrived a little late in Lille, but we were in time for the soundcheck. Shared some backline with Fast Motion and Foolish and the show started almost in time. First band played music that sometimes reminded me of Swedish Smalltown. Like! Foolish was the second band and although the guys played pretty well, I will bever be a fan of ska music. Third was Fast Motion, a band that I really like. It had been a year since I saw them, so it was good to see them again. The guys told me they were going to tour Japan, awesome! We played as last and I guess we were a bit tired from the tour and longing to go home. There were not that much people, but we gave it our best shot. After the show, we quickly loaded the van, got some food and left for Lembeek, Belgium, where Petit lives. We heard horrible stories about the weather forecast and it started to snow when we left. Belgian roads are always bad, but this night they were even worse. We made it to Lembeek, dropped off Petit and continued our way to Breda. I got out there and waved goodbye to Willem, Riekus and Marnix who had to finish the last part to Nijmegen. After 16 days on the road, we were home again. Don’t think this will slow us down, this week has 3 more shows and next week we will be recording our new album. Oh, were also planning new tours. One with High Five Drive from Canada to France, Belgium and the UK and another one through a large part of Europe in spring. See you on the road!

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We started 2010 with a tour to Belgium, France, Spain and Portugal. We left at the end of January and came back on Valentines day. On this tour, we brought Dutch punkrock reporter Marnix and Belgian Sabam-friend Petit, a nice travelparty! As always, we met lots of new people and saw some old friends again, we had amazing food, troubles with the cops, hellrides, expensive tollways, beautiful landscapes, 18 degrees centigrade in Portugal, snowstorms in Basque country and most of all, good times! If you want to know what we did from day to day, here’s our tourreport! Hope you enjoy!

Fri. January 29th 2010 – Herselt, Belgium

Tour kickoff today at the Antillectual house in Nijmegen. I missed my train in Utrecht and when I arrived, the backline was already in the van. Marnix, who is joining us this tour was already there after getting lost in the town where he lives. Luckily we have a GPS this tour. We left for Herselt and arrived pretty early. Other bands this night were Timmy Hillfire, The Ignored and Second Base. In Herselt we hooked up with Petit, who is also tagging along on tour. We had great food made by Petit’s madamme, Karen. The West-Flemmish guys in The Ignored surprised me with New Noise, a Refused cover. Second base played some new songs that were really good. We drank some Juupkes and Orvallekes and left the same night because we had a 1000 kilometers to go to the next show.

The plan was to drive to a hotel South of Paris, catch some sleep and hit the road the next morning. When we passed the first peage, Petit found a nice way to thank the French. We needed to lose weight anyway. After midnight traffic jams, snowstorms Parisienne and a Hors Categorie drive to the hotel, we managed to get some sleep.

Sat. January 30th 2010 – Fumel, France

On our way to the South, we started with nice weather that changed into snowstorms again. If we wanted snow, we would tour Sörmland, Sweden! Why did we bring swimshorts anyway? We arrived at the venue and the other bands, Open Nightmare and Ivan Rebroff’s Armpits were already there. We had great food and had some nice conversations. The show was at Pavilion 108, a pretty big venue. The other bands played pretty well, especially Ivan Rebroffs Armpits blew me away. Too bad their drummer didn’t play with dinosaur bones. After the show we drank a couple of beers and went to the hotel, had another drink and went to sleep. Guess we were tired after a long day in the van. After breakfast, we drove to Toulouse, enjoy the beautiful French landscape. We went to Pierro’s place and again time for some relaxing.

Sun. January 31st 2010 – Toulouse, France

We went to the venue, a pretty new squat. Too bad I stepped in a dog turd. Too good, Marnix stepped in one too! Again, we had a great dinner. First band was Monsieurs de Fursac. They played instrumental noisy rock. Like! Second was Ivan Rebroff’s Armpits again. I was hanging out at the merch so I couldn’t see the show, but I guess they rocked as hard as in Fumel. Great band! Before our show, we were asked to play Ordinary, but I don’t know how to play it. Sorry Toulouse, next time I’ll be able to play it! Think we played a decent show. I saw people singing along, that’s always nice to see. During the evening, Marnix was attacked by a drunk French woman. Something with biting I guess. Kinky!

After the show we drove back to Pierro’s house and had a good sleep. Lovely breakfast in the morning and excellent coffee and tee. I can imagine why the people in our tourcrew that have been there before called this their second home. We left, got some gas, got some food and took off for Torelló, close to Barcelona. Weather seems good outside of the van. Have to get my swimshorts out of the bag! Yeah!

Mon. February 1st 2010 – Torelló, Spain

Driving thru the beautiful landscape, we found our way to Torelló pretty easy. The way to the venue was harder. We drove down some muddy roads, watched some episodes of the Dutch New Kids show and managed to find the way to the venue. This night we were playing together with our buddies in This Routine Is Hell. Show was cool. I didn’t expect that many people on a Monday, so that’s awesome! This Routine Is Hell played a lot of songs from their new record. Like! Poke! We tried some new songs too, worked out pretty okay I guess. Think the old songs were also pretty new for the crowd. After the show we went to Toni’s house. Stole the internet of the neighbours and some guys went to a bar. At night, Boris Tarrel stepped on my hamstring, ouch! Then he started snorring really loud. If this continues every night, I might have to think about some punishment. After saying goodbye to the house and the evil cats (the cats had discovered the whole house in shit the day before we were supposed to sleep there, nice!), we continued our way to Zaragoza.

Tue. February 2nd 2010 – Zaragoza, Spain

We arrived at the venue in Zaragoza and it turned out to be some hardrockbar. We heard that Adhesive and Hot Water Music played there too. We met with Luis, the promoter and his wife, some of the most friendly people I ever met. Not only did they book the show, they gave us food, a place to sleep but they also hosted our friends in This Routine Is Hell that had a day off. The show was opened by a new band called Skeptiks. These girls played some nice punkrocktunes. Only two bands on the bill tonight. At midnight I turned 28, eh… 18 and Bon Jovi sang to me while I got a Tequila. Thanks boys!

After the show we went to the sleepingplace. I was sleeping in a room with 3 cats that jumped on me all night. Guess I made some friends. Before we took off, Luis provided me with some good Spanish punkrock music. Got back to the van and left for Madrid.

Wed. February 3rd 2010 – Madrid, Spain

This is Madrid, not Barcelona. In front of the venue we had to wait for the promoter and the owner to show up, so we killed time with the remaining episodes of New Kids, verrekte mongol jonge! This night we would play with This Routine Is Hell again. The people at True Believers did a nice job. Again, great food and a wonderful looking venue with posters of great bands like AC/DC, The Who, Green Day, Ramones and Limp Bizkit. Did I just type that? Anyway, the show was nice, although we encountered some minor problems. Hey, it’s still punkrock! accidently called Madrid Barcelo… Sorry folks! Nab, a kid from Nice who booked us shows on some of our first tours, also showed up.

We loaded the van and drove to the sleepingplace. An awesome house in the outskirts of Madrid. Joris Tarrel destroyed a painting, I got attacked by a ferret, but we had fun. Playing some acoustic songs and went to sleep. Next morning would be early because we had to leave at 10.

Thu. February 4th 2010 – Day Off @ Madrid, Spain

First day off this tour. There are worse places to be on days like these. We took the metro to the city, which turned out to be a little disaster. We checked in, checked out, had to check in again. We didn’t check in enough, got stopped by security and we were only replying with “this is a 10 way ticket!”. Apparently, when you do that enough, it works! Took a little walk in the city centre, got some coffee and met up with Nab again. He took us to a Hare Krshna place. Not really our cup of tea, but they served great vegetarian and vegan food. Sweet! We said goodbye to Nab again and split up. Willem and Petit went for coffee and internet, Riekus, Marnix and me went for the Prado museum. Convinced that there were some Picasso paintings here, Marnix went to the reception and asked where they were. Wrong museum! Major lolz @ Marnix. Ashamed to stand next to him, we left for the Reina Sofia museum. I’m not really into this stuff and I was really amazed by a giant piece of poo with metal in it, the Dali painting of The Face of the Masturbator and some Joop Klepzeiker kinda Picasso cartoon with giant falli. Marnix and Riekus were impressed by the Guernica, some big painting that I could have made when I was 10 years old.

We got some dinner in the city and left for the van. We could sleep the night at Marga’s place but we were unable to park the van, unless we were paying 60 euros. We decided to get a cheap hotel instead. Sorry for the troubles Marga! When we were waiting on a parking space outside of the hotel, we met with the police. Four cars, 8 cops. They searched the van, searched our bodies, checked everying. I’m glad we could keep our pants on at 3 AM outside in the cold winter. There was really no reason for doing this, but I guess we had to respect their authoritaah. The 4 Skins were right after all, Acht Cola Acht Bier. We parked the van at the hotel and caught some sleep. Woke up, took a nice shower and left for Portugal. Never been there before, nice to see some new places!

Fri. February 5th 2010 – Day Off

Unfortunately we didn’t have a show this day, but our friends in This Routine Is Hell are playing in a squat somewhere near Setúbal and we might be able to sleep there as well. First we went into the boring city of Setúbal. Got some pizza, almost got hit by a car with no lights on so I decided to take off with no lights either. Oops! The squat had no address, but we were picked up by the boys in TRIH and went to the show. Don’t ask how we got there, but we managed. Hellrides, yeah! When we arrived, one of the dogs was friendly enough to pee on the van. Obrigado! The show started really late and some of us got some sleep. The rest watched some nice hardcore bands and saw TRIH play an awesome show. These guys get better and better! Late at night, we all went to sleep. Tomorrow LisBoah is the next stop.

Sat. February 6th 2010 – Lisboa & Mouriscas, Portugal

Today is gonna be a tough day. There are two shows, one in Lisboa and one in Mouriscas. We left for a one hour drive to Lisboa and when we arrived at the venue, Marnix realized he forgot his bag with passport, keys and other important stuff. What an ass! We unloaded the Tarrel-van and Marnix and me took it and drove back to Setúbal. Within less than two hours we were back in the city centre of Lisboa. It reminded me of San Fransisco with the hills, the trams, with the Golden Gate bridge and Jesus on the other side of the bay. Oh wait, I never been to SF. The show was organized by Joao of Infected Records, who put out Testimony. This was our last show with This Routine Is Hell on this tour. We played at some old theatre that looked really nice. People seemed to enjoy the show. Albert Fish played after us and released their new record this afternoon. By the time This Routine Is Hell started playing, we had to leave to catch the next show. Waved them goodbye and took off for Mouriscas

When we arrived in Mouriscas we were picked up by Xico, the promoter of tonight’s show. We entered a large community centre and got some spaghetti and letuce. Good food! We were harrassed by the local dorpsgek, but that was kinda funny. First two bands, Shake Shake And Show Me Your Pussy and The Wild Ones played some rokkerol tunes. Sweet! The third band, Defying Control played fast punkrock songs. I thought they were pretty amazing! At the time we started playing, it was really late, but there were still a lot of people that seemed to enjoy the show. Afterwards, a guy said that I screamed like a girl and Riekus didn’t have enough muscles. Thanks dude! I think we gave a million autographs and even Petit and Marnix signed tourposters. Rockstar attitudes among merchguys, pfff! After a quick bite we went to sleep really late. Guess we really needed sleep. Got up and got fresh fruit and home made soup by the grandma of Xico After saying goodbye we got in the van and continued our way to Porto, where we had to be early for another afternoon show.

Sun. February 7th 2010 – Porto, Portugal

We were pretty late in Porto, but in time to unload and build up the stuff. We met with promoter Ivo, who just started to book shows in Porto again. There were four bands playing. I forgot some names, but I really liked the voice of the singer of the first band. As third played Mr. Myagi, that reminded me of Dutch band Citizens Patrol. Thrash! We had some difficulties with the sound and feedbacking stuff. Anyway, guess we played pretty decent. After the show we had great dinner at Ivo’s place. We drank some exclusive wine and of course Port wine. We had a good night sleep and left the next morning for Oviedo, because we could sleep somewhere near the venue of the next show.

Mon. February 8th 2010 – Day off @ La Felguera, Spain

Holy shit, what a hellride! We had to drive only 500 kilometers, but we didn’t expect the Portugese and Spanish Himalaya. There were parts that we could only drive 30 or 40 kilometers per hour. We had to be in La Felguera at 8 PM, but we were there after 10 PM. Frodo and Patxi were so nice to wait for us. We got some food, drank Maredsous beer from Belgium and watched This Is Spinal Tap. Damn, I gotta modify my amp so it can go to 11. Next morning, we were picked up by Patxi to go to the gym!

Tue. February 9th 2010 – Oviedo, Spain

Patxi’s dad was friends with the owner of the gym and arranged that we could take a shower for free. You really get to know eachother in the shower. I dropped Riekus’ soap. Dunno who picked it up though. After some coffees, beers and cokes at the Irish Pub we left for the venue. Got a perfect parking spot and entered a beautiful venue. Too bad they had shirry Dutch beers. We skipped the Heineken and gave Marnix a bottle of Buckler. Is that shit still around? Je zuipt of je zuipt niet!

The show was opened by Mr. Lafleur, with Patxi on vocals. I really liked the melodic punkrock stuff. Nice NOFX and Propagandhi covers were played, sweet! As second was Threewordname. I really liked them too! They played more experimental punkrock. Great band! I think people enjoyed our show, so that was nice. Unfortunately we had to stop early so we had to skip some songs. After the show we had some short conversations. Actually there was a guy from Allentown, USA that saw Antillectual before. Discussed some politics, but it was also time to load the van again and leave for the sleepingplace. We were sleeping at a studio, where Willem found an LP called “Als je haar maar goed zat” and bought it. Watch out eBay!

httpvp://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=C7BD39A00129596A

Wed. February 10th 2010 – Pasaia / Trinxterpe, Basque Country (the Spanish part)

We left the next day for Basque country. Never been there before, so I was looking forward to go there. People from Ovideo said the drive would be without mountains, well, for us Dutch these were mountains! The venue, Sala Mogambo turned out to be a great place! Too bad we had to carry all stuff up the stairs. At the show, I met again with Alaska Pipeline. I played with them with my old band in Portsmouth, UK. On the bill was also Curasan, who played instrumental postrock stuff. I missed their first half, cause I was eathing amazing potato soup and delicious couscous. Alaska Pipeline played a great show, but we were even more impressed by their artwork and screenprints. Although we had some problems with the snare and strings, we played pretty okay I guess. There were still a lot of people on a Wednesday. Even after we accidently insulted them, by speaking Spanish, speaking English, calling them San Sebastian. Sorry!

After the show we had a couple of beers and had good times with people that were still around. When the bar closed, we traded some Smash The Statues vinyl and tapes for more beer. No Dr. Pepper. When everybody left, we decided to get some sleep. We could sleep at the venue, which was great. Next morning we got some breakfast, loaded the van and took off for Bayonne. Did I mention it was snowing in Basque country? Dammit!

Thu. February 11th 2010 – Bayonne, Basque country (the French part)

Pasaia to Baiona, should be 60 kilometers, so not that long. Luckily we left in time, cause it was snowing, slippery roads and a car crash on the peage highway, meaning: a traffic jam. It took us a couple of hours to get there. When we arrived, we could hang out at Manux’ place. Got some coffee and had some good conversations about punkrock. The show this night was part of a music festival in the city at different locations. We played at bar Embuscade. Sounds like a place for Dutch punkrock! Marnix and Manux got the van to drive it to the street, but they didn’t seem to find the right way. I have been waving for half an hour at the corner of the street and they passed me 3 or 4 times. Aaaaargh! I thought I was blind!

We were supposed to be the only band playing at the bar, but after two and a half song, the police thought that it was one band too much. Again the police showed themselves your best friend! Result, we had to quit. So we decided to get the acoustic guitar from the van and play some acoustic songs. After all, there were people that came for the show and we didn’t want to let the filmcrew of the local Basque TV channel down. Willem and Riekus were used to playing acoustic songs with Yvo. For me it was new, so I focussed on drinking whisky and eating peanuts and do an ocassional vocal harmony. Kinda weird, but fun. We drank some local Basque alcoholic drinks, got our picture taken with the bartenders and went back to Manux’ house, got some food and had a good night sleep.

Fri. February 12th 2010 – La Rochelle, France

Today we were heading north again. The van took us to the beautiful city of La Rochelle. On our way we passed Cognac and since we got used to drink local schnapps, we got some this night! We arrived at Barbarella and saw two showposters for this night. One was the Antillectual tourposter, second was a Burlesque strippers poster. Huh? We went inside, got a beer from the bartender and he confirmed that there was going to be a Burlesque show that night. We got picked up by Antoine from Mel Team Plugs to eat at his place. After the food we were back in time for the first Burlesque show. Imagine you’re in the 50’s with pin-ups. Was weird to see that at the punkrockshow, but I guess there was a double booking. There were two local punkrockbands on the bill and after them, there was another pin-up show. We played as last on the small stage. Willem stood in front, I wanted to do the same, but people were standing in front. I decided to play on stage and during the first song, I fell off. Fail! I got up and continued the rest of the show as if nothing had happened. We got great responses during and after the show, which is always nice. We said goodbye to the rock ‘n roll bar and got back to Antoines house to spend the night. Drank the Cognac, busted the water reservoir in the toilet and went to sleep.

Sat. February 13th 2010 – Brest, France

We got up and took off to Brest, the most western part of France. I did not realise this city is more to the west than the largest part of Wales. We found the venue and met promoter Plume, the singer of Speedball. Unloaded the van, got some cheap gas for the van and had great food. The dessert was a vegan banana kiwi pie. Yummie! Petit sstarted to drink most of the wine and got a little drunk I guess. Firsts band played streetpunk with a couple of more influences. Not really my cup of tea. Speedball played melodic hardcore that reminded me of bands like Bane and O’Hara. Actually, Plume and his outfit reminded us all of Pitter O’Hara. When Riekus sent Pitter a textmessage, he turned out to be in Brest. We hooked him up with a guestlist spot and Pitter was right in time for our show. We played after Last Exit To Brooklyn, who played more modern hardcore. I was really impressed by the amount of people at the show. It’s always nice to play when there are lots of people. I saw some people dancing and we had to play two encores. Didn’t know my old body was able to do that. After the show we said goodbye to Pittter, met another Dutch guy who was a t the show and tried to get away from drunk girls. We slept at a friend of Plume and had to wake up really eraly. Tomorrow was going to be the last day of tour, meaning a 750 kilometer drive to Lille and after Lille the drive home, with stops in Lembeek, Breda and Nijmegen.

Sun. February 14th 2010 – Lille, France

Today was the last day of tour and the trip was tough. First we had to go from Brest to Lille. We drove through Bretagne and Normandy to get to Lille. On our way we past Dinan and Caen, reminding me of bad music. We arrived a little late in Lille, but we were in time for the soundcheck. Shared some backline with Fast Motion and Foolish and the show started almost in time. First band played music that sometimes reminded me of Swedish Smalltown. Like! Foolish was the second band and although the guys played pretty well, I will bever be a fan of ska music. Third was Fast Motion, a band that I really like. It had been a year since I saw them, so it was good to see them again. The guys told me they were going to tour Japan, awesome! We played as last and I guess we were a bit tired from the tour and longing to go home. There were not that much people, but we gave it our best shot. After the show, we quickly loaded the van, got some food and left for Lembeek, Belgium, where Petit lives. We heard horrible stories about the weather forecast and it started to snow when we left. Belgian roads are always bad, but this night they were even worse. We made it to Lembeek, dropped off Petit and continued our way to Breda. I got out there and waved goodbye to Willem, Riekus and Marnix who had to finish the last part to Nijmegen. After 16 days on the road, we were home again. Don’t think this will slow us down, this week has 3 more shows and next week we will be recording our new album. Oh, were also planning new tours. One with High Five Drive from Canada to France, Belgium and the UK and another one through a large part of Europe in spring. See you on the road!

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Dear followers, here’s another update about our tour. We played one more show in Portugal, had a day off and played two shows in Northern Spain / Basque country. If you’re not asleep yet, read it here! Doei doei!

Sunday February 7th 2010 – Porto, Portugal
We were pretty late in Porto, but in time to unload and build up the stuff. We met with promoter Ivo, who just started to book shows in Porto again. There were four bands playing. I forgot some names, but I really liked the voice of the singer of the first band. As third played Mr. Myagi, that reminded me of Dutch band Citizens Patrol. Thrash! We had some difficulties with the sound and feedbacking stuff. Anyway, guess we played pretty decent. After the show we had great dinner at Ivo’s place. We drank some exclusive wine and of course Port wine. We had a good night sleep and left the next morning for Oviedo, because we could sleep somewhere near the venue of the next show.

Monday February 8th 2010 – Day off @ La Felguera, Spain
Holy shit, what a hellride! We had to drive only 500 kilometers, but we didn’t expect the Portugese and Spanish Himalaya. There were parts that we could only drive 30 or 40 kilometers per hour. We had to be in La Felguera at 8 PM, but we were there after 10 PM. Frodo and Patxi were so nice to wait for us. We got some food, drank Maredsous beer from Belgium and watched This Is Spinal Tap. Damn, I gotta modify my amp so it can go to 11. Next morning, we were picked up by Patxi to go to the gym!

Tuesday February 9th 2010 – Oviedo, Spain
Patxi’s dad was friends with the owner of the gym and arranged that we could take a shower for free. You really get to know eachother in the shower. I dropped Riekus’ soap. Dunno who picked it up though. After some coffees, beers and cokes at the Irish Pub we left for the venue. Got a perfect parking spot and entered a beautiful venue. Too bad they had shirry Dutch beers. We skipped the Heineken and gave Marnix a bottle of Buckler. Is that shit still around? Je zuipt of je zuipt niet! The show was opened by Mr. Lafleur, with Patxi on vocals. I really liked the melodic punkrock stuff. Nice NOFX and Propagandhi covers were played, sweet! As second was Threewordname. I really liked them too! They played more experimental punkrock. Great band! I think people enjoyed our show, so that was nice. Unfortunately we had to stop early so we had to skip some songs. After the show we had some short conversations. Actually there was a guy from Allentown, USA that saw Antillectual before. Discussed some politics, but it was also time to load the van again and leave for the sleepingplace. We were sleeping at a studio, where Willem found an LP called “Als je haar maar goed zat” and bought it. Watch out eBay!

Wednesday February 10th 2010 – Pasaia / Trinxterpe, Basque Country (the Spanish part)
We left the next day for Basque country. Never been there before, so I was looking forward to go there. People from Ovideo said the drive would be without mountains, well, for us Dutch these were mountains! The venue, Sala Mogambo turned out to be a great place! Too bad we had to carry all stuff up the stairs. At the show, I met again with Alaska Pipeline. I played with them with my old band in Portsmouth, UK. On the bill was also Curasan, who played instrumental postrock stuff. I missed their first half, cause I was eathing amazing potato soup and delicious couscous. Alaska Pipeline played a great show, but we were even more impressed by their artwork and screenprints. Although we had some problems with the snare and strings, we played pretty okay I guess. There were still a lot of people on a Wednesday. Even after we accidently insulted them, by speaking Spanish, speaking English, calling them San Sebastian. Sorry!
After the show we had a couple of beers and had good times with people that were still around. When the bar closed, we traded some Smash The Statues vinyl and tapes for more beer. No Dr. Pepper. When everybody left, we decided to get some sleep. We could sleep at the venue, which was great. Next morning we got some breakfast, loaded the van and took off for Bayonne. Did I mention it was snowing in Basque country? Dammit!

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