Antillectual

Holland’s biggest “decent” newspaper featured us in their article about Dutch music export in 2010. We made it to the top 30, 3rd year in a row. We did even more than 60 shows, but having our name in the Volkskrant, we can die a happy band now. But we won’t. DIY!

The rest of the article tells that the economic export value of Dutch pop music grew in 2010. The results of the research were presented during the Eurosonic/Noorderslag festival where, ironically, none of the featured bands played. Been there done that last year though …

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One of our most – if not most – memorable tours has come to an end. We got the chance to play in front of a lot of people and had an incredible time doing so. We owe eternal thanks to Boysetsfire and their crew for having us on their tour and making us feel at home on the road. At least the same amount of thanks go out to Destiny Bookings for getting us on the tour in the first place and thinking along. Thanks to Letlive for being crazy guys both on- and offstage. A lot of thanks to all promoters, venues and other people who did the shows, fed and hosted us. And of course, most thanks to all people that came out to the shows, whether they knew us before or not, giving us a good time on stage! Reactions never have been so overwhelming!

A report of what went on during this tour can be found here. It is all “From the back of the vans” together, with the last new episode on the bottom and some additional pictures.

Some videos shot by other people can be found at our Youtube page under favorites. In case you have some pictures or videos of our shows, let us know!

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For a European band touring with a North American band is one of the best things that can happen to you. Or at least, that is what we heard from other bands. North American punk/hardcore bands draw a bigger audience than the average and even above-average European punk/hardcore band, mainly because they are more exotic to most people and come from the countries where most punk and hardcore bands and labels originated from. Whether the difference between the attention for North American and European bands is fair or not I would gladly discuss with you another time! But touring with Boysetsfire and Letlive indeed gives us the chance to play in front of more people than we do when we tour on our own. Some of the stages on this tour are actually bigger than the venues we usually play, go figure. Even though we are very happy to also see familiar faces from “our own shows”, it is a nice challenge to play in front of people who are into the same kind of music, but initially didn’t come to the show for us and generally don’t watch DIY shows or European bands.

For this tour we play mostly as the 1^st out of 3 bands. To make sure people catch our name when they enter the venue during our set we even made a backdrop. At some shows there are more bands playing before us, and the last part of tour will be only BSF and us. We get to play 30 minutes, which results in a 9-song-nur-hits-setlist and enough time left for futile revolutionary talk in between songs. So far we are doing well I think. Even though the crowd isn’t complete yet when we play, we get great responses after our songs and shows and we do well on merch. The reactions on our site and facebook are proof! What struck me was that at first we were the only band selling actual albums. Letlive later received CD’s (no vinyl) but neither BSF nor LL sell LP’s. How old-fashioned of us to sell our complete catalog on both CD and LP …

So far our “on/front-stage” experiences of this tour, next chapter: off/back-stage!

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The second part of the tour has surely begun! The first show with Boysetsfire and Letlive was on a huge boat in the Donau in Budapest. Really cool show, playing after Deez Nuts who were last minute added to the lineup. At the second show in Poland there were two local bands playing so we were playing 3rd in front of quite some people again, nice! Good responses, but we had to get used to the different dimensions of the show and the sound in Poland didn’t work in our advantage.

Even though the show with BSF and Letlive in Prague was canceled we got an alternative show offered. We played one of the coolest venues, in one of the coolest locations ever: a café selling vegan burgers in the middle of Pankrac Park in Prague. Benches outside, a front porch at the entrance. The place was packed with 40 people. Different dimensions, great evening though! I hope the strike and blockades helped the workers to get what they deserve, it didn’t affect our movements at all. The next day was going to be hard. 2 shows on 1 day, no shower the next morning. Good times. The first show was a festival in a small town in the Czech Republic, which wasn’t too crowded, but nice. 12 year olds buying our shirts. The second show a completely packed show in Zwiesel, where we had been before and that showed. And again a lot of young kids, there is a future and it is bright!

Last night we played Leipzig, the biggest show in Germany and sold out, 1000+ people. And Conne Island, what a venue! Including a nice skatepark outside, food grills in front of the venue and a nice biergarten. It was already quite full when we started playing and the crowd apparently enjoyed us and vice versa. Today we have our first and last off day of tour and tomorrow the third part of tour starts: a non-stop run of shows with BSF and LL; no more off days or shows on our own. But first: BBQ at Hotel Kötti in Regensburg!

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