Antillectual

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!

Continue Reading

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!

Continue Reading

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!

Continue Reading

I’m typing this down on our way from Austria to Budapest. Yesterday we played Wiener Neustadt, the last show “on our own”, without Boysetsfire and Letlive. It was very nice to see a lot of familiar faces and longtime friends before we enter the realm of anonymous crowds, dealing with a tour manager and people only waiting to see BSF. On the other hand, we have been looking forward to this a long time, so we can’t wait to start this second chapter of the tour. We are very curious what to expect, whether the people will be interested in us or not and how touring in a “less-DIY-way” is. It might not be too different; yesterday we got a last minute email the Prague show has been canceled. Happens to the best apparently. And one advantage of our own “DIY community”: we managed to get a new show (on our own, not with BSF) on that same evening, at Cafe na P?l Cesty, in Prague. Below the statement from booker and venue:

“We have bad news. Unfortunately we have to cancel BOYSETSFIRE´s Prague show that was supposed to happen on Thursday, June 16th, due to a massive strike happening there that day. Not only will there not be any public transport, but also blockades of the main roads, so it would be questionable if the bands would even get into the city or people to the show. According to a news report they´re expecting the city to be totally paralyzed. We´re really sorry about this.”

Torn between solidarity with the workers, ignorance on getting through Prague and the eager to play we decided to try to go to Prague and play. No Boysetsfire, but free entrance/donation instead. See for yourself.

Continue Reading

Tomorrow we will leave for our longest run of shows through Europe. 24 shows in 24 days, going to Hungary for the first time. Our excitement is simply un-expressible. We hope to see you at one of the shows; either our own, or supporting Boysetsfire and Letlive.

Some people have been complaining we don’t do enough shows in our own area. So the last thing we will do before we leave for a while, is announce a coming-back-show in Nijmegen on July 18. Five years after our first official show with Riekus at de-Affaire (aka de Zomerfeesten) in Nijmegen, we will return at de Valkhof again. It’s a free outdoor festival and the weather is gonna be ace (we arranged that too), so no excuses not to show up!

Continue Reading