Antillectual

While we’re out on the road in the more eastern and southern parts of europe, we finally managed to wrap up the report of our last tour with High Five Drive, covering the Groezrock festival, the UK, France, Belgium and Naaldwijk.

If you wonder why Riekus got married, how cold the Groezrock camping was, or why those jolly good english gentlemen prefer to drink their beer from the floor, read on here. We truly hope you enjoy the stories as much as we did! In the meantime, come and say hi if you are in or around one of these cities we have yet to visit on our current tour:

JUN 5 Payerbach EntroP’s
JUN 6 St. Johann im Pongau Casino Rockbar
JUN 7 Graz Sub
JUN 8 Zwiesel Jugendcafé Zwiesel w/ Punchers Plant
JUN 9 Hradec Kralove La Putika
JUN 10 Wroclaw Wagon Club w/ All Wheel Drive
JUN 11 Berlin Subversiv
JUN 12 Holzminden U-Rock w/ Call Me Names, Enesty
JUN 13 Heerlen Café Bluff w. Ravedigger
JUN 14 Antwerpen Trix w/ Hot Water Music
JUN 15 Arnhem Willemeen w/ Down By Law, Brat Pack

We’ll be posting updates about the current tour as we travel on. Whether or not the stories will be better, we can’t promise.. If you’d like to know how someone outside the band experiences our tours, check out Rudy’s blog. He’s also documenting this tour.

From Vienna with love,

Riekus, Tom, Willem, Thomas and Rudy

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We got back from a very awesome tour bringing us to the Groezrock festival, the UK, Queensday in Holland, Just Like Your Mom’s HQ and the traditional Le Havre Mayhem. A lot of thanks to those coming out to our show at Groezrock and the shows we did in the UK and the mainland. Thanks to promoters for organizing and hosting. And thanks to High Five Drive for accompanying us on this trip and making it very worthwhile. A proper tour report will follow later.

Ashes Records, Never Trust an Asshole Zine and Fond of Life Records recently released a sampler featuring one of our songs together with a lot of really great bands. Check those samplers: Ashes Records, Never Trust an Asshole Zine (download zine and sampler) and Fond of Life Records. The Never Trust an Asshole Zine actually includes a recent interview with us.

For our upcoming tour we are still really in need of shows. So far we are going to Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic and Belgium. If you want to help us out with a date or two we’d be extremely grateful. Even though we are a very frequently touring band, booking never is an easy job and can’t happen with your help. In Antwerp (BEL) we will be playing with Hot Water Music on June 14 and on June 15 we will support Down By Law in Arnhem (NL).

Dates so far:
May 26 Germany Freiburg Haus der Jugend w/ Far Off The Zoo
May 27
May 28 Italy Poirino MT Beer Festival
May 29
May 30
May 31
Jun 1
Jun 2 Slovenia Ajdovš?ina TBA w/ Argetti
Jun 3
Jun 4 Austria Wien EKH
Jun 5 Austria Wiener Neustadt EntroP’s Extended
Jun 6
Jun 7
Jun 8
Jun 9 Czech Republic Hradec Kralove La Putika
Jun 10 Poland Wroclaw Wagon Club
Jun 11 Germany Berlin Subversiv
Jun 12 Germany Holzminden Juz
Jun 13
Jun 14 Belgium Antwerpen, Trix. w/ Hot Water Music
Jun 15 Netherlands Arnhem, Willemeen. w/ Down By Law, Brat Pack

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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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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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It’s been a couple of days since you heard from us, dear followers. The last days we’ve been to Zaragoza, Madrid, Setúbal, Lisboa, Mouriscas and now we’re in Porto. Still curious what we did? Sure? Alright, don’t say we didn’t warn you!

Tuesday 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.

Wednesday 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.

Thursday 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!

Friday 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.

Saturday 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.

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