Last week’s shows + P3 Guld

With last weekend in fresh memory, it’s about time we share our thoughts with you.  All in all we had a great time and we will definitely not forget it.

Our first destination was Malmö, where we picked  up Johnny, the head honcho for Transubstans Records. On our way down there we quickly realized that we had a decent  sound system but nothing to listen to except for a Greatest Reggae Hits cd that was left  to die in our rental car. One more reggae for the road, you know. Luckily, we got a FM radio transmitter, which made the trip far more enjoyable music wise. Packed together in that mini bus we drove through Denmark and Germany in 6 hours and finally reached Groningen in good time before the show. Our first mistake, and let this be a lesson to you, was to use one of our iPhones for navigating to the city centre and the venue, Vera. After  having tried every single road for about one hour, we finally made it to the city centre, only to find out that the police were driving behind us, asking for an explanation to our desperate driving. Luckily, they set the standards for what to expect from the Dutchmen and offered escort all the way to the venue.

Once there, everything went terrific and the organization was the best we have ever worked with. We knew in forehand that the show was to be recorded for broadcasting by European radio stations but somehow we managed to ignore this while playing. We don’t remember much from the show itself other than that the audience was psyched at the end, especially after having played Västerbron and Svenska  Hjärtan. Five minutes after the show a sound tech came up to us with a recording of it all and let us tell you this: we have never sounded this good live before, perhaps not even on album. We will just have to wait and see if it is broadcasted sometime in the future, otherwise we will look into it if we can release it ourselves in some way. Unfortunately we did not have the time to listen to any other bands playing, even though it would have been fun to hear Jenny Wilson play.

Day 2 was a releaxed day with only a few hours ride down to Nijmegen.  There we met even more friendly Dutchmen and especially the stage manager and the opening act, Do Not Run We Are Your Friends, who’s playing inspired us in many aspects. Thank you guys for having us and for making our stay very pleasant! The show itself could have been better and the strongest memories are probably from what happened before and after.

Day 3 started  only three hours after we had gone to bed as we had to take an eleven hour drive back home for our last show in Malmö. There was not much sleep in the car which made the conditions for the show pretty special. People told us afterwards that we looked more relaxed than usual, but we were probably more  mentally hammered than relaxed. This show went really well also and our friend Scott from Öresund Space Collective made a recording of it which we hope to hear (and put up on the internet) soon! The night ended pretty quietly at two after not have being let in by the bouncers at Malmö’s perhaps biggest nightclub, KB (they also said that Alex was a cunt, which we still do not know if it is true or not). Quite a contrast to what we experienced in the Netherlands.

However.  All in all a very special weekend. Right now we are sitting on the train to Gothenburg for the prize ceremony of the Swedish national radio’s award P3 Guld. We have no real expectations to win but it would be a nice bonus and a confirmation of that what we do is appreciated. And of course, it would help us getting more shows and all that. Don’t miss out if you live in Sweden; broadcasted live on P3 at 20.00 and on SVT1 at 21.30.

Btw, check out this clip from the show in Malmö. Pretty good.