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Thursday, Oct. 5 The Paradiso in Amsterdam, Holland
After having breakfast and "dessert" at the Inner Amsterdam Stopover, we met our booking agent Hans
and our tour manager/sound engineer Greet in the hotel lobby. We piled into "Big Blue", Greet's copyright Fiat Ducato van, and headed to the offices of Konkurrent Records and distribution where we picked up our merchandise for the tour. Next it was over to the club to load in for soundcheck.
Here is where the fun started. See, until this point we hadn't seen our drums and amp because they were rented (too expensive to fly our own gear with us). The drums were fine, except oops, no cymbals. Imagine Dave's surprise to find a Marshall instead of a Fender (if you play, you know why this is a big deal) But after freaking out for a few moments we settled down and arranged to borrow cymbals from Jeff:Ohia. Dave had no choice but to get used to the new Motorists guitar sound: too loud, too crunchy.
Approx. 300 folks turned out for Songs:Ohia, Parker Paul and Swearing at Motorists, who for some reason were tapped to close out the show with Jason:Ohia's quartet playing second. The show was in the upstairs venue after blues guitarist Walter Trout rocked the downstairs room. The crowd was good and very attentive, although very reserved. This would be typical throughout the tour, although we were able to elicit some noise out of some in attendance. Some of Dave's humor seemed lost on many in the audience but the crowd still stuck with us. Our friend Tom Byrne reprised his role on Number Seven Uptown and the tour only EP, The Burnt Orange Heresy, by joining us for "Inadvertent Christmas Song," "Calgon Take Me Away," a cover of Richard Thompson's "Calvary Cross" and the unreleased "Can't Help Ourselves." After the show we were surprised to have people coming up to us for autographs: a great way to start the tour!
Friday, Oct. 6 Doornroojsje in Nijmegen (Naiy-megan), Holland
Arrived early for soundcheck, and to our delight there were huge bushes of marijuana growing right outside the club, a good sign for sure. After the soundcheck we hung out with Parker Paul and Songs:Ohia. The venue served us Chinese food that evening before the show. Most of the meals were all vegetable, but a couple had chicken. Our merch man, Chadwick Parker, a longtime vegetarian, accidentally ate out of a container with chicken in it. After vomiting for awhile, we comforted him with a few kind words and a lot of kind bud.
The show had a smaller crowd, approx. 125, but very nice. This was Songs:Ohia's night as they tore shit up and the crowd was totally amped. Jason's four piece unit added a lot of power to the songs from The Lioness, sounding like a reserved mix of Crazy Horse circa Live Rust and Lou Reed's backing band for Rock 'n' Roll Animal. It is a real treat for us to share the stage with Songs:Ohia on our first jaunt to Europe.
Like the rest of the tour, our set was slightly different than the previous night but it was comprised of cuts from our recent Secretly Canadian releases Number Seven Uptown, More Songs From the Mellow Struggle and The Burnt Orange Heresy, with a few older cuts thrown in. Tom joined us for "Inadvertent Christmas Song," "Can't Help Ourselves" and "Calgon Take Me Away." Dave was still not very happy with his guitar tone, he thought it sounded good, but it didn't sound like him. See he plays a '69 Fender Bandmaster, which is a 45-watt amp and has a much more mellow, bass heavy sound. The Marshall JCM 900 he is playing through is a 100-watt amp that can be spotted behind many a metalhead. Get the picture?
Saturday, Oct. 7 Bourla in Antwerp, Belgium
Played a large Rock the Vote festival on election eve. The bill included Songs:Ohia, FM Einheit, Dead Man Ray and others. Songs:Ohia and the larger bands played in a big opera-style theatre with four levels of balcony seats surrounding the room plus private boxes. We played in what was called the foyer, a large open bar and restaurant area with a large dome ceiling. More than 650 people saw us perform as the acts alternated between the two rooms. Because people couldn't drink or smoke in the main room the crowd was content to move into the foyer and indulge in a different ambiance. After much debate earlier in the day, Dave took Jeff:Ohia's advice on which two tubes from the power stage of the Marshall to remove to reduce the wattage to 50 . Bingo, this made the amp sound less metalhead and more like the Motorists. The newfound confidence in his equipment gave Dave an extra jolt, and the performance seemed to benefit. Tom joined us for the same four cuts we played in Amsterdam.
Sadly, this was our last show with Mr. Byrne, but we lived it up until 8:00 a.m. the next day, before reluctantly dropping him off at the airport in Amsterdam on the way to Groningen.
Sunday, Oct. 8 the Vera in Groningen, Holland We lost Tom, but we gained Sara, a Belgian friend of Greet's who would become our "executive nanny." Speaking at least seven languages and seasoned traveler, she became an undeniable asset, keeping us out of trouble and in the know. The Vera is a legendary venue that has housed everybody from U2, Black Flag and Sonic Youth to fellow Daytonians' Brainiac and Guided By Voices. In addition to a great rep, a great stage and silk-screened posters for each show, the Vera has four individually decorated rooms upstairs where the musicians crash (a very nice touch). The entire venue is plastered with posters of the famous group's that have graced the club. Like most evenings, Parker Paul opened the evening with an enjoyable set of his humorous piano songs, most culled from his Lemon-Lime Room LP. He also mixes in obscure covers by bands such as the Tinklers. Although his songs are filled with American cultural references and inside jokes, Parker has been well received by the European crowds. We continued to mix up the set, if for no other reason than to keep ourselves amused. In Tom's absence, Dan from Songs:Ohia joined us for a version of "Can't Help Ourselves." After the show, we drank with some of the locals in the tavern below the venue literally, in the basement. This intimate stone room has been a pub since Medieval times. It seems that every time they built something new in this location, they kept the tavern as is, for more than 700 years. Crazy.
Monday, Oct. 9 013 in Tilburg, Holland
Large flowering plants adorned the stage of the 013 lending the place a surreal ambiance. Tijird (who asked that we refer to him as Shit) the lighting tech at the club put together a great light show. A snafu had us on stage BEFORE Parker Paul, not that it mattered, because the show was packed right after the doors opened, but some people did mention they thought it was cruel to make piano man Parker Paul follow our high energy set. By now Greet had our sound dialed in and it was obvious she was getting comfortable mixing us. Because we finished early and our gear was staying locked in the club overnight, we had the opportunity to enjoy the rest of the evening. We watched the other two acts and consumed mass quantities of alcohol. European beer is definitely heavier than the watered down beer we get in the States.
Tuesday, Oct. 10 the Gleis 22 in Munster, Germany
We had a run in with officials in route to Munster when we were pulled over by customs officers right after passing the Songs:Ohia van on the Autobahn. No problem, they just wanted to check and make sure Greet wasn't mixing her fuel. Gas was about $3.60 a gallon on the average so some people cut their fuel to make it go farther. This isn't good for the environment, and is therefore illegal. Luckily Greet is honest, so we passed the test and the officers let us go on our way.
We were having a contest up until this day to see how fast someone could score weed from the time they entered the venue. Dave shattered his own record of 29 minutes 38 seconds, finding the blessed herb after only 46 seconds. We quickly forget about this game because no one will ever top that time. The club was a small Internet coffeehouse but it seems they have a pretty regular crowd. This was the smallest crowd, approx. 75 people, but they were quiet at the right times and loud and enthusiastic at the proper spots. Dan:Ohia joined us once again for a version of "Can't Help Ourselves."
During Songs:Ohia's set, Dave went across the side of the stage to enter the dressing room. Jason:Ohia felt this was the best opportunity to give Dave a "Beer Shower." Much to Greet's horror, Dave retaliated, soaking the amp he had rented from Greet in the process. A few songs later, Dave joined Songs:Ohia for their last song, a full blowout jam. Greet broke the news that we would have to cancel the last part of the tour because some dates had fallen; if we didn't we would stand to lose a hell of a lot of money and have to spend 3 weeks in Europe with no shows. Dave and I were severely bummed to hear the news especially since our European booking agent originally wanted us to come for longer and assured us it would be no problem to fill the dates.
Dave ended up consuming mass quantities of alcohol after the show. Back at the hotel he recruited all of the men of the entourage to help "water the lawn" from the Motorists penthouse balcony. Somehow this leads to a pillow fight in the Songs:Ohia room downstairs.
Wednesday, Oct. 11 Gebaude 9 in Köln, Germany
At breakfast Jason:Ohia came up with the idea that everyone should draw names from a hat to decide what van we will ride in. Dave and Sara ended up in the Songs:Ohia van, and the two Dan's:Ohia rode in the Motorist van. We arrived at the club early and took a long walk to this massive cathedral in the center of town. We arrived back at the club at 6 p.m., an hour late for soundcheck, but the guys at the venue didn't have everything set up so it was no problem. This was Songs:Ohia's first show in Köln so it wasn't a large crowd but the people in attendance were very receptive to Parker Paul, the Motorists and Jason and the boys.
Dan:Ohia joined us once again for a version of "Can't Help Ourselves" and this was by far the best version yet. This was our last show with Parker Paul and Songs:Ohia, so things got a little out of hand. Pranks were the order of the day, so everyone was on their toes. Paul set up at the soundboard during our set and Songs: Ohia's set and played along on the keyboard on a few songs. It sounded good. Dave, in his Tony Clifton disguise, joined Songs: Ohia for their last song and did a little dirty boogie. After the show there was almost a fistfight between the Secretly Canadians and the promoter, who didn't pay the guarantee as stated in our contracts. Greet defused the situation, and got us out of the venue, but not before everyone in the entourage contributed to a "FoodArt" piece on the dressing room wall.
http://www.kindamuzik.net/achtergrond/swearing-at-motorists/roadnotes-swearing-at-motorists/503/
Meer Swearing At Motorists op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/swearing-at-motorists
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