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MS Stubnitz : Rotterdam, NL
Zak (Mr. Cdatakill) and I met at the airport in Amsterdam. The plan was to meet at the Burger King since it would easy to spot and it was shown quite clearly on the map. Little did either of us know, there are TWO Burger Kings at the airport in Amsterdam. I can't win.
The tour started with a bang when we learned that the railway workers in the Netherlands had gone on strike for the day, and our only instructions were to take a train to Rotterdam. Oops.
(Not what you want to see when you are looking for a train to get you to a gig.)
I managed to get directions for bus travel to Rotterdam from the one guy who was stuck working and answering questions for would-be train passengers. Luckily for us there was a way to Rotterdam by bus. A bit unluckily, the route required 4 busses and took approximately 4 hours to travel what took 45 minutes by train. Fun.
So right off the bat, we got to see a lot of Holland up close and personal by riding city busses that swerved in and out of neighborhoods picking up kids from school and dropping them off at their homes. We learned that when kids graduate from high school, they toss their backbacks up over the family flagpole as a symbol of being finished with school. We also learned that kids are just as mean to each other in Holland as they are anywhere else.
After some wrangling, we made it to the dock where the Stubnitz was parked and took the requisite pictures of ourselves posing with the boat. This was my second time playing on the boat, and it was still just as cool, though most of the crew from last time seemed to be missing in action. Zak was understandably in awe of the boat, and took all of the same pictures I took last time. We met Dev/Null and the rest of the folks playing and sat down for some pizza.
Food Related Aside
I don't know why no one thinks to order just plain cheese pizza. This isn't a dis on the promoter here, it's a pervasive thing that happens at every office party, every show, every get-together, etc. People tend to assume that the omnivores will eat anything, that most people will eat pepperoni at least, and that the veggie people would rather have a vegetable-loaded pie rather than a plain cheese one. I didn't wind up eating anything in Rotterdam because all the pizzas were loaded with stuff that looked either scary or were just things I knew I didn't like. This experience was repeated in Metz, and as I said, it happens all the time in the states too. Not a massive failure with humanity, but geez man, cheese pizza is where it's at!
The set on the Stubnitz went pretty well. Sandwiched inbetween a lot of non-stop breakcore djs and live acts, this was the first time I was really aware that I was stopping between songs and that it was something the audience wasn't used to. This would be a recurring theme on this tour, of me being a live act more resembling a band playing with a lot of live acts that more resemble djs. It's not a problem per se, but it's an interesting little difference that can sometimes be awkward. This was the first time I got to hear Zak live since the Detroit gig we played together last May, and it was nice to listen to his stuff really, really loud.
Breakcore Gives Me Wood : Gent, BE
This is the mack-dad of all breakcore parties. Getting to play here is a real honor, especially for the likes of me who knows shit all about breakcore and doesn't really fit into that particular aesthetic 80% of the time. In talking with folks like Droon and DuranDuranDuran, and Christoph, it was obvious that everyone in 'the scene' likes more than just mashed up ragga breakbeats and is willing to bend a little to accomodate other sounds and styles to a point. Being included at the Wood party was fantastic because it meant being accepted a bit by folks who are pretty particular in what they want to hear at a party. I have a feeling that one day when the breakcore thing has run its course, and people are mostly over it (or it's gotten so big that people shun it for being too OVERground) that people will look back on these Wood parties as a central focal point for the whole movement much the way they look at a place like the Hacienda or the Limelight or whatever for those respective scenes. I don't think Droon and co. have that in mind per se, but I see it as the way these parties will be remembered--larger than life.
People gathered outside the Alcahel at approx 4 AM.
The party took place in what is known as the Alcahel Squat. This is in fact an old Alcatel building that has been reapproriated by a band of squatters who let party promoters use the downstairs facility for gigs so long as a portion of the proceeds go to a worthwhile charity. It turns out that the charity this time was some server support for some websites and some money for the squat itself, which is in dire need of some plumbing assistance! Yeah, yuck. This lead to a second night of really no dinner to speak of, because although one of the organizers made a mean ass thai curry of which I had 3 or 4 bites, I was dreadfully afraid to eat anything knowing that at some point it might be digested and there was really no reasonable place to 'go number 2'.
Cultural Aside
Europeans have a different idea about bathrooms and waste than we do. In the states, the two rooms of your house for which there are more luxury-minded accessories and amenities than anywhere else are the kitchen and the bathroom. We like our bathrooms to be posh, lovely places of comfort. We are not utilitarian in our approach to taking a crap. We have thrones and fuzzy bath mats and 12 kinds of soap. In Europe, there seems to be a little hold-over from the olde world that empowers people to treat the cobblestone streets like the waste disposal systems that they used to be. We saw plenty of people (and not bums or vagrants, but people we were hanging with) just up and piss on a street, building, or alley. One girl in Berlin squatted between two cars parked DIRECTLY IN FRONT of the club and let it rip. I have no idea if these people were too drunk to care, or if this sort of thing is just so common that it's not really embarassing. Walking around the Alcahel, there were little patches of human waste here and there, and at any point in the night it was not uncommon to see someone painting the side of the building with urine. There were two porta-johns at the squat that were getting funky around 10 pm, so I wasn't even going near them by 5 am. I would not have been surprised to have been hit in the head by a bucket-load of crap at one point, but luckily, this did not happen. Even the toilets in people's homes were usually very workmanlike. There's nothing wrong with that of course, but certainly after a while, the two things you begin to miss the most about home are your own bed and your own toilet.
I played pretty early, second in the lineup, so the crowd was still gathering and probably a little unsure of what to make of the goings-on at that point. Zak and I both had computer software trouble, and after a quick call back to the states to try and get my unlock key for my fully paid-for (gasp!) copy of Ableton Live, I just decided to play with the demo version and hope that it didn't crap out. It didn't. People dancing always makes my sets go better because it creates a shared kinetic energy. I realize that the videos are fun to watch and that sometimes they take precedence over moving around and that's cool, but there's nothing like people bobbing up and down to your music. Well, the only thing better is when some guy with a thick accent runs up to you and says "Are you Larvae? Will you play 'Crazyeye'? I love that song!" Weird! It's pretty humbling to have people tell you that they came to a party just to see you play, or to have them familiar at all with the music made by someone a continent or more away... but to have someone in a foreign country run up to me and request a particular song because they love that song and want to hear it--yeah, that really puts it into perspective. I was just glad that Crazyeye WAS in the set!
Breakcore Makes Me Tired was the theme for me. I loved being part of the party and the people I met were amazing. Droon was super funny and just a nice guy to hang with. DuranDuranDuran was also great, and since I missed meeting him last year in Detroit, it was nice to finally put a face with a name. I got some pictures of folks, got to meet Bong-Ra and thank him for the remix he turned in for the Empire 12", and all in all I couldn't have asked for a better group of people. CF spun a wicked set of stuff I'd never heard before, a lot of the music was pretty dope, and it was fun to see people getting bent out of their skulls while listening to music from hell. Still, I'm not a raver. I never was. I always steered clear of the all-night parties, the drugged-out benders, the squat parties, warehouse parties, and all that. The music was different, the clothes were different, but at the end of it, this was just a new school rave and that wore on me a bit. Maybe I'm too bourgeois for all that DIY rave madness or maybe I'm just a lazy American who likes to shower and sit on a sofa after a show, but I was getting cranky and tired by about 5 AM. We finally left the squat at 8 and were on our way to the airport. Looking back now, I remember mostly the great, fun parts and all the annoying things are just an anecdote, but if you'd have asked me at 9 AM after this party while I was waiting for a plane, I would have told you AGHGGGAGGGAGAGGGGHHH!
Spot the non-American who snuck into this photo!
The Garage : Norwich, UK
First of all, you don't pronounce the 'W'. This is something I knew going into it because a brit on CHUD had schooled the message board posters about the pronunciation of many British words and places. So we had to catch a plane to the UK to get to "Norrich", which presented Zak with his first of several brushes with authority. Keep in mind that we were at the Wood party for a good 12+ hours, that we left it at about 8 am after a night filled with loud music, public pissing, no sleep, little food, and a host of less-than-legal substances filling the air. I have done this before; getting through passport control while looking and smelling like someone who's been at an all-night, drug-filled rave. Zak had not. The passport people getting out of Belgium and into the UK were both happy to trip him up with questions and accusations that required a little bit of backpeddaling and fact-checking. I don't blame them a bit, personally, but it was nerve-wracking to think that I'd make it through customs with no problem at all and Zak might get sent packing. Luckily, this did not happen.
Legal Issue Aside
For those who are wondering, no, it's not a good idea to tell the customs/passport people that you are on tour. While some countries don't care, and others allow you in without a visa as an 'entertainer,' it's just generally more of a hassle than it's worth to explain how it's all set up, how the money will work, who's responsible, where the contracts are, etc. The boy band customs guys in Holland could really care less and are just happy you have come to the Netherlands to spend money. The people at the desks in London are a little less forgiving of glassy-eyed partiers coming from 5 countries in 5 days, and you can forget getting into the States or Canada if they think you are here to steal money and jobs from capable American and Canadian entertainers. All in all, it's an anxiety-inducing process to tour internationally whenever you have to cross a border, even though you are doing nothing particularly wrong. I'd like to just tell people "look, I'm playing these shows that are essentially just paying for my travel expenses, and I'm not a threat to anyone's livelihood because there's only one Larvae in the world and it's me" but that doesn't translate too well. The thing is, we ARE basically on vacation and visiting friends, we're just using the shows to help pay for it. Is that so wrong?
A mix up at the airport had us sitting and wondering when the Norwich promoters would find us. After an hour or so and after listening to a guy who's wife was getting a full bag and body search while trying to immigrate, David picked us up and we were off in a car on the wrong side of the road.
At this point, we began to learn that it was unseasonably hot in Europe, and in the UK especially. People told us that it gets hot about four or five days a year there and we were lucky enough to land smack dab in the middle of that brief annual heat wave. People in the UK seem ill-prepared for heat, and thus we wound up sweating a lot. After a shower and some wonderful home-made chili, we were off to the venue which was about as different a place from the Alcahel Squat as one could possibly get.
Now imagine that screen behind Cdatakill loaded with a nice, bright, crisp Larvae video and you have an idea of the pictures Zak took of me playing that didn't come out. The venue was amazing, a little community theater with state of the art rigging and projection and a nice, clean everything. The only thing it really lacked was a sound system meant for people to get rugged with heavy beats and bass. The sound was "polite" so to make up for that, I started out with a bit of theatrics explaining that I'd have visual hand signals for heavy bass that was otherwise inaudible. People seemed to take it in stride, and folks were even dancing to Zak's set. The promoters were terrific and had a lovely flat where we hung out, learned about tea, and eventually crashed. Big ups to Norwich!
Cumberland Arms : Newcastle, UK
The venue in Newcastle was described to us as "Ye Olde English Pub" and that was pretty accurate. We had been lamenting the fact that we'd been in the UK for 2 days and still hadn't been to a pub, but that all changed when we went to the Cumberland!
The owner asked me what we were playing and I told her it was kind of experimental drum n bass and she got pretty excited about "drum n bass at the Cumberland" because the rest of the events for the month read like this:
Improv Comedy
Traditional Folk Music
Pretty cool if you ask me! The things I knew about Newcastle going in were that they had a soccer team with black and white striped jerseys, and they had a beer named after the place. I didn't know it was quite so close to Scotland, and that the accents got a lot thicker and the language a lot more colorful. This is what I love about the UK. There are so many regional dialects and accents that are markedly different, but it's all English. We have that a bit in the States, but Don the promoter was telling us about his ability to spot people from this neighborhood or that. Cool.
Cultural Aside
One of the most interesting things that occurred to me while on tour happened in Newcastle. It's sometimes difficult to see just how influenced we are by the media and culture in this country. As much as I like to think that I am not a racist and that I treat everyone equally, I have to admit that I'd probably fail one of those race-sensitive tests where they tell you to picture a criminal in your mind, or pick out the robber from a group of pictures. The predominant image of black people in media in the states is one of a poor, uneducated criminal. This isn't helped by the thug-worship of hip hop culture, but it's not something you can blame on that as the major media in every form tends to paint an overwhelmingly negative view of minorities and especially blacks. Add to that the fact that many of the places that are dominated by crime and poverty-driven violence are also populated by minorities (in many cases because those folks haven't been given a fair shot at anything else) and it's not hard to see how someone as wigged-out and liberal as myself might still have some latent race-related concerns. In Newcastle, I'm not sure we saw more than 3 black people, but the town had a reputation of being pretty rough. The area we were staying in had walls lined with make-shift intruder deterrants of broken glass shards cemented to bricks, covered by barbed wire. It looks ominous and lethal, and when I asked if the glass was for people or birds, I got a quick "oh, it's for the people." As a white person in the states, I realized I have this false perception of safety around other whites, and in certain cases a perception of danger in neighborhoods that are predominantly black. It was fascinating to be in a place where that built-in conditioning didn't work--where the people it was rational to watch out for and be skeptical of were the white guys in athletic gear who seemed to just be walking down the street but might as soon pick a fight out of boredom as anything else. This all helped to reinforce more than anything the idea that it's economics and environment, not race, that breeds criminals and miscreants... and while this isn't a lesson I feel like I needed to learn, it helped make me feel more human to know that we all still have a long way to go before we can understand each other and get along as equals.
Everyone in Norwich told us the people in Newcastle were a bunch of nutters who liked to throw crazy parties and get rowdy. Everyone in Newcastle told us the people in Norwich were sort of 'hicks' and it was fun to go back and forth between the two. Newcastle was probably my favorite spot on the tour because Don the promoter was just an amazing guy. Between talking serious social and political issues with us, showing us around Newcastle a bit, taking us for some terrific curry (and making some himself), making sure we were comfortable, putting on a great show, and dropping some mad spoken word, I was just wishing we had even more time there. All the folks we met in Newcastle were great, and we had as much fun sitting around drinking with them and listening to stories about hooligans as we did playing.
Playing mad breakcore and gabber and speedcore in the attick of an old pub where the owner had a horse out front, people ate dinner with their dogs on the patio, and the benches and tables felt older than most everything in this country was the perfect way to experience the UK. I only wish more people could have come out, not so that we'd have had a bigger show for ourselves, but so that the promoters would have been able to make back some more of what they spent to bring us there. Don and David and company all have a welcome invitation to stay at chateau Larvae any time!
Me in the little park statuary that looked like a miniature Stone Henge (Cue the Tap!)
Le Tunnel : Metz, FR
From the UK, we headed back to France for a day off and a show in a quaint old European city. This was the city both Zak and I had been waiting to see--the old cobblestone streets, pedestrian-centric thoroughfares, the cafes with outdoor seating, the cathedrals, etc etc. At any moment, I expected to see a mime harrassing a flock of pigeons in front of a fountain! Touring in Europe definitely has its advantages.
The view from our hosts' flat wasn't bad!
We spent most of the day wandering around Metz, being touristy and taking in the local color. We ate at the nearest cafe and had some pretty awful microwaved pasta that had me feeling bad that we'd wasted time for a solid French meal on something gas-station-worthy. If we had walked about another block we would have seen the big cafe-lined center of town with dozens of eateries and hundreds of outdoor tables with little umbrellas. Oh well, touring isn't about eating, so we moved on. The promoter and our hosts in Metz were terrific and set us up with a key to their 4-story flat so that we could come and go at will. No one anywhere spoke much english and even when it was obvious that we didn't speak French, most of the shop owners and cashiers made no effort to work with us. Zak even got dissed by a girl who gave him a sugar-free Pepsi when he was obviously only ordering a regular Pepsi. If there was one place that felt like home in that it was uncompromising with foreigners, it was France.
For the record, yes, it IS called a Royal W/Cheese.
We walked to the venue and set up and ordered another round of pizzas. We had pizza the night before with Sebastien and his professional soccer-playing friend Sharief, and pizza was on the menu in Norwich, so it was turning into a running joke that we would eat nothing but pizza in Europe. To be fair, the pizza was a hell of a lot better than what you get at home, but it didn't alleviate the fact that we were eating a lot of cheese and bread and not a lot else. I did get a chance to check out the new GREENZ Fanta though, which is a combination of melon, lime, and green apple flavors and tastes better than it sounds like it would.
This was the first show on the tour without a projector, and my experience in the past has been that projector-less shows are the dodgiest for Larvae. Somehow with the video going, people are drawn into the set even if the music isn't up their alley, but without the visuals, it's just a fat guy playing music on a computer and if the music isn't what people are looking for necessarily, it's often hard to hold anyone's interest. Luckily, people seemed into the set and I got to air it out a bit with songs I couldn't play at the other shows when there was a video.
From here on out, we were riding with Nicolas which lent a little feeling of security to the otherwise not-entirely-stable world of travelling in a foreign place. We had just enough time in Metz to cool off and chill out, which at the mid-way point, was just what we needed.
Noxious Art Festival : near Vesoul, FR
Conflicting reports and stories about this festival had it listed as 'the French Maschinenfest', '1000-2000 people with 2 open air stages', 'smaller than Maschinenfest with 2 indoor stages', etc etc. I wasn't sure what the expect, but by the time we had rolled through the deep, deep French countryside, we hit the very hot, very-much-still-under-construction festival grounds. I sort of stopped taking pictures at this point because I was getting tired and it was all blending together in my head. After a quick trip to the little cottage that had been rented for us, we headed back to the festival grounds all showered and ready to see if the vinyl would melt.
It was a bit of a wait until I went on, but just before my set was 2nd Gen, someone I had wanted to see for a long, long time. They did not disappoint with a ragged, heavy, noisy set of hip hop and whatever else you call what they do. The MC was great and I was just immensely impressed at their stage presence. Scorn had cancelled the show, so I was a bit disappointed not to see Mick play again, but it was great to finally see 2nd Gen live.
All day people had been telling me the sky would open up at any moment. Being booked for the large outdoor stage had the disadvantage of being suceptible to rain. It also lacked the confined space required to really get the bass into gut-rattling territory. They did however have two projections and a lot of room for people to hang out and watch the bands, so it was fun to get to play on "Floor 1". As I was booting up my laptop, I heard the pitter patter of rain on the canopy and then watched in horror as the few hundred people left after 2nd Gen went running for shelter. This was pretty much the worst case scenario, I thought--I go to France, play on the big stage of some important festival, and everyone bails cause it rains and I play to 4 people. As it turned out, the rain only lasted a few minutes and when I kicked the music on, people came back out. I have no idea how many people stayed and were into it, but the festival was the place that I got the most out-of-the-blue compliments from people. Having people in a foreign country run up and say "you are the best! You are my favortie music! I came to this festival just to see Larvae" is something I will never, ever get used to. I'm so happy abou it and glad that I can make something that people get into, but I hope they don't mistake my honest speechlessness at these kinds of situations for some kind of front. It's an honor to have people who know and love the music. It's the only reason to make the music in the first place.
The next morning was perhaps the perfect beginning for the weirdest and worst 24 hours of the tour. Not much was around in the small village a few miles from the festival, and what was there was not open when we ventured out. There was a single bar/restaurant full of locals that appeared open, so we stopped there for lunch. We were greeted with a round of "Bon Jour"s from the people sitting at the adjacent table and it seemed all very friendly. Perhaps, TOO friendly. For, like in a bad movie trailer that shows the family sitting down for dinner just before bein mauled by zombie robotic tigers or something, our situation immediately went from pleasant to moltov coctail. We ordered a round of drinks and asked for a menu and the woman running the place reluctantly said that she could maybe fix a salad or something, but otherwise, there was no food. Ooooookaaaaay. The sign outside DOES say "Restaurant" but maybe there was something there I was missing. Anyway, Nicolas asked for a baguette and the woman said she'd look, but it didn't look promising. When she brought out the coffee, Nicolas asked for some milk or cream for the coffee which prompted the weirdest response ever.
Woman: There's a supermarket down the road.
Nicolas: Yes, but it's closed. We just want a little milk for the coffee.
Woman: I'm sorry, but if I give you everything, I'll have to close the shop.
HUH? This was a serious WTF for me. Of course just a minute later, she started walking out of the kitchen with full plates of pasta and steak for the table of 6 already seated. WTF? Were we in bizzarro France? Apparently being non-local meant you got treated like a second class citizen here, so we paid and left. I was honestly a little too shocked to think of exactly the right thing to say, but I felt like going back later and playing the 'ugly american' role just to rile the lady up. I learned here that back water hickville in France is even less accomodating than backwater hickville USA. People here might spit in your food, but at least they'll serve it to you.
I spent the rest of the day at the cottage, forgoing another 12 hour day at the festival where the toilets were sorta funky, the food was scarce or expensive, and the comforts of a cushioned chair were no where to be found. As it turns out, my decision to skip the second day of the festival was precient in that I missed the drug-sniffing dogs giving Zak and his records a hard time at 6 AM. Always an adventure.
WAF Salon : Berlin, DE
All good things must come to an end, and so too was our tour wrapping up. We were supposed to have a full day off in Berlin to chill out and see the weirdness of a city once divided by a wall and the cold war. Instead, Nicolas got us booked on the city's regular breakcore party at the WAF Salon, a place where the water gun army of this neighborhood of Berlin regularly hangs out and listens to crazy music. Spending the day with Nicolas and Dani was great as we got to see a fair amount of Berlin, take lots of pictures, and buy some souveniers for people back home. We didn't wind up going to the club until after 10 pm, which allowed time for a home-cooked Schnitzel meal courtesy of Dani and Nicolas.
Whoever said there was no traffic on the Autobahn?
The WAF Salon was great, low-key, but home to a host of people who all liked mashed up breaks and weird noises and were up for anything. I got to meet former Atlantan Donna Summer, and spent most of the night chatting with the man behind Karl Marx Stadt and sipping banana juice and anything else they had without alcohol. My set was marred by a PA problem that occurs whenever anyone gets too loud and trips the limiter. Zak spent the rest of my set riding the faders below the redline so that the sound wouldn't cut out. As a result, there wasn't enough oomph to really get people dancing, but the video was nice and big and people seemed into that and I took it a little easy with the headbanging and jumping around theatrics due to the space. Zak played a great set that had a bunch of people dancing frantically and cheering every time a song broke down into an ambient noise to then blow back up into a wall of noise. If I were in Berlin, I could see this being a place I'd come and chill at a couple times a month, and that was fun.
A million thank you's are due to all the people who made the tour possible, but that's another post. For now, the touring van has come to a halt and I'm back in town working with Chris on some new sounds for a new record. Big ups to my touring partner Mr. C. Datakill, and of course big ups to Nicolas and Dani at Ad Noiseam HQ for setting the whole thing up and making it all possible. Until next time...
June 13: Lenny's Bar : Atlanta, GA
: Larvae playing as part of the Kirkwood Baller's
Club
||||| IN EUROPE : Cdatakill & Larvae
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More info at:
tour.adnoiseam.net
June 17: MS Stubnitz : Rotterdam, NL
June 18: Alcahell : Gent, BE : Breakcore
Gives Me Wood party with Dev/Null, Christoph Fringeli,
DuranDuranDuran
June 19: The Garage : Norwich,
UK
June 21: The Cumberland Arms:
Newcastle, UK
June 23: Le Tunnel : Metz,
FR
June 24: Noxious Arts Festival : Pontcey,
FR : with Scorn, 2nd Gen, Imminent, Mlada Fronta, and many
more
European tour pics
