The first three days of tour were off days spent in
Dublin. It was rad beyond belief. Highlights included visiting
Newgrange, an ancient stone structure built to perfectly align with the
dawn on the winter solstice. Old-age New Age.
Dublin is hands-down one of my favorite cities to play. Leagues
O’Toole, Turtle, and Owen are awesome people.
After the Manchester show, Chester and I hung out with my friend
Alex of Spank Rock and we drank too much and got lost coming home. One
of my favorite drunk activities: listening to birds when I should be
sleeping.
The London show with No Age sold out pretty far in advance so I was
really excited. The venue was a big open room that looked like it
normally had hardcore shows or square dancing. It had a huge Christmas
grotto and really set the tone.
Chester and I roamed around Amsterdam (not stoned) and went to a
bunch of cool museums. We were staying in a really tiny, cheap, and
questionable hotel. When we were leaving, I noticed that every door had
been broken into.
My luggage showed up at the airport one hour before I was scheduled
to play the Transmusical Festival in Rennes, France. I set up with no
sound check. I wasn’t allowed to play on the floor, which was a total
bummer. It was my first show on a stage with a barrier and it didn’t
make any sense. To make matters worse, the band before me sprayed
champagne all over my equipment, causing my stuff to short out
throughout the night.
Andre showed us around Prague and took us to this AMAZING
mechanical-instrument museum. This was one of the most important
musical moments in my life. This place will have a major impact on my
approach to
composition. The show was in a weird bar above a
casino.
Antwerp was with Girl Talk again and it was nice to compare tours
and talk about our shows together coming up in New York. We had many
elaborate plans for absurd, radical shows while we were wasted.
We went to Barcelona and had a rad time. The show was a dance party
for Primavera at this huge crazy place called Apolo. At one point, I
got hugged by 10 people while others were fucking with my gear. It was
beautiful and horrifying at the same time. 