Beren's World

So I'm back at English, baby! after another two month break. Well, a two month tour to be more precise. Instead of Europe, it was the US this time. We went through the midwest, up to Canada, down the east coast, through the south, and up the west coast back to Portland. We played with many amazing bands, like Kid Congo and the Pink Monkeybirds, the Raincoats, and Wizzard Sleeve.

We had 5 days to check out NYC, 2 days to hang out in New Orleans, and I had my second birthday in a row on the road in Chattanooga, TN. We lost a man in New York, gained one for the night in Memphis, then were back to a four piece for our shows in Los Angeles and San Diego. We got flown from Austin, Texas to Montreal, Quebec for a single day to play a single show. We all had the flu, and played on questionable equipment, but pulled it off with aplomb. We also flew from San Francisco to Portland for our last show, a festival that included Roky Erikson and the Black Lips. But it's nice to be home, and back in the cast!

So, I realized I left out the end of the European tour, what with the flying back to the West Coast of the US only to fly back east a mere day later. 

Our second to last show was in Tours, France. It was a giant festival, and we played with a diverse range of acts including, inexplicably, Busdriver, the rapper from LA. We also played with a group of ladies and gents called the Vedettes. There were at least 14 people in the band, and all the ladies wore matching outfits and ended the evening wearing bridal gowns. I missed the last number because I was busy eating insanely good food in the catering tent, and it being our last night in France, we each had a whole baguette and carafe of red wine. 

After having played a few festivals in Europe, I've come to realize a few things:

1. Most people at festivals are there for one band and want to spend the rest of the time eating/drinking and talking through the sets of bands they are not familiar with.

2. European festivals (save Primavera) are typically set up in the middle of nowhere and run by two hippies and all structures/band tents set up have at least one mural with a "rasta" Homer Simpson.

3.  The food is always better than any food I have been served at venues in the US, without exception.

 After leaving France, we headed back to Amsterdam for our final show. We played at the Paradiso, the nicest venue in town. Unfortunately, we were also playing on the same night as a hip-hop label showcase, and the building got filled to capacity, which meant none of our Intelligence fans could get in! We played to three devoted fans who had snuck past security, and called it a night. We had many miles behind us and a few thousand ahead, and needed to get ready for the long trip home. 

All in all, I wouldn't have changed anything about the trip, and somewhere in France, there are two girls in France wearing English Baby bracelets, and an old man wearing an Ebaby t-shirt...

So after disembarking from the Rock boat, we took our sea legs and headed to Oslo, Norway. We arrived at the awesome club, Gloria Flames, and headed upstairs to meet up with our friends from Crash Normal, Jerome and Julie. They had been flown over from Paris to play a festival that day and to play with us that night. We all grabbed a seat on the outside deck and ordered some great food from the kitchen, fish for everybody and a salad pizza for me and the other non-meat (or non-trout) fans. Delicious. 

The show was a release party for a split 7 inch featuring Crash Normal and the Intelligence on Compost Modern Art recordings. Crash Normal played first and were awesome. The band had been through a couple of lineup changes, so this was the first show with Julie, Jerome's sister, on keyboards and singing. It was rad, and no one would have guessed they hadn't been playing together for years.

The Intelligence set was fun, even though my kick drum went rogue ( thanks for holding it with your leg, Lars). The crowd was really into it, and it was the label dude, Tomas', birthday so we played "Confidence" off of "Icky Baby" for him. Jerome came up and sang on "World is Not a Drag," and the crowd went nuts. Good times.

The next day we headed to Copenhagen, Denmark. We actually played in Christiania, a free city located in the middle of Copenhagen. Does anybody know more about this place? I'm obsessed. Apparently it was settled in 60's as a hippie commune; there aren't any police, they have their own laws and government! It was wild. We played with a Finnish band named Knucklebone Oscar. Knucklebone tried to sell me to their drummer.

We had a little time to walk around Copenhagen and take in the sights. We found the botanical garden and a weird castle in the middle of a park. Very cool. 

The next day we headed back north to Helsinger, Denmark. We played a quiet show with Thee Vicars and hung out in the club eating pizza with the locals. Everyone was still tired from the Rock boat, and I still hadn't recovered from my sea legs. The DJ tried his best though, and played "St. Barts" off of "Fake Surfers," the latest Intelligence record. Thanks, dude.