Munster, Hamburg, Berlin, Rotterdam, Nantes 'n' Rennes!

Bam! Another installment!

This is your host, Matt. Please sit down.

After Solothurn we had two, maybe three glorious days off. We dropped Susie off in Dusseldorf for sweet times and Mirko, Cam and I travelled all the way up to Varel, on the brink of 'The North Sea'. I really love the epic-ness of that. We slept a lot, enjoyed amazing hospitality from Mr. Mirko's Grandparents, and hung out with the best family unit of the ever. We also rode some bicycles through a wonderous forest:



Munster wasn't scary at all. We played at a place called "Gleiss 22" which had a half a bicycle sticking out of the front. That was a little scary. We arrived at the venue to find that we were playing with a band of lovely folk from New York who call themselves Gregory and the Hawk. Though they were the headline band, the fact that we - as I described it in a drunken state - were like a drunk at a wedding, we played last. Also comparable to Vince Vaughan in any of his films, placed against the other two bands (an acoustic romantic singer from Mexico/Texas/Munster, and the beautiful sounds of 'G and the H') you could see the strangeness. We had a delicious dinner at the venue, and partied down after the show, chatting to the venue owner about all the other Australian bands who had surprisingly played there.

The next day we ventured onto the road for a supposedly short drive to Hamburg, but we ended up in a colossal shitstorm traffic jam. I remember calculating 6kms of movement in 4 hours. Cam decided to kill time by running out into a huge field of deep grass like an escaped convict.


While I silently voiced my feelings:

After almost cancelling the show, we ended up outta that jam and arriving at the venue exactly 5 minutes before the proposed playing time. Crazy stairs. The band room was built for tiny people (I guess they have a lot of "small" bands playing there [AHA!]). We were treated that night to some very welcoming accomodation in the house of another kind local. The breakfast the next morning was freakin' beautiful. So many delicious breads 'n' spreads.

We had nowhere near enough time in Berlin, though it seems like a wonderful place. Our friend Les came from London to meet us at our show (and provide one more person in the crowd, and a blessed person at that). We were also greeted there by our new friends from Gregory and the Hawk, who happened to have a day off in Berlin, lucky suckers. Oh yeah, they had a SUPER NINTENDO IN THE BAND ROOM! and all the games worked without any need to perform the old dust blowout. We had quite an amount of games of NBA Live '95.



After Berlin we played another awesome show in Trier and stayed with our now good pals. We smoked some flavoured tobacco type stuff from one of those shisha pipe thingos and it was very literally sweet. Mirko and I went out to a disco party and left the club in the early daylight hours. Jagermeister shots are pretty good sometimes.

Had to leave early yet again to head up to Rotterdam. We all had a delectable plate of fish and chips for dinner, and were greeted by our friends from Gent, which was quite wonderful. We actually left straight after the show and drove to Belgium to stay a couple of nights in Gent again. Belgium is a wonderful place. We went to an underground pub and had some beers with pink elephants on the glass. And you could smoke in there! I was excited anyway. We had another couple of very relaxing days off, which included Susie's fantastic birthday! "Nobody likes you when you're 23". We still think she's ohhhhh-kay. Beautiful scenic ice-cream waffle eating times a-plenty.

Back to work though before too long and we were on our way back to France, to Nantes in fact. We played in a pizza cafe/venue underneath a very grumpy neighbour who greatly restricted our usual loud loudness. It was kinda like busking. Rather awkward. Although that night we had the priviledge of staying with two wonderful people by the names of Sylvia and David, in the lush countryside between Nantes and Rennes. They made us tea when we arrived and also took a photo of us for their 'bands who stay at our place' blog (which you can incidentally find here: lalogaise.unblog.fr [actually i just typed that inj and it didn't work out very well but it's what they told us so i'll put it in anyways]) They were wonderful folks.

We headed to Rennes after this for our last show in mainland Europe for who knows how long. This meant that it was time to P-A-R-T-Y? Truth. We all had multiple shots handed to us on stage by the bar staff (who included one of the generous dudes that we stayed with (who lived ABOVE A BAKERY!!!)). The place was surprisingly and wonderfully packed, and we got to play with a totally sweet band called I Come From Pop. We managed to make it the devastating 25 metres from the venue to our place of accomodation after playing for even more exstensive partying. Oh, did I mention that we were blessed with some scrumptious-licious authentic french crepes for dinner? I probably should have. They were rather unforgettable. I think we might have hit it a little hard that night and I myself only had about 2 hours sleep before having to drive a while and then endure a 'swayier than usual' ferry trip. I was woken from my slumber by a nice lady who politely said "Time to get off now", and later found out that Cam was woken up in a rather opposite way by a man who said "DOVER!!" when we arrived in Dover.

And ever since then we've been in 'The Motherland'/'The Mighty England'/'The Kingdom'. We've had the priviledge of sitting in at Andy Gill's studio for a little taste of our album mixing in the last few days, and we've all been catching up with some of our long departed Australian London-living friends. It's still wonderful.

If you've got this far, you definitely deserve a thank you, and a picture of me eating a full english breakfast (the crucial last bite no-less). Here's to all of you!

Enjoy. We'll see you on the other side (soon). Cheeeeeeerrrrrrrssssssss!

Caen, Paris, Milan, Freiburg, Fribourg, Solothurn

Today we left the Kingdom and headed back to the land of Grade-A beer, accents that make you crumble and way too much delicious cheese -> Europe! to play 5 shows with MaxÏmo Park and a bunch of our own shows. We were all super psyched to get back to touring Europe; it is so much fun and makes any old band pleb feel like a healthier Keith Richards. We travelled by ferry from Dover and said "The White Cliffs of Dover" in one-too-many bad accents.

Our first show with Brit bro's MaxÏmo Park was in the French city of Caen - once again our naivety and 'sorry! English-only!' ignorance left us scratching our heads with how to pronounce it, eventually we got there. The show was super fun and Matt ate the "best chocolate cake in the universe". A special thanks to the rad and enthusiastic ladies who stood up front and sang the words to our songs. Ruling. Here is a pictoral representation of the evenings 'vibe':





The next morning - post mandatory Baguette/Espresso stop - we left for the ever beautiful, ever expensive and ever fucked traffic of Paris! After a few trips around the block and some directional assistance from a friendly French security guard we arrived at La Trabendo. Our manager met us there and we are please to confirm that his moustache still makes him look like a Parisian porn-star. Needless to say, he loves Paris. The show that night ruled, just like last time we were in town. Even though I spoke a lot of shit between songs which i'm sure 0.0001% of the audience understood, the responded with enthusiasm and French hollerings. Awwww, new french pals!!! Pre-show, we had decided to leave after we played for Milan, with our terminator-esque tour manager/sound engineer/best buddy/pseudo-psychologist/San Pelligrino connoisseur Mirko driving through the night; some 900kms away. To prepare for this arduous journey I tried to drink as much as possible in an attempt to comfortable pass out in the back of the van. I actually think i've become less accustomed to drinking on this tour.....fail! Preparin':



We drove.....and drove...and drove...and after many mini-stops, servo snacks and Travelling Wilburys we arrived at MILANO!!!! Man, was it hot! I was quick to change into shorts and have those lil' hairy legs of mine see the light of day. The was wicked fun and the Italians were as hospitable as ever. I said "Grazzi" about 736 times. That night we stayed in - by our standards - a pimped hotel, and on the way saw many Italian ladies-of-the-night......I suddenly feel very ironic.

Next stop: Freiburg in Germany. A bunch of very persceptive local kids booked us a show on the basis we had a day off and their town was on the way to our next show. Germans huh? What a bunch! We arrived to our host Flo's house to a table full of salads, chocolate, coffee and pasta...these dudes were onto a winner. We gorged. We laughed. We probably high-fived. The venue "The Great Reng Teng Teng" was right up IHH's alley; small, dimly-lit and featuring some great cubicle art.



It also offered us an unlimite supply of alcohol. and NOT because of this, the show was amazing. Maybe even the most fun I've had yet on this tour. The place was packed and everyone was out to party. The real fun started post show. HOLY GERONIMO DID THE FUN START. It was a slow rise with basically only Cam and me dancing but then slowly we morphed that place into the greatest dance party I have ever been too......playing only classic 90's dance hits: Ace of Base, 2Unlimited, Vengaboys, Reel 2 Real, Scatman John, Snap etc. Poor Matt over-indulged himself early and had to hit the hay before the hay hit him. But we danced the SHIT out of that place. Oh how we danced.

We drove to Fribourg - in Switzerland. Confusing, right. The show was sweet. We ate like kings....AGAIN. Do i even need to talk anymore about how amazing food is in this continent?! But yes amazing. The venue had the most impressive disco ball I have ever seen:



Our final M.P show was in a really awesome venue, Kofmehl, in Solothurn, Switzerland. It was next door to a sports centre....featuring Mini Golf! Ihh challenged MaxÏmo Park singer Paul to a game........after a tie for first between Paul and I, we had a play off and I totally beat his ass. Victorious motherfucker!



We had a few hours to kill before soundcheck and we found magical room filled with wonder and goodness....I guess this will explain all:



The show was a rad farewell to a great micro-tour with the super nice MaxÏmo Park-ers. I wanna send a nice hearty 'cheerz' to the Solothurnians.....good egg!! Check em out!



We danced for a while after the show with our newfound Kofmehl friends, before retiring to our camping ground for some delicious slumber. Good times, great tour, excess calories. Till next time kids, this is Susie over and out. Big love, huge missin xxxxxxx

Trier, London, Liverpool, Bristol, Nottingham, Glasgow

Trier treated us very kindly. We met an awesome dude called Benny who cued up a show for us at a rehearsal space and he and his pals cooked us a hearty pre show pasta. The show was surprisingly crowded and we later moved the celebrations from the carpark to Benny’s kitchen with some local German beers and Guns ‘n Roses ‘Appetite for Destruction’. Achtung.



The show at the Barfly in Camden was our first in London and it went swimmingly. There was an ice fight toward the end of the set that no encore could have topped. Susie was endlessly harangued by fellow Australian expats. We even had burritos.

The drive to Liverpool was a shitfight. They have this thing called a bank holiday which basically just turns two hour drives into seven-hour drives and road rage escalates. We chose to drive to Liverpool on one such holiday and by the time we got there I had a cold sore, such was the extent of my cabin fever. The show itself, however, was a lot of fun.

The first show of the Dot-to-Dot festival was in Bristol. The artist check-in area was at the town docks so after we played we cashed our meal tickets for some of the most delicious pies ever, topped with mash peas and gravy. The show was really fun and we made some new friends with American expats, now hiding in Sweden “Dag for Dag” who invited us to participate in their street side shoe-art, see below:



We also ran to the centre of town in time to see the end of Crystal Stilts set which was awesomely loud.

After Bristol we went to Nottingham to play the second show of the Dot-to-Dot festival. We ate some really great burgers. Really great burgers.

Glasgow was one of the greatest shows of the tour so far. We checked out the city and saw this statue which has a Witch Hat atop its head year-round thanks to drunk pranksters who replace it as soon as it is removed by officials.



Our friend Danny came and took us for pizza and then his good pals “8-Ball” supported and melted all three of our faces. After the show we exchanged Seinfeld quotes with a friend Neily and then made it back to Danny’s where I broke his couch and Brisbane expat/good-egg Betty took a tumble down some hard concrete stairs. CAT scans ensued.

Cam out.

PARIS, TOURCOING, STRASBOURG, BRIGHTON GREAT ESCAPE FESTIVAL, GRONINGEN, AMSTERDAM

This is matt with another instalment in the not so up to date IHH blog!
We left Toulouse early in a long blaze of glory to PARIS! Lucky as we are, the GPS didn’t share our sightseeing hopes. Well, in a twisted way it kinda did. We were led way up into the mountains through some beautiful towns (though I was half asleep at the time) to a thrilling dead end. This meant that by the time we got to Paris it was time for soundcheck. Another ridiculous show in another amazing venue, the Elysee Monmarte. We managed to get ourselves to an absurdly expensive but aurally amazing afterparty and on the way to yet another kind stranger’s house we snapped photos of the Moulin Rouge through the wide open van door. The next morning we drove past the Eiffel Tower with “too little time to climb”. Had some delicious felafels which totally ruined my best pants. Like reverse dalmations.

Straight to Tourcoing next, heavily raining, but strangely fitting. We were all taken to dinner in what seemed like the best personal dining room ever. Dinner conversation included a very odd story about the Manic Street Preachers and a very crude game they play while recording (it involved “bags”) Some crazy guy stole my lighter twice so I let him keep it. That night we stayed in an extremely dubious hotel. But a hotel nonetheless (!!) And had a relatively relaxed drive to Strasbourg, where the Rakes’ encore song (titled ‘Strasbourg’) finally reached it’s blitzing peak. I should also mention that their merch guy Chris brushed his teeth with a toilet brush: “my teeth feel numb”.

We went out on the town with the Rakes and a few locals to a pub where you can buy a giant beer with a tap. Who needs to get up ever again?

My lifelong dream of teleportation abilities was given new life the next day as we drove through the night (myself a little too drunk) from Strasbourg to Brighton. The Euro Tunnel is amazing. We got to wander around the massively and presumably uncharacteristically overcrowded town of Brighton all afternoon. I imagine that on a normal day it’s even more wonderful. We wandered into a studio for a maximum professional photo shoot with Olly Hersey, who very graciously offered us his place to stay the night (he had CATS! Sweet times). We played our “showcase” at Great Escape to a packed room (80 people, hehe) of slowly warming folk. We ran into quite a few familiar faces there as well, including Kellie Lloyd from Screamfeeder, who directed our first video clip. And Jin, the wonderful manager of New Pants. It was all so comforting.

Then something amazing happened. We somehow made our way onto the guestlist for the Gang of Four show. After wandering around for ages and realizing that the map was quite possibly drawn by a toddler, we made it there and BAM! Gang of Four!



It was pancake flippin’ amazing.

We got some sleep and started heading back the way we came. 10 hour trip to Groningen, which was brilliant. We played in a venue called Vera, which had some pretty long and awe-inspiring history. The “Catering room” was full of old press shots of bands who’d played there eg:



We stayed that night in a hostel which made us all feel like we were kids sleeping at our best friend’s house. The next day it was time to head for Amsterdam. We got there and went to a café for (seriously) just a coffee. Nobody believed us. Later on that night we did go to a café though, and had a delightful canalside sit. Before this though, we made the brilliant decision of going to the ‘Pirate Bar’, which actually had nothing to do with Pirates apart from the rope door handle.



Needless to say, when we got back to the hostel that night, I was too scared to get on the top bunk, and slept like a freaking log.

That’s where I’ll leave it, even though this doesn’t bring us anywhere near up to date. Hope all y’all are cool as courguettes, and please stay that way until we see you.
- Matt