Artsy

Yesterday we went to Tate Modern in London. Yeah, we may have an “unprintable” band name, but we’re some high-brow dudes (note my sophisticated omission of the definite article in the previous sentence) - don’t forget it. The highlight of the visit for me were a few pieces by Thomas Demand of Germany.

Only three festivals left! Lounge on the Farm today, Oxygen tomorrow, and T in the Park on Sunday. That means only six more flights til we return home, for a grand total of 16 flights on this tour. 16!!! That leaves a pretty dismal carbon footprint, I know. We’re working on it…

tate, festivals, london | Comment (0)

Pole Position

Small Music Festival > Big Music Festival.

This equation continues to prove itself time and time again, most recently with Festival Nowa Muzyka that we played a couple of nights ago in Cieszyn, Poland. The smaller size affords us more time to hang with our hosts, not to mention all the positives that come with playing to a smaller crowd. Not that Glastonbury wasn’t fantastic, it’s just so giant and the audience is about 50 metres from the stage.

In Canada we’re blessed with very small festivals like the Wolfe Island Music Festival, or the multi-stage but still small festivals like the Hillside and Dawson City Music Festivals. (I’ve been lucky enough to play all three!) Festival NowaMuzyka is well on its way to such levels of awesomeness. Especially if they continue to book bands like Battles, who battled through major technical issues to deliver a blistering finale of a set.

In celebration of Battles’ conquest, Brian rode the red bull for all it was worth and we discussed the almost always ill-fated idea that is the opening band “spontaneously” joining the headlining band for the last song of their set as evidenced by yours truly on one of the drums in this sad clip (note: Brian thinks the clip isn’t so bad, we’ve agreed to disagree).

Now we’re in the Norwegian town of Bergen, which is easily one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. A big festival canceled but some local promoters picked up the pieces and we’re lucky enough to have been invited here to play a small show tomorrow night. It’ll still be light out when we hit the stage at 11:30 pm. The last time I did that I was in Dawson City, Yukon. Which reminds me, happy Canada Day!

festivals, battles, poland | Comment (0)