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Tuesday, October 12th, 2004
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Just heard that one of my personal heroes, Bjork, bought a copy of the Stafraenn Hakon/Dialect Tour EP today at the wonderful Smallfish (where we'd previously played an instore a few weeks ago). This fills me with joy and fear. Joy because my tracks are on there, so she'll probably hear them. Fear because they're not that great and not much like the stuff i'm writing (in my head) at the moment, for the album.
Still cool though.
Been listening to some seriously amazing music recently, recommended by people and reviews. Juana Molina, Vetiver, Sufjan Stevens, Sylvain Chauveau, Ester Drang, and loads more. If it counts at all, I very much recommend this artists.
D
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Comments: Read 4 or Add Your Own.
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Saturday, October 2nd, 2004
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Last gig on the tour. A freebie at RoTa@Notting Hill Arts Club... and an afternoon/early evening show.
Umm, err... yeah few 'misunderstandings' with the sound guy... herm... pretty crappy sound in soundcheck due to NOTHIONG going through the PA. I was kinda pushed off stage trying to do my soundcheck, which sounded awful and convinced me that i didn't want to play this show. But i shut up and sorted it out with the sound guy and it was ok, Dialect sounded pretty alright and went down OK. Souvaris were really really good as before, looking forward to their album. And Hakon was just seriously fun. Was kinda nice cuz Oli and Halli's girlfriends came to this show from ICeland, and a few of the Icelanders' family too. Met some nice people as well... was sad to see the end of such an eventful 3 weeks! Great work from the Andys @ Reso... Hope to do this all again sometime in the near future!!!!!!
D
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Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
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IT's the last entry for the SCC journal dumb thingy...
Brighton! What a great gig :) I was dubious at first, of the venue and the promotion... but oh how wrong i was...
The sound was TOO much in fact, it was too loud and too bass-heavy (which i quite like usually, but ouch this hurt) but that was kinda good i think. the venue was packed. dialect went down pretty well, even though it was painfully loud and even me playing bass made everything vibrate. bassy bass bass. then hakon was just great fun to play, and felt really positive too (except for Oli's pedal going spastic). Was also nice to talk to some people for a bit after the show, cuz normally i'm packing up for half an hour straight after the set, then in the van and off again, but this gig I was able to talk to some people. So yeah, just great promotion, really genuine, honest people. Edinburgh and Brighton are now my 2 favourite UK cities. MAjor big massive thankyou to Dave the promoter, what a cool guy and so enthusiastic about the music and the night and everything and really kind of him to let my sleep in his front room. Yowza.
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Friday, October 1st, 2004
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Bringing us finally up to date... Set off early afternoon for this gig, the instore at Smallfish. After purchasing some stuff from Chunky's bedroom record shop... pretty cool!
No major problems here, except some confusing directions and parking difficulties, but we made it... Smasllfish is the best record shop ever... has a cafe too.
We were a bit early, so the guy went off for a while, whilst I perused the shop and bought some discs... ;)
We set up in the downstaris cafe, with hardly any room (was funny though) and bodged together a way of running the drum machine and keyboards through some speakers, sounded REALLY loud and painful... but not too bad. Also decided not to play Dialect as the speakers wouldn't be able to loud enough for the laptop to sound good with the guitars, plus EXTREMELY limited equipment being used as a PA. Wouldn't have worked and it was already a lot of hassle for the Hakon set. Not a bad crowd, and played the first song well... Then the bass amp started grunting and fucking up again. Did this through every single song, so Papa D came and risked his life trying to stop it from humming, but that bass amp really ruined the set... Need a new one for tomorrow! But massive thanks to the guys at Smallfish for putting the free instore on, and everyone for watching and seeing through the bass amp problems. I will be back to play a Dialect set int he New Year, definitely! And probably buy some more stuff from them ;)
So we're up to date with just 2 more dates to go :( will be sad when it's over...
D
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So after a leisurely 2 days off we drove to Birmingham. Shopped around for a little while... I think directing and things had got to Dave by this point... As he was pretty stressed on the way to the venue (another hard one to find)... after soundchecks Dave decided that he wanted to go home. It's a massive loss to us all and I couldn't have done any of this without him. Luckily Papa D was at these final 4 gigs to help out... But still I hope there's no hard feelings with Dave and me and the rest of us and we really valued his help (and organisation and directions, and tons of other things) on this tour... if you'r reading this - you were brilliant. I just wish Ireland would've been better merchandise-wise so we could've continued living off the tour money! The birmingham gig was ok though, Dialect sounded great and was going fine until... mid track2 the computer crashhed... no idea what happened and fucked me up completely. took me ages with some cheesy jokes and awkward silences to fix it. Missed out 2 and 3 and sorted it out for 4 and 5... the crowd liked it though and were very sympathetic! Then Souvaris played, they were pretty special! Really tight, Slint/Tortoise/Godspeed-esque stuff, upstaged us a bit! And the hakon set was fun too, a good order and good vibe there... Sold quite a bit of merch too which was nice, good to be back in the UK! Dave, if only you'd would've stuck around for this 1 last one! You could've had some more breakfasts and things on me ;) (If you do read this, we really miss having you on the tour! expect an awesome present and some other stuff from me at the end! hope your trip was ok and Loughborough isn't sucking too much)...
Also news flash, we stayed at Chunky HQ this night as well.... crazy stuff!
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A long(er) one, due to staying here 2 days. And some comical events.
5 hours back to Dublin (i'm dying by this point, still haven't caught up from the previous lack of sleep and ferry sickness) but we made it, then took us a ridiculous amount of time to find Tower Records (it was a free instore at Tower), in the end Oli took a cab there and we followed.
We were late as possible. So Oli suggested Dialect playing after Hakon (didn't really wanna play the instore as Dialect anyway)... So we parked up shot into Tower, set up and played a 5-song set to a few select shoppers and a couple of nice people who came to see us! Was fun and i think we played pretty well this time... Ended up not doing Dialect after Hakon cuz Sammi disappeared (as usual) with the van keys, so I couldn't get the equipment out of the van) which was all good though, cuz i really didn't wanna play Dialect at Tower, it was late everyone had left and blah... But it was ok, kinda weird, sold a few Tour EPs but couldn't sell any other merch due it being Tower (sucks a bit! Free show, and no merch on sale, hmm...). Back to promoter's house for some food, turns out it was his birthday and he was having a house party. We decided not to be in the way, went out in Dublin for some drinks (both places we went sucked) came back around midnight, and the party had kicked off. We ended up all getting extremely drunk,metting some nice people, and falling asleep to constant music until 8am! Except Oli that is, went on to another party, and came back to go to sleep at 11am! Youch! So wandered around Dublin this day, was kinda nice, but kinda boring... International Bar gig was very hectic, the PA/sound stuff was really DIY and last minute and we hardly had stage space too... So Dialect set was absolutely awful! Firstly, the laptop was not loud enough, the visuals were positioned badly, i was playing at a table next to some people drinking (very unnerving), and the guitar cable wasn't working... Fought through it to the next song... Turns out the bass wasn't coming through, sorted it out and it wasn't loud enough (had to put it through PA rather than amp cuz amp was playing up again), got it loud enough but it sounded awful (especially the distortion)... Next song, guitar cable still didn't work. Got it ok for the 2nd half of the track, but the guitar just drowned out the laptop stuff. It sounded awful. Next track sounded terrible cuz of bass sound. Last track contained a glitch, guitar cable fucking up, and the people next to me staring at me trying to do the hectic end part when all i wanted to do was just stop the music and pack up. It was a nightmare. Then Hakon was kinda ok, but I fucked up a song due to some confusion and Sammi had problems with a delay pedal. Was kinda ok though. We then packed up super quickly and headed on down to this random festival tent thing (massive thanks to all the people who helped us with the equipment! we were kinda last minute offered this show to play just for fun), we sorta pulled it off too, with tons of bass amp problems and lots of deafening monitor mixes which almost killed me. But we bloody did it, 2 gigs within 1 hour of each other. So we pack up and load into the van, at which point Oli takes a massive chunk out of his finger and has to go to hospital to make it's ok. Everyone who needed to went in the van with Oli to the hospital, leaving me and Halli with some money for a cab. Big thanks to Julie who entertained us and was very kind to us until 5:30am at her house, thanks for the food and beer and CD! We managed to make it back to the promoter's house (massive thanks to him as well) and I feel into bed around 6am, got up again at 9am to travel to the ferry back to the UK. Youch! Ferry was ok this time, fast and big and wasn't too boring. Although Dave kicked my arse at some arcade games...
Was yet another 3 hour drive to Shrewsbury where we were staying in a Travel Lodge which smelled of old socks.
We stayed in Shrewsbury for a disorientating 2 days, I hardly had any money due to the lack of merchandise sold in Ireland and was feeling a bit down. Had some cash to buy a few CDs though... Saw Dodgeball as well...
But massive thanks to all the people who helped and put the shows on and came tot he shows and etc etc in Dublin...
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So we're up early, showered and everything (!!!) ready to travel to Cork. So this was a huge 8 hour drive and about as boring and tiring as you can imagine... but there's a gig at the end of it so it's worth it... 8 hours... but a gig yeah... 8 hours though, ow.
Finally arrive in Cork (8 hours!) and meet with the promoter, he says it's not far to the venue.... we travel for another 30-45 minutes into a tiny village, and playing in a random pub-type establishment called Pine Lodge. Weird. In the middle of nowhere... a few 'locals' watching us and a couple of people who came down. Dialect was ok (yet again the mix was fucked... how can i make 2 stereo channels easier for a soundman?) and Hakon was good fun... But still, not much merch sold (no £££ for a few days) and hardly any audience in a random pub outside of Cork in a village. I mean, fun and all... but 8 mo-fo-ing hours drive there and guess what the next day.... 5 hours back up to Dublin... ow ow ow.
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First time ever in Ireland, weird. 3 hour trip on a ferry, spent most of it outside the ferry feeling seasick. God i hate travelling on water. Also, at this point everything I have smells of Herbal Essences shampoo which exploded in my bag covering everything. It's still lingering in my bag. Evil stuff. I now hate Clairol AND Fostex...
But arriving in Belfast was ok, the Art Gallery we played in was a good venue for our music, PA/rig was way too good for us, too bad the soudnmen didn't really know how to use it all. Soundchecks went ok, but a really cavernous room. Back to the promoter's for dinner made by his wife, these are 2 amazingly nice and extremely cool people who are no strangers to letting weird bandy-types stay with them! Then back to the semi-filled venue (capacity of 75!! tiny!) to play the sets... Dialect was ok, but the sound guy still managed to fuck up a stereo out from A FUCKIN' LAPTOP! how hard can this be? then Hakon set... god this was horrible for us. The audience didn't seem that motivated by us, the sound men were totally as drunk as possible and making engineering mistakes all over the place, which made us edgy and caused some mistakes, along with my tiredness from lack of sleep and previous seasickness. Not a great gig at all. But really nice promoter this time...
D
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Wow, I really thought i'd have more time to do this stuff... Well i'm at home tonight cuz it was the Smallfish instore today... but more on that later... let's move back to Edinburgh and i'll go from there:
So Edinburgh was a bit crappy, especially after the amazing Newcastle show! It seemed kinda poorly promoted, and the venue was a bit shit. Also we had to turn down and finish 1 song early cuz of noise complaints (from an atmospheric post-rock band?)... The support bands were good at this gig, especially the first (who i can't rememebr the name of, sorry!) very godspeed-esque, but very good nonetheless! Got some links to some art stuff from the main guy, so thanks to him for that!
Dialect set wasn't bad, but the sound was pretty shitty! How hard is it to balance a fuckin' laptop and some guitars? duh!
So a bit disappointing... and the first show where Jesse Malin starts following us around playing bigger, better venues in a massive tour bus in each town/city we play. The shite.
Also had a nice day off in Edinburgh after the gig, bought some stuff (i have a grudge against Avalanche now, because they forgot to put the disc inside the Album Leaf CD I bought, fucking dumb, but ridiculously HUGE thanks to David who went and got it for me the next day and posted it to my house, nicest guy EVER), also visited Analogue, which was an awesome shop run by another painfully nice guy! Had a really authentic Indian in the evening too, and went out for a bit. Was good fun and a nice way to relax after the dates so far. Also huge thanks to Paul & Jamie for letting me and Dave stay with them once again...
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Sunday, September 26th, 2004
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Good news... I'M AN IDIOT.
Just got Leeds and Newcastle round the wrong way...
So Leeds was great as well! Really good turn out and really enthusiastic people! The best Dialect set i've done so far, definitely, and a really receptive audience. The Hakjon set wasn't bad, but we had a really irritating light in our eyes and I also had to put in some earplugs for the first time on the tour. PRetty loud on stage.
The promoter was great as well, obviously did a really good job and really nice of him to let us sleep at his house, thanks for the beer if you read this ;)
So, yeah 2 really good gigs...
D
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Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
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Yup so time for another bulk update on things... I think I can still remember the preious gigs ok...
So Newcastle was just great, we really were expecting a bad gig with bad turnout, but it was free and the promoter did a great job and everyone was so enthusiastic! Dialect was pretty ok, and Hakon was just great fun to play.
So MASSIVE thanks to the promoter and the band Meandthetwins... especially for the strange party after the gig.
Was also nice to stay in a Travel Lodge on this night, rather than a cold floor.
Next one...
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Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
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Wednesday, September 22nd, 2004
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Hmm the worst venue and turnout so far. Not sure the promoter even showed up to this!
A few problems with Dialect set, but the visuals were good and perfectly in time!
HAkon wasn't bad either, just a bit of a boring gig due to lack of audience.
Still some merchandise sold and some fun afterwards in Loughborough, where we were staying at Dave's Uni house.
D
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Yeah so it's been seriously busy over the past 5 days, no time to do an update on any shows due to business or sleeping!!
But here it is, i'll try and remember each show up until now.
So Oxford first, the wheatsheaf was a bit of a dive I guess, and not a great sound system. But massive massive thanks to the promoter and his brother, for their hospitality (what a curry!) and good promotion. The venue was pretty packed, decided to run visuals for Dialect on the same laptop as the music, was difficult but pulled it off ok - my playing was pretty bad and hadn't quite sorted out the mix of the music, plus the visuals weren't locked in time.
SH set was ok, tried a couple of different songs to Colchester. Few mistakes and things, but it went ok and the crowd were quite intensely pleased! Being asked to sign CDs each night is odd!
Me and Dave went back to Reading to sort some stuff out...
D
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Friday, September 17th, 2004
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| Subject: | [LJ2ME] Sync Chronic City #1: Colchester |
| Time: | 12:46 am. |
| Mood: | Enigmatic. |
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After painful amounts of hard work and equipment problems pre-tour (its now the law to despise fostex, ok?) we managed to leave Reading,3 icelanders & 2 english in a battered minibus/van which i'm quite scared of due to safety reasons and lack of a functional tape player (is it the 1800s?) not even an in car gramophone ;) so colchester is ok,some nice buildings,the arts centre seemed to play hide and seek with the van but we found it.Possibly one of the nicest venues,converted church i hear,super wow.My soundcheck with SH went ok,no problems.DT soundcheck a bit ropey,scared due to it being my first ever 'proper' alone gig.Good opening act,ropey set from me(hadn't managed to rehearse once)and really fun set from SH.Much better than i was expecting given our rushed rehearsal period.Next gig is oxford. The lemon troll will stroll there tomorrow afternoon & let out some noises.Bye then
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syncchroniccity's journal
anxious.