alahoyus! We’re here in the last few weeks of our summer European Tourr. We just finished dates in Spain, Germany, Denmark, and Portugal. Before that we had a lil break in France where Thorriors will be psyched to learn that we took some time and worked hard on some new jams. But don’t get your hopes up. We’re just using our time wisely. Nothing new on the horizen yet. And even before that we dosed the UK w/ a huge blotter of R&R (rocknroll, not rest & relaxation) alongside Mastodon. We have Paris w/ Mastodon tomorrow and then Italy w/ Dillenger Escape Plan after that. Finally we’ll end up in Germany and Austria. Hope to see all of the United Thorriors of Germany out in full force @ Stoned From the Underground festival next week in Erfurt!
Thorriors Chapters in each of the European cities we’ve visited has grown. the Uk shows w/ Mastodon were insane… We had a great time with those dudes, and hopefully we’ll be jamming more dates together soon. Took a long time to get to jam together, but seems like it was worth the wait. Such a fun tour. Would love to bring it to the States. Then we took a break for a bit in France. we pretty much lazed on the beach for a week, and then worked on new jams for another. But right @ the end we played this unbelievable celebration that happens in France called Fat Du Musica. bands and singer/songwriters can pretty much play anywhere they want. So we rented a truck and made a stage out of it, and drove around all day to bayonne, hossegor, anglet, and biarritz, france and played & skated @ 2 skateparks, then played while driving on the back of the truck thru hossegor, stopping at 4 different bars that were totally full of people on the patios, and jammed in their faces. And after every stop, people were running along behind us. So a sort of parade effect happened, and when we got to the coast, we kept playing like an hour long jam down the beach, w/ motorcycles and dudes skating, and like 25 cars all yelling and honking behind us until we got to the venue that we were playing which was on the beach. And right when we got there, there was a band on a different slightly bigger stage about to play. They had keyboards, and gelled hair, and smoke machines going off, and right before they could start, we drove up, parked our stage beside of theirs, and hijacked their gig. It was some corpo event with like 300 older folks and suits, but this whole rally following behind us came up with trashcans full of canned beer, and just started partying like it was some kind of 80s movie come to life. It was insane. And then we played a show @ the club. The whole thing was filmed as we were driving down the road and thru town…. I can’t wait to see the footage. it was a pretty nuts day. we basically played like 7 sets. it didn’t stop til like 5am, and then we promptly slept all day the next day. totally worth it.
after that, Hamburg was nuts, Stuttegart was nuts, Berlin was an all night party celebrating the early career of Michael Jackson. Copenhagen Denmark was nuts. Thanx to all of the Stockholm Thorriors & Erik from Karlstad Thorriors for driving from Sweden. There is always an amazing vibe @ Christiania. We hit Biarritz and started a run w/ the Sexty Sexers from Basque Country in Spain. Met them last year in Irun. That run went to Barcelona (bigger and badder), Madrid (where we got cut off by a curfew), then a couple gigs w/ Men Eater from Portugal. We annihilated Lisbon. This is the way gigs are supposed to go. It was packed to the fucking gills, and every single square inch of the place was covered in people going fucking apeshit. Singing songs, crowd surfing, diving, spinning, pyramiding, and basically reinventing the wheel when it comes to energy. There are very full moments in life that go all the way to the red- full tilt. Don’t get me wrong, Barcelona and Porto (the next night) and several others were going just as hard headbanging, dancing, and singing. Everyone giving 100%. But i have to admit there was something about Lisbon that just “popped”. The energy there was thru the roof. Last night we were in Durango. Basque Country. One of the most whimsical places Ive ever been. The scenery is like going into the shire from Lord of the Rings. It was an awesome run. Couple more weeks, and we’ll be home to rest for a few weeks, then get back to working on those new jams. Lots of pics and video coming soon.
Quick Super Huge Wonderful Thanx to some of the dudes and dudettes who’ve helped us out while we’ve been here!: Mailman, Simon, Micha, Helder, Hans, Vernon, Nina, Susie, Arne, Ida, Emi & Emily, Armondo, Bizooka, Jeb, Yan, Jason, Elmer & everyone @ Volcom Europe, everyone @ La Surfing, Lewis, Johnny, & Darren & all of Mastodon & crew, and our crew Mikey, MarkG, Micha, Ryan, Nobrega and especially Klaus for putting this whole thing together.
ok, more soon, pics/ vids all that stuff
yrs
valient himself