European Tour August 2004

Fri 13th Aug: Stockholm @ Debaser

We arrive fairly ragged and crestfallen after some embarrassing and somewhat crapper and rougher than usual US dates. So after rethinking our setlist and stance we prepare ourselves to rock Scandanaiva! We’re excited to be here. After emailing Jonas (Twisterella) the day before we leave the US, (having only just realised we didn’t know what to do when we get to Sweden), he very kindly meets us and lets us sleep on his floor. I am introduced to my first jar of pickled herrings. Oh yummy tumtum. After browsing and drooling at expensive but cool sparkly Hagstrom guitars we can’t afford in the fantastic second hand music shops, we shuffle on down to the venue where we discover we are playing a REGGAE night! We’re a bit confused at first, but it’s not so bad after all. We have free beer, and the 30 or 40 kids at the front when we play, jig around a little and even throw in a few requests. The rest of the 200+ crowd look on with slightly confused as to why we are there. We play okay though. Still trying to figure out which songs work as a 3-piece. Later Ara is chatted up by a crazy girl, who tries to get him to steal champagne from the bar and go back to her place with her AND her boyfriend. How very European. (He doesn’t of course, being a nice clean cut Armenian boy, but it’s a good story anyways…)

Sat 14th Aug: Emmaboda Festival

The big one. And, in truth, the reason we’re even in Europe (they paid our flights). Jonas graciously agrees to come along as our guide and to use up our extra band pass. Everyone is super nice, and we are referred to in the national papers and on Swedish radio as ‘indiepop legends’. Great for the ego of course. We play what I’m sure will be our biggest show ever in front of a few thousand people. (It was dark, couldn’t count them all). Kids shout for old songs and even sing the words. A bit of moshing too. We play pretty good. We also meet Daniel from the Javelins for the first time. He’s crazy drunk, lots of fun, and asks Jonas’ girl friend ‘Can I Pee In Your Bag?’. Which instantly becomes a tour catchphrase and is our introduction to Swedish-style outdoor urination.

Tue 17th Aug: Kalmar, SWEDEN

The venue is awesome. Right next to a lake and a castle. We’ve had the swish, accidentally upgraded hire car a day and already someone scraped it in a slight sideswipe parallel parking accident. We get to see Javelins for the first time, and they are told to turn down instantly… (we’re going to like this band I can tell!!!) . Also playing are Second Hand Furniture who are very young and seemingly scared of us as none of them will speak to us. We stay with an incredibly young and thin boy called Partick who is great fun, and his parents hang out and come the castle with us the next day. In the morning one of the shy Second Hand Story kids starts playing ‘Red Sleeping Beauty’ on an acoustic guitar, and in the course of a shy momentary conversation delights in telling Stew that he was 1 year old the last time Stew saw McCarthy live. Feeling a bit older this morning.

Wed 18th Aug: Malmo, SWEDEN

A really fun show. We send Javelin boys off to buy beer as you have to buy beer from special government shops in Malmo. At least that’s my understanding. Joel and Daniel return looking pleased with themselves that they have found the cheapest beer possible. Now, as most of you know, I’m not always a fussy man when it comes to drinking booze, but I will have to say this was by far the least drinkable beer I have experienced. I couldn’t even finish my second can. (Incase you wanted to know, it has a yellow and blue can with a crown on it. Also, the following day I see a homeless guy drinking the exact same beer). Javelins turn up the amps and are 10X better than last night. Boyracer play last on a 4 band bill (always an effort to stay sober/awake, especially midweek). We play good and have a mini-stage invasion when a bright faced youngster jumps on stage to sing along with Black Fantastic. The kids shout for older songs. Well, its nice to be recognised as an international indie guitar legend.

Fri 20th Aug: Borlange, SWEDEN

We are told by pretty much everyone we meet not to play in Borlange. We are further assured that it’s a strange place for us to visit, let alone play a show there. Still, professional as ever, and with a guarentee to collect and hire car to think of, we set of regardless. By the time we get to Borlange of course we wish we had stayed in Gotenburg drinking Schnapps with our new friends Javelins. Borlange is a weird town. There’s an uneasy feeling of potential random rural violence, a feeling not experienced anywhere else in Sweden I may add. There are metal detectors on the door of the club to stop punters bringing guns into the venue (!). No-one likes us, cares who we are, or as far as I can tell has even heard of Boyracer. I feel sick and tired and cant’ be bothered, despite the free beer. I just want to get out of the venue as quickly as possible. Of course we’re not allowed to play until 1.30 am, by which time I’m not feeling very good at all. We play a stinker, one of our worst gigs in quite some time, (nearly as bad as St.. Louis), but then there’s no-one watching who cares or even notices anyways.

Sat 21st Aug: Gothenberg, SWEDEN

After a last minute venue change, and the cloud of last night hanging over us, I’m slightly concerned as to how tonight would be. I mean, will the kids be there? And will the kids who care be there? I need not worry of course, as this is Javelins hometown and they have worked hard to make it work! There’s a ton of kids, and I take quite some delight in seeing a room full of 16 year old indies dancing to The Poppyheads “Cremation Town” (one of the more obscure Sarah Records). Javelins play a great set, fast and fizzy- their best yet. Someone should sign them so they can come and tour in the US with us! We play well too. There’s lots of (really, no REALLY) drunk kids. To the point they can’t stand up. They grab the mic, shout for “He Gets Me So Hard” and snog infront of us (2 boys that is), and one of the skinny boys grabs Ara by the crotch of his pants and squeezes his privates. This is a greeting reserved for noted indie legends I am told. Ara returns the greeting and scares the kid half to death. There is lots of broken glass on the stage, and much spillage of beer. But it’s fun. As we are trying to load the car there is a girl almost unconscious drunk stood next to our car, pants around ankles, pissing in the street. Her equally as drunk friend helps her pull her pants up when she’s done. We see similar sights throughout Sweden. For such a clean looking country, I’m baffled as to its history and acceptance of public urination.

Sunday-Tuesday

We drink lots, eat lots of pickled fish and record a few songs with the Javelins.

Wed 25th Aug: Aarhus, DENMARK @ The Musiccafe

After the relaxing days hanging with Martin and Ilona we reluctantly head off on further travels. We spend the day in Aarhus Art Gallery as Jens Dad has a piece there. It’s pretty awesome. What isn’t so awesome about Denmark is that one beer, cup of coffee and slice of cake cost us $18! The show we play is great. We play at the cleanest venue I have ever seen. So clean I actually WANTED to use the toilet, well, just because!….The band we play with are called Levershue, (sp.???), which has the rough translation of “sick of life”. They are a 5 piece piece noise band fronted by a man in a skirt. I like them, and we hang out in the very clean dressing room after the show.

Next day Ara gets his haircut by a lady who claims to have dated someone from UB40.

Thu 26th Aug: Hamburg, GERMANY @ Astrastube

After a long drive eating salty liquorice through beautiful rural Denmark we arrive early at Olivers house. We start the proceedings nice and early with some tasty local brew. Oliver has also cooked us up some tasty Sausage Goulash (“the Wurst Goulash”) and we are happy to be here. We play with Oli’s band “the Dr. King Arthurs”. They’re good fun. In particular I enjoyed Olivers rapid head movents in between singing and Ulirichs guitar rock poses. I’m looking forward to playing more shows with them. It’s packed and Boyracer play a sweaty one late into the night. Afterwards theres an Indie disco and our cool new friend Lars plays all the classy indie hits.

Fri 27th Aug: Cologne, GERMANY @ Gebaude 9

It’s nobbing it down, and the venue is huge, but to my amazement it fills up before we play. Sascha, who runs Parapop has organized the evening- it’s our record release party! (“Fool Around With…”12inch). Again the beer flows like water in Germany. I am amazed to see 50 cent bottled beer at the bar (good stuff too, not yer crappy American watery domestic). We are told that by law you have to have a non-alcoholic drink cheaper than beer. So some bars serve, (or pretend to), glasses of warm milk for pennies, so they can serve cheap booze. (The Germans like a beer or 8). Afterwards we have a hotel paid for, and are able to fill up with bread and cheese in the morning breakfast buffet. My god they even have mimosas! Jen and Stew drink up first thing in the morning while Ara sleeps his breakfast away.

Sat 28th Aug: Dortmund, GERMANY @ Cosmotopia Club

We arrive in Dortmund much earlier than we expected to and meet old friend Philip outside the club where we will play later that night. We go back to Philip’s place and learn that he DJ-ed the night before and hadn’t actually slept yet. Of course since we had a hotel the night before and started drinking at breakfast, we were rearin’ to go and did not let Philip get a nap. He led us on a long, several hours wandering walking tour of Dortmund when we thought we were just going around the corner for a coffee. When we finally get to the club that night it’s a little strange. The whole place is gated and painted in bright purple, yellow, red, and orange, with an astroturfed beer garden in front. We are playing downstairs in a room with no windows and no overhead lights. It feels and smells like a basement, and I think it is. Upstairs there are two bars and it’s a Rockabilly night. We are the only band playing and for some reason are not allowed to play until 1:30am. The place gets totally packed, but, as with the Reggae night, much of the crowd is not really there to see us. However, Ollie and his friends from Hamburg have come by train and they and Philip make the whole thing worth while. After we play we have the basement room to ourselves and have a private party, staying up telling stories and talking politics until we can’t keep upright anymore and drag ourselves to the tiny upstairs room where we are supposed to stay. Unfortunately this room was right above the Rockabilly bar and that party went on until nearly 7am. Oh my head.

Sun 29th Aug: Amsterdamn, NETHERLANDS @ Club OCCII

Ah Amsterdam! We arrive despite having no map with the Netherlands on it and asking directions exclusively from non-English speakers. We get to the club very early again (we allowed too much time for getting lost- the Racer 3 piece line up is VERY efficient, and we have hours to hang out and explore the area. The club is cool and the owner/bartender/sound man Grrrt was great. He told us stories about being the soundman for the EX, and about their upcoming 25th anniversary tour (Boyracer will be up to 15 years next year!). We meet the other bands Zoppo (an old blackbean and placenta band) and the Juju Girls (an all girl Norwegian goth punk band). Ara thinks he’s clicking with the bass player but has to switch horses midstream when he discovers she has a boyfriend and the drummer doesn’t. Unfortunately there just isn’t enough time left in the evening to make the switch work and he ends up swimming home. Annelies and Wim, Jen’s old friends from her Rabbit in Red days, show up unexpectedly and take us all home to their village through an hour of torrential downpour. Then we stay up all night drinking their nectar-of-the-gods good Belgium beers and eating lovely Belgium chocolates.

Mon 30th Aug: Kassell, GERMANY @ Haus

This time we did get lost and did not leave enough time for it. Fortunately it doesn’t matter because no one is early for this show. Actually hardly anyone is even on time. And only a few are late. Ollie, the trooper, takes a train to join us again, and boy are we glad he is there. We practiced a few songs just for Ollie in sound check and were happy to have something new to play for him. The kids who set up the show were really nice, made us an amazing dinner and gave us plenty of beer, but once again it was pissing it down, we were in a strange scary industrial part of town where no trains ran (poor Ollie walked miles through the rain), and hardly anyone at all came. Still, we were happy to hang out with friends and had a very nice, relaxed, no pressure night, with the age old tour phrase “Not bad for a Monday”, ringing true.

Tue 31st Aug: Frankfurt, GERMANY @ Dreikoenigskeller

So we find out that the venue that we are playing at is actually closed, but that Reiner, the promoter, got them to reopen just for our show. And boy are we glad that he did. We show up to the venue and meet, not the venue owner, but the owner of the building who has returned from America to sort out financial problems with the club closing. Turns out he lives just a hop-skip-and-a-jump away from us (a days drive in American terms) in New Mexico. We hang out and drink beer with the owner until Reiner shows up, bringing with him more positive press publicity than we’ve gotten anywhere on this trip. The four major Frankfurt news papers are all sporting little write ups on the show and our horrible colored “anit-press photo” from when Ara had a handlebar moustache and Jen had an odd shade of dark pink hair. Reiner is worried about the show because of the club closing, and we’re a bit worried because we’re the only band playing, but no one needed to worry at all. The small cozy room packed up well, everyone was super friendly, we played one of our longest sets ever, and everyone was happy in the end. Ara spent most of the night counseling a girl whose boyfriend was cheating on her as to whether or not she should break up with him. Good old best friend Ara. Then we all spent a restful night in the room upstairs provided by the club. Except for the moment when several large sheets of thick plywood for remodeling fell over onto Ara’s cot, trapping him underneath. (how we laughed!). The next morning Reiner took us out to breakfast before we left and then on a whim took us to the Frankfurt Am Main Kunsthaus (Art Museum- it’s shaped like a giant slice of fancy cake), and discovered to his and our surprise that Jen’s Dad had a piece there which also happened to be Reiner’s favorite work of art. Reiner graciously bought us all tickets to the museum and we spent a couple of hours wandering around.

Wed 1st Sep: Nurnberg, GERMANY @ Desi

This was just one of those shows. One of those shows where everything should go well, where you want it to go well because the venue is great and the people who set it up are fantastic, and you really like the band you’re playing with, but for some reason it all goes horribly wrong. This show ranked right up there with Borlange as our worst European show. At least in Borlange we didn’t know or care about anyone there because none of them knew or cared about us. We had some misgivings about the show when we heard we were booked with a band called DJ Satan is My Motor, however they weren’t black metal Satanists at all. In fact they were cute and fluffy and even played a cover of the Mountain Goats’ “The Best Death Metal Band in Denton” and Daniel Johnston’s Vampire song (can’t remember the exact title of that one). Anyway, they were great, the stage set up was really weird (long & thin, drums set up sideways next to bass which was next to guitar so guitar and drums couldn’t hear each other), and by the time we played the PA had broken so none of us could really hear much of anything at all, and we were awful and played out of time with each other. The next day Stefan and his girlfriend, very forgivingly made us a lovely breakfast with Nurnberg sausages and took us around the castle and to some local beer shops. We felt bad because we had a lot more fun off stage in Nurnberg than onstage.

Thu 2nd Sep: Munich, GERMANY @ Prager Fruhling

We took a few wrong turns trying to get to the venue and ended up driving through the center of Munich rather than around the ring road. And I’m glad that we did. Munich is a beautiful city. The venue was in a hip and artsy part of town that was a nightmare to negotiate and park in. When we got there Andy Little Teddy was waiting in the doorway (a sight for sore eyes after being lost for a few hours). After we loaded in and sound checked he took us for dinner at a very good pizza place and made sure we weren’t wanting for good Bavarian Beer. Once again we were the only band playing, and Andy suggested that in order to accommodate the most people (early and late comers) that we play two sets. We warned him that we only had about an hours’ worth of music tops, but he still wanted us to do it, so we said fine. We got up and played what we thought was a 30 minute set and were shocked to discover that by playing the songs with no gaps between we’d only covered about 15 minutes. Trying not to panic, we pulled out a couple of covers and played a few of Ara’s Bend-Over-Boyfriend songs, then took a break to sell records. Man-oh-man did we sell a lot of records that night. Just before the second set Jen noticed how much Ara was drinking and realized he didn’t mean to sleep in the same place as the rest of the band or be the post-gig driver, so Jen decided to stop drinking. And good thing she did! Seconds after we pulled away from the venue we were pulled over by plain clothes Munich police officers (who looked like they were going to the clubs) and Jen was breathalyzed on the spot. That night we went back to Andy’s swank pad and stayed up till the wee hours talking about music, bands, labels, beers, and Wolperdingers. In the morning we met back up with Ara and went to breakfast with Andy, where Stew learned about Bavarian breakfast sausage and breakfast beer. Yummy tummy.

Fri 3rd Sep: Berlin, GERMANY @ Roter Salon

Berlin. Wonderful, Beautiful. Freezing cold at night! The venue is awesome. Part of the “old” Berliin. We understand it used to be the Communist Party’s official theatre. We got a real old style dressing room with mirrors and lights around them. Cool! We are however baffled to find out we are playing a 10th anniversary party for the Oasis “Definitely Maybe” CD relaunch. Brit pop? Urgh! I never touch the stuff. Punters at the venue are very rude- (I guess trying their best to be Liam???) and sit on the staircase and refuse to move when we try to load out our equipment. Have you ever tried carrying a drumkit down a staircase over the heads of people who wont move? Anyways, other memorable highlights include Caspar from the Danish support band, impish and drunk stripping to his briefs and pouring his drink over his head and dancing very camply. We also got to catch up with old friend, and now successful local promoter, Andreas, which was cool. Sadly we had to leave early next morning,…

Sat 4th Sep: Bremen, GERMANY @ Lila Eule

Our last show in mainland Europe. Luckily it’s with our dear friends Die Kronig Artus. And lots of fun of course. We have a super afterparty and stay up way later than we intend to as we have a stupid drive tomorrow! We have to drive to Denmark, catch a ferry to Gothenburg to return the equipment we borrowed from the Javelins, then drive from Gothenburg to Stockholm, fly to London, hire a car then drive to…

Mon 6th Sep: Brighton, UK @ the Freebut w/ The Legend!

Phew! We’re tired. I have mixed feelings about being back in the UK. Mostly let down as no-one would book us a Leeds show. Still, the Legend bring a smile to my face. I’m not entirely sure if that is intentional, but its reassuring to see such a bizarre mix of punkrock minimalism, performance art and poetry. Myself and Jen sneak off for a “good” meal, and manage to spend 50 quid on a pizza.

Tue 7th Sep: Nottingham, UK @ the Social

Was okay. Good to see Anton again. But where’s Mark D.? Where’s Richard Hood? Where’s Ged? We play last on a 4 band bill. Always tiresome midweek.

Wed 8th Sep: Exeter, UK @ the Cavern Club

Why oh why did we do this? I had icky feelings when I realised England were playing that night. I am reassured by the “promoter” that it will be fine. So we drive all day, and arrive at the venue where we are told by (the very awesome and lovely) Trudi and Phil that the said promoter hadn’t infact done anything useful like make posters or tell anyone we were playing. And indeed it’s his “first gig”…. Argh. 10pm. No-one here. We play to about 5 people. Trying to stay bright, but in truth, a waste of everyone’s time. We drive back to Stews parents after the gig and arrive at 5am. Get me out of this country!

Sat 11th Sep: Glasgow, UK @ The Captain's Rest w/ The Tall Boy

Was okay. Great to see Matty and the Tall Boy. Of course, there’s no-one there.

Sun 12th Sep: London, UK @ The Betsey Trotwood

I hate to admit it, as this was the last Boyracer UK show probably ever. And the irony that it was great AND in London (not Leeds) cuts me in half. But of all the places to play, lots of old faces turned up here. We play with Comet Gain who are okay but play a really long set (its Sunday so the music has to stop at 10.30pm). We take the stage just before 10pm and rip through as many as we can before having to stop. And that’s that. Sweaty and grinning- goodbye England!