ATTENTION:
If you happen to have any photo or video material of our shows during this trip, please get in touch!
March 13 – March 21 2010. On those dates we made another trip to the South of Europe. This time we would hit some new cities and re-visit some older friends. The tourreport below is more or less in a diary kinda form, based upon notes I (Pim) made during our trip. Stuff was later added by the rest, while trying to maintain that same form. Oh well, I think it gives a pretty good view of our trip. Sit down and relax, because it’s a long ride. Hope you enjoy it! And feel free to leave some comments!
DAY 2: BORDEAUX, FRANCE
15:44, in the van on the road to Bordeaux (France)
Getting ready to leave…
As I’m writing this, it’s already the second day of our trip. We’re on our way to Bordeaux at the moment. Let’s go back to yesterday first though. We played Marquain in Belgium. 5 minutes from the France border. Upon arrival we were greeted by Annabel (who booked the show). She spoke perfect Dutch (no accent at all), which is strange (but cool) when pretty much everything else you hear around you is in French. The show took place in a small room seperated from the bar, especially made for shows. The entrance had a nice CBGB’s sign above it, such a shame I’ve never been to the real thing. This had to do for now though.
The show in Marquain. Photo’s by Vincent Méheut and Henri Jansen.
The show was opened by Call For Victory who played some kind of melodic hardcore. The second band, Teenage Wasteland, started with a Beastie Boys cover (Fight For Your Right) and played some more trashy oldschool. The third band (Donkey Punch, including their mad drunk (in a good way) singer who’se name I could pronounce but forgot how to write down) had a more Trash Talk, Kickback kinda style. Dark & nasty. They got the crowd moving. After that it was time for Kill For Peace, who were a crowd favorite with their metallic hardcore. Into the second song the drummer kicked through the bassdrum. Or atleast that’s when it gave in. Our bassdrum. Great start of the trip… Ducktape came to the rescue for the remainder of their set but it wasn’t pretty. We were up next, closing off the night. The bassdrum totally stopped functioning somewhere around the third song I guess. So the remainder of the set was played without a bassdrum. Joost was pissed since he felt like a cripple, but the people seemed into it.
This also marked Toby’s first show with us. Toby responded to our call for a bassplayer not too long ago and it seemed to click pretty much right away. In a couple of rehearsals (3 or something?) he learned all the songs and if we don’t get it any big fights on this trip (something I don’t see happening) we have found our new bassplayer. Which is great, since that’s mighty fast after Joep’s departure.
It was also cool to see Zeger at the show, he’s booking the last show of the tour, in Roeselare. He came to the show to put up some posters and check us out. He told us it was the third show he was visiting that day. Dude’s mad.
Anyway, after the show we drink a couple of beers and then we headed to Annabel & Fabien (her boyfriend)’s place. All of us packed together in a small room, tables to the side and we were ready to go. Most of us had a good night of sleep but (a tradition by now) I hardly slept. Oh well. You get used to it.
Waking up in Marquain.
We said goodbye to Annabel & Fabien (after a great breakfast, French crossaints included – thanks!) and off we went at 9:00 in the morning. We had quite a long drive ahead of us, more than 7 hours. So stops had to be short. Which is more or less like a mission impossible for most of us. Every time we’re ready to start driving again, someone is missing or a “Wait, I need to use the toilet” moment arises. Every single time. Do they hand out medals for that? We would win it without a doubt.
Most of us tried to sleep (once again, I failed horribly) a bit or just chill in the van. Close to Bordeaux we stopped at a Mc Donalds to use the internet for a bit. Hey it’s the digital age, isn’t it? Are you following us on Twitter yet? 🙂 So when everyone (with a netbook, phone or whatever) checked their email, off we went again.
On our way to Bordeaux…
A bit later a red light on the dashboard started to burn. Fuel. Shit. After driving around for just a bit too long and trying a couple of different fuel stations (cards not accepted, GPS saying there was a gas station when there was none, people sending us the wrong way etc..) we FINALLY found one, just about when we thought all hope was lost.Tour’s always full of surprises like that. The result was a delay of an hour I think. But we were on the road again… And still on schedule.
I’m still tired, hope I awake / can chill a bit tonight at the club. Out for now.
Chilling in Bordeaux…
20:39 – above the club in Bordeaux, France.
The delay of an hour turned into nearly two hours, but we got there in time. We’re now sitting above the club, in an awesome backstage. People already told us about it, but yes, it’s cool for sure. Just chilling a bit at the moment. Charging our phones, camera, laptops etc. Refreshing ourselves. Hope tonight’s show’s gonna be cool.
The show in Bordeaux. Photo’s by Henri Jansen.
23:42 – above the club in Bordeaux, France.
The show was cool! Remy (the organisator) told us that the last couple of shows the amount of people showing up were getting less and less, so we were prepared. Not that we care much if there are 2 or 2000 people (the person paying probably is though). Anyway, the people that were there (the room was about half-filled I think?) were into it and the atmosphere was really good. We enjoyed it for sure. Since we couldn’t use our drumkit (remember the bassdrum incident yesterday?), we used the first band’s drumkit. They were the only other band too – the Slovenian band cancelled. Cadillacs & Dinosaurs I think they were called. Some kind of heavy stoner rock or something. Loved it!
Oh by the way, Remy is a really cool guy, I hope his next shows will do well. I’ve also been give a couple of copies of this zine called Sedition, it’s a free zine done by some French people. It looks cool, it’s a shame it’s totally in France though. Je ne parlais pas le Francais. I have to say though, if you do, make sure to pick it up, it looks awesome!
Bordeaux at night…
The rest of the guys are heading into Bordeaux I think, I’m going to pass. Saving my voice (something I always worry about on tour), and I’m dead tired from not sleeping yesterday too.
Ok, I’m signing out. See you tomorrow.
DAY 4: MADRID, SPAIN
14:44 – in the van on our way to Madrid.
Yesterday kinda slipped through the cracks. Tour report updating wise that is. Just didn’t think of sitting down properly and writing something down. So let’s see. The guys had fun in Bordeaux. Playing golf with empty cans and bottles, eating food like idiots etc. You know, the usual.. Right.
I did manage to get some sleep, not as much as I hoped for. But enough for sure. (“Did you read that last Said And Done tourreport? Damn the only thing that dude talks about is sleeping or not. Such a snoozefest!”) So when we woke up early in the morning we did set out for a supermarket. Crossaints, baguettes, you name it, we got it. We easily adapt to the French lifestyle 🙂 So after a delicious breakfast we started driving to Girona.
Leaving Bordeaux and on to Girona…
First we had to solve the problem with the bassdrum skin though. Say hello to the power of Wi-fi. We stopped at a Mc Donalds and started to search for a big musicstore. With the help of some of our friends on Facebook (Yo Carlos!) we found a couple of stores in Girona and Toulouse (which we would be driving through anyway) pretty fast. We decided to go for a Toulouse one first. We found it pretty quickly and picked up a new drumskin. Not before we pretty much tested out every single instrument in that store though. I’m sure they were glad when we got out haha. On our way up to the music store we saw a Virgin Megastore sign and decided to check that out, we had some time left. It was inside a big shoppingmall, which means escalators and stairs (the automatic ones), which means the kids of Said And Done will enjoy themselves. There wasn’t much to pick up (vinyl was way too expensive), but Joost picked up a PSP case. The keyword for Joost on this tour so far is PSP. I picked up one secondhand for this trip too but that since he copied GTA: Chinatown Wars from me he crashed into a PSP addiction hard. He’s all over it, probably already halfway the game.
Fooling around at the music store…
Ok onwards with our trip to Girona. We didn’t have a proper address of the venue (atleast not one our GPS recognized), so we had to ask around a bit. After being NEARLY there (we’re always nearly there…) a couple of times we found the place. It looked cool. Not too big, just how we like it. There was a stage, but we did set up our stuff in front of it. Way better. Stickers of Strike First, New Morality, Light The Fuse, Icepick, Black Cloud Halo etc. made us feel perfectly at home too.
The show in Girona also meant meeting up with Carles from Deathwish Team Girona again. He was the one that booked our first trip abroad, back in 2007. He didn’t change a bit. One of the coolest dudes ever. Any other band that he arranged shows for will confirm this. “Leuk skipak” style! Back in 2007 we played with Charles Bronson Discipline, oldschool melodic hardcore, just how we like it. They played again today. Good stuff, with Misfits covers to seal the deal. I’m going to keep an eye out for that new record they were working on. The opening band was a local band with younger kids called The Joke. Nice kids and a lovely female singer. She made us sign a CD for her (just after I told Carles we weren’t rockstars…). Funny shit haha. I never know how to react to stuff like that. I feel like an idiot signing stuff. Thinking it’s not punk or something. Yet I do like it. Contradictions. I’m a walking one.
The show in Girona. Photo’s by Gemma Fontàs (The Joke).
Our show was cool. Especially for a Monday show. Put up a show like that in the Netherlands and I think about half of the people will show up. While playing I saw Toby flying accross the room. He did some crazy jumping moves, dude’s nuts. The best part was that he ended up falling down on his ass (I hope we have that on film – edit: apparently we don’t – shit!).
Leaving Girona and getting some sleep…
After our show we drove to a place next to Barcelona to sleep at Gabbo’s place. We had to be quiet since he didn’t tell his sister we would be sleeping over.. Nice haha. Remco and Toby had different plans though, they wanted to drive to Barcelona and party in the city. So they dropped us off and off they (the young wolves, out for adventure) went.
The next morning (and a great night of rest (“Is that dude still talking about sleeping?”)) they picked us up. Apparently they went to Barcelona, drove around a bit and noticed that pretty much everything was closed, so they drove back and slept in the van. Bummer. We made the right choice though.
If we skip forward a bit after a not so interesting drive so far, we end up at the present. I’m typing this up in the van right now. It’s hot in here, a lot better weather than we expected. Totally different from the cold in the Netherlands. My voice is still okay too. Hope it stays like that.
We just drove to the wrong entrance at the tollbooth again haha. It’s amazing how many times we picked the wrong gate to pass through by now. Normally you would do it wrong once and that would be it. Not us, we ended up in the wrong lane atleast 3 times I think. Pretty annoying for everyone behind us waiting. On the other hand, pretty funny to see a whole line of cars going in reverse and backing up so we can enter another gate though. Funny if you’re in our car…
On our way to Madrid…
Anyway, tonight Madrid’s on. Never been there, looking forward to it. Rosa who is putting up the show was a true gentlewoman (is that even a proper word?) in her mails, so that should be cool. Tonight will mark the first of four nights (including a day off) on this trip we’re staying in a hotel. We’re such spoiled rockstars!
Ok, I’m out for now. I’m going to play some Broken Sword II while we’re getting closer to Madrid. I need to pass that dog and the fence badly. If only I had internet now and a walkthrough haha.
DAY 5: VALLADOLID, SPAIN
11:14 – in the formule1 hotel just outside Madrid.
So yeah, our first time in a hotel (that one time in Rosswein was’t really a hotel I think, it was bigger though! – Yo Greyli!) as a band. Now you shouldn’t expect big rooms or anything, but still, it’s nice.
The show in Madrid. Photo’s by Line de Vos.
Madrid was good! You never know if a show will work, especially on a week day and in a place we never been to before… But it was really cool. People knew the songs, moshed, sang along (how many times did I type this sentence describing a show already?). Good times! Other bands playing were Moments (trashy, fast and heavy) and The Marriage (a really tight band playing modern metalcore). The sound in the club was really good too. The sound guy was a bit annoying at first, making us set up first and then wanting to switch it all around, but apparently it was all for a damn good reason. He knew his stuff, turned out to be a cool guy too.
Before and after the show in Madrid…
It was cool to meet Rosa (she helped us out with the show in Valladolid too), she took great care of us. We’ll hope to be back some day for sure. I also met Nab from Just Say Yo fanzine (he also plays in Moments and used to play in A Bridge To Many), who I previously only changed emails with. Cool dude. Pick up his zine! I loved #2 and #3 is recommend too, if only for the awesome cover. Looking forward to issue #4.
For this show Toby’s dad came to visit us. He drove 800 kilometers all the way from Portugal to see his son. Such a cool thing to do. Line (Stef’s girlfriend from Belgium) also came to visit us. So far away from home I can imagine it was cool to see some familiar faces.
As I’m typing this the rest of the guys are taking showers and getting their stuff together. In about half an hour or something we’ll leave for Valladolid. Looking forward to seeing just another place I haven’t been yet.
DAY 6: DAY OFF
16:51 – in the van, on our way to Bordeaux
So let’s see. Valladolid yesterday. We didn’t know what to expect, from what we were told there weren’t many shows in Valladolid and it was a weekday so… The show was really good though. I think the cord of my microphone was only a meter long, but fuck it. I think we did an encore song on every show so far (Just so you know, that’s not something we calculate or anything) and yesterday was no exception. We played “Fit The Mold” for the first time this tour too. It’s cool to finally play some new songs again.
On our way to Valladolid…
Before and after the show in Valladolid.
Yesterday when we were shopping for food at the supermarket I found a wi-fi spot and checked my mail. There was a request from a radio station if they could do an interview. Did send them a message it was fine by me right away. So at the venue these two kids came up to us with a big mic and we did the interview, we even did a “Yo this is Said And Done and you’re listening to…” jingle. The interview itself is rather ridicilous, I’m curious to hear it back haha. We’re fucking around quite a bit (Piet Paulusma impressions included!) and the interviewer himself couldn’t stop talking about penisses. Strange to say the least haha.
Today is my birthday too. So this morning, after I took a shower I got a serenade from the rest of the guys. When I opened the door of our room they were all standing there singing “happy birthday”. It probably sounds strange coming from a singer in a band, but I don’t like attention like that at all. No I should say it differently, I really appreciate the effort and it’s cool they did something like that, but I just don’t know how to deal with it. I don’t need to be the center of attention. Nonetheless it was cool, thanks guys!
So after that I checked the internet and found lots of mails, messages (and smses on my phone) with congratulations. Really cool, made my day. So to any of you reading this who did send me a message, thanks a lot!
Day off. Checking a big mall in Spain and driving to Bordeaux.
So now we’re driving to Bordeaux. We’ll see what today will bring us. Tomorrow we’ll be in Rezé, in the Nantes area. Our show back there the last time was one of the coolest we ever did so we’re expecting a lot from it. We can’t wait to meet our friends again. Can’t go wrong!
DAY 8: BAGNOLET (FRANCE)
16:24 – in the van, on our way to Bagnolet (near Paris)
On our way to Rezé…
The show in Rezé. Photo’s by Nearly Got Busted.
The show in Rezé. Photo’s by Christophe Trasher44 and xWoldx.
The show in Rezé. Photo’s by Christophe Trasher44.
Yesterday in Rezé was amazing. Just like we expected. It was really cool to see all of our friends again. People from Golden District, No Solution (with Alex on vocals, who booked our show in Rennes in 2008 and members of Money Time), the guys of Wank For Peace etc. Good times. The show was a blast. Some technical problems but people went crazy. Just how we like it.
The other bands were good too. No Solution played their first show. They played youth crew and even did a True Colors cover (and a Judge one too!). Cool to see that. We totally digged them. Lasting Values was good too. Vince from Golden District his voice went out during their first song, which sucked (especially for him), they did play a great show nonetheless though. Hats off to Vince for continuing the show like that anyway. They had to play a show the day after too, so I hope that works out for them. They deserve a good send-off.
Chilling in Rezé, before and after the show…
After the show we did a short video interview about the show (which you can check out below). I was dead tired from the show, so I don’t know how big of an idiot I came accross. I’m not used to do those kinda things, they’re fun though.
By Anger Posi Kids.
Waking up at Christophe’s place.
We slept at Christophe’s (Trasher44) place. He’s the guy who took the picture of us in Rennes, the one we used all over the place already. He had a nice home and even had some beds etc prepared for us. Always a good thing (especially since my airbed was fucked). I think we all slept quite good (“Oh enough about the sleeping already!!”). The next morning we had a little breakfast and Christophe already had a CD ready with the pictures of last night’s show. Awesome. That’s what you call service. Oh I almost forgot, but I do need to mention the pictures on the wall in his house. Lots of rockstars (Motorhead, John Joseph, Madball etc with Christophe). Cool exposition 🙂 We took some pictures with him too, so we expect to be up there next time as well haha 😉 We thanked Christophe and his family and off we went again. On to Bagnolet (near Paris) this time.
And that’s pretty much where we are now. In the van, on our way to Bagnolet (Paris). We’re almost there. I’ve heard the place we’re playing is really small, which is a good thing. The smaller, the better. I want to be close to the people in the audience. No barriers, no distance. We’ll be playing with Donkey Punch (who we played with in Marquain) again, so that’s cool.
Tour’s almost over now. Last night of the tour, tomorrow we’re playing Roeselare in Belgium and going straight to home after that. We’ve been there before but this is a different venue. Anyway, Paris up first. Not long now.
DAY 9: ROESELARE (BELGIUM)
11:04 – in our room in the Formule 1 hotel.
Yesterday we played Paris. It was cool to meet Fred, who I’ve been mailing with for quite a while now. He really did his best and made sure we had everything we needed. It’s cool when people put so much effort in you and your band.
The show in Paris. Photo’s by Gabrielle.
The show itself was okay. The first band, Youth Avoiders, played an oldschool, trashy but melodic kinda hardcore punk, including a cover of “Mongoloid”. Really good, loved it! Up next was Donkey Punch (who we played with in Marquain already), I did miss out on them though. Which kinda sucked, because they’re cool guys. I heard their show was great. Fred even joined them on vocals for a song, gutted I missed that haha. The third band was Arafat, a doomy, sludgy kinda band. We played a nice set, we had to make sure we were done in time though since the owner of the place wanted to make sure the music was over at a certain time. We had some technical troubles once again (guitar strings breaking), but Joost and Toby launched into a nice jam. We managed to finish our set more or less in time and people asked for one more, but we couldn’t do that since the owner already came down to ask Fred when we would be done two songs before the end. Next time!
After the show we did a quick stop at a Kebab place, since we were still pretty hungry. The food wasn’t amazing, but after a show, when you’re hungry, pretty much anything goes. So with a full stomach we went to our last stay at a formule 1 hotel. I think this was the biggest of the four we stayed at, the nicest too probably. Either way, we all had a good night of sleep (“That does it, I’m going to punch that dude in the face!”).
As I’m typing this, some of us went to the market nearby. I decided to go for the shower and relax and chill a bit. And it gave me time to update this tour journal of course. Probably the last time on tour too, since tonight’s the last show. Then it’s back to the normal, every day grind. Day, in day out.
12:10 – still in the hotel room
Hahaha, the other guys just came back and tried to enter their room. Locked. We apparently had to be out before 12 (we didn’t know) and they are locked out of their room right now. Their stuff is still inside. Stuff like this doesn’t even surprise me anymore haha. Oh and they just showed me what they picked up at the market. One watch and one pocket watch. Both horrible. Both fake. Amazing. They sure know their thrash haha. Ah they went to the receptionist and now he’s unlocking their door. Nice, time to get everything together and start moving again. On to Roeselare!
DAY 10: HOME
19:32 – at home
So let’s see. The final update… We’re all back home now, but let’s go back to yesterday first. The final day of the tour. We played a benefit at JH KameleJon in Roeselare. The place is closing down, which is a shame because it’s a great place for hardcore shows (aside from the stinking toilets haha). The room behind the stage was huge too, some sort of mix between a huge theater and a gym or something. Biggest backstage we ever had for sure 🙂
Before and after the show in Roeselare.
I’ll be blunt though, it was the least show of the tour. There were only a handful of people. Normally we don’t care much about that, but today it sucked since it was a benefit. Not much money will be raised I’m afraid. Luckily there were more dates, hopefully those did better.
It wasn’t all bad though, aside from the cool place it was cool to see Zeger again. He made sure we got whatever we wanted. When I was standing in the audience checking out the second band (more about that later) he even came to hand me an apple haha. How’s that for service?
The show in Roeselare. Photo’s by Henri Jansen.
Anyway, the first band was a more metalcore orientated band from South Africa (atleast that’s what I heard). They sounded okay, not my cup of tea, but they seemed like nice guys. Up second was Strike You Down. They already grabbed my attention when their guitarplayer soundchecked with the Cannonized riff by Blacklisted (I think that song was one of the last times I moshed when I saw them live haha, so good). They’re around for 2 years or something now, but they’re young kids. Their set was cool. Exactly the right length and some good songs. They gave me a demo CD which had some nice artwork, done by their mother or something. The vocals reminded me of Martijn No Turning Back. Just check out that Myspace and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Curious to see how they develop in time. It’s cool to see new, younger bands. We need more of those in the Netherlands as well. After them we played a rather uneventful set. Not bad, not great either. Just okay, which is not a good thing. The last band was a System Of A Down cover band. We watched a couple of songs, they were pretty good but when I saw they had a setlist of 17 songs, we decided to head home. We had about 3 hours to drive and Toby needed to get down to Roermond after that. So we thanked Zeger and said goodbye to guys in Strike You Down and left.
After unloading and cleaning up the van (discovering hidden treasures, like rotten cookies, socks and stuff like that of Remco in every part of the van), everyone went seperate ways and that’s it. The van will be picked up by Gert-Jan (Shield Recordings) not long from now, he’ll be on tour with The Real Danger (edit – This was written on the 22th of March). So now we’ll just have to wait till May. Then we’re doing a weekend in the UK together with Never Again. England, get ready!