Last Days of 1984 recently embarked on an 8-date tour of the continent, visiting venues in France, Netherlands and Germany. Happily for us, they kept a diary of their travels. Here it is.
Lille – 30 March 2012
Le rouge in Lille is a great little venue with amazing character: red velvet curtains made us feel we were in a David Lynch movie. The place was fairly rammed with a young hipster crowd who swayed, sweated and danced to make one of our favourite Last Days shows yet, while all the time under threat of being shut down by local police ! Thank you Lille for the warm welcome. Big big thanks to Samy and Ben for looking after us.
Paris – 31 March 2012
Le balades sonnare: very very cool record store in Paris with a floor area the size of a twister mat. Our gear just about squeezed into the corner. Ultra low volume (think an ipod with portable speakers) because of noise restrictions made for an extremely bizarre experience, but nice chilled vibes – The show went well but ultimately kinda felt like trying swing a punch in a dream. Huge thanks to Christophe and Aideen for their kind hospitality. Harleem in Holland is our next stop.
Harleem – 01 April 2012
Geertruida: this is a house that has been transformed into a venue, a guitar shop and all round party place. The show was amazing – a really great atmosphere and awesome people. After the gig crazy times were had – shirts were discarded by all and table top dancing ensued. Huge thank you to Yannick, Marin & Bernd for making us feel so welcome
Groningen (day off) – 02 April 2012
So we had a day off and decided to stop off in Groningen to rest – it is a nice little town, with a strangely high number of record shops. We went to the cinema to see Liam Neeson ham it up in The Grey (which is actually a pretty good movie, with some brilliant scenes), and then saw the not so dystopian Hunger Games, it does however have one amazing scene involving inexplicably self applied make-up to form an uncanny rock & moss camouflage… I guess I never realised just how seriously skilled occasional cake decorators are! We laughed for about 5 minutes straight. It will be interesting to see if all the teen fiction kids go and watch Battle Royale next. Also, archery instructors are gonna do really well from this movie.
Hamburg – 03 April 2012
Hamburg is an industrial and desolate sprawl – it most definitely has a character of its own. Stepping out of the van we were greeted by freezing cold. The Astra Strabe venue was pretty great: located under a huge train bridge and at a crossroads, the toilets could have been straight out of Trainspotting. Gig went pretty well. One of the bar staff drew a picture of us with beaks. Thanks to Bruno and his crew for looking after us.
Stuttgart – 04 April 2012
We absolutely loved Cafe Galao – beautiful venue, great sound and wonderful people. The gig went so so well – the audience were mostly seated and there was a great vibe in the place. We were overwhelmed by the response from the audience as we were beckoned back on stage for an encore. Huge huge thank you to Reiner for looking after us so well and making us feel so at home.
Beilefield – 05 April 2012
Bunker Ulmenwall is a World War II bomb shelter that has been transformed into a venue – a really cool place. The stage is in the middle of the room, so you are surrounded by the audience on three sides. The show was amazing, the whole place was dancing, there was incredible energy. Huge thanks to Bernd for looking after us so well.
Leipzig – 06 April 2012
Lu99 is the ground floor of a renovated apartment block. The venue room was really small and we created a nice wall of sound in it. We played well but the crowd were very unresponsive so we felt that they weren’t really into it. Even stranger still, a lot of people told us afterwards that they really enjoyed the show – was a weird gig. Thank you to Dani and Andrea for their hospitality and the pancakes.
Berlin – 07 April 2012
Madamme Claude was a pretty cool bar with a basement venue room. The gig started out a bit tepid but turned into an amazing show with huge energy in the room. It was a nice way to finish the tour.
The band would like to thank Culture Ireland for its support with the tour
The Last Days of 1984 launch their new album, Wake up to the waves on Osaka Recordings, with a gig at The Workman’s Club, Dublin on May 4, with Logikparty and The Last Sound
