Wake me up when it’s time to catch the plane to South Africa
Our updates for the week - how it went, how it will. Take a seat and dig in.
Hey cybernauts, sorry to interrupt your Monday groans.
We forgot to send one last week because we have our heads busy with 30 000 things.
This week, we have the following to share with you:
Post-tour cooldown
Highlights of the tour
Live video from Bristol
What’s coming up
The tour is over. Long live the next one.
Firstly, Carol here. Carlos is busy mixing a new album for a very upcoming Lisbon band, so I took charge of the newsletter this week.
So, here we are back home. We know we’ve been complaining about long drives and how tired we were on the tour and this and that, but it’s not that easy to come home either. You get used to the tour schedule, to having a stage almost every night and to move around a lot, so it can be tricky to get back to the normal day-to-day of making meals, cleaning the house and so on. I remember reading a small article in the Guardian a few years back about the psychological impact of touring (link here for anyone interested) and going back to it now, there’s a quote from Kate Nash that I think perfectly describes this coming back home experience:
“When you’re on tour, you know exactly what you’re doing and what’s required of you. There’s a routine. It’s tangible what you stand for because it’s right in front of you. You come off tour and you’re like, ‘Fucking hell what is the point? What am I doing with my life?’”
Our tour was almost a month so not that long this time but, still, it can be rough mentally. We're going to South Africa at the end of the week for more shows, though, so we still pretty pumped up! Specially since it started to seriously rain in Porto, and it’s spring over there. Sun, here we come again.
Some highlights of the Euro tour
We're going to have to live of this tour memories until the next one, so get ready for some highlights that you never asked for! The three of us and Tiago (aka Mogege aka our amazing driver for this tour) sat down and wrote a list of bests:
Carolina
Best load-in: I think we should only consider the shows where we had to bring the whole backline (almost all of the shows) since loading in just the breakables doesn’t even break a sweat. I would say Silly wins; we could almost park the van in front of the stage, lol.
Best parking spot: we managed go get a parking spot in front of the venue in Berlin. We parked a bit far away, and then we saw some guys leaving and just runned for it. We never expected to get a sweet parking spot in Berlin so that one wins for the unexpectedness.
Best soundcheck: tough one. Maybe Le Havre. They were quick, professional, and we had a good sound on stage.
Best sleeping accommodations: Silly. We stayed in a wood bungalow in a very small town, and it was amazing going there after the chaos of Paris (where we had construction workers looking through our hotel window in the morning). It was beautiful, peaceful (we could hear the nature sounds all around us) and we just felt welcome there.
Best breakfast: I have a soft spot for hotel breakfasts, so I’m going to say Bordeaux. They had fresh coffee, cold sparkling water, fresh French bread, cheeses, boiled eggs, croissants, a freaking bowl of salted caramel (we dipped the croissants there, don’t judge us), fruit, yogurt, etc… and it was on the day we had to come home, so we just went to town on that breakfast buffet. Honourable mention to Silly and Kempten where we were served a delicious homemade breakfast in the middle of the garden.
Best pit stop: I would say the fish and chips place we went when we arrived in England after being delayed in the ferry for two hours. I would say that, but it wasn’t the best decision to eat very greasy food before going on a 6-hour road trip at almost nightfall (it was raining, they drive on the wrong side of the road, and we were just too full). So I’m going to choose the pit stop we did somewhere in the middle of the Czech Republic to eat a hot dog on our way to Bratislava. It was very tasty.
Best dinner: we’ve been saying that we had the best dinner in Tours almost since the beginning of the tour (pun not intended). There were some close second places, but Tours was really something else.
Best show: Uff, we’re lucky there’s so many to choose from! I really enjoyed Hamburg, it was a dusty bar basement full of people, a tiny stage and a lot of sweat.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Carlos
Best load-in: Silly. We could’ve parked the van one meter away from the stage, if we wanted to. It was just a breeze to load into the venue. Wish they could all be like that.
Best parking spot: I think it’s a tie between Todmorden, Berlin and Paris. Especially the two capitals, which are big cities, full of people, and we managed to park directly in front of the venues. Fuck yeah.
Best soundcheck: I really enjoyed Newcastle, as the sound tech made me feel comfortable on stage and did not ask me to turn my guitar down - big props for that! The sound on stage was great, as well! If memory’s not mistaken, I think it was the only show we had a woman as a sound tech.
Honourable mention to Bordeaux and Bristol!
Best sleeping accommodations: Silly, for sure. I think we’ll probably all say the same thing. A bungalow in the middle of the belgian woods, hosted by a super sweet woman who made us breakfast and showed me her house and studio. I would spend there some time, if I could.
Best breakfast: Bordeaux. The melted salted caramel jar won every breakfast we had. I will not elaborate.
Best pit stop: La Chuca has a special place in my heart, but since we took a detour to go there (on our way back to Portugal), I think I will not count it in.
So, best pit stop has to be any pit stop we did on the Alps. It’s just amazing there.
Best dinner: They’ll all say Tours wins the best dinner. I agree. But want to give an honourable mention to Oviedo, the pizzas and patatas bravas from Lata de Zinc are crazy good.
Best show: Shit. I would say Hamburg wins first place. Second place is a tie and goes to Bristol, Berlin, Paris, Rennes and Nantes. Third place is all the other shows lol.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Fred
Best load-in: Silly, the car was parked right in front of the door like really in your face like yes top top top
Best parking spot: Silly, same reason above like right in front of the door yes
Best sound-check: Le-Havre. Quick, professional, sounded like it should
Best sleeping accomodations: Silly. Bungalow in the Middle of the woods, PERFECT Timing to rest in a place like that and to go forward to the heavy part of the tour. The bungalow belonged to this beautiful lady and her spouse and she offered an incredible breakfast the morning after yes LG life's good
Best breakfast: Silly// Gap// Bordeaux. Breakfast is breakfast and if it's a good one, it will be remembered.
Best pit-stop: every stop to pee
Best dinner: Tours because the food was amazing, desserts were TOP and we ate like domesticated piggies. After this meal, I felt like I was entering this severe food coma episode. I just wanted to lie down in fetal position and chill lol
Best show: Hamburg// Reenes// Kempten// Bristol. Impossible to choose one, we had pretty cool audiences and really tight shows
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Mogege
Best load-in: Silly - I'm thinking about this and the more I think, the more I'm sure I just could have parked the van inside the venue with our trunk pointed to the stage. I mean, from the stage to the place we unpack our van was like 5 meters. What a dream
Best parking spot: Todmorden - After a light year drive from Calais - Ferry - Todmorden with left lane drive, loads of rain, really dark highway roads and lots of towns named shire that made me think I was in some kind of Lord of the Rings place we arrive to Todmorden and there was a beautiful, lovely parking spot in the only parking lot close to the venue. That was some kind of Gandalf magic trick. We celebrated that hard long drive with a fantastic pint served by the amazing Louis.
Best soundcheck: Bordeaux - I was the driver, so my opinion on this is based on FOH sound, their faces during the soundcheck and sound technician attitude (to me that count a lot). And the guy from Bordeaux which I don't recall the name (sorry, I need to have space in my brain for stupid curiosities) was really nice. The vibes were immaculate, lots of laughter, the guy really knew what to do, the PA system was screaming, he made the band feel comfortable in every aspect and he also had an awesome hair. Sad we waited for the last show to have a proper sound tech, but that's life.
Best sleeping accommodations: Tours - Well, I think we had some pretty cool sleeping accommodations, but in Tours there were a lot of good things. First things first, ours rooms were number 3 & 4, and we could use the same door to get to the rooms. Yeah, that's right. Mindfreak!! The beds were nice, the pillow was also good, the shower had the perfect water pressure and the breakfast was also good.
Best breakfast: Silly - Lovely backyard breakfast made with only local products. Homemade bread, goat yogurt, fresh orange juice, great coffee, homemade jam. Absolutely incredible.
I really have to give an honourable mention to Kempten. Lovely picnic with loads of good people and a stunning apple crumble.
Best pit stop: GAP - Well, almost every pit stop meant some things - pee, poop, cigarette, coffee, eat or finding a yellow raincoat for Carol (spoiler alert: she didn’t find it), but this pit stop close to GAP turned out to be more than that. I stopped on the most random place and turns out that place was the place where Napoleon got their buddies all together, and they went all together to Paris. Awesome!
But I need to tell the story of a guy who overtake our Rock Band Van but made a dangerous move. I followed that guy into a gas station and parked right next to him. I wasn't mad at him at that point. I just wanted to scare him, but Mogege style - for fun. When the guy saw our van parked next to his car, he immediately ran off to another parking space. We laughed. Watch out, we are fucking dangerous!
Best show: Bristol - Everyday I told them - Guys you know that there is a huge chance of this show be your best show ever and every night they rocked really hard. But going straight to the point, I didn't see all the show, and they told me the best one was Hamburg. I was sleeping, so I'm going to believe they are lying to me. My favourite one was Bristol. The venue was big, and they got an almost sold out night. The show was really, really good and (you could watch it on YouTube (I guess)), you could see that by the look of their eyes we were watching Sunflowers at their best and Carlos went activated Beastmode in Monomania. Peeeerfect.
Best dinner: Tours - that was the kind of meal we should have on every show. A light meal but full of flavours, very well-made. I would love to describe everything, but I have a shitty memory, but I remember me and Carol were specially happy. We took photos of everything and shared loads of Instagram stories. When I made lots of social media posts normally means that I'm happy... Or depressed. But those were definitely super happy stories.
The band around the internet
Astral Radio recorded our show at The Lanes, in Bristol! “A Strange Feeling of Existential Angst” is up now on their youtube page. Full show coming soon!
Recorded by: Lorenzo Cecchi
Mixed and Mastered by: James King
Camera Operators: Alex Stevenson and Tristan Sherfield
Editor: Tristan Sherfield
What’s coming up
There’s a lot of fun to be had in South Africa - we’re bringing a show they are not prepared for.
28/10 - Halloween PTA, Pretoria - TICKETS
Our debut in Pretoria, for a Halloween Party. Dune Rats, Secret Cinema, and loads of bands and DJs are playing. Oh and they will transmit the rugby world cup final during the event. Goddamnit, it’s gonna be insane.
2/11 - HCC Avalon Theatre, Cape Town - TICKETS
A show on a seated theatre, this should be fun. We’re playing with Sold Ash. In the days pryor we’ll be recording a couple of songs to release a cassette tape on this show. There won’t be old songs on this recording…
3/11 - District, Cape Town - TICKETS
Club show with Dune Rats, Retro Dizzy and Tough Guy. This one will be insane and will sell out (I think it already did?). Excited to be rocking out District once again!
4/11 - TBA, Cape Town
Details TBA, but it will be fun!
#portuguesegoodvibes
In case you missed it on our Instagram, we tried to take a photo with the promotor after every show (sometimes the promotor wasn’t available so we had to make do). This is the result:
That’s all, folks!
Thanks for reading this far. Here’s a quote we enjoy:
“It's a widely accepted principle,' he says, 'that you can claim a piece of land which has been inhabited for tens of thousands of years, if only you repeat this mantra endlessly: 'We discovered it, we discovered it, we discovered it...”
by Kurt Vonnegut, on his novel “Deadeye Dick”
Have a wonderful week. We love you.
— Sunflowers, the band