Europa Europa!
Hey. Greetings from Dortmund, Germany. At long last FMTM has a morning off, and at long last the USA has elected someone besides a white man to the office of president. I'm sad that I wasn't there to vote or to celebrate, but when I was leaving the country with FMTM, for once I actually trusted that Americans would make the right decision. It's certainly not the ultimate victory for the people and it doesn't represent all the changes we need to see, but it's a start... and FMTM is all about starting shit.
So, blogging. Sadly, we haven't done much of it, but it's not for lack of trying. This tour has been jam packed full of relentless travel and relatively few reliable internet access points. We still manage all our online stuff ourselves, so our ability to stay on top of it has been severely compromised. anyway, to anyone who has actually been expecting to read tour updates: sorry. but we've been shooting hella video cuz francis bought a new palmcorder before we left. We'll post some crap on youtube soon. our buddies A. Armada just left us this morning - we weren't supposed to part ways until tomorrow... but for them, the worst happened. Their bookings didn't pan out for the following week when they would have been touring solo - they had some cancellations and, evidently, no representation - so they had to make the difficult decision to just bail out now rather than waste a bunch of gear/van rental money. it was a drag to see them go through that and to not be able to be of much help... but it can happen to pretty much any band at any time, so we sympathize with them. It'll be weird to play the show in Liege, Belgium tonight without them. We'll miss those dudes cuz they're fucking hilarious and they're a great band. And who's going to carry all that heavy shit for us now? Timo, our tour manager, I guess.
Welp. I have a million stories I want to tell, but I've gotta get out of this crazy band apartment (from the guestbook I see that Parts & Labor just slept here like a week ago) and go get some fresh air. German coffee has gotten a little better over the years. Germany must have listened to me complaining back in 04 about how sucky their coffee was. We'll be posting more soon. I'm going to repost this on the DM site. I love this tour so far... it's difficult... but I had no idea that so many people in Europe like FMTM. It's an inspiration. Tchuss! Matthew/FMTM
My friend Peter's photos of FMTM in Berlin:
http://www.matthes-foto.com/4images/categories.php?cat_id=46
So, blogging. Sadly, we haven't done much of it, but it's not for lack of trying. This tour has been jam packed full of relentless travel and relatively few reliable internet access points. We still manage all our online stuff ourselves, so our ability to stay on top of it has been severely compromised. anyway, to anyone who has actually been expecting to read tour updates: sorry. but we've been shooting hella video cuz francis bought a new palmcorder before we left. We'll post some crap on youtube soon. our buddies A. Armada just left us this morning - we weren't supposed to part ways until tomorrow... but for them, the worst happened. Their bookings didn't pan out for the following week when they would have been touring solo - they had some cancellations and, evidently, no representation - so they had to make the difficult decision to just bail out now rather than waste a bunch of gear/van rental money. it was a drag to see them go through that and to not be able to be of much help... but it can happen to pretty much any band at any time, so we sympathize with them. It'll be weird to play the show in Liege, Belgium tonight without them. We'll miss those dudes cuz they're fucking hilarious and they're a great band. And who's going to carry all that heavy shit for us now? Timo, our tour manager, I guess.
Welp. I have a million stories I want to tell, but I've gotta get out of this crazy band apartment (from the guestbook I see that Parts & Labor just slept here like a week ago) and go get some fresh air. German coffee has gotten a little better over the years. Germany must have listened to me complaining back in 04 about how sucky their coffee was. We'll be posting more soon. I'm going to repost this on the DM site. I love this tour so far... it's difficult... but I had no idea that so many people in Europe like FMTM. It's an inspiration. Tchuss! Matthew/FMTM
My friend Peter's photos of FMTM in Berlin:
http://www.matthes-foto.com/4images/categories.php?cat_id=46