35 - Number 5

Simon and Lachlan, asleep on the highway.

DZ Deathrays Positive Rising: Part 1 European Tour - Sept/Oct 2019

Day 12

Today we got up early and started our 8 hour drive to Le Harve for Foul Weather festival. The journey took us through some truly beautiful Swiss and French countryside before getting back on the boring old highway to Paris. 

We drove on to Le Harve and arrived just before Together Pangea were playing. 

The venue was really interesting. It was in some sort of old walled area with lots of community things going on in it. The people running the festival were lovely and showed us to our accomodation which was a shipping container that was painted black and had been unopened so it was very hot and damp inside. The ceiling was particularly mouldy so I opted for a bottom bunk.

We had some really good baguettes, from a bag, a bag of baguettes. 

Boundy and I unloaded the van and started setting up side stage for the show. Jacuzzi Boys were playing and were quite good. We did the change over in a miracle amount of time, with the patch only being mildly wrong. 

DZ started playing and after about 20 seconds all the power in the whole building cut out but the lighting lady and I flicked the breakers back on and the show went off really well. It was a fun concert and we loaded out quickly before going back to the shipping container for sleep.

35 - Number 4

Danny, Stephan, Brett and BC on the back steps of Belgrave Music Hall.

I took this photograph on July 7, 2018 at Belgrave Music Hall in Leeds, England on the Wavves 2018 Europe Tour.

We were touring in Europe and the UK for the first time NOT in a giant splitter van and this time rather in a small station wagon, able to fit in to regular car parks, able to drive fast on freeways and able to sit more comfortably - ish. The middle seat in the back folded down and we fit Brett’s basses through the hole with Danny’s guitars on top. Everything else packed in around the back.
Danny has an incredible gift for needing to go to the toilet for the entirety of a load in, almost perfectly timed from beginning to completion. In this photograph, we had just finished loading in and the band, along with Stephan from Wavves sat on the fire escape. Brett is smoking an apple bong.
The show was really fun and Brett and BC made a banner out of pillow case with the words ‘Dune Rats’ writen on it. ‘Dune’ started quite big, relatively close to the centre, and ‘Rats’ ended up somewhat squished in on the side to fit.

That night we went back to the hotel and Brett went sleep walking in the very early hours of the morning and couldn’t get back in to his room. BC and I woke up to see him open our door and lay down on the floor. I went down to reception and got him a new key cut and put him back to bed.

35 - Number 2

The morning that I took this photograph, I woke up, and without waking anyone else up, walked out of the room with my camera. I was in Bladel, in The Netherlands. It was the 10th of June, 2018.
This was, like my last post, taken directly outside my hotel, Hotel Bladel, on the intersection of Maximalaan and Beatrixlaan.

The night before, Dune Rats had performed in a shed (that had trees growing in it) at Best Kept Secret music festival in Hilvarenbeek, 20 minutes drive from our hotel. We were on tour with Wavves for a quick tour of Western Europe.

After the band finished playing, they were taken away by the artist liaisons and I stayed behind to pack up.

I didn’t realise at the time, but the band was trying to call my mobile phone to ask if I needed help, however their calls weren’t going through.

The stage manager pointed out there was no gear storage at the stage. I had to either carry all the gear by myself or leave it in a field filled with festival goers and hope nothing got stolen. I obviously went for option A and found a fridge trolley on to which I somehow managed to load all the gear (around 90kg) and loaded BC’s cymbals on to my back. I then walked the 1.5km back to the carpark in the 32C heat as the tires on the trolley slowly deflated.

On this walk the following morning, this wonderful woman was riding towards me. I quickly made this photograph as she rode by and we smiled at each other as she rode on. In our very fleeting interaction she exuded independence, strength and fun.