Continuing on from last time…
Cologne, Germany
I packed light for this trip. I can wear the same pair of jeans for the whole trip. I try to milk two or three days out of a t-shirt. Socks and underwear require daily changing. So my luggage is basically just socks and underwear. I brought two button-up shirts, and today I rip open the back of one of them trying to do a Ray Cappo jump in a music store parking lot.
Tonight’s club is another one of those converted factory/warehouse spaces. Not sure if it’s a squat, necessarily, but it definitely feels like one. The promoter is a very outgoing, boisterous, jolly German guy named Uncle George. It winds up being my favorite show of tour thus far. Good sound, good crowd, good vibes. Even Deafheaven seems to have gotten over their whole choking-and-punching incident from Paris.
Russian Circles will be playing some Canadian shows including Calgary’s Sled Island Festival along with label mates And So I Watch You From Afar coming over from Belfast and Canada’s own Indian Handcrafts joining in on a few shows are also Deafheaven , Chelsea Wolfe, Crypts and Seattle’s own Sandrider.
Check HERE for details on each show.
RUSSIAN CIRCLES / AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR
Jun 18, 2012 - Winnipeg, MB (CA) @ The Park Theatre ^^
Jun 19, 2012 - Saskatoon, SK (CA) @ Amigos Cantina ^^
Jun 20, 2012 - Calgary, (CA) TBA @ Sled Island Festival ^^ w/ Secret Guest!!!
Jun 22, 2012 - Vancouver, BC (CA) @ Biltmore Cabaret ^
Jun 24, 2012 - Seattle, WA (US) @ Neumos ^ w/ Sandrider
Jun 25, 2012 - Portland, OR (US) @ Doug Fir Lounge ^ w/ Crypts
Jun 27, 2012 - Sacramento, CA (US) @ Harlow’s **
Jun 28, 2012 - San Francisco, CA (US) @ Great American Music Hall **
Jun 29, 2012 - Los Angeles, CA (US) @ El Rey Theatre w/ Chelsea Wolfe **
Jul 02, 2012 - Denver, CO (US) @ Bluebird Theater - Russian Circles only
Jul 03, 2012 - Kansas City, MO (US) @ The Riot Room - Russian Circles only
^ w/ Russian Circles, And So I Watch You From Afar
^^ w/ Russian Circles, And So I Watch You From Afar & Indian Handcrafts
** w/ Russian Circles, And So I Watch You From Afar & Deafheaven
Continuing on from last week…
Hamburg, Germany
You know what’s depressing? Cutting through a red light district in broad daylight with the prostitutes already hanging out in their windows while Adele’s “Someone Like You” plays over outdoor speakers.
Just down the street from the red light district is Hafenklang, one of my favorite venues in Germany. The people who work here are always a pleasure to work with, the size of the room is perfect, and the club is easy walking distance from the Reeperbahn. Tonight’s show is a drone festival. Two stages, six bands. And the ticket price is still less than half of the fest we played in Estonia. But ya know, as much as I enjoy listening to drone stuff when I’m at home, it’s not really the kind of music I want to spend an evening watching at a club. I watch a few of the acts before I start feeling narcoleptic. I’m not even bothering with beer tonight; I’ve switched to some sort of carbonated yerba mate drink in an effort to stay awake.
Tonight is Derek from Deafheaven’s birthday. There are plans to go out on the town after the show, but by the time we’re packed up and loaded out, it’s 3am. The other guys go for it, but Che and I opt to sit in our hotel room and eat Burger King before going to bed.
Continuing on from last week…
Vilnius, Lithuania
It’s another early wake-up call. I feel better cold-wise, but I’m still exhausted. I feel like I’ve avoided the whole jet lag issue where I can’t sleep at night and can’t stay awake during the day, but I’m just not getting much opportunity to get more than three or four hours of sleep a night.
Sleep deprivation is making me extremely moody. One minute I’m listening to Jawbreaker in the van and getting misty-eyed from nostalgia, the next minute I’m in a Polish gas station laughing hysterically at a malfunctioning automatic espresso machine spewing hot milk all over the counter.
I’ve never been to the Baltic states. We’d received an email from a concerned fan about the venue we’re playing tonight because the club has a history of hosting National Socialist bands. We’d contacted our booking agent about the concern. Our booking agent said that he’d just booked the Japanese band Mono in the room and had had no issues. He contacted the promoter anyway, and the promoter confirmed that other outside promoters had rented the space and hosted some pretty politically dubious bands. But they’ve also booked Jewish klezmer bands, leftist punk bands, and hip hop artists. If you want to play in Lithuania and don’t want to play a club that has a history of hosting extreme right-wing bands, you’re apparently shit out of luck. It doesn’t bring a whole lot of peace of mind to roll up to a club with Nazi graffiti spray-painted by the entrance, though. Still, the people at the club are nice, though we get a lot of stares while we walk around town.
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When the band I play in, Russian Circles, announced our European tour with Deafheaven for Spring 2012, Grant Brissey asked me to write a tour diary chronicling our trip. I was a little hesitant at first. For one thing, I’ve typically tried to keep my band business separate from my music writing. Additionally, my bandmates aren’t the kind of people that want all their day-to-day business made public. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that most tour documentaries and diaries focus on either the luxuries of wildly successful artists or the trials and tribulations of struggling acts. There aren’t a lot of stories of financially sustainable working bands out there. Presumably, that’s because our stories aren’t particularly interesting. We’ve figured out how to tour in a manner where things are relatively stress-free and efficient. We aren’t partiers. There’s no cocaine or groupies in the green room. We sleep in hotels and travel in vans. I can’t promise this will be particularly insightful or even remotely honest. But this is how we roll.
Seattle to Chicago to London to Prague
My flight itinerary is SeaTac to Chicago to London to Prague. I leave Seattle at noon on April 2nd. We’re scheduled to get into Prague early afternoon the next day. The rest of the band lives in Chicago, and I meet up with them at my layover at O’Hare. The last time I flew out of O’Hare, three separate strangers asked if I was a DJ. Not wanting to get caught up in those conversations again, I choose a seat at the gate next to a guy that looks like Wayne Coyne, figuring he’s less likely to ask me dumb questions.
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Russian Circles vs Pelican
Two of Chicago’s finest ‘post-metal’ heavyweights sit down to tell us lies about Brian May // Feature by Ryan Drever and Benny Blanco.
Pelican and Russian Circles not only share a talent for creating densely atmospheric and crushingly heavy instrumental records, but both bands also hail from the mecca of experimental rock that is the Windy City. To capitalise on their respective excursions to Stereo this month, we got them in a room to shoot the proverbial over a range of questions plucked from a hat.
Belying the moody ambience of their records, the resulting ‘interview’ consists mainly of cheap jokes and mass laughter, with the occasional broken glass and at least one audible fart. Occasionally, though, they break away from the madness to talk about the city’s rich musical heritage, being in a band without a singer, and voice support for Howard Stern’s fictitious presidential campaign. Disclaimer: Shit gets silly…
Q. What do you think about adding ‘post’ in front of a genre – does that make it cooler?
Russian Circles & Deafheaven begin their European Tour together on April 5th in Prague. All Dates below. A big thank you for the Poster artwork goes to Xavi at Error Design and big thanks to Vincent at Odyssey Booking for booking the tour.
Remember to always check with venues directly to confirm show times and age restrictions.
RUSSIAN CIRCLES & DEAFHEAVEN OVERSEAS TOUR 2012
Apr 05 - Prague, CZ @ Matrix
Apr 06 - Vienna, AT @ Arena
Apr 07 - Munich, DE @ Feierwerk
Apr 08 - Dresden, DE @ Beatpol
Apr 09 - Berlin, DE @ Festsaal Kreuzberg
Apr 10 - Warsaw, PL @ Hydrozagadka
Apr 11 - Vilnius, LT @ Propaganda
Apr 12 - Riga, LV @ Gertrudes 101
Apr 13 - Tallinn, ES @ Electric Storm Festival at Tapper
Apr 14 - Helsinki, FI @ Virgin Oil Company
Apr 15 - Moscow, RU @ Gogol (Russian Circles only)
Apr 16 - Stockholm, SE @ Strand
Apr 17 - Oslo, NO @ Revolver
Apr 18 - Gothenberg, SE @ Truckstop Alaska
Apr 19 - Copenhagen, DK @ KB 18
Apr 20 - Hamburg, DE @ Hafenklang
Apr 21 - Utrecht, NI @ Tivoli
Apr 22 - Brussels, BE @ Magasin 4
Apr 23 - Esch-Sur-Alzette, LU @ Rockhal
Apr 25 - Glasgow, UK @ Stereo
Apr 26 - Belfast, IE @ Speakeasy
Apr 27 - Limerick, IE @ Dolan’s Warehouse
Apr 28 - Dublin, IE @ Button Factory
Apr 29 - Manchester, UK @ The Ruby Lounge
Apr 30 - London, UK @ Scala Theater
May 02 - Paris, FR @ Point Ephemere
May 03 - Kortrijk, BE @ De Kreun
May 04 - Koln, DE @ Gebaeude 9
May 05 - Karlsruhe, DE @ Die Stadtmitte
May 06 - Zurich, CH @ Rote Fabrik
May 07 - Geneva, CH @ Le Kab
May 08 - Milan, IT @ Magnolia
May 09 - Lyon, FR @ Le Clacson
May 11 - Bilbao, ES @ Azkena
May 12 - Porto, PT @ Hard Club
May 13 - Lisbon, PT @ Musicbox
May 14 - Madrid, ES @ Ritmo & Compas
May 15 - Barcelona, ES @ Apolo 2
ALWAYS CHECK HERE FOR UPDATES
Brian Cook of Russian Circles
In addition to being the bassist for the Chicago-based instrumental metal group Russian Circles, Brian Cook occasionally contributes to Seattle alt-weekly The Stranger.
See Full List of 20 Musicians That Write About Music
This afternoon I was aimlessly walking around downtown Chicago. The well-to-do and bejeweled middle-aged women were in abundance, walking their dogs. The new-moneyed 20-somethings were running around in their business suits looking for something important to do. The obvious tourists with their street maps were standing puzzled at the street corners. Suddenly from out of the blue, deep, dark black clouds rolled in from Lake Michigan. With thunder and lightning and torrential downpour everyone began to scatter and run for cover. Chicago went from smiling faces and jovial conversation to utter fear and dismay. At the time, I was listening to the second track of Empros by Russian Circles, “Mládek,” and I couldn’t help but think that this was the perfect soundtrack to this scenario.
Whether you’re running into a viking battle, stuck in a nightmare that’s going from bad to worse, or watching a sunny day turn into disarray, Russian Circles has you covered. The band manifested out of the ashes of Dakota/Dakota in 2004, which was very much its predecessor, but Russia Circles took on a much heavier breed of instrumental music, delving more into melodic death metal and metalcore than math rock. Originally made up of guitarist Mike Sullivan, bassist Colin DeKuiper, and drummer Dave Turnkrantz, Russian Circles turned the sleepy idea of instrumental music that most were familiar with on its head.
Later in 2007, it was announced that DeKuiper decided to part ways with the band, and that Brian Cook (These Arms Are Snakes/Botch) would take his place. Since then, the trio has done nothing but sell out shows and receive more and more praise.
THE BOMBER JACKET spoke with Cook in anticipation of the band’s upcoming, extensive European tour.
Russian Circles have been confirmed to play this year’s Sled Island Festival in Calgary, Canada on June 20th. Stay tuned for more Canadian and US shows to be announced for this Summer.
See all Russian Circles Shows & Details HERE
Russian Circles will be headlining a six week long overseas tour in support of their latest critically praised release Empros out now on Sargent House. Direct support on all the shows except Moscow will be Deafheaven. Remember to always check with venues directly to confirm show times and age restrictions.
RUSSIAN CIRCLES & DEAFHEAVEN OVERSEAS TOUR 2012
Apr 05 - Prague, CZ @ Matrix
Apr 06 - Vienna, AT @ Arena
Apr 07 - Munich, DE @ Feierwerk
Apr 08 - Dresden, DE @ Beatpol
Apr 09 - Berlin, DE @ Festsaal Kreuzberg
Apr 10 - Warsaw, PL @ Hydrozagadka
Apr 11 - Vilnius, LT @ Propaganda
Apr 12 - Riga, LV @ Gertrudes 101
Apr 13 - Tallinn, ES @ Electric Storm Festival at Tapper
Apr 14 - Helsinki, FI @ Virgin Oil Company
Apr 15 - Moscow, RU @ Gogol (Russian Circles only)
Apr 16 - Stockholm, SE @ Strand
Apr 17 - Oslo, NO @ Revolver
Apr 18 - Gothenberg, SE @ Truckstop Alaska
Apr 19 - Copenhagen, DK @ KB 18
Apr 20 - Hamburg, DE @ Hafenklang
Apr 21 - Utrecht, NI @ Tivoli
Apr 22 - Brussels, BE @ Magasin 4
Apr 23 - Esch-Sur-Alzette, LU @ Rockhal
Apr 25 - Glasgow, UK @ Stereo
Apr 26 - Belfast, IE @ Speakeasy
Apr 27 - Limerick, IE @ Dolan’s Warehouse
Apr 28 - Dublin, IE @ Button Factory
Apr 29 - Manchester, UK @ The Ruby Lounge
Apr 30 - London, UK @ Scala Theater
May 02 - Paris, FR @ Point Ephemere
May 03 - Kortrijk, BE @ De Kreun
May 04 - Koln, DE @ Gebaeude 9
May 05 - Karlsruhe, DE @ Die Stadtmitte
May 06 - Zurich, CH @ Rote Fabrik
May 07 - Geneva, CH @ Le Kab
May 08 - Milan, IT @ Magnolia
May 09 - Lyon, FR @ Le Clacson
May 11 - Bilbao, ES @ Azkena
May 12 - Porto, PT @ Hard Club
May 13 - Lisbon, PT @ Musicbox
May 14 - Madrid, ES @ Ritmo & Compas
May 15 - Barcelona, ES @ Apolo 2
ALWAYS CHECK HERE FOR UPDATES
Russian Circles live from the Black Stage at Fun Fun Fun Fest Auditorium Shores, Austin, TX on November 4, 2011.