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Tour Diary: 2002 (Eugene) > Page 8 |
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Muziek-O-Droom, Hasselt, Belgium
Belgium. Land of waffles, vigorous resisters of the Nazi wehrmacht, and speakers of one of the more incomprehensible languages around. We see several reviews in the local lingo and Niko says "it's easy. It's just like english." Well ain't that doorsenrojes worstjes! I mean gesmeck vonhoofgnen! In any case the club is totally pro and we breathe a sigh of relief to be in a civilized goddamn country (so long sweet Albion).
The food is great. The staff is great. Phillipe Thiphaine from Heliogabale shows up with three French friends of his and Mccluskey is playing with us tonight. So far. So good. But the box is whispering to me. And I heed its call and starting huffing some smigjees. You know, dropping some digjens. Boxing the borkles.
But I see Mccluskey and they play competently and like any number of Touch and Go bands. I talked to them before we play to dispel that wearisome interband tension usually at play prior to playing. They say to me... "We're from Cardiff. My girlfriend went to your show there. She said you guys were wild." "Your girlfriend?" "Yeah. She was the blonde one." "Yeahhhhhh... she was a hot fucking bitch, man." "Uh. Well. Uh. Thanks." "No. I mean it. She was a niiiicccceee piece of ass. I talked to her for awhile. I asked her what kind of man would leave a woman like her all alone. For so long. I mean what kind of man could this be? Now I know. Well we got a show to do. Tell her I said 'miss you.'"
And we play just as everything becomes everything and the show is cool AND we have SMOKE AND LOTS OF IT (and by SMOKE I mean the artificially produced stage smoke and not cannabis related activity since we despise potheads). I, however, remember nothing else. |
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4AD, Diskmuide, Belgium
We've played here 2 other times. The fucking hardest working man in Belgium Patrick Smagge and Katherine, as well as the other folks that are part of the company, have a cool deal here and it feels to me like playing San Francisco. 
Our mighty Mercedes Benz luxury Highway Tiger. Cool and homey, homey! And this time they outdid themselves. They're bottling their own beer here. And on the beer label there's an OXBOW poster. I'm not a beer drinker but Greg says to me, tears glistening in his eyes, "I never (snif) felt famous until now..." 
Niko The show? No one got choked, beaten, or sodomized. Despite my best efforts. But good show, good people, great. Really.
Oh. Oh yeah. Mccluskey was supposed to play this show too but they canceled because they collectively came down with laryngitis. Either that or they needed to go back to Cardiff to see their girlfriends. Either that or they were so offended by the OXBOW experience that they figured: why bother? We suspect the latter. My suggestion? More push ups, men! Gebraude 9, Koeln, Germany Another great show. Repeat OXBOW fans who dragged their friends to the show. CDs shoved into my hands of bands that are cool (you three? Yeah you three? I DID listen to your CD. I liked it. Now all you have to do is remember how to play the shit you improv'd again and you'll have something). 
Back in Germany But I'm into the liquor, though I do know that I don't recall seeing a single woman at the show with the possible exception of the opening band's drummer's girlfriend. I don't know what, if anything, this means. I just know, well I just know we need to start doing some fucking ballads soon if we don't want an OXBOW show to start looking like a soccer match. Or a gay bar. Or a gay bar soccer match. |
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Gleis 22, Muenster, Germany
The official worse show of the tour. Promoters? Nice fucking guys. The club? Nice fucking club. The city? Nice fucking city. The hotel? Nice fucking hotel. The food? Genius fucking food. The show? Shitty fucking show. It's the kind of show we've been warning the documentarian Christian Anthony about. I mean when one show has 25 people and IS a good show and the other show has 25 people and is a BAD show, how do you make heads or tails of it? It's hard we know but there ARE subtle differences and they all have to do with the soul-sucking power of absolutely NOTHING happening in the room outside of us and you have the most infernally unsatisfying jerk off session ever seen this side of Studio 54. 
Eugene about to make the man in the yellow shirt "part of the SHOW." Guy: Are OXBOW "noise" or are they "experimental"? Tobi Wan Kenobi: Um. [How do I answer this idiot?] Um. They're experimental. Guy: Good. After 3 songs. Guy: (squinting) It takes some getting used to. Tobi Wan Kenobi: You moron. You asked me and I told you "experimental" and now you say you have to get USED to the experiment?!?!? And so it went. Tobi was apoplectic and provided the one other redeeming piece of genius heard tonight. Tobi's Old Lady: I love you Tobi. Tobi: So what? |
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