God Mother | facebook | bandcamp |
Tungsol | facebook | bandcamp |
I’m Sean. I usually sing for Helioscope. However, this summer I’m filling in as a “tour-dad/mum” for my friends in God Mother and Tungsol during their euro tour, as well as acting live bassist for the latter. Here are a few words about our ongoing tour.
28.06 – Day 8
The fact that we stayed up late partying and socialising in Liberec was something you might’ve been able to figure out just by watching us the morning after. All of the boys were pretty knackered, all for different reasons, but some a bit more from certain substances not so legal back home in Sweden (but perfectly fine in Czech Republic). As we had been given the key to the venue we locked it and went in to town for breakfast, some people so tired they (accidentally) ordered in swedish, to everyone else’s delight. The tiredness was evident while driving to Ostrava too. I don’t think the van has been or ever will be that silent during this tour. Not being into drugs of any kind I was still having a pretty good straight edge hangover myself. Luckily we had Mad Mads (Max’s danish alter ego) with us and his DJ-ing kept our spirits high.
We arrived in Ostrava at Plan B just to be told that the promotor was at the hospital after falling off his skateboard and smashing his face. After a while a smiling Shusta arrived with a bloody shirt and a few very fresh stitches to prove the story to be true. He didn’t seem bothered by the incident at all, but in a good mood, much like during our visit to Plan B last year.
The day contained yet another surprise with the mexicans in Failure Trace happening to be our fellow performers for the night. Just before leaving the God Mother show in Prague a few days earlier we had been approached by the drummer (who’d also bought a shirt). So it was a nice little bonus to see them again. Speaking of their drummer. This kid is the fastest kit beater I’ve ever seen. We all stood in awe, having trouble to understand let alone at all take in the creative pace of his drumming. Particularly one of their later songs during the set which involved a blast->full stop/mute cymbal->blast move (sorry to all the skinbeaters out there, I’m really not that good with the drum linguo) forced me to punch myself in the chest to keep on breathing. It was that good. And his playing sooooooo quick (no seriously, think of the fastest, tightest drummer you’ve ever seen, the quadruple the playing speed).
Both Tungsol and God Mother had good shows, playing for an audience twice as big as last year. For me personally the evening also contained a nice conversation with Shusta about money, touring and DIY-ethics. Much appreciated! A funny detail was also pointed out towards the end of the evening. While us Swedes were sweating in our shorts and tees. The mexicans on the other hand, kept putting more clothes on, trying their best to stay warm. We all shared a big laugh when Shusta pointed this out.
29.06 – Day 9
The shortest day driving-wise. The gig was set in Opava not even an hour’s drive outside Ostrava. Hoping that Shusta (who had gone off to work and left us asleep at home) would be able to join us for lunch (and show us that vegan restaurant he’d talked about) we took our time showering and doing our best to overload his wifi.
Later we picked up our Opava-promotor outside last nights venue and drove with him to Opava, were he fed us some pasta and introduced us to his girlfriend and two dogs as well as playing us a short flamenco on the guitar. The show was at the local pub. We played with Olomouc hardcore quintet Blind Man Sees, who had some cool Touché Amore influenced parts. Their vocalist with a perfect voice for the genre too. The attendance was quite low, but we clicked nicely with the Czech kids and had a great time joking around during each others sets, making it a great night. Those who were there know what I’m talking about.
30.06 – Day 10
Our final gigging-day in Czech Republic this time around. Sebastian and I slept in the van on a parking lot and were already up at 9, when the others joined. So was the sun, much to Sebastian’s delight. We opted for some breakfast shopping at the LIDL round the corner and set off, aiming for Ceske Budejovice. Once again suffering from our GPS lack of Czech maps we took to the smaller roads, hoping to avoid cues. The drive went relatively smooth with Mad Mads once again handling the DJ-ing superbly, as always, boasting the van morale. We stopped for lunch in a small village (which I’ve forgotten the name of) roughly an hour from our final destination. Pretty decent food compared to the average roadside place, according to some of us. The opposite according to some.
Arriving in Ceske Budejovice at Velbloud (a venue with many past shows to its name, H2O and Agnostic Front to name a few) we were greeted by the promotor Milan and his girlfriend Lucy. Waiting for the owner to open the club for us, we only had access to the backstage area, one of the nicest I’ve experienced by the way. We were held hostage by our two very nice, talkative hosts for an hour and a half before we loaded in.
Not having an entry fee set and playing only for donations from the crowd we were a bit nervous at first when not a lot of people seemed to show up. However, once the local support band started playing, that had changed. When Tungsol then took to the stage there were almost 50 people in the room (a number that increased a little more before the evening was over). God Mother’s set was forced to an early break with Sebastian accidentally ripping his mic cable only after a few songs. Since the only replacement available was a not even close to 3m (Seb usually works with a 15m cable), it looked as for once he’d be tied to the stage. That wasn’t the case though, as every chance he had when not singing he’d be out in the crowd anyway. The crowd gave all the bands a nice reception with a lot of intense but friendly moshing going on. Also, God Mother were forced to play two extra songs before being allowed to leave the stage. We had a good time and stayed up late. Full filling my role as the tour-mother/control freak I made sure all the boys (some of them notably over refreshed) were asleep before I went to bed myself. I think it was 5 in the morning before I finally got some shut-eye.
Coolest thing that night however, was without a doubt Katerina and (another) Milan, a lovely couple who’d seen God Mother earlier in Prague. They’d enjoyed it so much they’d decided to make the 2 hour drive to Ceske Budejovice, just to catch them again, bringing two friends with them this time. The God Mother boys were very touched about it and gave them some merch to show their appreciation. A fantastic moment to cap off a brilliant night.
