Colorado’s music scene is one of the state’s strongest creative exports. So it makes sense that many local musicians and bands tour regularly, sometimes hopping over the Atlantic for a European vacation that would rival Chevy Chase’s 1985 National Lampoon movie.
A European tour is a natural coming- of-age experience for any band that reaches that level, and it’s always an anxiety-filled adventure, even for veterans of the circuit (like David Eugene Edwards of Wovenhand) and bands with major-label budgets (like the Fray).
Even more interesting is the indie band finding its feet in Europe. The logistics are nearly impossible. The planning is painful. The chance of sleep is as improbable as the group making a profit, but still, you’re playing halls in London and clubs in Paris, and does rock ‘n’ roll get any sexier than that?
With all its flash, history and compactness, Europe is a tough trip for most bands, no matter their experience.
“The last time we were over there,” remembers DeVotchKa drummer/trumpeter Shawn King, “we were on ferries three nights in a row, from Scotland to Ireland, Ireland to England and England to the Netherlands. That means you’re in a bus until you get to the port, and then you have to get out of the bus in the middle of the night to board the ferry.
“When you sleep over there, you never sleep for an eight-hour period, unless you use lots of substances.”
DeVotchKa has five European tours under its belt, and the band’s international, multi-ethnic sound — familiar in both Pamplona and Prague — makes it an understandable favorite in places like Spain and the Czech Republic. After so many trips abroad, members of the Denver-based four-piece are starting to find their groove.
Week 1 is all about finding their feet, battling jet lag. Week 2 is when everything comes together. Week 3 is about overcoming the fatigue that is inevitable, and then they’re on a flight back to Denver, “where we have to do it all over again on the other side,” King said.
Urban adventures
For rock groups, big European cities are similar to their counterparts in the U.S., only worse.
“Bands love playing in New York, but getting your vehicle into Manhattan is a nightmare, and nine times out of 10 there’s some publicity to do,” King said. “London is even worse. We’ve experienced bus drivers over there with three GPS systems in front of them still getting horrendously lost.”
Michael Daboll’s European horror stories also have to do with big-city travel woes. Daboll’s long-running Denver garage-rock band, the Omens, was scheduled to play a European tour kickoff show at the Hi-Dive on Friday before leaving on a Western Europe swing in a few weeks.
“We had a scary time driving the streets of Paris in our big van on roads that weren’t designed to hold a vehicle the size of ours,” Daboll recalled. “Going through those giant, eight-lane roundabouts and not being able to read a single sign, yeah. Driving through Paris was the worst thing that happened to us, even though there were no accidents.”
The Omens’ forthcoming Netherlands-France-Spain tour, spanning Oct. 22-31, will be the band’s third trip abroad — and its second this year. Whereas DeVotchKa’s music is vaguely European- sounding, the Omens are a roots-driven garage-rock band, writing songs that are as American as American gets.
“Genre-wise, there are tons of people over there who are into the kind of rootsy, American rock ‘n’ roll stuff that we do,” Daboll said. “A lot of the bands over there are doing as good or better than the American bands these days. And the fans there are extra-rabid.”
European tours are more than rapt audiences, jet lag and driving escapades. Bands often have a separate booking agent for Europe, and that’s just the beginning of the fun. Equipment — or “backline” — is always an issue, as bands aren’t often able to transport all their gear and instruments overseas.
The Omens have a colleague in the Netherlands who lines up a rented backline and van before their plane lands at Amsterdam’s Luchthaven Schipol. DeVotchKa has been staging its gear in Scotland for the last 18 months, and only recently did they start touring with a backline guy, making setup each evening much simpler.
European hospitality
The brighter side of European touring life is the food. Most bands that have traversed the Autostradas and Autoroutes will go on and on about the food — and outright hospitality — they find on the other side of the Atlantic.
“I don’t want to slag on U.S. people at all, but it’s been my experience that the people (in Europe) take a lot of pride in being a good host,” Daboll said. “Everybody we’ve dealt with on the promoter level really goes the extra mile, and they want to make sure that you’re having a good time and doing OK, and that’s different than the U.S. It surprised me when we got over there how nice everybody is in that respect.”
King remembers sound-checking at a show in the north of France and smelling something heavenly from the kitchen upstairs. After the levels were set, the band and crew went up and shared a large table — and a memorable meal with regional wines.
“The crew takes it for granted,” King said. “But we were shocked, because you’d never get something like that at an American club.”
Europeans treasure their time spent at the dinner table, and King learned this again in Portugal, only from a different perspective. It was 7 p.m. and DeVotchKa was on at 8:30. The band’s tour manager was speaking with a restaurateur about getting the band’s meal to go, a concept the restaurant manager failed to grasp.
“We blew their mind, that we would take their food elsewhere to eat,” King said. “With all the translation and communication between us and the restaurant owner, this culture bomb went off and no one understood what to do.”
Ricardo Baca: 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com
