Tag Archives: East Coast Indie Rock Reunion

Mostly Germany (Week 4)

Posted on December 4, 2013 by schwervon | Leave a comment

After an amazing night in Gent at the Kraakpand at Handelsbeurs it was back to Bremen where we played another show with Analog Ruins.

Tobias doing his best William Burroughs in Bremen.
Cat cafe.

Bremen graffiti.

Next stop the home of our driver/ road dog soulmate Karsten: Hanover.

Man in the wall.

Then north to Hamburg where we met up with our old pal Maes.

We had an amazing show and an amazing schnitzel the next day.

Next stop our first visit to Potsdam. We played with a fun band from France!

And finally Berlin.
Schokoladen cat.

Success! Danke! Dank U! Merci! and THANKS! To everyone who came out to the shows. See you next year. XO
Nan & Matt
Click here to see all the pics from the whole tour.

The Last Dance (for now)

Posted on October 29, 2013 by schwervon | Leave a comment

Next stop was Ft. Collins, CO. None of us had never been there but we were greeted with smiles from the local band Hallowd Oak. They were sweet enough to help us load our gear too. The show was in a really cool gallery space called The Artery. With lots of cool art. A great group of kids! Love to the dancers!

As we pulled out of Ft. Collins Jeff got a text about the news of Lou Reed’s death. I didn’t even know he had been sick. Aside from a recent perverted fascination with the “Lulu” Metallica collaboration, the recent work of Lou Reed has not beena large part of my life. But just like any songwriter in the world, I would imagine, Lou has spoken to my soul on countless occasions throughout my life. It was somehow comforting to be with Jeff and Nan upon hearing the news. We were all connected through New York. The fact that it was the last day of the tour added a slight poetic aspect to the news. To clear our heads we took a little hike along a nearby reservoir The last show was an awesome punk space called 7th Circle Music Collective. It was one of the most organized “All Ages” spaces I’ve ever seen. I like this quote I saw on the wall there. It was our best show in Denver to date! We’ll I guess that was it. We dropped Jeff off at the airport the next morning for New York and then we high tailed it back to Kansas. We only have one day at home before we’re off to Europe. It was super nice hanging out and playing with Jeff. There are talks about doing it again in the Spring perhaps. Stay tuned? Thanks so much to all the people who came out and showed your love at the shows. It is what we live for. Also a big thanks to all the promoters, venues and opening bands. You are our wings. One of the things I love about touring the most are the simple acts of kindness that I receive regularly from people. I’ll leave you with some of the vinyl booty I acquired on the tour. Happy trails! Click here for more pics from the tour.

Speedy Ortiz + Schwervon! + Lazy @ Czar Bar (KC, MO) Tues. July 16

Posted on July 18, 2013 by schwervon | Leave a comment

I snapped a couple shots from the show, but who are we kidding, Sid from Too Much Rock takes much better pics than I do. So, I’m hijacking them for my blog post here. Follow the link to his website for more shots from this show, as well as tons more pictures, videos, and the occasional review for lots of cool shows around the KC/Lawrence area. Also be sure to check out his podcast. I always find something there that sticks to my ribs.

The night started, promptly, with a blistering set by one of my favorite KC local bands: Lazy. Usually, a four piece, Sarica Douglas, evidently had a last minute call from her day job. So, tonight it was a “Lazy” power trio. Not such an easy thing for a duo like us to navigate but I was pretty impressed with how the fellas managed to over come this handicap by basically playing all of their songs about twice as fast as usual. Now to be fair, pretty much each of the four or five Lazy shows that I’ve seen have been unique in their own way. And I’m not gonna say that one has been better than the other. But I will say that this one would have certainly tickled my Lemmy (Motorhead) sideburns, if I actually had some.

Due to my guitar tuner crapping out during out line check our set got off to a bit of a rocky start. The fact that I woke up at 6am to be part of an all day paid mock trial survey didn’t help either. I was running on fumes and literally had to stick my head between Nan’s cymbals to revive myself at one point. Not the smartest thing I ever did but, for your delight, it was captured on film. (see below)
It was really great to see Speedy Ortiz in Kansas, City. Our first connection to Sadie was through the band Quilty who we played several shows with back in the day in Brooklyn & SW Connecticut. The last time we played New York, in March of this year, was with with Speedy Ortiz and it was one of the funnest NYC shows I can remember having in a long time. I’m super psyched to see the band get the credit its due. There was a decent crowd for KC for a Tuesday with Trail of Dead playing the Riot Room just down the street on the same night.

The kind of raw nerve and intense rock that generates from this band is especially refreshing when you come to meet them as people and realize that they are just sweet down to earth, kids. I’m a big sucker for that contrast in bands. We picked up a copy of their new record: Major Arcana and I’ve been listening to it now for the past two days. Like the short stories of Raymond Carver, upon each repeated listen something new pops out. It’s nice to hear a band that allows that to happen. There is a reserve behind the rock and dissonance that leaves space for reflection. The style fosters a real musical relationship vs. a wham bam one night rock n’ roll stand. This band is the real deal and I’m looking forward to watching them grow, like a tree vs. a bearded hipster’s penis!

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FIY: Click here to check out a review and pics on Too Much Rock of our show with Howard Iceberg and the Titanics last week at the Recordbar.