Best of 2010 Interviews: "What Is The Best After-Show Experience You’ve Had?"
As our after-parties or hangovers rage across the world, we look back on what Scottish bands have said was their best after-show happening. Answers below from members of the Average White Band, Twin Atlantic, Broken Records, Fangs, Dananananaykroyd, FOUND, Mogwai and more.
The Dear Scotland contributors are taking a bit of “winter break” over the festive period so it seems like an appropriate time to look back at some of the most popular articles of the year.
We’ve had a few great after-show experiences, but both times in Mexico City have been pretty memorable. The first time we were taken to this little old school club with old school dancing and that, which was a bit of an experience for us, and the last time we were there, it was Kenny’s birthday so a mariachi band played a song for him and we all got a bit drunk and had a dance about and ate tacos.
Quite a few vie for that title: the after-party at Mad Dogs, Edinburgh after our first Playhouse concert there, a night with our pals ‘Kokomo’ on Bourbon Street after our first New Orleans gig, a visit from Marvin Gaye after he’d just sung “Grapevine” with us in Hollywood (THAT’s a dressing-room moment), and in our car crawling along the 15 miles back to Washington DC among 22,000 black fans walking — yes, walking all the way back to the city. It was like we’d won the Cup or something; they were fantastic!
Good question! I guess that every time we’ve played a Glasgow show in the last year we’ve sold-out a slightly bigger venue and afterwards Dave from DF concerts would bring in a bottle of champagne and we’d all share a glass together. It always feels like we’ve achieved something in those moments, so hopefully there’ll be plenty of champagne bottles to come!
More often than not at the end of a show we have to pack the van and head off in the direction of wherever we need to be next, so usually the best ones are any time we get to actually stick around and relax at the end! There have been a few memorable ones, but definitely the nicest one was after our show in Princes Street Gardens for Edinburgh’s Hogmanay Street Party last year. It was incredibly exciting to be playing to thousands of people and watching them dance to our music all the way up Waverley Bridge. When we came offstage all we did was stand around and have a drink outside our portakabin dressing rooms in sub-zero temperatures – this game really isn’t glamourous or rock and roll at all! But it had been a really difficult, stressful and hectic year for all of us, so it was just good to sit and look back on how far we’d come with the excitement of signing to 4AD and starting to record the album a week after to look forward to.
Hmmmm. Good one. In LA we got to meet Jim and Dwight from the (US) office, so probably that one!
Sarah: Ooh, there’s been quite a few. It was great when we played Reading Festival, because it was the final destination after a lot of travelling and we could finally relax and enjoy the festival once our set was over. There was a real sense of achievement then, and we felt on top of the world. Also, when we were at South by Southwest, having Americans want their photo taken with us – and being given free Mexican food – was pretty great too.
Rob: We headlined an event called The Revel at Edinburgh Art College earlier this year, two days before we played at Rockness. The crowd stormed the stage during the first song, which resulted in an amazingly fun (but well hard going) gig. I was so wired afterwards that I couldn’t sleep that night, so after the gig I could only swing by my flat before getting the bus up to Rockness at 9am.
Drinking margaritas at sunset on a rooftop on 6th Street, Austin.
[the queen] After our Razzmatazz show in Barcelona our 5am stage time meant that we made it back to the hotel in time for breakfast and a champagne party in the Jacuzzi.
[jojo doll] Probably Den Bosch in Holland after playing a fashion show. There was an aftershow party all night at the venue, then after it closed the owners and stylists took us into the city for more drinks, then back to my room for a little party…and more booze. It didn’t feel like the best morning after though.
[lloyd alex] Jamming a sofa against the door of a club so no one could get out and dancing until stupid o’clock in Germany was all fun. The next day however was not so great. We had to find a pram to get one of Fangs to the tour bus and then he was sick over Marko while flying down the autobahn to Berlin. Haha actually that was ok for me.
[marko nein] Driving a car 100 miles an hour through the streets of Milan.
Well after a show at SXSW, we got to bunk off and see Women, Mika Miko and then Dinosaur Jr which was pretty amazing. David and I met Carrie from Sleater-Kinney too! Closer to home, though, I really enjoyed an epic night out with Foals when we toured with them. Got a lock-in at a pub, played this hideous game called Buffalo (don’t ask) and then went back to their bus for a pants party (don’t ask).
Most nights of the UK Tour I did with The Strokes few years back. It was great fun and we had many memorable nights all over the UK. But after the London gig was special and in the aftershow there were the Pet Shop Boys, Radiohead, Kate Moss, all sorts of people — it was an exciting tour. I remember trying to get the guys onto whisky that night to end the tour. I swallowed it to prove I was a Scot. But I HATE whisky. Only to see them well, just let’s say it didn’t make it down their throats. Wasn’t pretty, but they were great guys and I think a bond was formed.
There’s a few… the first was playing at a festival in northern Finland which Apparat (who I am a massive fan of) headlined. After the festival, which had been generally fantastic and we’d been treated like kings, there was a massive all night (which in midsummer in Finland is daylight) party in a mansion in the middle of a forest and we hung about with Apparat having a great time while he pinched all our cigarettes. Great time. DJing at the Arches in London at an all-night rave after supporting Mogwai at the Hammersmith Apollo was pretty amazing too. I’m the worst DJ in the world. No mixing. Stop track, start next one. But I played a lot of techno so nobody seemed to mind.
Playing a house party in Austin at SXSW was great too, though the after show experience turned into a pre-show experience because Crystal Castles, who were on before us, broke the PA system and it wasn’t fixed until about 1am, but the guys from HEALTH were there and John gave me a t-shirt and a CD because he thought I was a great drummer. Wow, sounds like we’re pretty Rock’n’Roll. We’re not, these are the exceptions, usually we drive to a travelodge and eat Pot Noodles. Sometimes we’ll play a game while driving at night called ‘Bridge or Cloud’ where we have to guess if something in the distance is a bridge or a cloud. Wild, we are.
The time we had to give out after-party tickets to a party for our trumpet player’s birthday, and our bass player only gave tickets to hot girls. The ruse was up when I walked into a party of 50 girls and no men. It sounds great but it was a disaster when they realised what had happened, and we felt like total pervs.
A few times after we’ve played we’ve been able to go and see other gigs by bands we like. One time I saw The Country Teasers in Chicago and another time I saw Ghost in Michigan. Both were amazing.
Travelling back to Glasgow after playing the New Year celebrations in Edinburgh — the door fell off the van, we had a few too many drinks and it all seemed strangely appropriate and familiar.
Shows where the after-show isn’t you humphing all your own gear about are always good. After we played a gig in Norway (where we had lent a guitar to Bjorn Again so that they could do a Metallica cover) some of us were sat naked around a fire in the middle of the festival, then we sat up all night at our hotel, which was a series of old sawmill sheds, drinking moonshine and playing Nordic battle games (mostly involved hitting each other with sticks) before going swimming in a mountain loch. I’d say that was a pretty good after-show.
 Archived in Random Music Articles, Music, Interviews and tagged Attic Lights, Average White Band, Broken Records, Camera Obscura, Colin Macintyre, Come On Gang, Dananananaykroyd, Errors, Fangs, Found, Mogwai, Mull Historical Society, Scotland, Scottish, Stuart Braithwaite, The Aliens, The Phantom Band, Twin Atlantic, We Were Promised Jetpacks, video. Bookmark the permalink.