2010 Tour Road Report – Part 2
Ya’a’teh,
Still settling down from a whirlwind of a tour… Heres a few notes and pics from our adventures.
Some more pics from our show near Nante: http://valkphotos.free.fr/index.php?album=Spectacles%2FMusique%2FBlackfire
We played an acoustic show in the middle of French countryside at a cozy spot in St Sylvestre.
Nathanaelle joined us on stage with her awesome vocals, check her music out at: myspace.com/nathanaelle
We learned that the area surrounding St. Sylvestre had been impacted by uranium mining. Schools and parking lots were built out of uranium tailings.
In the 1980s the community rose up and resisted the mining and ultimately were able to shut it down.
A very similar story to the impacts around Northern Arizona.
Next it was off to Roubaix, France where we reconnected with our friends in the group
Ramoneurs De Menhirs (http://www.ramoneursdemenhirs.fr/) from Bretagne.
They are a powerful group that punks-up traditional Breizh songs!
This of course is the town where Chris Mixx had the infamous stylo incident.
(One of my fav pics from the tour)
We continued on the road with the Ramoneurs to St. Quentin, France. It was a small venue but the crowd had lotsa
energy. Made for a great sweaty time.
Then we headed to Hamburg, Germany. It was a small show and we were happy to meet with our friends!
We took a moment to stop at the Ramones Museum (http://www.ramonesmuseum.com/) in Berlin.
They have a great display of everything Ramones! Definitely a stop for loves of Ramones music.
Next it was off to Chemnitz. We met up with our friends from Pyro Catharsis (http://www.pyrocatharsis.de/).
We performed with a Klezmir jazz group and a great youth group that we hope is coming to Arizona!
We were also joined onstage by our friends in the young Saalfled group Rostex and our long lost friend Josh Fahey… good times!
Check out these pics from Petr Karlach: http://www.karlach.net/bfch/
We headed back on the road in Germany to Erfurt at a great venue called Offen Arbeit.
We hosted a discussion the next day on Indigenous struggles in the U$ with a focus on relocation from Joint Use Area, the San Francisco Peaks, and uranium.
In Saalfeld we had some school presentations and shared some traditional dances. It was our second time in Konitz. We played at a church that was a musical and free expression refuge during the GDR era. The church is still in use today and is open to all types of shows. We ventured on to Ulm where we played with a great group called In Cold Blood. Check out their website, theres lotsa info hidden in it.
Next it was off to Chur, Switzerland where we played an acoustic show and performed some traditional dances as well. Then we drove like crazy to Paris and got ready to fly to Norway for our 10 day tour through Sapmi with the group Adjagas. The Saami are indigenous to the northern most reaches of Europe. They still carry on their traditional ways of reindeer herding and speak their own language. We had a great opportunity to do school presentations and talk with many Saami youth about the cultural struggles that they face today.
This pic pretty much sums up the tour!
Clayson doing hoop dance on the snow stage!
Around midnight at -24 Celsius!
On stage with Adgajas.
Our tour was on the trail of the worlds most northern dog sled race.