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.

]]> https://www.blackfire.net/2010/02/2010-tour-road-report/ Sat, 20 Feb 2010 19:16:08 +0000 http://www.b.ethos7.com/?p=47

Pic by Theo Koppen

Greetings! Just a few quick notes from the road.

There was about an inch of snow on the tarmac at Flagstaff airport.

Considering the storms that had been coming in we were lucky to have such a clear day. We had to fly out a day early so we didn’t have time to get everything done we needed for the tour. It was frustrating especially since we’re in the midst of moving Taala Hooghan infoshop into a new space and our Churro sheep stared lambing!

We ended up spending about 3 hours on the runway waiting for the plane to get de-iced twice in Philadelphia but ultimately the plane got clearance and we were on our way.

We played our first date on the tour in Paris at Cite de la Musique with an awesome Aboriginal group from Austraila called Narbalek. The night before our show we got to reconnect with our friends in the Tamashek groups from Mali, Africa. Tinariwen and Tartit reminded us why we need to go back to the Sahara.

In the French Alps at St. Martin en Vecors we joined our friend Loran and his crew from our last tour with Les Ramoneurs De Menhirs for a benefit concert for the freedom of political prisoner Leonard Peltier.

We also played with a rocking group called Les Iguanes.

Then it was off to an acoustic show at a cozy spot way off the beaten path in Saint Sylvestre, France. The two hour show was recorded live for radio so we’ll try to post some tracks on the site later on. We had a hard time leaving the location because we started talking about uranium issues. It turns out that for decades the community had resisted uranium mining, the groundwater was contaminated, the schools were built out of tailings. Ultimately the community was able to shut down the mining operation (sound familiar?). Our host had even written some books on the issue.

Throughout the tour we’ve been trying to educate folks about the renewed uranium threats in Northern Arizona and the connections to France with their nuclear energy program. With thousands of new applications for uranium mines around the Grand Canyon its a very serious issue (look for an article by yours truly soon).

Last night was a show near Nante at an awesome squat that we keep coming back to. The shows are in the swimming pool (sans water of course)! We played with some great groups including: Trouz an Noz and Haymarket with our friend Vincent. It was cold but the crowd definitely wasn’t. We hope to keep returning!

Check out these pics. More to be posted soon with some video as well!

Peace,

Klee

(Live Blackfire shots by Theo Koppen)

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