The feeling of when you’re about to travel alone is a mixture of fear and excitement, but there is some happiness in leaving with just your rucksack and knowing that you will meet some friends with the help of a couple of train tickets, and with the rest yet to plan.
Knowing that you won’t have the chance to do the laundry and that at some point all your clothes will be smelling is not part of that happiness.
Travelling is about leaving pieces of you in places, lights, people and take some of them for your mind to keep in return.
When I first travelled trough England and used Couchsurfing I wasn’t expecting to meet some friends I still see in different countries from time to time. And I wasn’t even expecting that the band I was seeing would become something I carry with me in my “bag of treasures”
This story begins in October 2012, in a room I was sharing with a friend that has the coolest taste in music. I never told them but I first listened to their album on this website she told me of that used to have torrents of new album releases. At first I was attracted by the cover and then by the content of that perfect summary of teenage years -when I was just out of them.
Then I listened to it on Spotify, which as far as I remember wasn’t out in Italy yet, oh the sweet days of Tunnel Bear, and when I finished the monthly data I listened on repeat on youtube again, again and again. I can say that everything about that album, the sound and the lyrics made me fall in love.
Then I bought actual copies of their album -more than one as I gave it to my best friends as a present, in case you’re worried.
I discovered they were playing in Rome and bought the tickets for me and my best friend, we went together and we also met some uni friends there. My friend Serena and I were so impressed by their gig that we didn’t even enjoy the headliners that much. I remember people jumping around me so they must have been good but I just have zero memories of them.
So a week later we were booking flights to England to see them again, my flatmate should remember something about it too because I remember a lot of jumping and screaming was involved “WE BOOKED THE FLIGHTS! WE ARE GOING TO SEE THREE OTHER GIGS”. Pure instinct of wonderful stupid ideas you have when you’re 20 and yeah let’s use this Couchsurfing thing and go to stay at some strangers’ place.
We loved it, every single part of it. These are some of the best memories I have of the past few years. The things we shared -those trips on coaches listening to their album, commenting the gigs, eating always the same biscuits she can’t even bear the sight of anymore and that sunny day going to Hull with that warm feeling of the sun trough the windows on our skin when we were tired and happy, the same feeling of excitement and a little worry of not knowing what we could expect when we were about to meet our hosts, and the wonderful gigs of course- are very important to me.
Then there was that gig with my best friend in sunny Liverpool in July, where I met two wonderful girls that just put me up to see them again in Liverpool together.
This has always been a story of adventures.
And so yeah, oops I just did it again. I just flew to the perfidious Albion again, this time not only to see them -timing is everything- after two years in which I’ve been unlucky and for a reason or another couldn’t manage to see them playing live again.
They are still wonderful and better everyday.
There is a grace in their playing, the way every instrument has a precise line yet full of harmony with the others. A rare grace they hold onto in their writing too.
There is something so hard to explain to people that have not seen them playing live, they have a great recorded sound too, yes, but nothing compares to their gigs.
I’ve seen some bands playing live and a few of them have this passion, this great communication with the crowd. The way Robert sings as every single word of their songs actually means something to them and to the crowd too, the way they put their hearts into the show is something very hard to find in other artists.
I’ve been often asked why I travel all the way to see them, like from that man in the Manchester Art Gallery Serena would certainly remember, writing down the name of the band because he couldn't believe people were travelling for them, until very recently “they must be VERY good”, they are. “Doesn't it get boring?” never.
I’ve seen 9 gigs up until now, some of them in a row, and it’s always like the first time. They just look a little more familiar now. Nobody arrives at the end of a tour still determined to fully give himself in the show as they do, no matter if the crowd is big, small, noisy or silent.
Now it’s been years since Glockenspiel song and even if I feel older and maybe less of a mess and a failure that I felt years ago, and even if their new songs sound more mature as if we are growing in parallel lines, I guess I will always scream that lyrics with my heart out like only the music is meant for you can make you do.
I can say I’m proud of them, I can feel it takes some courage to do things on your own terms even if it takes more time and maybe play in smaller venues for a while, their honesty and truthfulness are a big part of why their music means so much to me.
So this is a story about adventures, wonderful music and friendship.
Beginning with one of my favourite DID fans that travelled from Slovakia to Vienna when I was there just to meet me. We never see each other and don’t always find the time to chat, but she’s a friend I love a lot. Then there are all the people met through Couchsurfing, that now are great friends of mine and are the ones that tell me “I’ll see you next time they’re touring” and hug me the night before leaving for low cost flights at 5 in the morning. The ones that came with me to gigs even if that music wasn’t their cup of tea. My friend and sound technician that helped me translating interviews and songs and that now loves them too a tiny bit. My friends that put me up recently to see them together again, the friends I met at the gigs and talked about our lives and established a connection with, even in a small fraction of time.
And them also, even if I decided I won’t start talking about them as people, this will maybe have another chapter sometime, maybe not, this is a random post about being a committed fan of the band
I also had the chance to see my former flatmate which is now living in England during this trip, so travelling is all about leaving pieces but also about every piece falling into places.
And there is something fascinating about coming back too. Two weeks is not that long, obviously people are travelling for months and even years, but it’s enough for the people you see on a daily basis or a lot of times in a week.
There’s something fascinating about being welcomed back by the lovely boy I’m working with, or at my gym, because these are the things that are holding you back when you’re thinking about moving. Because no matter how much fun you have or feel welcomed -as it was in Nottingham this time- your coaches and mates will be irreplaceable, and all the friends that call you when you land waiting for nights of tea and jaffa cakes they know you brought, and of course wait to hear stories from you and paaaarty.
Another thing is dad picking you at the airport and immediately cooking pasta for you making you feel like a tragic cliché. (hi DID)
The people that know me know that I’m more of a sofa person but there are only two things (or three) that involve moving your body that I enjoy, the first and most important is fencing -which is not as posh for us you Britons!- the other is cycling.
I love it as much that I like to imagine life as a race in which you’re always cycling and the people you love and travel beside cycle with you for some time and even cycle for you sometimes, keeping you on the right track and all these things.
I also stab people for fun but with a safe weapon so it’s fine,
so distance doesn't matter, all these people, places, lights and even music are my “bag of treasures”, they cycle with me.
DID if you’ll ever read all these verbose bollocks which is also involving you as a great part, keep up with the good work, you’re just too good.
I mean it, I’m not British, politeness is just not a thing for me :D
Only joking, I love Brits, and you above all of course.
gracieabrams
areudirty
amandla
blakekathryn
