Road trip: Modern Skirts in Europe
Mike Mills of R.E.M. joins the Modern Skirts - JoJo Glidewell, John Swint, Jay Gulley and Phillip Brantley - on stage at Westerpark in Amsterdam on July 2. (Photo by Justin Gwin)
The Modern Skirts recently returned from a European sojourn where they performed at three festivals, including an opening slot for R.E.M. Keyboardist JoJo Glidewell kept a diary of the trip and shared it with us, and check out a photo gallery from the trip:
Wednesday, June 25
Arriving in London, the opening of our European tour, and greeted by the nasty little surprise of our instruments once again being lost in transit somewhere. To make this kind of tour happen, a band typically has to rent a lot of equipment, as sending amps and drums on the plane is expensive, and actually, probably not allowed at all. We did bring our guitars and my piano, though, and thus that whole mess. We didn’t have a show the first few days, so it wasn’t a problem, but when you pay a cool hundred to get something onto a plane, you kind of would like it to arrive with you. That’s just not how it is, I guess. We did get them the next day, so no problem, really.
Our driver was a Scottish fellow named Keith who we would quickly become very fond of. Before we arrived, Keith rented most of our equipment for the trip from a backline company, and was there with all of our gear to whisk us off to the hotel when we arrived at Heathrow.
Saturday, June 28
After a few days off exploring London, we drove deep into the British countryside to Glastonbury for our first huge show. We were hurried and hungry, and by the time we got there I was feeling completely overwhelmed. The festival was enormous, 175,000 people packed into a valley with people and tents as far as you could see in every direction. It was to the point of being too much to be pleasant. It was impossible to get out of the crowd and it was muddy and kind of smelled like urine everywhere.
We were the smallest fish in the music world’s biggest fishbowl. The show was fine, though. Got in front of a hundred or so people and played well. Nothing that special, to be honest, but bigger things were yet to come.
Monday, July 30
We had to get our van and equipment off of the islands of Britain, so we got an overnight ferry to Amsterdam on Sunday night. I thought it was going to be all of us sleeping in the Splitter van, but this was more like a nice cruise ship with rooms and all.
We got to Holland at 7 in the morning and got off the ferry and drove into Amsterdam. It was so beautiful. All of the canals and bridges and boats and beautiful people on bicycles everywhere. We had all day to explore and fill our eyes with so many lovely things to see.
We had several friends from Athens and around the world who met us in Amsterdam. About 10 friends from here at home, two German girls, and two friends from Ireland met up with us, and we hung out late into the night in Rembrandt Park. We ended up at a little rock club along the way, and we talked the band to let us take the stage. We did a little half hour rock set for our friends and a few tourists and locals.
Jay and John and Keith and I got very lost on the way home, but it was fine because the city is so beautiful at night.
Tuesday, July 1
We saw Radiohead play at Westerpark, where we would open for R.E.M. the next night. It was transcendent. Stood there with goosebumps for two hours listening to Thom Yorke’s voice shoot up into the purple sky. Brilliant.
Mike Mills of R.E.M. and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke backstage at Westerpark. (Photo by John Swint)
Wednesday, July 2
We had a good bit of the day to kill before going to Westerpark, so Jay and I met up with the German girls and had some lunch by a canal again, and went back to the river market for more clothes shopping. I bought a lovely shirt especially for the show that night.
When we arrived at Westerpark, we were shown backstage and basically sat and waited in teetotal terror. R.E.M. showed up a little after us, and we said hi to Mike Mills and Bertis Downs. Peter Buck, who we had never met before, came in and introduced himself and thanked us for playing with them. He seemed really nice. Scott McCaughey came out next and met us, and he was also a really cool guy.
The view of the crowd (with Mike Mills) during the Westerpark show. (Photo by John Swint)
As show time loomed we were incredibly nervous, but when we got out on the stage in front of all fifteen or so thousand people, the nerves melted and we played one of the best shows of our careers. We were very warmly received by the nice folks of Amsterdam, and the high from the show was mind-numbing. I don’t remember a lot of being out there. Mike came out and played and sang “Motorcade” with us, which was a dream come true.
After the show we left the stage in a state of complete euphoria. I couldn’t concentrate on anything for hours afterwards and felt much like crying for a while. A lot of things happened right afterwards, but it took me hours to be mentally present again and most things slipped by without me noticing. I do remember walking backstage and seeing all five members of Radiohead standing there talking to R.E.M. That will be burned in my memory for a long long time.
R.E.M. played and I’m sure it was amazing, but I was still mentally blown out from our set. I do remember Michael Stipe thanking us most graciously from the stage for playing with them, which was another thrilling moment for a little unsigned band like ourselves.
Thursday, July 3
The Werchter festival was AMAZING. It was the best organized festival I have ever been a part of. There were only two stages, and it was a short walk across the whole premises, so it was easy to get between the two stages to see all the bands. The backstage area (which extended all behind half of the festival grounds) was incredibly nice and heavily guarded. All the bands at the festival were together in the same place, so our rooms were right beside Vampire Weekend, and Counting Crows was across the way. R.E.M. was just beside us, and Phillip shared a urinal moment with Lenny Kravitz. There was a free espresso bar, and a gourmet catering dining room with lamb, duck, pork, and all the gelato and fruit you could want. We had two rooms backstage stocked with beer and water. And there was a taxi to take us between the festival and backstage. Our band badges got us access everywhere, and even got us into a V.I.P. area directly in front of the stages. I watched Vampire Weekend and The National from 10 feet away.
Modern Skirts playing during the Werchter Festival. (Photo by John Swint)
Our show was just splendid; we played a really good set to a few thousand people who really seemed to like us, and then went back to eat and relax in the backstage compound. Jay and John and I rode with Mike Mills and Scott McCaughy to watch the National. I went backstage for a while again after that, where the guys hung out with Sean Nelson, who used to sing for Harvey Danger and who now owns half a record label. Eventually I found the German girls, and we watched a blistering R.E.M. show together. I was able to really watch them perform this time around, and I was really impressed with Michael Stipe’s memorably magnetic stage presence. He was on fire. They were on fire. It was excellent. Three concerts by two of the best bands in the world in three days. Not bad.
Michael Stipe and R.E.M. at the Werchter Festival. (Photo by John Swint)
Friday, July 4
We were in transit all day. Happy Birthday America. No whispers of it in Europe. Keith didn’t realize the U.S. was a British colony, so our ribbing about how we were celebrating our victory over the English didn’t really get a rise out of him like we wanted. He was Scottish anyway, he pointed out. Touché. We all wished we could be eating hot dogs and peach homemade ice cream and watching fireworks with tanned American girls in tank tops.
Saturday, July 5
The O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park in London was kind of a bust. It would have been fine, but we were kind of on a day with all electronic music (Fatboy Slim was the headliner), so there were literally 10 people watching us, many of them personal friends of ours from the States. The rest of the folks at the festival were I guess waiting to for the drugs to take hold and the techno music to start. I had a full-on cold the last day, so I was mostly in the van sleeping between responsibilities. I saw Bob Geldof walk by the van, which was the most exciting thing all day, I guess. The rest, for me, was fever and dreamless naps.
Sunday, July 6
I wasn’t going to write about the ride home, but it turned out to be quite the strange day, for the fact of one incident.
We had a fine time getting onto our plane, with all the details falling into place like clockwork. And so as we taxied out to the runway, I heard a British lady snap in a hiss “don’t f-king touch me!” Everyone in the plane kind of shifted uncomfortably. A stewardess paused momentarily and then continued walking down the aisle. Everything resumed after a split second of unease. After a few more seconds, the same voice screamed, “Oh, my God, it’s moving!” and was followed my several other terrified exclamations, like, “the plane’s going to crash,” “everyone is going to die” and “get me off of this plane!” The stewardesses came and tried to calm her, which only, for some reason, caused her to start slinging racial slurs about the two young black men sitting across the aisle from her. At the sound of the N-bomb going off, the executive decision was made to have her removed from the plane. That delayed us for a full hour, and the poor husband of the lady turned to us and said “I’m terribly sorry, you people. I hope you all have a nice flight,” and my heart just broke for him. He seemed like a nice fellow.
And then the flight left and after 20 hours of transit, we were home. And glad to kiss Athens again.