Features Tour Diary: Brainlove Records Spanish Winter Excursion (Part One)

Brainlove’s first and only American artist Bastardgiest, aka Chicago-based drone/alt-pop musician Joel Midden, flew in last month for a winter tour around his new single ‘Shift’ and the aptly named b-side ‘Winter Fog’. After a nice run of London shows with A Classic Education and Fireworks Night and a hastily assembled warehouse party, he’d play some regional dates with fellow Brainlove artists Bleeding Heart Narrative and Mat Riviere. Our tours often happen this way, with several Brainlove acts sharing the stage - it’s always nice to see people who’ve been brought together because of their music come together as friends, too.

But two weeks before the trip, an amazing opportunity appeared to shake up the plan. Napoleon IIIrd got a booking from the Gaztemaniak concert series in San Sebastian, Spain, falling on one of Bastardgeist’s off days; a couple of emails later, Bastardgeist became a late addition to the bill, and suddenly we were also planning for an exciting overseas show and a late-autumn Spain adventure rolled into one.

The London shows went smoothly, and we trundled off to Heathrow high-spirited but bleary-eyed, nodding off for the 1.5 hr flight. We woke up in turbulence, arriving through dense fog - ten flights into Bilbao had been redirected already, and it was easy to see why. But the wheels found the runway safely, and we were met on the tarmac by our Spanish booker friend and erstwhile drinking buddy Roberto. The atmosphere was surreal as we hit the road in our hire car and raced through the befogged emerald and terracotta landscape towards San Sebastian, with the Autobahn-esque sound of Apparat Organ Quartet blasting from the speakers. The four of us speedily checked in at the hotel, then hit the venue.

Gazteszena is a sprawling culture house and education centre with a cavernous concert hall at it’s heart. Bastardgeist soundchecks smoothly, but disaster strikes as Napoleon IIIrd is setting up, freezing suddenly with a tangle of wires sprouting from his fists and going visibly pale. ‘Where’s my soundcard?’ he asks. This essential piece of equipment for his show links together his various instruments, controllers and effects - and it’s nowhere to be found.

The crew hit action stations in a concentrated effort to find, beg, borrow or buy one before the doors open. The production office call local studios and practice rooms while I speed back to the hotel in a taxi, peering from the windows with no idea where I am, suddenly alone and adrift in a small Spanish town. We screech into the car park, and I run up the stairs and ransack the room, only to find the small silver box peeking out from a pile of clothes on Napoleon IIIrd’s bed. Crisis is averted, and I call ahead to everyone’s vast relief - they’d drawn blanks on finding a replacement.

Bastardgeist goes off perfectly. ‘Winter Fog’ is so catchy Napoleon IIIrd and I spend the rest of the trip humming it. He finishes on long instrumental that loops piano notes, violent percussive sounds and throbbing sub-bass, and the room begins to fill up nicely. Success! But the night’s not over quite yet…

Check back on DIY tomorrow for Part Two of the Brainlove Records Spanish Winter Excursion tour diary.