Arriving in Greece was pretty nice for us: 19 degrees and some sun is better than the icy, windy, rainy weather we had left behind in the Netherlands. The first night we were invited to play a sort of secret show for a smaller audience in a rehearsal studio. It was small and intense and extremely warm but very cool to play there. Jack from Despite Everything (great band!) recorded the whole show with his studio-gear. I have no idea how we must have sounded (loud as always I guess) but I was having a cold and Willem was recovering from a cold. All in all we had a great evening on our first friday night ever in Greece.

On saturday, our host Apostolis’ roommate Drossos (“even for Greeks it’s a weird name” he said) showed us around Athens. It’s nice as a tourist to see the ancient Greek parts of Athens. It’s hard to figure out how heavy ass it must have been to make such structures without all the possibilities and heavy constructions stuff we use these days to build things. What’s strange to see for me as a european in another european country was all the police walking around all day and night. It sometimes gave me a feeling of discomfort being there. Of course there is a lot going on about politics and the eurocrisis but I can understand that a lot of young people don’t like all the police walking through their city fully armed. It just gives you a feeling of being uncomfortably ‘safe’ sometimes..

The show in Athene went well on saturday night: we had a great time playing and meeting a lot of new people and for me personally seeing new bands. Then sunday morning we had to travel to our show in Volos, but to be honest (and we also told the audience later on) we had no idea where and what Volos was. So Riekus got his macbook out, ran Volos through wikipedia and google maps and SHABAM we knew what to expect from the city.

I believe it was a 4 hour drive from Athens to Volos. Sitting in the van with Wish Upon A Star from Athens, we got the extra touring guide information about what we were seeing from the roads we were on (and holy shit do Greek people talk loud!).

The show in Volos went well. I actually heard from some people that they liked the show in Volos most. It’s always tough for me as a musician to compare shows with each other but maybe they were right. After all, the show felt good and I was not feeling so sick anymore in Volos. So that was Volos. One thing I will never forget was the ENORMOUS teddybear at the sleeping place in Volos.

So that was that! Back to Athens airport on monday morning and trying to get some sleep in the plane. No flights were delayed this time. A big Thank You goes out to Apostolis for inviting us and putting up 3 shows for us! I’m very grateful for the possibilities we got for playing over there and hopefully we can go back to Greece another time soon.

Pictures or it didn’t happen!

Euro tour with Static Radio

We reunite the team that did the Transatlantic tours in 2007; together with Static Radio we will be hitting Europe this October. Facebook event and dates:

• 30-09 NL Sneek, Het Bolwerk. w/ The Get Up Kids
• 01-10 UK Manchester, Night and Day. w/ Leagues Apart, Chief, Deecracks, Murderburgers
• 02-10 UK Edinburgh, Banshees Labyrinth. w/ Shields Up, First Step to Failure
• 03-10 UK Leeds, The Well
• 04-10 UK Swansea, Mozarts. w/ Nozzle, Hangmen
• 05-10 UK Bridgend, Hobo’s
• 06-10 FR Le Havre, Mac Daid’s. w/ Without Skin
• 07-10 DE Cologne, Aetherblisment
• 08-10 NL Arnhem, The Stage.  w/ Wanderlust
• 09-10 DE Trier, Exhaus
• 10-10 DE Minden, Hamburger Hof
• 11-10 DE Berlin, Lovelite
• 12-10 DE Kiel, Schaubude
• 13-10 DE Hannover, Chez Heinz. w/ Red City Radio
• 14-10 DE Wiesbaden, Kreativfabrik
• 15-10 DE Bergkamen, Jz Yellowstone. w/ Eskimo Callboy, Distance in Embrace, Monstars get Loaded

Music Video Buyer’s Remorse

Our Italian friend Claudio Stanghellini shot our show with Boysetsfire in Milano last June and made a music video from the footage. The result can be seen here. Share it till you can share no more!

New bass player

Last but not least at all: we found a new bass player! During the last 1,5 month over 30 people from all over the world responded to our call. We are incredibly thankful for all the applications, kind words and other support! Our new member’s name is Glen and from December  on we will be doing shows with him. He has been playing bass and singing in bands for over 10 years, with a background in punk, hardcore and hiphop and experience as a full time promoter. In stead of the usual high-fiving on the deal, we forced him to sign a contract for life.

Below you can find the rest of the shows to come. Feel free to help us out with our UK tour in December or other shows!

• 30-11 – 6-12 UK tour: Get in touch for dates!
• 03-12 UK Dundee, Book Yer Ane Fest (Kage Nightclub). w/ Leatherface, Franz Nicolay, Bangers, the Arteries, the Cut Ups, the Living Daylights, Mikey Erg, ONSIND, many more.
• 08-12 NL Utrecht, Tivoli / De Helling. w/ De Heideroosjes
• 09-12 NL Zwolle, Hedon. w/ De Heideroosjes
• 23-12 BE Herselt, Jh De Choke *Acoustic*

That’s it for this time! As always: check our music, merchandise (we’ve got new designs/colors!) and most recent stuff at antillectual.com

While we’re booking ferry tickets, renting cars, getting a stand-in bass player ready and generally keeping busy preparing for tour, there’s still 3 dates to be filled for this tour:

08.10.2011 – France, Netherlands, Belgium
09.10.2011 – Netherlands, Belgium, Germany
10.10.2011 – Belgium, Germany

If you would be willing to book us and Static Radio in any of these areas, please get in touch with George at No Decline Booking. Thanks!

And guess what: the first show of this tour will be with the almighty Get Up Kids in Sneek. Looking forward to that one!

European tour with Boysetsfire

JUN 9 DE Ulm, Panda Bar
JUN 10 DE Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Youth Club Hängematte. w/ Tim Vantol
JUN 11 DE Weimar, Gerber 3. w/ the Toyotas, The Detectors
JUN 12 AVAILABLE!
JUN 13 AT Wiener Neustadt, Bandhouse
JUN 14 HU Budapest, A38. w/ Boysetsfire, Letlive
JUN 15 PL Bielsko-Biala, Backstage. w/ Boysetsfire, Letlive
JUN 16 CZ Prague, Akropolis. w/ Boysetsfire, Letlive
JUN 17 CZ Sedlcany, Rosa Festival w/ Queens of Everything, Just For Being (show time: 18h)
JUN 17 DE Zwiesel, Jugendcafé. w/ BHF (show time: 23h)
JUN 18 DE Leipzig, Conne Island. w/ Boysetsfire, Letlive
JUN 19 AVAILABLE!
JUN 20 DE Nürnberg, Hirsch. w/ Boysetsfire, Letlive
JUN 21 AT Innsbruck, Weekender. w/ Boysetsfire, Letlive
JUN 22 IT Gorizia, Pieffe Factory. w/ Boysetsfire, Letlive
JUN 23 IT Milano, Magnolia. w/ Boysetsfire, Letlive
JUN 24 DE Saarbrucken, Rites of Summer Festival /Garage. w/ Boysetsfire, Filter, Caliban, Parachutes
JUN 25 DE Frankfurt, Batschkapp. w/ Boysetsfire Letlive – SOLD OUT
JUN 26 NL Amsterdam, Melkweg. w/ Boysetsfire Letlive
JUN 27 UK London, Islington Academy. w/ Boysetsfire
JUN 28 UK Manchester, Moho Live. w/ Boysetsfire, Failsafe
JUN 29 BE Antwerpen, Trix. w/ Boysetsfire, Valient Thorr
JUN 30 NL Breda, Mezz. w/ Boysetsfire
JUL 1 DE Frankfurt, Batschkapp. w/ Boysetsfire - SOLD OUT

Check the Facebook event for updates about this tour.

Other tours/shows/festivals

Of course we have more plans and shows scheduled. We have some really awesome shows/festivals coming this summer. In October we will tour Europe with our old buddies in Static Radio and we will tour the UK around our first ever Scottish show in December. Get in touch for bookings!

Jul 30 DE Bausendorf, Riez Open Air Festival. w/ Bouncing Souls, Strung Out, Polar Bear Club, Stick to Your Guns, Man Overboard, The Blackout Argument, Tim Vantol, A Traitor Like Judas, more
Aug 8 NL Uden, De Pul. W/ A Wilhelm Scream
Aug 12 DE Hillentrup, Hillentroopers Festival (Papiermühle)
Aug 13 DE Dusseldorf, Philipshalle. w/ Rise Against, Templeton Pek
Aug 27 DE Trier, Jupitair (Exhaus). w/ Jupiter Jones, Bakkushan, Ghost of Tom Joad
Sept 29-Oct 16 Euro tour with Static Radio
Dec 1 Available UK
Dec 2 Available UK
Dec 3 UK Dundee (Scotland), Book Yer Ane Fest (Kage Nightclub). w/ Leatherface, Franz Nicolay, The Cut Ups, more tba
Dec 4 Available UK
Dec 5 Available UK

Fall tour with Static Radio NJ

We’ve already played a lot of shows together with New Jersey’s Static Radio, but we figured we should do some more. From September 29th to October 16th we will hit the Snelwegen, Autobahns, Motorways and Autoroutes with them. We’re very happy to work with No Decline bookings for this tour. For further booking information please get in touch with george@nodeclinebooking.com.

That’s it for now. All our music, more detailed info and our webstore including new T-shirt designs can be found at www.antillectual.com. Talk to you soon, see you at one of our shows! The next newsletter might involve more touring, even transcontinental to places we have never been before! Who knows …

Feb 18 AVAILABLE!
Feb 19 FR Paris Le Belushi’s
Feb 20 AVAILABLE!
Feb 21 AVAILABLE!
Feb 22 FR Bordeaux Hold’em Saloon
Feb 23 FR Toulouse Le Saint des Seins
Feb 24 AVAILABLE!
Feb 25 SWI Geneva Le Tiki’s
Feb 26 AVAILABLE!

Mar 23 AVAILABLE!
Mar 24 SWI Basel Sommercasino
Mar 25 ITA Torino United
Mar 26 ITA Brescia Latte +
Mar 27 ITA Bologna Lazzaretto
Mar 28 AVAILABLE!
Mar 29 ITA Rome Closer
Mar 30 AVAILABLE!
Mar 31 ITA Rende (CS) B-Side
Apr 1 ITA Bari Zona Franka
Apr 2 AVAILABLE!
Apr 3 ITA Vicenza Jack Hole
Apr 4 AVAILABLE!
Apr 5 AVAILABLE!

Germany and United Kingdom tours

To promote “Start From Scratch!” we will be touring our asses off as much as possible. Starting smoothly with 2 weekend trips through Germany (with Red Tape Parade) and the United Kingdom.

Germany:

• Jan 5 GER Köln Sonic Ballroom w/ Red Tape Parade
• Jan 6 GER Augsburg Ballonfabrik w/ Red Tape Parade
• Jan 7 GER Finsterwalde L 86 w/ The Red Tape Parade
• Jan 8 GER Berlin Scherer8 w/ Red Tape Parade + Man the Change
• Jan 9 GER Available!

United Kingdom:

• Jan 26 BE / FR / UK Available!
• Jan 27 UK London The Gaff w/ The Human Project, Code Blue
• Jan 28 UK Bath The Green Park Tavern w/ The Human Project
• Jan 29 UK Hull Hollywood and Vine
• Jan 30 UK Leeds Royal Park Cellars

In February we will go back to France (get in touch for dates!), and in April we will head to Russia for the first time ever!

New album

For those living under a rock: we have a new album out, “Start From Scratch!”. You can order an LP/CD through us or stream or download it together with all our music (for free or for a donation) at music.antillectual.com. When you are at our webshop, check out our new shirts, zippers and girlies!

New bass player

A month ago we brought the news that Tom leaves our band and Tim replaces him. Some of you might know Tim from his solo work as Tim Vantol. You can read Tom’s statement here. His farewell show will be at the ACU in Utrecht on February 4, including a solo set by Tim Vantol and other TBA bands.

Eurosonic/Noorderslag & other shows

We are very proud to announce that we will be playing the Eurosonic/Noorderslag Festival in Groningen (NL). The festival is a showcase for hip and happening bands from Europe. And us. We will play a regular set and an acoustic set for Live In Your Living Room. See below for details. Do you want to hear our songs in your town? Email!

Eurosonic/Noorderslag shows:

• Jan 13 NL Groningen, Eurosonic/Noorderslag: Shadrak, Main w/ The Picturebooks, Waines, Thee Attacks. Starts 20:00 sharp!
• Jan 15 NL Groningen, Eurosonic/Noorderslag: Live in Your Living Room (Hoekstraat 42a) *Acoustic!* w/ Klerkx & The Secret, Awkward I

Other shows:

• Jan 22 NL Arnhem, Mallemoere (Yvo’s Vegan Cafe!). w/ DJ Santina Runaway
• Feb 4 NL Utrecht ACU Tom’s farewell show w/ Tim Vantol, Break Character, more
• Feb 22 FR Bordeaux, Hold’em Saloon
• Feb 25 SWI Geneva, Le Tiki’s
• Mar 12 BEL Ecaussinnes, Festival Arc-en-Musique, Maison du Peuple
• Mar 17 NL Nijmegen, De Bijstand. *Acoustic!* w/ PJ Bond
• Mar 18 NL Castricum, De Bakkerij. *Acoustic!* w/ PJ Bond, Tes
• Mar 19 BEL Mechelen, Metteko. w/ Straightaway, The Octopussy’s, Not So Much
• April 27 – May 3 RUSSIAN tour!
• Jun 17 SK Cadca, Bagdad Mosh Festival
• Jun 24 CZ Prague, Dejvická Klubovna
• Jun 25 CZ Hradek nad Nisou Hradek, Rock Summer Festival. Projekt Parabellum, Atari, Terror

Jan 5 GER Köln Sonic Ballroom w/ Red Tape Parade
Jan 6 GER Augsburg Ballonfabrik w/ Red Tape Parade
Jan 7 GER Finsterwalde L 86 w/ The Red Tape Parade
Jan 8 GER Berlin Scherer8 w/ Red Tape Parade, Man the Change
Jan 9 GER Available!

and

Jan 25 UK Available!
Jan 26 UK Available!
Jan 27 UK London The Gaff w/ The Human Project
Jan 28 UK Available!
Jan 29 UK Blackburn Muzic Factory w/ The Human Project
Jan 30 UK Available!

Get in touch!

November 10, Marseille (FR). Lollipop Music Store (Acoustic in store 18:00h)
November 13, Cauterets (FR). Le Commerce (An acoustic set as support for the regular set)

So dig up our acoustic EP and dust off your lighters! By the way; expect an acoustic surprise in the streams to come …

We still need some last minute shows for this French tour. Check out the shows section and if you can help out, please!

Nov 4 Available
Nov 5 Available
Nov 6 Available
Nov 7 Available
Nov 8 Available
Nov 9 France Saint Etienne, Thunderbird Lounge
Nov 10 France Marseille, TBA
Nov 11 France Montpellier, Up and Down
Nov 12 France Bayonne, Le Kixkil
Nov 13 France Cauterets, Le Commerce
Nov 14 Available

Sep 29 AVAILABLE
Sep 30 AVAILABLE
Oct 1 Switzerland Lucerne, Treibhaus. w/ Dead To Me, Face the Front
Oct 2 AVAILABLE
Oct 3 AVAILABLE
Oct 4 Belgium Zele, ‘t Verdriet

We know this is LAST MINUTE so we’re not picky anymore …

After the release we will pack our bags and cases to tour France from November 4 to 14. Our French label Effervescence Records will be booking the tour. In case you want to help us out with a show anywhere in France (or western Italy) please get in touch with booking@effervescence-records.com.

In December we will celebrate our new album with a release show in our hometown Nijmegen and “tour” through Holland and Belgium. In the new year we will be going to the UK and the rest of the universe. Get in touch with us if you want to help out somewhere somehow.