Dirty Laundry #2
a tour journal sorta not really, from the UK, where my laundry is dirty
We’re two weeks into this thing (happy belated second week birthday to Who Will Look After The Dogs), and just finished the UK chunk of the tour. The whole thing ripped. Some really big shows (which still feels mental to us) and a couple smaller slopfests (lookin at you Glasgow. You guys are gross <3).
We played in Southampton for the 5,000th time. There’s this guy Ricky, who books shows there and has become a close friend. He booked us the very first time we came (in 2014!) and has booked every Southampton show since. He left this backstage.
You’re gonna need some backstory… The first time we went to the UK, we didn’t have a record out, the only thing anyone knew was Reservoir. So we came over and we’re playing to like 5 people a night. We were all extremely broke at the time - we’d all quit our jobs in 2013 to tour and were losing money on tour, so it was a lotta hoping people would take pity on us and feed us and let us sleep on their floor. Also, the UK is way more expensive than Canada. So we made a deal with all the venues that they would have to feed us dinner before the shows. Mostly it was ketchup + noodles or beans + toast.
Every morning we’d each take £5 from the merch sales from the night before (if there were any), and that would have to cover us for the whole day until we got to the venue. £5 would get us each one coffee and one can of Nurishment (pictured above), which is this disgusting food supplement kinda thing. Mostly I think it’s for sick people or old people who can’t handle solid food, but it’s got the stuff you need to survive in it. Anyway, every day. One can of Nurishment, one coffee, and ketchup noodles at the venue. We called it The Hunger Strike Tour.
There are a lotta good stories from that 2014 tour, it was one of the most fun times to be in PUP despite being constantly cold, wet, and hungry, and playing to nobody. We were just sorta unhinged in that era, and none of that stuff mattered to us. When we got to Southampton, there were like 30 people there. The biggest show of that whole tour. Bigger than London. Because Ricky had been going around town telling everybody that if they didn’t come to see this Canadian band play, they were dead to him.
It was the first (but not the last) time we’d ever see a crowd form a human pyramid in the middle of the pit. “Pit” is generous for 30 people, but those 30 people were going hard. It might be the first time anyone outside of Canada went off for us. It’s a core memory.
The next day our first show in mainland Europe got cancelled, because we’d only sold 3 tickets. So we slept on Ricky’s floor and played his venue again the next night, playing for like 10 minutes between changeovers for the other bands - if I remember correctly it was a screamo night and it was bad.
Now, 11 years later, the tours are very different. The shows are all rowdy and packed and fun as hell and we eat normal food and we’re insanely lucky and grateful and it’s mostly because people like Ricky in Southampton or Dave in Bristol or Jarn in Amsterdam who had our backs from day one. That’s the only reason this band worked out. A lotta people telling their friends about us until there were enough people coming to shows that we no longer had to Hunger Strike.
It’s been real nice touring with Goo + Illuminati Hotties. Both those bands are so so great. It was Sarah (from Hotties) birthday in Glasgow. We all went to this horrific bar after the show called Nice N Sleazy. Despicable. Our friend Ross came and they wouldn’t let him in because he was “too drunk”. He’d had one beer, and is like a 6’5” grown ass man in his 30s. He was like “man, I’m not drunk, I’m just Canadian”. Fuck that bar. Anyway, it was great spending her birthday together. We ended up having a great time.
One thing not many people know is that Sarah sang a lot of backups on Who Will Look After The Dogs? She also sang a ton of backups on The Unraveling of PUPTHEBAND. And I sing on her new song Wreck My Life. She’s rad. Illuminati Hotties forever.
It was sad to say bye to Goo at the end of the UK run. Such a sick band. They’re gonna do big things. We played Reservoir a few times with Tanisha from Goo on guitar and me and Sarah on vocals and it ripped.
The new songs are getting a better reaction every night. Concrete has become the “everybody is jumping now” song, which is really fun. Hunger For Death has been my favourite to play. The whole crowd yells “Fuck everyone in this venue!” at “Don Valley Parkway!” levels of intensity, and that makes me laugh. I’m going to do a very very deep dive on the writing process for Hunger For Death in the next couple days so keep an eye out if that sounds not boring to you.
Tour rolls on, we have Germany, France, Spain left on this run, then home for a lil breather. Thanks for reading <3
Stefan
Stoked for the deep dive on "Hunger for Death"!! Since first hearing it a day early here it's been my favourite song on the album
The slop that once nourished now once more nourishes the slop