Next month Belgian quartet Raketkanon release their new album #RKTKN3 on Alcopop! Records, supported by a hefty run of shows including festival appearances and tour dates with both Tropical F*ck Storm and Brutus. We caught up with the band ahead of the dates to hear their top tips and stories from the road.
Favourite thing about touring:
Jef: Meeting interesting and fun people, and being in weird places.
Pieter-Paul: Doing what you love for people who love you for it.
Lode: Playing the last song during a fantastic gig.
Least favourite thing about touring:
L: Loading in and out our gear every day.
J: Terribly long drives in shit weather when all of us are tired.
P-P: Having a sense of smell.
Five essentials for the road:
P-P: Water, silence, earplugs + eyemask, MP3 player, acoustic guitar.
J: Phone, toothbrush, headphones, paper and pencil, water.
Pieter: Acoustic guitar, drum computers.
L: Toothbrush, earplugs, Bose quiet comfort headphones, my little travelling studio (named Thomas), books.
Your favourite way to pass the time:
J & L: Reading and making music.
P: I like to drive, or work on songs.
P-P: Listening to my MP3 player, doing nothing or sleeping, playing guitar, playing cards, reading.
“The Most”
Memorable moment:
P, L & P-P: We started drinking ‘Basketballs’ in the early afternoon in Eindhoven and became terribly drunk before the show. It was a matinée gig with children (see also: most drunken, embarrassing, rewarding, outrageous and hilarious moment).
Hilarious moment:
L: When we got into a Bay City Rollers concert for free, and found ourselves surrounded by yelling 50-year-old women all wearing something checkered.
Embarrassing moment:
L: Completely failing to play Florent, our #1 hit. The others got mad at each other instead of me.
Outrageous moment:
L: Once at 7am I got on stage and found out a drunk had destroyed the A and C key on my syntheziser. Those are the ones I use the most!
J: The fire extinguisher accident at Dour Festival: a security guy misinterpreted Pieter-Paul and set off a fire extinguisher in a packed festival tent. When we finished our show, the police were waiting for us at the stage. Luckily we got video and photo evidence it wasn’t us who set that thing off.
Drunken moment:
L: Whilst I was making a pee-resevoir in the bus, I sawed into my finger and had to get it stitched without aneasthesia because we had a gig to play.
J: Getting my guitar out of its case and discovering it was scratched all over. Then the others explained to me that I dived into Pieters drumkit twice the day before. This was the Eindhoven gig.
Rewarding moment:
L: 100 people on stage in the last song of our Rktkn#2 album at our last Ghent hometown gig.
J: Any time we get a great response from the audience, be it 2 people in an empty room going absolutely ape shit or be it a packed festival tent.
Raketkanon release their new album #RKTKN3 on 5th April via Alcopop! Records, available to pre-order HERE.
See Raketkanon live at one of the following shows:
April
Sat 6th – ROTTERDAM, NL – Baroeg (Harlequin Fest)
Thu 25th – BRUSSELS, BE – Les Nuits de Botanique @ Rotonde SOLD OUT
May
Sat 4th – KORTRIJK, BE – De Kreun
Wed 8th – AMSTERDAM, NL – Paradiso (kleine zaal)
Sat 11th – UTRECHT, NL – Doomstad @ Ekko
Wed 15th – BRIGHTON, UK – Prince Albert
Thu 16th – RAMSGATE, UK – Ramsgate Music Hall
Sat 18th – BRISTOL, UK – Rough Trade
Tue 21st – NIJMEGEN, NL – Merleyn^
Wed 22nd – ANTWERPEN, BE – Het Bos^
Thu 23rd – GRONINGEN, NL – Vera^
Fri 24th – ARLON, BE – L’entrepot*
Sat 25th – CHARLEROI, BE – Eden*
Sun 26th – CARDIFF, UK – Psych & Noise Fest
Wed 29th – HASSELT, BE – MOD^
Thu 30th – GENT, BE – Vooruit (Balzaal)^ SOLD OUT
June
Fri 14th – SONNENBERG, CH – Kriens/Luzern (B-Sides Festival)
Sat 15th – MANNHEIM, DE – Maifield Derby
July
Fri 19th – LEEUWARDEN, NL – Welcome To The Village
August
Sat 3rd – WAARSCHOOT, BE – Roadkill
^ w/ Tropical F*ck Storm
* w/ Brutus
