We start out on the terrace in front of the venue, as the weather is pretty nice. Spring’s approaching and you can definitely see it effecting everybody in a very good way. While we order some drinks we start chatting about them being back in Europe. They are about half way in on the month long tour, seeing everything from small venues to playing Barcelona Psych Fest later on next week. They look tired but content and very relaxed, sipping on some Dutch beers. “We love being able to travel so much but it’s a shame that sometimes you get to see so little of the actual city or country that you are in,” Laena says. She is wearing an amazing brown fake fur jacket that I remind myself to ask her the brand for later. Her hair looks relatedly just unwashed enough to look cool. “We would love to do some (vintage) shopping or see museums but you hardly get the time.” Shannon pitches in: “Yeah, but just sitting here chilling and seeing all our European friends again is already so much fun and a privilege too. For them to take the time to come see us again after we met on earlier tours or work is so great.” The venue we are sitting at is super close to an amazing modern museum, we look it up on our phones but it will close in about 15 minutes, our beers aren’t finished yet. I propose we can go shopping for a bit as sound check is still three hours away. We all agree. As we finish our beers we make plans to visit the shops and walk over there.

First up the Dr. Martens store. Laena tries on a different colored version of the white platform boots that she is already wearing. “It’s really hard to pick on pair of shoes for tour, as you don’t have much space in your luggage and you’re gonna have to wear them a lot. I hate dragging around too much stuff, if you do that, you’ll start to hate yourself at one point. These are amazing. They are sturdy enough to last a whole tour and they look good,” she tells me. “Most of the time, at the end of a tour, I have to throw away the pair I brought, I tend to wear them down completely.” Tourmanager Sal is paying for a very cool pair of blue shaded vegan lace-ups when we (Shannon, Amy and me) decide to walk over to Monki before food’s on the table at the venue. In the store Shannon struggles to not buy everything, but she ends up buying three kick-ass pairs of pants that seem to be made just to fit her. “I love this brand so much,” she sighs, “I wish they had it in the USA as well”. Amy purchases some socks with flames on them, they’ll go perfectly with her pink shiny cowboy style ankle boots.

As we walk over to the venue we stop at the Museumpark to take some photos, the sun is starting to fade and you can feel it getting colder, the parks bathes in an afternoon gloom as the band poses in front of a group of skaters. Time to start this evening.