We had a nice and surprisingly needed sleep in at the hotel. I always love it when you can push the checkout limits and no one comes to bother/ eject you. We left at 12:40pm. It was another gig day and we only had 2.5 hr drive to the next show that was in a town about 100kms north west of Paris called Rouen. Did a few communication-orientated things while we had wifi and then hit the road.

We needed to get a couple of things from the hardware store (the French Bunnings is called Castorama- thanks Alexia) and the one most not out of the way was one near Rouen. We went straight there in constant rain and it was closed. Next stop the hotel; it was a nice joint right on the river and only 1.5kms from the venue. The old twin singles placed intimately close together in a fixed bedframe is becoming commonplace. It’s pretty much a double bed with a crack down the guts. (note to self – don’t spend 2.5 weeks on holidays in 5 star private villas before a 3 month tour on a tight budget! My standards are way to high at the moment).

The venue was a cool small room about 200 cap and the staff were all very friendly and helped us load in, what legends. The place had the vibe of one of those venues that wouldn’t be very busy. We were treated to some awesome hospitality including drinks, dinner and one of the best cheeses I’ve tried over here a local number called Neufchatel Artisanal au liat cru, amazing stuff! We sat around the bar with all the staff and both bands while the owner cranked our album at 100 db!

At 7:30 the doors opened and the support band YouPOOR were about to kick off. I ducked out of the band room to quickly grab some water (after all the post dinner shots with the owner). Sound The underground was halfway through it’s 2nd rotation and I was shocked to see the place was packed and there was a huge line down the street! Fuck yeah!

For our first ticketed headline club show in France, we packed it! The crowd erupted when we hit the stage with heaps of people knowing the music and singing along (best they could). I tell you it’s an amazing feeling to be on the other side of the world and be selling out a show in a town you had never heard of until you looked at the day sheet and said, “ok we’re going to Rouen tonight”.

We played for about 1.5 hrs and did 2 encores. Danny finally got to run the new kit (with close specs) and I got more settled with my new gear also. It sounded good and bloody loud!

After the show we experienced the local hospitality further, with nearly everyone in the place wanting to have a shot (both alcohol and photographic) with us. Danny passed out on the bar and I sat around with Cedric the owner and his staff eating another great local cheese and an array of deli meats and bread. Pretty good! We took awesome drunk photos of Danny, it was a great night. May post?

-Higgsy