Notes from Tour: Barcelona
A journal of photos, stories and projects from Lester.
A year of touring with Western-Canadian band Peach Pit
After recently leaving Instagram, I’m looking for a place to put images and stories; especially medium-form anecdotes from the road (and images to pair them with).
Spring in Barcelona
“Hey what Jersey is that”? Chris asked. The deflated soccer fan walked past the tour-bus, presumably on his way home from the bar.
The shirt had maroon and blue stripes - maybe one of the most “iconic football kits ever” I ribbed. To me it was obviously a Barcelona shirt, but the footy lore was lost on Chris.
Peach Pit had just finished their show in Barcelona. Coincidentally their penultimate European tour date fell on the same night as the Champions League semi-final between Inter Milan and Barcelona. The venue was surrounded by bars and the show’s load-out occurred at the same time as the football fans emptied onto the street.
We sat at the tiny kitchenette of the bus as the crew finished up the gear pack in the pouring rain. At this time of night we’re usually drying our hair after a quick and debatably restorative venue-shower™, or sinking (squeaking) into the leatherette bus couches and onto our first Sit-Down White Claw (technically our second White Claw).
This post-show wind-down of band and crew was sharply interrupted as out of nowhere, 2 men burst through the pneumatic bus door. Sliding into the bus across the wet floor like Loonie Toons.
It’s a weird thing being suddenly teleported into the halfway point of a fist fight. You realize how silent it is.
As time seemed to slow, the only thing I hear is the squeaking of shoes on the laminate floor. Our new bus passengers tried in vain to land punches on one another - but their lack of friction with the wet floor meant that each swing was flaccid and poorly aimed. I only counted about 1.5 punches and some soft grappling before Jae Kwon and Sam (guitar techs) grabbed both revellers by the collar and really threw them out of the bus (everything about this is cartoonish so-far).
After the relative eternity of the automatic pneumatic door swinging shut behind them, the silence is broken by someone cracking their second Sit-Down White Claw.
The grey mucky streaks on the brand new laminate flooring is now the only evidence of their 9 second stay on our bus. Tommy the driver pops his jolly head into the lounge to say his catchphrase:
“This bus just had a re-do!”.
A Disc Western Film
A self-indulgent short film to accompany a product that nobody asked for.
Our day-off in Barcelona was also nicely timed with my cousin Sean’s departure from the city. After a number of years he was packing up and moving to Berlin to pursue more photographic work.
I tapped his local location knowledge (he also works as production assistant on video shoots) to help shoot a promotional film for a line of Disc Golf discs we had made for the merch store. A self-indulgent short film to accompany a product that nobody asked for*
*[Edit : they sold out LOL]
Sean drove us in the rented minivan off the beaten track, deep down unpaved roads and well beyond the limits of the hire-car insurance to our location: a ruined and perhaps historically significant ranch of sorts, just outside the city limits.
We just squeezed off the script and shot list before the heavens opened. We waited out the rain for a bit to shoot some stills with Sean, until we gave up, packing it in and rescheduling the photographic component for the next day.
The Shoot Process
The Outcome:
Let Him Cook. A photoshoot with Cousin Sean
The next day I assisted Sean as he shot some Sergio Leone inspired press images in a park. It’s always nice to take a step back and watch someone else take photos. Here’s a couple from behind the scenes frames.
You can see more of Sean’s work here and IG.
Vlog out!
Thanks for reading! If you’d like to see more of our Barcelona adventures; they were covered in the latest episode of This Week On Tour - The vlog we make that nobody watches!
Cheers, Lester