On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of our first album, let us tell you about the infamous “Gauloises Bleues” tour and share some archives with you.
Let’s go back to 2005, a time when you could be young and actually get sponsored by a cigarette brand for a tour deep in Germany.
So—2005, first album, which meant promotion, and promotion inevitably meant touring… even though neither of us had ever set foot on a stage in our lives, aside from a few smoky gatherings among very close friends.
@joakim_bouaziz and
@panico_theband , seasoned veterans of the road, were our tour buddies as we hopped on a tour bus for a handful of dates: Heidelberg, Munich, Stuttgart. Diesel fumes, cigarettes, cold beers and schnitzels.
The plan looked simple enough on paper: open the night with a DJ set. Except the whole “machine live click’n’cut” idea left us feeling rather puzzled, even if we were dying to try it.
A DJ set, then — but one we desperately wanted to treat as a communion, a journey, an evangelisation. Besides, why dance? Could the club not become the fertile ground for a symbiosis between human and music, its primal, almost mystical reception? The very real fantasy of a concord among people of goodwill?
On paper, it sounded like a great pitch. In reality, it was a complete disaster — but one that at least helped us approach our future live formats with a clearer sense of crowd psychology and of that almost animal level at which audiences receive music in concert.
Intellectual intention is one thing; the physical dimension matters just as much.
A special shout-out to the manager of the Zapata Club, who leapt over the barrier mid-set to scream at us in German:
„Was zur Hölle macht ihr da, ihr zugedröhnten Degenerierten – SPIELT TECHNOOOO!!!“
You can now listen to the ARPSET we recorded during that tour — and, in your own way, become part of the story of a foundational failure.
Act as if it were 2005
Listen to Arpset
Link in bio
