After my brief stint in the UK to see With Confidence, the plan was to patiently wait two weeks until my local date, Paris, on the 16th of March.
That’s adorable of me to have thought I would make it two weeks when there was a full European tour available for me to check out, and here I went on an impromptu trip to Berlin and Leipzig, yes in actual Germany, to see this lot again. It was a good occasion for me to check out the state of the scene in a different country (which is something I rarely do, I usually stick to the UK and France because a) it feels safe and b) I speak the language), and see how the tour dynamic was without the Americans of Broadside, who were only scheduled to play on the UK leg of the tour and went back home as the others headed towards the old continent, leaving me with the memory of one of the most phenomenal key changes I've ever heard.
Neither Berlin nor Paris had a local band (Paris with no local band, shocking, am I right) but Leipzig did, in the form of pop punks Storyteller. I haven’t understood a single word the lead singer said as my German is abysmal (but according to a German citizen, “Ich liebe Kartoffelsalat” (“I love potato salad”) is all you need), apart from “With Confidence” and “fanboy” chucked in the same sentence, so I take it they were, as a unit, fanboying a little bit over the idea of playing alongside With Confidence. Music wise, they were alright, they sounded a lot like As It Is, if that gives you an idea - very bouncy, catchy and sunny.
I sadly missed a big chunk of Milestones in Berlin, as I got lost walking around in circles outside the S-Bahn station, but I was there bright and early for their Leipzig and Paris sets. I repeat what I have previously said : do not sleep on them. They’re not just lovely and catchy as hell, they’re also insanely talented. I found myself noticing how strong and impressive frontman Matt Clarke’s vocals are, and both performances were on the brilliant side of things. In Paris, they even had a little group of fans singing along to A Shot in the Dark or Call Me Disaster, and I’m pretty sure they will be a success when they hit our shores again in June, alongside Simple Plan. I cannot wait.
Safe To Say have been fully growing on me since the UK shows - it might be that I have actually taken the time to sit down and listen to their most recent album, Down in the Dark, and it might also be because the sound quality in all three European venues (Musik & Frieden in Berlin, Felsenkeller in Leipzig and Espace B in Paris) was so, so much better than in the UK, which made their performance bigger, and their music take a whole other dimension - it's catchy yet atmospheric, and I'm always on board with that kind of vibe. I still wish frontman Brad Garcia would stop apologising for not being a pop punk band - I promise, you’re still incredible, no one cares what genre your music is. The wait until they find their way back to Europe will be long. Very long. (In the meantime, if Only Rain could get the hell out of my brain, that would be lovely, please and thank you)
And then it was time for With Confidence.
The mainland crowds were different, and the venues weren’t exactly sold out everywhere. Berlin was reasonably full, but I could only count up to, say, fifty people in Leipzig. In Paris, according to drummer Josh Brozzesi, the band had only sold about thirty tickets until a couple of days before the show, and we ended up being, roughly, a hundred. A hundred VERY loud people, though, who sang along from start to finish and made it sound like there was five hundred of us in there. Apart from a tiny, shy one in Berlin, you couldn’t find the moshpits the UK had seen, let alone the crowdsurfers, but everyone was into it, and at the end of the day, what matters is that everyone has fun, not how you do it. It's okay to just have a little boogie or an angry finger point, too. On stage, all I see is a band who thrives in tiny venues, and, to be fair, whatever the size of the venue, whatever the amount of people in it, With Confidence are a band who gives their all. Some bands would get pissed off and play a half-arsed show because there’s only ten people in front of them. Not With Confidence. They always give a hundred percent, it seems.
Remember how, in the recap of the Leeds and Manchester shows, I'd said that if it wasn't for them reminding the crowd, I wouldn't have noticed that frontman Jayden Seeley was sick? Now he wasn't anymore, and, weirdly enough, I noticed. In the UK, I thought he sounded incredible, so what's above that?
Remember how, in the recap of the Leeds and Manchester shows, I'd said that if it wasn't for them reminding the crowd, I wouldn't have noticed that frontman Jayden Seeley was sick? Now he wasn't anymore, and, weirdly enough, I noticed. In the UK, I thought he sounded incredible, so what's above that?
Higher absolutely floored me all three nights - it seems I make a point of crying at songs that just aren’t sad. At all. The ending, more intimate, with just Seeley and his bass, asking the crowd to join in, absolutely destroyed me. Granted, nostalgia kicked in and I spent a good chunk of the Paris show wiping tears from the corners of my eyes, but, you know. There’s always space to celebrate such a lovely moment.
Paris was probably my favourite show of the whole tour, if I’m honest. Up until the beginning of Milestones, I was scared - was ending my stint on the Better Weather tour at home the best choice? Well yes, it was, thank you for asking. First, I got to make friends and enjoy the evening with some of my best friends, which is always a plus. I also had the absolute pleasure of sharing the evening with a beautiful, brilliant crowd, who showed this band a whole lot of love - I think they were impressed, and guitarist Luke Rockets wouldn’t stop thanking the crowd and saying how crazy it all was.
I wish I had more words than that, but I’m still coming to terms with the fact that my next With Con show is the Set It Off tour, and then Slam Dunk, in two months. One day I’ll learn. One day I’ll know that the comedown after several shows off the same tour is always a bit painful for someone prone to nostalgia like myself. The thing is, it was all worth it. Five shows, three different countries, 4384 kilometres, four awesome bands, one conversation about camembert. It doesn’t really get any better than this.