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2011-03-02

WHITE LIES CHIVALRY, AMSTERDAM INTRUDERS AND A GERMAN SHAKEDOWN

The first night of our tour with WHITE LIES and CROCODILES was in Lille France. Excited for the change of pace, we were happy to join this bill and turn the page to the next series of shows. Met with everyone involved on the tour…both bands and crew with friendly conversation and felt at home straight away. Had the feeling right away that we were going to have a great time together. We were caught off guard when the boys in WHITE LIES brought us a bottle of champaign as a welcoming gift. Big respect and humble gratitude for a classy showing of chivalry…true gentlemen, those lads. First show went down well and we made our way to Amsterdam. Got to the hotel early with plans to explore the city but were thwarted by the keys getting locked in the van. I was able to pick the lock with a hanger after about 45 minutes of frustratingly steady concentration.

This was just the beginning of our caper and Jesus, what a series of events it was…I'll start with the show. Heineken Music Hall

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6,000 capacity and SOLD OUT in advance!  We took the stage and felt like we were playing a festival. Great sound and warm response.  CROCODILES tore through a great set and ended with "I Wanna Kill".  I'm a fan of the songwriting and tones of these guys.  It's well thought out and I have found myself with their melodies in my head, day after day. WHITE LIES had an extra rig of lights and production for this show and, along with sounding immense, were quite a spectacle. I can definitely appreciate this band's approach as well.   I'm a sucker for epic choruses and they seem to have it dialed.   All in all it's a great line up and we are happy to take part.  After the show we headed to the Red Light District to meet up with CROCODILES and check out the sights.  It was my first time in Amsterdam so I have to admit, I don't think I blinked.  I have never seen so many bicycles in my life. 

It looked like Critical Mass was an everyday occurrence.  We got to the Red Light District and walked across the canal separating the walkway. Huge, beautiful swans glided back and forth in the water, despite the advertisement and intent of all that surrounds them. 

AMSTERDAM INVASION - We spent time hanging with the lads and lassies of the Crocs and enjoyed window shopping in the overcrowded atmosphere of ill repute. Once we had enough, we went back to our hotel, bedded down with a buzz and laughed our asses off at Card's spot on Sam Elliott impressions before falling asleep. 4:36AM - Our hotel room door gets KICKED IN and four over-sized men start filing into the room speaking an unintelligible language…WHAT THE F#&K!? For some reason I took the recommended defense as if I were being attacked by a bear and jumped out of bed and started toward the door, yelling and waving my arms around. I can't say why, I just reacted that way…oddly enough it worked and the strangely large, intoxicated intruders fled out the door and down the hall, seemingly just as startled as I was. I walked out into the hall to get a better look at what the hell happened and saw a guy laying on the ground, blotto drunk with his friend dragging him down the hall by his arm. I slammed the door shut and tried to fall asleep…good luck. I guess they were probably too hammered to figure out that their key wasn't working because they were at the wrong room and decided to kick the door in. Nice one! Headed off to Hamburg with little sleep and a slight hangover, only to be pulled over by an unmarked German Police car. lined up on the side of the road and frisked as the drug dog sniffed through all our equipment searching for any remnants of the night before.

Clean bill and off again…damn. This series of stressful events left our heads spinning but I guess that's the way it goes on a caper of this nature…never a dull moment. Next stop Oslo, Norway… So far we have seen the scenery change to ice and snow around us.

We crossed the tunnel under the ocean and when we emerged and drove across a bridge over the water, we saw a capsized boat at the frozen edge of the Baltic Sea…

Oh my gentle Jesus, what's next? 

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2011-02-24

WHITE LIES EU TOUR BEGINS

Tonight we join White Lies in Lille, France for the first night of the next leg of our European tour. As we wind down from our 3 week stint in the UK with The Bravery as well as other shows with The Futureheads, Esben and the Witch and Neon Trees we are excited to move into unchartered TRANSFER territory and join White Lies for the duration of their tour. Be sure to check out the SHOWDATES section for more information on where the tour takes us.  

2011-02-23

UK TOUR BLOG PT II

Week two wraps up to end our tour with The Bravery with our final residency show @ Hoxton Square in London.  So much happens in a week's time while on the road.  I guess that can be attributed to the constant motion and blur of events that transpire within it.  MANCHESTER and LEEDS shows wound up an incredible showing of enthusiasm.   A BIG THANKS to all of our beautiful babies who came together for us.  We won't forget the parting gift from the Leeds Police, post show, when Andy was pulled over in route to our headquarters and chastised for running a red light.  I think this experienced could only be summed up in his words.

THREAT LEVEL - CODE RED  (in Andy's words)
"For those of you who have ever seen the movie Super Troopers, this truly could have been a scene from it. I have an over achieving officer yelling at me trying to maybe impress his female partner, I am told that "his city" doesn't tolerate drivers like me and that a night in jail being "rogered by a big black guy" is in my future should I not cooperate, listening out for the "meows" as he's yelling, I'm wondering if this is a joke as I'm being read my rights. Granted we are talking about a traffic violation that consisted of me running through a light that turned red as I was crossing........the rush hour traffic and seven car accident I caused was not my best work! Oh wait, I forgot it was actually 3am and no one was in sight, I was however too busy trying to find directions out of the city and clearly to busy to notice that Starsky and Hutch were right behind me and ready to cuss me out of Leeds. 
The fact that I didn't even argue the red light I believe infuriated this super trooper to the point that he felt the need to show me on a video screen (which by the way is the coolest dash board video system I have ever seen) Admittedly we looked 'well dodgy' on the video.....a huge splitter van speeding through the intersection looking like we're on the run, seven sweaty post show band members eating kebabs, finishing drinks listening to Willie Nelson at full volume........okay so there was a reason for my lack of attention.....but hey I ran the light (kind of) and you got me. "Mr Ridley it's your lucky F*#%KING day, you have a clean driving record so I'm gonna let you go" - cool thanks sorry again for that, but not before a blistering northern ear lashing " NO listen here, If you want to drive like a F*#%KING idiot through my town, endangering the lives of people here, you're gonna spend F*#%KING time in  jail being rogered by a big black man rather than trying to make money with your friends in that band" "Don't drive through here ever again like a F*#%KING idiot, get back in the van and get out of here" - during which I'm staring, just wondering if this was a set up and this is on camera, or whether I should laugh or not........... apparently not. Lets put it this way, Leeds is now a safer place without me driving through it and is certainly a safer place with the 300 lb Officer who takes great pride in cussing out me out for fun.......lesson learned and good stories for a while.... at my expense obviously!"

I will quote Andy once more to punctuate, "You, officer, are a tit"...Way to shake it, Riddler.

Topped things off with our last UK show for Club NME @ KoKo in London w/ Neon Trees.  

Felt it was the best one of the batch.  The venue is an incredible space and we were amazed at the support from all our wonderful fans that came through and posted up front and center for the show.  FANTASTIC showing of support.

We also got footage of our favorite crazy bastard Scotsman, who has allowed himself to be whisked away on "a fookin jourrrney!".  We sent our tribute to NME the week of our show and they PRINTED it!  Well said, good sir…We shall do our very best to keep the perpetual motion.

THE COOKER.

The infamous photog Mr. Rich Cook will be joining us for the European leg of our jourrrrney.  Action shots soon...

We have been in Paris for he last couple days.  Good things...

Je suis désolé, je ne parle pas beaucoup français. Parlez-vous anglais?

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2011-02-15

~Q MAGAZINE~

This week we celebrate as TRANSFER has caught the eye of Q Magazine, being anointed as one of the NEW FACES OF 2011! Very excited to be included in this issue as it also features a complete wrap up of their Top 50 Albums of 2010. Whilst in London the band shot photos in Q's studio for the full page spread. Arcade Fire is on the cover and it will run through the months of December and January so look for it at the newsstand

2011-02-09

UK TOUR UPDATE Part I

LONDON - Night one of our two week run with The Bravery happened to be at Hoxton Square Bar. The first night of our Tuesday residency here. We were greeted by all of our London folk and were hoping not to be too zombie-like, as there was no sleep on the flight over. Well, everyone but Mr. Ridley, who got a solid 8hrs…The bastard! The show had sold out ahead of time so we were prepared to do what we could to deliver in our best form. The performance wound up to be a good warm up for the nights to come. Thanks to Cat Dal for the interview. Fun times indeed! Also - A special thanks for paying homage to the "muumuu of music draped over the grandma of the genre" description of the band. We think that describes our sound most accurately as well. After this one we wound up listening to some classic vinyl, drinking scotch and talking about covering a medley of Neil Young songs…not bloody likely on on Ridley's watch but a drunk consideration nonetheless.

BIRMINGHAM - Black Sabbath was the soundtrack. I like this city's vibe. Our first experience with Fish-n-Chips happened before this show. I'm curious as to why it comes wrapped in a huge wad of paper? This particular order was gross but briefly satisfied the crew. The show went off well but was a little lighter in crowd. Thanks to Victoria for the interview! Here is the pic, as promised.

GLASGOW - There was some foul weather as we approached the city but we made it all in one piece. We had been looking forward to the show here for quite a while as we knew we would see some good friends and were excited that there was day off to follow. Scotland has been quite a ride in the past but we expected another rowdy one due to the indication of planned inebriation via the "social network". The show was a good one and the crowd was responsive…some had even been into the record enough to know the words. Afterwards we got well pissed, as they say. One highlight of the evening was when a 6'4"man in a kilt named Brian allowed a friend of ours to paint his face with glitter and lip gloss while we planned our departure to the house where we were to stay that night. Amazing gesture. Tis a braw, bricht, moonlicht nicht, th' nicht!

I was able to convince him to give his best BLUE STEEL...not bad.

DAY OFF!

We had a day off at our tour mom, Bridgette's 18th century home just outside of town. Here's us climbing the gate like heathens.

It was amazing to have warm comfy beds and home cooked meals. Simple pleasures like these are a well appreciated luxury on tour. A very special thanks to wonderful Bridgette for the incredible hospitality and for providing us with the brief sense of home.

NEWCASTLE - Our early arrival to the city was prompted by our search for the local music shop as we needed a couple of supplies. We found Newcastle to be a very interesting city with great architecture. It also had a weird street layout. It's quite different than the American West grid system we are all used to. It felt like we were walking through a movie set and reminded me of our distance from home.

We got a treat backstage at this show as it was in the balcony of another venue. There was a different show going on while we waited for ours in the room next door. We saw the Rawmones, Green Days, The Reed Hot Chili Peppers and some other Rage Against The Machine tribute band. Ummmm...AMAZING!

Geordie culture is something else and I loved it. Do yah nooo what eh mean leik? Wey aye pet. The show worked out but afterward was the real show where, outside the venue, we saw hordes of wasted Geordies, (some in costume) celebrating the comeback surprise of the Football, (soccer to us yokels) game that transpired earlier that evening.

This guy was my favorite...

I also heard there was a T.V. show in the making called Geordie Shore based on the same concept as the Jersey Shore. Lord, let it be. I think I saw about 38 different versions of the Geordie Snookie. CHAVTASTIC!

NOTTINGHAM - Rescue Rooms was a cool venue to play. There was interesting artwork painted all over the walls of the venue - not to mention the huge sign above the bar.

The show was dead silent between songs which is a bit tense, but a sign of an attentive crowd I suppose. I had a few Spinal Tap moments wandering around downstairs, lost, trying to find, first, the toilet, then the exit…It was a labyrinth to the maximum potential. We ended the night by drinking too many beers in the hotel room while watching the commercial-less Super Bowl. :( It was the first time in my life I have ever missed seeing commercials. Truly American…

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