In April I was lucky enough to follow Balu Brigada on the Europe leg of their ‘Portal Tour’ for several dates with some of my closest friends. I will forever be grateful that I have the means to travel, but even more grateful to have friends that are worth travelling for. It was a very special two weeks. Thank you.
Berlin
The first of the four shows I attended was in Berlin, an almost hometown show. Outside New York City and Auckland, Balu Brigada has also spent a lot of time living in Berlin. The city holds a special place for them, and it being sold out held that extra weight. Fans wanted to celebrate that, organising several fan projects. Older brother, Henry Beasley, even getting choked up during ‘Butterfly Boy’, when the crowd held up hundreds of butterflies for the duration of the song. There was laughter during the emotional songs too, a fan having brought a flag of New Zealand with the band’s likeness plastered across it and Henry then donning it during ‘Isolation’.
Despite having lived in Berlin for so many years, this was also their first ever headline show in the city. Similar to when they headlined those festivals in New Zealand at the start of the year, this was one of those milestone shows. The band has also built up a really loyal fanbase and I felt that most here. In line I found myself talking to people from not just Germany, but Russia, the UK and even another Australian. All of them had stories to tell, but I think my favourite was from the Russian who dislocated her knee at their previous show going too hard to ‘Backseat’.
Hamburg
Of all the shows I would be attending in Europe, Hamburg was the one I was most excited for. The shows coincidentally fell on my birthday, and it kind of just felt a bit like fate, as cliche as that sounds. Mojo Club, the venue they were playing at, is located in the famous Reeperbahn, the red light district of Hamburg. The area is rich in musical history, the Beatles playing their first international gigs there. John Lennon even quoted saying “I might have been born in Liverpool – but I grew up in Hamburg.” in reference to their time spent in Reeperbahn.
Mojo Club itself was located underground, the dual trapdoor entrance being lifted an hour before doors. It was one of the coolest venues I’ve been in, the stage was backlit by rows and rows of LED lights, which made for a more unique stage design. Lined up with my friends along the barricade, I knew it would be a special one, and it was. Spending my birthday dancing to my favourite songs, with my friends, on the other side of the world, is everything actually.
Amsterdam
Amsterdam being the day after Hamburg was not fun. Getting there involved getting up at 2am and then catching a five hour Flix bus, but I wouldn’t have made it in time for the show any other way. The show in Amsterdam was the fastest to sell out of the Europe tour, tickets selling out in a matter of days. We’d run into several people on the tour who hadn’t been able to get tickets to this show, so I felt very lucky that I was able to attend.
Berlin, Hamburg and Amsterdam were all relatively the same size, around the 600 capacity mark. Like the previous nights, it was fully packed out. Something that Balu Brigada had done all tour was swapping various songs in and out, trying to find that balance in the setlist. This night they swapped their unreleased song ‘Bedhead’ for their other unreleased song, ‘But I Do’, a song they’ve been trying out for almost three years. In my personal opinion they should just release both – they’re bangers.
Cologne
My final show was Cologne, their largest ever headline show. The venue held a capacity of 1800 and in between when I left to grab lunch and coming back, it became apparent why they needed a venue so much bigger. At their previous shows the queue started to pick up closer to doors, by noon the queue wrapped the building. Their other shows may have been shown old out, but no one had shown up in droves like this before.
The last couple of shows I had grown accustomed to there being a lack of barricade, the lip of the stage all that separated Balu Brigada and the crowd, this time there was one. I found myself missing the intimacy, there’s something different about teeny tiny gigs. Looking back from my spot and seeing the hoardes of fans, I could not help feeling proud. After over over a decade of grinding they more than deserved this. And those in the crowd showed up in earnest, dancing and singing along to every song, hanging off of the band’s energy
Backbeat Mag 