D&M recently just got back from their debut world tour, and they brought us a tour diary and some awesome photos to share their experience!
This is the third installment of “The LP Series” featuring the song, “Lucky” and performed live in Cannes, France during D & M’s 2013 “World Tour”.
Tour Diary
Parkside Lounge: New York City: June 1 2013
We kicked off our World Tour with an intimate show at the Parkside Lounge in New York’s Lower East Side. We played Parkside as a duo (just me and Matt) which would be our set up for the entire European run, so it was a great chance to try out our new tunes on a fresh audience. Having grown up in northern New Jersey, we had tons of old friends and family in the audience for the set which made the first show of our tour even better! We rocked out with new songs “Dirty Love” and “Tell Your Boyfriend” and started mentally preparing for Europe with “The South of France”. After our set we stuck around and enjoyed some sweet reggae tunes, before getting a delicious late night feast at “Top’s Diner” in Newark, NJ!
World Café Live: Philadelphia: June 8, 2013
Our Philadelphia kickoff show took place at one of our favorite hometown venues, World Café Live. Playing a bigger room for a bigger audience required a bigger sound, so we enlist some great friends and musicians to play as our backing band for the night. Going from two guitars and vocals, to two guitars, keyboards, bass drums, and a 3 part horn section definitely kicked things up about 10 notches, and we were able to truly rock out for the hometown crowd. We had great friends Sam Palumbo, Blue Soul, and SHMNS (all Philadelphia based artists you should check out now!) open the show and start the night off on the right foot. The set was a blast and we were even able to invite up our friend and producer Brandon Bost to sing with us on our new track “Tell Your Boyfriend”, which was probably the most fun I’ve ever had on stage playing a song. A Philadelphia D&M show wouldn’t be a Philadelphia D&M show without ending on “Philadelphia”, and it was amazing as feeling the vibe of our proud city and having audience members sing along. We celebrated the night with an after party at our place with the other bands and artists, which went to the wee hours of the morning and was extra “rock and roll”. In one short week we would be on a plane playing our first show overseas…
The Dublin Castle: London: June 18, 2013
We kicked off our very first show overseas in London at The Dublin Castle, after quite a journey… We all flew out together (Me, Matt, and our friend and videographer/buddy Miles Mueller @milesmueller) from Newark Airport on June 16th for an overnight flight, bringing us to London Heathrow on the morning of June 17th. After some faulty advice from an airport attendant, we spent about 5 hours taking the underground back and forth with all our luggage to our hotel in “Borehamwood”. After finally getting to the hotel, we realized it was just too far from the venues we’d be playing and quickly took to our priceline apps for a good deal near our concert locations… We found a well-reviewed cheap hotel right next to the venues that seemed almost too good to be true! So we booked the room and headed over… Of course, it was too good to be true and once we arrived we found out it was a hostel and we had reserved one bed, not one room. So we slept that night all 3 of us in a double bed with our guitars! Very rock and roll. The hostel ended up being much better than first anticipated with free breakfast, and tons of other interesting characters and travelers to converse with. After getting some much needed sleep we headed to Dublin Castle on June 18th for our first gig in London!
Once we got there, we were greeted by the awesome dudes of “Spitehouse” a London based grunge band. We drank a few pints and they told us all about current affairs in the UK, and how Jack Daniels was one of the most popular drinks in London, but it was referred to as “JD”, not “Jack”! All very useful information! The venue was in the Camden area of London, and had been one of Amy Winehouse’s favorite spots when she lived there! We played our set, which included a never before played song “Is Anybody Ever Gonna Know My Name”, and stuck around for Spitehouse’s supercharged performance, which included smashing a guitar at the end! Definitely a band to check out (facebook.com/spitehouseuk).
The Bedford: London: June 19, 2013
The day after playing The Dublin Castle, we played The Bedford in London for one of our favorite shows of the tour! The venue catered to acoustic music, which worked perfectly for us, and had a beautiful sound system. They also livestreamed the show, so all of our fans back in America were able to enjoy our set! Before playing we met up with our most loyal British fan, Mike Burton, whom we had chatted with on twitter and were finally meeting in person for the first time! Great bloke, and a great singer-songwriter himself, so be sure to check him out in your free time @_mikeburton! The other artists were all amazing, and truly inspired us to take our performance to new heights as we played a dynamic set for the intimate room. With our spirits high, and our last gig in London behind us, we set our sights on the next adventure…France!
Ma Nolan’s: Cannes, France: June 21, 2013
On June 20th (a Thursday) we took an 8 hour bus ride from London to Paris! This bus really put megabus to shame, and was quite luxurious for the price. I recommend it for bargain travellers in the future. (google IDbus). Upon arriving in Paris airport, we picked up our rental car and drove another 10 hours through the night to Cannes France. Having spent most of the trip so far in dreary gray cold London, Cannes was pretty spectacular. As we drove in past palm trees and beautiful mountains, we felt revitalized and quickly checked into our hotel room and took a nap before the gig! We arrived at Ma Nolan’s, met the crew and began another great night of live music. Our arrangement at Ma Nolan’s was to play 3 45 minute sets, so we had our work cut out for us, but the quantity of songs ended up being a blessing in disguise as we laughed and invited Miles up to sing harmonies with us. A great show, with some great people and really nice fans in attendance. If you see some one in Europe with a D&M World Tour T-Shirt, chances are they got it in Cannes!
It was quite surreal playing “The South of France” in The South of France, and was really a dream come true! Can’t wait to go back…
We played our new song “Lucky” on the ukulele for an upcoming LP Series episode, outside our hotel in Cannes before boarding our plane to our final European destination…. Athens!
Greece:
After a long layover in Romania, we flew into Athens and drove to the Southern Peloponnese where we would be staying for a week! We planned our Greece trip at the end of the tour to shoot a new music video for our single “Dirty Love” and get in some relaxation after an extremely busy week. The trip worked out better than we could have expected after befriending a great taverna owner, Dimitri, in Stoupa Beach! We hung out there with some other American friends, and some new Greek friends night after night and played music for them after closing! Their hospitality was amazing, and we made some true life long friends. I would recommend Stoupa, Greece to anyone looking to travel!
We shot our most ambitious music video yet which included a drag race between a BMW convertible and a feisty Greek motorcycle, in the amazing landscapes of Stoupa, Greece. Beautiful beaches, delicious food, oozo and Mythos, made this country our favorite in Europe! A truly remarkable time and great end to our European journey!
Next up…
We’ll be heading back to NYC (Maybe Brooklyn this time) and Los Angeles before the Summer is over! Stay tuned!
Links:
https://www.facebook.com/dandmmusic
http://wearedandm.com
http://dandm.bandcamp.com