EUROPE - PREAMBLE - EMBRACE THE STUPID

EMBRACE THE STUPID 

People say it’s getting harder and harder for artists to tour, but that’s missing the point. For bands at our level and style, it’s been hard for a long time, maybe even always. It’s actually getting stupider. I mean, you’d have to be a nuclear-level dingus to want to do any of this for a significant length of time, like say a month, in November, in the year of our lord 2023. Thousands and thousands in upfront van hire costs? Oh sure. Indecipherable Carnets requiring you to list every single piece of equipment you’re bringing? Why not. Ferries to the continent which are always, always late? Yes please. And those are the easy ones. The myriad of prohibitive, mentally challenging obstacles to navigate seems only to be growing each year. And yet we do it. Crave it, even. Because we know deep in our hearts that being an artist in these endtimes is but a fool’s errand either way. If life is absurd then our only choice is to be absurder. And so we (must) Embrace the Stupid. It’s rock ‘n’ roll, baby, it ain’t cake surgery. Unfortunately for my bandmates, I am so obsessive/compulsively committed, so stubborn with delusion, that I don’t just embrace the stupid on tour. I am the stupid. Do I bring any money to this outfit and its endeavours? No. Can I play bass to an acceptable standard? Also no. But am I prepared, excited even, to make 30 hour drives across Europe, to frequently get diarrhoea from ‘catering’, to drink myself stupid and engage in drug rampages? My bandmates know the answer. They are enduring it right now as the van trundles onward to horizons unknown.