Captain Capa – 1st ROAD BLOG from the Vans Warped Tour 2014

The German electronic band, Captain Capa, is currently on the Vans Warped Tour 2014. While they are on the tour, they will be writing an exclusive blog for us, to keep us filled in on everything they have going on. You can check out the first entry, after the break.

We’re in the middle of a parking lot somewhere in Oregon. Roadies and crew members are playing baseball outside, the AC in the bus is giving me the shivers and I’m sitting here with a Dr. Pepper in my hand. It couldn’t get more American than this. We’re finally here.

It took us a while to finally join Warped. The troubles and paper wars with the US embassy in Berlin held us off for quite some time, which is why we were still sitting in Germany when Warped started two weeks ago, desperately waiting for our passports and visas to arrive. Our tech-guy Norman, though, already joined the crew on day one, making friends with everyone around and promising everybody, “the Germans would come!” We already missed out on 7 full shows when we arrived in Mountain View, San Francisco, utterly nervous about fitting in with the crew and getting in line with our busmates. But all our fears vanished into thin air, when we stepped into Bus 17 and Norman introduced us to the whole crew. It seemed as if he became some sort of comedic celebrity while we were still back home. Whoever we met at the venue, people would shout “YO NORMAN WHADDUP?” or “YOUR GERMAN FRIENDS FINALLY HERE?” Shaking hands with everyone in the bus, we quickly realized what a great summer we had in front of us. We’re sharing our bus with some electronic acts from the Beatport stage: Crizzly, MC Chris, Antiserum and NiT GriT, including their crew – a bunch of people that couldn’t be any funnier or nicer.

Strolling around the stages, bandwagons, merchandise-booths and production offices we’re immediately back in Warped mode, as it all reminds us of the experiences we had two years ago. We caught a glimpse of the madness when we played the tour for a few weeks in 2012. This time we’re back for the whole rest of the shows. It’s still unbelievable to see the sheer scale of the tour: approx. 100 buses and bandwagons, 8 big stages and 100 tents and booths, selling shirts, shoes, CDs and a lot of trash to sweaty, happy alternative-kids. The craziest part is: all of this will be gone by tonight and set up again tomorrow morning. In another city, for some other kids.

Our first show in Mountain View is as chaotic as it gets. Getting your shit up and running in 8 minutes is a hell of a challenge, and we need a few shows to get into that routine. But once we’re built up and our new friends start showing up in front of the stage, alongside some well known faces from two years ago, we can fully concentrate on what’s the most important thing in the next months: playing a tight, entertaining show.

The first night ends with a Warped tradition: one of its famous barbecues. Rockstars, newcomers, roadies and some sneaky fans gather around the biggest grill available, some hip hop starts blaring out of the soundsystem and cheap booze is handed out like candy. We couldn’t be happier in the middle of the madness that enfolds and fall asleep drunk in our rolling bunkbeds.

In the following days our shows actually start looking like what we’ve imagined. We put up a big ass banner, we know how to set up everything in time and we’re already friends with the stagehands and tech-guys. The artists and crewmembers of the Beatport-stage support each other, showing up on stage and hyping up the crowd. We’re afraid to admit it, but after four days at Warped, it already feels even better than last time. Knock on wood. One thing we still gotta learn is the American hype-attitude on stage. The hundred bands of Warped have gotten awfully good at giving orders to their crowds. We’ve heard everything from “I wanna see you go fucking crazy!” to “Put your hands up for me right now!” which is something we can’t pull off in front of a German hipster crowd. Over here we’re slowly getting used to it, and once you figure that out, you can play with the audience and get the most out of it. “THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO DANCE TONIGHT!” was our battle cry when we played the last set of the night in Chula Vista, and boy, did it work.

Between yelling at fans, making fun of each other in the bus and chugging gallons of booze at barbecues, we’re occupied with giving interviews, meeting interesting people and basically… hanging around. It almost feels a little bit like a vacation sometimes. At our offdays we hung out a hotel-pool for a whole day, drove down to the beach, went to a pub, had sushi and played XBOX in our luxuary nightliner. What once was feared as, “The Bootcamp of Touring” has evolved into a roadtrip of friends for us, sharing similar interests and one connecting passion: loud ass music.

We can’t wait for what’s coming in the next weeks, but if it’s going to be anywhere near as amazing as our first week, we’re happy to embrace it and become part of the family.

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