Live in Antwerp Set 2

IAO Core Live in Antwerp set 2

Ah, Antwerp!According to folklore, and as celebrated by the statue in front of the town hall, the city got its name from a legend involving a mythical giant called Antigoon who lived near the river Scheldt. He exacted a toll from those crossing the river, and for those who refused, he severed one of their hands and threw it into the river Scheldt. Eventually, the giant was slain by a young hero named Brabo, who cut off the giant's own hand and flung it into the river. Hence the name Antwerpen, from Dutch hand werpen—akin to Old English hand and wearpan (= to throw), which has changed to today's warp.Back in the olden days, women hung laundry out on the street to dry, a perfect opportunity to chat and gossip. Laundry Day aims to recreate this congeniality with up to 50,000 people dancing on the streets of Antwerp's Ledeganckkaai. It was this celebratory event, in which our heroes found themselves in the Summer of 2010.

Ah, the summer of 2010. In January “Rolling Stone” deemed us only a couple tweaks away from greatness. We had begun to fourth-guess ourselves. Each IAOster accused the other of holding the band back. Things got a lot more fun as the year progressed. A week into the first leg of our first European tour, our sound man slammed my finger in a van door, breaking it in two places. I regained my dexterity in a few weeks, but the experience left us all shaken. Travis took on the lead guitar position and vocals became my main thing. Never the less we blazed a trail across Europe that moved away from the bone-crushing riffs of ourr forebears and instead settled upon something more spiritual and transcendent; regularly bringing forth a more organic tone that appeared to be in awed reverence of itself. This recording (made straight off the mixing board) is a very good one, and was one of our better live European performances, if I do say so myself, and I just did, didn't I ?