Last month, Dutch indie rock upstarts The Vices — Simon Bleeker, Mathew Louwsma, Jonathan Kruizenga and Floris van Luijtelaar — shared their third album, Before It Might Be Gone. Following its release, they headed out on tour, backing the energy of their LP with equally larger than life performances.
With stops from Brooklyn’s Sultan Room to Rock Cafe in Prague, the foursome has been spreading their post-punk preaching to the masses. “Playing live is really important to us, so we thought it would be good to show that side of it too,” they told PAPER last year. “When we play live together, it’s like nothing else matters. You forget everything and your whole mind and body is in the music. That energy, man.”
Exclusively for PAPER, below, The Vices share everything from on-stage antics to post-show pizza. “We just came off our US album release tour and it was wild and great,” the lads say. “We love playing live and we love touring, so we kept a little tour diary with pics and words to show the fun.”
Jonathan having a smoke in the motel.
Chilling at the pool in between show days. Floris always needs to climb on something and jump off if possible. Hyperactive energy. Love the sun. We don’t see too much of that back home in The Netherlands.
At the afterparty in Los Angeles after the last show of the US tour. Blowing off some steam offstage with some lovely people. It’s the end of our time in the US. Thankful to have played these shows with many people going wild and thankful to have met a lot of amazing people too. Wish we could’ve stayed longer, but luckily, we’ll be back in the US soon.
Sometimes you have to multitask. Setting up and eating dinner at the same time.
When we’re in the US, we love to stay at motels sometimes. US motels often have this movie-like atmosphere. We heard that in this specific motel, parts of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood were recorded. Look at that interior.
Another swimming pool photo.
Although Floris is looking down now, we love looking around, seeing new things, meeting new people, doing new things. The unknown feels great.
For the Before It Might Be Gone tour, we are heading to 18 cities in the US and Europe. Here we see the full tour on our tour shirt.
Rocking out in Los Angeles.
Snow in New York. We just arrived in New York and it was snowing. It was very fucking cold, but snow in New York was quite magical. Just ate some of the best tacos ever and here we are walking back to the venue.
Reflecting on the tour. After a couple shows we are really getting into the rhythm. Live shows are getting super tight. We feel each other more and more in improvisations and it just rocks. We keep experimenting with different sets and jams. It’s been amazing to see so many people come out. The travels and places to sleep are all organized well by tour manager Onne. All in all, we’re very happy.
Hey! What are you looking at?
Discussing the set backstage in New York. New York was the second stop of the album tour. On most nights, we are making some adjustments to the set to see what works and to keep ourselves fully focused. Not too long after this, we went crazy together with a full Sultan Room.
Sometimes you have to multitalk. Setting up and eating dinner at the same time.
Taco time again. Dinner before the show.
Trying to tune a guitar while the opener is playing, and the backstage is an open space attached to the stage. I believe that AKA BK was playing here. Good songs.
This is what it’s all about. Playing live with your best friends. Thankful to be in this band.
Live in Chicago: Playing a full Schubas in Chicago. Second time in Chicago.
A quick stop for some food on our way to San Diego. Gotta love some 7-Eleven taquitos (they’re not really that good, we know, we know. But it’s a good on-the-road snack). We just came from Chicago, where it was freezing. Feeling the warmth of the sun on our skins was amazing. Look at that sky.
Photography: Brody Baker, James Stone, Ariana Trinneer, David Miller