Evening Hymns brainchild/frontman Jonas Bonetta kept a tour diary for AUX on their Eurpoean tour with the Wooden Sky. Check out his photos and stories from part one of the diary here, and part two, from September 17 through October 4, below.

1. A photo of us playing in Paris taken by Julien Mignot.

2. Kind of a shitty photo but I had to get one of this amazing venue we played in Zurich. I was sick as a dog and they treated me so well. It’s a real small venue called El Lokal. When Bonnie Prince Billy comes through Switzerland this is where he plays. He’ll do a couple sold out nights here. I think the capacity is around 200 people. I can’t imagine seeing him in this space. Anyways, they record all the shows and then give you the files on a thumb drive that doubles as a bottle opener and each musician also gets their own bottle of El Lokal single malt. It’s pretty tasty. This venue is in the top 5 of my favorite venues of all time now. Hope we get to go back!

3. In Hamburg we played the amazing Michelle Records before our night time showcase show for Reeperbahn Festival. They supplied all the gear and we got to pick through this incredible list of old vintage gear. Here’s Gavin toying around on an old 6120. I played a super old Strat through the oldest amp in the world. It was a 50’s Fender Pro Amp and it sounded amazing. I love playing in record stores because while you’re playing you can browse the racks for cool finds.

4. I found this bottle of Old Canada. I didn’t buy it.

5. We climbed up this old abandoned steel factory in Duisburg. It’s been reclaimed into this amazing outdoor park space that’s always open. We went up to the top at about 2am and had a look around. Then it led us down through the plant. Felt like we were on the set of Batman or something.

6. Here we are getting blown in the wind at the top of the steel factory.

7. The area that they use to keep the coal to fire the iron ore has been turned into a climbing zone now. We drunkenly navigated the cliffs of steel with our wet asses from sliding down through the factory on this old pipe that’s been converted into a slide. What! Right?

8. Simon didn’t join us on the adventure to the steel plant because he was too busy sleeping in his army surplus Funsie. I don’t know what else to say about this photo.

9. We played a house show and basically just wrote out all of our songs and randomly worked through them with The Wooden Sky, trading songs back and forth and consuming a considerable amount of tasty German beers. I think it was good?

10. The next night, post-Funsie, Simon passed out on stage in a coffin-like pose and was lit perfectly so I think everyone snapped this same photo of him. Creepy.

11. We had a massive drive to Austria and that meant a stop in the Czech Republic for some delicious McDonalds. Being vegetarian I get to try out all the horrible options around the world. I can’t remember exactly what this thing was called. Like McShakzam or something? Anyways, it was a chunk of battered cheese, deep-fried, with filet-o-fish sauce on top of it. I’d be lying right now if I told you I didn’t love it.

12. After hours and hours in the van we stopped in a farmer’s field for a quick beer/piss stop and that turned into a bit of dancing courtesy of the van fever.

13. We stayed in this amazing old hotel in Vienna. I’m sure it’s haunted. I don’t see how it couldn’t be with those high ceilings and the red carpet. Total The Shining vibes. But had a great sleep with a super old church outside the window.

14. I shot a ton of photos of this church in the centre of Vienna but none of them could do justice to the space. It was incredibly ornate. Hopefully this gives you an idea of it at least.

15. Sylvie shot this photo of me in front of the cathedral in Vienna. Classic tourist shot. I’m not sure why everyone stares at me. It’s maybe the beard or the massive prospector’s hat? Anyways, sometimes you just have to pose in front of a church and get your photo taken. Am I right?

16. This is a photo taken in front of the venue, PMK, in Innsbruck, Austria. Nice to be back in the mountains for a night. It was mostly cloudy while we were there but I could tell the mountains were up there doing their thing.

17. Shitty night photo of Prague in the early evening. I was driving. Give me a break. I might give the photo to William Basinski to use as an album cover.

18. No big deal. Just Soulfly’s tour bus. We met them on the ferry across to England. They had 17 people sleeping in that beast. I got to have a chat with Max of Sepultura/Soulfly fame. Super nice, mellow dude. They were off to do a couple weeks in the UK before a tour with Slayer in South America. Kind of rad to hang with them on the ferry.

19. Kip and I posed for the camera on the ferry in front of Soulfly and snapped this beauty. This was after members of their band did the same so we figured it was pretty rock and roll to do.

20. We booted it for London so we could pick up our drum kit. It just happened to be beside the famed White Cube Gallery so I snuck in while the other folks were loading the van. It’s a big beautiful space and I snapped a photo of this suspended fire truck by Theaster Gates. Super gnarly.

21. This is the last photo for now. It’s taken from outside The Railway. We played the first show of the UK leg here in Winchester, England. It was classic. A rainy night, cozy in the bar with a nice pint of cask ale. See ya down the road…