Good Trip, Bad Trip: The Barr Brothers

Brad Barr answers our touring quiz...

The Barr Brothers have always been a wonderful live experience.

The Canadian group's fresh, folk-hewn take on songwriting is born for the concert effect, with their impactful songwriting echoing around venues across the globe.

Almost constantly on tour, The Barr Brothers returned to the UK late last year to support The War On Drugs on their epic headline stand.

Set to return to Europe at the end of this month for some headline dates of their own, The Barr Brothers will pack a few surprises for fans.

With the dates almost upon us, Clash sat down with Brad Barr for another instalment of Good Trip, Bad Trip…

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Best Trip…
Canyonlands, Utah, 1994, psilocybin… stripped naked and ran around this place for six hours…

Worst Trip…
Last day of tour, somewhere in West Virginia… after the gig, heading home, the timing belt in the van breaks. We wait two days for repair (small town, weekend, etc.). Finally get it fixed, high fives all around… going home!

10 miles into the drive, back bumper rips off with the trailer. It flies into a ditch, all our gear inside. We load the gear onto our laps, leave the trailer in the ditch, drive 10 hours with amps on our knees.

Our favourite foreign venue…
Railway Inn, Winchester.

We’re surprisingly popular in…
Our hometown! (Despite how well they know us…)

Most interesting individual you've met on the road…
The person who shouted to us: "Google Himalayan Crystal salts! I couldn't read, I was half-blind, my teeth were falling out… Google Himalayan Crystal salts! Saved my life!"

He was… not in good shape.

Worst on-tour injury, or infection, or accident…
Most recently, Andrew was walking around Manchester, England with his eight month old baby, swinging him upside down and being a goof. He tripped on the curb, lost his footing with baby in mid-flip, and entered into some kind of prolonged fall/terror/physical comedy stunt.

Accounts vary as to the actual duration and distance of the fall, but all agree it was somewhere between seven and 12 seconds of Buster Keaton-esque clown stumbling (which is a long time to postpone gravity!), juggling and finally cradling his infant like a football before ultimately using his face to receive the impact of the concrete. Not a scratch on the baby.

My essential travel item…
Optimism.

Essential travel tip…
Anywhere you go, try to leave there with all the things you showed up with. Most of our headaches on the road stem from overlooking this deceptively simple little rule.

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Catch The Barr Brothers at the following shows:

January
26 Manchester Gorilla
27 Leeds Brudenell Social Club
28 Glasgow Drygate Brewery (Celtic Connections Festival)
30 London Rough Trade East (7pm stage time)
31 Winchester The Railway Inn **sold out**

February
1 London Union Chapel **sold out**

Join us on Vero, as we get under the skin of global cultural happenings. Follow Clash Magazine as we skip merrily between clubs, concerts, interviews and photo shoots. Get backstage sneak peeks and a true view into our world as the fun and games unfold.

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