Over a year since the release of a new track, first reunion rumours that resulted in an early 2017 US tour, Richmond post rock tinged screamo act CITY OF CATERPILLAR are taking their classic line-up of Brandon Evans (guitar/vocals), Kevin Longendyke (bass/vocals), Jeff Kane (guitar) and Ryan Parrish (drums) further on the road to Europe! The band has recently announced a string of July dates (listed below), kicking off on July 12th in Leipzig. Their first ever European tour will be capped off on July 21st at the iconic Fluff Fest in Czech Republic, that will surely leave its mark on their view on European hardcore punk scene. We have teamed up with the band to share their thoughts on the reunion, US comeback shows and the upcoming European run. Scroll down to read up and RSVP for the tour at this location.
CITY OF CATERPILLAR initially formed in Richmond, Virginia in 2000, carving out a handful of demos and EPs before releasing their sole, self-titled album in 2002. Renown for an innovative combination of punk rock, emotional hardcore and dramatic instrumental crescendos, CITY OF CATERPILLAR disbanded in late 2003 but went on to endure a postmortem legacy shared by few of their peers.
In 2015, renewed interest in the band grew with digital reissues of their LP and Demo + Live Recording collection, followed by a 2016 vinyl reissue of the landmark self-tited LP.
The band issued the following on the reunion process…
There had been occasional offers for reunion shows throughout the years. Mostly for Richmond, VA shows and festivals since thats where we were based back in the early 2000’s. For a variety of reasons we never felt compelled to do them. About a year ago our friend Tony Foresta from Municipal Waste/Iron Reagan asked us to be a part of a birthday party for him that was being put together. That was the first time that all 4 of us seemed genuinely interested in getting together to do something as “City of Caterpillar”. We’d all remained friends and had played music together throughout the years in various combinations including Malady, Ghastly City Sleep, Verse En Coma, Highness, etc. For whatever reason Tony’s birthday party fell apart and we didn’t end up playing at that time, but it got us talking about doing something.
… commented on the early 2017 reunion shows…
A few months later we scheduled 4 east coast shows for January 2017 that we know could be fun and easy. Richmond, DC, Philadelphia and NYC in pretty small venues. We announced those 4 shows and were extremely surprised when they sold out within 1 day. So we added a few more shows and moved some of the shows to bigger venues. In the end we ended up doing 10 shows, and we were really astonished at how many people came out and what a warm reception we got. Back in the early 2000’s, when the band was originally active, we toured a lot, but we were by no stretch a popular band. If 30 people were at a show, that was a huge success in those days. We almost never played real venues, mostly basement shows and DIY spaces. To be playing sold out shows at “rock clubs” was not something that we ever expected to be possible. We also took a lot of care to work with as many old friends as possible. Most of the promoters and the other bands on the shows were people that we have known since back in the original incarnation of the band. It was really important to keep it as close to where we came from as possible and to surround the reunion with friends and good energy.
… as well as the upcoming European run:
The Europe tour is really exciting. We actually have no idea what to expect. City of Caterpillar never made it to Europe before this. We have put our total trust into our old friend Robert at Adagio830. He put out a record for us in 2002, which I think was our first and only European release. I think it was one of his earliest records on Adagio830 also. We grew up together…. but I didn’t meet him IRL until last month. He has great taste obviously because he has put out tons of our friends bands on his label. When we announced our East Coast reunion tour dates he got in touch and offered to help us set up an EU tour and we couldn’t refuse. It seemed like a perfect excuse for a European summer vacation with old friends. It should be a lot of fun, it looks like we are playing some pretty cool venues and the Fluff Fest lineup is looking really good too.
CITY OF CATERPILLAR // European Summer Tour 2017:
Poster by Ward Zwart
12.07. Leipzig / Bermuda3eck
13.07. Berlin / Tiefgrund
14.07. Kopenhagen / kraftværket
15.07. Hamburg / Goldener Salon16.07. Antwerp / Kavka
17.07. NL – Amsterdam / Occii
18.07. Paris / Gibus Live
19.07. Darmstadt / Oettinger Villa
20.07. A – Vienna / Bach
21.07. Fluff
