This is Tour Diary, where artists give us a behind-the-scenes look at life on the road. In October, Snooper put out their second studio album, Worldwide, where the Nashville egg-punk band upped the stakes of 2023’s Super Snõõper. With sleeker production by John Congleton and a reconfigured backing band — completed by bassist Happy Haugen, drummer Brad Barteau, and guitarist Conner Sullivan — the only rule they had was to remain open to “experimentation and change.” Their jittery punk only benefits from this process (queue up their raucous cover of the Beatles’ “Come Together” or the doomy dance of “Subdivision”), trading grit for shine while losing none of the speed. Meanwhile, their live shows have remained theatrical as ever, featuring puppets, paper mâché mascots, and other homemade props. Snooper make the visuals just as significant as the music. As the band put it in 2024, “It’s like Larry David on Curb Your Enthusiasm. We’re playing fictionalized versions of ourselves.”
Read more: Ecca Vandal finds her flow
Following the release of Worldwide, the band joined the Hives on an overseas tour, where they played secret shows in Zaragoza and visited the Design Museum in Switzerland. Relive some of its high points below.
Building props the day we got to Oslo. Our flights were delayed, so we had about five hours to get everything done before the first show.
I love touring in the fall/winter so I can wear my earmuffs.
Pelle sharing a homemade cake that one of his relatives made with us after a show. This cake rocked.
We were very inspired by the Susanne Bartsch exhibit at the Design Museum in Switzerland!
We celebrated Halloween in Zaragoza! We played a small secret show and bought these masks from a costume shop next door to the venue.
I love making little animations on tour. Here’s one I made using the green room fruit platter.
Prop pics!
It was cold in Oslo when we arrive. This is the spooky and awesome hallway we used to build the props on the first day. There were office buildings upstairs, and everyone kept walking through the area and talking about the spray paint smell.
The Hives were so incredibly kind. We feel so honored to have been able to do these tours with them. These were shows we will never forget.
We loved the show we played in Berlin with our new friends in Waifish.
Us literally coming for the Hives’ crown.
This was the coolest venue we got to play — a bull-fighting arena in Lisbon that was built in 1892.
