Actually, we're not IN Rotterdam, we're just outside of it, in a small town. We're staying with Ron. I will tell you the story of Trike and Ron.
We played at a place called Cafe Stiels in Haarlem, The Netherlands (just outside of Amsterdam) last time we toured Europe (a few short months ago). We played with Mark Lotterman, a dutch musician (doppelganger for Tom Waits/ Nick Cave and Bob Dylan... somewhat morbid lyrics and a deep, sad, trembling voice). Anyway, he brought his personal soundman, Ron. Ron is a smiley, gap-toothed, tall (of course, he's dutch!) fellow with salt and pepper hair, usually unkempt.
He also did sound for us at the Jam Inn, in Tiel, The Netherlands. He seemed quiet, shy even... boy, I was wrong. Although he tries to convince me he's a quiet fellow, he has plenty to say.
We met him yet again on this tour, when we returned to Tiel to play a second time (and it was a blast! Hanneke packed the place to the rafters. Much fuller than the first time; and it was only Sunday! They loved us, wore our Trike panties on their heads, flirted with us, jogged with us into another cafe).
And again in Exit, in Rotterdam... Ron came specifically to see us! Mark was there, as well as a few other regulars that I've seen a few times now. But this time there was a problem. We were supposed to leave to go to Marseilles, but Leen, the booker/ owner of Tocado Records, had fired Dirk, our driver, who also volunteered at Exit. Dirk had come in twice drunk in the week previous, so Leen canned him as a volunteer at Exit but expected he would still be our driver. How he can can fire somebody who is volunteering is beyond me, but he did, apparently. So, we didn't have a ride. I ranted and raved a bit about how disorganized everything was, but then Mr. Magic Leen asked Ron if he would drive us down to Marseilles. Ron, having nothing else to do, and being a fan, said YES!
So we left at five a.m., went down to Marseilles, arrived slightly late (google maps was WAY off with their "estimated time", at least two hours), and played to the at-times enthusiastic crowd, but not the right crowd for us.
Anyway, in the car we chatted a LOT. We played Mark's CD, I played Trike for Ron... we hung out in Dijon on the way back and went to some shitty bars, including one Irish bar I was thrown out of for trying to sleep upstairs (the french generic pop was horrid, so I stuck earplugs in my ears and tried to catch some Zzzs). But during all of this adventure, Ron offered to mix our album, "Mushy Muschi Moshi". We had distinct ideas about some things, and wanted to be a little more hands on, and to perhaps input samples and such to help beef it up. He had ideas. So, he offered to have us stay at his place in this small town and mix.
So we've been here for a few days. Xania's brother, John Keane, who recorded our vocals, some glockenspiel and violin, is mixing down tracks and sending them to us from Montreal. My brother will possibly mix as well, in Saint John, and master it, in the end. So, we're on track... almost. Now we're hoping that tonight we can record with Ron. We were hoping to do it last night, but he took me to another little town to try to get shows for this weekend (too short notice; didn't happen), and we had a few beers in a small bar, and bought groceries... and beer. Astral beer. Yum.
The days are calm. Ineke went away to Utrecht for a couple of days and returned yesterday. She is editing her documentary of us and it's coming along. It's a bit frustrating because, having been a filmmaker, I constantly have thoughts and ideas, and sometimes I think things should be filmed that aren't, but I have to take a back seat and let her work her magic.
Ron also has a big dog he's madly in love with, and a smaller (tiny) one he's babysitting for a few days. The tiny one always trembles and loves when I throw her sticks. She goes absolutely nuts.
I love these times though: these calm periods between shows, when we can decompress, record, mix, do creative shit and prepare for our next slew of shows. March and April are pretty booked, and getting more booked. We've been spending the bulk of our day at Mark Lotterman's mom's house (she has WiFi) booking shows, filling in forms for Capsule Records (our first record contract!) and planning our course of action for the next few months. We have about eight shows in May, and we need to fill in all the gaps. April is getting pretty full, but we still have gaps. I'm eager to fill the gaps. We're getting ourselves out there and it's good.
We'll be ordering shirts from Band Merch soon; about fifty. If they sell well, and quick, we'll get more. Can't wait. Chris, the guy behind the company, is a good man with lots of faith in us. We always referred to him as our "advisor" in Vancouver... he gives us good advice. This will be our first time (well, since my days playing with Wes Knight) that we'll have a batch of shirts. We NEED them, so this is really good. Invest in the band, Stephen, it's worth it...
One more week until we're back on the road... off to Germany. Ah, Hamburg and Berlin; both have been so good to us!
Friday, February 27, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
I Don't Want To Play France Again
In Vienna we get a room full of people who love us. In the Netherlands, 90% of the shows are great. In Berlin we have a nice little following. Ljubljana is nuts and fun. In Waterloo and Toronto people like us. Hamburg is a gem. Prague has paid off. In Vancouver, we have lots of loveable fans. But we have played France twice, and both times sucked. SUCKED. People act like we're background music. They smoke and drink and ignore us. In Lille we put up with it, and left feeling gutted, but tonight I stood up and said no, fuck it, and ended the show.
After nine songs, I was feeling so pissed off; so enraged and so demoralized, that I had dropped the theatrics and had started playing the songs very non-chalantly. Very little energy. We were background music. Why should I try? I know people say that french people are arrogant. I have met lovely french people, even last night, and ever since I was in my late teens, I've been obsessed with french culture: Paris, Jean-Paul Sartre, croissants, Arles, Camus, Jean Luc Godard, datA, Parle a ma main, George Brassens, "L'homme qui aime les femmes", Jaques Brel, Brigitte Bardot... the list is endless. I don't want to start despising France or french audiences nor do I want make that kind of blanket statement like "french people are arrogant" ... but I really don't know what to think.
Somebody in Lille said it's because french people don't care about you unless you're famous. I don't know. Maybe both. But after nine songs, it just didn't feel worth it anymore. We travelled 15 hours in a tight car to get to this show, paid two $27 highway tolls and gas all the way to get to fucking Marseilles, and the crowd just slaps us with disrespect. Fuck them.
We put so much work into our shows. We have fine tuned all the theatrics. We put a lot of love into it, and when, after a few songs, three people are standing in front of us and everyone else is in the back, being pretentious and smoking, what's the point? We don't get that kind of apathetic reaction anywhere else.
So I said into the mike that we're ending the show because they don't appreciate us, and started shutting down. One girl said I should have kept playing for the three people in front, but she doesn't know what it's like to be up there, putting your heart into what you're doing and getting so little back.
The tour has been splendid and wonderful up until this point; just amazing, and hopefully, after our next French show, which I do NOT have high hopes for, our tour will resume and the shows will be, once again, marvelous. There is enough love for us in other countries and cities that we can avoid France and be fine.
In their defence, Claire, the lighting girl, was saying that it's because we started late and in Marseilles you have to start right on time (well, we left at 5 am, google maps said it would take 11 hours to get here but it took 15 (with a couple of stops). She also said people were tired, so they decided to hang out near the bar and drink (she said they were probably digging us from the bar but all I heard was chatter). I dunno, in Berlin the parties go til 10am. We played at one party, on the lawn in Hamburg at 8am, all night partiers all over the place, and we still had lots of people dancing and going crazy...
We also had problems getting started because Xania's violin was feeding back... but we fixed that problem in a few minutes and we didn't start THAT late. I dunno, whatever. I just want to erase last night from my memory.
Ineke documented it all, including my angry speal at the end about how we're not continuing to play because there's no respect... so you'll probably see it in the documentary. :D
xo
Stevo
After nine songs, I was feeling so pissed off; so enraged and so demoralized, that I had dropped the theatrics and had started playing the songs very non-chalantly. Very little energy. We were background music. Why should I try? I know people say that french people are arrogant. I have met lovely french people, even last night, and ever since I was in my late teens, I've been obsessed with french culture: Paris, Jean-Paul Sartre, croissants, Arles, Camus, Jean Luc Godard, datA, Parle a ma main, George Brassens, "L'homme qui aime les femmes", Jaques Brel, Brigitte Bardot... the list is endless. I don't want to start despising France or french audiences nor do I want make that kind of blanket statement like "french people are arrogant" ... but I really don't know what to think.
Somebody in Lille said it's because french people don't care about you unless you're famous. I don't know. Maybe both. But after nine songs, it just didn't feel worth it anymore. We travelled 15 hours in a tight car to get to this show, paid two $27 highway tolls and gas all the way to get to fucking Marseilles, and the crowd just slaps us with disrespect. Fuck them.
We put so much work into our shows. We have fine tuned all the theatrics. We put a lot of love into it, and when, after a few songs, three people are standing in front of us and everyone else is in the back, being pretentious and smoking, what's the point? We don't get that kind of apathetic reaction anywhere else.
So I said into the mike that we're ending the show because they don't appreciate us, and started shutting down. One girl said I should have kept playing for the three people in front, but she doesn't know what it's like to be up there, putting your heart into what you're doing and getting so little back.
The tour has been splendid and wonderful up until this point; just amazing, and hopefully, after our next French show, which I do NOT have high hopes for, our tour will resume and the shows will be, once again, marvelous. There is enough love for us in other countries and cities that we can avoid France and be fine.
In their defence, Claire, the lighting girl, was saying that it's because we started late and in Marseilles you have to start right on time (well, we left at 5 am, google maps said it would take 11 hours to get here but it took 15 (with a couple of stops). She also said people were tired, so they decided to hang out near the bar and drink (she said they were probably digging us from the bar but all I heard was chatter). I dunno, in Berlin the parties go til 10am. We played at one party, on the lawn in Hamburg at 8am, all night partiers all over the place, and we still had lots of people dancing and going crazy...
We also had problems getting started because Xania's violin was feeding back... but we fixed that problem in a few minutes and we didn't start THAT late. I dunno, whatever. I just want to erase last night from my memory.
Ineke documented it all, including my angry speal at the end about how we're not continuing to play because there's no respect... so you'll probably see it in the documentary. :D
xo
Stevo
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Trike's Euro-Log: Club Attent
Trike's Euro-log: Club Attent
Dutch people are crazy!
Seems like they forget how to sleep on the week-ends.
Friday the 13th:
We played at Rikke and John's great little underground bar "Club Attent" at around midnight to a crowd made up mostly of Stephen's old AKI friends. It was a great show with great sound and nice peeps.
We played an acoustic version of Sun Burns Up with Rikke on the banjo, and the audience was silenced (and I think Stephen almost cried). He made a video of that song when he lived in Holland a few years ago, and people that were in the video came to support Trike that night.
John bought a cd before we played cause he was so impressed with my sewing skills, (Hell yeah!)
John bought a cd before we played cause he was so impressed with my sewing skills, (Hell yeah!)
Rikke lives in the Charlois Quarter in Rotterdam, a strange neighbourhood.
Before our show, I took a walk by a river near his house and I found a
magical bridge that led to nowhere/garbagey-swamp with fat ducks
quacking all around me. It was surreal.
Rikke, Lisa and John were sweet and hospitable and I hope the Attent, and their new bar 'Good Fuck Occasions' does fuckin' well, fuck.
Before our show, I took a walk by a river near his house and I found a
magical bridge that led to nowhere/garbagey-swamp with fat ducks
quacking all around me. It was surreal.
Rikke, Lisa and John were sweet and hospitable and I hope the Attent, and their new bar 'Good Fuck Occasions' does fuckin' well, fuck.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Trike log: Extrapool and Spanking the Audience
Extrapool is a sweet, art-committed, wall-paper-covered place in Nijmegen.
We played here last year, for their re-opening, but the crowd was chatty, (drunk) and left me feeling slightly uninspired.
But last night was beautiful. The audience was much smaller, much more sober and much more willing to participate in our antics.
Bertin, who booked us, was interested in having Stephen screen some of his films. (He's a talented film-maker, but has decided to commit to music instead of directing.) Stephen made a deal with Bertin that he'll show his films if Trike could perform as well.
A crazy fellow who calls himself 'Toxic Chicken' opened for us. He played crazy videos of Hitler throwing biscuits at Jesus, while wearing a fake beard and under-wear on his head. It was pretty swell.
Whenever we play 'Don't Throw Your Heart Away' I try to spank everyone in the audience. (Not just because they're naughty)I don't wanna sound too arty, but venues really feel more relaxed afterwards, and a bit more willing to dance. And Extrapool's was probably the audience most willing to get spanked.
(ps- Usually people eventually give in to the idea of having their succulent behinds spanked, but at our last show in Amsteram, a girl said she would "hurt me" if my hand got too close. I was actually frightened! But it was my duty to slap her ass anyway. She kept resisting, but I eventually tagged her.
The whole show she chatted with a friend and looked uninterested. At the end of the show, the bar's owner was congratulating us, and she came up and kinda stared me down for a while, and then made out with the bar-owner intimidatingly.)
We played here last year, for their re-opening, but the crowd was chatty, (drunk) and left me feeling slightly uninspired.
But last night was beautiful. The audience was much smaller, much more sober and much more willing to participate in our antics.
Bertin, who booked us, was interested in having Stephen screen some of his films. (He's a talented film-maker, but has decided to commit to music instead of directing.) Stephen made a deal with Bertin that he'll show his films if Trike could perform as well.
A crazy fellow who calls himself 'Toxic Chicken' opened for us. He played crazy videos of Hitler throwing biscuits at Jesus, while wearing a fake beard and under-wear on his head. It was pretty swell.
Whenever we play 'Don't Throw Your Heart Away' I try to spank everyone in the audience. (Not just because they're naughty)I don't wanna sound too arty, but venues really feel more relaxed afterwards, and a bit more willing to dance. And Extrapool's was probably the audience most willing to get spanked.
(ps- Usually people eventually give in to the idea of having their succulent behinds spanked, but at our last show in Amsteram, a girl said she would "hurt me" if my hand got too close. I was actually frightened! But it was my duty to slap her ass anyway. She kept resisting, but I eventually tagged her.
The whole show she chatted with a friend and looked uninterested. At the end of the show, the bar's owner was congratulating us, and she came up and kinda stared me down for a while, and then made out with the bar-owner intimidatingly.)
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Trike Euro Log: Amsterdam and Tiel
Amsterdam:
Our first A'dam gig, EVER! (well, except for the time we played the open mic at The Waterhole and the host asked us to play "Let's Jog" twice)
Cafe Bax. It was a small bar in the heart of A'dam. I really wanted us to play in Amsterdam, so I persisted, until I found Bax on the site of another band, contacted them, and ... voila.
Mirco, the booker, plays music himself and wrote me awhile ago, asking if we could cover his tune "Kijken kijken niks kopen" (Looking, looking not buying). I worked on it a bit in Vancouver, with Zaaack, but when I got together with Xania in Haarlem to try my hand at it, I realized the dutch pronounciation was way too thick and difficult, without enough time to rehearse the song with Xboxx before Amsterdam.
It took a few songs to win people over, but in the end, I think we had a few new fans. One blond woman from Groningen with big sad eyes and an 11 year old girl kept shaking booty to our tunes. We wanted to do Johnny B. Goode, but Xboxx' digital toy guitar wasn't working. Maarten Steenhagen, a handsome sideburned fellow who specializes in aesthetics and philosophy, and whom I used to study with at AKI (and who has worn the same smart black outfit since the day I met him - his cupboards are full of similar suits. no colour, all black with some white and gray, just to shake things up).
When we went jogging (To "Let's Jog"), we went to the end of the block, with Maarten in front of us, filming with his digital camera. We ran back and jogged on Bax' patio tables. The blond woman ran out with the bespectacled girl on her shoulders along with a few others who were dancing and jogging.
We sold a few CDs. I have been concerned about my insomnia/ jet lag, so I've been trying to cut back on boozing my face off, so I had one G and T, a small plate of bitterballen and lots of apple juice. Eventually we drove back to Haarlem, almost getting into a car accident (Ineke was exhausted so she drove into oncoming traffic (gulp!). Slightly terrifying.
Tiel:
Jam Inn. What a blast! We played at Hanneke (the owner)'s birthday on October 6 and had such a fun time that we booked another show four months and two . Hanneke, the booker, is a smiley, blond woman who has a cute little black pug that snorts constantly. She's so in love with him that she has a mural of him on the wall opposite the venue, a painting of him upstairs, and photos of him absolutely everywhere.
Tiel is EXACTLY in the center of Holland: about 45,000 people (VERY small in dutch standards). Hanneke had pumped us like crazy to her patrons so the small place was packed! Everyone was crazy, smiling, dancing... it was a blast. So so receptive. Oh sure, people were chatty at times, but that's dutch audiences for you. We bossed them around, telling them to shut up when Xania was about to tell one of her horrible jokes: "Hou je bec!" (Shut up!) I yelled. One girl responded "You tell them!". They did.
It felt like home. It was like the last show we played there, but way more packed. People who were there last time yelled out things like "Jog!" and "Hey, I wanna get spanked!" so we did both: spanked and jogged. We also played "Kaplow!", which is a song I really like to play that we rarely play, but have been yanking out more often on this tour... so far, anyways. That, and "Jacq", which we also rarely play.
Let's Jog: We jogged into a restaurant down the block. Unlike the Sheesha place in Berlin, where they shoved us out the door and blocked us from jogging inside, the waiter stood to the side, smiling as we jogged and hooted and hollered as the table of 10 strangers stared at us, mouths agape. "Eet smakelijk!" ("enjoy your meal") I yelled and we busted out of there.
I threw foamy cushions into the audience. The dutch gangster was there, smiling away. Him and I chatted about dutch/ moroccan hip hop and racism. I danced like crazy in my gaudy outfit and chatted with beautiful people; like this blond surfer guy who was very drunk and slightly insane and said we could play at the squat where he lives in the center of Tiel. I chatted with his lovely girlfriend for awhile too...
I had about 6 G and Ts. Of course, my sleep was terrible that night, but so it goes. The next day (yesterday) I bought Melatonine, and slept relatively well, in Zwolle, which is where Alex van de Meer (Trike's third wheel... the invisible trike) lives, teaches kids animation and makes his wacky songs and videos. We're here to record harmonica for "Urban Grey" for our album, which is due out on March 14th!!!
Our first A'dam gig, EVER! (well, except for the time we played the open mic at The Waterhole and the host asked us to play "Let's Jog" twice)
Cafe Bax. It was a small bar in the heart of A'dam. I really wanted us to play in Amsterdam, so I persisted, until I found Bax on the site of another band, contacted them, and ... voila.
Mirco, the booker, plays music himself and wrote me awhile ago, asking if we could cover his tune "Kijken kijken niks kopen" (Looking, looking not buying). I worked on it a bit in Vancouver, with Zaaack, but when I got together with Xania in Haarlem to try my hand at it, I realized the dutch pronounciation was way too thick and difficult, without enough time to rehearse the song with Xboxx before Amsterdam.
It took a few songs to win people over, but in the end, I think we had a few new fans. One blond woman from Groningen with big sad eyes and an 11 year old girl kept shaking booty to our tunes. We wanted to do Johnny B. Goode, but Xboxx' digital toy guitar wasn't working. Maarten Steenhagen, a handsome sideburned fellow who specializes in aesthetics and philosophy, and whom I used to study with at AKI (and who has worn the same smart black outfit since the day I met him - his cupboards are full of similar suits. no colour, all black with some white and gray, just to shake things up).
When we went jogging (To "Let's Jog"), we went to the end of the block, with Maarten in front of us, filming with his digital camera. We ran back and jogged on Bax' patio tables. The blond woman ran out with the bespectacled girl on her shoulders along with a few others who were dancing and jogging.
We sold a few CDs. I have been concerned about my insomnia/ jet lag, so I've been trying to cut back on boozing my face off, so I had one G and T, a small plate of bitterballen and lots of apple juice. Eventually we drove back to Haarlem, almost getting into a car accident (Ineke was exhausted so she drove into oncoming traffic (gulp!). Slightly terrifying.
Tiel:
Jam Inn. What a blast! We played at Hanneke (the owner)'s birthday on October 6 and had such a fun time that we booked another show four months and two . Hanneke, the booker, is a smiley, blond woman who has a cute little black pug that snorts constantly. She's so in love with him that she has a mural of him on the wall opposite the venue, a painting of him upstairs, and photos of him absolutely everywhere.
Tiel is EXACTLY in the center of Holland: about 45,000 people (VERY small in dutch standards). Hanneke had pumped us like crazy to her patrons so the small place was packed! Everyone was crazy, smiling, dancing... it was a blast. So so receptive. Oh sure, people were chatty at times, but that's dutch audiences for you. We bossed them around, telling them to shut up when Xania was about to tell one of her horrible jokes: "Hou je bec!" (Shut up!) I yelled. One girl responded "You tell them!". They did.
It felt like home. It was like the last show we played there, but way more packed. People who were there last time yelled out things like "Jog!" and "Hey, I wanna get spanked!" so we did both: spanked and jogged. We also played "Kaplow!", which is a song I really like to play that we rarely play, but have been yanking out more often on this tour... so far, anyways. That, and "Jacq", which we also rarely play.
Let's Jog: We jogged into a restaurant down the block. Unlike the Sheesha place in Berlin, where they shoved us out the door and blocked us from jogging inside, the waiter stood to the side, smiling as we jogged and hooted and hollered as the table of 10 strangers stared at us, mouths agape. "Eet smakelijk!" ("enjoy your meal") I yelled and we busted out of there.
I threw foamy cushions into the audience. The dutch gangster was there, smiling away. Him and I chatted about dutch/ moroccan hip hop and racism. I danced like crazy in my gaudy outfit and chatted with beautiful people; like this blond surfer guy who was very drunk and slightly insane and said we could play at the squat where he lives in the center of Tiel. I chatted with his lovely girlfriend for awhile too...
I had about 6 G and Ts. Of course, my sleep was terrible that night, but so it goes. The next day (yesterday) I bought Melatonine, and slept relatively well, in Zwolle, which is where Alex van de Meer (Trike's third wheel... the invisible trike) lives, teaches kids animation and makes his wacky songs and videos. We're here to record harmonica for "Urban Grey" for our album, which is due out on March 14th!!!
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Trike Euro Log: Haarlem
Our second fucking euro tour. I'm super fucking happy... fuck.
Haarlem. Last time we played here was at a place called Cafe Stiels. It was a fun show; about 15 to 20 crazy, dancing dutchies...
This time... wow.
We walked into the venue. Firstoff, our poster was up on the walls. Full colour. It was the pic of one of our fan's boobs with TRIKE written on them in black marker... ha. They must've ganked that from our myspace site.
The stage was sweet. Black curtain, coloured lights... simple and pro. The sound guy barely said a word. We plugged in and the sound was DIVINE!!! The sound the other night was challenging but last night it was gorgeous, sharp and clean... no distortion, no nothin...
There are three types of audiences: "uninterested" (usually at least a small handful are into us), "moderately interested" (around half or so seem keen, others are unreadable or uninterested) or totally into us. The "totally into us" audience is usually a result of a lot of hard work on our part: tagging the city, playing loads of shows, making die-hard fans (love you guys) and having shows where plenty of our fans come...
The show last night was "moderately interested" in that, about half of the audience seemed really into us, and half either unreadable, chatty, or uninterested. This is because nobody knew who we were and many come just to drink and chat and dance... we were told it would be like that by the soundman beforehand. One guy kinda pissed me off, so I lipped him off and he left. I called him a "mutherfucker", but I was really just joking. I said "Denk je dat onze muziek leuk is?" (because he asked if it was "leuk" beforehand) and he responded "Soms wel, soms niet" ... what the EFF?
We played "Inner Tubing", which we hadn't played in awhile. Didn't do the Trikey, but we slapped 'em around with "Let's Jog", "Omigod" and others... We sold four or five CDs, a t shirt, got emails... Met a cool guy from Brazil who was scads of fun. THEN, a SUPER TALL guy walked in. He was OVER half a foot taller than me. I was a shrimp compared to him.
A successful second show. Not as wild as the first night, but still, a respectful, appreciative audience. I felt fatigued at times during the eve, due to my jet lag, but it was a fun eve, all in all... perhaps they will have us back in May.
Here are pics:
Euro-Tour Days 1 & 2
Gee those 8 hours on the plane just "flew by" (ha ha ha).
There was a two hour flight delay, and they lost my luggage for a few hours,
but I arrived with all my limbs and was happy to hear people speaking Dutch again.
Ineke met us at the airport with her camera out, and we started our tour. She'll be filming us, hoping to catch some dramatic moments, and will make a documentary film at the end of our tour.
Our first stop was an organic-agricultural school in Dronten. We arrived at the dark, snowy campus looking for humans.
We were introduced to the head-master, a curly-headed woman with a charming, direct, no-nonsense attitude who had no idea who we were or why we were there.
Will, a fruit grower, had seen us play in Maastricht last year and invited us to play at the school. Stephen and him agreed on a date and we made it the first stop on our tour. But Will forgot to tell anyone we were coming to perform before heading on a six month trip around the world!
Thankfully, we were welcomed nonetheless and given a place to sleep. The next day some helpful students ran around looking for proper sound equipment, and put up posters, letting all the students know that there
would be a Canadian performance that night.
At 9pm, all the sound equipment was set up, the hall was full of students and we went on stage.
The sound was awful.
I got nervous, Stephen started to get tense, and considered ditching
the show. But after some fiddling, all sound issues were resolved and
we continued to have an amazing show, with a great audience who danced
and drank biertjes. We extended our one hour set to two-and a-half
hours because of all the encores! We played every song we could think
of. Afterwards, we joined some students for an after-party.
A student told me about a protest she participated in against the gmo
corporation Monsanto. There was a corn crop 30 km from the school, and
she threw flower seeds all over the field. The flowers grew taller
than the corn and killed off the gm corn.
I don't know how the students got up to milk cows at 5am, because
Stephen and I slept in till 1pm. It must-ve been the jet-lag...or the
Dutch weed.
There was a two hour flight delay, and they lost my luggage for a few hours,
but I arrived with all my limbs and was happy to hear people speaking Dutch again.
Ineke met us at the airport with her camera out, and we started our tour. She'll be filming us, hoping to catch some dramatic moments, and will make a documentary film at the end of our tour.
Our first stop was an organic-agricultural school in Dronten. We arrived at the dark, snowy campus looking for humans.
We were introduced to the head-master, a curly-headed woman with a charming, direct, no-nonsense attitude who had no idea who we were or why we were there.
Will, a fruit grower, had seen us play in Maastricht last year and invited us to play at the school. Stephen and him agreed on a date and we made it the first stop on our tour. But Will forgot to tell anyone we were coming to perform before heading on a six month trip around the world!
Thankfully, we were welcomed nonetheless and given a place to sleep. The next day some helpful students ran around looking for proper sound equipment, and put up posters, letting all the students know that there
would be a Canadian performance that night.
At 9pm, all the sound equipment was set up, the hall was full of students and we went on stage.
The sound was awful.
I got nervous, Stephen started to get tense, and considered ditching
the show. But after some fiddling, all sound issues were resolved and
we continued to have an amazing show, with a great audience who danced
and drank biertjes. We extended our one hour set to two-and a-half
hours because of all the encores! We played every song we could think
of. Afterwards, we joined some students for an after-party.
A student told me about a protest she participated in against the gmo
corporation Monsanto. There was a corn crop 30 km from the school, and
she threw flower seeds all over the field. The flowers grew taller
than the corn and killed off the gm corn.
I don't know how the students got up to milk cows at 5am, because
Stephen and I slept in till 1pm. It must-ve been the jet-lag...or the
Dutch weed.
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