Gent (Ghent?)

So here I am writing from the beautiful Belgian city of Gent. Right out my window I can see the central tower of the Saint Bavo cathedral; I hope to get a closer look tomorrow (only an hour and a half to drive for our next show).

Last night we were in Hanover. It turned out to be a pretty good show. The crowd was smallish, but quite a few of them bought CDs. Plus, the venue hosts all-night parties on Saturdays, which myself and Emanuel, armed with a case of beer, decided to avail ourselves of. I finally stumbled back to the place we were staying at around 6 AM, quite thoroughly soused. And subsequently suffered my first hangover of the tour.

This morning after going back to the venue for breakfast (I love it when venues give you dinner AND breakfast), we then struck out for Gent. Emanuel hadn't gotten to bed himself until about 7 AM, and so spent the drive sleeping. The venue itself was fairly small with quite a cramped stage; nevertheless, the sound was quite good, both on stage and out in the house. So far, the only lousy sound we've had was on the first night, which, judging by our last tour, is to be expected over here. The show was actually quite packed, although judging by the very small amount of merch we sold and the small number of folks who came and spoke with us, people were more there for the venue than for us in particular. Still, it's always nice to play for a full house, no matter why they are there. Also, the French couple whose home we stayed at in Lille a few days ago was there; it was nice to be able to give them a taste of our full volume sound, as when we play their house it will likely be mostly acoustic.

So far I've moved through excellent British lagers, Czech pilseners, German dunkelweiss, and tonight of course Belgian white beer. Love it.

Hanover

Hello from Hanover.

I'm drinking a nice German Pilsener in the green room of a club in yet another artist-commune-seeming place, with a velociraptor out front made of machine parts. I've only had sporadic internet over the past few days, thus the distance between entries.

After Manchester we drove down to London, stopping en route (well, slightly out of our way) to pick up a replacement guitar amp. The drive to the amp was gorgeous, taking us through the north England countryside. I HAVE to vacation up there someday, when I have the money and time. It's kind of like Pennsylvania, but just a touch different, especially with the old stone buildings dotting the landscape. After picking up the amp, we drove down to London. The traffic was pretty horrendous, as London traffic is wont to be, but we eventually made our way to the venue, an old place called the Brixton Windmill (Brixton being the neighborhood it's in). The crowd wasn't large, but our press agent in the UK was there, and apparently she was able to get several journalists to come as well. Which is, of course, why one plays a large city like London.

After London we crossed the channel and drove to the city of Lille. We were originally going to Antwerp, but a few days before had been informed that the person we were to stay with had to do some last-minute work on her house and was unable to host us. It turns out that a few weeks ago our drummer had put out a message that we were looking for some more gigs to fill some space at the end of the tour, and a couple in Lille offered to throw us a house concert since they love our CD. And so when our housing in Antwerp fell through they also offered to put us up at their place instead. They were amazingly generous: fed us, wined us, and gave us the run of their apartment for the night (they went to stay with the man's sister). Before that night we were virtually complete strangers (minus a few e-mails) and yet they still left us alone in their nice place. Generosity and trust on that level is a rare thing.

We then journeyed to Hamburg, to play at an art/dance/music festival. The venue was quite nice, and quite large - certainly far too large for the somewhat small crowd. That said, the sound was excellent, and those people who were there were very enthusiastic, dancing and some of them even singing along. As much fun as it is to have a big crowd, an active one is even better, because then you really know why it is you're playing. After the show, we went out for drinks with the opening act, and made quite a late night of it, since Hanover is a mere 90 minutes drive away.

And that brings me to today. We still haven't gone to a currency exchange place, although lord knows we tried this morning, and so my spending is to this point almost nil (I think i owe eman five euros). The sound at this place is quite nice, and I'm looking forward to taking the stage. Hopefully some people come out.

European Tour Number 2, First Show

So, we just had our first show in Europe, and basically everything that could go wrong did. We were missing cables. Our guitar amp didn't work. The show was scheduled last-minute and thus very under-promoted, so there were only 20 people there (although given other problems that was probably a blessing). And the sound guy had NO idea how to work the system. Literally. It was so bad that after three songs of none of us being able to hear anything, we all unplugged, went down on the floor, and played and entirely acoustic set. We really had no choice, with four of the six of us basically playing deaf.

The up side was the hospitality. We've had a decent place to stay for two nights, some decent Chinese food, and plenty of good British beer, so no complaints on that end. Tomorrow we're going to pick up a new amp, and then drive to London for what we hope is the first "real" (ie plugged in) show of the tour. We're hoping all of the bugs were worked out this first night, but I guess we'll see.