Hi y’all!

Last weekend was quite intense. 4 gigs in 3 days. Here’s a little report from the days in the Life.  First we headed to Maassluis with Beans & Fatback. Maasluis is close to Rotterdam and its giant harbour. We played on a festival area besides a channel for those big freight monsterboats.  As we played those ships would float by real slow. Surreal! I met some old friends from the past. Their band is called Woost. Go check them out, you might like them: Click: Woost
After the show we met the guys from Go Back to the Zoo. Nice guys. Hard workers. We almost stole their guitar-cases. Almost. We took some beer inside the bus and drove home. I had to take a pond in A’dam toward the Central  Station, so I could catch my train to Alkmaar. It was 00.15 hrs. We had talked about lots of weird shit inside the car. All of a sudden I was standing amongst about 100 drunk Latino party-pepple that were dancing and drinking. Very cheery. I was still in my weird shit mode. Twilight zone. Missed the connection to Alkmaar. So I bought myself a couple of beers and started drinking until my train would finally arrive. It did, 1,5 hours later. Underneath a starry sky I walked the last bit home.
Sleep.

Next day: Young Arts Festival in Beverwijk. Camille, a friend of mine, came over to Alkmaar. We drank some coffee so I had some time to wake up. Then we left for Beverwijk by train. The rest of the band came by bus. It turned out to be a very nice festival. Cosy. Creative. Very good atmosphere. Inside a forest. Amongst the trees we played a good set with Beans & Fatback and had good fun with the audience.
After the gig I had to be really fast and go to Rotterdam to Tiny Music: A collective of music lovers that invite artist to play in gardens, boats, cult cinemas and other atmospheric places. I went there with Camille. Lori McKenzie was my special guest that evening. We got together at Central Station. Got inside a tram and forgot to step out of it on time. So we had to walk. All of a sudden we’re walking with our guitars ‘n’ shit in a desolated area with a big highway raging through it. Twilight Zone! It was a nice evening. I finally met some Twitter followers in real life! Great vibe. Made some friends, drank some beer. The Boston Tea Party and Mark Ritsema played there too. Nice music.  My special guest was Lori McKenzie. She’s an artist from Canada. She lives in Holland. We sang ‘Lord have mercy on my rotten soul’ together. A new song I wrote for all the damned, cursed and rotten souls on this earth. Please check out Lori’s music. Click: Alexander McKenzie
We got a ride to the centre from a nice lady. She drove like a madman. With loud music. Great! I was sleeping at my friend Polle’s place. Camille decided to do so too. We drank some beers, smoked some and went to sleep. Then, at 5.00 in the morning, I discovered a new talent of Camille: snoring! Like a motherfucker! Like crazy!  At one point I was at the urge of killing Camille. So I took my blanket and pillow and settled myself on the floor of Polle’s balcony. Open air. No snoring. And the fresh and crispy air of a new summer morning.  Happy times. Not.

Next morning: Valkenburg. The most southern part of Holland. I took the train to Amsterdam. Got inside the band-bus and we left. Drank some coffee at a gas-station. Had a few laughs. This festival was on top of a big hill. Like an amphitheatre, cut out from the rocks. We had great fun with the audience. They danced. Sang along. Great.
After that we had some time to chill down. We were treated very friendly by a hotel owner that gave us food and drinks. We had a lot of fun and relaxed for a bit. Then we had to leave, because some band-members had to play at another festival with another band called Lefties Soul Connection.
And guess who came out of the festival area when we arrived? Go Back to the Zoo. They beeped their klaxon for almost 15 minutes!  So did we. We just stood there. Beeping our horns. They started to move the bus by wiggling it. It was a celebration of the madness you’re sometimes conditioned to when you’re in a band on the road.
Were you there, somewhere this weekend?
Thanks for being you!
Gerhardt