On the road in Haarlem (...with Gerhardt, pt. 4)

Today was going to be a grand day. It’s rare for me to wake up in the sudden and direct manner I woke up this morning. Usually it takes me a while to get clearheaded and focused; today I was out of my bed within minutes of leaving my silent, dreamless slumbers. The night before had been great: A friend of mine, Marijn -a witty, tight-bodied art student- got in touch with me asking if she could come over to hang out; she brought Viola, another cool girl that I've known for years. Both of them never came 'round my house when I lived in Amsterdam. In Utrecht it was all done and dusted within two weeks of my arrival Together with my roommate Prettyboy we hung around my room drinking beer and trading stories while digging Trentemøller’s latest collection of remixes. In the other room, Otto tuned in to watch a live TV-show that featured two guys eating tiny beats of eachother to discover the taste of a Humanbeing. They say most unknown meat tastes of chicken; I made a joke about pussy. It was the first good night of entertaining people at my house. I was still in a good mood from these proceedings, despite the nauseating smell of cigaret butts and empty beer cans lying around the room. After a shower and finishing a stack of dirty dishes-to-be-washed Prettyboy and me drove on the train to meet our beloved Bandleader, whom Prettyboy was meeting to discuss plans for a recording session early next year. I was tagging along for the ride. We drank coffee in the old fashioned student café near Amsterdam’s central station. I would go off in a short while and meet them later in Haarlem, where we were supposed to do a charity gig. It’s the season for playing music without getting paid. I guess it’s a karmathing. I took off for the station as I had errands to run in Haarlem before we played. Got an attitude from the lady at the public toilets on the platform. I was feeling a lot of kindness today and let it slide; there was a lot of suspicion in me that she had plenty to be complaining about. Snapping at me was probably the least of her outlets. In Haarlem I throdded around carrying my heavy bassman’s gear, and more too. It slowed me down and I arrived at my meeting with the boys from Suburban Records half-an-hour late. My apologies were accepted and I met some people; we sat around the conference table in a jolly pre-holiday mood and talked shop. Some of them I met previously at journo gatherings or other public events; we traded some experiences from the field. They were down with what business I had the offer, which caused me to like them even more. It’s funny how the music industry works; sometimes it’s hard to stay positive when somuch shit is being haggled over, then the next moment you’re meeting these great sincere people and you’re utterly happy digging the scene as I do. After that I sat in the Grand Square of Haarlem in a brasserie between the ancient Church and the equally ancient Townhouse. I worked a little, made a few phonecalls and ate a old cheese sandwich that was expensive but worth the expenditure. It was five-ish, and my friends and bandmates walked up from the station to meet me. After an early dinner (I ate nothing, as I had just finished my late lunch) we played together for the first time in five weeks in the hapsnap manner of an improvised acoustic session in a weird glass truck. It was over before we knew it. Unsure of our performance and a little frazzled -at least on my end- we went our seperate ways - Prettyboy back to our mansion, bandleader Gerhardt to his woman in the North. To the movies. I ended up in a little bistro in an alley from the square we played to have some dinner myself and read up on some Original Scrolls from mr. Kerouac. He’s with me on most of my travels of late, and I’m making good headway. I wonder when I’ll be ready to get to BOOK TWO: Patronaat in Haarlem is one of my favorite venues in The Netherlands. It has a down to earth appeal while maintaining a high level of technical and programmatic quality - not counting the shit that goes on in the dreaded ‘main hall’; the café and small hall are nice enough. Tonight a try out of Bombay Show Pig was my destination. In my ever relentless scramble to the finish line for a project on my Day Job, I was eager to check out if their new material was up to the standards I was aiming at. Oddly enough, there we quite a few familiar cats and kittens about. There was a young guy Jens, who did a lot of volunteer work on Popronde; The angry jew chef Weirdbeard from Harlem, NY, who puts on crazy obscure music whenever he gets the chance; a couple of Gerhardt inner-circlers from Alkmaar who came down to dig the music; the esteemed Dazzled Kid and mr. Collignon, among the topranking Dutch artists, who came out to support their friends. It was a enthusiastic bunch, Dazzled Kid rocking out introvertly while standing on a chair in an effort not to miss a second of the on-stage performance, mr. Collignon all smiles and jovial manner. Meanwhile, Bombay Show Pig tried out. The act comprises of two brunettes (M/F), real musician cats with a style all their own and a knack for wisecrack jokes and other witty remarks of sorts. I enjoy hanging out with them as much as I dig their music. It’s good stuff, fresh, crafty, contemporary; and they pull it off with great energy. I talk to their manager, who’s apparently a friendly dude with a good amount of interest for my New Deal and Great Business Opportunities. While I’d rather just hang out and bum cigarettes, I know I’ve come here for some hustlin’. I take to my job. Before I know it midnight is around the corner and soon it won’t be the 3 days before Christmas anymore. My goodbyes are quick and clean, no reason to get smoochie tonight. I hurry to the station, a train is on the platform, rushing off into the night with a day that’s eager to start in precious little time. No reason to get excited, just in time to get my affairs settled and rest while I can before the alarm clock signals the next turn of events.

On the road with Gerhardt pt. 2

This is me recovering some of the alcohol-soaked, blurry memories from the past couple weeks of touring... a continuing series of weird journeys.

So, after two weeks that were slightly less abou travelling and music and a little more about alcohol-intake, reading Hemingway and getting a case of the autumn blues, it was back on the road for me and the gang. We picked up our feet to do the usual things, making stupid jokes on the bus and gas-station intermezzos for the most part. The gigs sometimes feel like nothing more than short breaks inbetween endless sessions of tall stories and drinking stale beer from a can. Meanwhile we're getting better and better at mucking up the touring van.

ENSCHEDE

Our first date was at a place called Fellini's in Enschede for Popronde. In fact, all the gigs were Popronde's now, which meant that we'd just had to do one show a day. This makes life a LOT easier. Upon arrival in the far east of the Netherlands, we had the following things going on:

- Fellini turns out to be kind of a posh club that does both food and dancing. Usually, that's not where we find our best audiences.
- It would be my birthday right there on stage. At first it was something I was looking forward to, but my birthday did not turn out the way I wanted it to.
- Because of some dumb mistake of my own, I had misplaced my bass amp, so had to play with whatever was available. Thankfully the PA at Fellini's was pretty good and the in-house technician saved the day.

Despite sounding like a set-up for a big clusterf•ck, the gig was actually pretty good. We drew a small crowd who were listening intently in a very nice setting with great lighting and a cool 50's New York scene on wallpaper along the side of the room. Festivalinfo came along and shot a few pictures. Check them out HERE

Gerhardt + some dude in the background, rocking out.

We had the day off the next day. I spent my birthday in a foul mood for most of the day... I won't bore you with it...

AMERSFOORT

Saturday saw our little gang reconvene for a gig in Amersfoort. I already knew from various account that Popronde Amersfoort was a pretty wild affair, the second largest of them all. And sure enough, the city was out in force. The great atmosphere was courtesy in part of an Oktoberfest celebration going on, drawing all kinds of overdressed drunks to the pubs that were housing the Popronde on the same night. It sounds worse than it was though, Het Nonnetje (The Little Nun), the café we played was packed to the brim with enthusiastic people and we had them on their feet for the entire gig. We also got to make a cameo-appearance in fellow Popronde traveller's The Dance's vid-blog of the night.



TILBURG

A week later, we had a spectacular 3-day stint on the Popronde in Tilburg, Venlo and Den Haag. Tilburg is known for having a huge student population, and a respected educational instution called De Rockacademie. It's the closest thing to a School Of Rock one can find in the Netherlands. It's also the place where Gerhardt took part of his education from. Plus: the local festival-programmer is a friend. Think that's a lead up to a great concert experience? Think again. The atmosphere all across town wasn't great, but we played a decent show. This is a good thing: if you want to be a professional musician you have to be able to cut through all the white noise around you and play through your strengths. It's one of the prime things I've picked up from playing Popronde: Play on stoically, and do it with a smile, whatever the situation. People will always like you better for it.

3VOOR12/Tilburg wrote a review of the concert, which wasn't completely positive but more than fair enough. Check it HERE (in dutch)

Gerhardt regularly mentions Jack Black and School Of Rock as one
of his main sources of inspiration...

Our guitaristic genius Bernard fixed us up with accomodation at a friend's house near Tilburg for the weekend. She proved more than her money's worth, acting as our driver for 2 days, fixing our breakfast and supplying us with some very efficient strong liquor. Lisanne truly is a gift from above, if I was to believe there is such a place as 'the above'. But the most beautiful thing about it was, that she put a little feminine touch in the mix, while being completely unbothered with our horrible masculine bandvan-banter OR us thrashing her student dorm for two nights in a row. She has certainly won my respect over the weekend.

Lisanne at the wheel. Picture by Gerhardt.

VENLO

For those of you that don't know: Venlo is the residency of The Netherlands' most infamous politician Geert Wilders. As such, most people (not counting people who tend to the political rigt wing) perceive it to be the closest thing to hell you can find in the Netherlands. If so, than hell is pretty kind and welcoming embrace. There's a very charming historic city-centre, with nicely lit squares and monumental buildings. We played at a café called De Blauwe Trap, who were very nice to us and provided a great soundsystem and dito engineer. We arrived well in time and had a nice long soundcheck. There was some consternation over equipment that had gone missing the night before but this was quickly resolved as it turned out our fellow Popronde/Serious Talent buddies Capeman found our gear in Tilburg and kindly took it with them the next day.

N.B.: As it turns out, all bands have the same sense of humor. Even worse: it seems that an entire generation can replay and relive entire episodes of Family Guy and/or South Park from memory. It's scary, man. I realised this when Darko of Capeman welcomed me a bit like this:



As a result of all these relaxing factors, we played a good, stress-free, fun gig, despite still nursing a serious hangover from the night before. Among the crowd were also a few dignitaries of the local popscene, whom appeared to like what we did. Hopefully we've sown the seeds for a strong crop so we can harvest during the festival season next year.

DEN HAAG

So, for once I had the leverage. I went to bed early and came out a lot clearer because of it. We said our goodbyes to Lisanne, left her a shitload of forgotten dirty clothes, and got on our way to our last gig. Coming in way ahead of schedule, there was some time to muck about, check emails and talk to Katía, a very nice singer-songwriter also touring the Popronde. She was playing the coffee company where I was weeding through piles of unanswered e-mails. Again, typical touring man's peril.

Den Haag was another night to remember. We had some problems finetuning our sound during soundcheck, but rocked the stage regardless. It was good to see that we are getting to a point where we are utterly untouched by any internal or circumstancial piss-ups and we can just go about performing. The crowd where a little reserved at first, but loosened up soon enough. A few girls were dancing frontstage, which will always brighten our day no matter how indifferent we get being rockstars and all (promise!). Afterwards, we hung out with Amarins & Le Gatte Negre for a bit who were on after us, but couldn't catch their performance as we had to get on our way home. This is another lesson learned: you don't see much of the festival if you're part of the line-up. A big contrast to years before, when I saw a lot of the acts that played.

3VOOR12/Den Haag was there as well and wrote some very kind words you can read right HERE (in dutch).

CONCLUSION

As we reach the end of our fall tour, it's just been one life experience after the other. This has been my first tour of this volume and longitude, and a first taste of what's it's like to be a professional(ish) musician. I know the other guys have had plenty of experience like this, but I'm still finding my way and paying my dues, or so it seems.

Meanwhile, Gerhardt himself has some interesting thoughts of his own on the matter. You can read them at the Popronde blog, which is located HERE

All I can thing about now is playing our final show of the tour in Eindhoven. What will happen in the future is still up in the air. Despite some very cool and very serious plans, it will come down to Lady Luck to guide us through to the endgame. What that endgame will be? I'm sure I don't know.

Introducing... Gerhardt

As time goes by and I delve deeper into my own distorted reflections, sometimes little introductions will be useful. I will keep referring to them as I talk of certain people, places and projects.

It's only right I start with someone who has made quite an impact on my personal life and career of late: Gerhardt, also affectionally known as 'G' or 'Chefke' (chief)

Gerhardt I've known for about two years now. He's a musician from Alkmaar, a city not far from Amsterdam. He spent most of his twenties playing in all kinds of unruly indiebands, such as Skinnerbox and The Realdolls. He's also known as the bloke who plays piano and cowbell with the soul-pop band Beans & Fatback. A few years ago he left his garage-roots and chose the path of the singer-songwriter.

Gerhardt at 'our' release party in Paradiso

I met him through facebook, as he has been an avid explorer of the social web in the time that I've known him. He responded to a call out I made as I was looking for songwriters to play at a spur-of-the-moment party at my friend Hester's old dorm. In the spontaneous, ad-hoc manner I've come to know so well, Gerhardt agreed to come down and play to a small crowd of international students. In the following year and a half, we met on quite a few occassions: he became a fan of the event Pageturner that I host every month, I became a fan of his witty songs and the suprising twists he gave to them every so often. We became quite good friends considering we didn't see eachother very often.

This past januari, Gerhardt released his first single A Brand New Heart, of his first mini-album All Is There. He recorded it in Belgium with Triggerfinger as his studio band, per chance the best rockband in Belgium. Alas their touring schedule made it impossible to play Gerhardt's liveshows. So he was looking for musicians to play his new 'band songs' live. I just came back from a hiatus as a musician, and somehow managed to talk myself into the band without Gerhardt even hearing me play. In a matter of weeks a band was formed, material was rehearsed and a string of dates were played, including many radio and television appearances and a soldout release-show at Paradiso in Amsterdam.

The band: Marjolein, Akim, Gerhardt, Otto, yours truly

In just 7 months I went from an inactive bassplayer to a pretty professional one. We have some huge festival dates coming up, the record has been received very well by the press and I've learned a lot about professional musicianship and 'the bizz'. It's been quite a trip, but it's one I feel has been worth my time and effort so far. It's great to be out playing music to crowds again.

A few weeks ago, we recorded a special for RTV Noord-Holland. Check it out below:



I will regularly be posting updates about the band as they come up. Also, expect some distorted reflections on this whole touring life. It gets pretty crazy sometimes, so it might make for a very interesting read...!