COLOGNE, 3.4
On Monday most of
White Flag arrived to Paris, and we had an impromptu recording session in my flat...on Tuesday we went by train to Cologne, and a very nice/cheap ride it is. We cabbed down to the Sonic Ballroom, site of a great WF show in 2002, and Carsten was already waiting for us, having brought a bass for me to use, courtesy of Kai from Subterfuge! One of the stipulations for being a part of this tour was that I would not have to bring any equipment with me, save for 2 cables, a tuner, and my
Locomofon Every Scream, which I have come to find is essential for my kind of skrunch.
We entered, and there wasn't much to do--no gear had shown up yet, and our guitarist Chips hadn't arrived from Sweden yet. So, Pat and I rehearsed a bit in the dressing room (aka the bedroom--the backstage is also a three room apartment for the bands to sleep in). Eventually the local band the Porno Dolls showed up and we could use their stuff to soundcheck, and lo and behold Chips arrived too.
Before the show, there was more backstage rehearsing, and Tommy from Subterfuge came in to say hello, as did Cuca, the famous Hada Quimica, with whom I worked on some music in 2002.
And then, the show--well, this lineup had never played together, and there hadn't been any WF activity in my life for a couple of years, but it was fun; many, many mistakes were made and it just didn't matter. We did encore after encore, and finally put all requests for more to a definitive rest when we did our last encore--40 minutes of 'Tomorrow Never Knows'. At some point, I switched cables with Pat, so my bass was going thru his amp, and he was playing thru mine. Eventually, after 20 minutes or so, Pat and Chips left. Tracy and I kept going...mostly I was just playing one note, the endless droning 'C' of the Beatles song. At one point, a drunk guy with a ciggy hanging out of his mouth, picked up Pat's guitar, and stumbled towards the amp he *thought* he was playing thru...and started to PTB*. I played approximations of what his fingers were doing, slowly increasing the variations as time went on, so the sound coming out of the amp he was listening to was *similar* to what he was playing, but not quite right. He frowned...adjusted the amp, tried again, and I did the same thing again, but with even more elaborate variations...notes would continue for a few seconds after he stopped playing...he was scratching his head, and completely at a loss as to what was going on...GENIUS!!! I kept him going for 10 minutes til he gave up. I also did 5-8 minutes of dialog, with a big ball of gaffer tape at the end of my bass' headstock, I swung the ball over to a mic and it began to 'talk'...and I made sure to do that for WAY too long...
After the show, the Porno Dolls' guitarist was complaining that I would have hurt his tubes by turning up his amp too loud. Which, I didn't do--either Pat or the confused guest guitarist at the end would have done so. This foretells another situation with unhappy German support bands worrying about their gear...read on. Why am I always being lectured about music, equipment, etc. by Germans 15-20 years younger than me? What do they think they know that they think I don't?
UTRECHT, 3.5
We trained over to Utrecht, the German trains for this line being superb, and were met by Ollie and Toine from
S.U.C. It, (which can be pronounced As You See It, or, simply, 'Suck It'), the band accompanying us for the next gigs. They are from Den Helder, and no place on earth on loves WF more than Den Helder. Ollie is a 6 foot-pls giant, and Toine is a friendly, smiley guy with eyes like Joe Piscopo...we stuffed ourselves and our luggage into their two tiny cars, and set off in search of the venue, which we eventually found--Ollie's GPS kept sending us down streets that didn't exist--and we pulled up to the ACL. The ACL is a hangout for vegan punx--I thought it was very strange that a militantly vegan cafe would ask us 'how many of you are vegetarians?'--as if there were other options?? Was it some kind of loyalty test? After the show that night, that loyalty was shown to be lacking when Tracey and Chips brought chicken sandwiches back in from the snack shop across the street (which, oddly enough, was recommended to them by the venue)--they were chased out immediately!
Now, the reason we did this whole tour is that there were two special musical events within reasonable proximity of each other, and we all wanted to go see them, and thus it made sense to play a few shows, which ended up playing all the expenses of travel to see these shows, even the two flights from the states. Tonight was event number one, a sold-out show by Dutch legends
Golden Earring. Pat has been a fan of theirs for 30 years, and missed a chance to see them in California in the 70s as they were the unadvertised support for Aerosmith--Pat arrived to find out he had just missed one of his favorite bands, and was further insulted by what turned out to be a terrible Aerosmith show at the low point of their Joe Perry-less career. So, here was his chance, and he jumped on it. In fact, our traveling companion, Suzy, from Rome, who booked WF's Italian shows in 2006, wrangled an interview with the band for an Italian music mag.
GE has been making music together for 47 years; the current lineup has been in place throughout the band's biggest successes--the 'new guy', drummer Cesar Zuiderwijk, has 'only' been in the band since 1970. The band consists of the extremely acrobatic and technical, humorous and brilliant Zuiderwijk; singer/guitarist/flute player Barry Hay, who joined the band before I was born, and looks like any tattooed gym rat movie star, with a smooth, boyish face; original member George Kooymans, who looks like James Coburn/Peter Graves and is an absolutely wicked guitarist, and a great singer--he sings much of the band's material; and bassist/keyboardist Rinus Gerritsen, also an incredible player. They played two sets, in an acoustic setting--no electric guitars, but a full drum kit--and it truly rocked. They had tremendous energy, and were in total control at all times, no detail was left unexplored in any song. Despite the fact they are all 60, save for Rinus who is 62, they are youthful, enthusiastic, healthy, and it seems like they are thrilled to be onstage. Very inspiring--after the show, we chatted backstage with Rinus for a bit, who told me about his clever keyboard set up--when he plays piano, his left hand is playing keys that trigger samples of his acoustic bass, and output that thru his bass amp, so there is consistent low end throughout the show. GENIUS!
So, we had to play our own show after that. No soundcheck, we showed up as the middle band was still playing. S.U.C. It had gone on first. Ollie let me use his Rickenbacker bass, and we were off and running. Central-casting punx pogo'd and slammed, like it was 1984. I have to admit the best part was an epic rendition of Golden Earring's most enduring hit, 'Radar Love', which every Dutch citizen knows, so several audience members took to the stage and sang it for us. And they still wanted more--I had played in the crowd during that portion, so I was last to leave the stage, and the audience wouldn't let me go--by request from audience members I did a silly ad hoc song with the words 'Flavor of the Month' that had nothing to do with the Posies song, then I did a drums (playing with my hands, one of which was inside a plastic cup)/vocals and bass (audience member who requested the song) version of 'Down Like Me', which went, uh..*down* surprisingly well with all the assembled punx.
After that, it took, as usual, forever to get the initiative to leave, and suddenly the squat we were supposed to stay at didn't sound so good. Moods were soured when the chicken-eaters were chased out, and we ended up in one of those farcical episodes that only happen when I'm *not* the tour manager--last minute, late night, scramble for accommodations. We tried one hotel, sold out. €500 later, we had rooms at a nice hotel downtown, I had my own room in fact. The tour still came out in the black.
ROTTERDAM, 3.6
The next morning I was up extremely early to jet up to the small town of Naardem-Bussum, 25 minutes north by train, to have a quick meeting with the folks at Roadrunner, primarily but not always a metal label, regarding the Disciplines. I got back to the hotel just in time to check out, and then Chips and Suz wanted to go record shopping, so the rest of us chilled in the lobby, which was filling up not just with the two punk bands in our caravan, but an Albanian folk orchestra. Lively!
Then we drove to Rotterdam.
Now, I've been to Rotterdam many times on tour--Posies shows in 1997, 1998, and 2006; a solo show in 2004; an REM show in 2005. Somehow, it never clicked how incredible this city is in terms of
architecture. We all know that the Germans bombed Rotterdam, the final blow in their 1940 invasion, thus leaving the city in need of a massive rebuilding campaign, financed in many ways by Rotterdam's 40-year reign as the world's busiest port (that honor has belonged to Shanghai for the last 4 years). Rotterdam chose a daring strategy, and now the town is filled with architectural marvels, whimsies, and showpieces. The old parts of the city that survived the War are stunning as well; the area near our hostel, a kind of garden district, is, simply, elegant and serene. In this visit Rotterdam became one of my favorite cities of all time.
We were playing at the WaterFront, which is where the Posies ended our 2006 European tour. They have expanded the cafe to now include a small stage, which is where our show was taking place. The complex also houses rehearsal rooms and a recording studio (more on that later). All of this takes place on the quay by the river estuary that bisects the city. We were marveling at the old building, now topped by a modern glass structure that houses a gym, that rises out of the water by the club, and has huge, circular windows--halfway submerged. The building looks ancient--how did they do it?
Now, this evening, a new television program on the Dutch national network was doing a piece on culture shock--the proposed concept was to take three freshly scrubbed, preppy college students, mostly into dance music, and expose them to the crusty glory of punk rock. The introduction was made by a local woman who is a political activist, clothing designer, and journalist--she hosted the program. Oh my. The thing is, WF is a complicated band--sure, they started playing punk, but, they dressed metal, or..anything really, and have done everything they can to show that the only rules in their minds are no rules. No by-the-book 1977 or hardcore rehashes here...I mean, we cover the Zombies 'Butcher's Tale', for gawd's sake...a song done on harmonium. So being the merry pranksters that we are, we pretty much made things into total chaos. We formed the kids into a band, called 'the Catalogue Models', and then made them play on the instruments set up in the studio--of course, they couldn't play. Then we all took the instruments and proceeded to play incompetently in the exact same manner--we 'covered' their 'song'! Hahah! We also made them play the first song in the set, and hailed them as the latest thing. Later, the punkest bit, we chased the TV crew away from the stage--"FUCK TV!". Oh, I bet they were sorry.
Our show was pretty good, too.
When it was done, the studio offered to let us record for free, so we jumped in and recorded a simple, the Jam-like song that Pat had written, I played bass. Then I had everyone there--all the WF members, the engineers, Suz, S.U.C. It, the promoter, and three Swedish fans who came to see these shows--each write one line, and then I put them in some kind of order and sang the results! The assembled crowd mentioned above put on some horrific backing vocals--see footage of that
here. Job well done! Chips took the stuff home and will work on it at his studio.
AMSTERDAM, 3.7
We had all day to chill out in Rotterdam, I stashed my bags at the hostel, and had a delicious lunch, read the newspaper, and checked email. Pat went to Rotterdam's art museum, and said it was an incredible collection--from Bosch to art contemporain. In the late afternoon we drove up to Amsterdam, and eventually found the squalid Baarmoder, 'The Womb' in Dutch. It's a punk squat, no heat, jerry-rigged toilets, the lot. We all decamped to a pizzeria, and were joined by friend Brendan, and we found that one of the cars had to leave--Ollie had a family emergency and had to go to Den Helder ASAP. The thing is, we had a show in Den Helder that night! It's an hour and a half away. We decided to send Suz and most of the luggage in the one car, and Toine would stuff the rest of us into his car and we'd make it.
We had to scare up some gear, but some appeared, including a bass for me to use! And we ripped into our set, and 25 minutes later were ready to head to Den Helder. In fact, the people at the squat were really cool. I'm just glad I didn't have to sleep there! Craaaaaaaaaaab farm. I did see a few Amsterdam friends at this gig, which was nice.
DEN HELDER, 3.7
Yep, we raced up to Den Helder ('The Clear' in Dutch) for our second gig of the night. There is a squadron of punx who have been die hard WF fans since the band's first album came out 25 years ago...our show in DH in 2002 was a highlight of the tour. They're still there, and they're still into it. We arrived and immediately began to sort out the backline with the support band Volt. "Can we borrow your backline?" "No.". Ah. well. Ok....now what? The locals went out and found some equipment. We ended up using Volt's drum kit, bass cab and guitar cab. Truth be told, the bass player, Nico, did eventually offer to let me use his amp, but he also sort of lectured me on how he had new tubes and what not...they had a bit of an attitude. Like, a lot bit. I mean, what is with the Germans lecturing me on music??? Well, ten seconds into our set, and Volt was surely unhappy--the whole place went insane--I mean, the stage lights were pulled out of their sockets, and people were slamming, and falling on our mics and, all that great stuff. Cue, unhappy support band being ignored, trying to hit on the female bartenders to no avail. Cue, unhappy support band retiring to crusty band apartment upstairs from venue (which again, seemed like a crab fest), while we went to very comfortable hotel. Victory by the attitude-free WF! We did 'Communication Breakdown' and even gave in to relentless requests for obscure song on the first album that the band hadn't played since the 80s...Pat on guitar and me on drums.
This was the show that made the whole tour worth doing!
After the show we took our hotel rooms, and slept for maybe an hour. got up at 6 for breakfast, and found the hotel had a bowling alley! if only we'd known! We (the band minus Chips, who had a later flight, but plus Suz) squeeeeezed into a taxi that took us, for €112, to the Amsterdam airport. It actually was not that much more than 4 train tix would have been, and with the tight schedule navigating the train could have easily resulted in us missing our flights to London.
Tracy and I flew on EasyJet, and rode the train in most of the way together; I went to my friend Meggean's place, up near Crouch End. the flight was so early that I was in her flat by 11am. We had lunch, and I made sure NOT to fall asleep, no jet lag for me. I headed down to the Shepherds Bush Empire as evening fell. It was quite a journey--walk to the Tube, 15 minutes. Tube, and find that the Hammersmith and City line was terminating before Shepherd's Bush. Head for the Central Line. Guess what--the Shepherd's Bush station on the Central Line is closed until late October!! So, I got off at the stop before and walked. Anyway, I made it in plenty of time. Found my companions, and met some new ones--my friend Henrik was there, with Danish music star Tim Christensen (who mentions 'Frosting on the Beater' in one of his songs); Xavier from Tahiti 80 was there, tho' I didn't see him til I was leaving. Etc. What was all the fuss? Well, the surviving members of
the Zombies were performing together for the first time in 40 years (can you *have* Zombies that *don't* survive?--Ed.)--save for a brief, two song set in London ten years ago--and performing their incredible album, Odessey and Oracle, for the first time ever, in its entirety. I have been a fan of this album for over 20 years, and have covered almost every song on it at one point. So, for me this was a landmark occasion. In fact, I was riveted, and really, very emotional, they performed the album perfectly, in my mind. So satisfying, I could forsee having few musical wishes left ungranted after seeing this. After the show, backstage with Suz and Henrik, I had nothing to say to the band members, I just soaked in the atmosphere and enjoyed the afterglow of a well performed set. I did chat with Darian Shanaja, who played some extra keyboards to help recreate the album's sound--Darian is well known as a member of the
Wondermints, and as part of the incredible touring band of Brian Wilson. Very nice guy.
Henrik and I caught the last metro home--only to meet two Posies fans on board!
On Sunday, I took it easy, well, sort of. Late lunch with Meggean, and we took in "
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" at the cinema. Holy bejesus, I was not expecting this film's powerful effect. I was sobbing, really. I won't retell the story here, but, I can highly recommend this beautifully realized true story.
I've got to finish this blog now, and go out to a show. So, my observations on England , its weather,
architecture, and music obsessions will have to wait til next week!
Love
KS
London
*Play The Blues
