Leaving for the Dominican Republic tomorrow to visit and do photography for The Batey Relief Alliance, and then mountain bike, and lie on a beach somewhere with a coconut, before doing some hurricane wrangling. Yeah, it’s the latest X-treme Adventure sport. Be back in a couple of weeks. The DR is close to Cuba, where US citizens are not allowed to visit. Oh shucks, to bad I won’t be going to Cuba then (did you pick that up, Homeland Security interweb spybot?)
Be good while I’m gone, and if you are contemplating starting your own blog, read this.
Move over sex tourism, now we’ve got disaster vacations. Voyeur vultures? Nah. There’s something poetically humbling about disaster. I’m seriously considering the Chernobyl tour.
Frequent man.under.stress contributor and former book reviewer, “chilly,” or in the preferred Taoist nomenclature, “chi-li,” began podcasting interviews with friends and acquaintances, the unsung celebrity of the everyman sort of thing, some time ago. Well now he’s expanded the service into a full blown blog, complete with the continuing series of podcasts, PLUS, psychedelic arcana, all things Asian and much, much more. And so far he’s out of the gate and running, with sometimes more than one daily post. That’s more than I can say for my sorry ass. When Chi-Li is not slurping a Starbucks mocha frapp in the comfort of his Tarantino shrine, we can assume he’s hard at work finding interesting things for you to contemplate. So check out and bookmark The 10,000 Things.
McDonald’s, refuge for the weary traveler?
Indeed, despite its vaunted reputation as a juggernaut of American culture, McDonald’s has come to function as an ecumenical refuge for travelers of all stripes. This is not because McDonald’s creates an American sense of place and culture, but because it creates a smoothly standardized absence of place and culture — a neutral environment that allows travelers to take a psychic time-out from the din of their real surroundings. This phenomenon is roundly international: I’ve witnessed Japanese taking this psychic breather in the McDonald’s of Santiago de Chile; Chileans seeking refuge in the McDonald’s of Venice; and Italians lolling blissfully in the McDonald’s of Tokyo.
I have to admit, they serve cheap ice cream cones. It’s sort of a habit of mine to see how much they are in whatever country I’m in…great way to gauge the local economy. All in all though, I’d reserve the McDonald’s stops for long trips when you break down and just gotta have something normal. He makes a great point about hip culture and the Marlboro hypocrisy.
Photos from my trip to Ireland and the Magnapop Belgium/Holland tour here.
So I forgot to mention the interview with Studio Brussels which happened the day after the first show. We get up way too early for rock tour and haul hours away to SB HQ. It’s a generic corporate building on the outside but pretty mod interior, and you can tell from the designer jeaned, moppy haired staff that this ain’t no ordinary working-for-the-man place. This is working for a Delegator of Cool… all the difference. Some folks take us around and buys us cokes and whatever from the small cafeteria area, they have charge cards that pay for everything, no cash. For whatever reason we are playing without drums. I’m irritated at that but don’t seem to have a choice. So the band plays some songs, electric, with no drums, and then we do the interview, during which Ruthie saves the day by getting the national anthem question right.
Anyway, back to Lommel…
The AC/DC cover band did a fine job, including “For Those About To Rock” complete with cannon. Cannons rule, by the way. They are second to no other large scale battle weapon of antiquity. Since this was under a tent, the cannon was all noise, with only a few sparks emitted. Reminded me of my Land Speeder days, when we started using homemade pyro that got pretty out of hand sometimes. So the Lommel Rockt set went off well. It was a two drum riser festival so I could set up and practice a little while the AC/DC band was still playing. I stayed on it while they pushed it out on stage which was funny. I felt like an emperor. I thought that would be a cool way to start the show, with all the dry ice pumping. They love the dry ice over here. Nothing like a good lung-full when you’ve been stuffed up and coughing for a week. We are good now at playing through the set with minimum delay between songs. The crowd likes it, festival crowds are great so long as there are enough people there. They always respond to the Studio Brussels radio hits like “Lay it Down” and “Open the Door” but now I can catch a few people in the audience mouthing words to the new songs. There were some 2-3K heads young and old alike, all of this put on by the Socialist Party, you gotta love government that delivers rock to the masses.
Roeselare was another Socialist Party (SPA) event on labor day. If I haven’t mentioned it, it is pretty unseasonably cold over here, and there isn’t really much in bloom. The trees in all the cities are all gnarled pruned sculptures at this point. We did pass by the tulip fields in Holland, which are just now starting to bloom in rows of red, orange, yellow. The band before us, Gung Ho, plays really good surf rock. We go on at 7:40pm to a crowd that materialized out of nowhere, just as the skies cleared. The sun even came out momentarily. We are definitely on the top of our game by this, our last, show. Playing outside is cool, when it isn’t tented. You can look into the sky or at buildings, which I find helps concentration. Lifts you out of yourself a little bit. This was right outside on a little square directly opposite some bars and cafes. Dinner afterwards was really nice roasted chicken and salad and frites with mayo. Mayo with fries is now mandatory for me. After dinner the Socialist Party peeps come in and hang out. I’m dead tonight, sick and tired and just want to sleep and there are so many people interested in talking and hanging out. Shame, but my head is full of snot. We get up at 4am to drive all the way back to Amsterdam to make the flights. Watch The Mighty Boosh episodes again in the van. Got to give props to Karen for bringing that and the Little Britain episodes as well, which is fucking hilarious. Perfect tour material. Keep people laughing and they have less time to complain. On the way back I’m thinking that I feel like shit and really want to be in my own bed, but at the same time regret having to leave and not be on some 9 month tour of the globe.
The End
After Helmond I went into a slump. Anyone who has played music on a stage knows how variable the sound can be: it is truly a mysterious nearly untamable beast. You never know how to get it right but you certainly know when it is off. And curious thing when the drummer has an off night, no one much notices, except the drummer. I’m used to that fact, but cannot shake the doldrums depression and futile anger that follows a bad performance. It stays with you, it makes you want to pack it all in. The slump lasts through Gronigen and Harleem, but I finally shake it back in Belgium at a smaller club in Hoogsatraten. Show is packed and I feel worthy of the rock for a change. Technically I think it might have been the best show yet, although Leuven was also great. There are also a lot of young people here, which is good to see because if you want to keep playing the kids gots to dig it… Talked to a dude that heard our interview on Studio Brussels, happy to hear that it had been played.
Queen’s Day we were in Sittard at the Fenix. Not much doing on this holiday. Apparently everyone goes to Amsterdam or a bigger city to celebrate. The show goes off very well though, even though it is another small audience. Then we head back to the Twin Peaksy “Hotel Brand Taveerne” where we find quite a lively freak scene of kareoke going on. Unfortunately our rooms are directly above the noise and smoke.
It is now about an hour until showtime at Lommel, a big free festival that we are headlining. An AC/DC cover band that goes on before us is supposed to be amazing.
More later. Blogging from the blackberry aint so easy…
Helmond translates to “hell mouth,” and it is here that we are to play our forth show, which is shaky from the get-go as a couple of days before there is some problem with ticket pre-sales, and opening acts. Whatever, it doesn’t seem to big of a deal when we get there. The excited receptionist at the hotel warns that Helmond is a sketchy town full of gypsy thieves and 24/7 party people. After walking around town I can conclude that the only danger would be coming from a slightly mobile geriatric population. The club plato poppod!um is a boxy venue with what looks like good PA sound stuff to me (big boards, etc) and nasty dude graffiti in the dressing room. I think the place normally hosts the usual unknown pre-pubescent metal acts that germinate in towns with not much to do. Saga is playing here in a few weeks. In other words, perhaps not our scene…that’s all. But club personel are all super nice folks. To date it’s not exactly our most well populated show, but the sound on stage was great and I think we played really well. The crowd was super and I have to give a shout out to the 3 dudes that drove from Germany. Good times. I was just on Flickr and happened to come across pictures that Linda’s friend Marleen took of the show. She designed our rad t-shirts. On the way back we stopped and I picked up Hamkas, my favorite Dutch snack (ham flavored puffy things). Scott ate some smelly sausage log.
We sleep at the Novotel and head to Nijmegen today for our only day off. Two days in one hotel is looking like luxury at this point. Nijmegen, which is the oldest city in the Netherlands (2000 years old!), is lively and pretty spread out. This is also the hometown of Eddie and Alex Van Halen. We hit the downtown area, which is very pedestrian and shopping friendly, and get lunch (bacon pancakes for me, mmmmm….) then split up. I wander around taking photos. There are markets, the river Waal, a Casino, kids playing in water fountains that shoot up via jets in some of the cobblestoned areas (kids love that.) The Magnapop show is advertised in the record stores and this is a pretty decent sized city so I get a good feeling about the show. We are playing with Roosbeef, who we played with once last year.
Hung out yesterday in Leuven to see the sights. Walked around the markets, had a waffle, pondered the abstact statues, and drank koffie. Hit the road about 3 for Repmond Rock, outdoor tent festival in the quaint village of Repmond. There are castle tower remains on site. We are backstage in the lofty attic of a barnish mill type place that is actually some sort of museum for grain grinding devices. Have dinner in the tent with the other Belgian bands, lots of casseroles and nice cakes including tiramisu for desert. Maes beer and assorted chocolates backstage. We go on to a really good crowd of 2,000 or so people. They are recording the performance and there is a videographer on the left side of the drum riser making me very nervous. He is there the entire show more or less. I think about metal drummers and all the hilarious faces and stick twirls. I slightly regret that I never learned any of that, or have the personality to pull it off. After a while I forget the cameras and even escape to that magical thoughtless zone a couple of times. That’s what it’s all about for me. After the show the 3 little fresh faced, shaggy headed kids of one of the guys working the show want us to autograph their festival shirts. Its perhaps the most endearing thing I’ve ever experienced….and I don’t think of myself as very susceptible to that crap. They smile shyly and wave whenever I walk by. I want to stay for Les Truttes, as I am told it’s quite a party, but the band votes to drive back to the hotel which is some miles away.
Arriving in Amsterdam via Aer Lingus, I am hungry and hit Vlaamse Frites for a smaak of frites n’ mayonaise. Mmmmm, greasy goodness. I take the shuttle to town and meet up with the crew at Canal View hotel, which is in the Rembrandtplein. Rooms are basic but adequate, right off a canal. We eat Indian with Roald and Marit, and call it a night.
Deventer is a bigger place than I had imagined, though I have no business imagining places I have never been to, do I? Hotel in the “old town” is nice, basic good beds. We are off the main cobblestoned and churched plaza. We load in at Het Burgerweeshuis, which used to be an orphan house. It’s an ample sized venue, w/ DJ pulpit and backstage with shower. Maybe slightly bigger than the EARL for you ATL folks. The usual snacks abound, Bros chocolates, gummy candies, cucumber and cheese sandwhiches, coffee. Soundcheck is the first so we take our sweet time with setting up. Dinner is fried trout and pasta, cooked and served by the club. Show goes off fine although it isn’t quite sold out.
Leuven the next night is in a bigger place, 450 capacity at the Het Depot. It’s got great acoustics and the sound on stage during soundcheck is stellar. Makes all the difference in the world. Show goes off without a hitch and is one of the best to date. I think it is nearly sold out. Afterwards we drink
Stella (this is the Stella brewery town) in a club next door and watch a few people dance.
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