First gig: The Shelter - Veenendaal (NL)

Oh…. what a day… We started rehearsal an hour later, and then took all the time we needed to prepare, rehearse, soundcheck, etc. Everybody was fried. Man what a day. And as this was also the day of our first gig.. Man what a day. It started to drive me crazy.
As we do not have a tourmanager during these four concerts, somehow I ended up as being the tourmanager. Not that I mind, but it is a bit much. So I am the drummer, bandleader and tourmanager. The whole day everybody was like: Oh, Collin, where is… Oh, Collin what will I… Oh Collin, can you… Oh Collin, how are we.. etc. Well…. You can imagen that I do not have enough time to manage it all, because we where rehearsing, and I cannot be at four places at the same time. So I was really stressed in the afternoon, and at that point I wished I was somewhere else (beach-palmtrees-cocktail etc). And for the first time I totally did not want to play, and would not mind if the gig was cancelled. I was getting afraid that all those things would result in bad playing, so I was a bit nervous. Whaaaaa! I am absolutely NOT complaining here! But I try to give you some insight in how I felt at that moment.
But then we did the final run through. And I was sooo blessed during playing. I really felt God touch me through the music, and it totally lifted me up. During a certain song I felt such a relieve coming over me. That was really intense! After the run through, I was soo happy, and could not wait until the gig started. By the way it was the last day that Esther cooked for us. And she did such a great job. It was way better that a lot of good restaurants. What a luxury to have somebody cooking for us, and it was great. Thanx Esther!! Also the hard work of the rest of the crew, and all that where involved did some great work! Thanx people!!
And then the gig. I hoped for a good turnup, and it was pretty okay. When we hit the first intro-tape, I started to feel the excitement I felt during every concert last year, coming back. Great feeling. I was ready!
When we played the first song, man I was full of energy. I had a blast behind my drumkit. Oh, by the way, that Tama Bubinga kit is sounding so good! Full body, deep low-ends. And that gongdrum!!! WWHHOOOOO what a OEMPF, and what a low-end. I love it! I played the blisters on my hands. 😉
For a first gig, after just 1,5 day’s of rehearsal with Neal, I must say that it all went well. Of course there where little glitches or things not being as smooth as they should be, but that is what you get when there is so little time. The sound and lights where great. Alco (FOH) is a great engineer, who really gets into the music and knows what to do. So I was very happy (as you could see maybe). So we played through the set, and then the first encore came. We had a special extra encore prepared with In The Fire, where we would be joined by Elisa Krijgsman on guitar. The solo-parts where like a G3-guitarbattle. And it was killer! The audience exploded after the solos and made the song ending in such a big way. Man… that was killer! So we went off, and expected that the audience would stay and we could play one more song. But someone turned on the lights, and everybody was walking away, thinking it was the end. So we did not play the last little song. Did I say little? Well…. if a 30-minute epic is little… So all who will see us on Saturday or Monday… Don’t go home to fast 😉  It wil be a blast!
Today we have a day off, so a bit of relaxing, and tonight I will go to Zoetermeer, to see Spocks live!
See you Saturday or Monday, or in London!