Tourblog (6) - gig one: De Reehorst - Ede (NL)

The first gig of the tour!  It is going to be great!!
The gig went great, it was very late until I was in bed, like 04:00 am….. To tired right now (the day after the second gig in Zaandam, 03:20 am) to write anything more, so I will catch up tomorrow!
sleep tight!
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OK…. It is quite some days later now, and we have done 4 gigs now. I am very sorry for not writing the blog, but I did not had the time or energy to do so. But now it is Thuesday, October 28, and I am sitting in my livingroom, in the sun, enjoying a new CD by female jazz singer and bass player Esperanza Spalding. Also enjoying a nice brunch with some great sandwiches. We have a few days off, before we will play two gigs in Germany.
Ok, the gig at De Reehorst.
Man, that day was just crazy, but I loved it! The whole day we where playing, tweaking, rehearsing, tweaking more, and finally around 4 pm we had it all in the pocket. So it was time to relax. For the band that is. I had to set up the sound and lights for the aftershow, and had a lot to do for the other gigs. After Domino’s Pizza delivered 30 pizza’s! We all had diner, and a lot of laughs. Man, this crew and band together is just one big bag of jokes and funny moments.
We had a support act before we had to play. This was Nuclear Playground. And they stole the show!! They really did. Man, they are good. You can see a bit over here of the show they did in Ede:
Nuclear Playground
This was the last song of the 30 minute set they played, and the audience probably really liked it: they sold over 60 CD’s that night. I think we will hear much more from these guys!
When we hit the stage there where over 300 to 350 people in the audience. It was so much fun to see all those familiar faces, and to see so much friends in the audience. I think the band played great, and the sound was great also. That is one of the things that we hear after every show, that Alco did a great job on the sound. So we where very happy.
I was so curious how people would react on the set list. I, personally love this set, is it so much fun to play these songs, and I could see that you all where enjoying it also 😉
After the show, and during the small break we had the band Green November playing. These are friends of mine, and I recorded and produced there debut album. It was a nice atmosphere, talking with all these friends and fans, having some nice live music being played, it really felt nice there.
Friend and great help Mattias Vanderhoeven made some beautiful pictures, so after the tour I will update my picture page, with some new pictures of the tour.
I met with the French Inner Circle friend, better known as Hylika, and he gave me a big box. He said that he has red my blog from the 17th about me enjoying a great wine. So he gave me this box with 4 great wines from his area, and a bottle of Calvados. Together with two really smelly, but oh, so good tasting french cheeses, and a big can full with French cookies. What a treat! Now that is something to come home to after the tour. 😉 Hey Hylika, thanks man! Jessica and I are going to enjoy this!!
But then came the after-after show. The breaking down of the gear and sound system. A lot of work…. man…. We all were sooo tired after the gig (band AND crew, as we worked all week to get it all done), so with the last strength in us we digged in to the PA and gear. Around 03:30 am we crawled out of the venue to our homes. I was in bed at 04:00 am. And we had to be at De Kade at noon, so you can imagine that we did not have much sleep at all.
BUT…. it was worth it. We can look back on a great first gig, so very satisfied I fell asleep…