Tourblog (8) - gig three: De Boerderij - Zoetermeer (NL)

Our third gig was like coming home! What a blast we had at De Boerderij!!
When I woke up this morning, after just a few hours of sleep, I was directly awake, and ready to go to De Boerderij. It always feels so good to play there. The venue is great, and the people that work there are also very nice people, and they make you feel at home there. Not only for us musicians, but also as audience. I have gone to see many, many concerts in the last few years at De Boerderij, and you really feel at home there.
So when we arrived around noon, the people of De Boerderij where already working, and setting everything ready. They helped us unloading the van with all of our gear, and we started setting up. I had some difficulties with my drumset, as I broke a multi clamp the day before. But luckily I had some spare parts with me. Oh, I did not mention that yet, but as I told you that Sruben would not be with us on this tour due to work, he found a way to be there for this weekend. So he helped me, and that was great!
The gig itself, man that was tha bomb! Totally one of the best gigs ever! The place was packed with over 650 people, and the venue nearly exploded. There was so much energy that came of the audience, that it made us play the way we did. I think the gig went really well. Everybody nailed there parts, and it was so much fun to play, and interact with the audience.
Funny thing during the intro of Walking On The Wind. Somehow the plug or cable of the acoustic guitar of Neal did not work, just at the moment that he had to play on his own, that guitar part… nothing happened. Then we play those huge accents again, and then Neal again…. still nothno sound. So everybody had to listen to Neal at that point acoustically, without any PA. I could not hear Neal at that point, as I am using in-ear monitoring. So I just counted when he would be ready, and hit the next accents.
When we played the Question Mark Medley during the guitar solo of Elisa everything felt great, wow, somehow it went very deep emotional and spiritual, and still it rocked amazingly.
Somehow when the vibe is right, when the audience is participating in the gig, when the venue is great, when the people of the venue are really taking part in the show, and when everything comes together it feels so unbelievable good! You don’t want to stop playing (well… I don’t hehehe). As we are recording every show this tour, I think we have a lot of good material recorded during this gig at De Boerderij.
After the encore (Stranger In Your Soul) we where backstage cooling down, Alco put on some music, and the house lights came on. But still a large crowd where in front of the stage, screaming and yelling that the wanted more. I think it was like 5 or 8 minutes or so. So we came back on stage and played King Jesus. And that song, a U2-ish rocky song really rocked. People where jumping up and down, and really participating in the song.
What surprised me is to see that there are not only the older prog fans in the audience, but that Neal is getting a younger audience to. I saw and spoke with a lot of teenagers and young people this tour that really like Neal’s music, so the fan-base is getting bigger and bigger. And that is a good thing!
After the show we talked with some of the fans, and it was great to meet all of you there!
Because the nights where so short (only like 3 or 4 hours of sleep), we thought it would be better to go to a hotel, instead of back home. So Arie from De Boerderij hooked us up with a great hotel in Zoetermeer, and we went over there around 02:00 am. Luckily the wintertime started that night, so we had an extra hour of sleep.
I did not find any Youtube material yet, but as soon as I find something, I will post it here. But I do have some great pictures of Bonnie again: