We Swim You Jump

So this is my report of our 3 day minitour troughout

Photos are here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30763025@N06/sets/72157607473537216

Hope you enjoy it!

Love Richard.

Day 1 (18-sept-08)

We had to leave from Groningen at 10 on friday because we had to be at Berlin at 18.00 hours. We all gathered at Groningen CS and to my surprise everyone was on time. Except for Bas, but he had a good reason. He had to wait untill the Mamamini (a second hand clothing store) was open cause we needed a blanket to put over our gear in the van. Yes we wanted to be prepaired for thiefs in the night breaking into our van, altough we never had to use it beacause at all 3 venues we could leave our gear behind closed doors. It..s amazing how well structered Basje put our gear in the van. He truly is the Tetrismeister. Basje drove us to germany. Not long after we cross the border the backseat of our van already drank a sixpack of beer and the sounds of Jan smit, Marco Borsato and Linda Roos and Jessica were pumping trough our broken soundsystem. I decided to put a sweater over my face against the sun and catch some extra sleep but woke up when i heard the koraalriff orientated rock of Guns ..n Roses.

Arthur, our first driver, co-roadie and merchguy had taken over the drivers seat. Of course we stopped at gasstations to take a leak and smoke some sigarettes. One thing, give Maarten (our drummer) the task to buy a snack at a gassation and he comes back with half a pig. Damn, that pile of meat was sure heavy on the stomach at 12 in the morning.

Niek borrowed a Tomtom navigator to lead us the way so we never got lost. I don..t know who put the angry cow in it, but it sure was annoying as hell as every time we drove to fast, a cow sample was boehing out of the machine very loud. We never managed to find or kill that hidden cow, nor we managed to drive at a legal speed for longer than 10 minutes.

We arrived at the Intersoup venue at around 17.30 and suprisingly we managed to put our van right across the club. The bargirl was already there to welcome us but we could set up and soundcheck all by ourselves because there was no soundguy. The stage was set in a basement which looked like a livingroom. Hell, the whole place looked like a livingroom! There were rumours telling a guy named elliott smiT was opening for us but unfortunately he cancelled. The girl who cooked for us had made a delicious meal and around half past nine we could start playing. We decided to ask every visitor in the bar personally to come at our show in the basement, and also played an acoustic set in the bar to entice the visitors to come downstairs where we played with the band. Yes, this was our first show ever with the whole band. It went very well and the atmosphere was really good. Also after the show it was a gemudlichen zussammenkommen. A girl couldn..t believe i used a tuning device for my guitar because i am tonedeaf, but her friend believed the story immediately.We also met a guy named Barry Boyce, a Berliner who originally is an englishman from Manchester. He hanged out with us long after the show ended and we talked about soccer and music, which i think is the perfect combination of subjects to talk about! He also happened to write songs so we asked him to play some and it was really good. We invited him to open for us the day after if it was okay with the booker. He was so gently to give us his phonenumber in case we didnt have a place to sleep. But we were prepaired cause Niek..s girl Aneta was so sweet to let us stay at her place for the night. We hanged out with friends of Basje and Niek and drank some more free beer. Thank you bargirl!

When the rest was still inside Arthur and I learned excotic dance moves on the sidewalk outside of the venue from two girls who wanted to come at our show but preffered to take dance lessons at that same evening and so they were too late for the show. In return they gave us a dance lesson.

We stayed till the club closed and when we left the venue our van turned into a cab because some friends wanted a lift. I think there were ten people in the van at that time but it fitted like a glove. After we dropped off the extra weight we went to Aneta..s place. I decided to go to bed early because i had the feeling tomorrow was going to be a long day, the rest wanted more so they went into to city. I was expecting good stories when they got back but the best thing they encountered was a half chicken that was very cheap. Basje stayed over at a friend but was in time the morning after. He truly is the tetris and friemelmeister.

Day 2 (19-sep-08)

I didnt get much sleep because at night i was afraid of the turtle(Aneta..s pet) who was walking free at the place we slept, but we had a good breakfast. Thank you Aneta for boiling eggs and make thee and coffee. The second show would also be in Berlin so we decided to make some money as a streetmusician. After driving too long for finding a parkingspace( paNIEK and Arthur had a very difficult task with this) we went to a square and started playing acoustic and hand over some flyers. It wasn..t a succes, no one gave us money but it still was a good experience to play outside on the street. Niek made a desperate attempt to play the Dutch National anthem on his Casio but it was no use. At around 17.00 we arrived at the venue but know one was there yet so we walked a couple of blocks and ate at a famous hardcore/punk pizzaria. They surely know how to make good food and treat customers right. We were forced to eat the left over potatos so we did, cause the waiter looked stronger than the 6 of us. But he turned out to be very nice and offered us a free shot of tequellia after we finished our plates.

After some sightseeing we went back to the venue called Antje Oklesund. From outside the place looked like crap but the inside was very cool, there are white blocks hanging on the wall, and even the stage is made from white wooden blocks. We met a very nice guy called Hayo who worked for the venue, the guy offered his house for us to sleep for the night. He gave us the keys and adress and we could decide what to do.

After our soundcheck we got a stamp to drink free beer for the time we were in the club. Thank you bargirl!

Arthur the merchmeister was smart enough to set up the merch (which consist only of cd..s ) on top of the bar.

We were all happily suprised that Barry showed up with his guitar. Unlike us he did made money by playing songs in the U-Bahn on his way to the the venue, and hell he made money! He emptied his pockets and the bar was full of coins. Even his cap was filled with sigarettes people gave hime, and he doesn..t even smoke. The booker was so nice to agree with our request to let Barry play before us. He played three really cool songs and even dedicated one song to Bas his glasses.

Thank you Barry for coming over at our show twice. You truly are, the makemoneyinaUbahnmeister.

Our show went really good. We had a good sound and it was our first show where all instruments came out of the P.A.

After the show we drank some more beer and went into town with a whole bunch of people and 2 bottles of Bas his colaberenburger mix. I am still suprised that it is allowed to drink alcohol on the streets in Germany. You can also still smoke in almost every club, which was a delight for the most of us. We made our first bandphoto on the streets of Berlin in a photobooth, which are still left over from the DDR time area. Put 2 euro in the machine and you have the best band picture ever. Berlin is definitly one of the best places to walk around at night if you are under influence of alcohol. I don..t know how long excactly but we walked our feet off . We bumped into lots of strange people and situations. We lost Arthur so I decided to make a desperate attempt asking a total stranger to look for him and ask everyone he encountered if it was Artur and send him in our direction. I dont know how the stranger managed it but 10 minutes later our merchmeister rejoined the group and told us a stranger lead him the way back to us.

We took the U-bahn to a club where friends of Basje were, and yes, you could also smoke inside without getting in trouble.

The DJ was awesome, after every song he announced the next with all the information he had on the song, and all in a perfect Berlin accent. Yeah, like I can tell when it..s a Berlin accent:P

After we had a couple of drinks and when Bas was harrased by two woman that thought he was Heinrich ( a German sekssymbole) we went into the club next to the one we left. It was a private party but we could all get in. The place looked like a giant bathroom. There were two lesbian DJ..s who were more into kissing than DJ-ing but they played wonderfull eighties. Our friend and fan Roelien was also there to join us and we danced our socks off.

A lesbian girl asked me if i wanted to barbeque on the roof so I did. I never say no to free good food. I made a delicicous Bradwurst with ketchup and was showing off to the the Germans telling Dutchies are better in barbequeing than germans are.

It was already getting very late so Maarten ordered his last shots of alcohol and danced some more.

After we said bye to Roelien we walked home, and there was a flower girl who lead us the way home. The shops were already opening so Maarten was able to buy new sigarettes for the walk home.

We slept at Hayos place. We were so lucky that Arthur still had the keys from the house we stayed. He truly is the Keymeister.

Day 3 (20-sep-08)

We all woke up with big hangovers so we took a shower and Bas and I went to the supermarket to fetch some breakfast which was really needed. Niek, Aneta and Basje joined us for the breakfast, they had slept somewhere else, so the group was complete again. Basje nearly escaped from a streetrobbery last night so we were glad he was unharmed.

After picking up our gear at the venue we thanked and said bye to Hayo and drove to Hamburg were we had to play our last show at the Astra Stube venue.

We were one hour late so we had to hurry with soundchecking. Astra stube is an amazing venue and you can feel the good atmosphere as soon as you walk in.The soundguy was really nice and so was the owner of the venue.

He offered us a full appartment to stay for the night and gave the keys to Arthur the keymeister, so again we could do whatever we wanted after the show. Friends of Aneta showed up and they made a wonderful shark with our bandname on it.

I think we didnt play as good as the first 2 shows but the crowd was the best. They all wanted more after we played our last song and didn..t stopped aplaussing untill we got on stage again, and played a song for the second time. Thank you so much people of Astra Stube. You truly won our hearts! We were also very glad that the owner and booker wanted us to come back and play a show again in the future. I was also glad that I could see my girl Rebecca again:) after a month or so.

After some more beers we went to the Rheperbahn, which is an area packed with venues, stripclubs, bars, and whatever the devil would recommend. Hamburg is off course the city where the Beatles started their carreer and a really cool monument was just build on the streets of repherbahn that week. It was a silhouette of the four beatles were you can stand behind and make pictures off. Altough Niek was not really enjoined making fotos at the monument. We went into several clubs and bars and danced again. When Rebecca, I and Maarten lost the group we decided to drink some more shots. I don..t know how many shots Maarten drank these three days, but he truly is the Jeagermeister.

After that we found the rest of us and ended up in a bar called Mutter. A bar where you can drink untill you fall asleep and then the owner gently wakes you up when the bar is closing. Maarten ordered some more Jeagermeister and then we went to our sleeping place.On the way home we crossed the Astra Stube again and there was police all over at a bardancing club next to the Astra Stube. We didnt knew what was going on there untill the next morning.

For this night Basje slept in the same house as the rest, but now Niek was staying over somewhere else with his girl Aneta. Maarten and Basje found a creative way to use a vacuumcleaner but that story I would like to be untold.

I was glad I could be with Rebecca that night.

The day after we went to the Astra stube venue to pick up our gear and rejoined with Niek, and the clubowner. He told us that last night a taxidriver got ill and drove into a bunch of people who were standing on the sidewalks outside the bar dancing club next to the Astra Stube. Scary story indeed. But our good times we had in Germany overruled this.