26 November 2015
Our stand in production manager Dominic Droese yesterday backstage in Oldenburg. He is a lot more rock and roll than this picture implies and had to endure Tara’s revenge after pocketing her i phone while under the influence on the bus leaving her in a panic that it had been left in the dressing room the night before. His bunk was taped up like a spiders web using ‘gaffer tape’ after he had had a few ‘libations’ in the downstairs lounge. Not what anyone wants to fight through to get to bed while wasted on a moving bus.It was his last night with us as we move to Holland and a returning Yatta tomorrow after tonight’s show in Saarbrucken.
The band played well last night and I had a good voice on song in a room that Alastair had concocted a great sound in. The problem was that it was our first seated venue of the tour and the crowd energies were low in the main. It would have been a better venue for a Fishheads Club show rather than the rock vibe we have just now. It was pointless getting the crowd on their feet in the early stages and I had to wait till ‘Perimeter walk’ to rack up the interaction and keep them up till the end of ‘Childhood’ where we took a great response. I enjoyed the show but it was tough going to get the crowd up to our level and I think that apart from some die hard fans indicated by old T shirts from Vigil days and beyond I don’t think the crowd generally were that aware of the solo material. It felt like playing to a theatre crowd rather than a rock audience.
I heard later that they had been told to remain seated for ‘fire regulations’ and perhaps people were a bit intimidated and self conscious thus the lack of involvement. Never the mind we had a great time on a tight stage that restricted my dancing moves and made me very self conscious about protruding drum and keyboard risers and monitors always threatening tumbledown moments. My back slipped towards the end and I had to sit down a couple of times to straighten things up. It looks like I will be revisiting the clinic in Amsterdam for some more injections in a few days.
One strange moment was when someone walked up to put a small plastic bucket on the front of the stage during ‘Misplaced’. I couldn’t for the life of me make out what it was and it looked like it held white tissue paper. It wasn’t the time or place during the performance to check it out and it started to give me the creeps as it was placed without a word being said and the person immediately disappeared from sight.I picked it up as we left after ‘Childhood’s End’ to discover on examination backstage that it was full of white sugar mice with the artwork from the single glued onto the bucket. A weird gift but to whoever presented it thanks from the downstairs bus lounge for the munchies! smile emoticon
And now a darkening Saarbrucken where I would have loved to have revisited one of my favourite steam rooms in Europe if not for lack of time today. A wander in the streets after dinner and soundcheck and some gluhweins at the Weinachtsmarkt before show seems to be the order of the evening. Big crowd tonight with again over 1000 expected. Looking forward to the day off in Groningen tomorrow.