Gig 1: May 20 – Session Werk, Walldorf

I’ve performed in many, many venues in Germany over the last 15 years or so; from bars, clubs and restaurants, to city and village festivals, to huge open-air concerts with thousands of people. From seaside hangouts to ski resorts in the Alps, I’ve played almost everywhere, especially in Baden-Württemberg (where I live), which makes it hard to believe that there are quite a few venues that I have never performed in. One such place was the bar belonging to the well-known music store Session Music, located in Walldorf, near Heidelberg. I’d been asked to perform there with the house band off and on for five years, but I never had time until recently, when friend and colleague Stefan Breuer asked me to perform there with his band. The emcee of the the night was another colleague, a singer named Gonzo. I knew most of the musicians in the house band from other bands that I’d performed with, but this was the first time I played with this particular formation, and we had no time to rehearse together, which made me a little nervous. The interesting thing to me was how full the club was (it’s a huge venue), despite being hot outside, a holiday and the UEFA Cup Finals being on TV.

Gig 2: May 21 – King Kamehameha Club, Frankfurt am Main

My spot. I LOVE this club, Especially in the summer. It was packed (as usual), and this particular night there were three front singers, which is rare. Considering that it was also very warm outside on this evening (even at eleven o’clock) and there are four other clubs on the same street as the KingKa, having so many people on that night was truly amazing. Again, it’s a testament to the hard work we put into making Thursday night a success.

Gig 3: May 22 – Restaurant Nizza, Frankfurt am Main

Change of pace (or so I thought): A wedding reception in a fancy restaurant on the banks of the Main River. A rather small gathering, only about 50 to 60 guests, all extremely stylish, with the ladies in their gowns and the men in either suits or tuxedos. What they lacked in comfort, however, they more than made up for in endurance, partying well into the early morning, way after we had finished our show (the father of the bride was particularly amusing). Even at 3:00 AM, the weather was still warm enough to engage in various outdoor activities.

Gig 4: May 23 – City Festival, Bad Homburg

My favorite gig of my little tour; a duo gig in one of the town squares of Bad Homburg, just me on vocals and my colleague Jan Stürmer on acoustic guitar. Very relaxed yet very challenging; our job was to entertain a large group of spectators (up to a thousand people at any given time) over a three hour time span using just our voices and a single instrument. That is music-making in it’s purest form, and we were successful in our mission.

Gig 5: May 24 – Radio RPR1 Family Festival, Bingen

After having performed four days in a row, I was exhausted. The last thing my body needed was to perform outside on the hottest day of the year. Being the soldier that I am, however, that’s exactly what I did. My final show of the week was in Bingen, a city on the banks of the Rhine River. It was 33° Celsius (91° Fahrenheit) outside, which is very hot by german standards. The bad part: we had to perform four sets during the day, starting at 1:30 in the afternoon. The festival was not very well attended, perhaps due to the extreme heat.

Summer Madness

What all five shows had in common was the effect the excellent weather had on people’s ability to enjoy themselves. Sunshine and warm temperatures are known to activate feelings of happiness and pleasure in humans; it’s no coincidence that more alcohol is sold, more concerts are attended, and more relationships are either begun or made permanent through marriage in the warm-weather months than the cold-weather months.

Unfortunately, it also tends to deactivate our sense of fashion, especially color coordination, in many cases. In that respect, summer-like weather also deactivates our sense of shame, which can be a blessing or a curse, depending on your point of view. I’ve been witness to people dressing in ways I’ve only laughed about on really bad sketch comedy shows or soft porn movies on cable TV. Simply AMAZING.

So, what have I learned from my latest road trip?

1. NEVER book a hotel room in a big city on the side of the building facing the street.

2. If you’re confident in your abilities, it doesn’t matter if new to a situation or not.

3. The warmer it is outside, the more willing people are to make total fools of themselves.

4. The passage of time is relative when you’re in good spirits.

5. Just because it’s warm outside doesn’t mean that the party’s dead inside.

6. Take time to appreciate not only what you do, but where you do it.

7. Sandals and socks are NOT CUTE.

8. Big t-shirts and sport leggings are WORSE.

9. If you’re going to wear a sleeveless top and sport leggings, at least be in shape.

10. Just when you think you’ve done it all, you quickly realize that you haven’t.

Judging by what I’ve experienced on this latest road trip, it’s going to be a very interesting summer indeed.

The band planned to pick me up in Dresden at 2:30 PM at the train station, which was fine, except that Dresden is a seven hour train ride from home, which meant I had to leave home at 6:45 AM. Luckily the train wasn’t too full, so I could relax a little until I reached Dresden. When I reached Dresden, I was picked up by the guys and we then drove another 350 KM to the show. To get to our destination, we had to drive through the city of Prague, and rush hour traffic an Prague is no joke, as anyone who’s ever been to the Czech capital can tell you; we were of course stuck in a traffic jam, due to the endless construction zones. After we made through traffic hell, we ran into our next road trip challenge: a thunderstorm. Thankfully, it didn’t last very long, and 50 kilometers before we reached our destination, the roads were clear and the weather was good.

We arrived at our destination, and were impressed by the number of people in attendance and the great atmosphere; people were running around dressed funny, drinking and having a good time, typical for a rock festival. We were also a bit surprised by the size of the festival; small compared to Rock am Ring, of course, but still very well attended. Three stages, 12 bands, each band playing for one hour. We were the headlining band, and only band at the festival who wasn’t from the Czech Republic. The stage was huge, but with the help of great stage crew we were able to build up our gear, soundcheck and perform within a short amount of time. Within minutes the crowd was at full capacity in front of the stage, and we rocked them as hard as we could, which was a tall order, given that we hadn’t played together since February. We love playing in the Czech Republic, because the crowds have always been very responsive and ready to have a good time, which makes our job a lot easier. Of course, the majority of the crowd probably didn’t understand a word I was saying to them, but they responded anyway.

After the gig we signed autographs and sold a few CD’s, talked with the fans, and took lots of pictures. I was surprised how many of our Czech fans spoke English and German, which made the conversations with them a lot easier. Afterwards we packed up our gear and had our customary round of beer and vodka, and talked about the show. The verdict: mission accomplished.

So, what did I learn from the last show?

1. As much as I like train travel, I really hate certain routes.
2. The Czech Republic is in many aspects much more laid back than Germany.
3. Former east block countries are far more beautiful than I was lead to believe as a child.
4. Good music knows no language or cultural barriers; if it rocks, it rocks.
5. Czechs really do smoke a lot. A lot.
6. I HATE smoke machines like the devil hates holy water.
7. I REALLY HATE smoke machines!
8. “In vino veritas” rings true in almost every case.
9. Practice doesn’t always make perfect, but it comes close.
10. When thousands of people yell out your name, you must be doing something right.