Posts Tagged "travel"

“You are such a great singer!” said the slightly drunken woman to me after the band left the stage. “Thank you very much,” I replied, politely. “Please sing one more song. For me.” she pleaded. “I’m sorry, but the show is over, and we’re not allowed to go back on stage.” “Please?!? I’ll give you fifty bucks if you go back on stage right now and sing a song for me.” The stage was dark, the crew was already packing up the equipment. “Uhh, no.” I replied, rather annoyed. “Besides, how did you get backstage in the first place?!?” The above situation actually happens quite often; I’m often offered money to perform longer than is stated in my contract. The question for me: is such a request a compliment to my skill as an entertainer,...

There are certain undisputed truths about being a pro musician in Europe, particularly in Germany, where I work most of the time: you’re always asked to do more than you want to; you’re always treated well, but never as well as you think you should be; and the cleanliness of the bathroom in your hotel room has more of an effect on your performance at the gig than you would like to believe. On this past five day road trip I travelled to the towns of Bregenz, Austria (directly on Lake Constance, the body of water shared by Germany, Austria and Switzerland), Mannheim, Cologne and Hamburg, a total distance of 1909 kilometers (1186 miles), all of it by train. I performed three shows with two different bands: the Bregenz gig was for a conference of IT...

Like Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter (a.k.a. Bill and Ted) before us, we set out on an “excellent” quest to bring our brand of rock music and good vibes to the people of Brno in the Czech Republic. The destination was very cool indeed; the journey itself was just as interesting, and we didn’t need a time machine to reach it. The journey for me started at 4:30 PM the day before, due to a slight time miscalculation I had to make an emergency appointment at the eye doctor to get my eye checked out before my trip. I’ve been suffering from an infection of the cornea for about a week, and it’s getting on my nerves. After that was taken care of, I was free to mentally prepare for what was ahead. The band planned to pick me up in Dresden at 2:30 PM at the train...

I feel like the gang in the movie “The Warriors” must have felt as they fought their way through the streets of New York, desperately trying to get back to the comfort and safety of their home turf; they had to endure numerous hardships until they got back home (the movie was reportedly the basis for the hit song from the Beastie Boys, “No Sleep ‘Til Brooklyn”). The same thing could be said about my last two days on the road, albeit in a far more positive context. It was a typical two-day blitz; Thursday afternoon I take the train to Mannheim (about 150 km, or 95 miles from where I live) to my teaching job at the Popakademie, teach until about 9 PM, take the train to Frankfurt to my regular gig at the King Kamehameha Club, one of Germany’s most...