12 concerts in now...of the 45 scheduled. Full speed ahead! There is barely time to email, call home, write postcards, check facebook, file my nails, see every corner of every town, speak with at least a few warm locals, kiss babies, write new music...all things I love to do, but it's so tight to get it all in. Concerts take an undescrible amount of energy and they give a high like nothing else in return. It's a reciprical love to give a concert. It's intense. So rest too, is crucial to keeping up the voice, the chops and the vibe. I like to entertain myself too....which the band helps me do. To be bored is a luxury...I don't remember the last time I was bored.
The Band: Martin Rose, Stefan Rapp, David Sinclair and me.
Surprises and being on the edge of disaster is par for the course in touring. A simple rule book can and must be applied every night we do a show to maintain sanity.At soundcheck:
1.) Don't panic.
2.) Smile alot, even when you it hurts to.
3.) Trust & doubt your instinct evenly.
4.) Rely on and be empowered by your musicianship.
5.) Know that every apparent problem is temporary, has a solution; though not always pretty, always creative.
6.) Just when it seems you have run out of alternatives, there is another.
7.) Things are not always as they seem, and if they are...you will cry, laugh, or punch a wall, and be sure to write a great passionate song about it later.
8.) Humour: find it, use it.
9.) The worst nightmares, are the funniest to share later.
10.) Sweat looks good under stage lights (regardless of why you are sweating).
Our first concert in Weilburg DE we used and tried out our AER amps supplied by Around Music (http://www.aroundmusic.de) for the first time. Brilliant. 2 vocals and 3 guitars sounded crisp and honest. We tour with our own mics (Sure Beta 58 & a special limited edition silver AKG). Our hostess, booker and good friend bought mic stands to accomodate our rider. We were too loud at a volume of 1 during soundcheck and there was no stage. Go to rule book above...all good. Sold out show. Amps, Vibe, Volume, turn out, perfect. Hannover gifted me an outdoor stage, with a tent cover it was 36 degrees C! The sun also hit us from the front, so photographers must have had fun. HA! We had a sweaty 4 minute sound check (between festival bands) and the stage hand sat in for the front of house sound tech, who took a one hour break shortly after our first song and we didn't see him again. Go to rule book...all good. Rupp Brau beer poured into the bodies and hearts of the fans faster than we could get a wind blowing fan to the stage! CDs flew out to the audience like frizzbies looking for a home. A radio interview awaited me in Schoneiche, which is close to Berlin. After some coordinating complexities, the admirable and vivacious Viktor Buttner andI laughed and chatted about favourite things and my new "Here & Now"album. In between the interview, I was asked by the venue staff if I needed a P.A. for my vocals. OMG...really?!....with a grin...I replied with a bewildered, worried and hopeful,'well, yes'. Go to the rule book. PA good. We were short 2 mic stands and a runner was sent out to town to "find" some. As for monitors...umm, who needs em right!? When the night was through I added a 'brick in the wall' to the Kunst & Kulturinitiative who are working to keep venue alive and to keep the brick walls in better shape. Name engraved...didn't get to see it. The Hard Rock in Berlin was next, and we got to do that as a 4 piece band. (Sansa from Finland opened for us she's sweet quirky and has a pretty voice; it was popkomm time and we met lots of musicians and industry at this time.) So,our sound check was at a hazy time of 9am...morning, yes. Not that we needed 12 hours to sound check before the show...but people come in to eat burgers and be part of the Hard Rock scene at 11am...and so, this is the way this show goes. It could have been PMS and an early morning combined, but when the feedback that seared through my monitor (a misplaced cable and volume at 10) and I lost a few precious little hearing hairs...I said a loud French word followed by a threat to leave. Sorry, Not good, not cool, but neither is ripping off your ears with high feedback. Needed rule book and didn't get to it in time. Of course, all was better than average and the concert was fun, full of energy & excitement, and there was nothing short of perfect sound. Also must mention that I had the best veggie burger I have ever had. We arrived in Hemmoor a day later. (Most of our concerts are back to back, with some Sundays and Mondays off.) We gazed apon our venue, which was 100s of years old, and a classic old stand alone and well maintained German 'haus'. Inside...there were alot of stuffed, preserved wild-life. All sorts of critters and furry hunted animals were hanging along the rafters and above the stage...most peculiar was then white swan. We had dinner with the sound tech for the night, and we learned that he works everynight and sometimes twice a day (wow!). Aside from the dead animals, the place was warm, and the soundtech had fun with reverbs...just right. I like the way the fans tended to sway back and forth to the music. A short sleep and then off to Kiel. My show usually starts at 8pm or 20:00 and three hours previous we are typically loading into the venues. So when the clock struck 7pm or 19:00 and no sound gear or equipment was in the venue in Kiel, there was more than just a frown of concern. Gulp. I saw lots of shrugging of shoulders and my German still sounds like Dutch with a bad accent...in short. 'We have no gear or sound tech here'... In my head I am screaming...to the rule book...and then the 3 of us put our heads together quickly! Next we are rifling through big old closets, and making phone calls to nearby fans and AER amps were our rescue mechanisms. I dont know if we've ever sounded better, so how is that for irony.We laughed, we sweat. Rule book, priceless. OK! Next...Do you worry if you are doing a singer-songwriter concert and a soundtech in Trittau Germany shows up wearing a MegaDeath t-shirt, sporting a long blond pony tail, and comes in with his Dad?... At first...and then no, just go to the rule book. Everything turned out fabulously; with a little extra rock guts and power. Though, we had to agree to disagree that a ringing that goes on and on and on and on and on and on...especially on certain notes...is or isn't feedback...no point in a stand off or arm wrestle. Grin, adjust, leave well enough alone...back to the rule book. Now next, we are playing at a cancer clinic at Sankt Peter Ording. White soft sand still between my toes and up behind my ears upon arrival for dinner and sound check. Enthusiasm and posters abundant and a lengthy introduction...like no other has ever been given at the start of my show (including internet info, biography quips, accolades, my favorite foods...you name it). The mic cables, well not so abundant, and not so lengthy... 4 feet long (maybe one meter!?). WHO makes mic cables this length? And WHY!? We switched to a cordless mic. Rule book...works everytime. Celle Germany, I love it here, and yes I have been before. Herzog...you work a challenging design. The band faces a wall and about 4 fans that can fit there in front of the stage. The rest are to the left and right and outside through the windows behind the stage. I recommend a wall tear down, or at least a swivel chair to look at all the beautiful people. I had to look hard left, hard right or right behind me! On Sept 15th we played in Bremen, originally recommended by a fabulous fan. This place, Sensedaal, was a radio station and now it houses everything from radio to video to live concert production and even an area for music therapy (my 2nd passion). This concert hall is good for every acoustic. Except it sucked out the bottom end of my guitar mystifyingly 'somehow'.... I was told that my guitar has no low end. Let me tell you, a Taylor guitar (http://www.taylorguitars.com)has the best, warmest, sexiest bottom end one can imagine. But nope not tonight. Reasons unknown. Made me feel thin, and not in the skinny sense. Could here a pin drop at the concert though, infact I think that I actually did. If you want to play a venue with elegance, grace and style, that has been designed by a building inside another building, to use 'air' as an insulator...go here; play here, hear concerts here. History and technology, top notch. Still needed rule book when I was told to turn the low end on my Taylor to maximum and then it still sounded like ukulele to me. Friday nights are often the most fun and indeed the concert in Ashausen (close to Hamburg) was stellar. The sound check was a glorious 10 minutes, and it felt great. We sounded HUGE (thats a good thing!) Rule book ready for Saturday though, 'cause sometimes the sound man just wants to get up and sing. Yup. And that's after he's playing along to my song using a shaker the size of a melon. It was a party~ tricky manuvouring indeed, all in all, the phrase 'sold-out', says more than anything else can! THANK YOU for the surprises! THANK YOU FOR loving it. I am!
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September 12, 2011
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Love the rule book! I absolutely go with 1 and 8.
Glad Weilburg wasn't so bad after all. ;-)
Hope you're having a wonderful night in Teplice tonight!
Posted by: Angie | 09/22/2011 at 02:35 PM