Melanie Dekker - Europe May 2007

MAY19(SAT) City:Günzburg, Venue:On The Rocks

I have not sung so many encore songs in one night since 2005. I guess we didn’t want the tour to end and this was the best way to keep going. YES we love it! (in case you are wondering if your lighters lit while we sing is worth anything!)

MAY18(FRI) City:Bamberg, Venue:Kaulberg

Toni, you  toured us through one of the most visited cities in Germany. I can’t believe that this is my first concert in Bamberg! We will be back.

Tonight Sam crossed his arms around his back and then played the drums with opposite hands. We had visitors and new fans from along the way come to see us AGAIN! Thank you for the flowers and the big ass blown up versions of Mel.

Some Information about the Smokebeer in english  (Compliments of Toni Rösch):

http://www.schlenkerla.de/schlenkerla/ausschank/schlenkerlae.html   

 

MAY17(THU) City:Kaufbeuren, Venue:Memphis

WHAT!!?? Another holiday! Father’s day. Okay, that explains the late night crowd LAST NIGHT! Alongside a technical training base this Memphis bar had a bit of a biker draw and a few American and Canadian flags waving about.  Holey wide range of audience! By chance we found the best family run restaurant in Germany (besides Einstein’s in ULM), the Chia tea was like an incredible oasis. We got to hang out with a few special fans and said goodbye to one tour helper, Gaby. I sang an Ani Difranco tune, that was a cool change. The hotel key pops out of a lock box when you press a reservation code - good thing everything else on this trip is more personal.

MAY16(WED) City:Bad Neustadt, Venue:Stage One

This very small funny shaped place worked out just fine-inspite of the initial “uh oh!”. The menu was outrageous! I had crocodile for dinner and Sam ate Ostrich. Load-in was through the front cobble stone pedestrian area which is not meant for cars - except those cars that HAVE to drive in (we have learned that the cobble stones are called “cats heads”.) We have noticed that the smaller venues collect curious nick-nacks and tend to hang them from the ceiling.

MAY15(TUE) City:Bonn, Venue:Mausefalle

Everything took a long time today from waking up (we are weary) to traffic on the autobahn to checking into a hotel with a schizophrenic front desk clerk who was so up and down that it took us an hour to check in. We thought the club would be bigger BUT it had a great vibe. Bonn is a big ‘walking’ city where there most of the parking is underground. If you HAVE to drive, like we did at first, take note that the train track crossings are closed more often that they are open, as trains are crossing all the time. It can make up to a 30 minute wait! Lots of university students and shops here. The Beethoven house and all its stories, memorabilia was awesome. His hearing aids looked like 14 inch trumpets!

MAY13(SUN) City:Werdohl, Venue:Alt Werdohl

You wouldn’t have known it was a Sunday night. Absolute polite madness. Jurgen you sure know how to spread the word. Bit of a drive but our day off following was sweet. Casual tourist walking around and uphill castle strolls, complete with Dinner with Dad & Charmaine Dekker which included a special white Asparagus soup (this time of year is asparagus season and they are almost the size of a corn!) As for the full band photo here…we ALL visited Werdohl last week on the unexpected day off so Jurgen got extra hugs from the band.    Download Werdohl-Article.pdf

MAY12(SAT) City:Stribro, Venue:Muzeum

Beautiful, simply elegant, sold out, and beautiful. Melanie was presented with a necklace that has red stones from the local area set in a gold and silver delicate chain! Yes it really is a MUSEUM! (with mostly mining and religious artifacts). That night was so pretty, we took our time getting back to Pilsen (for one week now our home base). Sam hung out with Ferdinand the helper/driver/hotel clerk that was a fantastic friend to us all week, and the next morning we met an old US army vet named Earl who was on the cover of the newspaper ( a real Soldier!) who was in Pilsen to be part of the May 6 – 9 celebration, as liberation for all began and the war ended here for him in 1945. What a great night and perfect morning send off. Goodbye CZ. 

   

MAY11(FRI) City:Most, Venue:Jazz and Blues Club

We toured the famous Pilsner Urquell Brewery! Where all good masters (in 1850) of beer came together to make the world’s best and original pilsner is being made. We tried unfiltered BEER made in wooden barrels-awesome! They make 60,000 bottles of beer an hour! AND 45,000 cans of beer an hour. During lunch we have noticed a trend, you are charged a ‘cutlery’ fee (about 1 dollar per person). The food in Pilsen was great! Great quality here in CZ for a small price (gotta love that!). We had a driver AND a translator arranged for the 1.5 hour trip to the club. Ahh nice! It was crowded and small and nobody smoked during the performance (apparently an American artist protested the smokers by threatening to stop her performance last year, so they didn’t want that to happen again). It was the smallest drum set up Sam has had yet on this tour and it sure makes his snare player uber creative! The inhouse PA looked like a stereo from 1970 so we used the one that travels with us for back up.

MAY09(WED) City:Pilzen, Venue:Hotel Continental Club

This is the most historic hotel we could ever imagine staying in-it truly sent us back ½ a century in time. Georg Danjecuk you are an amazing man running this place from Florida -having restored it to its glory in with your family heritage intact (the paintings and couches seem surreal!).  This club is filled with photos of famous musicians that have played and stayed here. A 1930’s vibe to the venue. Our day in Prague was very cool and though we certainly don’t NEED to drive more, it was a mere hours drive. Prague is rough around the edges but is overlooked by the most GORGEOUS castle I have seen-huge! (the cathedral in the castle took 600 years to build-fires and lack of money stalled the building process!) There are lots of shops, tourists, classical music, some unfriendly people and many medieval buildings…oh don’t miss the Jewish old city if you go (and its 14 layer deep cemetery!-due to lack of space). The CZ presidential flag-standard reads: The Truth always wins.

 
 

MAY8(TUE) City:Pilzen, Venue:ACW

This was a country bar without a square dance floor. There’s a sign that says soldiers only on the outside and on route we noticed a lot of American flags. The USA liberated Pilsen in the first week of May 1945 so there was loads of US Army memorabilia everywhere in the city-especially this week!. Army pants here are worn by at least half of the population it seems! During our performance the girl behind the bar was practicing her gun slinging! There was a historic mini museum under the bar (in the cellar!)with all sorts of war memorabilia as well. The cellar is attached to the 5ft 7inches tall and three feet wide underground sandstone dug tunnels (we took a tour earlier in the day) which run in TWO layers under the entire city of Pilsen. People tied their cellars together and this created the tunnels, then the 2nd layer was created for the businesses. OH! Everybody used to be able to make their own beer but the quality began to suffer, beer makers then came together to create Pilsner - a HUGE export to the entire world. Thank you ACW! I was gifted a gorgeous clay wine jug!