Melanie Dekker - Here & Now Tour 1

Post Tour Notes

Wish I could have taken home: The greeting "Gruss God"(Austrian warm hello), a wheel of dutch gouda cheese, more Reisling trocken from Southern Germany...this list is too long to publish really...best thing is to just go back (soon: August to October 2010). More about Austria here: http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/austria-country-profile.html

Most exhausting concerts: Where they let the fans smoke (some shows in Holland & Austria)

What we miss the least: Cold cuts & a white bread only breakfast menu

What we miss the most: The constant adventure of new people, new places, & new experiences every night..and OH the laugher!

What I must do more of next time: Take more pictures, take more musical liberties, do more sit-ups, get up just a little earlier every day!

On tour in Germany! - Week Four

Funniest translation-explanation: The pieces of cow are on holiday here in few weeks.

Funniest misread of the band: I like you guys cause you drink and don’t mind smoke...other bands are boring in this way. (typically we’re not boring, truthfully HATE smoke & don’t drink when we play)

Best stage move: There’s a tie 1. Mike has had sneezing fits all tour and on stage he lets his hair whip forward when he is sneezing and it looks like he’s really rockin’! 2. We have sung stare at rain acoustically-no P.A. at the edge of the stage for our favourite audiences.

Best Castle town: Burghausen. Over 1km of Castle, on a ridge overlooking the town.

Worst traffic jam encountered: 8km’s long on the autobahn. Yes, late for show, but Straubing in Bavaria luckily has one of the best sound techs in the world!

Did you know? They really do wear lederhosen and wool hats with feathers in Austria?-especially for parties and wedding and hiking.

Best German wine: Riesling. Like honey.

Live recording update: Some of our shows were recorded! We hope to make a CD or perhaps a DVD from a collection of songs from the Vienna, Frieburg & Dexhiem shows.

The only road kill: a sparrow like bird hit the windshield. Thud. Adding to the very thick sticky splatter of the colorful spring bugs who hit the windshield in Bavaria. (you can’t get this stuff of with a squeegy or wipers. You need a bristle sponge!)

Favorite German city: Collectively agree, Freiburg. It’s classy and funky and surrounded by hills and old castles. There is fashion and flare, and it’s clean and colorful and has this energy that is musically inspiring somehow.

Geographic Blessing: Holland has gorgeous beaches!

Biggest goal & challenge:  (bringing about so much laughter we almost cry!) We start to write a song together (the first of many!) called“I’m a hippie”, in the backstage area of Albstadt and then we continue our writing while cruising the autobahn and the backroads leading to Dexheim....we play it on stage live. Love every moment of creation in this way. The pay off was huge. We got a standing ovation.

Best websites with Volcanic eruption pictures: (no we don’t see the ash here!)

Eyjafjallajokull pictures:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/04/more_from_eyjafjallajokull.html

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/04/21/volcano.ash/index.html?hpt=T1

Biggest disappointment:  Our driver and friend and CDs wont make it over due to Volcanic eruption in Iceland. We had to take CD orders!

The oldest watering hole visited: from the 1700’s! www.kultur.st (in Oblarn, Austria)

Best tour guide:  Hans from Oblarn, an outback loving Austrian took us on a hike to his Hutte (on route we encounters snow, frogs leaping through the snow and huge natural caves), Hans neighbour is an 80 yr old Austrian woman named Katte and she gave us (unexpected guests wanting warmth and shelter) sweet bread, hot coffee from a wood stoked stove (goes good with our granola!)...and then toasts us with some local peach shnapps. Oh! Though are feet were cold, we felt very warm! Hans ( a soft spoken guy) Yoddeled on the way back. REALLY yoddled.

Most Austrian gift: A red plate decorated with yellow flowers from Katte

Favorite quote this week: (sent by my biggest fan Irene Dekker -Mama!) "When your desires are strong enough you will appear to possess superhuman powers to achieve."

-- Napoleon Hill

   

  

 

On tour in Germany! - Week Three

Favourite German listings of shows:  http://www.bandliste.de/Bands/Melanie_Dekker/14554

 

Best Rockstar moment: Jamming with Jan Akkerman (best known Dutch guitarist next to Eddie VanHalen!) in Edam...he grabbed a dusty guitar off of the wall & I had my Taylor.

Longest impromptu performance:  (ALL NIGHT LONG!)=

Best promoting Fan:  Bomi.

Most touching Moment:  The flowers we were presented after playing the sold-out charity concert for Children’s Hospice (KinderHospiz St. Nikolaus) in Ulm.

Most heroic moment: Sound tech at Komma (Erwin) does miraculous speedy leaps and bounds to do a 9volt battery change for Mel’s guitar;under 1minute.

Traditions we learned about: Burn a huge, like HUGE bonfire on Easter Sunday night if you live in E. Holland or W. Germany.  Coffee generally goes with cake in NL, DE and AUSTRIA

Wildest Weather surprise:  Snow in Munich & on hikes in Austrian Alps

Biggest rip off:  2 euro for hot-water (for tea etc) & 8 euro for barely working internet & at one stop I got no coffee in my Cappuccino.

What almost killed the band:  The smoking venue / cellar in Munich.

Things we wish we brought on tour:  Mike: Jeans,(but he bought some now), Elyse: more CDs (now making special one-off copies for fans of the Living), Melanie: an electric kettle (can buy at Benzin station that works in the lighter adapter of the vehicle! Hmm... considering that)

Hardest things to find:  Waschsalon & more sleep & time to write music

Best ‘why the PA isn’t working right” excuses:  1.“Someone must have spilled beer on the board.” (the front end wasn’t on!) 2. “You guys just aren’t loud enough...” (the speakers were blown!)

Fun fact: Mike & Elyse look like twins from behind...because of their gorgeous long black hair!

Best concert dinners:  Wiley Club & Die Halle: We love salads and the taste of home cooking. Favorite non-concert dinner: Einsteins Cafe in Ulm.

Most “German” food ingested: Spaetzle, Schnizel, Bratwurst, Cherry ‘water” (Kirschwassa), purple carrots, white asparagus.

Scariest highway moments: Near death when getting cut off by a Lory on Autobahn & watching a man drink a beer while driving his sports car in Munich.

City where the most $ was spent:  Worgl, Austria (clothes shopping & hwy toll pass).

First impressions of Austria:  1. Tall dark hot men 2. It looks as though everyone mows their lawns (the grass just grows this way), & 3. Most houses look like chalets!

FAVOURITE PRESS REVIEW FROM A SHOW: (please send to us if you see the concert in the press, we are never in the city long enough to see it!) http://www.swp.de/ulm/lokales/ulm_neu_ulm/art4329,442539,A=

Fun truly live radio interview (DE): http://www.radiofips.de/index.php?id=176

 

On Tour in Germany! - Week Two

First-timers moments: Mike drives stickshift-standard, Isaac plays the wood block, Elyse & Mike break out with 2 duo songs in the set, Mel rakes manure piles into the apple trees.

Best soft drink names: Sexergy (an energy drink that tastes like redbull-had to try it), Sisi (we're not sure yet about the taste).

Strangest stage: Hengelo, where we played with our backs to the smoking section who were behind not-so-sealed glass doors.

Favourite review so far: http://www.rocktimes.de/gesamt/d/melanie_dekker/ottersum10.html

Most unfortunate incidents: Stolen CDs from the merch table, one powerboat lost, a parking ticket, & a hit a run to the front bumper.

Best ways to stay fit: Mike "Running & elastic exercise bands", Elyse "Exercise DVDs", Mel "Running & the 5 Tibetans".

Favorite radio stations so far: www.radiocompagnie.nl (thanks for the gifts & interview!) and www.emsvechtewelle.de (M DEKKER: Album of the week!)

Best memory award: Elyse

Best surprises: Isaac (Nuno) became an OPA!. A trap-like door gets opened on stage while we play to get more booze from the cellar below. Pancakes with cheese & bacon at my cousins house.

The sweetest thing: My nephew Leon's new guitar and all the nieces and nephews singing "i said i" & "We will rock you".

The darnest thing: Our band car was too wide to fit across a draw bridge in Edam Holland. My cousin and his best friend show up to a show with the same shirt colorful shirt on (unplanned).

Difference between the Dutch & Germans: Kiss 3 times in NL and 2 times in DE.

Most common food we see & eat: Hard boiled eggs (most are also painted due to Easter!)

Strangest Animal sightings: 30 pound long-eared rabbits, a brown salamander that hung out with Mike while he rehearsed.

Best Rockstar moment: Fans who heard me in Banff 11 years ago came to their 2nd concert in Apledoorn,NL & cheered "at last you've come to my home town!".

Music played in the car: Mixed CDs that we were gifted (more please!)

Pledge we made to each other: No more white bread.

 

 

On tour in Germany! - Week One

Most challenging experiences: Going to the wrong city (with the same name as the one intended), Map missing essential stops and new parts of the autobahn & GPS missing entire countires, having the guy who takes $ at the door leave out the back door with the money for the band

Best Laugh out Loud: Mike hollering to Elyse "Hey Elyse, where did you put your hairball!?".

First dutch food experience: Gevuldekoek (almond flavoured filled pastry good with coffee time) & gehackttballen (meat balls & usually with a satay sauce)

First German food experience: Cold cuts and raw ground beef as a 5 star breakfast

Best Hotel: The Nunnery in Uden, NL

Best off-stage surprise: First rehearsal

Best on-stage surprise: Dekkers showing up at the Spijkerboor NL show & then Nuno joining in!

Tour Disappointment: Tour photographers (Hans Kraus) new car quits, he goes home. & extenuating circumstances mean we miss a live radio show.

Best local legend: The little woven baskets of Sesslach DE, are given to a friend so that if they should have sorrow that they can put it in the basket (some are the size of ones little toe) and then place the basket it in the river, and watch it (the sorrow in the basket) float away with the river. And so then one feels better!

Highest priced item so far: Eating out in Holland period

Best priced item so far: Oatmeal flakes & Diesel Fuel

Regretted stage comment: I mentioned i didn't have time to shave, and I particularly noticed because Elyse's violin playing has the hairs on my everything stand up on end. I was told by an audience fan“it's time to get Lasered”

Favorite audience comment: “WOW” after every song.

Best live video footage we have seen so far: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6CkcjonOpc

Things we as band members have in common:  long hair, and vegetables, and granola

Best spontaneous discovery: Jesus Christ superstar of some sort performance amplified with the text displayed over the top of the stage to a packed full church...we were drawn to the sounds coming from outside the church. It sounded like a rock concert and indeed, much like one!

Favorite photo so far :see attached

Seeing the good in something bad moment: chipped my tooth while flossing! It new fang is used to rip open the plastic around the CDS

New technology discovery: carbonation machine for still water (Die Carbonator!), the self propelled lawn mower, the kick bike

Music are listening to in the car: 70's live disco mix, hot leg, Vivaldi, Mel's 'just because cd'

Tour bonding experience: Riding dutch bikes over the dikes.

Strangest Animal: the horses who can’t see through their own bangs/hair.

New promise to each other: write something together and record a live CD to sell

Favorite photo so far: