Wednesday, June 30, 2004

P!nk sets a record

P!nk's setlist45 minutes, no more. That's what it took to get the loadout done of P!nk in the Heineken Music Hall. She is doing a stripped-down tour, for mostly festivals. No dancers, no videoscreens. This show was different for the crew, because it wasn't on a festival. The roadies were happy to do the loadout in such complete silence, as compared to working in the noise of the next band onstage.
For me it was a special moment. Yesterday was the first time I got to operate a spotlight on an important gig. I had done it once before, but this was something different: I got to wear a headset so I could listen to the commands of the head lighting engineer. Since I was a rookie, I got to spotlight the bass player instead of her P!nkness. There were 3 other spotlights. I think I done well. At least for the handful of times my spotlight was called upon. Now on to the next level, getting a 'Holiday on Ice' spotlight job... dreamdream.
To the right you see a pic of Pink's setlist.

The show was fun. I think this venue is best suited for popmusic and hiphop. It needs to be outgoing, because the atmosphere of the hall doesn't engage the audience. And outgoing she was, even without video and dancers. She completely filled up the stage. For me, she could have skipped the acoustic singalong moment when she did a medley of Janis Joplin songs. Maybe she's still lacking enough own hits to fill up the 75 minutes.
And for all those purists out there: everything was played live.

Resting... before the backline gets set upSetting up the drumkitThe effects of the guitarist

Setting up the backline requires a lot of resting...; During the setup of the drums, the drumtech gave me all the 'used' drumheads; The pedalboard of the guitarist.

Monday, June 28, 2004

Drumming for Microsoft

Putting MS drums on chairsToday we put more than 7000 drums on conference seats in the Amsterdam RAI. Microsoft's Tech·Ed 04 is in town. Microsoft decided that their conference delegates would have to go 'back to their roots'. The smell of all those handdrums was awful. I wonder how many goat-herds they would have to have killed for this.
At the lunch break, we indulged in a copious meal. No financial problems within this organization, I suppose. After the lunch, we had to sit through a boring video explaining the security measures for the crew. But after that, there was no work. So we waited, and waited. Until we were told to go home. I love Microsoft!

Sunday, June 27, 2004

Poetry rehearsals and gig were fun

Definitely something to keep, this poetry project. Me and Carmen are accompanying Robin Block, an up and coming poet. During the Ikbeneenwereldleider festival about globalization today, we presented 5 poems. There's a short story of the gig at Carmenkata's website.

Saturday, June 26, 2004

We had a [drga-drga] meeting in a trendy noodlebar. Carmen will take a bigger role in the organization, we decided. She'll do a lot of coordinating. To celebrate, we went to a coffeeshop. We even let someone take a picture of us for money...

Thursday, June 24, 2004

Mary J Blige took it slow

Later last night I worked for Mary J Blige, in the HMH. She was late, the crowd was anxious. Would she show up? Nobody of the audience knew that she was still in London when the first people walked into the venue... she only flew to Amsterdam at 7 PM.
She started her show with a video about how she would never sell her soul to the bling bling. She would always stay true to her fans. I don't know, it feels a bit awkward. It's also a way of selling the drama. It was a smooth show, with lots of changes. Almost like a theater play. There was even some acting involved. Seems like a 'soul' thing to do: the Isley Brothers did the same thing in their show. But Mary still sings false, I'm afraid. My crew boss compared it to a Belgian shepherd dog. The dog being able to sing better than her...


The setlist of Mary J Blige...

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Everybody must get stoned

I worked as a crewboss today in the Amsterdam ArenA. I didn't know beforehand. I was told when I walked in. Boy, did I have it coming. Before the lunch, no problems. During lunch, I was asked to get a cd of 'Oh happy day' of the Edwin Hawkins Singers. Probably for André Hazes, who's doing a show next Friday. I had to take my own car to town. Great, I love to drive. After I came back, the trouble started. My crew wasn't the same anymore. Some of them were acting stoned, and it turned out one of my guys probably hit a door with a forklift. Problem is, he doesn't have a driver's license. I had to call my upperboss to straighten things out. I hope I did, you never know with these people. As for the boys that got stoned, they denied everything. But I got complaints about them from the people that hired us...
Lesson learned: some people can't be left on their own devices. When the shit hits the fan, try to stay as open about it as possible. Especially with your superiors. They actually liked the way I reacted. Or so they told me. You never know what they really think... :-(

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

Running for Slipknot

The Slipknot showThe Slipknot production team was late. They were supposed to be at the Amsterdam ArenA at 10.30 AM, but they arrived at 12 o'clock. Narsy of the production team was happy to see me. "Most of the time I have to search for my runners, you just waited up for us. We're in a hurry, the stage clothes of Slipknot need to be washed and dried before 5 PM." It was my first time as a runner. I didn't know where I could find a laundromat. Luckily, the head-runner knows everything. As it turned out, there is a special Rock & Roll laundromat. Together with Danny the head security of Slipknot, I drove to the city. I only have a driver's license for 2 months now, so I was excited about this new job. Danny let me know that without the stage clothes, Slipknot would be in deep trouble. I can imagine. The band's garment is one of their main assets... After we dropped off the clothes at the laundromat, Danny needed to buy some stuff at the coffeeshop. We left the coffeeshop with an illegal amount of stuff, some 14 grammes. In the Netherlands, you're only allowed to buy 5 grammes per person. Danny was not going to smoke all of this by himself, though. Most of it was for his friends overseas.

The show of Slipknot involved a lot of throwing with drumsticks, bottles of mineral water and climbing on percussion sets, while headbanging. They also had their half funny, half scary masks on. That could be boring, but it was phenomenal. The music is an energetic mix of Sepultura and Linkin Park. Their DJ/Scratcher hurls the music into the present, while their use of masks and playful negativity give a sense of things to come. "You motherfuckers raise your motherfuckin' horns in the air RIGHT... MOTHERFUCKIN'... NOW!". In between the spitting and cursing they also indulged in raised middle-fingers. We thought it was cool to raise them back. I remember doing the same thing with my coverband. It always works.
The crowd was obviously waiting for Metallica, or KoЯn for that matter. The arena was only half filled. But if Slipknot keeps up the good work, they could be headlining in 5 years time. This show has certainly made a lasting impression with me.

Jonathan Davis of Korn, out of touchI wasn't able to see KoЯn play, because I had to hang around the production office of Slipknot. I did see the singer Jonathan Davis, walking to-and-fro backstage. He looked bewildered. After the Korn show my duties for Slipknot were over.

The Metallica showThe Metallica show was disappointing. I just don't like their old songs, they remind me of the boring eighties. Think Europe, or Yngwie Malmsteen. Just when I was drifting into a catatonic state, I got a call from the Korn crew. If I could move some people to their downtown hotel? I'm exclusively working for Slipknot. It's not done to change bands just like that. But I wanted to do it, I was bored to death by Metallica. The Korn people took their time, they were in no hurry at all. At some moment, they were gone again. Watching the undoubtedly zealous rendition of 'One', the anthem for all Metallica nerds. In the meantime I saw Narsy of Slipknot again. He was surprised to still see me working, and he wanted to go back to his hotel. No problem, I just got the two bandcrews together in one van. The atmosphere was a bit icy, and my driving was affected by that. But I managed.

Slipknot sound checkBuilding the stage for Metallica & CoSetting up the drumkit for Lars

The Slipknot sound check, building the stage for Metallica & Co, setting up the drumkit for Lars of Metallica.

What's on the menu for Korn?The monitor mixer

What's on the menu for KoЯn, the monitor mixer they used for the bands.

Saturday, June 19, 2004

I can hear Phil coming in the air tonight

Phil Collins ending the showLike a runaway psycho, Phil Collins begins the only song worth mentioning, 'In The Air Tonight'. He reminded me of Robin Williams in 'One Hour Photo'. But the song completely makes up for the rest. Phil walks slowly towards a drumkit, while he's singing with a distorted voice. Just when the fabulous drumfill is about to begin, he sits himself down behind the kit. The song ends with some majestic drumming of Phil. Goosebumps... I have to say I didn't see the rest of the show, because I had to prepare for load out. Phil ended the show with 'Please take me home'. A fine song, but I agreed more with the title than Phil would have wanted me to. We approached the stage from the side during that song, so I could make the picture you see on the right.
The crowd was old and underdressed, I even saw some rollators when I wandered through the crowd. It felt like I was back in the 80ies. Yes, I'm that old... :-)

I didn't help setup the stage, I only did load out. 'Load out' is getting all the stuff back in the trailers, 'Load in' means getting the gear in the venue.



A bit tacky at times. Maybe most of the time... Goody goody Phil Collins with his MOTR audience.

Bringing poetry with Robin Block

Carmenkata will be teaming up with the poet Robin Block to play his poetry with music, at a festival about Globalization. More info about us here. We rehearsed for the first time today, and it's fun. Robin is full of ideas, and we let the creativity flow. I will play jembé most of the time, and Carmen will sound her accordeon and play some percussion as well.

Friday, June 18, 2004

Work of the hardest kind.

Me at the monitor mixer, for the bandWorked for Euro*PA again, in Utrecht. We went to the club where they like to abuse mentally disabled people. "Just rough 'em up a little", as Rummy would say. I promised myself to never work there again. But I'm weak, and money is strong. And I got the promise they wouldn't play around with imbeciles this time.
And they didn't. In fact, the party was ok. Nothing spectacular. Except for the length, I worked for about 13 hours... Ivo explained to me how the light-mixer works, and I got to mix the last band. While in the same time doing the monitors. So I learned a lot.

The FOH mixer, for the audienceMe looking stupid. But they didn't rough me up, though

Thursday, June 17, 2004

Amsterdam gets Californicated

The Peppers logos were displayed on all four videoscreens right before the show"Great show!", I let John Frusciante know. "Thanks man!", he answers. He walked past the truck I was loading with Johnny, a fellow crew member of mine. Mug of presumably herbal tea in his hand, walking next to the drum-tech. The Peppers were already finished half an hour ago, and they weren't gone yet. They were taking their time. A few minutes later, just as I shuffled back to the opening of the trailer with my eyes out of focus, I heard Johnny say the same thing to a short fellow with long hair. That turned out to be Anthony Kiedis, holding his thumbs up to us! Boy, were we lucky.
And why? Because the Red Hot Chilli Peppers are at the moment one of the greatest bands on earth! Both financially as artistically. Not in the Netherlands, though. But in the UK, they'll play to half a million people the next three concerts. Tonight they have to be in Manchester. A hell of a ride.
John Frusciante was the best. His guitar sound comes from somewhere between Jimi Hendrix and his own heart. He always looks sincere, caught up in his own world. And we can be only happy he's able to show us that world with such intensity.

The Roots supported the Peppers this time, and they made a good effort. I didn't like all of their stuff. Some of it felt too intellectual, with their spun out blues solos that were way too long for my taste. Show off in the confinement of your own bathroom dudes, don't jerk off on me.

Below I got some more pics of the show.

John Frusciante singing a doowop song all by himselfThe beginning of the RHCP showRHCP with wall to wall video
The Red Hot Chilli Peppers show. I especially liked the video-art you see on the last pic, and the doowop song John Frusciante sang all by himself (first pic). Just his great falsetto voice and his guitar.

The Roots, with the Peppers looking on from the side.The Roots, with the Peppers looking on from the side.
The Roots, with the Peppers looking on from the side. Watch below the right corner of the video screen. You can very clearly distinguish the hat of drummer Chad Smith. Chad was nodding his head all the time with the beat... :-)
I don't have to remind you that you have to click on the pic to get a bigger version?

Hey Mickey video is out now

Me in the Riplets videoThe Riplets have released their single 'Hey Mickey', and accompanied it with a videoclip. If you look carefully, you'll see me in it as well. At 2:19 minutes, to be precise. You can watch the video here.
You need to have the RealPlayer installed though.

Wednesday, June 16, 2004

Working some more in Amsterdam ArenA

This is how the soccer game party looked like before the crowd got inThanks to my beloved colleague Liam, I can show you some more of what we do in the Amsterdam ArenA (see pic right). Yesterday after the soccer match, we adjusted some video screens for the Peppers. This morning, we were all up and ready again for the load-in of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Maarten (Mr. Reaganesk) came to pick me up at home. I invited him to come and work as well. Later on, we discovered much to our surprise that The Roots were opening up! Yesss...
The load-in was easy. Too many stagehands. We got to watch the drum- and guitartech setup the gear and do a sound check. From two feet away... I'm looking forward to tonight!

Tuesday, June 15, 2004

PJ Harvey was a quicky

PJ Harvey live in HMHOnly the four of us, but we managed to get the load-out done within one and a half hour. PJ Harvey was playing in the Heineken Music Hall last Thursday, and I managed to get in for exchange of getting paid to work there. Sometimes life is good. But don't tell me that when I have to clean up a houseparty... My body double Miguel showed up too, so I had a great time.
The music was ok, but it felt that the venue was too big for the band. They didn't bring a lot of lights, and they didn't really make contact with the audience. Polly had her hair over her eyes all the time, so I couldn't make up her expression or anything. Before they started to play I didn't even know if they were the support act or already the real thing. But I loved their sound. A humble bass sound, and a loud and proud guitar... Very much like the latest record, where you won't find any bass at all.

BTW, you can still listen to the PJ Harvey concert in the HMH! It's actually really good, from the comfort of your own chair. Just make sure you have RealPlayer installed and click here.

Monday, Monday...

Normally Monday is my day off. Especially if I've played the whole weekend. But what can I do? Jimmy called up again for work in the Amsterdam ArenA, and I don't say no to that. They wanted to change the backdrops again. Every concert they need to change the setup, because a different amount of seats have been sold... It's painstaking work, takes hours. But I guess it pays off. At least it pays me... ;-)
I got a hectic schedule this week from Jim. Tonight working the ArenA for loadout of PA and lights. Tomorrow the whole day, I'll be working for the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. They'll be playing the ArenA tomorrow. And I'll be there... :-)
I could have worked for Lenny Kravitz as well, but it would have been no sleep at all for me. I have to take care of my health, I don't want to hunt for money mindlessly.

Moon About weekend

Last weekend I was the musician I want to be. Three gigs in a row, all payed well. The first one was on Friday, in some nature resort near Bornerbroek. This is where the acoustic features of Moon About pay off. We decided to play outside for a while until the guests wanted to come inside the hall. Later on, when the party was in a more mellow mood, everybody gathered around the campfire. Of course we joined them there with some appropriate songs! Think 'Love me tender' ;-)
The second gig was at the Thyro rowing club. Started off slow, but in the end everybody was dancing and some people didn't want us to quit. Ever.
The next day we played with a new Moon About bass-player "understudy": Joris Bijleveld. Boy is he good. He didn't even want to know which songs we play. "I'll hear when we're playing." Somehow, I trusted his judgement. But I didn't think he would be that good. We'll sure ask him again, even though he's very busy playing.

Saturday, June 12, 2004

Gigging along

I'm smack in the middle of three gigs in a row, for my acoustic band Moon About. I'll tell more about it later on. Needless to say I feel like a fish in the water :-)

Thursday, June 10, 2004

Lawn brings out single 'Fix'

And I was one of the people harrassing them about bringing it out. Glad they did it! The single contains vocal help from Anneke van Giersbergen of The Gathering. You can read the review if you want. [drga-drga] is bringing out the vinyl version of their album. Just so you know.

Saw my old drumming teacher again

Danny drummingYesterday I helped out Petra "Schwanzig" for her qualifying test of the new Pop Academy of the Conservatory of Enschede. Petra is the female singer of the He Devils. She wants to switch from classical trumpet to pop-vocals. And so there I was, playing 'I Alone' and 'Like the way I do' while my old teacher Danny Sahupala was looking on. I hadn't talked to him in a long time. The last time I saw him was awkward. I just decided to quit school. He looked very disappointed. Not only in me, the whole school was going down. That was also the reason why I left.
But now Danny is Head of the Pop department, and he's doing a great job I believe. He seemed positively surprised to see me. We shook hands. Afterwards he thanked us for playing. Phew. Petra got through to the second round, by the way.

Touching cloth in Amsterdam ArenA

Two of my teammatesLast Tuesday I hung up a lot of backdrops for the Friday show of David Bowie in the Amsterdam ArenA. It was hard work, but a good team to work with. I even learned some Surinam folklore. Like when you're possessed by angry ghosts, you can clean your house with burning incense (I already did that myself), or take a bath in some special herbs. Or the fact that almost all black people have been severely beaten by their parents in their youth. At least all blacks in my team were. Including the white guy ;-) Seems like I was the only one to have missed out on that invaluable black experience...
Like one of them said: "Go ahead, get me my cane so I can slap you to pieces. That must have been the longest walk I ever made!"
I made some pics with my phonecam. Yep, it's a big place...

Our rigger moving trussesThe backdrop is on the rightAnother backdropAnother backdrop

Overview of the ArenA, with the huge video screens

Tuesday, June 08, 2004

Popgrond left me feeling stupid

The concert of de portables and 50 Ft Combo in the Brakke Grond didn't deliver. De portables are boring and not funny, while trying to be. 50 Ft Combo is all male energy. The first half hour they are the best band I've ever heard. After that they fall into their own trap. It's too much of the same thing: glorious, raw, surfpunk with a sleazerock topping. Just imagine someone screaming in your ear, ALL the time. No dynamics.
There was also a hardrock band during the break, but they were in a different hall. Without proper lighting, without proper amplification. I felt real sorry for that band.

It will take a long while before I set another foot in that place, I'm afraid. Unless I know the bands, maybe.

Sunday, June 06, 2004

Acoustic crowdsurfing

Me & René backstageI was told that the gig I was heading to was for a hockeyclub in Baarn. I pictured myself the many parties I played on with my acoustic bands, but no. I had to wear earplugs all the time, and the place was crowded and damp. Like a nightclub.
We didn't mind. With our instruments on autocontrol, we whooped the crowd up into a frenzy. At least as much as we could: I only had a snare drum and a shake apple at my disposal... I made a snapshot of the 'audience'. Unfortunately, there was no time to take a pic of us performing on stage, but I do have some pics of us 'backstage'. That is, in the male dressing room of the hockeyclub.

The crowdRené conjuring up a setlist

Saturday, June 05, 2004

Legendary evening

For those of you who weren't there (and there must have been a lot of you, since there weren't too many people ;-), the [dgra-drga] festival in Metropool saw outstanding performances of all acts involved.
Starting with Music77, they came all the way from South-Germany just to play 3 or 4 songs. And boy, were they good. Coupling a melancholic mood with deep emotional feeling, I got swept away immediately. They had to stop early though, Audiotransparent (AT) had given some of their designated time to them. AT were majestic, much better than when I saw them last time. They shure won some new fans, including me.
I came up next, with Carmenkata. This was definitely the best gig we've ever done. Much obliged to Detmar, the sound engineer. He's a pro when it comes to mixing live music, especially when it needs to rock. His use of delays and reverb greatly enhanced our impact. Carmen never had such a sound, coming straight from the heart. Again we're coming closer to our full potential. We're not there yet. At least we think so. We're experimenting with a bass player right now, and hopefully he'll join us when we play in the UK next fall.
Commando Cauldron took over from us. I had given him the sample we use for our last song, so he took over from there with a twisted version of it. His clicks and cuts were a bit too outlandish for the less than arty crowd. I felt a bit sorry for him.
Lawn had the best sound I ever heard from them. Again thanks to Detmar.

Audiotransparent breaks fast at my homeAudiotransparent and Music77 slept in our place in Amsterdam. That's a record, we had 10 people sleeping over. When we arrived in Amsterdam, we bumped into Paul Hoek of We vs Death, who lives in my street. He just finished working for Paradiso. Since he's a good friend of Audiotransparent, this was a merry encounter.
Music77 could only take 3 hours of sleep, because they had to travel to Darmstadt the next day. AT took a good 'night' of sleep, because they had to leave for R17 at around 4 PM.

Audiotransparent bass player loading the vanAudiotransparent leaving for R17 the next morning

Thursday, June 03, 2004

Cover weekend

Last weekend I did some gigs playing covers. One was in the Holland Casino in Enschede. Haven't played there in a long time. It's kinda fun, nobody listens. The rattle of coins is louder than our playing...
The second gig was at the Heracles stadium, in the VIP lounge. It was a fine combination of the bands Moon About and Fiddlehead. It was during an important game for Heracles, because they can enter the premier league. I don't care, I just want my money afterwards ;-) Although I must say I got a bit carried away after Heracles managed to get back to 2-2 after an impossible 0-2... We did some Irish tunes, because the party in the VIP lounge was organised by an Irish pub. I played 'I Tell Me Ma' for the first time. Martin did 'Dirty old town' like he's Shane himself. In a sober version, that is. It all went really well, if you take the numerous small errors that nobody cares about for granted. I'm looking foward to play with these people again sometime.