Day 4 – 6
Day 4
After a much needed sleep, we decided it was about time
to tell other people about our exploits so far.
As there is no internet in our flat, we launched an expedition to a
local Starbucks, located in Bremen’s Waterfront shopping complex. The Waterfront is kind of like a Cabot Circus
sorta thing, but with fewer dickheads. We relaxed in the Starbucks for a while
updating the world on our adventures, before heading towards the Songs &
Whispers Office for a catch up.
We knew the rough location of the office, which was in
the centre of an industrial estate in south west Bremen, but still managed to
get lost (because of Andy) around the goods yards and alleyways of the estate,
making us 30 minutes late. The meeting
was a great opportunity to find out some information about our up and coming
shows, but also to get to know Astrid and the others girls working for Songs
& Whispers.
Heading back to the flat we stopped at a grocer’s so that
I could buy some sugar. I had previously bought what I believed to be sugar but
it turned out to be citric acid. It was ok, but I wouldn’t recommend adding it
to your cup of tea.
That evening we had a gig in the bar Litfass, near the
centre of Bremen. The stage was quite small, so I was only able to use parts of
my drums, and used two empty crates of Beck’s beer as my stool. This aside, the
set up was really good and it felt really comfortable to play. The venue itself was really relaxed and kinda
made us feel optimistic about playing that evening.
Feeling slightly sleepy from my first pint of the night,
I slipped out for a cheeky burrito. It
seems that when attempting to eat authentic German cuisine, I have consistently
ended up eating a burrito of some kind, hmmm. Anyway, the gig went really
well. This was probably due to the fact
that we were now suitably settled in our flat and had gained some sleep, but
also because this was our 4th show of the weekend and we had
naturally strengthened our performance. We finished on our cover of the Gloria
Gaynor classic ‘I Will Survive’, which was requested by the owner of the bar
after hearing us play the track in our sound check. Having obliged the landlady as we were then
presented with a tray of free shots and beers, WIN!!
Day 5
Bleary eyed, we set off for the offices of a local radio/
TV station Radio Weser, where we were due to perform a live track and be
interviewed. This understandably was a
great experience!
Due to space, we were required to play a more stripped
down version of our song ‘Lucy’, meaning that I was playing tambourine and egg
shakers, kindly provided by Tom Richardson.
This was fine, and the experience of playing the song
whilst being filmed from different angles was fun. I personally found the next bit slightly
odd. The interview was conducted with
the four of us standing in a row, passing the microphone between us. This
reminded me of footage I had seen of Radiohead during their Ok Computer tour,
when they stand nervously while a spokesman addresses the people around
them. I always took their manner to be
that of mild arrogance and frustration but now I think this was actually
bewilderment mixed with a sense of insecurity towards the situation. This was by no means a bad thing, it was just
a strange experience which I guess you don’t really know how to react to until
you’re in it.
We then went back to the flat, ready to make our way over
to the Hafen Casino, where we and Tom would be playing that evening. The Hafen
Casino is not a casino at all but a small café situated in the industrial
estate, not far from the Songs & Whispers HQ. Again, we were stuck for
space and sound, so I played our set with brushes. We played first, which was kind of refreshing
as it allowed us to relax for a bit after playing and enjoy Tom’s set. Once
again, the crowd at this venue were highly attentive and there purely to
appreciate live music. This is great, but
somehow also manages to add pressure when you know that people with ears will
be hearing what you play. But then
again, I guess that’s the point. The venue also provided us with a meal, which
was lovely.
Day 6
Our gig this evening wasn’t until 6pm, so we decided to
take the morning off, slept in then headed into Bremen city centre.
We first headed to the bar we had played at on the
previous Monday night, Litfas, to see if they had Andy’s bag, containing a
microphone/ harmonica/ note book etc.
Luckily they did!
From here we walked around the corner and stumbled upon a
rather useful music store, before reaching a market square. Here, various stalls were arranged with
groceries/ cheeses and bread; your usual weekday market.
We stocked up on bratwurst sausages, gauda cheese and
pastries and chilled for a bit in a market café, called Alex’s.
Having a few hours to kill before heading off for our
next show, we separated and explored the city centre for ourselves. At this
point we pretty much became your standard tourists finding nice patches of the
city which we attempted to ear mark for a later date.
The time came to head back to the flat to regroup for
that evenings show. This meant
traversing the city once more on the Tram system, which was fun! (insert
“oooooo Ben, gonna talk to any attractive girls about trams again” quote).
Anyway, we set off for our show at Strandgelanda am
Welchelsee, which was kinda of like a south cerney place man made beach camp.
We played in the smocking tent outside.
After munching our way through the free pizza and beers,
it was time to start the show, with Tom playing first.
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this yet, but as part of
our tour with Songs & Whispers, each act has a hat passed around the room
towards the end of their set, in order for the crowd to make any suitable
donations, as per their appreciation for the performance. So far, we and Tom have been doing this at
all of our shows. This night, it was my
turn to pass the hat. This was an odd
experience as it meant walking up to people and waiting for them to get money
out of their wallets and donate. I found
this scary as you have no idea what people’s reactions are going to be to this
method. However, a lot of donations were
made and the crowd were rather pleasant.
We then took to the stage and were feeling pretty
confident. The sound guy had spent a lot
of time with us prior to our set and so we were happy to begin.
However, towards the middle of set, around the cover of
‘Come Together’ and our song ‘Shakey’, we began to make a few errors. They weren’t hugely noticeable, but by that
point, we had lost a lot of confidence.
The rest of the set continued on a slightly more tense
tone, as we we’re all admittedly trying not to make any more errors. Even so, we finished our set to large
applause and were even granted back for an encore. This also led to more rounds of shots, prost!
We left after speaking to the sound guys once more, as we
felt that they had been immensely helpful, and cruised back to the flat
dropping Deutsche Kind from the stereoeo.
A brother didn’t even have to use an AK, I guess it was a good day!
Day 7
Today, we ventured again towards Bremen city centre for a
gig we were to have in a local school.
We arrived and the pupils were already in classes, so the
corridors were empty. Not knowing where
we were going, we were sent to the music teacher’s office, and proceeded to
hang around in the corridor, like naughty students.
Anyway, we found the huge school hall and did a brief
sound check. The sound technicians aged
between 12 and 13 and we arguably the best sound technicians we have ever had,
fact!
The bell for lunch time rang, and a flurry of students
pilled into the main hall for us to start our set. Now, this was odd, having not played in a
school hall for about 10 years…..when I was last at school. Saying that, the
pupils showed immense appreciation, which gave us back the confidence we had
lost the day before and allowed us to perfect some of our songs that we needed
to work on. We then donated one of our
t shirts as a mark of our appreciation, and also because we didn’t want to steal
the kids lunch money.
Following this show we headed back to the flat for some
food before gearing up for the second gig of the day.
The gig itself was in a tiny café just outside of Bremen.
The surrounding area was apparently an artist community and the venue itself
was relatively quiet.
We began our set tentatively, but naturally felt more and
more comfortable. Compared to the night
before, we had decided to play a more laid back set and not to put huge amounts
of pressure on ourselves. This really
paid off and the crowd were really receptive.
We finished our show feeling relieved but also
happy. It seems weird, but somehow this
show was one of the best so far, largely as there was no pressure and that we
were just being ourselves.
We set off back home and decided to go for a cheeky beer
in the local bar.
4 bottles of Becks and 3 shots of Jeagermeister later, we
stumbled out and went to bed.
Legends.
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