Berlin

Berlin - temporary home sweet home - last show of the 1st leg and a few days off. It was like a homecoming show for Nadja, at Scholodaken --- a small but warm and cozy bar mid-town. The soundcheck sounded pretty bassy on stage, but pretty trebly in the room... not sure what it sounded like at show time, but the place was pretty packed, which was nice to see.

For this show only, I used 2 projectors for my set, with different sets of projections which I think added to the ambiance and mood, however without screens. The ghostly abstract visuals had an even ghostlier presence on the red wallpaper. I was pretty satisfied with this set in general, I wish people snapped some pictures to capture the atmosphere of the moment, I haven't seen any online. Though I did snap one of Nadja during soundcheck.


The next day, Aidan, Helge & I went to see the Russian monuments:


Then took a walk around Treptowers Park:

We also jumped up the fence and broke into Spreepark, an abandoned amusement park, but we ran into security lurking so we quickly got out of here. That's too bad though. Leah & Jill attempted it again a few weeks later, successfully! Leah managed to take some great shots of it, check her entry and photos here.

Last day off in Berlin before leaving for Eastern Europe: the rest of the touristy stuff.

Hamburg

We entered the German soil once again, to play at the Markthalle, Hamburg. I gotta say that shows in Europe are quite punctual compared to back home. Show was promoted for 8pm and the place was filling up already by 7:30pm, on a Friday evening. The venue was a sitting one, opened, with nice benches. We crossed paths with our friends Troum once again, with the addition of Allseits. Troum opened up the show this time, followed by Nina, both of them played great sets.


I should also mention the particularity of the stage sound that night, as... there were none. No monitors. Instead, a quadraphonic-like installation, two speakers forward of the stage, two from the back end of the room. Probably amazing for the audience, but atrocious for performers needing every detail of their sound by their feet (me). The sound on stage basically coming from the back end, 300 ft. away. Everything was delayed. Everything sounded so distant. It was very unclear to me how it really sounded in the room.


A lot of mistakes were done because of the altered-sounding circumstances. However, I've had more praise at that show than I've gotten so far, from fans, from my peers. Go figure. The worse I feel about my set, the better it is? It's a very mind-boggling perspective. I wonder how it would turn out if I played a deaf set.

We ate chicken brochettes meal provided by the venue, and we stayed at this wicked yuppie hostel nearby --- by far the most luxurious accommodations we've had so far (ok, the apartment in Paris was hard to beat but that was more comfortable & home-ish than luxery).


No sightseeing in Hamburg.

Leverkusen

Back into Germany for a day. Leverkusen is right on the outskirt of Köln, middle-of-nowhere industrial suburb where lies the kulturausbesserungswerk or KAW, a cultural center. Nothing much to see around, it was pretty much about the show. The atmosphere was cosy enough, but the sound was awful --- Aidan played a solo set again, only to find out that it was only coming out of the left PA speaker throughout. Clearly the sound man didn't know what he was doing and was embarrassed.

There were three scary-looking long-haired metal heads standing in front of the stage throughout the whole concert, and were difficult to miss. However during my set, I had trouble seeing the knobs in the dark and one of them took out his cell phone to give me some light, that was hilarious and cool! After my set, he said something along the lines of how much he felt my music and it was funny coming from him.


The last pop song blog reports, here.

We slept at the venue's somewhere upstairs, on mattresses.
We had soup for dinner.

Esslingen

We arrived in Esslingen mid-afternoon, which is about 15km from Stuttgart. We were invited to play at Villa Markel, which is a gallery for temporary art exhibitions, located in the middle of a huge park, which made me think of some kind of retirement home, or recluse clinic center for mental health --- I really wasn't sure whether we landed at the right place or not.


To our surprise, we were told that we would be playing outdoors, in the adjacent old and beautiful terrace to the gallery. The full sound and lightning system was professionally set up by the team, with a screen and dvd projector for my set --- however, the sun did not set until 9:30pm or so, and they were rendered useless as i started playing at a quarter to nine.


Nonetheless, it felt really weird to start playing while it was still bright outside and people were just starting to get in. The projections were very faint, so I did not have the visual support that usually goes with my introverted music and persona, which was quite nerve-wrecking for me. By the end of my set, I looked up and to my surprise, the place was packed! They were applauding for a really long time, like for a full minute, which froze me to death, unexpected. The crowd was a mix of young and old people, a lot would not have attended if it wasn't for the special circumstances and affiliation with the art gallery. My only sales that evening was a tank t-shirt and a sticker to two of the younger female crowd members, that was cute I think.

You can also read in article of the event here, courtesy of the Esslingen Zeitung (in German).

Here's a time-lapse video I did of the gig:

We slept in the attic of the Komma, which is another venue/cultural center not far from there. We were served pasta and other assorted veggies. Later, I raided the Komma's fridge to make some cheese sandwiches with horseradish spread after a full evening of smoking and drinking on the roof of the Komma.

Frankfurt

We made our way to Frankfurt the next day after a nice breakfast at Transit. I spent the whole ride rolling up the new army green tank t-shirts in the car that i picked up in Berlin, but I also kept falling asleep --- courtesy of jet lag. I quickly learned that it costs 50 cents to use the toilets at the autobahn's rest stops. However, you also get a 50 cents voucher which you can use to buy candies at the store.

Frankfurt reminds me very much of... Ottawa. Banks. Universities. Conservative. Dull. In the middle of it all was the IVI (Institut für vergleichende Irerelevanz) which once were university grounds and now a squat slash cultural center, where 14 people currently live, where political/social/cultural exchanges & artistic events are being held.


We played in the auditorium (or what's left of it) where the PA was set up. The power adapters and converters situation was stressing me out because I had to hold them with duct tape as they were very loose (thanks Addison). Considering the circumstances, i.e. first show on European soil, jetlag and all, it was an okay debut. The crowd was quiet and does not react much, it was hard to tell whether they enjoyed it.


We were fed some bread and chili and we slept in one of the room's of the IVI's 2nd floor. The next morning, we had a pleasant breakfast outside of the IVI --- in the sun, under a tree, which was a nice change of scenery from the squat's dirty vibes. Bagels, spread, olives, cheese, coffee & juice was served --- just what we needed before hitting the road. Thank you Phantom Limbo!

Also, check out Laurent Orseau's photo gallery from the show: http://lorseau.hinah.com/gallery.php?c=pzic&s=concert&g=thisquietarmy

Arriving in Berlin

Landed at Tegel, Berlin at 2pm after some 10-hour flight with a connection in Heathrow, London. Watched 'Yes Man' on the plane and slept a little, avoiding the old british lady sitting next to me (great, just my luck). Border control was a breeze, no questions asked - just a quick look and stamp!

After a cab ride to Treptow at Aidan & Leah's + a walk around the neighborhood to get some Halloumi sandwiches, I began to unpack my two suitcases full of gear and assembled my pedalboard together. I also blew up a North American power bar, trying to figure out the European adapters and converters, but nothing a German beer can't fix. Travel fatigue crept in quickly...