Happy customer

Whoohoo! Yesterday I finally managed to open myself an account. Now I don't have to wander drunk around Europe with band's millions under my bunk mattrass. It was a difficult job but it was worth it. It is really nice to walk into a bank looking like this and tell them that I'd like to make a deposit and then hand them a plastic bag with 13260€ like I did today.

Matson walked with me to the bank. It was 2-3km from the venue. We couldn't take a tram there since we had no idea when to get off. We did that when we returned to the venue. And then we took a subway to the old centre of Frankfurt. That was a bit of a disappointment. I mean, it all was nice but it was quite small. We had a dinner there anyway. The venue's backstage and catering are so small that the dinner times are scheduled per band and we would have missed our dinner there anyway. The dressing room was actually run in festival style, meaning that each band had a their own in and out times.

Yesterday's show was sold out. The place is a dump but we had a really good show. Amazing audience. And my bass sound was finally, for the first time on this tour, perfect. I was having really big problems the day before and yesterday afternoon I told Stijn the monitor tech that "if I plug my preamp to any power amp and Ampeg 8x10 cab, the sound is perfect, so the signal from my preamp is perfect." "So, we should try a flat EQ?" "Yes, we should." And it was good.

I slept late today. I got up at around noon. I was awake at 8 something but since the bus was still moving I decided to sleep more. Probably a wise decision. After that it was time for some business. I am basically doing the accounting for the tour, it seems. I also got the band's second payment of the tour which I had to take to a bank. After finding a local Deutsche Bank I met with Matson and Jonne in a nice city centre of Erfurt. I remembered walking there last year with Kaisa of Battlelore when we found a small shop of old books and vinyl albums but I couldn't find it anymore. Now Matti couldn't start his vinyl shopping spree. We did find an Irish pub and got myself some Stowford cider. It's been a nice day with the sunshine and everything.

Now we're at the backstage of Stadtgarten, Erfurt, Alestorm is on the stage and I have to move somewhere to find the network and get this posted.

Haarlem & "Frankfurt"

10:15 in the bus at the venue. Get in time is at noon so I have to figure out how to use the next couple of hours before breakfast. The tour book says that the venue is Batschkapp, Frankfurt. Bollocks. This place hasn't even seen Frankfurt. Or perhaps it has seen it once in the TV at the 70's. This is a small village whose name I can't right now remember and can't get online to check.

We've been here before. The first European Paganfest finished here. I remember it was a good crowd and the show itself was good, but the venue isn't really my favourite. And the backstage is way too small for a crew of 40. Way too small. If only all the venues were like yesterday in Haarlem.

The show wasn't the best yesterday though. The same thing happened as has happened a couple of times before as well. The local promotor makes the show start too late so that during the third last bands performance people start to leave since they have to catch the last trains home. That's not really nice for the last bands. We had a decent crowd anyway and once we got them warmed up we had a few good group dances as well. My bass sound on the stage was strange. And for some reason it seemed to keep changing the whole time as well. Suddenly the low end was gone and then a minute later it was all just low end mumble with no higher frequencies. I have to remember to check my preamp today.

And today I go to a bank. I have an appointment set and I will hopefully be able to finally open an account. We'll see.