Wednesday, April 10

We actually did manage to get up kinda early this time... Arnold brought me and Sean and Boothnavy to the flea market! That was great, I had a lot more luck shopping this time. I got some funny shirts and a cool jacket. Sean got a cyber-fleecy thing. There was a lot of cheap cool stuff there. Then we went to get the best fries in Amsterdam. Wow. I must admit, I really got into the whole fries-and-mayonnaise thing. Although da Boof got his with curry ketchup, and that was quite delightful as well. Then we had to get back and start our voyage to Groningen (pronounced "hrrrrroning-en").

I accompanied Arnold in his van and the boys went in our rental car. The ride took a few hours and was quite scenic. There were tulip fields, lots of farmland, a great many cute lambs too! We drove a long way over a dike and stopped at a little rest stop along the way. Incredible view and lots and lots of wind.

We arrived at Vera. The club was BIG. There were all these people setting up the stage and lights. It seemed kind of like a big production considering we were the only band playing. We loitered around in the hallway for a while, looking at all the old flyers from years gone by. Lots and lots of impressive bands have played there. I guess if you're an indie rock band and you're touring Europe, that's one of the major stops. And then... they showed us our rooms! That's what makes Vera so special -- it's like a rock n roll dormitory! Now you'd think with all these bands passing through that the accomodations would be trashed and disgusting, but no! It was soooooo nice! We each got our own little room. I got the bright green room, Sean got a red communist-propaganda one, Boothnavy got pure white with a Virgin Mary statue (very hospital-room looking) and the Duke got a blue-stripey-cartoony one. And everything was furnished with really cool chairs, light fixtures, posters, etc. God bless Dutch design. And god bless the Dutch government that funds such a cool club! They really know how to treat their artists over there. And the bathroom was actually clean and nice, with multiple showers and toilets so everyone can get ready at the same time. We were all in awe. We wanted to stay there for the rest of the tour.

Soundcheck went really well. And then, they even fed us! We went upstairs to this room where all the employees were hanging out, and there was a buffet of yummy Chinese food. The whole thing put us in such a good mood. After dinner, we hung out backstage where there was a fridge full of beer waiting for us. Oh well, Boothnavy and Arnold got working on that. Sean went off to check his e-mail (his recurring tour obsession being finding internet access everywhere we went), Boothnavy went off to flirt with the lighting girl, and the Duke and Arnold and I watched some fine Dutch TV.

We look like incredible rokk stars in these photos. pix by Mark Scheffer

The show itself was a lot of fun. There were a fair amount of people there, although the place still looked kinda empty since the room was so huge. Some people were dancing, which we appreciated. We met some cool fans afterwards too. Us Freezepoppers were pretty tired, so we all went to be relatively early (once we managed to get our various doors unlocked, that is), and Boothnavy and Arnold hung out in the basement bar with the club folks and did our drinking for us... until about 4 a.m. when Boothnavy returned and declared ever-so-eloquently, "PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" And other random hooting, hollering, and banging on doors. I was very confused. I yelled at him to shut up. He did.