Better Days
That Chris Ziter sitting on the bed with the bass, Zach Ward looking in the wardrobe, Neil Cleary playing a guitar that you can’t see because i’m sitting in front of him. This picture was taken in October 2001 in a hotel in Amsterdam. Neil and I were playing drums and bass (respectively) for the Essex Green’s tour of Britain, after which we were flown to Holland to play with Essex Green’s side band, the Sixth Great Lake at the Crossing Borders Festival.
We got VERY high. We also got to stand five feet away from David Byrne as he sang a song called “Holland (Where Everybody’s Nice)” with one of the singers from the How’s Your News gang. I also got to meet PJ Harvey (briefly), Jonathan Richman, and offended someone from Silverchair.
Good times, great oldies, as Neil likes to say.
So when you see me saying “she ruined my life”, that’s what I’m talking about: there’s no way I can randomly quit my job to tour in Europe anymore. Not with child support to pay.
I should scan some of my Holland pictures and post them. I was in the country twice to play music, although the second time was more of a busking vacation, with Izzy and Katie from UncleFucker. Katie’s best friend from college had moved to the country years earlier and was living with her Croatian boyfriend. They were headed to his homeland for vacation, and they rented us their apartment at cost, so our digs really only cost about $100 per person. It was a great place, a few blocks from Central Station, and next door to a coffeeshop where I spent a lot of time getting legally baked, before hopping on the back of Izzy’s bicycle with my upright bass to stake out a street corner. The Dutch really liked bluegrass, and we did a lot better than the Italian kid doing bad covers of Steve Miller songs. I am yoker, I am smoker, I am mee-night toker, I really don’t want to hit you…
The first day we were played on the Leidseplein, two guys who we came to know as Esron and Jeroen invited us into the bar where they worked for free drinks. “You have a gig next Saturday night,” they told us.
“What? Where?” asked Izzy. “And how does that work?”
“You guys are very good,” Jeroen replied. “So we called our friends at the Winston, it’s in the Red Light District, and told them to book you. Here is the address, you must go and confirm.”
The next day we were playing on the Museumplein, when we met another guy named Rob. “You are wonderful,” he said, “and you must play at the festival outside of Leiden this weekend!”
“But we have no car,” Katie said.
“That is OK! I will drive!” Rob said. And so it was that we were down on a massive beach, underneath a lead colored sky, enormous wind turbines spinning behind us at 10:00 AM. The stage had been festooned with white drapery, making it look like a bird. Izzy had taken some magic mushrooms, and was in the process of losing his mind, while Katie and I drank Heinekens as the sun began to peek out from the clouds.
Like I say, good times, great oldies.
2 Responses to “Better Days”
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June 10th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
what are you reading there brendan?
i’m going to amsterdam in the fall and i may never coem backe.
June 11th, 2007 at 9:55 am
I think it’s the rough guide to Amsterdam.
Amster is fun, but Lieden is more laid back. The country has a racism problem, but is otherwise very nice.