Day 3: Rotterdam
Welcome
Yesterday we played a show in Rotterdam.
For: The Beths
From: Ruud Muijers
Your Dutch breakfast for tomorrow.
These were the details on the outside of a bag containing a packet of Echte Beschuit and a box of De Ruijter Chocoladehagel puur, a gift that was left for us on stage after last night’s show. At 10am I was awake and feeling refreshed and ready to experience this true Dutch breakfast. Echte Beschuit translates to Real Rusk and this felt like an almost onomatopoeic name for the circular snack which features a ‘deliciously brittle’ texture and a ‘handy notch’ for ease of handling. I buttered my rusk and then generously sprinkled it with chocolate hail, before demolishing the ‘wonderfully airy’ snack in a few bites.
It was a beautiful morning for a run. Tristan and I left the hotel and crossed over the world’s busiest canal, the Amsterdam Rijnkanaal, and spent a few minutes watching one of the impressively long barges trundling along on its way to the Port of Amsterdam. This waterway is 72km long, 100-120m wide, and 6-9 metres deep, running all the way from Amsterdam to the Ruhr Area in western Germany. We reached the Vecht River which runs parallel to this canal, but instead of being straight and broad it is narrow and windy, and the section we found ourselves running along was particularly beautiful. Houses lined the river banks and boats aplenty were moored at the many jetties that seemed to be a standard feature of one’s back lawn in this part of the country.
We fully utilised the late checkout of our hotel and got on the road at midday heading southwest towards Rotterdam on A23. The drive was short and sunny and we had barely settled into our seats before we were arriving at this new city. An important stop had to be made before we could go to the venue as Jonathan’s pedal board had a gaping hole, one that needed to be filled with a very specific kind of distortion pedal. His usual ‘light drive’ workhorse was in for repairs, so we visited a music shop where a cheap and temporary replacement was found, and while we were there he also found another couple of goodies to make the action of swiping his credit card more worthwhile.
It was mid-afternoon when we arrived outside our venue in Rotterdam West. There was a tramline preventing us from parking out front so we pulled into the driveway of the neighbouring church, and dumped everything out onto the footpath so we could quickly move the van out of the way. Then we shuttled everything inside and into the venue’s storage room as the stage was currently in use as a dining area and covered in tables.
After relaxing for a couple of hours we ate an early dinner and got straight into the business of setting up, a task which needed to be accomplished in a very short time. The stage at Rotown was a conventional rectangle but didn’t have the height we needed for Bird, so once again our majestic inflatable Kingfish was given the evening off. The venue staff were helpful and competent and the setup felt like that of a festival stage, but without the stress.
Dining.
Around this time of the evening my jet lag begins to emerge and I find that taking a walk helps me to remain energised and awake. Luckily there is nothing that provides me with more energy and inspiration than great examples of historical engineering and in a city with such a rich maritime history I was bound to stumble across something. Just as countless mariners found their way safely into the nearby harbour by the bright beam of the Lage Licht, I was drawn in by the dazzling red paint job of this historic light house. I found myself at the Leuvehaven, Rotterdam’s oldest artificial harbour, which was just a shallow creek until it was deepened by horse-mill dredging around the beginning of the 17th century. Now it is home to the city’s maritime museum and the harbour houses fine examples of boats and ships from past centuries, and the dock possesses a well preserved collection of historical cranes.
This was another sold out show and when I made it back to the venue it took me quite a bit of politely squeezing by to get through the dense crowd and into the backstage. Lande Hekt was performing solo and everyone in the room was completely silent, hanging on her every word. After this delightful and delicate opening set we went on stage ready to rock things up a little. Jon’s new light overdrive pedal the Tone City: King of Blues performed admirably in its role as a low budget stand in, and this was exactly the glue we needed to come together and play a tight and punchy set for this quiet but excited crowd.
Gabe’s nightly sound desk POV.
The venue manager met us backstage after the set with a bottle of champagne and a large plate of watermelon (apparently this is the tradition for selling out this room) and we enjoyed these refreshing treats before heading back out to pack down the stage. Our gear had to remain at the venue until the next day as the load out would have been catastrophic for the health of the dance floor which at this time was in full swing with a powerful DJ playing. It was only a twenty minute walk to our hotel so we grabbed our suitcases and enjoyed the late evening air, arriving to the familiar comforts of a Holiday Inn Express for a nice long sleep.
I was extremely impressed with the submissions that people sent in depicting the stage from our Utrecht venue. I was so impressed in fact that I’ve already spent quite a lot of the boints budget on my day 3 boints graph. Here are the four that made it in by time of publication, although I will update if I receive any more in the future (no cheating please).
The stage of EKKO, as seen in the venue’s technical rider.
P.S.
I received this one right as I was ready to post. It is very inaccurate but I loved the detailed labeling and use of dashed lines.
Babi Hammond