Friday, 2/21/14 – We stayed over at Henny’s place the night after our show in Hamburg…it really, really helps to have both an evening off and a good friend who’ll put up with you, after a string of challenging gigs with a band that’s fighting a pernicious cold bug. We got some rest, went out and ate at a decent Greek restaurant, had a couple of glasses of wine and some laughs, and a relatively early bed. I’ve been bunking in Henny’s office on the spare bed there, and the many shelves of books there are strangely comforting to me. Plus, I had both the time and the Internet bandwidth to Skype with Cynthia, which was also a huge comfort. It’s just so nice to be able to talk with her face to face! She’s holding up pretty well in the frozen north, considering everything…her car’s undercarriage BROKE IN HALF when she hit one of the many potholes that Michigan is sporting now. The auto is done in, I’m afraid. Fortunately my van is still working, so she’s got that.
On
Friday the 21st we hopped back in the van and drove to France…not a
terribly long drive, maybe 2 1/2 hours…to Arras, where we were booked to play
at the Blue Devils. Found the place to be a small shotgun shack of a bar, with
the stage at the far end, and the bar itself along the opposite side. Kind of a
drag to load in through the customers at tables and the taps, but we’ve had
plenty of that. Even in a biker oriented club like this, people get out of the
way, and a few smiles and “Excuse me’s” go a long way. The stage itself was
really quite a mess…I hadn’t seen so much clutter on a working stage, well,
maybe ever. Cords and mic stands were strewn around in tangles, along with
paper trash and some broken glass. We took a while and straightened up the
place, just to have some order onstage and a little space to put up the
equipment!
Nice
enough people (although the language barrier was a bit of a problem, they spoke
enough English to get by), and a decent club really…just kind of run down and
dirty. Funky, one might call it! But really, no worse than plenty of Blues bars
in the States. The leather-clad, goateed owner had a friend of his cooking us
dinner…not an appetizing meal, but I suppose there were essential proteins and
carbs and such in it, so we managed. The gig itself was surprisingly good…by
now the Helltown Blues Band is such a well-oiled, powerful machine that we can
have a good performance wherever we are, I think. The PA was a bit of a
problem, but we found enough mic stands and cords in that pile onstage that
were functional, and the sound guy of the night was able to get us what we
needed in the way of monitors and all, so we were all right. The crowd was
happy and enthusiastic, which made the night much better! I was amused that
after the show a male fan ran up to Mike, kneeled, grabbed his hand and kissed
his ring…I always thought that stuff was reserved for the Pope. Must be a
French thing.
One odd thing…the bar had no wine whatsoever!! We were expecting some plentiful delicious choices, it being France and all. Bee was just shocked. I guess if you weren’t drinking liquor, the alternative was Belgian beer, which seemed quite popular. I had one before the show, and two after…not realizing at the time that these were the famous deadly Belgian Tripel beers. I felt fine, but on the way back to Henny’s (we opted out of the rather mildewed hotel, although we did change clothes there) I was lying back on my seat in the bus, and looking out the window saw not one but TWO moons!! I knew something was a bit askew then. Closed one eye…one moon…both eyes…two. Dang. The Belgian Tripels made me see double!!
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