We got to The Hague in the afternoon and did a few laps to allow the sat-nav to work out exactly what was going .. finding the venue and getting loaded out. We were in the Nationale Toneel upstairs venue, NT2, and it seemed a very well organised affair with backline being moved in as we arrived (including, to put a grin on T’s face, two Vox AC-30s…). After a short panic over plugs (we really should have brought some adapters, but we just assumed…the “British abroad” problem, I guess), we were ready for soundcheck which was pretty quick as the other bands were arriving. The room itself was very “dead”, in that the sound wasn’t bouncing around all over the place, which gave Kas a chance to shake his head a bit, and even on stage things were sounding quite dry.
I was hearing a lot of drums which is actually an unusual thing for me, despite being sat behind them. (This may, of course, be due to complete deafness on my part…eh?…) This dryness was of particular concern to the vocals and trumpet but the very helpful monitor man sorted them out with some reverb using amazing modern technology which seemed to help matters.
I awoke from more of a doze than a sleep at about half seven and went round to meet everyone else for dinner, which was a hot buffet in a restaurant just along from the venue, with some excellent food on offer. We ate our fill then went through to the main venue to watch the Cave Singers, then caught Aiden Moffat playing an acoustic radio session in the venue foyer. After a bit of a warm -up in the dressing room (which seemed to involve Arne and Rory swapping instruments and trying to struggle through Nearly Home to everyone’s general amusement), Jamie, Rory and Arne headed downstairs for their own acoustic set (which was filmed by Grant and I will provide a YouTube link once I have it). They played If The News Makes You Sad, Don’t Watch It and Travelling Songs.
After Micah P Hinson had finished we dived on stage for a quick setup and line check, before a poetry reading (by a poet. Not by us…). We weren’t sure what was going to greet us when we went back out, what with it being the last night and The Black Keys being on in the larger venue downstairs at exactly the same time, but we were pleased to see a room full of people when the lights came on, and proceeded to play arguably one of our most enjoyable sets of the year, everyone enjoying themselves on stage tremendously. I can’t remember the setlist, and it seemed to be done far too fast, but we all came off feeling great, albeit disgustingly soaked in sweat… We grabbed a few beers and headed out into the alleyway for a smoke and a cool down before carrying everything down the narrow and steep staircase (the kind of narrow and steep that you can only find in the Netherlands) to the van. Ian had by this point vanished and returned shortly after the van was packed with several groups of people he had befriended and was trying to sell t-shirts to. (“Doesh your guitar player know anything about Eurosh? Or ish he jusht making up these prices?”, I was asked. I had to be honest and say that he was just multipying the Sterling cost by about 5…).
It transpired that there was a bit of a funky aftershow party going on at the bar next door, so we dived in for a few jars and promptly found ourselves stuck by the sheer volume of people crammed in there. It was good to see some people we knew there, Rab was holding court at the bar and there were several Scottish bands playing at the various venues that night as well. Eventually Rory came and grabbed me saying everyone was leaving so I said my goodbyes and made my way for the door, only to find Arne strutting his killer Eurodance moves on the dancefloor and proclaiming that he was staying until the sun came up. Now, there is nothing I dislike more than trying to go to sleep knowing that there is some partying going on, plus I was sharing a room with him, so I would have only gotten woken up at stupid o’clock anyway (alright, so this is how my mind works. I need the minimum of excuses), so I decided to stay out a little longer, despite only having 40 cents left over from last night in Utrecht.
I was shown up by Arne in both stamina and dancing ability that night, and I was the first to buckle and call it a day. Our alarm for the morning had a great function so when you set it, it would tell you how much time you had before it went off. We were delighted to note a full three hours. Almost as delighted as when it went off the next morning. Breakfast was a necessary use of some of the morning, and a few strong coffees, several bits of toast, a fry up, salami, ham, cheese, bread and cinnamon pastries made the drive to Calais quite tolerable. A Big Mac meal coupled with a quarterpounder made the drive from Dover to Edinburgh a little less so, but we had managed to get a slightly earlier ferry so got back home around eleven, having taken the prize for longest drive of the day at Abingdon services (“Does that mean you’ll give us the petrol free, aye?”). There’s something really quite depressing about coming back from somewhere, I guess because you aren’t going to experience anything new or exciting when you get home, you just want to get back and go to sleep. Or at least, I certainly did. However, there was nothing depressing about the weekend, and we came away feeling excited about going back to Holland, whenever that may be. Thanks to everyone who came out and we will be back soon!
BR xxx
