Here's part two... be sure to check out Part 1 for details about Lithuania and Poland if you haven't already...
And as always, feel free to add to what we've got here :-)
Leipzig
We
arrived in Leipzig and noticed something different straight away - we
normally only come to Leipzig for Wave Gotik Treffen and this time the
city wasn't a sea of black ;-) Either way it's still a nice city with
lots of parks and forests everywhere - you an drive a couple of minutes
out of the centre and feel like you're in the middle of forest land,
then keep going another minute and you're in another part of the
city... nice!
We
arrived at La Petite Absintherie (easy to find - just look for the
green glow!) and were informed by the lovely head honcho Karen that
alas she couldn't supply us with kid's bike but had supplied us with a
kind instead - yay Maximilian! (see last year's Video Tour Diary for an
explanation of the "No kid's bike, no concert" principle). It was a
really great night with good people, good food, and of course good
absinthe - plus absinthe chocolate and even chocolate absinthe... ah,
together at last!
It
was really nice to play a completely un-amplified acoustic concert,
something we've been enjoying lately because it's nice to hear the
sound from the instruments themselves, not from a few thousand watts of
PA system. But rest assured we still love doing the big electric shows
and cranking everything up to 11... it's still a nice change though. We
played a mix of old and new songs, including a few songs from "All
Becompassed By Stars" that we haven't been playing at the full
acoustic/electric/electronic concerts, such as "Orbit", "XVII" and
"Early Warning Sign".
For a review of the concert (with photos) visit neurostyle.de (who also have a great review of the album too!)
Unfortunately we left our camera behind but here's a snap from the review :
(photo from neurostyle.de)
And if you're in Leipzig, you have to visit La Petite Absintherie - and say hi from us!!!
We
were supposed to have a show in another city the next night which fell
through, which turned out to be a good thing because it meant we could
see the wonderful Faun play an acoustic concert in the beautiful
medieval Peterskirch... a truly fantastic concert! We assume that any
European listeners will be familiar with Faun, but to everyone in
Australia etc - you have to check this band out!
After
the concert we went out for a midnight dinner with Faun too - it was
great to catch up with them again Oliver, Fiona and Rudegar had us in
constant laughter too :-D But guys, we're still waiting for the "Faun
On Ice" spectacular!
Schwarzenberg
Ah,
Schwarzenberg - a beautiful town in the mountains of Saxony with a
unique history... and a town inhabited by warm people and amazing
artists. When we arrived we still weren't sure whether we were playing
in the Freie Republik Schwarzenberg's Cafe Piano or their newly
acquired Ottenstein hall, but once we got there we found out we were to
play in the hall. We weren't sure what to expect, but we should have
known that a hall by FRS would be elaborately decorated in amazing
artwork by Jörg Beier, Christina and the rest of the FRS gang.
All
we can say is wow. What an amazing place to play a concert! When we
first played at the Freie Republik last year we saw a catalogue of
Jörg's artwork and were amazed by his giant wooden angel sculptures...
we didn't know that one year later we would be sharing the stage with
two of them!
Also a big thanks to Jan for being a splendid driver and star merch man!!!
Here's a couple of photos taken by Otto and Lydia:
And here's a shot of us, the whole Freie Republik Schwarzenberg crew, Jan and some guy with a sausage:
We
currently have a couple of days off at Black Rain HQ in Chemnitz, where
we are busy with some last minute preparations before we continue the
tour. We did manage to sneak in a day of sightseeing with Gerald, Katja and Luna from Black Rain, including a trip to Greifensteine and a strange spring snow expedition to Fichtelberg, complete with hot chocolate and Riesengermknödel. Mmmm.. lecker!
Next stop: Zürich, Switzerland, which we are are really looking
forward to going back to - the last two concerts we played at Nach(t)brand were
lots of fun and we're looking forward to more shenanigans! (not to
mention the possibility that someone might bring us more delicious
Swiss Chocolate again...hint hint :-p )
lobsters,
N&N
exhausted
tired
awake
