I ♥ Liège

Saturday James went to Oma & Opa in Aartselaar. Since he's hoarse for the moment, my mum and dad would have a quiet time.. for once :-)

Then Cate & I drove down to Russeignies, where David & Sandra live, to drive to Liège together with our new drummer, Hans.
After a good 2 hour drive we arrived at the centre of Liège city, and were welcomed by the very very warmhearted host of the youth hostel, Sébastien. The first gig of the evening was already playing (a tribute to Noir Désir, a for us unknown French band, but seen as the whole crowd was singing along like mad, we realised our musical knowledge does have it's limitations), which forced us to unload our gear and transport it right across the front of the stage, towards the backstage area... (Something Cate really was looking foreward to :-p).

During the whole evening we were treated like heroes. It's really incredible how the people in the south of our country are so much more hearty and warm, compared to those in the north... We were on cloud nine.

The second band, a Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute called Coffee Shop, started playing around 21h15; I made some pictures of them here.
Being a local band, they had the biggest audience of the evening (about 500 people), and played a bit longer than foreseen, but that's ok.
During their gig I did a LIVE interview on Walloon radio N°1: BelRTL
You can listen to it here. Be warned: It's all in French... :-)

Finally, at around 23h30 it was time for us to play our gig. The 200 people that had stayed, cheered like they were still with 500, and we had a sound on stage like a CD was playing: a fantastic job of the sound engineers! We played more than an hour, and our rendition of Voodoo Chile turned out to be more than 15 minutes long! The sound engineer also recorded the last 40 minutes of the gig on a portable recorder, and he'll send me the mp3's when he's transferred them to his pc. (I'll then post a link here as well, so you can have a listen :-)
UPDATE: They posted a small movie on YouTube (the start of our concert) here!

A fantastic day, in a marvellous setting, with beautiful people... If only every Crosstown concert could be like this. :-)

Black Hole Sun

Studio Brussel, after 15 years still my favourite radiostation, is doing a show about the 90ies called 'Rendez Vous'.
Every show they pick out a year to discuss and talk about what musically happened that year.
One of the items they do, is letting a Belgian artist cover one of the biggest (rock-)hits of that year.
Well, I've heard some good ones, some serious-shame-on-you-bad-ones, but for the year 1994 an exceptional version of the song 'Black hole sun' (by Soundgarden originally) was covered by Ozark Henry.

If you know the original, you'll have to agree with me that Piet Goddaer has respected the original, but completely made this song his own... I think it's the best cover I've heared in a long time...

Listen for yourself:
Click here to listen
edit: if the link doesn't work, click here to go to the Studio Brussel website, and click on 'zijn versie' to play the song.

(and let me know what you think) :-)

Twentysomething

Today is Friday the 13th. Usually a lucky day, in my opinion.
Although I saw a couple of really stupid, crazy drivers this morning on the way to work (a bit more than usual, anyway), causing near-accidents just because they weren't looking properly where they were driving...
I guess those people deserve an unlucky Friday the 13th today... Pay attention in traffic, nitwits!

Today is the last day of my 20ies as well.
I'm not so sure why everybody is making such a big fuzz about it, though...
You know; 'the big 3', 'you're getting OLD', 'getting closer to 40 than to 20'...

Leave me alone! I feel fine! Really!

Why? Well;

I'll never be older than Cate.
I'll never be 30 years older than James.
I'll never grow up.
I'll never quit playing music, or playing games.
I'll probably just never feel 'old'...

I'll keep having fun, and I guess that's the key...
I'll soon be thirtysomething and I'll keep being me :-)

Ejourwl... Amamam...brrrrlbl

That bloggers block was over quickly :-)

This morning, while sat in his racing chair on the backseat, James suddenly said to me: "Ejourwl, Amamamm, brrrrlbl."

Which, I think, can be interpreted as "Dad, did you know that the CD-player in the car, playing that music there, is actually using a technology which utilizes light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation?"

To which I happily replied: "Yes James. Here's your dummy."

How kids grow up so fast... beats me...

B-B

Yep... there you have it...

Didn't think it would catch me so soon...
It arrived like an Asian typhoon...

I'll wait a bit more... perhaps 'till twelve-o-clock...
'Cos nothing proper comes out with this Bloggers-Block...

End of part I

Yesterday things got a bit out of hand... in my band.

D (the guitarist) and me had been discussing (for quite a long time already) what we should do with our Jimi Hendrix Tribute band Crostown Traffic. The motivation to rehearse and look for gigs had dropped to an alltime low; we weren't really happy with the availability and quality of our drummer Fanio; etc...
So last weekend we made the decision: The drummer we'd been rehearsing and jamming with for another project, Hans, would become the new Crosstown drummer.
Now find a way to try and get that message to Fanio in a decent manner...

Well... we failed.

As the organisers of a festival (where we'll play the 21st of June, in Liège) posted a poster on our myspace with our name on the band-list... our ex-drummer Fanio went beserk.
An understandable reaction, I guess, because we didn't get the chance to talk to Fanio properly about his (non-existing) future with Crosstown Traffic before the poster was posted...

A few dirty mails later...

A mixed feeling again... but it'll be alright...
I guess being 'kicked' out of a band is not the nicest thing that can happen to a musician... But wait... haha... No problem there... After all, drummers aren't musicians! :-p

Thanks, Fanio, for 5 years of Crosstown beats. But we have to go on without you now.