café De Doelen

Arjen en Frits

There was a strong wind when I cycled to the centre of Amsterdam. On a bridge I fell of my bike and I thought my guitar broke, but everything was allright, thank god.

 I went to café De Doelen last night and when I arrived I looked through the windows and I saw a lot of people drinking, smiling and talking. I was not nervous at all, but I was happy when I saw a friend of mine, Frits, sitting next to the door drinking his beer.

I got inside and a nice woman told me it was pretty busy that night and that she would move a table to make room for us to play. She offered me a cup of coffee and then I saw Arjen, so me and Frits sat down at his place. Mick arrived and after ten minutes we started to check the sound.

 First I thought that we were gonna have a hard time because it was difficult to find the right sound. Than some people from the audience helped us by telling us how we sounded together so we could change the volumes. Mick brought his own mic and so I think my voice sounded allright.

 

 As you maybe know I am a teacher so I tell children everything about Dutch grammar, mathematics, geography, history and other subjects.  But in the meantime I am watching what's happening in the classroom...( which means that I want them to pay attention to the lessons and not writing little notes about how they are in love with some guy or so) So I am very used to tell stories on autopilot while watching around. Now this is what happens when I sing: I try to concentrate on my lyrics and the music but I see most of times what's happening in the audience. And this time I noticed that a man and a woman were talking all the time while I was singing and two other female friends were listening. They listened just two songs while they were looking severe and then they stood up and left. The man and the woman stopped talking after five songs and started listening till the end ( twelve songs). After we finished the show she came to me and asked me if she could buy a cd. I don't have a cd. Then she asked if she could download something. Well, maybe there is a possibility ( soundcloud) but I don't think so. "Write down the link of your blogspot", Frits suggested.
So I did. I hope she didn't loose it because I took a picture of her.

She told me she was from England and first she thought that the music we were gonna play wouldn't mean anything to her. But then she started to like it a lot. Well, I took this as a compliment. It's exactly what I saw happening. I also saw some other people watching and listening, sometimes leaving, sometimes coming closer,sometimes talking softly It was really a nice gig, because everybody was relaxed. We played the whole setlist ( twelve songs) and it took us an hour. Yes, it was really nice to be here. After playing we felt good.

 

 

 

I was very glad that Desiree and her husband Eugene passed by. As you could read in another story Desiree organizes houseconcerts and a few weeks ago we played at her house. If you like to get some information about these houseconcerts I could give you a link.

 

I think Arjen and Mick and me did a good job last night, we did not make many mistakes and the atmosphere in the café was allright. I did my presentation in Dutch, but I think almost everybody was English. There were no French people, this I know because I asked in my best French :) While I was singing my last song 'On the Corner' I was very suprised to see delta bluesplayer Henry come in. I didn't see him for a long time. The funny thing is that I thought about him as I cycled to café De Doelen. It was he who took me there once and told me this is a nice café to play. Henry took his guitar with him ( of course) and he started playing his songs after we were finished.

Second surprise was that I met Gian Piero Milanetti, a professor from Rome. I knew he would be in Amsterdam that night because he told me the day before. He is gonna play his songs Tuesday at café CC where I will play my songs too. But I was surprised that he came at café De Doelen. You must know that he wrote a book

Presentazione del libro "le streghe della notte" del prof. gian piero milanetti
„Le Streghe della Notte"

 

 

Gian also played a few songs of him.

 

 

Another guy who showed up was Craig and I saw him listening for almost an hour. Actually he could sing with me for he knows almost all the songs and he's got a great voice.

 

After the show we had a good time together.

 

And this is such a nice thing to do... thanks Frits :)

 

Ik ben net naar een optreden van Annette Vogel geweest. Erg leuk. Ik heb haar voorheen alleen bij optredens gezien waar ze een paar nummers speelde en dan heeft het geen tijd om saai te worden. Nu speelde ze een heel uur en ik kan zeggen: het wordt absoluut niet saai. Ze had een fijne bassist en en Utrechtse Cahon-speler bij zich en dat maakt de band wel compleet (wat natuurlijk mijn bescheiden mening is). Leuk, leuk, leuk!

 

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