Our stomachs were roaring, so we took a stop at de Kunstfabriek, where we were surrounded by flowers, Jinte discovered a funny hair on my head (how can a hair lose its colour, and then regain it again?)

It’s a hard knock life, touring around.

Hello, Arnhem!

We’re playing at a beautiful venue, called Luxor Live

The wallpaper waved us welcome and listened carefully while we rehearsed a new song.
I’d gotten got nauseus in the car, and it wouldn’t go away, so I couldn’t enjoy the delicious lasagna they had prepared for us
No time for nagging when you’re playing a show, so I grabbed myself together and was ready for the show.

Another great show by An Pierlé

Shed some tears when I realised we have our last show of this German-Dutch tour tomorrow

After show hangouts, sharing funny stories with An before we head out to our cosy attic room in ‘s Hertogenbosch for another good night sleep.

So lucky we can fit into a car, no idea how I could pay for all these supporttours otherwise..
So, we were off again.

Tilburg this time

Windows down, singing along with Daft Punk’s new single. The sun is shining and all the houses look like this

Hello, 013!
An is soundchecking when we get to the venue
She’s a pure beauty

Some friends of An brought her Bossche Bollen, which we devoured after the show

My precious found some time to come along for a these few days

I’m totally hooked and so happy this was only the first of our 5 shows together.
Take a good look at the ball she’s sitting on.
Moments after I took this picture it just snapped. An took a freefall to the ground, but turned out ok.
The awkwardness vanished when she asked us just how embarrassing that was.

Honestly, I couldn’t even get past a 5th of one of those GINORMOUS balls before I got nauseous.
Sadly, the nausea stayed until I shut my eyes to go to sleep.
For the next 2 nights we’re sleeping at this … house – I can’t even explain.
Beautiful furniture, children-paintings, beautiful paintings, weird paintings. The house was filled with little collections, all kinds of stuff people would throw away, but magically found its family here, in a corner, or right in the middle of the wall.

Pieter, our host, made his own travel guitar, which you can take apart and put away in your suitcase.
Pretty amazing!

Tired, nauseous, but amazed by all these little things (of which I’ll take more photographs later) and happy with a big soft bed that I can share with my favorite, I fall asleep.

A Gameboy with a Pokémon game, and David Hasselhoff sexy-smizing me goodbye.
(How to smize - Wikihow)

Road-break at a music store. Totally relaxed after this zen-concert.

Little disappointment when the iced coffee turned out to be (c)old coffee with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream and half a bottle of whipped cream on top.

Bye, bye, Dresden. Until next time!

Reunited with my favorite bus buddy!
Finished reading Gabriel Garcia, started with Paul Auster.

After a week of sunshine, the grey sky in Stuttgart takes us by surprise.

We spent our last night in Germany at the Keller Club

This place was weird. Way too many rooms. Luckily we got Filip in our team as mixer, to make sure that our sound reaches everyone around

I said it once and I’ll say it again. You Germans are one of the best crowds. Every show turned into a dance party. So much fun.

The shows ended early for the party to start. A perfect way to end the night.
Taking care of Benne, who has to drive for at least 6h tomorow, we go to the hotel in time.
Only to find this lost grandpa behind the desk.
It took him 45minutes silently clicking away at the computer, before he just gave me the list of hotelguests to look for my own name. 10 seconds later I got my key.
We would have started a riot, but he just seemed so sad and lost..

And so all’s well that ends well.
The Kelly Family and I wish you a good night.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Good morning, Stuttgart!

Wake up call at 8, getting our stuff out of the Balthazar van.
Cosy breakfast, long shower and lingering on my soft hotel bed until our taxi arrives at 11, to take us to the car rental place.
Even though we explicitly asked for a little bus, we get a normal car.
The taxi guy starts an argument, and walks away angrily.
So we call for another.
Again, a car. A bit bigger this time.
We tetris our way in, and have a great conversation with our driver until we arrive at our car rental place.
Imagine that this is your office.
Bright orange, all day, every day.

Trunk to trunk we ship over our gear and say goodbye to our driver.

Goodbye rainy Stuttgart!
Hoping for a change of weather along our way back home.

With all the taxi cab and car rental waiting, plus this ridiculous traffic jam that we were it, the drive took forever and I just want to lay on the sofa and be a couch potato.

Coming home, I realised I had no food at all..
Cereal to the rescue!

Before crashing, I paid a visit to my other home; the Studio Skoop Café where Liese-Lotte was working.
Sleep over, a Sunday filled with family and friends, and I’m ready to hit the road again on Monday, for 3 Holland shows with An Pierlé!

Benne and I went for breakfast in the sun, just around the corner

With our bellies filled with sugar, we left for Dresden.

I love driving through Germany, being surrounded by trees.
I keep my window open

A friend of mine lives here, so I’m very excited to see what his city looks like in broad day light
The area we play in has a Berlin/Kreuzberg feel to it.
Lots of street art, tiny beach bars, people all around, just sitting on the curb, having a beer

We are welcomed by this horse-doggy who takes me for a walk
It’s so hot outside, and I’m happy to get out of the car

Soundcheck goes well and quickly, and we have time to chill out, and enjoy the sun
The cook made a delicious fish en papillote – dish and I’m ready to play

So good to see Max again, and meet his sweet girlfriend, Nadine.
He drew a map of his apartment, which he lends us for the night
Interesting talks about pop-up coffeeshops and all these bands I have to check out
People here seem very open and spontaneous, without being too much.
I’m so sad we have a long drive tomorrow and I didn’t really get the time to explore
Touring is not a holiday, I know.
Have to come back soon.
The full moon leads us home, and I take the upper bunk bed.
Max, you have a beautiful apartment. Thanks again.

Fact of the day:
40% of the orders at McDonalds are Happy Meals

We had breakfast at the shoppingcentre next door and headed out for München

Had to force ourselves not to sneak into Legoland and just skip the show tonight. Tough decisions

Balthazar had left half an hour before us this morning, and I was secretly hoping to catch up with them.
2 minutes before arrival there was this annoying car behind us that kept honking and suddenly they passed us by.
That, and I saw a zeppelin for the first time in my life!

STRØM is a great venue. Secret elephants drawn with lipstick on a golden pillar and a whole buffet to welcome us

I lost the way when I went looking for the car, whiwh isn’t a bad thing sometimes

When I found my way back again, they were playing Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” with Simon playing bass and guitar at the same time.
With Balthazar, soundchecks are never boring

A mirrored wall, hidden in the shades got me confused.
Soundcheck, dinner, showtime.
Dortmund had just won a soccergame against Real Madrid, and everyone was still excited.
The whole crowd seemed filled with energy, which created a confusing but at the same time lovely atmosphere.
Nice talks with 3 immigrated Belgians and a great Balthazar show.

It was my little sister’s birthday, so I send her some love, not realizing she turned 20.
She was just a baby! How can she grow up that fast?

Tons of people wanted to party, so we let them take us out and ended up at Atomic Club, which I loved right away. Selling candy etc at the cloakroom must be the BEST IDEA ever. Even better if they also sold cherrypie, but candy is  great start.
We danced our ass of until 5AM, then realizing we only had a few hours to catch up on some sleep…
Drunk on Club Mate and tons of energy I crashed into my little bed, windows open.

Fact of the day:
Elephants are the only mammals that can’t jump

On our way to Heidelberg
One of the girls from last night called it Geidelberg, so we’re very excited

Johnny Cash today

Since touring costs a whole lot of money, we try to find cheap hotels, and I loved this one
Throwback to making an invitation in Word for your birthday party and trying out the special fonts for making a title

Heidelberg is stunning. Can’t believe how pretty all the houses are, and how they managed to keep the city so incredibly green.

Another reason why I love touring Germany; they got the best lemonade around. I tried the rhabarber this time, longing for more

Balthazar hasn’t arrived yet, so we got enough time to go out and visit the Schloss.

I’m 25, and this was the first time I actually saw, or noticed, a baby tree..

A late show and a wonderful Italian restaurant
The show went well, a great crowd and another danceparty with Balthazar

(by David Kennedy)

I’m deadtired and longing for my bed
I forgot how incredibly long tourdays are, especially with school pushing me in the back with a bony finger. I’ll be so happy when I can just focus on one thing, or at least less than a million.
Found out that someone was looking for my dad on the world wide web, intriguing..
Our hotel is just this hallway with 8 rooms, so funny sitting at the frontdesk (the only place where the wifi works) and hearing all these different sounds from different rooms. No idea what Room #1 was doing exactly, but it sounded quite disturbing

Fact of the day:
Croissants were not invented by France, but by (/on the grounds they now call) Austria

Went looking for Benne, who I found swimming with the fishes

I fished him out of the tank, and off we went.
A good ride to Frankfurt Am Main
So many forests, Sonic Youth and another amazing short story by Gabriel Garcia

I have never been to Frankfurt and I was amazed by the diversity of the city. Big New Yorkan skyscrapers, and other areas filled with cute houses, trees and a cosy homey feeling.

We met part of the Balthazar gang outside in the sun.

I went for my very first Primark visit ever. 5 minutes to grab a new pair of leggings and a short summery shirt before I was called to the italian restaurant next door

The pizza was too salty, too greasy and not crunchy at all, but the home made lemonade was delicious!

No time to digest, but jumped right on stage for a ghostly show, with our personal dancer; Mr. Yellow Shirt

A big dance party while watching Balthazar
I liked Nachtleben a lot. The low ceiling, kitchy wallpaper and open atmosphere made it feel like an extended livingroomconcert somehow

A little after party while packing our gear, spotting this tiny rabbit at the other side of the street , crashing a poor, innocent girls bedroom for an extended after party
Talking about touring, Heidelberg, first loves

Fact of the day:
Will Smith has 4 Rottweilers, 2 of which he got from Jay Leno

A cosy drive, writing more download cards while listening to Elliott Smith and Outkast

Still intrigued by this building

Our dear Balthazar friends are already sound checking when we arrive, so there’s time for an extra but quick rehearsal
Sound check goes super smooth, so we rush over to the restaurant around the corner for a quick bite

Being the opener means very little time for everything and I feel like I didn’t get any time to just breathe out and chill
Showtime

I loved it
Felt like ages ago since our shows with Local Natives, but I’m like a fish, happy to be back in the water
I love German crowds and yesterday was no exception to that
So attentive and present at the same time
Thank you so, Dortmund
A perfect start of the tour

Balthazar kicked ass, a great show!
Dear Belgians, if Germans can show off their best moves while watching a show, you can too.

All the excitement wore me off and I was ready to spend a night in our diamond hotel where the beds are as big as swimming pools

 
Fact of the day:
Spinal Tap is the only movie on imdb with a possible score of 11 instead of 10.

Come see us;

21.04: FZW, Dortmund
22.04: Nachtleben, Frankfurt Am Main
23.04: Karlstorbahnhof, Heidelberg
24.04: STRØM, München
25.04: Scheune, Dresden
26.04: Keller Klub, Stuttgart

Stay tuned for words and pictures

♥

I met these guys while travelling along with Balthazar on the Scandinavian part of their support tour.
Ever since their first album Gorilla Manor, I’ve been a been a big fan. That CD was the soundtrack to my Swedish summer in 2010, and hasn’t left my favorite albumlist since.
Balthazar and Local Natives turned out to be a perfect fit on and off stage.
Turned out we shared a fondness for discobowling, throathealing hot whiskeydrinks and afterparties at hotelrooms.
I had a great time hanging out in cold Scandinavia.

Turns out my luck didn’t end their; on thing led to another and now I can support Local Natives this Thursday at Le Grand Mix in Tourcoing, and this Friday at Trix, Antwerp.

Can’t stop smiling.
I’m a lucky bastard, and I know it.