Yes, yes, I've been to Germany before. Yes, I've toured Germany for music before. But. I've never ever done that, or anything like that, with my new(ish) solo act The Waitress For the Bees. Just me! All by myself! Saying things like, "Ich bin The Waitress for the Bees." And "Diese liede heisse Diplodacus".
Well, just me, and Charlie, who, as sound-tech, driver, manager, coach and hunter-gatherer, was also quite a bit there and quite a bit important.
Day one: Bristol-Berlin.
We flew easyjet out of Bristol airport on the day of the Royal Wedding. Easyjet did not seem to care. The crowds and crowds of people dressed in red, white, and blue (but not the American way) we passed on our way to the station all did seem to care. Despite this, easyjet was surprisingly great. I think they've decided, "yea, we're a budget airline, but, still, we're not Ryanair. Let's never be Ryanair." and, as such, we were both able to bring one carry on and one instrument (me: viola, Charlie: ukulele with a secret glock-and-shaker-egg-combo hiding with it) on board with no hassle at all, except for the check-in woman not knowing what a ukulele was, and being rather confused about this concept of an instrument she'd not heard of, until we told her it was a very small guitar (with two missing strings), and she was fine.
And then, Berlin. Berlin! We picked up the rental car the tour-booker arranged for us at the airport, providing the agent with credit cards, driver's lincenses, and "Autograms" as required, and zoomed into (okay, crawled very cautiously and with little idea where to go) the center of town, to the first gig.
Gelegenheiten means something like "opportunities" in German, and it was a fitting name for this, the first venue. It wasn't really a bar or a venue or a cafe so much as a small empty space. It looked like it might once have been a shop*. There wasn't any sign that we could see, and there certainly weren't any posters or anything like that announcing gigs or inhabitation of any kind. But, the Germans are amazing and have a secret sense for finding and joyfully attending any kind of live music event, especially foreign ones. I was tired-ish, and the set was far from polished, but everybody listened and everybody was happy and the bass player for the other band looked like my second-cousin Tammy, and some Italian friends I only knew from facebook turned up, so Gelegenheiten prevailed. Thanks Berlin, for that (and for your falafels). So far I like you (but don't get too excited).
*A little bit of post-writing-this research reveals that it was, in fact, an old butcher shop.
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