Back home

When we arrived at the Beijing airport we heard that our seats had been upgraded to first class because they overbooked the economy class. Oh hell yeah! "Do you want some champagne sir? Would you like some lobster? Here's the winecard" stuff like that, it was great!
An 8 hour flight to Dubai, 3 hours waiting, a 7 hour flight to Dusseldorf, and a 1 hour drive later we're back home.

China was an absolutely amazing experience for us and we'd like to thank all the people that came out to see us from the bottom of our hearts. You guys rock.

We'd also like to thank the following:
Tjerk, the Dutch ambassy in Beijing, MIDI-festival, Painkiller magazine, the bands we've played with, the venues we've played at and all the cool people we've met.

The one we'd like to thank the most is our friend/tourmanager Jason Tang. He went above and beyond to get our Dutch asses to play in China. Without him there would'nt be a China-tour. Your hard work payed off!

Well, guess that's the end of this blog. Thanks for all the responses, people really seemed to enjoy reading about our experiences.

One thing we can say for sure:
We will be back China!!!

4th and last show, Zhenjiang MIDI-Festival

By: Geert

WOW... just WOW!

We got picked up at the hotel around 15.00 and headed to the festival site.
When we arrived we found out the backstage at MIDI-fest was the most luxurious backstage we've ever had. It was a congress centre/hotel that looked like a castle from the inside. We took some time to chill out on the 15.000,- couches and had something to eat.
After that we checked out the festival to find out that this was going to be the biggest show we've ever played.

We checked out some of the other bands an hung around the backstage untill it was our time to go on. We were the forelast to play. An amazing spot, we had to start around 21.10. The soundcheck was quick and painless (Riza rocks)
Then the intro started....
From the moment we set foot on stage the crowd (20.000 people!) just teared the whole place down. Gigantic moshpits, circlepits, crowdsurfers, chants, claps... they gave us their all. I even saw a kid climb the front barries and make a backflip back into the crowd! They obeyed our every request for shouts and claps as if we were the captains of their army. And boy did they sound like an army...

My voice was not doing too good before the show. Like I mentioned in the second blog it was already a little sore, and it got worse during the forelast show. When I climed the stage it still was pretty rough, but I got through it. Let's say it was a little rough around the edges.
Surprise guys and galls, the whole show can be viewed at this link: http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/7TxMMjf1BX8/

It was one of the best experiences we've ever had.

We got picked up at the hotel this morning at 7.20 and we drove to Shanghai airport. There we took the in-land flight back to Beijing where we arrived at around 19.00.

We're going to have some dinner and some drinks with our new friends and after that we will take a few hours of sleep to wake up around 4.00 to make the plane back home.
Will do my best to submit one last blog before we're home, 'cause I've gotta run now..

To be continued...

3rd show Live House

By: Geert

We just checked in to our hotel in Zhenjiang. We had a lot of trouble getting our guitars on board of the airplane from Beijing to Zhenjiang. They told us we could'nt take them as handluggage and could'nt take them as normal suitcases. Well we could, but we'd have to pay an enormous amount of money to get them on the plane. We got sent from one desk to another and time was running out for us to check in.
That's when Jason (our tourmanager) got mad and really took a stand. He spoke to the guy at the 3rd desk pretty fiercely and luckily he made the right impression. We could take our guitars, and put them in the storage compartment of the airplane staff. We're so lucky to have Jason along.

Yesterdays show was another fantastic one. The setting was kind of different from the other shows. Live house is a big venue. There were tables and chairs in the back half of the hall so we were affraid that this was turning out to be some kind of dinnershow ;0)
After soundcheck we went back to the hotel for a little while to chill and get some dinner. (at our favourite Peking Duck restaurant)
So after that we headed back to the venue and to find out the hall was quite full. All of the people were sitting on their chairs and we were affraid they would stay there.
When we got on the stage to do a linecheck the crowd was already chearing. (they even screamed when our soundguy Riza was checking the mics... ;0)
We started the intro and blasted into our first song. Everybody rushed off their chairs and came to support us upfront. They were wild. Just like the day before they were really participating in the show. Screaming along, clapping and just smiling. Thats the biggest difference here in China. You play, everybody smiles and is just so into the show.

A lot of our new friends were there to come support us. Also there was a verry nice lady from the Dutch embassy and Dave's tattoo artist of two days ago.

After the show we went out for some drinks with Jason and his friends Ping and Chaupau (don't know if I've spelled this right... sorry guys). Got to bed around 1.00 because we had to leave for the airport at 6.00.

The flight to Zhenjiang was short and sweet (1,5 hours). At the airport we got picked up by someone from the MIDI-festival. We drove for 2 hours to our hotel and here we are.
We are hearing really good stories about the festival we are playing tonight. Spoke to some bands that played here yesterday and they were just amazed. There are expected to be between 15.000 and 20.000 people! This should be the highlight of the tour and we're looking forward to this really bad.

It's 13.30 now and we get picked up around 15.00 so I'm going to get some shuteye.
Leaving for Beijing tomorrow morning, now it's time to party!!!

To be continued...

2nd show: 13 club

We played our second show in China yesterday. This was at the 13 club. A very cool club that holds up to 300/400 people. The place was packed! It was a metal festival and we were the only non-Chinese band playing. We were the 5th band to hit the stage (of 8 bands).
We did a quick line-check and Dave started his intro.
From the first note the place litteraly exploded! The crowd went ape-shit. They did everything I asked, clapping along, shouting along, building moshpits (I heard that was really rare in China). We had such a good time on stage, it was too bad we only could play for like 30 minutes. After the show all these people came up to us asking if they could take a picture with us. Overwhealming. 13 club rocks!

I got up at around 10.00 today and Jason took me to the square of heavenly peace. It was a nice trip. Jason told me a lot about the Chinese history and politics, very interesting.

Now I'm back at the hotel and I'm going to rest for a while. We're playing the MIDI-festival Beijing at the Live House tonight. Have to leave for soundcheck in an hour and a half. It's going to be a big show tonight, I hope that it's going to be crowded.

To be continued...

Goodness gracious, great wall of China...

Wow, the wall was really impressive. It was a good climb and it was really crowded, but it was worth it. A real must-see when you're in China.

Dave is getting a tattoo as I'm typing this. It's looking awesome already. He's getting two skulls done on his stomach. The tattoo artist is a really cool guy and likes our music. He wanted our picture and an autograph.

playing 13 club tonight. Should be a really cool venue. Looking forward to it!

We heard what happened in the Netherlands last night. Shocking. Our thoughts go out to the casualties, the wounded and their loved-ones


To be continued...

First show

By: Geert

The first show last night was great! We played at MAO club. A really cool venue that can be described as a combination between Melkweg and W2 (for the Dutchies).
The people were really into us, rocking out, headbanging and having an overall good time. I've got to say, the Chinese are sofar among the nicest and most respectfull we've ever played for. I think we played well. Saw some other cool bands like the German band Gammalux and a local metalband with really young kids that kicked ass!

We ate 'Peking-eend' (Beijing Duck) yesterday just before the show. It was delicious.

After the show we went somewhere for some drinks. We hopped in a cab and went to the other side of town. Grabbed a few drinks and some snacks at a 'restaurant' and after that we went to see the olympic stadium. It was actually sealed off for people, but security was kind enough to let us through.
We found out that Jackie Chan is having a concert at this stadium tomorrow and is soundchecking. Yes, the man sings and he is really popular here.
To bad we have a show on this day, cause it would've been cool to see the concert ;0)

We have a day off today and we're going to see the great wall. Really looking forward to this!
Keep ya posted!

To be continued...

In Beijing!

By: Geert

The flight from Dubai to Beijing was pretty good. The drinks were for free, and they had Jack and Coke! We were happy campers. Gerwin and Dave slept the whole flight through.
Arrived in Beijing at about 23.30 local time.

Someone from MIDI-festival was waiting to pick us up from the airport. We got dropped off at our hotel where we checked in.
After checking in, and some freshening up, we went out to get a bite to eat and some beers. Jason and two of his friends took us down the road from our hotel to a 'restaurant'. It was'nt really a restaurant, kind of looked like a store with some tables out on the sidewalk. You see that a lot here.

It was really cool, we had a great time enjoying the 0.65 cl. (?) beers and the local delicacies. The food was delicious, but spicey. We really needed to taste the real Chinese kitchen so we ordered bullfrog, kidneys, chickenbone cartilage and lamb tendon. The bullfrog was actually pretty tasty ;0)

Got to bed at around 5.00 in the morning and slept untill 13.00. It was a good sleep.
Went out for a walk with Dave. It's nice to see the normal life in Beijing. Remember kids, if the traffic light is green, that doesn't mean that you won't be hit by a car. People don't really care for traffic lights here. We made an appointment at the local tattoo shop for Dave and after that we went to McDonalds for breakfast. I know, I know, but we figured we'd deserved it for what we ate last night.

Playing the MAO club tonight. We have to be there at around 18.00 for soundcheck. Looking forward to it. I wonder what it feels like to have an all-Chinese crowd in front of you when they hit the lights...

To be continued...