JEBO
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9/22/2007 9:46:22 AM
---- Updated 9/22/2007 9:55:24 AM
JEBO Tour Blog Day 6
Day 6 - Friday July 20th – Neuss gig
JEBO Daily Blog for Kevin @ Bristol Rock www.bristolrock.co.uk
by Charlie Presburg (www.pollstar.com)
We slowly filter down to sit outside the Furtherhof around 10am, Pete is there to greet us as ever. We have breakfast outside the venue and by lunchtime, the PA arrives. Whilst it's being set up, we run through the set-lists for this evening and the following day as well as James' spiel in between the songs. We also talk about the arrangements for the big one tomorrow afternoon at the Loreley Festival, this whole week pretty much revolved around this and as I've mentioned in earlier blogs, it's probably the largest and most important gig JEBO have played since I first saw them at the Royal Albert Hall back in April 2005.
By mid afternoon, the weather's taken a turn for the worse, luckily we're inside as the sound check begins, the rain becomes torrential and you can barely see across the street, 15 minutes later the sun re-appears as if nothing has happened. At this point, we're all totally unaware that most of the West of England's under water but we discover that there's been some awful plane crash in South America. You tend to end up living in a totally different zone to reality when on the road and when you hear about such terrible things happening in the world, it makes you realise why.
The band adjourn to the front bar where the gig will take place, this evening will be a mixture of both an acoustic and a full on set. We have a lot of fun running through some covers and I get to try the mic for a bit of Dire Straits' Sultans of Swing, what a laugh, some Who and America is also played before the band try out a couple of their own songs for size. It's a smallish space with a smallish PA but the sound is good, albeit a little quieter than normal (as I've mentioned earlier, these boys like to play live and very loud). Spider and I look at each other thinking the very same thing, this needs to be louder but due to licensing laws, we have to be quieter this evening as the gig's in the front bar and not the back venue. Our hosts at the Furtherhof and Peter Iserloh, the band's German agent have been so amazing to us that the last thing we want to do is to upset them so we're very happy to live with a lower sound level than we're used to, this is fine for us and all is well. The merchandise stand is set up, Pete's been running this as I've been on photographic and movie camera duty this wek, we're hoping to shift some product later. Sound check done and with the sun still shining, we take our table outside the venue and sit down to eat. By now, you know where this is going, Schnitzel is once again on the menu, this place does sell many other meals other than Schnitzel but we're all addicted (apart from James who's a veggie, he has the stuffed mushrooms which also look very tempting), delicious, or as they say here, lecker!
The front bar's getting busy now and people are filtering in, it's a well known local haunt and has an excellent reputation, I know I keep going on about it but Kerstin the owner and Nicole behid the bar make us feel like we've been coming here for years, it's kinda like Neuss's answer to the Cheers bar but with Schnitzel and a live music venue!
Peter gives the band a great intro and the band takes the stage around 9pm, they begin an acoustic set lasting about 45 minutes and get a great response. They then take a short break to cool down, it's like a sauna in here and the place is pretty full. We've been given about 5 million beer token between us so I get the boys some drinks before the second set starts. This time it's all electric and the guys so straight into their first song full tilt. The volume's still considerably lower than it would normally be but no matter, they sound great and it's an excellent way of warming up before tomorrow's biggy. They play another 45 minute set to a rapturous response and spend the next half hour or so signing CD's
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