Day 18: Cologne
Nau mai
Yesterday we entered the Rhineland to play a show in Cologne.
It was good to be woken by the vibrations and low rumble of a functioning public transport system as the trams thundered down Rue Royale on the way into the city, just a few metres away from my window. I headed downstairs to participate in the hotel breakfast and put together a reasonably colourful plate of food, perhaps achieving up to 50% non-brown substances. In my photograph you can see cheese, cucumber, tomato, olives, croissant, flatbread, brown bread, and butter.
Our equipment had been in storage at the previous venue, Botanique, so the first task was to retrieve it and load the van. The load out was awkward, and we had to block the footpath with the van, an inconvenience on the city that felt almost unbearable.
Soon we were driving east out of Brussels, beginning through farmland and then through forest as the terrain grew more rugged. We knew we had entered Germany when the Audis began to flash past in the left lane at 180km/h, buffeting our van with their wake turbulence. Sadly we were speed restricted by our trailer and we had to keep to the inside lane with the trucks.
Colonius appeared on the horizon, the great sky needle that dominates the landscape of western Germany. 266 metres of radio aerial, viewing deck, and cafeteria (sadly the viewing deck and café are closed for fire safety reasons) guiding us towards the city of Cologne, a homing beacon for the individual who likes to appreciate tall and unusual structures. We headed to an industrial district in the north of the city and arrived at Die Kantine, a venue in a long brick building that must claim some sort of industrial heritage, although truthfully, I found this difficult to research.
The silhouette of the mighty Colonius is illustrated here with this collection of German television towers.
This venue had all the basics covered. The room was a good healthy rectangular shape, built back in the day before music venues were complicated and post-quadrilateral. Just a nice portrait orientation with a tall stage at one end and a bar at the other. At the back of the stage there wasn’t the height to fully unfurl the banner, so we made do with a 2/3rds backdrop. In the bowels of the building were the dressing rooms and it was there that we were greeted with generous hospitality, a spread of fresh fruit and berries, and a loaf of bread that had been baked for us by a friend of the promoter. There was a comfortable lounge equipped with couches and two of the classic greenroom games, digital darts, and chess.
This was the drawbridge that we used to cross the moat for load-in.
There were a couple of exciting things to look forward to for this show. After the theft of our equipment Liz had lit up the Beth Signal and generous offers of help had begun to flood her inbox. On this night she had someone turn up at soundcheck with two full pedal boards to play through and so during soundcheck she set about learning this new setup for the show.
Jon had his own project. Operation More Paul has been devised so that Jon doesn’t have to suffer through playing a Fender Telecaster every night. The plan is to find the best Gibson Les Paul in every city on our tour route and then entice the owner to turn up at our soundcheck with a beautiful instrument that Jon can play for the evening. Last night Jon was supplied with a Les Paul in the correct “Gold Top” finish, and it was the Slash signature model, no less!
There was a nice energy that came from this Cologne crowd. They kept it quite respectable for a Friday night, but it was a good connection that we had, and it was easy to tap into their warmth and excitement. In particular it was impressive when someone unfurled a homemade sign, and even more impressive when the sign was dedicated to requesting a single song; in this case it said “Jon, play Mars The God Of War”. It was an undeniable request. We played a rough, unrehearsed rendition of this difficult song and had an excellent time.
