The Wacky Dutch

The day after the Casino de Paris show, we took the Thalys train to Amsterdam. It was windy, cold and rainy when we arrived that night and it remained that way the entire two days we were there. We stayed at the sexy Park Hotel near the venue, which was a nice respite from the rain, with its super fluffy bouncy double beds, double rain shower and The Teaching of Buddha in the bedside table. P.S. I love how all the coffees in Paris, Amsterdam and Belgium come with mini cookies.



My favorite bar that we stumbled upon was called Kop Van Jut on Leidsekruisstraat 24, a cozy and traditional bar with delicious beer and silly shots like "Pull up the Shirt" for when you are nervous on a first date and "Hans in the Basement" for when you find out that your lady is preggers. Cute, right? What's not so cute is that the place was named after a Dutch murderer from a hundred years ago.

The day of the show the owner of a record store across from the Paradiso was telling us that Sinterklaas (also called Sint-Nicolaas or De Goedheiligman in Dutch) was coming that day. Sinterklaas traditionally arrives each year in mid-November (usually on a Saturday) by steamboat from Spain and there is no schedule for when he arrives. He is then paraded through the streets, welcomed by cheering and singing children. His Zwarte Piet (Black Pete) assistants throw candy (in this case potato chips) and small, round, ginger bread-like cookies (which I through was dog food) into the crowd. The children welcome him by singing traditional Sinterklaas songs. When the guys were sound checking, I found myself accidentally in the middle of the parade, in a sea of black face paint. Kind of shocking, especially on the kids.




The show that night was great. Melkweg was a super modern, state of the art venue, with a cafe and art gallery attached. There is even a truck elevator to drive the gear straight up to the 3rd floor where the stage is. Wilco was in town to play a show the next night at Paradiso, a beautiful old church turned music venue, and Pat Sansone played piano on a couple of songs with Andrew. My friend Anthony, who had just moved to Amsterdam from Los Angeles a couple of months ago, came to the show and hung out with us after. Such a fun night!