28 November. Sitting in Denkmal, Salzburg in Austria, a charming little venue.Listening to Stefan Ebner's set. A guy we met on one of our earlier tours here.
Stefan is playing a support set for us and like always he's fantastic.
Good singer, great songwriter. Maybe even better now that he quit drinking. Intense performer. We're still a bit knackered from the drive here which was surprisingly ok but hey - five hours are five hours and a first idea of winter got us midway here. It's been pouring down and it still is while I'm here on what looks pretty much to become a quiet evening. Appart from a guy named Dieter whom we soon namert Dieter Tourette. A bit too loud to ignore him which leads eventually to him being kicked out by the venue guys.
Yesterday's off day helped to recharge a bit but it wouldn't be Nova & Mäkkelä if we hadn't found a way to blow this on the way.
Stopped in a village near the Austrian border for a bite which turned out to be big chunks of meat, enough for four of us. Ate it all though. Low price high nutrition.
A detail which so far didn't cross my mind i have to add. This town has got something I used to think Vienna is reknown for. I'm today pretty sure that was wrong all over the years. Thinking of the perfect place to slide into a proper depression or commit a decent suicide Salzburg would be the perfect place. A damp, cold, dreary, conservative and old fashioned city at the foot of whatever alps, particularly in late November. Unfortunately I'm in general a positive character with a tendency towards optimism. Well, most of the time.
Dachau. 29 November. Yes, at the end of the night Salzburg was exactly what it was with our previous shows there. Someone at the bar put something in our drinks and no matter what it was it did it's
job. Woke up at the hotel, felt terrible, had breakfast (that's new - never managed here before) and drove down to Dachau. Not the longest drive but a pain in the neck. Snow, rain, hangover don't match with a three hours drive.
But then there was Cafe Gramsci. One of the finest venues i know in Germany. There is sure no appropriate way to describe that evening. And no - I'm not exaggerating. Played about two and a half including encores, sold one hell of a lot of merch and had the most enthusiastic audience on this tour so far. If you read German have a look at the review posted on weissblau.de and you might get an idea how this went down. Had a traditional Bavarian Weisswurst breakfast the next day before setting out for Switzerland. Keep on going Christian, Kai, Klaus and whoever works there or been down to see us play that night. It was a blast.
And then, dear reader, happened what will go into the history books as Mäkkelä & Nova crossing the alps. See, we're smart secret agents, sometimes people try to tell us not to do certain things which usually is just rubbish. We're booked because we know better i assume. Or because we're exceptionally talented in making fools out of ourselves.
This time we decide not to buy one of these bloody overestimeated motorway toll stickers. 33 EUR just for using Swiss motorways. That's a bit expensive, eh? You might object the Swiss possibly knew why they built their motorways. They got harsh winters there with massive snowfall and they're on slightly higher ground than for instance Berlin or London. Don't tell such rubbish to Mäkkelä & Nova.
Weather's been fantastic when we climbed up their first mountian range following a caravan of road construction machines first gear and it took us just an hour. Fantastic view on a tremendous landscape.
Weather turned out to be not exactly as fantastic when we realized that moving ahead with an average speed of 35 km/h might get us into the situation arriving at the venue about 7 in the morning. In other words, we didn't really pick up speed when it got dark and snowfall set in. Skyfall we do know how to handle, snow fall is something completely different. Serpentine roads, navigation on mobile breaking down regularly and a lot of snow did not capture my idea of a fun ride to a gig on a friday afternoon. Arrived there almost in time though after an easy 8 hours drive.
Do you guys really need this, you might ask? Apparently we do. The gig at Mundwerk in Thun, Switzerland was almost as convincing as the one in Dachau. On top of that there was Reto the owner who is just a smashing guy. We got pretty enthusiastic after the gig, this being the end of the Mäkkelä & Nova bit of this tour. Led to me singin karaoke which is among the things you would have to force me on gunpoint to do in other circumstances.
And solo again. 2 December. Dropped Nova at train station Trier (another 8 hours drive) and moved ahead towards Cologne for my afternoon gig with cello player Tobias Stutz. We're speaking about week three of this tour now. Or does it just feel like that?
Stefan is playing a support set for us and like always he's fantastic.
Good singer, great songwriter. Maybe even better now that he quit drinking. Intense performer. We're still a bit knackered from the drive here which was surprisingly ok but hey - five hours are five hours and a first idea of winter got us midway here. It's been pouring down and it still is while I'm here on what looks pretty much to become a quiet evening. Appart from a guy named Dieter whom we soon namert Dieter Tourette. A bit too loud to ignore him which leads eventually to him being kicked out by the venue guys.
Yesterday's off day helped to recharge a bit but it wouldn't be Nova & Mäkkelä if we hadn't found a way to blow this on the way.
Stopped in a village near the Austrian border for a bite which turned out to be big chunks of meat, enough for four of us. Ate it all though. Low price high nutrition.
A detail which so far didn't cross my mind i have to add. This town has got something I used to think Vienna is reknown for. I'm today pretty sure that was wrong all over the years. Thinking of the perfect place to slide into a proper depression or commit a decent suicide Salzburg would be the perfect place. A damp, cold, dreary, conservative and old fashioned city at the foot of whatever alps, particularly in late November. Unfortunately I'm in general a positive character with a tendency towards optimism. Well, most of the time.
Dachau. 29 November. Yes, at the end of the night Salzburg was exactly what it was with our previous shows there. Someone at the bar put something in our drinks and no matter what it was it did it's
job. Woke up at the hotel, felt terrible, had breakfast (that's new - never managed here before) and drove down to Dachau. Not the longest drive but a pain in the neck. Snow, rain, hangover don't match with a three hours drive.
But then there was Cafe Gramsci. One of the finest venues i know in Germany. There is sure no appropriate way to describe that evening. And no - I'm not exaggerating. Played about two and a half including encores, sold one hell of a lot of merch and had the most enthusiastic audience on this tour so far. If you read German have a look at the review posted on weissblau.de and you might get an idea how this went down. Had a traditional Bavarian Weisswurst breakfast the next day before setting out for Switzerland. Keep on going Christian, Kai, Klaus and whoever works there or been down to see us play that night. It was a blast.
And then, dear reader, happened what will go into the history books as Mäkkelä & Nova crossing the alps. See, we're smart secret agents, sometimes people try to tell us not to do certain things which usually is just rubbish. We're booked because we know better i assume. Or because we're exceptionally talented in making fools out of ourselves.
 |
| Almost in Switzerland. T'was even better there |
Weather's been fantastic when we climbed up their first mountian range following a caravan of road construction machines first gear and it took us just an hour. Fantastic view on a tremendous landscape.
Weather turned out to be not exactly as fantastic when we realized that moving ahead with an average speed of 35 km/h might get us into the situation arriving at the venue about 7 in the morning. In other words, we didn't really pick up speed when it got dark and snowfall set in. Skyfall we do know how to handle, snow fall is something completely different. Serpentine roads, navigation on mobile breaking down regularly and a lot of snow did not capture my idea of a fun ride to a gig on a friday afternoon. Arrived there almost in time though after an easy 8 hours drive.
Do you guys really need this, you might ask? Apparently we do. The gig at Mundwerk in Thun, Switzerland was almost as convincing as the one in Dachau. On top of that there was Reto the owner who is just a smashing guy. We got pretty enthusiastic after the gig, this being the end of the Mäkkelä & Nova bit of this tour. Led to me singin karaoke which is among the things you would have to force me on gunpoint to do in other circumstances.
 |
| Tuna we spotted in lake Thun. Mother animal and young. |
And solo again. 2 December. Dropped Nova at train station Trier (another 8 hours drive) and moved ahead towards Cologne for my afternoon gig with cello player Tobias Stutz. We're speaking about week three of this tour now. Or does it just feel like that?
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