Anyway, back to show day in Switzerland! After a hardcore night of mini golf and pizza we woke up refreshed for the show. We were parked up outside the venue but were told we wouldn't have access to our dressing room until 3pm so we had quite a lot of time to kill. Todd and Mike went for an early walk to the city center but I didn't know until they got back. I wish I had gone for a walk because it was a nice day and ended up cooped up on the bus (probably writing a blog entry) until it was official venue time.
The venue was great and all the venue staff were cool. This place definitely had a strong hipster vibe going on so it was an odd choice for a hard rock gig but I guess it doesn't matter! We were given a large dressing room with the usual rider items, a pod coffee machine and a beer tap - YES A BEER TAP. Unfortunately, it might be shocking to some of you but as we are all professionals it didn't get touched by ourselves until after the show. Talk about will power!
Fun fact - when I was 18-19 I used to be a barman and really used to enjoy pulling pints.
It was one of those days where we had merch items to sign. Tedious task but it's got to be done and it definitely helps with sales. The hardest part is finding Sharpie pens that actually work properly!!
Soundcheck time. Bit of an odd one as there was a strict DB limit that our sound engineer John had to do his upmost best to adhere to. He actually asked me if it was possible for me to "go easy" on my cymbals for this show as playing them at my normal level was almost hitting the max DB limit on their own. Very odd as the cymbal brand I use are Swiss and I thought it was comical that they were louder than their own countries DB limit! For anyone interested I use Paiste 2002 cymbals with this band, they are the ultimate classic rock range of cymbals in my opinion.
Apart from having to tap my cymbals, soundcheck went fairly well. There were two local support bands booked for this show plus there was another room downstairs where (at least) 5 bands were booked to play a totally separate gig. All the dinner catering was shared and there were lots of vegan options so that was nice for me...this also added to the hipster feel of the venue.
The gig ended up being pretty awesome despite fears that the low volume would greatly affect the mood and participation of the audience. But annoyingly I couldn't get into it as much as normal because I was constantly conscious of the cymbal volume so was mainly concentrating on playing the songs whilst going easy on the cymbals but trying to look like I was still hitting them hard! Not easy!
I spoke to a few guys in the other bands after the show so that was cool. Plus the venue made some really nice sandwich rolls for the band and venue staff so I nabbed the last vegan one and it was a delicious post-show meal.
Onwards to Germany.
To be continued...
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