Greece

Dear people!

We just came back from our trip to Greece. Let me just say that I'm thrilled that we were able to go and play in front of so many super nice and beautiful people. Here's a little diary I kept while we were there:

Thessaloniki

When we arrived we soon discovered it was as cold in Thessaloniki as it was in Holland. We Dutchies always think it's warm in Greece and all our friends thought we would come back with a tan, but no sir: scarfs, gloves and frostbite were in order.
Nevertheless we were exited to arrive and whatta you know? The Greeks celebrate the Carnaval fest exactly the same way as we do and in the same week of the year as well. When we entered the city everybody was in the streets, dressed up in funny hats and clothes and playing loud music.
The night of our arrival we did some interviews, walked the streets a bit and had a few drinks in a bar where the Carnaval fest slowly but surely came about. I crashed early (story of my life), but the boys ended up dancing and wearing other peoples funny wigs and glasses.
The day after was showtime! The Eightball Club was a cool rock venue and filled up with a super nice audience. We did our first rock show since a long time. In Holland we performed with our acoustic shows, so now we put our rock pants back on and were happy to turn up the volume again. I had a class-A stage piano that kept forcing itself into some kind of software reboot every 5 minutes. Our local promotor and crew were nice enough to search for a different piano in every corner of the city, but I ended up with a small keyboard owned by the lighting tech. Nevertheless the crowd was fantastic and just as I remembered, very much into the music, warm and welcoming.

Larissa

And so we moved down to Larissa. The place where I've played only once with the Gathering a few years back. I remember that gig vividly. The people were so appreciative they were hanging from the chandeliers to show how much they enjoyed themselves, haha... This time they didn't let us down either!
After the show I was totally beat. Our hotel was not close by and the venue didn't have a backstage were I could recuperate, before meeting the audience, so I stepped down the stage, literary straight into a taxi and I was alone in my hotel room within 10 minutes. Did I just do a show?!?

Athens

I was looking FW to the Athens gig immensely. During the day I did a whole bunch of interviews and the lads climbed up the Acropolis to gaze at the Parthenon.
That night we experienced again a good vibe, good crowd, good flow... until my guitar amplification went dead the minute I started a song all by myself... One solution-driven guy in the audience called out: 'do it a capella' and so I started singing. Everybody joined in and it became the most beautiful version of My Electricity. Wow, thank you all for that special moment...
That night we said goodbye, had a super short sleep of 3 hours and jumped on a plane back to Holland.

Might I just add that we were having the best dinners!? Oh dear me the tzatziki and souflaki we ate... and the wine.. oh!

Afgaristo Beautiful One!

X Anneke

Thank you @ An Club, Athens

Watch our little road movie