We're back! After some genuine concern and worry about one member of our party, I’m happy to say that all of us (Beefy, MC Router, MC Lars, Ytcracker and me, Dan) survived our trip to Amsterdam for Glitched: The Dutch Nerdcore event. I think all of us would agree that it was one of the best, coolest, most special things we’ve ever done in our lives. It’s not just that it was a fun trip (which it was) it was because the guys that brought us out there (4Worx) were just such awesome, cool, happy people and they really made us feel appreciated and welcome. They didn’t set up the fest for money…they did it because they thought it would be fun and man. oh man, did those guys have fun. Those 4Worx guys partied harder than any of us!
My flight landed at the airport in Amsterdam at about 9am on Tuesday and I was met by Gerrit, one of the 4Worx guys. He bought me some tea and we talked for like 2 hours while we waited for Beefy, Router and Ytcracker to get there. They were all coming in on the same flight from Houston. We were soon joined at Schiphol by Stevijn, the genius who came up with the idea for Glitched. Both he and Gerrit were super great guys; both as funny and as nice as could be. They took good care of us.
About 20 minutes before the other guys were supposed to land we noticed that suddenly everyone in the airport had gathered around every big screen TV they could find. Gerrit got up to see what was on. He came back and said “a plane just crashed at Schiphol Airport.” I said, “Wow, where’s Schiphol Airport?” And he said something to the effect of “you’re in it right now!”
I’ve been asked a few times about this but no, we didn’t feel the crash or hear any noises or see any wreckage. Right away we heard the flight was from Turkey so we knew our crew was ok but it wasn’t fun hanging out at the airport anymore. Shockingly, our friends’ plane was allowed to land after being delayed by only 15 minutes. When they got off, they didn’t even know there had been a crash or that they were almost diverted to Germany. So all of us were very lucky in more ways than one.
Our hotel turned out to be outrageously nice. We would have been happy to sleep at the train station but instead, 4Worx booked us into the Hotel American which is right on one of the most famous and popular squares in Amsterdam; the Liedsplein. It was absolutely the best area you could ever hope to stay in. It was right in the heart of all the action. The rooms we got were ridiculous! I stayed with Beefy and our room overlooked a canal. Ytcracker stayed with MC Lars’ manager Mark (also a great, funny guy) and they had a huge balcony overlooking the square. MC Router got here own room, MC Lars stayed with his very cool girlfriend and Gerrit and Stevijn even got rooms at the hotel too. Here's where we stayed:
That first day we had an awesome time just wandering around and then that night, the head of 4Worx, Hermen came in to meet us. That dude was super cool too. Hermen, Stevijn and Gerrit all kept taking us to dinner, showing us around, buying us drinks….it was just all fun, all the time. Here’s a video the 4Worx guys posted. They took me and Router to a popular Dutch fast food place to try something that Hermen described as being “the best thing you will ever eat."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYRovc8gKL0The thing we’re eating in the video is called a Frikendel. Here they are:
Dutch food is pretty crazy. Most of it was good and most of it was fried. I decided I should try a pickled herring since it’s like the beloved national snack of Holland. Here’s my herring:
Not pictured: me nearly puking after a single bite.
The day of the show, the 4Worx guys took us on a boat trip around the canals of Amsterdam. Probably the coolest thing about the excursion was that all we had to do to get to the boat was walk out of the front door of the hotel and there was the boat. Here are a video posted by Stevijn (I think) of some of the rappers freestyling while boating. You can chalk up the bizarre freestyles to a combination of jet lag and too many Frikendels.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu0tfy4zOe8After the boat trip we headed to the venue; Club Panama. We spent a few hours setting up and doing tech checks and at 8pm we were greatly relived to see that a throng of people were waiting outside! I’m going to guess that overall, 250+ people turned out and some came from as far as Germany and the UK.
Everyone watched the film intently but the audio was kind of a problem since no matter how quiet everyone tried to be, there was always a soft murmur amongst the crowd. I wish we had screened a copy of the film that had subtitles. That way people could have been able to socialize while still keeping up with the film.
Stevijn had a good idea which was that as soon as the credits started, Beefy should come out and perform “Nerdcore For Life.” He did just that and the crowd went BERZERK. The audience loved the show from start to finish. I have been to more nerdcore shows than I can count at this point but I have never seen a reaction like the one that Router, Beefy, YT and Lars got in Amsterdam. People danced their asses off! And what was really, really, really great is that the people who danced the hardest and seemed to have the most fun were all the employees of 4Worx. Oh, there was tons of media people there too. The artists all probably did like 5 interviews each. Here’s a video piece about the show. Some of it’s in Dutch but you’ll get the point:
http://www.bright.tv/series/nerdcoreHere's a few random pics from the show:
After the performances on Thursday night, Ytcracker DJed for a while and the people kept on dancing. When Club Panama finally kicked us out at 2:30am, we headed back to the liedsplein. I rode back in a cab with Router and some of the 4Worx team….they were the drunkest, craziest people I’ve ever ridden in a cab with. After a late night snack at a dutch burger king (lol) we found another club to go to. When I finally couldn’t take anymore I snuck out of there at about 4am which was just about the time that Router got up on the bar’s “stripper pole.” (that’s always my cue to leave.)
The 4Worx guys had to head back to the home base in Amersfoort on Friday and it was sad to see them go. After they left, we all did various fun things that won’t be covered here. (What happens in Amsterdam, stays in Amsterdam.) I will add that Router passed out cold on Saturday night and though we called her room and banged on her door, she slept until 11am on Sunday. Too bad her flight was at 8am. Since she didn’t give us any sign that she was in her room we assumed that she went out and didn’t come back. So our last hours in Amsterdam were a little tense. But after she awoke Router was able to catch a later flight and lived to get wasted another day.
That’s me with the 4worx guys. I can’t say thanks enough to Gerrit, Hermen, Stevijn and everyone at 4Worx for being such fun, gracious hosts. I hope they thought the whole thing was worth all the trouble they went through! I also really appreciate the artists from the film who were willing to fly half-way across the world to play one, single show. Without them, there wouldn’t be a movie let alone a “Dutch Nerdcore event.” So basically I pretty much owe like a dozen people some really giant favors. Next trip, the pickled herring’s on me!
Lots more photos of the trip on out flickr page:
http://flickr.com/photos/nerdcoreforlife/sets/72157614636456032/