Okay, we've got a few minutes before we have to leave for Luxembourg.  Thursday night we drove 200 kilometers to play at the Het Blues Cafe in Appledorn.  

Great place, with a cool owner named Jan.  Great sound man (sorry, I've forgotten the name), and we started around 9:30, with a quick sound check.

I immediately blew up the amp. 

No, I wasn't playing THAT loud. it was on, maybe, 5.  Funny thing was the solo came out okay, but as soon as I went back to playing chords it sounded like a transistor radio on a bad day.  Fortunately, there was an extra amp, so we did a quick change and went on from there.

We met the singer (James) and bassist (Poplar) from the Road Dogs, a touring group that's been around a few years.  We invited James, the singer, to sit in on the first set - he did a great slow blues and worked the crowd. 

Then we did the original set, to practice for the festival.  Everything was good, with a couple of little bits that have to get fixed up.  Last set we invited Poplar, the bassist, to sit in and we had a great time.  Guzz, our drummer, seemed to know everyone in Appledorf because he's worked with a lot of musicians from there.

Got home about 4 am, got up the next day and went to Hoogvliet, Rotterdam to play at the Flamingo.  They were kind enough to have dinner for us - Chinese food!  I can eat Chinese food for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack, so it was great.  We started about 9:15, and the room had about 20 people.  Suddenly, it filled up - I'm not sure how that happened, but I looked around a few minutes later and the tables were all full!

My voice was off on the first couple of tunes, I went for a high note and it didn't quite happen.  By the third tune, it found the right place and stayed there the rest of the night.  We did an encore and got bought a bunch of drinks.  Fortunately, Rich doesn't drink and he did all the driving.  We rented a PA for this gig, and had to bring it back at 4 in the morning.  Just when we were all fresh and ready to lug equipment...

Got home around 4:30, woke up at 7:00 when a blast of thunder rattled the windows.  It was like a car bomb going off!  Just the one blast, and that was it.  Got back to sleep at 7:30, woke up at 9:30 to get ready to leave (and jot this stuff down.)  There's no way I'll be able to perform tonight on so little sleep, so maybe I can catch a nap later. 

Wish us luck.  This whole part of the tour is based around this festival, so we have to kick ass!  I'll write when I can, hopefully the hotel has internet access.