The soundman snorted lines of white powder off the mixing console. The show was being promoted as the venue’s last live show, because of too many noise complaints and visits from the Polizei.
The club owners were like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Jekyll would walk by smiling and say “Have anything you like, I’m here to help,” Hyde would walk by yelling at us for any number of reasons, like having someone on the guestlist, or trying to start the show too early. (And they were never in the same room at the same time…SUSPICIOUS!)
We didn’t perform until 2am because Hyde kept telling us to wait.
I was performing with SPT and the venue was full. SPT and I used to perform together for many years. He lives in Berlin and has gone viral (which I’m totally not jealous about…) You may know of him from the SHITs FUCKed video.
The performances ended as the sky lit up neon blue. The crowd was wonderful and the atmosphere of the venue was Berlin-esque, with concrete walls, found art and eccentric individuals.
We had agreed upon a 75/25 door money split, but when the time came to get paid, Hyde tried to convince us to take a 60/40 split! What the Hell?!
Thankfully, SPT did not agree to get hoodwinked and Hyde gave us our 75%.
The next day, Robert and I went to soundcheck at Gelegenheiten, which is run by an enthusiastic, smiling, happy collective (what a difference a day makes!)
The night was incredible! It was a Cyborg party, so I performed to a room packed with costumed Berliners. Terminators, tin-foil hats, people painted silver with red contact lenses and someone with a 6 million dollar price tag…(Get it?) Robert did amazing visual projections for my set.
The party was wild and very loud, but since it was the venue’s main party (held but once a year) they informed their neighbours well in advance…But that didn’t stop the police from showing up in the wee hours.
The next day we recovered by going to see Mad Max and having beers in the park with Robert’s old roomies.
We got up early to catch a plane to Paris and take in as much as we could in one day. It’s such a beautiful city full of people too busy to enjoy it. We went to Montmartre, Notre-Dame and a bar with my friend Laurent.
Then we took a train to Toulouse and caught our plane back home to Montreal. Another tour over, with a bucket-full of new memories.
Thank you to all the bookers, sound people, crash spots, audiences and friends for making this tour the most beautiful, gritty adventure I could ever dream of!
xania 