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Pratteln, June 24th 2009
In the afternoon the Greek Empire and I cruised to Switzerland. It was
a 200 km or 2 hour drive, a direct shot down tha A5 to Basel. However the last
20 minutes were kinda tiresome cause in order to avoid paying fees (27 Euros for
a year - there are no daily passes...suckers!) for 10 minutes of Autobahn, we
took the local roads and it was going criss-cross.
We
got there after 6pm and soon the "Swiss Empire" Brogli (he and Dimitris are
considered the largest QR collectors in the universe) and the newly-wed Mrs
Brogli (they actually belong to the German Empire :-) arrived. We had 3 seperate
M&G invitations, and when we asked for the passes at will call, we were informed
that the band's guest list was not yet there. So when the gates opened, everyone
but me went in, cause I wanted them to reserve a good spot in the front.
Little did I know that I was up for a 3 hour wait, cause eventually the security
had told me that the band's nightliner had broken down on the way from Germany
to Switzerland! In fact, the very first thing I had said that night when I
walked from the car to the entrance was "where is the Nightliner?", so
my gut
feeling had been right. I later found out that they
had been on the road for only one hour the night before when it happened.
Instead of 11am they got to the venue at 07:40 pm, when everybody (but me...) was
already inside. I witnessed a bunch of tired musicians departing the rental
tourist bus where they could not get any sleep on - you could tell they were
very exhausted. When Fozzy got out, he was joking "hey, we only stopped at Mac
Donalds....".
Still had to wait forever to collect the passes, by that time it was getting
chilly and cold and a gentleman Swiss guy had borrowed me his motorcycle jacket.
I received the passes after 9pm and by the time I finally got in, I just witnessed the end of Fatal
Smile. The Greek brothers were nice enough to reserve first row right in
front of Geoff for me - yay! :-)
The Z7 was a larger venue of more than 1200 people and quite packed.
Although they had not had a soundcheck, it was a nice venue with good sound. But
I could tell Geoff's voice was not as smooth as it had been on the previous
nights - the lack of sleep was getting to them. I had been wondering if Geoff
would sing to me again during Jet City Woman - and he sure did :-)
When we went backstage for the M&G I talked to Parker for quite a while and he
handed us dozens of the infamous "Dude.." guitar pics.
Geoff told me that when the nightliner's engine blew, the car was without any
air con and leaned to the side cause of a slope on the side of the road, so they
had no sleep at all. The entire crew had to wait for several hours for a
replacement bus to get there. Then it had been another seven hour ride on the
tourist bus, and it was too uncomfortable to get any sleep.
Apparently, the equipment was on a different bus and had made it to Pratteln on
time. According to Fozzy, the guys from Fatal Smile had saved the gig cause they
had set up everything just by remembering where everything belonged - everyone was very
grateful.
Dimitris had gotten
a special sports shirt for Edbass as a gift, reading "Jackson" in large letters printed
on the back. But Ed was so tired he did not even open the package. I felt very sorry
for Dimitris who had chosen his goft with great care - I would
have loved to witness hum unpacking it.
We all left the venue at about 1pm. Oh yeah, and I still have to tell you about
the most stupid Rycher I ever met. He had been standing next to me in first row
all night and knew all the lyrics in detail, including all American Soldier
songs. So I decided he was a
worthy fan and deserved my second shiny M&G pass. But once the show was over, he
was gone and I had no idea what happened...until I left the venue. Here he was
standing outside the secured fenced off area with a group of 15 other fans,
waiting for the band to come out and sign stuff. I went "Dude, I gave you a
pass"...and he stood there and mumbled something like "yeah, I figured...". How
dumb can you be? Next time, Rychers have to take an intelligence and character
test before they get a pass from me. Something like:
1) Name all the band members
2) Are you a complete and utter dumbass?
3) Do you know what a M&G pass is?
4) Will you appreciate and use it?
Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!! ;-P
Take hold!
A once again very tired Aefa
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