The FrogCircus at the FrogFish

Right on, it's 0:58 of a Friday night (technically Saturday morning if we get picky) and I'm bound to bed in a minute or two, but first things first, our silly little diary is here again. I promise I'll continue writing tomorrow, I'm dozing over the keyboard and probably nonsense is the only thing that will come out of it right now (as if you hadn't noticed by now!). Good night...

[Saturday morning, back to life again]
Here I am, freshly awaken and with my eyes still not completely open. Yesterday's gig was one of the funniest, most relaxed and laid-back I've done with these guys. Being an almost private gig, invitation-only, film studio inauguration night, there was really no pressure at all. And we took it to our advantage.

We had prepared a set with more old stuff than usual (Blue Ice, Growing Older, Weekend Lover...) that we've been rehearsing lately, and it paid off well. We bloody nailed it, I'd never believe it after all that time.

Tobi was supposed to bring in a cajón, but instead appeared with the kind of mini drums you normally give your 5 year-old nephew for Christmas. It looked so incredibly silly that it was an instant factor of coolness for the whole band. There we were, acoustic guitars in the hand, an electric bass and a toy drumkit that sounded ridiculously cool. And off we went.



Our little bunch of froggy-friends managed to get invitations and appeared with the mandatory new Frogcircus t-shirts (wear them proud!) and used the occasion to fill their bellies with the free drinks (tasty cocktails by the way) and the free food (tasty schnitzels, tasty mousse-au-chocolat, tasty everything really!). Nothin better than to give your stomach a good treat when listening to the best thing for your ears, huh?

We were playing two short sets, the first one went down pretty well, and even managed to survive "My Hero", the Foos cover we hadn't really rehearsed. But the second set was simply smoking. When we came to the last verse of "Titanium" the energy between us four was amazing. We might have blown up a lightbulb or two in the process, if you ask me...

The FrogFish guys put a huge screen of ugly faces as our backdrop, and were also taping the whole thing, so don't be surprised if you find some footage of the evening while youtubing around... I sure will.


Thanks for wasting your time reading this little piece of mental diarrhea.

Yours truly,

Stone

Phrase of the day: "Shit, where's my beer?" (Jorge, panicking 30 seconds before starting the gig)

Uelzen café komma 04.10.2008

Einen wunderschönen wünsche ich euch, ich heiße Sunny und bin eine zu Papparazzozwecken verwendete Freundin von Frogcircus. Zur willkommenen Abwechslung wollte ich jetzt auch mal meinen Senf zum Besten geben...

Tja, Uelzen sagt nicht gleich jedem was. Verständlich, es ist mit Abstand das abgelegenste Örtchen. Weit ab jeder Autobahn.
Und wenn hungrige Rockstars, nach einer durchzechten Nacht, nächsten Tag zum Frühstück möchten suchen sie ne ganze lange Zeit. Aber Dank spanisch sprechenden Navi ist die Heimfahrt trotzallem gesichert, also nix problemo...

Aber um zum Wesentlichen zu kommen, der Gig an sich, sowie Location und Besucher waren echt der Hamma. In jeglicher Hinsicht.
Trommeltobi hat es gerade noch geschafft den Gig zu retten, da er in seinem Super- Flitzer die Lachgaseinspritzung gefunden hat. Er ist so busy und an keinem Ort länger als nötig -> was für ein Glück für ihn, zu Hause schlafen ist immer noch am Schönsten....
Und der Rest, auch Stone, Horsti, Timo und Sunny genannt, fuhren gemeinsam mit der Harmonie im Einklang ins Café Komma.


Wir wurden nett und freundlich mit Kaffee und Tee begrüßt.
Nach und nach, als alle benötigten Gerätschaften zum Spielen organisiert waren, haben die Männer alles aufgebaut (das übliche Leid aller unterdrückten Rockstars ;) )
Nun ja, darauf folgte ein Soundcheck der ebenfalls aufs Nötigste beschränkt wurde.
Da die Fahrt sehr lang war von Berlin nach Uelzen, waren wir natürlich mal wieder hungrig. Also war Knut (Chef des Ganzen) so nett und organisierte was zum Futtern.
Nach der leckeren Stärkung, traf so ca nach ner Stunde (oder 2...) Tobi ein und es konnte losgelegt werden.



Frogcircus war am Start. Eine ganze Reihe an Songs wurden gespielt und einige der anwesenden Gäste kannten sie gut. Und die, welche Frogcircus erst kennenlernten, waren auch angetan. Zumindest wurde die neue Platte Not Completely Clean gut an den Mann / an die Frau gebracht.
Schön war auch, dass Hans wieder da war und begeistert schien...
Als der Gig vorbei war haben wir uns noch gut mit den Besuchern unterhalten. Desweiteren schauten wir uns um was das Uelzener Nachtleben noch so zu bieten hatte.
Und das hatte eine ganze Menge zu bieten...



Die Nacht war kurz, sehr kurz und sehr anstrengend...
Aber ich muss sagen, bzw. schreiben, Uelzen ist immer wieder eine lange Fahrt wert. Die Leute sind echt super nett, und es macht einfach Spaß dabei zu sein!

So long, es grüßt euch ganz lieb

die Sunny

UELZEN 04.Oct.08 Café komma

After a long run from Berlin we got to Uelzen. I didn't believe it until then, but it's true: Uelzen is like 90km away from the closest highway. Yes, in Germany.

If you like fairy tales you'll feel good in Uelzen. A beautiful village where every house looks like a chocolate shop.

Café Komma is a little club that has all you need to have fun. Yes: All.

We got there at the right time and everything was ready. Well, Tobi was at the other side of Germany so he got to the bar, let's say just before the show, so we had to check the sound without him. Not a lot to check, really. We just got sure everything was ok and that was it.

Then we had some food, some drink, and waited for our moment. I have to say Tobi is a real gentleman: he arrived when we were waiting for him. Not sooner. Not later.



Not a lot of people for the gig. But they all wanted to have fun and we tried to satisfy them. Well, don't take that last sentence too seriously.

The sound was good and nothing failed, if we don't count the things that failed. We played that new song that I had never played before (Seattle Girl) and... it was right (Hahaha).

So we ended the show and did what we use to do in that situations: to drink until we can't say "parallelepiped". It was easy: they didn't let us pay for anything. And not happy with that they systematically gifted us with the strangest and most varied shots. Drinks whose names I can't remember. And beer. And a neverending stream of cuba libres. Stone and I tried to escape from this going to the closest bar around and drinking a pair of beers like the locals. It was impossible. We didn't look like them. So we went back to the Café Komma and, as some of them wanted to refine their Spanish, gave some advices here and there. I just hope they won't use what they learned there to get a job... Unless that job is in a "Spanish for drunk people academy". The line between "A smart Spanish accent" and "drunk's verbiage" can be very thin, you know.

And... suddenly I noticed that all the other band members had gone to sleep. Well, Tobi, not happy with the 600km he had driven 'till there, went back to Berlin right after the show. Well, right after three or four beers after the show. Just to rehydrate his tired drummer body. Timo and Sunny had gone to bed long ago and Stone just disappeared. Fortunately everybody (but me) knew where we had to sleep so, after they told me, I said goodbye in my best German to all the nice people we met there and drifted to the house in the most traditional sailor way. I knocked the door once and again... and again... and again and when I started thinking I'd have to go back to the bar in the cold night (well, it was like 30 meters away from the house), Timo heard me and managed to drive himself to the door and opened it for me (Timo, I'll never forget it).

We woke up in the morning covered with dog hair. I'm a little upset with that... poor dogs... Where did they sleep? It was a cold night. I hope they survived.

We tried to have breakfast but it wasn't easy. We found a bowling club and asked for something from the strange menue. We all asked for the same thing that resulted to be a tortilla of like 9 eggs (for each one), after that, we drove to Berlin, downloaded the gear and, somehow, I woke up the next morning in my room (well, in Diana's room. Thank you, Diana. One day I hope I'll be able to do something for you and show you how thankful I am).

I don't want to say goodbye without thanking each and everyone in the Café Komma for being so nice with us, and each and everyone who came and helped us to have a real funny night in Uelzen.

And... that's all folks. Don't forget not to forget to forget this: Life is to short to spend it reading my rock star experiences. Go, join a band and you will also have something to tell to people who aren't really interested in it. As Elbert Garmundel(*) said: If you don't take the risk, don't expect to fail.

* Dr. Prof. Elbert Garmundel is, officially, the most famous unknown person alive, and unofficially, our guru and inspiration in all the fields of alternative reality.

Unity and all that...

It's Reunification Day here in Germany, and to celebrate it, we have just added two new t-shirt designs to our little shop of horrors. Both with the new logo, and just for silly € 15,00. To order, just mail us at info(at)frogcircus(dot)com stating the size (XS, S, M, L, XL), the colour and the motive of choice (faces/logo).