Dan's Europe tour diary - part 2

Willie Matheis and Dan in Belgium

Dan's PA4 Europe tour diary - part 2

Notes from the 2009 Pop Art 4 Europe tour, written by guitarist Dan Duval:

Our time in Paris was densely packed with sight seeing, transportation, and performance. We arrived in the afternoon on Friday, so we didn’t have time to do much of anything before playing our gig that night. The club, Le Bab Ilo, was tiny but extremely charming: we played in a book lined basement room.

[...]

On Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, we took the train into Paris in the morning, checked out different parts of the city on foot, and then took the train back to the hotel in time to pack the gear into the car and drive back into town for that night’s gig (Sunday night was the exception, which we had off; Todd didn’t have to drive anywhere except the train station near the hotel that day, and I’m pretty sure he was happy about that). It was quite an intense expenditure of energy, and Paris is an amazing city!

Dan's Europe tour diary - part 1

Willie Matheis and Dan in
Brussels, first night of the tour. 

Dan's PA4 Europe tour diary - part 1

Notes from the 2009 Pop Art 4 Europe tour, written by guitarist Dan Duval:

The Sazz ‘n’ Jazz is a small club in the heart of the Turkish district of Brussels; the group that played right after us was a traditional Turkish ensemble which featured the Sassi, a guitar-esque Turkish instrument. They sounded great! The club owner, audience, and other musicians were all very kind to us, and actually the rest of the tour continued in a similar tone. Todd sold a fair amount of merchandise, we got Olivier (the Belgian bass player) up to speed, and everybody recognized almost every Serge tune we played. It was a great time, even despite the jetlag.

[...]

Having spent the weekend getting acclimated and well rested, we were ready to get down to business and play shows on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night. Monday night we played at a very small club in Ghent called Bar Deco. The owner, Kristoff, is actually a jazz drummer and percussionist (later in the evening Willie and I heard him play some slamming cajon like stuff on a barstool with his bare hands), and he sometimes has jam sessions at his club. He did some good promoting for us, and even hooked us up with a nice dinner. Before the show we rehearsed with Jouni, the bass player who played the three Paris gigs with us – he is a nice guy and a great player. After taking our dinner break we got started, and the place felt really packed, especially since it was such a cozy venue. People really seemed to dig it, and once again, the Gainsbourg material was not lost on the European audience.

Todd's 2009 tour highlights

1. Show at Dumont (Aachen, Germany). Great audience, great club, totally mad hang after the gig, great people. Thanks Armin, Skip, Chrit and everyone else!

2. Show at Sazz'n Jazz - another beautiful venue and great audience.

3. Frites with peppersaus (mayonnaise with a ton of black pepper) while killing time jetlagged in Haarlem waiting for our hotel room to be ready.

4. Blasting "Immigrant Song" while driving into Aachen, Germany.

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5. Surviving insane Paris traffic- including a foray into the insane 6e arrondissement, and hair-raising roundabouts in general.

6. Having the weak dollar work in our favor for once.

7. Notre Dame gargoyles

8. My Waterloo bullet.