Day 4 -Fürth

Heimspiel,

by Sanni Baumgaertner (Dancer vs. Politician)

Fuerth, Raum 4. Located in the basement of an old movie theatre, Raum 4 was filled with friendly Franconians, who were not quite sure what to expect, but ready to party. For lack of a local heroine that night, I offered to take on that role, because I was born in Nuernberg, just next door to Fuerth. Heidi Marie, winner of the Augsburg Song Slam the night before, opened the show, I came on second, then Ava, then Susie. The audience was stunned, which strongly affected their ability to make a decision on who should go on to the next round. The applause-o-meter was not able to measure the minimal differences between the enthusiastic audience responses. Mark Scheibe was confused. He broke the rules and allowed all 4 performers to have another go at winning the heart of the audience in the second round. After one more song each, it was the audience’s turn to finally make a decision. My family and friends, who had just visited the workshop “Loud Hand Clapping For Beginners”, gave everything and voted me and Heidi Marie into the final round. The audience’s unexpected words for the improvisation challenge were “Fuerth”, “realistisch”, “frei”, “kahlkoepfig”, “Liebe”. Even though Heidi Marie’s composition touched the hearts of many, it was me who got to kiss the lamb goodnight. For the final song Uwe Schlagenhaft, guitarist for Dancer vs. Politician, joined me on stage for some mean tamborine playing and we ended the night with more songs in our hearts. Thank you Fuerth.

Day 2 and 3:

Day 3:

by Ahoi. Susie Asado.

Have you seen the sunrise at 7:30 a.m. from the Oberbaumbrücke in Berlin? A huge red balloon and and luminous sky rising above the Spree. Feuerlichtspiel. The sunrise is one reason to get up at this ungodly hour or to stay up until this ungodly hour. And all the tired eyes and grumpy feet are worth the view from the Oberbaumbrücke. Even if just for the short moment it takes to cross that bridge in a car. Feuerlichtspiel. Except for the sunrise, the hours we spent in the car were not very glamorous, to say the least. I will spare you the details of falling asleep with the head against the window or the many aches an ass goes through when sitting for hours on end.

We changed vans in Wolfsburg. Nina headed back to Berlin. We stopped for cold sandwiches at a gas station. After the 9th hour we started getting giddy. Singing fragments of songs and climbing around on our seats. Feet to the ceiling. What can you do for hours in a box? When we thought we had made it all the way to L.A. or to China, we arrived in Augsburg. Richard's venue Beim Weissen Lamm. This is the Lamm Records Home show. And even though none of us have been to this place, we quickly settle into the cozy sofas and nervously anticipate soundcheck and the show. Time races. Lucy Pereira joins us for the evening. We are quickly smitten by this lovely woman and it is only fitting that in her second song she sings "I am love at first sight". Because she is. Considering we should be fighting for the little golden lamb, we should be battling for being the greatest chanteuse of the night, we should be gritting our teeth and pulling each others hair -- we are actually all quite fond of each other and I for one feel very lucky to be playing with such wonderful performers.

I actually made it until the 3rd round. It is me against Heidi Marie. I do a silly improvisation with shakers using such words as Latzhose, Nusskuchen, Sausel, rauchen, schwierig, zauberhaft, besoffen, and forgetting tanzen. I usually don't forget tanzen. I love to dance. Heidi Marie sings a song that seems all but improvised, elegantly making her way from word to word ending in the lovely image of wishing her girlfriend without Latzhose. Without overalls. And the winner is Heidi Marie. So goes the night in Augsburg. We sing "Music ist Liebe" and "Auf Wiedersehen das ist das Ende" and we can feel that it is the third night and we are getting used to the event and are feeling like a little family.

Back at the hotel, I feel wired as hell and the day's events race through my head. It is lovely to go to sleep when this tired. Right now it is Friday and we are sitting back at Beim Weissen Lamm and having breakfast. Lucy and Girisha join us and we are drinking lots of tea and I will quit being a computer dork and conversation with everyone.

Ahoi. Susie Asado.

 
Day 2 :

By Ava and The Hawkline Monster

We thought the trip from Dresden to Berlin would be short but we were wrong. There is a massive traffic jam and we keep coming across automobile carcasses that don’t really justify to my foreign eyes the reason why Germans drive so fast. Heidi Marie and I get inspired by the view and start telling gory stories about people’s remains being scraped off the floor but Josepha doesn’t like it so we stop. We arrive in Berlin much later than expected and in a rather foul mood. Since I don’t live there anymore, Josepha invites me to stay at her place around Maybach  Ufer. She has a beautiful flat but I won’t tell you anything about it because she does it so beautifully herself in a song called “This is my address”. We are playing at King Kong Klub tonight and I have to say I’m not sooo keen on the idea. To put it nicely, I’ve already played there and it’s not the most imperishable concert memory in my collection. But then again, my ex-flatmate and great friend Adrian Vom Hove is d-j-ing after our show and I’m looking forward to seeing him. He’s a very elegant warewolf and a beautiful deejay. He made me discover stuff like Tiny Tim, Young Marble Giants, Cobra Killers and many other musicians that have inspired me a great deal. He also invited me to play my first gig ever, I owe this warewolf.
This time, there are two local heroines, one is called Iris and she plays doublebass ! I’m excited about it because I also play doublebass, just of another kind. Sometimes people tell me my instruments are not real and it innerves me because they ARE real, I can touch them, I can hold them and I can play them, so how could they not be real? I’m sure if I hit one of these sceptics on the head with my doublebasse it would hurt him, and that’s for real. The other local heroine is called Ziska and she’ll be playing guitar on stage for the first time. Heidi Marie and I think she’s really brave, we’re impressed.
A photographer from Taz is taking zillions of pictures of us so we feel like superstars, he’s also very funny and we keep making silly jokes in the backstage, I’m getting nervous.
At ten o’clock, Mark Scheibe does his job, which is to warm up the audience while keeping them focused and quiet -  not an easy task, especially in King Kong Klub.
We get on stage and perform. Josepha sings the song about her house and I’m happy that’s where I’m sleeping tonight, it’s like sleeping in a song. Iris is playing piano and singing that boys think she’s younger than she actually is, I can’t wait for her to play the doublebass, which she does for the second song and it’s breathtaking. Ziska sings about being somebody’s Schneewitchen, I think it means Snowwhite, unfortunately I don’t get all the words which seem to be rich and complex. I like that she’s singing in German.
Iris and I make it to the final. We have to improvise on words like Verkehrspolizei, Jordanien, vulgär. Iris sings a beautiful accapella impro and I come up with a wacky story including drunk Israeli circulation agents playing with sex objects. Iris wins, the audience loves her. Josepha and I are really tired and we know we have to wake up extremely early tomorrow because we’re going to spend 11 hours in the tourbus. We take a cab and head for the song-shaped house.

Ava and The Hawkline Monster

Day 1: Girls Lamm slam tour!

So finally I was going to meet the other girls, and I was super excited about that. We had a plan: meet in the Lamm records office at one, have lunch, get the tour schedule, and most important,  meeting everyone involved in the tour and getting to know the details and the rules for this tour. So Richard (our tour manager for the first three days, also “head of” Lamm records) said : “First round - every girl gets to play two songs. In every city there will be a local heroine joining us. After you have performed your two songs you have to sit down, wait and watch the other girls play. Then each of you girls stands on stage and collects the applause, the ones who gets the most applause go on to round two.”  
I just sat there looking at the other girls, smiling like they did, and thinking that I still couldn’t remember their names and I could feel I was getting nervous.
Richard said: “round two - semi finale : the remaining girls get to play one song each, same procedure with the applause as in round one, and then we have the final. The final is all about improvisation”. At this point some of us had stopped smiling and changed their face expression to a little more worried one.
“No need to be worried” he said, “this is all about having fun!”
Easy for you to say I was thinking… and I think I said it.


But as he said, there was no need to worry. We are already on day three now, and getting to know each other and the concept quite well.
I think the first night in Dresden was the “worst” because we kind of didn’t know what to expect. But as the show started Mark Scheibe, the regular host for the songslam, guided us and the audience through a lovely evening.
Mara, the Dresden local heroine, the “soulful piano master”, Dancer vs. Politician, the “loop master” with her beautiful songs, Susie Asado, the “master of poetry” with her amazing stories told through music, Ava and the Hawkline Monster, the “master of luft-guitar” with her extraordinary performance and myself all felt happy after the first gig, knowing that this was the beginning of a very special tour!

With these words: Moon crater, bakery, shark, coffin, sneeze, to bury, to mingle, Ava and I battled in the final, and we had a lot of fun with those words!
It was a really good start for me, because I won, so I got the honour of writing the first tour diary!! ☺

Ok, so much more to come, so keep checking our tour diary!!!!
Lots of love from Heidi Marie.

Hello!

So now I’m in Germany, and I am very exited about this tour. First gig tomorrow night in Dresden, than back to Berlin on Wednesday. I brought my video camera so hopefully I will post some cool videos for you on YouTube after this tour. I’ll keep you posted!
Today it’s just relaxing in the Lamm Records office in Berlin, getting ready for the road.
Stay cool, stay cool forever….love hmv.

Thank you China!

Ok, so I’m back from my China tour, and it has been amazing!!! I don’t know where to begin but the audience and the fans in China are just the coolest people I have met!  You rocked my world so thank you all for coming to my gigs all over China!

A special thanks to Ice, our guide-he definitely made our stay in China so much easier, we would be quite lost without him. China is so very different from Norway and Europe, like a different world. I enjoyed getting to know your culture, your food (!), your way of living and your extremely friendly appearance so much.
I really hope to be back next year, so bring all your friends to my next gig!

Lots of love heidi marie