Stockholm (SWE), Fasching
We started at 04:00 in the morning and this feels veeeery early in the morning. It was pitch-black outside when I was walking to Ingrid's place, where our taxi was waiting to take us to Westbahnstraße to meet with the rest of the band. From there we went to the airport and around 06:30 we were still half asleep but also up in the air and on our way to Stockholm : ).
Stockholm is beautiful and I missed Sweden, it felt so good to be back. We were waiting for our luggage but after some time a screen told us that the last bag was already on the belt but mathias, Hans and my bags were not among the lonely bags still running their circles. We didn’t really worry, we figured in a couple of hours our luggage will be at our hotel. But it turned out that our bags were lost for quiet some time : )!
We got picked up at the airport by a lovely man and he was holding a sign with the word PALE on it. First time for Pale and also first sign of Pale. I was very excited about it.
Looking out the window and seeing the wonderful nature while getting to the centre made me think of the amazing time I spent in this country. Happily I was gazing out of the window. We arrived at the Scandia Grand Central and had some time to take a bite or nap.
In every room you would find quotes from great songs, in my room I found the following: It’s such a perfect day, I’m glad I spent it with you by Lou Reed. I love that song. Especially cause it reminds me of a very very close friend that I got to know while I was studying in Gothenburg.
And although I had a TV in my room (it is very special for me as I don’t have a TV at my place) the only thing I did during our free time was sleeping. At 15:30 Magnus Palmquist picked us up from the hotel to take us to Fasching, which was right across the street. At that time we still haven’t had any information regarding our lost luggage. So we started to get a little nervous as there were so many things that are very important for our show, like the bird, the caxixis, the guiro, the melodica, the megaphon, our outfits and most important of all my tap dance shoes. But we still had our hopes up and our fingers crossed. Fasching is a wonderful place and we had a great soundcheck, everybody was extremely kind and made us feel comfortable from the start. This club has an excellent sound!!! Thank you Magnus and the whole crew!!!
Our concert started at 20:00, we finished soundcheck around 6 and still…no luggage. It took airberlin 12 hours to find our bags and I think without our reliable booking agent Birgit Gabler, who was calling airberlin the whole day, I think we still would be missing our luggage. It occured to Hans and me that we had to go shopping because no matter what, we wanted to look nice for "Fasching". mathias always wears suits and fine shoes so there was no need for him to go through a power shopping : ). I guess there is no better place to find suitable shirts and shoes than in the centre of Stockholm. So we did and hurried back to the hotel to freshen up. I borrowed some make up from Ingrid and hurried back to Fasching.
I still had no idea how to tapdance without shoes but Magnus, thank you again, he actually managed to get us a melodika. So you could say we were ready to hit the stage.
The audience at Fasching was amazing, so amazing that in the end I was tapdancing in my socks. And when my hat flew into darkness this wonderful young man caught it and we were allowed to take a picture of him with his hat. As it turns out he is the son of Claudia Köck, Austrian Culture Attaché, who supported our concert. We decided to find and remember each and every "hatcatcher" from now on. Thank you so much for the great time!!!
I didn’t realize how nervous and excited I was all day long until after the concert as I was sitting down backstage. I felt tired all the way, took my Pale Ale and went to sleep to regain my strength for my beloved Gothenburg.
Yours, Lia!
