For all of you who don't know what the Archeon is, it's sort of a village with authentic reconstructions of archeologic finds from The Netherlands. Think prehistoric, Roman and medieval.
We planned to get to the Archeon before the fair opened, so we could get our stuff inside by car. We had some bad memories from last year and carrying everything through the snow. So we wanted to avoid that. Knowing us though, you'll find we're always late, and there's always someone who has to do something "quickly" before we take off. This was one of the rare days though where that didn't happen. So we were on time!
Getting to the back entrance is always a hassle since it invloves driving through a construction site. It's always muddy and slippery, so it takes a long time. Then there's waiting in line at the gate. Which also takes a long time. But when you're in you get to drive past Roman bathhouses and medieval inns and houses, that's such a weird thing to do. Cars just don't belong there.
After carrying all our stuff (well, not all of it, we made an arrangement with Rhovanion, they'd bring the guitar amps, we'd bring the drumkit and bass amp) up some pretty precarious stairs to the top floor of a medieval monastery, it was time to explore! But first... coffee!
Exploring these fairs is always fun. There's so much to do and see! There's stalls, lectures, shows, bands and even speeddating. Well, this one has speeddating. The fun thing about the Midwinterfair is that it's in early December, and there's still so much to do outside. There's re-enactment in pretty much all of the buildings, so you get to see how people lived in those times in winter, which isn't pretty good most of the time. There's no way I can capture the atmosphere in this blogpost so I'll just get on with the gigs.
We played this fair last year as well, we even released our EP "Start Your Engines!" there. Last year we had a pretty good crowd. But this year was insane. Both days, the monastery was packed. People were getting into it, dancing, shouting, drinking and having fun. And when that happens, we play better. As with all gigs, we like to try new things, maybe it's something on stage, maybe it's something in the set. You'll never know. On the Saturday, we almost sorted the songs alphabetically:
Duncan McIntyre
Bottom of a Guinness
Black & Tans
Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill
Molly Maguires
Mary Goes 'Round
Malt In
Finnegan's Wake
Forgotten Friday
Chip
Irish Rover
So that's something new. What's also pretty cool is that there's less and less covers on our setlist, the only two covers here are Bottom of a Guinnes, by Craic Haus (a really good band, check 'em out!) and Chip, by The Real McKenzies (also awesome). We're writing more and more of our own material, we're re-writing traditional songs, we're working hard.
Sunday's set:
Irish Rover
A Night Like This
Finnegan's Wake
Malt In
Randy Dandy-Oh
Spinning Jenny
Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill
Mary Goes 'Round
Molly Maguires
Chip
Drunken Lullabies
This one included three covers, which isn't a bad thing at all. Credit where credit's due, the covers are: Spinning Jenny by Skyclad, Drunken Lullabies by Flogging Molly, and Chip again, which is just an amazing song.
The crowd was amazing, both days, so if you were there, give yourselves a round of applause! Stomping, moshing, dancing, singing along (even with our own material, which was the best part), and having a good time. The people working downstairs in the monastery were afraid the ceiling would give in. Which might be slightly my fault as well ("How about we try to go through the floor!?").
Crowds like this give us so much energy. We'd be able to play on and on if the timeschedule would allow it.
After the Sunday gig we were interviewed by Kathy Keller. She writes about Dutch musicians who sing in English on her blog. We knew beforehand that we're horrible at making sense in interviews. It's never easy getting us to "just answer the damn question!" But that's part of our charm.. hehe. She didn't know that, too bad. We had a lot of fun there, and the interview will be published shortly on the blog.
So, day 2 was over. We went to get our cars, get some food (provided by the Archeon; great change since last year), and drove off. I think that once everyone arrived at home we all collapsed. It's good fun playing a weekend-long fair. But it's exhausting. You never realize that when you're there because you're pumped on adrenaline all the time. At home, that changes.
Anyways, we had a lot of fun playing, partying, drinking, and singing with you guys. One last thanks to all the bands, visitors, re-enacters, staff, stallkeepers and everyone else I missed. Thanks for a great weekend! We'll see you next time.
- Maarten
