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Last show of 2009, and last show of the Realm Of Shadows tour 2009. First gig was in an old factory hall where we had our pre-release party. Main problem was how to make it some sort of cosy in that large building. Tonight creating the right atmosphere is not much of a problem, getting all the gear in, fitting the band on stage and leave some room for the audience also. It is not very big, small might be the correct description.

The place to be tonight is The Stables, and it used to be a... stable! right, so, not much room, but cosy, fireplace, all the right stuff. It is 'run' by Hans Koster, and he usually get singer-song-writers and folk and that sort of thing in here, getting them over from England, Ireland. So tonight is kind of a step up getting Knight Area in.
Some of us fear that it might be to small, because the music needs some room, the band needs room, and sonically there is not much we can do, other than 'damage control'.
So set up is like in the Knight's rehearsal space: everything acoustically, except for vocals, keyboards and bass pedals, they will get amplified.

Mark Vermeule wondering whether it will fit

Why oh why do we need so much gear?

We start setting things up, and we have to wait for Pieter, who's car broke down on the way over here. But he manages to get here in time and we also manage to get the band on that little stage.
Gerben ordered for some Plexiglas screening around the drums, trying to control some of the loud pounding. We will have to see/hear if that works, but in the mean time it takes up space again.
During the set of the support act called Dream Brother, Arie and I have time to get our stuff right. Arie does some programming on the lights, and I get a chance to check my levels and FX.
After their show it is time for Knight Area to do there stuff, we get them on stage, plug everything in, and just GO! no sound check, no testing, just hit it.

Dream Brother, the support act, during their show

Out of the blue into the blue: Knight Area

And the guys are on it right away, they had some reservations if it was going to work, some even had second thoughts, I have to admit I had a few during those hours before the first notes were played.
But they were on it right away! Punchy, with a lot of drive, as if it wasn't The Stables but some sort of Arena ;-) And the sound came out pretty good, it actually went beyond 'damage control', I could do something with it. Arie also did a good job on the lights.

OK, a very relaxed evening, but no to relaxed Mark!
Your solo is coming up next...

KA rocking The Stables

Rock, rock rock,...

Yeah!

All in all it was pretty relaxed and the audience loved it: small gig, fireplace, their favourite band in a small setting, having fun. Putting Pieter behind the screen also helped a lot in controlling the sound it that small space.
It was quite different from the previous shows we did but it was fun in the end. A lot of hard work though to get it that way. So I don't think we should do these kind of shows to often... but hey it keeps us away from home and away from the pub. Well this one actually didn't ;-)

December 5 + 6 2009, Sjees, Hoorn (NL): Postiljon

First things first: coffee, and it feels a little bit unreal, we all feel that we can not start because more people should come. But this is really the team today.

Recording set up and bass corner	Manon, Mirek and Ruud
Robbert in his drum 'camp' corner having a holyday ;-)	Martijn, Irma, Jeroen, Mirek and Ruud

Hardly any mixing today, only drums are mixed to stereo the rest is recorded straight into the computer. Should make the whole recording weekend go fast and easy. Small team, no mixing: away we go.

Jeroen on guitars

Martijn on double bass

After two days we have recorded 9 songs, and 10 themes a total of 1 hour of music. Time to change the studio back in to a living room and take the stuff home to do the mixing and mastering.
Of course I need to thank my great assistant:

December 4th 2009, Huis Verloren, Hoorn (NL): Brak

This weekend it is the recording weekend for Postiljon. Actually, that was planned for last weekend, but Martijn, the composer and pianist, got ill, so it had to be re-scheduled. It means that this weekend is a little less busy because not everyone is available this weekend.
Friday morning we will begin to transform the living room into a recording studio. This time I sit downstairs, because I will be doubling as bass player next to recording engineer, Peter Boer, who normal plays bass, is not available so I will take his seat.
Round 5 o'clock everything is ready and set up and it is time to have diner. A bit early, because there is a show scheduled for tonight: BRAK plays in Hoorn. And both Martijn and Mirek play tonight and I'll go with them for some engineering and stuff.
BRAK plays songs about "Women, Drink and other misery", so that will set the mood for tonight ;-)

By half past one the stage is cleared and everything is loaded in the cars, and we get a bite to eat in the neighbourhood what some Kebab and Pide, and then go to bed. And tomorrow to work for Postiljon.

November 27th 2009, P3, Purmerend (NL): Knight Area + Ulysses

Tonight another gig with three bands: Ulysses, Knight Area and Sons of Seasons. For 2 of the 3 bands it is the last show in 2009, only Knight Area has another show in 2 weeks.
The place to be tonight is P3 in Purmerend (what happened to P2 and P1, we will never know), but they seem eager to have us here tonight, we are up on the light signs. Seems they are not only happy to have us, they want other people to come and join as well! Sounds like a recipe for a great evening.

This seems to be the place

The venue

We run into a couple of familiar faces: the sound engineer also work with Anathar, a band Knight Area gigged with a couple of years ago.
Sons of Seasons is first to do the sound check , and Roland, their sound engineer, has a bit of a problem trying to get the band below the 105 dBa, just their back line, and the vocals from the PA its already in the red. So: not so loud on stage and try again.
After that we move their stuff out of the way and add Ulysses’ equipment. In between we also find room to already get Knight Area’s stuff on stage. Stage is pretty big, and with al the equipment, the guys still have room to move around.

FOH world with Roland for Sons of Seasons and Rene watching how his drum kit gets mutalized ;-)

Sons of Seasons Sound check

Arie our light Engineer having some trouble with Ulysses' singer...

...for Michael it is difficult to stand still, so getting him in one place so Arie can set the lights is a challenge

Sound check for Ulysses is extra critical tonight, because they will be filming for a DVD and we will run a 24 track digital recording direct from the mixing desk in to a hard disk recorder. Sound check goes well, and you can hear what a difference it makes to run everything from lines and have the band on in-ear-monitors: you only hear the drums on stage, rest is almost silence. It is just a matter of getting a good balance on the rest of the band, and then add the amount of drums we need.
Knight Area is not on in-ears, but their stage volume is so much lower than SoS’ because they rely on the monitors for the rest of their sound. Which gives me more room to maneuver sound wise, you could say I trained them well, but it is also in their interest. Requires a bit more from the monitor guy, but hey: it makes for a happy band.
After diner we have time to check Gerben’s keyboards, because we don’t want the same experience as in Metropool, but everything is working fine, he already check that during the week a couple of times. So it must have been some sort of interference there, maybe the dimmers from lights?

Back in the lobby there is other activity. Not only do we have a band that must play, we also need to sell stuff: merchandise. Touring and gigging costs money, so merchandise is a way to get at least some money out of it ;-). Chris and Eveline share duties in ‘merchandise world’ waiting for all the enthusiastic new fans, eager to buy the albums.

Pre-sales rest in 'Merchandise world'

Was that an Am7 or and Dmin7added5 ?

Then 20:30 it’s show time, Ulysses hits the stage, dive into the first song, and dives into it again! Rene, the drummer, was so impressed by Michael’s singing, that he lost track of the backing track. And that doesn’t look pretty on DVD, so again. Rest of the show is good, sound is good, lights are good, Arie had done a nice job programming the light desk, combining the lights for both Ulysses and Knight Area, but still giving both bands their own atmosphere and appearance.

After an hour we change over to Knight Area, basically getting Ulysses of stage and reconnecting Knight Area’s gear. Most important is getting a decent sound on stage, and from the looks of it that works. We have a bit of a problem with the guitar microphone, causing a feedback in to the PA. Seems the speaker was not loud enough, when I say I don’t want it too loud, there is no reason to turn it down completely, turned it up a notch and ready to rock. Show goes very, very smooth, band is very good, lights are beautiful, and I am very happy with the sound I get. I my opinion: best ‘Realm of Shadows’ mix so far. It is a pity it is the last show :-(
No big mistakes, and the crowd is very happy, lot’s of new faces, but al seem to know the lyrics to the songs!

Change over again, and Sons Of Seasons do their thing, during their show we do the load-out and get everything in the cars again. Then back to the lobby for a beer and watch the last bit of their show.

All in all, I think it was a great show, for both Knight Area and Ulysses. Something to remember and be proud of!

November 21st 2009, Dynamo, Eindhoven (NL): Ulysses

Today’s gig brings us to the beautiful city of Eindhoven. Yeah, right! We have lots of problems getting to the venue. The navigation seems to think we are on a parallel road to the highway instead of on the highway. When we finally make it into the city, one of the main roads is closed for repairs. Then after a while we end up in a pedestrian area, but no sign of the venue. The suddenly, behind a gate, we see a familiar Van and Rene and Ron, busy unloading that van. Seems we somehow made it! Tonight’s venue is called Dynamo, and we share the stage with Sons of Seasons again, third time. Stage is in the cellar and the dressing room is bigger than the venue! Check out the pictures…

SoS' drummer (2nd left) wondering if this is the place...

Rene busy trying to fit everything in.

So: time to get Ulysses on stage, do a sound check and then: diner. The Sons of Seasons guys arrive and settle in the dressing room, preparing their equipment, so we can do a quick change over. Simone Simons came to join them, but she won’t be singing tonight, just here for fun.
19:30, still no diner, the bands are getting hungry, and Michael especially is famished, he is willing to eat the flyers we have for merchandise. Then 20:10 the Chinese take-away arrives, and have you ever seen a hungry pack of metal-heads charging into their long awaited diner? Trust me: lots of fighting and yelling, not a pretty sight ;-)

Mixing area: Allen & Heath desk, and some racks.

Then 9 o’clock, show-time for Ulysses. Sound is OK for such a small venue, and the people seem to like the band. After an hour, it time to clear the stage, and with a joined effort of both bands, we manage to get SoS on stage within half an hour.

Band backstage, with Ron being funny (as always)

And on stage, again with Ron being funny ;-)

They seem to enjoy themselves on the tiny-stage and their playing is very tight and the show rocks!

One more show next week with Knight Area, Ulysses and Sons Of Seasons in P3, Purmerend. Bands sharing the bill, just as in Metropool yesterday.

November 20th 2009, Metropool, Hengelo (NL) Knight Area + Ulysses

Today three bands in one evening: Ulysses, Knight Area and Sons of Seasons. Location is the brand new venue Metropool in Hengelo. It has only been officially open for 3 weeks now, but counting the try-outs and stuff: 7 weeks. Beautiful venue, nice people and great selection of gear for us to play with. We will be playing the hall called: “Het Paradijs” (the Paradise) equipped with a DiGiCo SD8 and EAW ‘air movers’.

The stage,

DiGiCo desk, Avalon light desk, and a couple of 'locals'

The stage is small, and schedules are tight, so sound check for SoS and Ulysses, just line-check for Knight Area. After SoS sound check is done, the drums are moved to side and covered, leaving us with a even smaller, but nice looking stage. Then it is over to important things: diner!

Diner! The venue is actually a building inside a building.
The halls are concrete structures, outside is glass, and
In between is room for a cafe and restaurant.

After that we setup Ulysses and while they are busy, I get a crash course SD8 from the local venue sound guy, it will be the first time for me to work with a DiGiCo, luckily I have 2 bands to work with. The desk is cool, but I need so time to find my way round it, but I hope that by the time we are half way through the Ulysses set, the desk and I will have become friends.
We start right on schedule, and after the first song I am pretty happy with the sound I get from the board. Location of the desk is a bit of a bummer though: against the back wall, so the bass range of the sound builds up there. But Ronald the local guy walks to the center of the hall a couple of times and comes back with a full report.
Arie runs the lights on this show for KA and Ulysses and he does a great job on that, lights are beautiful, even though that the equipment is al so new, that the haven’t had time yet to connect everything and to program all the equipment.
They do a pretty good show, with Peter the Bass player suffering from a fever!

Yes, I want one!

Ulysses in full show

Then its change-over time, Ulysses leaves the stage, KA enter, only drums remain. We have 20 minutes, and that is not enough, and after we finally get everything on stage and in the monitors for KA, Mister Murphy enters the venue: Gerbens Keyboards develop a major fault, and for a chance it is not in sound but somewhere in the Midi side of things. He runs 3 keyboards into 1 module, and Mark Smit also runs a keyboard into that module. But keyboard 1, which is used for piano a lot, only makes sounds every now and then. Broken midi cable? We loose a lot of time finding out what is wrong. A they decide to skip the ‘piano-heavy songs’. Then it is Murphy time again when Peter breaks his skin of his snare drum. He gets a replacement from Rene (Ulysses’ drummer) and we go on again.
But apart from all the errors the audience is patient and the sound is pretty good. When the guys come of stage they are all a bit (or a lot) disappointed and disillusioned.

Arie our light designer

Mark Smit standing out of the focus of the lights, which irritates Arie...

They gather in the dressing room for an interview, while on stage with Sons of Seasons, Murphy is at again: computer crash. The drummer (just like Ulysses) uses a computer with a backing track with samples and stuff, combined with a click to keep proper time. So with no computer to back them up, they have to wait for the beast to reboot before they can continue the show.

Questions, more questions,

An hour and a half interview!

Tomorrow again with Ulysses and Sons of Seasons, no Knight Area, so maybe a bit more rest, less problems?
But I can imagine why all the bigger acts want to work with a DiGiCo desk ;-)

November 13th 2009, Colos-Saal, Aschaffenburg (GE): Knight Area

Today a show with Riverside down in the Colos-Saal in Aschaffenburg (Germany) for the Eclipsed Festival. A four hour drive from Pieter’s home in Arnhem, so we leave Boskoop at 9:30. Two of Pieter’s friends, both Knight Area and Riverside fans, will come along with us to see both the shows.

We get there after a nice drive with not much traffic and not much delay and we arrive at the venue round 16:00. Aschaffenburg is a nice old town, but not time for sight-seeing though: busy schedule.

We do the load-in while Riverside is doing the sound check I thought we would be sharing desks, but RS brought their own light and sound desks, so I have my part of FOH for my own: nice Soundcraft MH-3 and lots of Dbx160 and Drawmers so ingredients for a good sound. Arie, is less fortunate, instead of the Avolite (Riverside's) it's the hall's Scanmasters for him.
The Hall is a bit boxy and boomy in the mid range, but Mattias, the “ton-meister” from Colos-Saal assured me that when the house fills up, the mud will clear. The venue is almost sold out, so there won’t be any space left for mud. I will have to take his word for that.
There is not much room on stage due to RS’s equipment, so we have to improvise a bit with the set-up. In the end the guys manage to fit everything on stage in the small space the had left. In the meantime I have time to setup the desk and stuff.

Load-in and setting up

My office at the Colos-Saal

Start sound check without Mark Smit, who had a busy time schedule and could not travel with us, we feared that he would get caught in the traffic jams, but he makes it in time, he walks on stage just as I am ready to sound check him. Great timing, at that for a singer ;-)

Then after a nice diner, at 20:45: Showtime and the venue is packed to the walls. During the first songs the crowd is bit shy and silent, but after that everyone looses up and the atmosphere is good and response is good. Sound wise things turn out oke, bumpy and boxy midrange is gone. A bit sharp in the highs, and the snare is everywhere. Because it is a compact (small) stage, every microphone picks up everything. Mark V almost tumbles over when he starts his two hand-tapping act, and Gerben has the RS keyboards pressing into his back.
But crowd is happy, so hey, everything is cool! That's rock & roll.

Knight Area during show

More KA show

After 70 minutes, show is over, so Knight Area clears the stage for Riverside. They do a nice and smooth running show, as always. I have seen them 6 or 7 times now and shows are cool. A bit to loud though, that’s a bit of a shame. And Rob Palmen our (and their) tour-manager tells me I could give it a bit more drive. I always try to mix between 95 and 98 dBa at FOH (aim for 95), get some good compliments about that from the audience. But I’ll make a mental note about that.

Riverside busy doing their stuff

Pieter, Gerben, Gijs and Mark V relaxing post show

Then round 1 o’clock of to the hotel PfaffenMuehle, good night rest and breakfast at 9:00, preparing for the drive home.

November 7th 2009, JJMusicHouse, Zoetermeer (NL): Knight Area

Tonight a gig close to home (for most of us) in JJMusicHouse in Zoetermeer, we played this venue before, it is small, but cosy and comfy. Lot's of friends turn up and it is more like the PreRelease party then a proper gig. There is no support act tonight, so that means 2 hours of Knight Area. Playing Realm Of Shadows before the commercial break and the old stuff after that.
Load in and set up is easy, Pieter arrives late, so we can have proper diner before the sound check for a chance, instead of rushing and running.
Sound wise it is a small venue, so we are bit louder than I usually aim for, but the audience is in close-up with the band, making for an intimate setting. Okidoki, some pictures then.

Small stage, but we fit everything in.	First people come in, and place becomes cosy
Ok, pictures of the technicians: Arie, light engineer	And me:

November 6th 2009, De Baroeg, Rotterdam (NL): Ulysses

Yes, heavy prog-rock bands this evening. In Rotterdam's hard rock temple Baroeg. Three bands, and we are second: means no sound check, just a line check. Boy am I glad that the guys are on in-ear-monitors. Today Ron has a show with FAF so we will have a keyboard player 'in the box' He will be part of the backing tracks.
We arrive at 17:30, for diner will be served round 18:00. Well it won't until 19:30, so we just wait, hang around, chat a bit with the other bands, while the main act 'Cirrha Niva' does their sound check.
At 21:30 we are ready to begin the show, line check was oke, but I was not to happy with the mixing desk: analog Yamaha, though the digital ones I worked with are oke, the old analog Yamaha desks and I don't mix well (pun intended). Don't like the sound and the are counter-intuitive, if you own the desk you might get used to it, but as a guest mixer... I would rather have a Midas or a larger Allen & Heath.
Especially my gain structure was not what I want it to be, pushing my compressors a bit to hard, but got it sorted out during the first song. But they only play 4 songs. Well: can't have it all, show must go one. Show was pretty good, Ulysses being the 'softest' band of the evening.
Didn't bring my camera so no pictures, sorry.

October 25th 2009, The Robin 2, Wolverhampton (UK) : Knight Area

Pieter the proud owner of the Chevy.

Today's venue: The Robin 2

It is a 3 hour drive and we arrive at the Robin round breakfast time (10:30) and that is what we get: a cooked full English breakfast, delicious! After that it is time to check out the venue: everything is setup and ready to use, what a difference from yesterday. Nice Midas desk, lot's of great outboard stuff and the hall does not sound too bad either. We sail through the sound check and setup merchandise next to the two lovely merch-girls from The Dreaming Tree who is our support act that day. It is always good to see familiar faces, first is Miles who returns my CD pouch which I forgot yesterday at CRS. And my friends Rob & Jill from Buxton are here also, I am not sure whether they came for me, or to see Knight Area, but it's good to see them. Then the show: the guys' rock! Everything goes the way it should be: lights are cool, sound is good, and the band is even better: tight, punchy, and energetic.

My office in at the Robin2 and...	The band in full flight
the show

After the show we go out for diner in IndiaGates, an Indian restaurant next door, very good food, and a relaxed atmosphere. To bed early, because tomorrow we have to drive to Harwich to catch the boat back to Holland and we have to be there by 7:30 so get out of bed by 4:00. Rock and Roll!

All in all it was a great little tour, we might come back next year. If they still want us that is :-)

October 24th 2009, CRS Octoberfest, Wath-upon-Dearn (UK) : Knight Area

Next morning we drive from Hull to Wath-upon-Dearn, when we drive through Bliston we search for a Harley Davidson shop that Pieter wants to visit. And he has to get a tire fixed, because he broke a nipple (valve) on his spare. So unload half the car to get to the tire.

By 11:00 we arrive at the venue, Montgomery Hall, located, as with almost everything in England, just across the church. We are expected by 12:00 and now-one from CRS (the Classic Rock Society) who organizes the is here to meet us, so we go to the local pub for a late breakfast. By 12:00 we go back to the hall, and find someone from CRS, but we can’t get in to the venue till 13:00.

Wath-upon-Dearn has a Community Centre	... a church,...
...a pub,...	...with good food! Fine breakfast.

Doors open at 16:30, with lights to load-in, PA to load in and 4 bands to sound check, that is going to be a tight schedule. Five o’clock we are done, back to the pub for an early diner. Then back to the show, we get a chance to see Tiny Fish, the second band that evening, and after that it is show time for the boys. Lot’s of problems with monitors not working, monitors dying halfway during the show. PA a bit to small, not enough power for a band like KA, but again the audience is happy and content.

"It's chaos Jim, but not as we know it"	While the PA and the lights are set-up...
The band waits,...	...and waits, waits, till...
Showtime!

We do the load-out as fast as possible, watch half the show of the next band and then head for the hotel, get into the bar for an extra beer. It is then that I realize I miss my little pouch of CD’s, with in it also the soundtracks and cue’s for the live show. We phone Miles from the organization, and he manages to trace it down and promises to bring it next day to the Robin.

October 23th 2009, Rotterdam Boat-trip to the UK : Knight Area

This weekend we have two shows planned in the United Kingdom. Friday we get everything loaded into 2 cars and head for Rotterdam where we take the ferry to Hull. After some problems with the tickets that had already been solved, Arie has to solve them again, and after a little delay we do make it on board. 2 huts booked, 1 for 4 and 1 for 3. Some of the guys go and splash out on a luxurious diner onboard, while the rest head for the Irish Bar onboard and splash out on beer.

October 17th 2009, Het Paard, Den Haag (NL): Knight Area + Ulysses

First show in a row of double gigs with Ulysses and Knight Area. Load-in time is set at 16:00, and we have to be ready for diner by 18:30, that's just 2.5 hours to get everything set up and ready. Desk is cool: Soundcraft MH3 en cool outboard gear. Venue is a smaller than I expected, but oke.
First Knight Area, we setup everything and are done by 17:45 or so, bit longer than expected. Ulysses is fast getting their gear up there, we'll be sharing drum kits so that's easy, patch everything alongside KA on the desk, no monitors to check, they got in-ears.
I manage to get everything done by 18:30, with the production manager already standing at my desk and looking at her watch.
It's of to get some food, we end up in a Irish pub and go for some pub-food, fish and chips English style. After that back to the venue, people are already in. Not as much people as we had hoped for, but that is maybe due to the fact that we played in Alphen a couple of weeks before.

This will be my office for today.	This how Ulysses normally looks, yep like idiots.
Look at the beautiful art our lampie, Arie, is creating...	Luckily, they are more serious when on stage rocking!

Ulysses' show goes fine, not much to tell about. For a lot of people in the audience it came as a bit of revelation / discovery, because they came for KA and are very pleased with this 'support-act' they had heard about, but not yet heard live.
Ok, change over done, than its time for KA to hit the stage.

Another picture of my office during the busy hours with:

Knight Area playing Realm Of Shadows

Nice show, people are happy. We have to clear the place very quickly because there is a House of whatever kind of party booked after our show. Get everything back into Pieter's Chevrolet Suburban, because this was also a kind of a test case to see whether we could all our gear and people in 2 cars for England. And it seems like it will fit. Great Band-Van ;-)

October 9th 2009, Dock 03, Hendirk Ido Ambacht (NL): Ulysses

A small gig in the local venue, for Sylvester lives in this place. Michael and I have problems finding it, but we are 'talked-in' by Sylvester with his mobile. Small venue, and 4 bands, no sound-checks, just line-checks and go.
The 2 band before us are nice, a bit young an lacking experience, but nice music and good guys.
Then it's time for us to hit the stage, this time without a bass player, that will come from a sequecer.

We, I, have lots of problems getting the correct signals from their mixer to my mixer, there is something wrong but we cannot find it. We patch and re-patch and than we have some kind of working solution. But by then it is late, but the venue let us play the entire set.
Bit stressed, not best of show, Sylvester's vocals go missing halfway, but only on my desk, on theirs it is fine, bizarre evening.

October 4th 2009, ProgPower, Baarlo (NL) : Knight Area

Ahhh ProgPower Baarlo, we have been waiting for this show for a while now. It is a pretty prestigious festival with band from all over the world coming to the small town of Baarlo in Limburg in the Netherlands. And on Sunday afternoon, Knight Area will be opening the 3rd day of the festival.
We drive up there in a couple of hours and find a warm welcome.

We were a bit worried that we might be to 'soft' for this power festival, but people were very glad of finally hearing some melodies and harmonies and musical stuff instead of brute power. Speaking of which: it seemed the audience was fed up with loud festivals the previous years, so there was a limit of 95 dBA at the front of house desk. Power rock does not necessary have to be loud, especially if you have a 3 day pass-par-tout. No problems for me there, I normally aim at that level, but I can imagine other engineers having some problems with that.

Okidoki, photo Arie in the heat of the moment.

And a pre-show shot of the drum kit (provided by the venue) but with the KnightArea logo and two of the for banners along side

September 26th 2009, Het Kasteel, Alphen a/d Rijn (NL): Knight Area

Release party for the new album. The first real Knight Area show since December 2008. This is also the first show with new material from their album Realm of Shadows. We played at Het Kasteel before so no surprises there. Nice Midas Venice Desk, pretty good outboard stuff, I did hook up my own rack though. Banners used for the first time in a stage setting proper: looks great.

Desk and recording stuff at FOH island

Final check before 'curtain call'

Arie admiring the view

Happy crowd

Today John Vis will be shooting a video, so we have to provide him with some nice audio recordings. We hook up my computer with the Chris' KorgD888, get them to sync nice and record the show on 16 tracks of audio. Later Gerben will mix everything and John will combine that with his video.

September 25th 2009, Waalhalla, Nijmegen (NL) : Knight Area

Today is a special gig at a special venue. This is a private party held for a selected group of fans, The Pre-Release party. Location is a skate hall in Nijmegen, located in a former industry complex or hall.

The usual mess during load-in and set up.

This is how the hall looks after you walk in!
What a difference a couple of hours work make!

Mark Smit explaining the story behind the album

Band having fun with a couple of RoS songs

Venue is empty so we have to get everything ourselves: sound, light and catering. We use the PA and lights from Arie (our light engineer) and manage to get a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere in the big hall. Also the first time we used our new banners, not yet on stage but to decorate the hall. I was afraid that the sound would be awful in this big reverberant hall, but with reasonable sound levels, the sound is actually pretty good. Better than I had expected. Band was happy, fans were happy, one big happy family.

September 20th 2009, Victorie ,Alkmaar (NL): Illumion

This is the first gig with Illumion since the release of their album. Small venue, loud drummer (Emile) but the rest of the back line was silenced because the all use an in-ear-monitoring system. Main issue is to just get a good balance in the band and lift that on top of the drums.

Gerton setting up the gear for Eveline

Band photo's and...

FOH, bit to close to the stage, but hey...

glamour shots...

This is also the first show with Gerton Leijdekker (who plays guitar with S.O.T.E.) as the keyboard player.

September 3rd 3009, Nieuwe Nor, Heerlen (NL): Ulysses

This is a show together with Sons Of Seasons from Germany, tonight also featuring Simone Simons from Epica. Nice venue, only mixing position is a bit odd: on the balcony. That means that what I hear upstairs is not what they hear downstairs. Also the bass is building up on the mix location. Means I will be running up and down the stairs during the show to check the sound down stairs. Well, it is good for my health!
First is Sons of Seasons with their sound check, the have a line from the computer to check Simone's vocals while she is not there, and it is kind of, ehh... sensual? After that all guys needed clean underwear. And that is only the beginning of the evening. Or was it the real Simone, sitting in the dressing room with a wireless microphone? We, poor souls, will never know.

FOH up high, to the left is Joris, Lampie for Ulysses.	Sound check with the real Simone.
Ulysses kit from the balcony view.	Ulysses rocking away.

July 4th 2009, GetRythm, Ridderkerk (NL) : Ulysses

Just a small gig in the same build as where the band has its rehearsal room. Load in is early, and we have plenty of time to go to a restaurant and have a good meal.
Back at 'Get Rythm' the waiting begins, and it takes a long time for al the friends and family to make their way to Ridderkerk, but they find it and show starts.

This is also the first time to check out my new outboard rack. I have build myself a new rack with compressors, multi-FX units, equalizer, and CD player in 1 rack, with just 2 multi cables as break-out / inserts / returns. Plus switches on the back to switch the send/return settings.
Set-up is fast and everything works ok. After the show everything is packed pretty fast. Looks like we've got ourselves a winner.

From top to bottom:
Numark CD player
Drawmer 24 dual compressor / gate
ART TCS dual compressor.
DBX compressor (in current set-up no longer used)
Presonus EQ for oldradio voice, custom build switch box, mixer for FX returns and CD
TC-Electronic M-One multi FX, for reverb and delay
Lexcion MX-100 for snare reverb. (in current set no longer used)

top row:
inputs for CD, followed by tip/ring switching for inserts
bottom row:
4 inputs to the FX,
4 inputs/outputs for the compressors/inserts
4 outputs for CD direct en FX returns

July 4th 2009, Willems Wondere Weiland, Amersfoort (NL) : Ulysses

Open Air Concert with Ulysses on WWW. First time to check out their new life set up. Using in-ear monitors, their own microphones etc. Also the first show with Peter Boer (S.O.T.E. / Ilumion) as a replacement bass player.
Atmosphere is great, sun is shining, it is hot and people are happy and having fun. So: audience is great, we will have to see how the band behaves.
Short time to set up, just a line check and then hit it, I have a Roland M400 digital desk, first time use for me, but works out ok.
Audience likes the band a lot, and despite from a view technical issues before show, everything goes pretty good. And hey, it is mid-summer, so who is complaining?

The band on WWW	Michael Hos: vocals
Ron Moser: keyboards and funny faces	Rene van Haaren: Drums and looking serious
Sylvester Vogelenzang-de Jong: Guitars	Peter Boer: bass

May 3rd 2009, De Kei, Ede (NL): S.O.T.E.

Nice show! Together with Silhouette and Segunda. The PA was a Quadra phonic set-up, with 2 speakers at the stage edge and 2 speakers in the back of the room. The other sound engineer set-up reverbs, keyboards and stuff on the back cluster. Was pretty cool but I only set the sequencer to the back cluster and a bit of the reverb. I thought it was odd to see some-one play on stage and hearing them from the back. Using only the sequencer I could get good separation between the sequencer and Gerton's guitar synthesizer. Worked a dream.