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RoadNotes: Solex

Elisabeth Esselink, aka Solex, does not only make some of the most intriguing music to be found nowadays, she also goes out on the road with her band to have the fans enjoy her music live. The band recently headed off again for a month-long US tour and KindaMuzik picked out a few entries from the tourdiary kept by drummer Robert...

Tekst: Niels van der Tang

Publicatiedatum: 11 augustus 2000

Friday 26th May: We go into Manhattan quite early because we were all awake at 6 AM. We pick up our tourbook and merchandise at Matador, hang out a bit and do some shopping. Then we go to Leonardstreet where we will play two nights at the Knitting Factory. Elisabeth does an interview with insound.com, and we meet Stereo Total, with whom we will split the bill a couple of times this tour. Tonight's show is sold out. We play pretty OK, considering we have a lot of technical problems on stage. A first show of a tour abroad is always difficult; a new drumkit, new amps and a lot of transformers for the electricity. These transformers keep falling out of the sockets this show. Big problem. Some people made our day by saying nice stuff after the show. When we're thrown out of the club by the cleaning people, we head for Brooklyn.

Tuesday 30th May: Right after breakfast we head for Columbus. It takes us about three hours to get there. We park the car, go for coffee and food, do some record shopping at Used Kids (great store! cheap cheapos) and check e-mail at Kinko's. At load in time we go down the steps of Bernie's to drop off the backline. Also Bernie's is the same dump as it was last year, which is not so great. It's 18:00hrs and the toilets are overflowing. The stage is still a mess from last night, and the the people working there, decide to leave it like that. Two hours late the local soundguy shows up. He didn't know he had to work. In the meantime we eat at Bernie's restaurant. When we start to soundcheck, it takes Miguel about one minute to piss off the local soundguy. Sure, a well EQ-ed soundsystem is too much to ask for. Nothing works on stage, the power is fucked (excusez le mot), cables broken and monitors keep falling out. After the 'soundcheck' we decide to get some fresh air. The first band plays sort of melancholic pop, then the hardcore punk band plays hardcore punk, and after that, we're on. It's midnight. As we change over, the local soundguy harasses us and the audience with his own obnoxious music. We get on stage, monitors are not working, local soundguy is gone... It takes us about 5 minutes (after the first song) to fix the problem ourselves. The audience doesn't seem to mind that, and despite a couple of other problems (the promoter -drunk- decides he want to go home and pays us on stage) the show went well. We sell loads of merchandise after the show, so it probably was a good show. We break up and start loading out. Then...the car is gone!!! It takes us again about 5 minutes to find out it's been towed. Five very scary minutes, 'cause it would have been sort of a problem when the car would have been stolen in the first week of our 5 week tour. By the way, Bernie's told us to park in that particular spot. Bernie's is a lousy dump, with a couple of jerky people working in it, and we are NEVER going to play there again! We sleep at Bela's house. He is the owner of Used Kids and has a label called Anyway Records. He is one of these very nice people you meet on the road. His happy dogs are very glad to see us again too.

Thursday 1st June: It takes us about 5 hours to get to Chicago. So on time we arrive at the campus where Elisabeth and I will do a radiosession. We record three songs. Meanwhile Miguel and Geert check out lake Michigan. After, we all go to the Empty Bottle. Tonight we play first, then local band Bobby Conn, then Stereo Total. Before we do the soundcheck we get dinner from the restaurant next door. Great food in Styrofoam containers. The plastic forks scratching the form make our appetite go away. At 10 PM it's showtime and the show is sold out. We play our first good show this tour. A couple of guys film the show for a cybercast. After 5 shows we've almost sold all the shirts we brought. The Bobby Conn show is pretty lame. The guy is simply too much fun for us Dutchies. Also too smelly and obnoxious. Stereo Total plays a great set. They come back 4 times for encores. As soon as the lights on stage are turned off, everybody is swept out of the Empty Bottle. As we load out the cops show up. All the people that are still inside the Empty Bottle seem very scared for them. Sometimes the States seem like a total policestate. We have to stop loading out, drive around the block and come back when the police have gone. Weird.

Saturday 3rd June: Today is the first of two drive days. We have to make it to Vancouver on the 5th. It's rainy, cloudy and not too hot. It's a good thing the Solex-party gets along very well, 'cause you might go crazy, being stuck in a minivan 10 hours a day. Elisabeth and Miguel do the driving, Geert the navigation and me, I do the reading. We drive through North Dakota, see prairie, see buffalos and see Painted Canyon at Roosevelt National park. We cross the great plains, listen to native Indian 24 hour non-stop radio, enter Montana and end in a $20 motel near Miles City. We drove for 12 hours today.

Wednesday 14th June: ...a very ugly city. They're drilling for oil everywhere around us. It takes us about an hour to find the Denny's that's been promised to us by the road signs. The mountains and cactuses make way for boring endless prairies. In Dallas we stay at a ...(drum roll please)... motel 6 and do the laundry.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/achtergrond/solex/roadnotes-solex/500/
Meer Solex op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/solex