the Euro-reunion wasn't on as big a scale as the LA one, but nevertheless it was fun. Let's start with a preview of what's to come:

-multitrack live recording
-5 camera registration of the concert
-lots of US stoners
-south african food
-Nuttwork shirts
-Meshell
-Ase's birthday

Okay.. to start of, my mobile phone provider had made a mistake and had switched off my phone so Colin couldn't let me know he was in Amsterdam. Luckily email was working, so we did manage to meet up through the kind help of a tourist information lady.

It is a recurring theme with all the reports we get when list members meet, they always seem to be great people.

I had planned to spend most of the day on mastering the Verviers concert (depending on the band's and Denis's okay it may make it to a website), but it turned out slightly different.

We called the Melkweg (yes, on Colin's phone) and asked to speak to Sarah. To my surprise we got straight through to her and she told us to come over instantly to meet up with them and Nico and friends, who were already there. So we did.

When we came to the melkweg they were setting up stuff and we met up with Sarah, Ahse and Norwood. Angelo came out of the bus and probably (I didn't see him afterwards) joined the rest of the band who went to the judging event for the Cannabis Cup.

So we spend the afternoon with Norwood, Sarah and Ase, who had a birthday. She is very cute, even her "terrible 2's" behaviour is quite cute and not bad at all. The big celebration had been the night before in Enschede and she even had a birthday cake.

I saw the impressive photos from the Aigle show (Nico brought a big book with copies for the entire band) and we learned that they were going to record the show with 16 tracks and film it as well. The organizer wants to put out the Fishbone show as a Cannabis Cup cd. Very interesting..

I gave Norwood 2 cd's, one with the Dukes of Stratosphear which he was very happy with and a Keziah Jones album. He hadn't heard the music, but it turned out that Spacy is into Keziah and had mentioned him to Norwood.

We went for a walk to try and find a nice place to eat and at my suggestion we went to a south african restaurant. I think everyone enjoyed the food (I had zebra), and Norwood was very much impressed with the ostrich egg lamps. If you know how to get one (basically, a 50 watt light in an egg, it works quite well), get one for him. The restaurant had them custom made, so they couldn't tell us where to get them.

After dinner I had to split to try and get the Verviers cd's done so I could give them to the band, but I failed miserably because I had to go to a Meshell show. The show was very funky, although for my tastes she had too many pieces that were better suited for listening to at home. It lacked energy at times. Still, very very nice..

On a sidenote, why do people make a big deal about her sexuality? Paradiso was filled with gay female couples, which is fine, but I've never seen them at other soul/funk shows. It's a shame people apparently go to her shows more for her personality then her music. I hadn't expected that. Oh well.

I slipped out just before her encore and went to the Melkweg, where I was just in time to meet up with the gang minus Sarah and Ase (too smoky and no babysitter) but with Denis, who made it in time. We went in and saw the end of a video with judging of different samples. They take their stuff very seriously.

Then Angelo came on in a, well, somewhat african/oriental/middle eastern outfit (when the pictures are up, take a look. Very cool costume) and started with a reading of Rock Star to a very apreciative audience. The audience was mostly american, so the spoken word seems to come across better.

After that the band jumped into Nuttmeg World and they went into a fairly standard set. There were big screens to either side of the stage showing the filming, so it was almost like a miniature big stadium concert. The stoners seemed to be taken aback a bit because most of the dancing and crowd was about 5 meters from the stage, leaving the space near the space relatively unpopulated, which made for great space to dance. It wasn't empty, but you could easily go get a drink and dance back to the front or walk back and forth in front of the stage to take pictures, which was done quite a bit.

The crowd and the band were quite into it, but for both it was clear that the Cannabis Cup isn't just a name.. the magic cigarettes had some effect on the band, which wasn't as tight as usual. I doubt the recordings will be released, but we can always hope or try to get them one way or another. Regardless, I enjoyed the show tremendously, met quite a few old soldiers that I hadn't seen for a while and everyone was totally into the show. I do hope they release it (overdubs or no).

After the show we met up with Sarah and Ase again, Denis gave her a gift (he is very good with those things, I didn't find the time anymore to buy here anything..) and Sarah gave me a shirt. Arne, I now have 2 yellow Nuttwork shirts! :) Nevermind, I love them both.

I went home with Colin and we quietly relaxed after the show. The next day was basically getting up, making sure Colin had the compilation and then he went to the airport and I went to work.

All in all, very enjoyable, but it was very rushed for me. Also, I didn't get to hang out with the entire band and the list members as much as I had hoped, but we should definately do this again if one of their next tours in Europe actually is in late august as they planned. As far south as we can get :)

And I can drive a few people from Amsterdam down to wherever easily.

That's all for now.

cheers,

Arno

Basically, Cannibus cup is a week-long american event organised for americans-who-want-to-go-on- a-pilgrimage-to-the-world-capital- of-the-herb-that-makes -you-sleepy/crazy/openminded/... (fill the blanks / choose what it does for you). So even if the show was sold out, the venue was not packed at all. Same venue as for 9.9.99 and my memories of that time is that the melkweg was packed. Mainly americans, very few dutch, guessing from the average height of the public.

Got there at 22.30 after a 2.30 hours drive after putting the kids to bed. Met w/ Nico and his swiss friends & Colin Backstage, Arno joined us later on after Michelle's gig. Sarah was taking care of As? at the hotel, got to meet a few minutes after the gig.

Setlist: the same as in verviers except some bad taste changes (imho) : question of life replaced by ma & pa, 4-songs encore replaced by just Demon. Very special athmosphere as everyone was there to get wasted on weed rather than to enjoy the show.

so , for me, the combination of a setlist i had already heard three days before in great circumstances, of the shortened set, and of a so so audience makes it not the best gig of the tour. But damn, these guys have been playing non stop for the last 2 months at least, they need a break !

so, on my scale, it'd be a 9.2 or so.

I drove home almost directly after the gig, so did the band who had a plane to catch in London at 9AM, if i understood correctly. I'll let Nico, Arno & Colin fill you up on the pre and post gig details.

Denis

Ok, we arrived at Melkweg at about 14:30 and met Sarah, Norwood, and the cute Ase. Jessica gave her a little fish toy for her birthday, but she was more interested by the wrapping paper than what was inside.

After a while, Arno and Colin arrived. We chatted a while and watched Colin and my friend pictures. We went next to the band's hotel, and waited Sarah that was dressing Ase. Very cool hotel, everybody was smoking in the lounge and there were some Hightimes peoples around there.

Next we went to a restaurant outside the touristic zone of Amsterdam, small but very original. Ase showcased us her drumming talent on the table, and was mixing her pear juice with everything she could find. Sarah and Norwood seems to be very cool parents, I loved the way they talked to her, trying to explain her things.

We returned to Melkweg at about 20:30, and met other band members in the backstage. We offered each musician a book we made about the concert in Aigle : really cool item with about 100 pictures of before, during and after the show together with all related press articles and promo we did. Everybody was so happy and couldn't believe that they can keep it.

From 20:30 until 23:15 we stayed the whole time in the backstage, and it was some kind of achievement. There was such a fog in this room !!! Dirty Walt was in heaven, like a kid in a candy store. He was rolling nonstop, and each time he gave me the blunt, he had a grin from an ear to the other, and said : "Yeah, Man !" That was so cool. I don't know how Jessica and Colin could have stay in this room without smoking.

The show was really special, as it was so quiet. When you were on the front of the stage, you could have think that you were in some kind of VIP area. You could go anywhere on the front from left to right without difficulty. Thanks to that my friend took amazing pictures of each member, I hope I can upload some somewhere. The show was cool, Norwood was amazing as usual, Spacey and John looked a little tired, Angelo was very static due to his knee problem, and Dirty Walt was in his garden... Very different show from last time I came for the cup in 99(which is one of my top three Bone show)

The show was not so great, but the day we passed with Sarah, Ase, Colin, Arno, Denis, Philippe, Jessica and the boys was really cool and friendly. I think that everybody had a great time, anyway I did. It was a pleasure to meet new listmembers and to see Sarah and Denis again.

See you soon, for the next tour.

Bye, Nico.

Flew to Amsterdam, met up with Arno, went to the venue, met up with the band who were all very tired and chatted with Sarah, Nico and his two friends were also there (Phillipe and I'm ashamed to say I've forgotten the ladies name! Big apologies to her!). We went for a meal with Norwood, Sarah and Ase at a South African restaurant and then went back to the venue apart from Arno who had another concert to fit in before Fishbone!

Hung out in the Fishbone room till they were due on stage at 11.30. Set list (Spacey's and printed not hand written) was;
XQZ Me
Nuttmeg
Alcoholic
Just Allow
Pressure
Heet
Aids
Wit It
Cholly
Question - crossed out and replaced by Norwood with Ma & Pa (I was there when he changed it!)
Skankin'
Permadawnutt
Chim Chim
Bonin'
Sunless
Swim
-------
Go Nutz
Party
--------
Last Daze
Red Hot

They actually started with Rock Star - well Angelo walked on and started talking it and slowly the band (minus Walt) joined in and built it into the crescendo that it is on CD - and awesome start I thought! Sadly they only did one encore - Demon and then they split, it was now about 1am. We hung around for a while saw Sarah & got my T-shirts.

Said goodbye to Denis, Nico and Co and went back to Arno's pad, stayed up listening to the Verviers gig till about 3.30pm. Got up next morning had a education in some good music from Arno's collection, got a copy of the Nuttwork collection and then it was time to head home and for Arno to go to
work.

Pictures!!!!! Due to the way things turned out instead of my ?3.50 disposable camera I had my ?250 Canon EOS so the pictures should be better than the last lot I put up. I'll be getting these tomorrow (Saturday) so should have them on the WWW Sunday. At least the first lot as I part used
one film so there will be more but I'll have to finish the roll off first.

Credits - Big Thank You to the Band for coming over, to Arno for putting me up, the lady at Tourist Information (read the long version!), Sarah for T-shirts and everyone I met.

Colin