Luxemburg / I Love Techno 11/12-11-2005

[Céj]

Originally Posted by King of Snake

aren't you forgetting someone...?

and by the time they made it to Gent she was to tired to remember me

[lloyd]

Yeah I left some people out of my reports till now too I noticed. Most important of all, Janie. Great to have you with us on tour, translating and speaking french, keeping us men a little human and good confersation at times. And not to forget, getting tickets for us.

Luxembourg l'Atelier 11-11-2005.

I drove 270km from my house to the trainstation in Luxemburg city for this one. On my way there I noticed that the network on my mobile phone chanced and although at the website of my network it said I could use my pre-paid phone anywhere in the EU, it didn't. Hmm bummer, cos I wanted to call the others to join up somewhere on the highway. Holland is almost flat apart from the south, there are a few larger hills there. But when you get to Gent in Belgium, the road is going up quite steep (still no mountains tho). Addepting speed on these big hills is something you have to learn by doing it more often I guess so I was constantly trying to be under maximum speed because of the high tickets you get in Belgium nowdays for speeding. Pretty intensive drive all in all. Also because it was rushhour by the time I got into Luxemburg city and I trafficjammed all the way to the trainstation.
Good I wrote down the address of the hotel the others were staying at for the gig I couldn't ask them by phone. I parked my car at what I thought was the long-parking place near the trainstation. I walked down to the hotel after asking directions at the tourist stand. Found the hotel but couldn't find my way in! The enterance was a elevator up to the reception, it took me a little while to understand that. I went to the reception counter already racing my mind to remember the names under which the others would have made reservations.. We always use the dirty nicknames when talking to eachother. But I did remember Raz's and could ask if he did check in already, but he didn't. So I waited. After about 30 minutes they were there too and we went up to our rooms.
Because we were all bit tired from the day before and the drive to Lux and arrived later then we tought, we decided not to go to the meeting place. Stimp already had phoned/msg'ed the people who contacted him that we weren't going to make it far earlier. We gathered in one hotelroom and then left to find the venue and looked where we could wait till the doors were open and have a drink. This was at the Elevator bar where we found flyers of DJ gig by Darren at the Pub Club later that night. We had a few drinks, jason was showing off his new camera (everybody wants one now!) talked
dirty(.org) and other stuff. The barowener came to pickup the flyers and told us that the party was off but Darren was going to DJ in the backroom of the Elevator after the gig. Great!
Then we went next door to l'Atelier for the concert. After our tickets were checked we walked in the enterance hall with cloackroom and left our coats and bags there. Then went into the venue.
We already had seen pictures of it at their website and knew it was small, but it was even smaller then we thought! After the 2200 people that fitted in the 013, tilburg, this was a <600 people (still can't find a real number for it) venue! Cozy!

The stage is placed in one corner, a long bar at the opposite side allong the wall and there is a wide balcony with seats. The height of the stage is about 1 meter and there is a fench less then a meter away from it. We all found a spot at or very near the fench, drank some 1/2 liter Bofferdings (luxemburg beer) while waiting for what was coming and talking about this tiny place and how good it was to see Underworld here. The place filled up with people, it was crowded but not to much. We looked at the stage, not a big amount of lights hanging up, no place to hang the projectionscreens here either but to compensate that we could read the paperstrips R&D use on the mixers! We met a_lot_of_poisson there. Great to meet you!

Then the band came on stage, cheers, waves, applause... Rick and Darren and the stagehand did the last tweaks on the gear and Karl welcomed the audience. The spotlightman instructed the securityguards because of the very tiny workspace he had, about a foot wide, kicked it clean of bottles and plastic glasses. First tune kicks in.
This was going to be a night to never forget. The band and all the gear at armslenght, a concert that was going to last 3 hours Karl dancing just in front of you, very intimate club with most of the crowd that probably never saw them live. And you could notice the latter, it took some time before the audience to really get into it, also because the long pieces they played (when to clap???). But after the first mix ended the audience went pretty wild to cheer to their heros and the crowd reaction only got bigger each tune.
During the whole of the concert there was a videocamera pointed at the band, setup on a stand at the side of the stage and the stagehand was filming the band from all angles possible and also filmed the audience lots of times with another camera. At one point the camera was in my face for the bst part of a minute... it felt that long anyway.

They played some of the new tracks and a couple of pieces we already did hear at the HMH and 013 gigs in different mixes with Karl ofcourse adding his trademark samples with his pioneer cdplayer. Nice flow of tunes which got the audience really going by the time the big gun tunes blasted out of the speakers. I had the idea that the newer stuff was appriciated by the Luxemburg crowd real well, although the reaction took some time to come, the were big cheers like everywhere else we've seen them when a new one kicked in.
Karl had enough space to dance around and he did.. singing, cheering, shouting out to rick and darren and the audience
and all real close to us! Sad that the guitar never left it's stand, we'd have had a real good look at it there I LOVE that guitar.
Because we were so close to the stage there was a minus too. We had our left nostril on one and our right nostril on the other smokemachine. And it was used quite a lot.. This made me feel not to well at one point and I left the fench for a little more air, I saught a spot to have a good look and some fresh(er) air. I went up onto the balcony but the air was even thicker there but had a nice view of the stage. The balcony is above the long bar so the edge is some 5 meters from the stage at closest. I went downstairs again and found a spot at about 3 meters from the fench, enough space to dance, better airquality and in front of the speakers. When I looked around there, I noticed that the % of girls/women in the audience was far bigger then I ever had seen at any underworld concert! Luxemburg girls love you guys! Good to see more girls digging your music.

We got peggy sussed, lenny penne, juanita, spikee!, BS original!!, KoS, Moaner, cowgirl/rez, the Darren drops a dub track, dark train and dark train as encore (?) and some others flowing into eachother mixed over by the special underworld sauce with different lyrics and samples from everywhere making this a very special one. At all the time during this concert, a lot of things were happening in the sound, rick and darren tweaking more then ever, dropping in little sounds and variations everywhere.
Dark Train as an encore ended this one off show, if I never am able to see them again I still could die happy to have been witness to this one. Looong cheers, loud applause and a crowd that was treated to the best underworld show to date (I think). Karl thanked the audience and waved rick and darren to come to the edge of the stage, Rick adjusted his hairdo in great theatrical way and pushed darren who was minding the gear to greet the audience. Bows, clapping to thank the crowd, handshakes with the one at the fench, waves for the people a bit further from it and pointing out the ones at the balcony....
And then it was over. Left with a big chill because of this unique experience and all beefed up by the 'techno' roar we lingered about a few minutes and went back to the Elevator Bar again. I've reported about that in another post.
When that bar closed (Hey! no darren pricey DJ'ing there???) we went back into the direction of the hotel were Janie, Raz and I went into the hotel and the rest went on to party a little more. Sleep. Waking up pretty late and then we checked out of the hotel. Mister Ouwe? No, it's (raz's real surename). Close enough though Then we went to the hotels lunchroom to wait for the others, found out that Stimp dosn't like Bofferding as much as he did the night before, eat some nice food and gathered our things to leave. I payed for my parkingspot, 30E for 19 hours, no long parkingspace after all and waited for the others to drive up to the trainstation to follow them to the highway. And so we were on our way to gig #4 at I Love Techno in Gent Belgium.

[Icke]

Originally Posted by lloyd

After the 5500 people that fitted in the 013, tilburg, this was a <600 people (still can't find a real number for it) venue! Cozy!

013 has a capacity of around 2200 people, iirc. Definitly not 5500. Thats about the size of the HMH i think.

[lloyd]

Sorry yes you are right, 2200 max. ILT was 5500.. edited, thnx

[elysiumamsterdam]

great story.........

[Leon]

Great story Lloyd! a great read.

It's just very very very very VERY great how people come here after an Underworld gig and see how uplifted they are!! It's just fucking amazing!
I myself was in some sort of extase feeling even 3 days after the second 013 gig! amazing!!!!

[lloyd]

Underworld @ I Love Techno Gent, Belgium. 12-11-2005

Another day, another gig.
The last one of the BeNeLux tour and by that the last one in our little dirtytour also.

We drove about 300km from Luxemburg to Gent, going up and down hill for a long time before the land got more flat and we were near brussels. Had a late lunch at a restaurant on the way to get some rest and get some life back into Stimpee. On our way again and arriving in Gent. Because the hotel close to the venue was full, the people who were going to stay overnight after ILT had a hotel in the centre of the city. What a bl**dy maze Gent is! One-way streets, a pedestrians touristy area where you can get with your car (we proved that) and lesser roadsigns then you want when looking for something. Finally we dumped the cars at a parkingspot we found and walked to the hotel. Checked in and then went to look for the rooms in another maze! Because of overbooking Raz got a mister president excecutive room with NASA lightningsystem, extra space with extra chairs and seats, walk in closets etc, oh and no CNN or NBC on telly.
We watched some television and little bits of the England - Argentina footy and waited for the others to arrive at the room so we could leave for ILT at the Expo. It took certain people somewhat longer then expected so we were late for the meeting at the Rotonde cafe. Getting there was another challance btw.
Finding the st. pieters trainstation where it should be close to was not easy, only roadsigns for it at roads close to it. At one point I saw a sign [Melle] of which I knew it was another town. I stopped my car in front of a friesshop just behind it. I went in to ask directions. The people behind the counter were very friendly but didn't know where it was, but: 'this is Melle, not Gent' yes miss I know, that is why I stopped. 'And what was the name of that cafe? de Ton? (ton means barrel in dutch so something completly differen then a roundabout which is Rotonde in dutch)' No miss, I know ton is part of roTONde but I really mean rotonde. 'Never heard of that one, sorry' Ok, another take. It should be near to trainstation St. Pieters. There are 2 trainstations in Gent and I need the other one, not the central one. 'Hmm I don't know... but! you can follow the tramrails. Follow them back in the direction of Gent and then euuhr,yeah just follow them, they all end at the trainstation!.' At this point I had to leave these comedians because I couldn't hold my laughter anymore and those people were so friendly and helpfull, so I thanked them and told them I was going to find it. And indeed... when driving back to Gent we saw the tramrails split into two directions...left and right! We knew the expo had the be to the left of us so we followed that one and stopped somewhere to asked again and got good directions.
Finally we were at the Rotonde bar, nice place with nice food where they served janie and me a big bowl of fries with our diner but refused to bring Jason one when he asked 'Do you have a big bowl of fries, just fries for me please nothing else' Waitress: 'If you want fries, go down the street 200 meters and go into a friesshop' uuuuh posh bar.. The food we ordered was great though and we had a good time being loud and telling Cej about the luxembourg gig.
Then we went to catch one of the free trams from the St. Pieter trainstation to the Expo. We had to wait for the tram only very brief while standing in a crowd that was all up for it. The trainride was fun, people banging on the walls and windows, singing, cheering and laughing. 'Wooing' through every corner it made Big cheers when the tram got to the tramstation at the Expo where we got out and then into the cue for the enterance. The stream of people didn't solve very fast because there were fenches set up to controle the stream of 35.000 visitors. At one point we did hear that someone (not one of us) lost his ticket when in the cue and was looking for it, another person had a spare ticket and gave it to him! Great people

The venue consisted of 6 large rooms which can hold up to 5500 people, one big central hall where the stands were of sponsers and merchandise, drink stands and the videostream tent with screens all around. There was also a chill-out space, another big hall. The dressing of the whole thing was nice with big balloons in wierd shapes hanging from the ceiling and lights all over. Videoscreens blasting commercials and big banners too.
We went straight to the yellow room where Underworld would preforme at 12 o'clock. Marco Bailey was playing around with some turntables and records when we got in. At first the vibe felt good and he played some hard techno tunes but by the time we went closer to the stage and waited longer it got bad. Not very much variation, bad mixing and very predictable drops etc. I got bored big time. Much of the other people in the room thought it was great though and danced and cheered all the time and heated the room very fast. By the time Underworld came on stage it was very hot.
Some tune was playing after Marco left the stage and Rick and Darren tweaked some things and Karl greeted the big audience soacking up the good vibe Marco had left in the room. The tune fades out and UW starts....
They started with the same ambient piece with the redlight background as they did at the HMH earlier this year. They mixed another tune in quite early and played a little with it. Rick took off his coat and while looking at Darren and Karl, pumped his fist in front of his chest over the mixingdesk meaning, harder, faster, higher... And it became a hard and fast concert.
All tracks were harder and the beats faster then at other concerts, synths tweaked more to reach the ILT vibe the audience gave back. Great! Although there were a few of the new tunes, this audience came for the big tracks and those were played. Because of the heat and the cooled water ran out in the yellowroom ,besides that it was a problem to get drinks anyway, I felt not well (yes, again) and went to the main hall to buy drinkingtickets and drinks. But the [in] door was closed so that when I had gone out there I wouldn't have been able to get back in :s. Well.. I went to the toilets area to get atleast a drink of water. The cue there was big and I walked a little further down that ally and noticed that I was outside the yellowroom in the mainhall. Stepped back quickly and looked for security people, non there! Great, I went for tickets and got back into the yellowroom, roared at the firts person I saw at the drinksstand that I needed drinks and got some dead cola's which I brought to our people.
Underworld time was blasting the big guns like KoS BS.nuxx/2003/nuxx and moaner and by the sight had a great time enjoying this crowd who had came to celibrate techno to the max. Long cheer and applause when it all was over. Karl talked to the audience again about the web release, thanks everybody for coming, big dirtieeeees shoutout. Darren and Rick bowing on the edge of the stage to thank the crowd and then they left.... On came a woman who asked, Do you want more??? euh well yeah ofcourse!!! but it wasn't more Underworld.. it was to announce a 5 minute chance-over for the next act.
We went to the back of the hall, toilet stops and waiting for Stimps and gathering some fresh and cooler air. After a while we left the yellowroom into the mainhall were we bought drinks and then some more drinks and chilled sitting on the floor. It was 3am then and I was leaving because I had a 2 hour drive in front of me and late shift later that sunday.
Said goodbye to all my fellow dirties I was on dirtytour with and the others we were with that day. I walked to the tramstation, got in the tram and then it drove to the trainstation. After looking at the map there where my car was, I walked to it. While I was looking at the map I saw a 'Antwerpsquare' so pointed my car in that direction because I thought the road to antwerp had to start somewhere near that. The map didn't show where the highway is. After driving around a while the only roadsign I saw was a green [ E17/N411], meaning highway in belgium. I drove that direction and followed that road for a long time driving through subburbia without a clue of where I was going because there weren't anymore roadsigns.. After some 15 minutes there it was, finally! the highway!! Then it was easy and I drove home to arrive at 5 am.
This was a great little holiday with friends I not see often. Touring the BeNeLux, seeing your fav band 4 times, experiencing foreign countries, it was a blast. Thanks Underworld, thanks underworlds troops, thanks people we've met all over the place, thanks dirties!

I'm never gonna forget this.

[stimpee]

As I was with Lloyd for all the trip, I'm not gonna write that much if anything, as he seems to have covered all the bases, but read it all because some of it was highly amusing

[lloyd]

dirtytour tickets
and
dirty banner