Heidelberg, Darmstadt and Ulm
Train creeps into Zürich Hbf, people on the platform impatiently pressing the buttons to open the door even before it stops, mild panic on their faces as the carriages crawl to a stop. We have ten minutes before it leaves for Luzern, sure we’ll all make it on.
I left my room in Fürth last Wednesday to spend an in between night in Stuttgart before returning to Heidelberg for a house concert at Sandra’s beautiful loft apartment. Five floors up and a warm welcome at the top of it. This was one of those rare occasions where someone had written to me proposing a concert - an invitation as opposed to a response to my request. It does happen that people somehow come upon my music and think to invite me to their homes. Seldom for sure, but brilliant.
Anyhow, this was one of those happy occasions and soon enough a lovely little audience to play to. Sandra had printed flyers advertising a secret concert with an email address attached and, yep, people she didn’t know had written and come along and seemed to enjoy it. As if by magic.
Photos by Moritz Hettich. His Instagram is here.
We shared a late night and an enormous breakfast and then suddenly my train was leaving for Darmstadt. Packed and noisy carriage, but a short trip and soon enough I walked the mile or so to the Schloss in the centre of town. Endless renovation work still in place but Christian there to meet me and a simple setup at the Keller Klub underneath the old building.
I had played here about ten years previously, with Thirty Pounds Of Bone and I remember a great gig and somehow a tricky audience setup. The room is long and narrow and many people were camped at the bar happy to chat through the evening. This night, many years later was a little better and certainly more people there for the concert. Friends along too and a little bit of work needed but I played what I wanted I think and after the concert slipped into much conversation and drinking at the bar for some hours. Young Orson Welles was there, unbeknownst to himself.
With Thirty Pounds Of Bone in 2011.
Photo by Özlem.
We walked ten minutes after the concert to Christine’s place and her skittish cats and almost dawn before flopping into sleep. A late morning and a sunshine walk back to the station and delayed slow train south to Ulm.
I was a little early in the cathedral town so I dropped the cases off at Volker’s place and did my usual exploring of an unfamiliar town. I’ve played in Ulm a bunch of times but there’s always more to see anywhere if one takes a different route. On this trip I’ve been reading David Byrne’s ‘Bicycle Diaries’ and his bike rides around various cities has been an inspiration and a nice companion whilst I’ve also been making much more modest stops of it. The basic point of the more you look the more you see and a walk, or in his case, a cycle ride, can reveal places in unexpected ways.
Andrea had also proposed this concert to me many months ago so here we were together on a cool rooftop with the long promised view of the cathedral as a backdrop. I usually struggle with playing outside, especially in the colder months, and so it was here. That being said, it was a loose, friendly evening and I think we made the most of it. Fun conversation and brilliant food, courtesy of Hakuna Matata, and again the promise of a late night, early morning. But I kind of lucked out with an opportunity for a relatively early night and got dropped off at Markus’s place around midnight and bedded down in his front room. Naturally he forgot I was there at 5 in the morning when he came back but my objections sent him out quick enough. He did the same again at 7 and alcohol can play devilish games on the short term memory it’s true.
But, nothing to fear - as if by a miracle and like a phoenix from the flames he rose with the birds, drank thirty cups of coffee, smoked a pack of cigarettes and seemed fit enough to drive me to the station, knock my wind out with a bear hug and off I was to Zürich and a run of shows in Switzerland - always a thing to look forward to.
I have a day off today but for the rest of the week it’s concerts in Aarau, Basel and St Gallen. Next week Hamburg, Oberhausen and Essen. More to come then.
Stephen