My First Gig!

Playing My First Gig In (this part of) Germany

Hello hello!

First off, I have played a gig in Germany before.  It happened over 4 years ago in Berlin with some friends I was staying with.  We basically were at a bar and asked the bartenders if there was ever any live music. They said there was but not tonight. My friends asked them if I could play and they said... "SURE!" 

I grabbed my guitar jumped up on a table and just started playing.  It was my first gig in Germany, but this week I had the pleasure of playing a formal gig at a lovely pub called the Red Lion in Landstuhl.

How Does One Get a Gig in Germany?

I basically just sent out a bunch of emails to pubs/bars that I saw were close to where I'm staying and the lovely owners at the Red Lion responded almost immediately.  I am so grateful to them for booking me and so I made sure to bring my "A game" this past Saturday.

I got there a bit early to setup and make sure the sound system was working.  Everything was good to go and I had this perfect space to rock out:

It reminded me of just about any bar gig I've played in Denver so I felt like I was at home.

Fast forward another hour of anxiously waiting, the crowd started rolling in and I got my groove on.  I started out by testing the waters to see what would go over well and what I should stay away from.  Turns out, they loved everything! The crowd was mostly Americans and they offered up requests, most of which I could play! 

I am always myself, but I'm never more myself than when I have my guitar in front of me and there's a crowd to entertain.  It was a beautiful experience and I made new friends and contacts to reach out to for more gigs in town.  One very nice woman reached out to me after and offered to connect me to a couple bar owners and musicians she knows in town which was very flattering.

Although I'm hoping to get gigs around town where I can, I was very delighted that the owners of the Red Lion immediately booked me for two more dates in October.  There's nothing in this world like good people so I always try to latch on to good ones when I find them. These are good people.

After the gig I stayed and chatted with some of the patrons and was on cloud 9! 

As the night wore down, I was exhausted and ready to get home so I hopped in a cab and away I went into the night.  When I got home, I was greeted by the ominous, yet ever-present sight of the moon peeking through clouds and it's really cool.

I am quite infatuated with this part of Germany that I am currently residing in and the change in scenery is quite enlightening to be honest.

What's the weather been like?

Every now and then we get some AMAZING sunshine that rivals Colorado's own:

However, as of late, the weather has mostly been like this:

It hasn't been cold which is nice and the rain is usually not coming down this hard but I wouldn't mind a little more sunshine.  Good thing I brought some vitamin D!

Dinner with a local

I had the great pleasure of being entertained by one of my awesome neighbors, Mike.  He's a fascinating gentleman in his early 60s who took me to his golf clubhouse where we met up with some of his friends.  We all got some drinks and chatted about anything and everything Germany.  He explained a lot of the geopolitics that are going on, the attitude of most of his countrymen and even what different regions in the country were like.

We ordered some exquisite food and I tried a Schnitzel for the first time since I've been in the country (I've mostly just been eating döner) and it was delicious.  For those of you who don't know, it's kind of like chicken fried chicken but can be made with various meats.  I think mine was either chicken or pork but it had a lovely dark gravy on top of it and came with mushrooms (which I'm not usually a fan of but they were amazing) and a side of fried potatoes.

Combined with some soup, salad, and bread, it was a great meal and Mike and I stayed there for 5 hours chatting the night away.  It was a lovely experience to hang with him and he wants to have myself and my cousin over for dinner this week so we can cook together and meet his girlfriend. I'm looking forward to it!

Meeting locals is one of my goals anywhere I go because I want to understand how others view the world.  There is no right way to approach life on this world so I think it's fascinating to see how culture shapes beliefs, habits and attitudes of everyone on this planet.  If we could all be so open to these different mindsets, there would be a lot more compassion and a lot less hate.

What else has been going on?

My business team is getting SUPER close to launching our first guitar course and I am really looking forward to seeing what kind of results we get moving forward.  It's been the culmination of over 1000 hours of work this year so it's really great to see it come to fruition.

Otherwise, I've been teaching skype lessons, chatting with friends and heading into town whenever I can to meet people at the pubs and make contacts.

It's been the most wonderful of adventures so far and I feel like it's just getting started!  This weekend there is a local Oktoberfest going on and I'm pretty excited about checking that out.  I can't read the signs but there's pictures of steins upon steins of beer so I get the gist.

I truly hope that you have a wonderful rest of the week and that October will bring you joy, clarity and a little cooler weather.

Until next time,

Tony G