Checking out of the hotel and we have accrued some charges. Apparently “Parking Available” does not mean the same thing as “free parking”. I thought when I booked it that parking was included but they say it most definitely was not. $19 a day adds up.
And again, it’s not so much that we have to pay it but the way it’s worded to make it cloudy and vague that pisses you off.
Quick stop for lunch and some laundry and then we’re on our way north to Brake. For all our non-German speaking friends it is not pronounced “break”. It is pronounced like “bra” (women’s undergarment) and then how a Bostonian would say “car” or Cah. Bra-Cah.
I feel good about how I explained that.
In Brake, (say it with me) is the Harrier Hof. It’s a small hotel/restaurant/event space/bar run by Michael and I’ve been coming here for years now but tonight we are the first musical act he’s had in three (3!) years because of, well. Because of…
Our friend Rebekka is joining us for dinner. We met Rebekka here in Brake about 10 years ago. She is also a Firefly fan and she designed the album covers for all of our Leaves on the Wind releases. It’s great catching up with her and we get some Championschnitzel* and it’s out of this world delicious.
Then Sonja and her mother Pamela arrive and join us. We actually performed for them this past summer in south Orange County so it’s great to see them again. And then Heike walks through the door. And then Meike joins us with a few friends and Jan is here - Jan wrote a song based off of our song “Massachusetts”** and that’s just incredible to inspire like that. And we talk about the podcast I did with Dan Krikorian and the show with Nico Rivers & Emily Graham-Handley at a church in…ah! I forget the name but how I was asked not to stand on the pews the next time I play there and the pastor that passed away and the replacements and and. A lot.
The room is small. The room is full. We know everyone in this room. Even Swantje shows up - she works here but is off tonight and she’s stopped in to hear us.
Tracy and I have a moment where we are kind of dumbfounded by how we’ve got this group of people that have come to see us here in this small little town on the North Sea and there’s a bit of “how did this happen?” that we are feeling. Oh yeah, we built it by coming here and returning and these folks are amazing and we connected and here we are in this little room together.
Before we start we have a few requests. Some Dam, The Sea, APB, Massachusetts, Eveline, Goodnight Kiss and one request to NOT play Mexican home because it always makes her cry and she doesn’t want to cry tonight.
We play for about 2 hours and finish up with an encore and we are tired. This was a good set tonight. Hell, Tracy played Eveline flawlessly having not played it in easily a year or two.
We sign some records and give away some stickers and it’s a good night.
Es ist gut. Guten Nacht Brake.
*I know Roman. Schnitzel shouldn’t have mushroom gravy on it.
**I can’t find it to share.