Domingo 27 Set 2009, 8h:02

Sat 26 Sep – Experimental Left Church Night Linkse Kerk, Leiden.

Saturday morning, Coach Bertels awoke with that pale and stupid look in his eyes wondering what to make of this day. It was going to be a perfect day for a thousand things, but Coach didn’t do anything of those, instead he took the time to fully wake up, overlook the township from the balcony and drink fresh coffee with vain.
After a while it became clear to Bertels that doing things like these all day would not give satisfaction at any level, so Coach thought of something useful to do with sustainable impact on his household. Aha! The chair needs a new purpose! Bertels has a comfortable chair that was once red, before UV rays made it pale orange red over the years. This chair wasn’t Bertels favourite at all and was therefore used as a table/closet, storing stuff up and in it, creating an awful sight. As Bertels did the turntable make over some months ago, the chair was dismissed and put in a corner for disposal, several adds on the internet to pick up the chair for free didn’t work and Bertels just couldn’t get rid of it.
Now suddenly Bertels has the brightest idea, with an extremely cold winter ahead, it was time to create a place in Bertels Cube where the winds could not enter and the temperature should stay over five degrees Celsius… a warm place for survival! Coach removed the coat rack and table from the tiny hallway and replaced them by the red chair and a smaller table. This is the place to be during the next five months, situated at the west part of the Cube with main pipes of the block heating system in the corner, this tiny hallway is the warmest place to be. Now Coach found a new destiny for the chair and a sustainable way of life for the winter, sitting there drinking hot drinks and reading the entire Jules Verne series.
But as always, there is a flipside to each coin: Moving furniture around for winter conditions messed up the entire infrastructure of the cube, (tables and chairs do not like one another, they bite in each others legs) exits were blocked and the loo was only accessible by navigating over a obstacle course that no GI Joe has ever seen. It took a lot of effort to put everything back into proportion and do a little vacuum cleaning on the side too.
But then finally, Bertels was satisfied and could do other things again that wouldn’t matter in a million years.
Coach checked the internet for deer sounds in preparation for a sound hunting trip in the Amsterdamse Waterleiding Duinen, Sunday morning very early.
Bertels wants to impress some old dudes in November with self recorded sounds of nature, and what sound is more impressive then belling deer during the rut? Exactly, none (in Holland that is). Bertels focused on how to recognize belling deer and more important: how to imitate (fake recordings) or introduce exciting techniques that allows folks to think there was a deer belling in Coach his neck.
Suddenly Coach Webber called for a gig at the Linkse Kerk, after seeing the event Bertels made earlier that week. Coach confirmed his attendance and Webber made his way to BertelsCube. Bertels checked the event and saw that both Leon and Romec added their attendance too, however Leon who has not been seen all night.
Coach Bertels was armed and ready, sitting on his iron horse, awaiting Coach Webber in the shadow of a wall, just out of sight for the surprise element which is so damn important in battle. Webber came, saw and was stunned. Both Coaches peddled towards the Left Church, passing the Black Tower and the preparations for its annual court fest. Arriving at the Left Church, Bertels immediately felt the intense “vrijplaats” attitude. Here man is truly free, as long as you don’t bring a happy meal. In the Marinus van der Lubbe room, the artists were already setting up their instruments and testing the sound system.
Tonight at The Left Church: Performances by Soccer Committee and Machinefabriek, who would bring their Drawn project live. But Rutger did not come, it seemed he had quite a few drinks in Middelburg the night before, according to Kleefstra & Kleefstra’s guitar player Chris.
So Mariska started of on her own with excessive overacting that makes her shows so nice, extremely concentrated, closing off from the world and mimicking all the grief that is known to mankind, whilst touching two strings and loop the sounds into the next attempt of slow motion drama master class. Her voice wasn’t that cooperative and she had to drink some tea during the act, missing a loop and trying to express it all away. This is the side effect of a live set, every minor error comes back in the loop and has to be dealt with in a creative and manor, improvising the best out of it. Never the less a brave attempt and an entertaining sight. Someone has to make a close up video of her acts, one set frame, one shot, only the expression, Great!
Bertels witnessed Drawn, the actual collaboration between Mariska and Rutger during the living room show at her place. So Bertels knew what he missed this evening, and that bothered him a bit. Her part was done and the five visitors went for drinks. Then Romec arrived and Mariska wondered where everybody went, for the next act was about to start. Next were Kleefstra & Kleefstra. Jan Kleefstra, his brother Romke Kleefstra and Chris Bakker doing Frysk Poems on ambient post rock tunes. Real nice and warm, also seen before at Mariska’s living room.
These folks build up a soundscape that eliminated Machinfabriek’s absence completely, the lyrics were not understandable at all (being Frysk), but Bertels knows that some of it had to do with a dying Taling (duck species) and the struggle of man in parallel. Great show!
Intermission, getting beers and retrieving CD’s from Romec: A live PUIN + HOOP recording and a studio album, both with nice artwork. Romec told about the things he saw during the “Stad als podium” event in Haarlem some weeks earlier, and the German tour he did with his Trash and Hope group.
Two English folks entered the stage, without height difference, and introduced themselves as Liondialer. Greg Haines and Danny Saul combine forces with guitar, cello and electronics via pedals and laptops, bending sounds in all possible directions. Greg started real harsh with the electronics, but maintained calm as a person. During the act however he became more and more active on the knobs and cello, as if there was something he just couldn’t manage in the loops. He was like an scientist trying to stop a chain reaction gone out of control. To save the myth and to be remembered forever, the scientist finally accepted the situation and heated up the reaction, by fighting his cello on the floor like a warden trying to restrain the lunatic. Danny did a great job, by screwing around with his chair and table leg using a tiny microphone in order to record, loop and echo the sound of steel on the concrete floor. The guitar pieces Danny did were fantastic, but more than often overthrown by Greg’s electronics, a fierce battle! The show was good, the sounds nice with a hearing damage peak and the finale just breathtaking.
Later, at the bar, with bio beers, Bertels, Webber and Romec talked about Accepting Us, TBFKAGNK, Future Mode of Operations, Jannov Werdevsky and the great pictures taken by Geachte Mevrouw Smits. How Romec got to learn about Wagner via Last.fm, PUIN + HOOP and Touring Germany giving four times 2 hour shows with a wired typewriter for the Germans to make notes, The great Metallica cover album and the funny posters in the Left Church what used to be a printing business.
By this time it was one o clock and Bertels decided not to go sound hunting the next morning.
Back at Bertels Cube the atmosphere was chaotic, folks coming from the city dispersed over the hours and talking drunken and loud between the u shaped buildings.
Car doors smashed and cursing at night moths. Sleep tight Coach!