Episode 11 - Frankfurt am Main, Germany
After the night drive from Lorraine to Frankfurt, we work up feeling refreshed and energetic on the morning of our Lose Your Ties concert at Brotfabrik. From the start this night had the making of a special night, a joint bill with Tarq Bowen, something we had done in 2014 and were always meaning to recreate in the future.
When we woke up, the venue had told us we had presold more than 200 tickets to the concert, and so we thought it best to go out into the street and play a few songs to advertise the concert. IT WAS ABSOLUTELY FREEZING! When we set up, there was a man sitting on the steps about 100 meters away playing his guitar. We saw him and thought he was just jamming by himself - the vodka bottles and handful of other guys sitting with him screaming at the top of the lungs did not lead us to believe they were busking. In the middle of our third song busking, one of them came over and sat down in the middle of our circle with his guitar, clearly showing his frustration that we had set up very close to them. When he explained that they had been trying to busk over there and we had set up close to them, we knew we were in the wrong. There is a busking code to always respect other performers, something that we live by. From his appearance and mannerisms, he had fallen on hard times, clearly a vagabond living in the streets, so we took a handful of coins from our case and put them in his hat. His face lit up and he gave us a big hug. Perhaps it was not the best to reward his behavior for throwing a wrench into our set, but the busking code exists for a reason and this day it was us who were disrespectful first. We had to make amends for this....
We then packed up and put our instruments in the car and drove to Brotfabrik for the soundcheck. The sound inside was killer! Great engineers and a lovely staff, the night was set up to be a big one. At the start of the show, it was Tarq Bowen band who took the stage first, delivering a memorable performance. After that it was Trouble Time and Frankfurt came ready to dance and party! We could feel the vibes in the room from the first few notes and it carried through until the end. The performance was strong, a good sign that the "Lose Your Ties" show is improving with each run.