Awesome time in Tartu…and great crowd at Pühaste Brewery 😉
A GOOD night’s sleep in a comfy bed helps restore things…physically, anyway!
We need some milk so I take a walk to the supermarket and find some croissants, fruit and milk and get back to our funky old town apartment for breakfast.
Our pal Merli drops by to say hello as we pack our gear then Madis comes to pick us up and drive us too the bus station where we board the bus to Tallinn – a big coach with comfy sets, good wifi and personal entertainment screens on every seat back. Very swanky.
I deal with some online stuff and emails and sleep the rest of two-and-a-half hour bus ride to Tartu where Andres and Siim are waiting to meet us.
Siim drives us to the Hektor ‘hostel’ where we seem to have an entire suite booked for us by the good folks at Pühaste Brewery where I play tonight.
We have some grub in the cafe and rest up for a while before Andres and Raul collect us to go to the brewery which is right on the edge of town.
Ivo has a nie PA rig already set up in what is otherwise a huge, empty room…Jeez…hope we mange to get enough folks in here!
I just finish my soundcheck and the power goes down. Something’s tripped a fuse, but the folks here have no access to the part of the building where the main board is. A few phone calls, a little stress and an hour later, power’s back on…just in time for doors. Andres, Raul and the Sawmill Roots Orchestra manage a quick soundcheck then we’re all good to go.
The place fills up and by the time the Sawmill Roots Orchestra kicks off the place is pretty full 🙂 The band is great…Andres and Raul playing fantastic instrumentals supplemented with trumpet and clarinet to create a really unique, original and sophisticated sound.
There’s a break for changeover and I finish the evening with swell-received 80-minute set. Like last night, the crowd is great and there’s lots of photos and chat round the merch table after the show.
We load out and Siim drives us back to our place where we have a snack, beer and bed. Another brilliant night 🙂
Andres and his latest project – the Sawmill Roots Orchestra. Fantastic!
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Pre-gig session/’meet & greet’ at World Clinic record store’s deck
AMAZING breakfast at the hotel in Tartu…then we begin the puzzle of packing things in some kind of manageable way that the two of us can manhandle everything to the bus station.
Luckily it’s just across the road, and we meet Andres outside the hotel then get everything on the Tallinn bus.
The bus is pretty swanky – free wifi, adjustable (in every direction!) seats and plane-style multimedia monitors on the back of every headrest. Sorted.
Andres has orangeades a taxi transfer form the bus station to our hotel in the old town – just five/ten minutes walk form tonight’s venue.
We check into the hotel, drag out bags down a spiral staircase and a few more flights of stairs to the tiny º but economic – room in the bowels of the building the take some of the gear to Von Krahl.
Next we meet up with Finnish pal and photographer Leif and we all get a taxi to the World Clinic record store where owner Aivar is hosting a wee pre-gig ‘meet & greet’ event. We’re handed beers, chat, play a few songs each outside then do some interviews to camera.
Then, another cab to the venue where we set up and soundcheck…Von Krahl is a brilliant venue, even if the organisation sucks a little…first up, despite sending poster art etc, there’s no posters or anything outside, inside or anywhere to suggest there’s anything on at the venue! Margaret makes up a DIY poster/sign and we stick it up outside. We were told last week that the sound engineer was going to be on holiday…luckily our pal Mattias is a good sound engineer and steps in to solve the problem with helps from house tech guy Marko.
Them when trying to oder food after soundcheck, we’re told the kitchen is closed! Andres and I go next door where they’re happy to send some food through for us. Phew!
Lots of folks we know in the crowd…great to see our pals Silver and Anika, Madis, Krista, Hendrik and many other familiar faces.
Andres plays a fantastic opening set….during the changeover, though, I catch my wireless pack on a for handle and bust one of the connections. Hopefully some gaff tape will get it through the show.
Another fantastic audience…and the belt pack lasts until 2/3 of the way though before there’s some intermittent drop outs. Oh oh. I explain to the audience and grab a spare transmitter, drop in some batteries and hope for the best.Phew! It works 🙂
After the show there’s lots of chat and photographs. Once we’re ready to load out, Krista and Hendrik help us back to the hotel with all the gear then we find a late night bar too eat and chill with a beer.
Andres plays a stunning opening set at Von Krahl…
…then yours truly takes the stage.
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STV’s ‘Dave Arcari special’ on Grassroots Music is shown at 8.30pm…UK folks can watch it on the STV Player – click the image to watch.
CHECKING emails and Facebook before I jump in the shower I see Trossachs Search + Rescue are launching a defibrillator location app this morning.
That’d be a good story for the G63.scot webzine but, as usual, no-one’s thought of telling us. Not that we have any ‘right’ to know, but I’m at a loss as to why local business and folks with events etc aren’t interested in what usually amounts to good free publicity at G63.scot and the resulting social media.
I send an email to the organisers to get the times/details which leaves me little time to get organised but get there and get some pix and the story.I run home, post the story and pix then dash to another local event to do same.
After lunch I spend some time sorting out the domain name transfer and web hosting that I started last night but got bumped midway through by the power cut. When it’s finally sorted I put a holding page up for my client and let them know we’ll be working on the website design and content over the next few days.
An email from STV tells me the Grassroots Music ‘Dave Arcari special’ I was interviewed for yesterday is going out tonight! I hastily spread the word via Twitter, Facebook and any other way I can think of.
The show is broadcast at 8.30pm and as well as the interview, there’s five live songs from STV’s archives – Good Friend Blues, Devil’s Left Hand, Still Friends, Got Me Electric and Homesick & Blue. UK folks can see it here – I’m gonna try and sort something out so overseas folks can see it soon though 😉
A good cross section of material. I’m pretty happy with the interview – a few cringeworthy bits from me and it’s always pretty hard to watch yourself…but overall it seems pretty good. Lots of nice social media feedback too.
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Shooting an interview for STV’s Grass Roots Music with Paul Hughes…watch this space for transmission date.
ANOTHER Glasgow day…I drop Margaret off, take some merch to the post office then hit McDonalds for breakfast and wifi.
After an hour or so’s work I go and pick up some bits and bobs we’re needing fromS tables then make my way into town where I’m filming an interview for STV’s Grass Roots Music programme. They’re planning a ‘Dave Arcari special’ to be shown sometime in the next few weeks (watch this space!).
I meet show host Paul Hughes and the film crew at the Clutha where everything’s set up and ready to go. Paul’s a good guy and right into music, so it’s an easy chat and good fun too.
Interview in the bag, I head to Costco for a hotdog and shopping before picking up Margaret and heading home.
I’ve a website job to get busy with for someone…but first I need to sort their web hosting and have their domain name transferred from another company. I get halfway through and in the middle of intricate and crucial name server and IPS tags when the power goes down. FFS! Why is is always when I’m (a) doing something important and (b) when I’m up against it time-wise?
Margaret points out that it’s probably because I’m doing either or both of these things most of the time! And folks get annoyed ‘cos it interrupts their telly or computer game. Grrrrr……
We change our dinner plans and Margaret cooks a pot of pasta on our wee emergency camping stove. AT least the power didn’t go off mid-way through cooking a implicated meal!
Luckily the power’s only off for an hour or so. When we’re back up and running, I try and rescue the work form earlier…it;’ll be 12-24 hours before I know if the power cut’s screwed my efforts…
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