Nothing seemed to go like we had it in our minds. Instead of organising celebrations for our wedding we had to plan the funeral of my mother in law. We knew the risks of this international marriage and we certainly had to endure them: soon after the wedding we both were living again in our separate countries. My wife in the UK and I in the Netherlands.
We both were involved in a crowdfunding system for music, Sellaband. Once in a while parties were organised by the organisation itself or (groups of) artists. Because of being quite active members we would get invitations for parties and gigs all over Europe. Both of us had a job, so we could not appear on all these things. We already struggled to keep up a sort of marriage, having the Northsea between us. An invitation for a party and gig from three bands in Vienna in February was something that started us thinking: why not attend and combine it with our honeymoon?
The start of what we named a honeymoon started weird enough. I flew straight to Vienna from Amsterdam, but my wife flew to Bratislava in Slovakia and had to go by bus to Vienna. I arrived first and waited till she popped up in the hotel. After all these days we finally could enjoy each other's company again and so we did. The hotel was quite basic, but everything was there and the bed was very acceptable.
We realised this was not an average honeymoon, we had a lunch appointment with members of the band Solitube, their manager and some poeple of Sellaband. We had to hurry!
Our map of the city was quite good and we knew we were at the right track, had to cross a very big road, four lanes and a special lane for the bus.
While we waited for the light to get to green to be able to cross, a car stopped on the bus lane. A man got thrown out of the car and two men followed. While the man was on the street they kicked and hit him in any way they could.
It stopped when they got green light; the assailing men jumped in and the car drove off. The victim got on his feet, dusted himself a bit and walked away from us. Nobody seemed to worry about this scene; I had feared for his life, but he walked away like nothing had happened. Very surreal.
The restaurant/bar was not hard to find, but like we had feared, we were last to arrive. The others had almost their drinks and were ready for their meals. We both ordered an Austrain wheat beer, what had a great taste and sat down with the others at a big table. The food was as good as the beer and the manager of Solitube turned out to be a very entertaining host. The guitar player of the band was a bit silent but I thought that this was caused by his less mastering of English. What really amazed me was that everybody in the restaurant smoked like they had to heat up the place by doing that.
After the meal we said our goodbyes and did some sight seeing, like good tourists. We doubted about using the carriages drawn by horses, but decided not to. It was February after all and we would have our behinds about frozen off. Instead we did everything on our own feet. We stopped one to eat a Sacher Torte in a Konditorei. In Vienna you do have to eat a slice of that. It's a must. We also bought some Mozart Kugeln for the homefront. Not really my favorite, but something tourists buy.
After that we had a little nap in the hotel. In the early evening we walked towards the venue where the concert would be. We already knew that halfway there was a Vietnamese restaurant. Never tried that before. It was quite good, but the serving was a bit slow. That is why we ended up at the venue much later than we were expected. At the entrance a girl demanded that we paid, even when I assured her that we were VIPs. It was not that expensive and I did not feel like having a lot of attention on the street, so I paid.
We thought we might get the money back later, but it totally slipped my mind when things started to happen. We only just got used to the lack of light in the space. It was a huge basement and we decided to walk towards the part of the venue where the most people were gathered. A group of women said something to us: "They are waiting for you!" I didn't know these women and had no clue what they were talking about.
We reached the stage and the band Solitube was busy with their sound check. The singer, named Mandana, saw us and jumped of the stage. She hugged us, welcomed us and introduced us to the band. The guitar player we met before, just like the manager of the band who also popped up. He had a choice of T-shirts and handed us a few. The musicians jumped back on stage and went ahead with their preparations.
A young girl approached us and greeted. I had to think a bit, but soon realised this was Kati, the singer of the band Rooga. Of course there were hugs again and we even had a photo moment. It's all a bit different when you are involved in something like Sellaband. There was a lot of contact between artists and fans/investors. It is something I had never experienced before and I don't expect to happen again.
The bands played there stuff and we enjoyed it together with their local fans. The three bands were all Austrian. Solitube played a sort of bluesy rock with an oustanding harmonica player. Rooga was more poppy rock. The third band, Kontrust, I did not know a lot about. My wife told me that day that she had tried their music and that I was in for a treat. I sure was! Their style was quite different, I would describe it as post-punk with a wink. The singer, Agata, was a Polish girl and I could imagine why the band had joined forces with her. She had a very powerful voice.
That became more obvious when their was an encore at the end of the show. They did a sort of all star appearance. Agata's voice almost drowned the voices of the other two singers. But we all sang along and had a good time, probably helped by the drinks we had.
There seemed to be an afterparty but we had enjoyed enough music and beer for that day. So we said our goodbyes and sneaked out of the building.
Somebody had been nice towards us and had phoned a taxi, which was already waiting in front of the building. The walk towards the venue had not been more than 15 minutes in total, so after having been driven around for almost 20 minutes I started to question the taxi driver. I wondered where he was taking us. Did he know his way around? The man became very irritated, blamed the one way traffic for the slow progress, but we were not very convinced. Finally we arrived at the hotel, I paid and the man said: "Normally people here give a tip on top of that." So we reacted that we normally tip too, but only when we get quality service for our money. He spat on the floor and raced away.
The next day we played the perfect tourists, used the U-Bahn and went to see the Danube and the St.Stephens Cathedral and more things like that. In a Backerei we enjoyed a lovely coffee and a slice of Esterhazy Torte. (Another must!) It was very cold and we were glad the hotel room could warm us up again.
The next day we flew together to Amsterdam, had planned some more days together. These days were quite limited: we got a phone call from the police in the UK. Waterpipes in the house of my wife had been frozen and had burst causing the bathroom floor collapsing in the living room.
Sellaband only lasted a few years, went bankrupt. The system had provided in making a cd for artists, there was no marketing, promoting or distribution. The artists were supposed to do that themselves. For most acts that is impossible, taking part in a crowdfunding system is already proof that you can't expect a lot. It made artists getting disappointed, just like the members/investors. Some had expected to be involved in massive selling cds.
Solitube split right after finishing a cd, made possible by Sellaband; Rooga made two cds without the help of Sellaband and Kontrust even four, having a gimmick being dressed in local gear. Both bands are still touring. I ended up with 100 cds of Solitube, given to me by a disappointed investing friend.
I was able to give away a lot, but the rest went into a dustbin when I moved to the UK.
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