10/18/14 day 11: Echten, NL

Had breakfast at the Hotel Merian in Openheim and was on the road at 11:30am. The buffet had serious potential but it was pretty well picked over at 10:10 when we got there. We had to fight for the remaining scraps of choice sliced meat and shards of fresh vegetables. I say "choice" meat because there was plenty of non-choice meat; blood sausage is a good example... Plenty of blood sausage for all! Anyone? Anyone!?

It was a stinking beautiful day for a drive. I slept hard the first leg and got behind the wheel about 75km from the Dutch border. Once we hit Holland, we noticed a huge decrease in car velocity and frequency. Roads were just less traveled and those on the road weren't driving 160 kmh.

Found the B&B outside of town in Hollandscheveld. A nice old lady greeted us at the door and showed us our rooms. We had just enough time to drop our bags and change our clothes and then it was off to Echten and the Klein Paradiso about 11km away.

We arrived at KP at 5:15pm. The venue is a tiny old church that has been converted into a performance space for the community. It was very vibey set in a small wooded area alongside small houses and grazing pastures.

Peter: " I love Holland this much!"

View of the stage pre-show.

Delia and Sergei run the joint. Rob took care of sound. Delia is an artist (a painter and she writes erotic poetry) who sold her business years ago and has been pursuing a passion for the arts ever since; one of those passions is managing music at Kein Paradiso. She's a sweet woman with mischievous eyes and the energy of a teenager. Sergei does the grunt work; tends bar, cleans up, shoots video. Rob the sound guy, also a musician, rolls up with the PA rocking a Canadian tuxedo and snake skin cowboy boots. Delia whips up some pasta with red sauce and a salad for dinner and then we do a quick sound check. Room sounds vibey. Reverberations of generations.

By 8:07 it was standing room only. 70+ very polite Dutch made their way into the room and found their seats. What can I say, other than the following 2 hrs felt really stinking good. They loved the stories, the harmonies, the tunes... It was a big love fest of epic Dutch proportions capped by a standing ovation encore.

Signed CDs and chatted w folks after the set. People love talking about this style of music and how they are connected to it. Loved it.

After the show, Delia and Sergei were headed to a performance by a local hard rock band and we were invited to tag along which we did.

Stream of Passion band.

You can't see the singer and the other guitar player because they are mid headbang... They were really good. Not my bag, but still really damn good at what they do. We said goodbye to our awesome hosts after two songs and hit the road back to our BB.

So, all in all a killer night full of juicy vibes and headbanging good times. What an amazing first night in Holland!