THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24TH – PERFORMANCE DAY IN DRAMMEN, NORWAY:
It was a very short night last night – 4 hours sleep. Woke up to rainy skies again! We had breakfast and departed the hotel at 11 am for the 1 ½ hour drive to Drammen. Drammen is a beautiful little town on a fjord. Wish we had more time here.
When we arrived at the hotel, I wasn’t sure we were in the “lobby” because it was packed with people standing in lines. The only “desk” had beer spigots on it so I asked where the reception was located. Turns out, that was it! Guess the receptionists work as bar tenders too! All the people were attending a weekly “job fair”.
They put me, Howard and David in really nice suites. Mine is the “Las Vegas Suite” and the furnishings are deep purple velvet and lots of mirrors. Even has one of the “hippie bead” curtains and a fake fur purple rug under the table. There is a very large “slogan” painted on one wall which reads: Las Vegas is the only place I know money actually talks. It says “good-bye”. The hotel is located near the city center. We all walked over for a quick lunch at a little Asian restaurant. Of course, I forgot my umbrella and it was raining really hard by the time we finished lunch. It quit after a few minutes and I walked over to the venue. To get to the venue, we had to walk over this amazing bridge – very “futuristic” with silver cables and shaped in a “Y”. Photos are on Facebook. There is a hotel right beside the venue, but they were sold out.
The staff at the venue was excellent. The ball got “dropped” (not by them) on providing transportation for us to and from the venue. I called the bus company and fortunately, he had a 9 passenger van and offered to take care of our needs. I finished at the venue before the guys completed sound check, so I walked back to the hotel. About half way there, it started pouring rain! I am never leaving the room again without my umbrella.
I was able to work for a couple of hours and then joined some of the guys for a wonderful dinner at a local restaurant. I had the grilled halibut with veggies. The guys all had desserts that looked delicious.
Didn’t have much time before being picked up for the concert. The concert hall is so beautiful. It’s like an Opera House in the U.S. I took LOTS of photos. Best news is, it’s sold out again. It was another listening audience who really loved the show and they did 2 encores tonight. It had started raining again when the show finished so I’m glad I arranged for transportation.
Lots of work to do tonight before closing down. We leave at 11 am tomorrow to drive to Sandefjord an hour away. This is a small “festival” that will be held in a fest tent that has been set up for start of October fest next weekend. Should be fun and the weather report is saying no more rain!
Jude