Just got back from a few days with the Mekanik.
All started Tuesday when Marjolijn and Remco gave their final gig to graduate as student from the Rock Academie. We had a great extended team with Freek doing lights, Frank on visuals, and Suzanne and Irma backing the band up with extra backing-vocals. The show went smooth and of course both graduated 
After a short celebration with family & friends who came to support the band that night, we hit the road to complete a 850kms journey to Laax, Switzerland, where the Mekanik is booked to entertain people during the Dutch Snowboard National Championship.
When we arrived in Laax, Esmee (thanks for everything!) welcomed us and lead us to a brand new apartment complex, at the bottom of the slopes. From the luxurious flat: 50 m to the supermarket, 30 m to the club where the band will play, 50 m to the first gondolas bringing everyone up to the mountain. Brilliant!
Of course the night traveling took its toll so we didn’t do much of the day except sleeping a couple of hours.
The Indy club was great, for such a place in the middle of nowhere. Pete & Dario, the pair who took care of sound, hospitality and all, were absolutely top notch people!! It was a pleasure to meet and work with them! If its acoustic could have been a lot better, at least the gear was sufficient to provide a loud and full sound mix (with alas a low-end tending to resonate a lot in that room). So the soundcheck didn’t go to fine tuning.
The crowd came in and the Mekanik delivered a great show in front a packed 90% Dutch audience (and luckily that amount of people damped the resonance greatly ). Even if the public didn’t seem always that enthusiast between songs, when the band left the stage, it was obvious that people wanted more…
The next day, we kept hearing good reactions! I really hope this will give some good word of mouth… when all that Dutch bunch of snowboarders gets back home!
Only disappointment of the stay, we were told we could grab some boards and enjoy a bit of winter sporting, but this couldn’t happen as the boards were delivered without bindings… What a bummer 
Cause of this, we shortened the stay of one day (staying in a ski resort but not making use of it can lead to great frustration). We still took time to get up from the station to the first top (2200m) where a blizzard welcomed us… and gave us a good excuse to get not a glass, but a big mug of Glühwein.
Remco, Kai, Bram & Marjolijn, thanks a lot for these 4 days, a full tour is whenever you want 
Soon, there should be some pictures and videos to see via the band’s website. But in the mean time…
the Mekanik – Third Engineer
