Here’s the sixth report by The Henhouse Prowlers from their ongoing European tour. This comes from bass player and founding member, Jon Goldfine. The guys have promised daily reports (with photos) from their Euro-jaunt over the next week or so. You can follow all their posts by clicking here.
Tuesday night we had the luxury of playing in our home town bar. That is, our Belgian home town.
Gierle is small town located roughly 10 kilometers from Turnhout. The home we’ve been staying in is on the main road that goes through town.
In Den Eik reminds me of neighborhood bars you’d find just about anywhere in the USA. The inside is cozy, and it seems a popular place for the people of Gierle and the surrounding area to gather for drinks and occasional live music. It’s also roughly a 2 block walk from the house, so while Stijn drove the gear down the street, we were able to walk to the gig.
We showed up at 6:00 to set up and soundcheck, after which Chris, the owner, served us a fine dinner of shrimp in lobster sauce.
After dinner we walked home to change. By the time we returned the room was filled with locals and semi-locals, including several people who had seen our show in nearby Turnhout last week and now were back for more. This was to our pleasant surprise as we were told there was a big football match that would keep a lot of people home. These folks did not care about any football match…there was bluegrass to enjoy!!
It was a fun audience. A few couples danced, and while there was a bit of chatiing toward the far end of the bar, during our two sets most of the eyes and ears in the room were fixed on the stage After two encores down on the floor, we stuck around and hung out with the locals.
As the night went on and more beer was consumed, we saw a couple dressed in their matching Henhouse Prowlers t-shirts, shall we say, enjoying each other’s company. Meanwhile almost the entire bar was on the dance floor and singing along as the greatest hits of Creedence Clearwater Revival blared through the speakers.
It seems to me that no matter what genre of music is your favorite, if you live in America (an Belgium as well), these CCR songs are ingrained in your head. We learned that it’s fairly common to turn the lights out when it gets late at bars here. Folks danced and kissed in the dark for the remainder of the night.
Everyone stumbled home to bed in preparation for Wednesday night’s show in the medieval town of Leuven. We hope to arrive in town early enough to see some sights in what we’re told is a beautiful city.
