Concert on a Houseboat - the wonders of modern gigging

Hello friends,

Thanks to the almighty Couch Surfing community, but mainly the legend that is Piotr Jaworski, I had the opportunity to play a very special and unique concert on Saturday 23rd October. First a little bit of back story... I met Pio at Averecht (the open mic night in Utrecht) while I was there with The Fongster100. Pio is a very active member of the couch surfing community and one of the friendliest and nicest people I have met. We hit it off straight away, chatting about music, travelling, life in general etc.

After my set that night, Pio asked me if I would be willing to perform at a house concert on his houseboat. I very quickly agreed, knowing that it would be something special and a chance for me to play a set longer then twenty minutes. As a street performer my sets come in two forms, the first being the 'on the streets' set, which can be really long (if the security guards leave me alone) and mainly consists of cover songs that people might know and therefor possibly open to giving a little change or at the very least a smile for. The other type of sets is the short sharp in a venue open mic style, these have a maximum of twenty minutes, so I try to cram in as many of my own compositions in these sets as I can.

Pio asked me 'can you put together an hour set?' to which I responded with a resounding 'of course'. Two weeks later and the house concert was a reality.

I set up the corner of the room like my busking spot, with my guitar case in front and my CD's nicely displayed. I had my books rested on the little cat stool thing.

Linda did a support set, singing solo, and I backed her on guitar for one song. After that, I played for an hour, we had a break, then I played for another hour and a half, maybe longer (I'm not sure). There were over twenty people there, all sitting listening and drinking. I managed to sell 8 CD's as well (a new record for me). The evening had such a nice atmosphere, couch surfers are such lovely people, and so multi cultural. I even played some of my brand new songs from my upcoming Autumn record.

After my extra long performance, the event quickly turned into a full on party, complete with loud blaring music and much laughter and merriment. I stayed around for a couple of hours and then caught the last bus back home. I was later informed that the party continued for many more hours and even involved some late night skinny dipping in the water (I am glad I wasn't present for that actually). A fun time was had by all, especially me and Chiana (my guitar).

I would love to do more house concerts should the opportunity arise :)

Peace and infinite love

Andy x