Playing one of my favorite venues in the world

The Shack next to Schipol airport in the Netherlands, near Amsterdam, is one of my favorite places to make music. I am beyond excited to play there tomorrow with the Stef Paglia Trio. I'm really looking forward to making music with Stef, seeing all my old friends, cathing up with the great owners Berry and Rian and above all else, taking part in the most beautiful and sacred thing in the world, making music.

The Audience

The shack is located just next to a canal, but has it's own little area where people can eat and drink outside, have a smoke and generally relax. I think this contributes a lot to the great audiences that are at the club. Both times I've played this venue the audiences were with us from the first note to the last. Dancing up a storm, cheering and losing themselves in the moment. It makes my job as a musician and a drummer so easy and so fun that I was smiling from ear to ear after both performances. With the intimacy of The Shack, you feel really connected with the people and I think it comes across. The people go crazier there than almost any other place, it feels like there is a deep connection between musician and audience.

The Owners

A really big influence over whether a venue will be a lot of fun or a chore are the owners. An owner can make your night hell or really help push your performance to something special. The Shack of course, has the later. Berry and Rian are in the music business for the love of it, an unspoken feeling you get that makes you want to play your best no matter what. They make sure you have everything you need to make music effortlessly and without anything coming between you and your craft. With a constant check for drinks, checking about monitors, lots of good vibes, jokes and a million other things, they both really complete the experience of performing at a special venue.

The Sound and Stage

The Shack has great sound and a great stage. It's strange to say that as normally a smaller stage means you feel constricted and can't spread out as much, emotionally and physically. With it's long, lengthy stage, the Shack should by all means be a bad stage. But as mentioned earlier, this long, stage allows you to really feel connected to the audience of The Shack. What also helps tremendously is the room just sounds great. Unless you spend millions of dollars this is not something most people can control. Certain rooms just feel better or worse and it's beyond the control of the sound man and the owners. The Shack just feels right. It has this visceral almost primal feelings that the sounds you are creating are resonating at the right rate, at least from where I was sitting in the middle. This more than anything pushes this venue into my top venues list. Playing drums in a room big enough to play loud, but small enough to not require more microphones than a bass drum mic is euphoria for me. I am in control of my sound, and what I'm hearing sounds great.

Atmosphere

The Shack has a cool vibe. It's a place you want to be at. I think this boils down to love. There is just so much joy and love in the room you feel at ease and like you belong. The people make you feel welcome, the owners are happy to do what they do, the food is great and the music is always pumping, what more could you want!

I'm off to Amsterdam tomorrow ( around a two hour drive ) To play this great venue, i'll make a follow up post with some more pictures and hopefully some videos if I have time to set up my cameras!

I found a video of me playing the Shack, this was our big finale when I played with the Mason Rack Band and it was always scary, always different and always great. Enjoy!

Joel