Hiccups, solutions and even more buses

#EJNGreenTour

Where did we leave it? Halmstad, that’s right. Swedish hospitality is something we’ll really miss almost as much as Swedish meatballs — I mean… I think by now we’ve had them three times and it still wasn’t enough.

After getting to know the Jazz i Halmstad audience and receiving a standing ovation on our first show, we were hyped. Even better — our host was hyped too, and that matters a lot.

We often talk about musicians going on tour, taking risks, investing money and usually losing money, but we rarely talk about jazz club owners who are fighting just as hard to keep their doors open.

Inviting a Lithuanian band that has never been to Sweden and has little existing audience interest is a risk. Thank you for taking that risk with us — that’s what I’m saying.

After a quiet night walk around town and a few cheers to each other, we crawled into our beds. It soon started raining and kept raining for two days straight. Rain is especially “great” for electric guitars and saxophones — even when they’re in their cases — so yes, a few worried faces were spotted. And travelling by public transport means walking to and from stations, so you can imagine.

Our train was late — which apparently happens in Sweden often, but I didn’t know that. Our bus after the train was in 20 minutes, and our train was 22 minutes late… You might say, “Just take another bus.”

But you see… I bought all non-rebookable, non-refundable tickets for 10 people. You catch the drift. So we ran. Through rain and fog, from train to PUBLIC BUS.

You should’ve seen the bus driver’s face. I showed him our tickets and he literally said, “But there’s a train from Gothenburg to Lerum, why would you take a public bus?”

I just smiled and said sorry, but there is reasoning behind this decision. If I had booked that train, we would have spent 40 minutes waiting in a station, and that would leave only 20 minutes in the hotel. I always try to arrange at least an hour — people need to lie down and breathe for a moment. Not all musicians are extroverted or comfortable around others 24/7. Strange, right?

By this point, calls started coming in from several venues asking about our rider. And this is where touring actually becomes “green” in my mind.

Green Pilots is about trying to consume less while travelling — for some it is literally in terms of CO₂, but it goes deeper.

If a venue is struggling to provide a Nord 3 and needs to rent one from far away, costing them money and resources, can we be flexible? When we can, we lean. So we leaned.

Tonight it’s Lerum, and tomorrow we travel to Jönköping.

 To be continued.

Yours,

Dorotėja