Part 4: Stuttgart
Rockapella waits...and waits....for trains in Stuttgart, Germany
Show number two was in a modern cool venue in the town of Stuttgart (pronounced Shtut-gart, as with any time an "s" comes before a "t" in German). It was far enough from Vienna that we had to fly on a German budget airline. Things were starting to get colder and wetter...snow was visible on the tail of the planes and I purchased a little umbrella for the trip.
Stuttgart, Germany. Heading to the train in the rain. Off to sing at the mall!
We had some extra time in town so the show promoter decided to have us build up some more ticket sales by performing in a downtown department store. Yes...a department store.
Our neighbor on the side of the "stage". In-between Stuttgart department store sets
Now, I know what you're thinking - it's been many years since Rockapella has had to do that level of direct brute-force promotion, but remember we're a new act in Germany. Fred set up a small sound system on the women's wear floor near the escalators, and we did three 10-15 minute sets for passers-by. We gathered quite a good little crowd at times and our German road manager, Andrea, handed out promotional postcards with the show info on them. It went well and was followed by a pastry-filled dinner in the store's buffet restaurant.
Promoting the Stuttgart, Germany show in the women's wear section. We aren't too proud to beg...
During the rest of our time off, some of us caught up on sleep, and some went to the impressive Mercedes factory museum....Stuttgart is home to Mercedes-Benz cars, as well as Porsche.
On show night, the opening act was a wonderful all-girl German group called Niniwe that sounded like a cross between classic madrigal arrangements, Enya, and African sounds. They were very good and deserve further success. A strong contrast with our stuff, which is great.
Stuttgart, Germany opening act Niniwe. Great sound...
After we hit the stage, we quickly found out that Stuttgart audiences are terrific...it was like a soccer game... Stomping and even singing chants during the curtain calls, lots of cheering and gasping between and during things.
On to Aachen the next day.
