I moved to Amsterdam (from the UK) for a few different reasons, but primarily because it has a good music scene. I am now currently enjoying discovering new, small venues where I can do gig photography -the smaller the better, slightly-off-the-beaten-track venues (current fave in the west is De Nieuwe Anita; pictured is a shot taken at the last gig I went to there).

I’m just discovering stuff as I go along. And I will be sharing it all here – I’m not just looking for new venues – but general creative stuff that is happening in the city. Meeting up with like-minded people and uncovering all that goes on. So this blog will have a slant towards music and music photography but could feature anything that’s interesting and creative. Like my new favourite venue in the Oost (east): Delicatessen – which is a cafe/bar/gallery/movie theatre – all in a compact and delectable space.(http://www.delicatessenzeeburg.nl).

After walking past it many-a-time and never actually going in (tsk, tsk), I uncovered the delights of this little venue, mainly thanks to the art-and-general-good-stuff listings of Unfold Amsterdam, a very useful website and a free poster publication with top tips on what’s happening in the city. http://www.unfoldamsterdam.nl/art-listings/

It was on a random Thursday when we had a bank holiday for Hemelvaart (Ascension Day) and I went on a ‘Musical Tour of the East’ which was organised by the good folk of Delicatessen and the many people that helped make this a very special festival for a samll group of 25 people. We took off walking the streets around the neighbourhood, no idea what was going to happen or what we might see. And I thought I might just include some of the shots here that I took to document this expedition. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves, I think you’ll get the idea – the first ‘stop’ on the tour was in someone’s living room where we climbed in through the window. And we also stopped at a school, a fantastic old-fashioned printing workshop, a house on my street, and then back to Delicatessen for some poetry and more music. Anyway, on with the photos…

The starting point:

Stop #1 (performance by Lady Lady and the Boy, in the boy’s living room):

Stop #2 was at the printing workshop (http://grafischwerkcentrum​amsterdam.nl/). The generosity of the organisers and hosts was second to none, with drinks and nibbles and ice lollies (and deck chairs!) laid on at many of the venues (well, this was the only one with deck chairs…). The band that played here was Meet Pip:

Stop #3 - We tried to get Gloria (our tour guide) to tell us where we were going next and she explained how it was TOP SECRET until the very last moment…. rumour had it though that we were headed to my street… and yep, sure enough, here were were a doors down from where I live, where our host was hanging off the balcony to welcome us with the man behind it all Bas (from Deli). The performance here was of NYC singer-songwriter Andrew Vladeck:

Then we were off again to Stop #4 - to be entertained by the Showdog duo:

And after a bit of a detour we were welcomed by Bas at Stop #5 (a school I think)  and local band Uinko Eerenstein:

And before we know it, we’re back at Delicatessen for poetry (Joshua S. Baumgarten) and music (The Bellbines):

So, that’s a whistle-stop tour of Amsterdam Oost! Discovering this sort of event is an ace way to find out more about the city and I’ll be on the look out for other such events. For now, Delicatessen is the home of my new Dutch class that I started yesterday. So, these things always lead onto other things. Can’t wait to see what’s next!

Cheers,
Carmel

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