Thursday 15th march 2012 @ 8:00
My son had no will to let me sleep. He woke me up at 8 and we went straight to breakfast.
As it would be the most sunny day of our stay, our today's goal was to walk to the Dam and then to take the bus tour to see the city. But arriving at Amsterdam Centraal Station, I realized that the tickets had been forgotten at the hotel !
11:00
So we took the tram back to Leidseplein and staid in a park between the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum. As we finally had less money than expected, we wanted to eat cheap. After looking for different snack, we ended up eating at Burger King quite often !
There were lots of cinemas with french movies, even some we didn't actually know !
18:00
As tonight was the night of the signing session at Jam in the Dam, I arrived first at the Melkweg. Stephen arrived soon after me with his bass and a friend. His goal was to get Mike Gordon to sign his bass. But he had to deal with another worry because, the previous day, he got a pass which had two holes. That means he got a one-day-only pass although he had bought a full-festival ticket months ago ! After asking several peoples who couldn't help him, he finally got a guest wristband so he could enter freely for the 2 remaining evenings.
19:00
The doors opened and we went inside the building to find a lot of tables and chairs with Keller Williams and the members of Dark Star Orchestra and moe. waiting for us. They were very nice and welcoming (maybe because I was one of the first in line).
Lotus was still soundchecking in the Oude Zaal hall so they arrived a little later, one by one, except for keyboardist Luke Miller.
But wait, where is Mike ? So sign of him nor his bandmates. Stephen and I were waiting in the middle of the line, looking in every direction.
We eventually met Junipa Contento, the artist who drew the poster and she nicely signed it too. I actually met her the day before as I was waiting in the hall. Strangely, she had gone right to me to talk about her broken nails !
But Mike still wasn't there... We talked to one of the Jam in the Dam man (can't remember his name, maybe Tim) who told us Mike was invited to come but he didn't know why he wasn't there. Stephen gave him his bass to get it sign by Mike backstage.
We were very disappointed not to meet Mike's band but anyway, we were here for the music. I hope next time will be the good one !
I went out to my hotel to store the poster and get some food and went back for second night of jamming !