Bonn and Blues

Samstag 15. Oktober 2005

Today I ventured for the first time out of Cologne and traveled to the next Southern city on the Rhine, Bonn. It was just myself and the five girls- Megan, Brittney, Melissa, Christina and Denise. Nathaniel was also supposed to have joined us, but he had overslept. Our main goal was to go see the Harribo candy factory and check out the Birkenstock outlet center. I had also wanted to go to the German history museum, but no one else really wanted to go. However, we weren’t able to go to the Harribo Factory because tours stopped at 2pm, about the time we finished lunch, and the Birkenstock Center ended up being located in the next town over. This is probably one of the last times I will just tagalong on a trip without personally having my own agenda just in case something like this happens again.

So after finding out that the plans would have to be abandoned, the girls decided it was a great time to go shopping. It was a beautiful historic town with nice little shops, but since I only like going to stores with the intent of buying something, I toured the center of town on my own.

Along the way, I heard a blues band playing somewhere in the distance, so of course I had to find out who was playing. It didn’t take long to find out the source, because there was a huge crowd gathered around this band that was promoting themselves as a garbage can blues band. The lead singer played the drum (he had a garbage can for a bass drum, and nothing for snares) and sang into a megaphone. He was accompanied by an amazing harmonica player as well as a gentleman on a steel guitar. They used these tiny amps to amplify there sound, something that you would expect out of a junior high garage band- but the sound was just enveloping- I was quite surprised at the sound these musicians could wring out of their limited instruments. I took several photos, and even took two short videos- although Germans don’t seem to mind walking right in front of the camera. Just before I was ready to leave they noticed that I was trying to get them all in one picture and stopped mid-riff and posed for my camera. Unfortunately the picture didn’t turn out, but that was the deciding factor in me buying their CD.

The songs they have on their CD are the typical blues classics, with only one original song- which was kind of a disappointment- but none the less, still creative. I have been going through music with drawl since I have been here and every time I pass by a store that is playing a song in my collection it makes me yearn to just grab it off my shelf- but it isn’t there. It is going to be hard to not go home with a ton of CDs while I am here, but maybe I can get some recommendations from some Germans about good European techno while I am here.

After walking around the city for a little while I met back up with the girls and we toured the medieval church which predominates Bonn’s skyline. From there we went home and I called it an early night.