The California Honeydrops – CRAZY TOUR STORIES

In this Crazy Tour Stories segment, the blues/R&B band, The California Honeydrops, talk about one of the band’s crazy moments from touring. You can check out the feature, after the break.

Licorice Nipples and A Fun Gig in Belgium

For moral protection and possible future reprehension, the characters/band members in this story shall remain anonymous. This story takes place about 5 years ago, in Antwerp, Belgium, when the Honeydrops were on a 3-week tour of The Netherlands and Belgium. With a few nights off, we had heard about a cool neighboring college town called Ghent, where we could possibly pick up a fun bar gig. Three of us ventured off by train to Ghent and, after wandering the beautiful European streets for a while, wound up in a sweet little bar called The Hotsy Totsy. The place was not full of people, but they had a little stage. We asked if we could bring our band into play the next night. The owner was excited, gave us some booze, and the three of us ended up playing a fun acoustic set for the people there. We had solidified a gig! The problem was, the three of us stayed out there too late, partying and playing music, and we missed the last train back to Antwerp. This news was bestowed upon us by a nice young punk rocker/philosopher at the train stop. He said, since we missed the train, we could stay at his flat and catch the first train back at 6:30 am. We took him up on his generous offer and rode the bus together. His flat was literally the size of two closets taped together. One closet was the kitchen. Two Honeydrops shared a bare twin mattress on the floor in the kitchen closet, somewhat snuggled together underneath a table and halfway underneath the fridge. The other Honeydrop shared the small bed with the benevolent, yet extremely smelly, punk rock friend. It wasn’t the most glorious of stays, but we are forever grateful to the rank lad.

Rewind a few nights to a bar in Antwerp: Belgian beers are strong. And we were drinking them. After a gig, we went to some pub that was trying to look too classy but had good enough beer and enough female presence to keep us there. We met this interesting crew of erotica fiction writers and sat at a table with them and chatted and flirted the night away. Before he knew it, one Honeydrop had been strategically “ditched” by the others in order to persuade him to escort home one of the lovely ladies we had been talking to. Well, he ended up having a wonderful night with the alluring Belgian erotica novelist, and the only kiss-and-tell news divulged to the others was that she had some kind of delicious licorice-flavored nipples. Go figure.

Fast forward to the day after the three Honeydrops had the punk rock sleep over in Ghent: We had secured the gig at the Hotsy Totsy, but now we had to get the whole band and all our gear to Ghent. Luckily, the gracious, licorice-flavored erotica novelist from a few nights before heard about our predicament and gave us all a lift to the gig! How bout that? The young, “abandoned” Honeydrop must have done alright, eh? Anyhooooo…..the owner of The Hotsy Totsy had promoted the mess out of us in one night and we had a packed house with a ton of fun and good memories. Thank you to the good people of Belgium!

Keep up with the band on Facebook and Twitter!

Let us know what you think of this feature in the comments below or by tweeting us!