Tomorrow, we are present at the Sound of Young Holland, the annual showcase of the Dutch independent scene in O’Ceallaigh and Kult. Very cool to be hosting the upper floor in O’Ceallaigh on this fest, organized together with Subroutine, Lepel and Zeevonk. You can see wh^rl (photo) and Immen in our tiny room. 

The coming months, we’ll continue to host shows as Combo Qazam in our rehearsal space / indie venue Studio Patrick in Utrecht. We have cool stuff coming up like Kenmujo next Monday, Zea and Môgô in February and wh^rl and Tonsils in March. For now, the Tiny Adventures in De Groeverij have been put on hold for a while, but who knows what the future has in stock! Stay tuned for LIVE MUSIC 😀

Yesterday was the perfect ending to this year’s Tiny Adventures series. Great to finally see The Puddle Parade again (after 15 years!), creating loops with kalimba, singing saw and other cool little instruments. This time with saxophone, that blended so well with the melodica! Beautiful & charming lo-fi stuff.

Garciaphone came all the way from France for this show, and – although the trip was long – totally delivered with his old and new songs, melodies and harmonies that warm your soul. No big stories to tell, no epic show elements, no branded marketing needed. Just beautiful Songs (with a capital S). Always a delight to see him play live, and this was no exception.

And this all in a sold out Groeverij – the most cozy, pleasant and welcoming store in and around Houten. Thank you all!

We are starting a new concert series! Over the course of the next months, there will be 4 evenings with live music in De Groeverij in Houten. You can discover new, exciting, a little bit experimental and extremely good artists in a very intimate setting. We named these events Tiny Adventures.

The first edition is happening in a week: Saturday September the 2nd. Tilburgian indiepostfolkjazzkraut artist Microwolf is presenting his new album Changelings in a unique solo setting. Also playing is wh^rl, all the way from Groningen. Singer/songwriter Jurgen Veenstra lived many lives playing in noiserock bands all over the world, but finally comes (after almost 60 years) with his solo debut as wh^rl.

Two amazing songwriters who open up new perspectives on the whole ‘man with guitar’-concept. Very exciting! Hope to see you there. Limited seats available.

FB Event page: Tiny Adventures #1: Microwolf & wh^rl – LIVE
Ticket link: https://groeverij.nl/product/za-2-sept-tiny-adventures-live/

In my show overview post of December last year, I read that I was hopeful about 2022 without having reasons for that at the moment. There was still a lockdown and it didn’t seem things would go back to normal anytime soon. But it did, in a way. Venues opened up, bands were eager to participate in the rat race again but the whole landscape was different. Promoters were gone, venues closed, people had to find other jobs…

I had the feeling I had to hop on the train, sometimes leaving me feel stressed, misunderstood, rushed. But I did my best to make live music happen again, together with my friends. And a lot of things worked out, so I am super grateful for that and I don’t want to complain about having too much success or good things going on – that doesn’t make sense.

So how this year turned out… Tiny Room Booking booked, organized or hosted 76 concerts this year. Mainly for our own roster (Combo Qazam, The World of Dust, Toby Goodshank, Ilsha, Caspar Milquetoast). Very glad to see these artists play again. Then there was the Podiumdorst series in the Vechtclub. 16 evenings of cool, new, underground music, nice little gatherings of a DIY-minded music-loving community in Utrecht. Perfect celebrations of the exact thing we missed the past few covid-years.

New year

In the new year I hope I have the strength to hop OFF the train once in a while. I don’t know if it’s long covid or has to do with other things, but I need to recover one or two days after every event, and with so many shows there is no time for that. My plan up until summer is to organize 1 show every month. The shows for January and February will take place in De Groeverij in Houten, the subsequent ones in Studio Patrick. More news about that soon! There will be more World of Dust and Combo Qazam shows too, but also weeks of rest. See you all in the new year, with a different show overview at the end of the year.

– Stefan

(In the photo you see me playing a show with Combo Qazam in Wroclaw, Poland. Photo by poomackuszukam. And this show was booked by Yugofuturism )

Anti-folk superstar Toby Goodshank (USA) is coming to Europe! We booked the shows in The Netherlands, and after that Toby (along with Leslie Graves from the USA and Boo Hoo from Germany) will play more shows in Germany, Austria and Poland. On the first and the last show, The World of Dust will play a short set as well. It’s time to celebrate the anniversary edition of Toby’s majestic album ‘Truth Jump Fall’! All tour dates:

Netherlands
June 4 Houten @ De Groeverij
June 6 Utrecht @ Vechtclub XL
June 7 Amsterdam @ De Nieuwe Anita
Germany
June 8 Cologne @ Die hängenden Gärten von Ehrenfeld
June 9 Frankfurt @ Public Library
June 10 Mainz @ Hafeneck
June 11 Frankfurt @ Seilerei
June 12 Offenbach @ Waggon
June 13 Nürnberg @ Bernsteinzimmer
Austria
June 14 Vienna @ Tunnel Vienna Live
Poland
June 15 Poznan @ CK Nowe Amore
Germany
June 16 Hamburg @ Jolly Jumper
June 17 Bremen @ Zakk
June 20 Berlin @ Schokoladen

2021 is coming to an end. The corona virus made this another year with less music, art, shows, and color. But it’s time for some positive reflection. Because what did happen, was GOOD.

We are very, very grateful for the shows we booked this year. It turned out we managed to book and host 20 shows. 20 concerts by brilliant artists such as Ilsha, Combo Qazam, The World of Dust and Microplaza. We organized one amazing day filled with love and laughter in Studio Patrick during the Le Guess Who? / U? festival. The Tiny Room train visited Utrecht, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Middelburg, Apeldoorn and Liège in Belgium.

Every one of these shows was memorable and worth living for. Thank you to the artists, the venues, the sound engineers, the promoters and the audience. Thank you, thank you. 🙏 Let’s make 2022 as best as possible.