A Head Full of Wishes is a site for Galaxie 500, Luna, Damon & Naomi, Dean & Britta and Dean Wareham. With news, articles and lists of releases and past and future shows.
Diary: Dean Wareham in Groningen - 12th April 2025
The last of the three shows I was attending on this tour turned out to be in Groningen in The Netherlands, but that hadn’t been the original plan. Hazel and I had intended to see the show in Hamburg and had booked our ferries and trains to get there… and then DB started sending me multiple emails saying that the trains would be disrupted, but weren’t very helpful in explaining just how disrupted and whether we would be able to make all our connections. So rather than struggle our way across to Hamburg we decided to see a show one day earlier in Groningen.
The route to Groningen was more complicated than getting to Glasgow and Leeds, but still fairly straightforward:
- Metro to Meadow Well and a 20 minute walk to the ferry terminal at North Shields
- Overnight ferry from North Shields to Ijmuiden
- Uber from Ijmuiden to Sloterdijk
- Bus from Sloterdijk to Groningen
The ferry crossing was fairly calm, although, being a Friday night seemed a but busy with hen-nights, and sports teams heading off for the weekend. But the ferry was big enough (and we went to bed early enough) for this not to bother us too much. We had an Uber booked since it was easier and quicker than taking the bus into Amsterdam and then finding our way back out to Sloterdijk for the bus. We were through border control in plenty of time and the ride to the bus station was quick so we had time to grab some breakfast before the bus ride.
The bus station was however chaos with lots of poorly labelled buses, and lots of confused travellers but we eventually found the right one and the drive north was quick and uneventful.
Our hotel was a 30 minute walk from the station and we hiked over, checked in, and had a bit of a rest before we had to head back out for the gig.
Der Aa Theatre is a nice small space with a high stage, and a bar on the right as you enter. When we arrived, about 15 minutes before the scheduled start time, the venue was rather empty - we grabbed a couple of beers and waited. By the time Dean and the band arrived on stage the venue had filled up quite nicely - not full, but comfortable!
The show seemed to be much more relaxed and gentler this time, it’s interesting to see how the venue and the audience influence the show, so much more than you might imagine. The setlist was similar to the other shows, starting again with a slew of songs from Dean’s new album. A couple of shouted requests saw two extra Galaxie 500 songs added to the list the band had on the floor in front of them and it started to feel like we might get the band to play even longer - they seemed to be enjoying themselves.
Sadly the show came to an end with an encore of Temperature’s Rising, Blue Thunder and Strange.
We hung around for a while, chatted briefly with Dean and Britta, and then headed into the night. On the corner as we walked out was an ice cream shop… open… and who can walk past an open ice cream shop at 10:30… turns out we couldn’t. Then a supermarket for snacks, and a walk back to the hotel.
Sunday morning we grabbed a couple of Bolt ebikes and rode into the centre and wandered around. Now, all I knew of Groningen before we arrived was that Galaxie 500 had played there in 1989 because my database told me so, but otherwise… nothing. Groningen is a beautiful city, with lots of lovely architecture (both old and modern).
In the late afternoon we hired bikes for 24 hours, and cycled back to our hotel for a while and then rode out into the outskirts of the city and watched the sunset beside a lake and a windmill - how perfectly dutch.
On Monday we rode our bikes to the Hortus Haren, a beautiful botanic garden just to the south of the city, and then meandered back and returned the bikes. We then went to grab a coffee with Paula who we’d somehow managed to miss at the gig. She took this lovely pic of us:
… and Tuesday morning we started the trek home:
- train from Groningen to Almere, another from Almere to Amsterdam Centraal
- (killed some time in Amsterdam eating, visiting a church, and taking the free commuter ferry across to the North, and back.
- Bus from Amsterdam to the ferry terminal
- Overnight ferry to North Shields
- A walk to Meadow Well and a Metro to Whitley Bay, and home via a baker with the first Hot + Buns of the year.
More photos of our trip to Groningen - Dean Wareham - Groningen - 12th April 2025 album