Maastricht Part 6: Utrecht

It's been quite a while since I've last posted.  I would like to say that it is due to a high volume of strenuous school work, but it is more likely due to laziness.  That is not to say the school work isn't voluminous or strenuous, but when I'm not focused on that I like to relax and get away from my computer.

That is precisely what I did way back in November when I traveled to the city of Utrecht to watch a Coheed and Cambria concert.  The band is a progressive rock band from New York that I started listening to in 2000 during my first year of college.  Including this most recent show, I've seen them three times, and each time was great.  The first was at a rock festival in Stevenage, England, where they were scheduled to play on the main stage but were delayed coming over from Germany.  They were rescheduled on a secondary stage which resulted in their show being much more intimate.  The second show was in Kansis City:

This last show was great as well, and what made it great was how small the venue was at which they played. It was at a place called Tivoli (not the gardens in Copenhagen) right in downtown Utrecht:

I took this picture while I was out sight-seeing before the show.  I wanted to be sure I could find the place again later that night.

I asked one of my classmates who is from Utrecht what there is to do there.  He told me to see the tower. That was it.  So I went and saw the tower:

While there, I heard three guys speaking English and discussing the architecture of a church adjacent to the tower.  Turned out to be three of the guys from the band:

From left to right is Josh Eppard (drums), Zach Cooper (bass), and Claudio Sanchez (vocals and guitar). Claudio has a scarf wrapped around his head because his hair is crazy:

Gangsta indeed.

I thought about talking to them, but I decided against it because I figured they were out sight-seeing and enjoying the crappy, gray weather I've come to expect here in the Netherlands and probably didn't want to be bothered.  I'm sure they would have given me an autograph and probably even posed in a picture with me, but oh well.

As I mentioned the venue was small.  Here is a picture from where I was standing.  The rear wall of the place was about 15 feet behind me:

The next morning I did a little more sight-seeing before heading for the train station and Maastricht:

Like Amsterdam and most other places in the Netherlands, Utrecht has plenty of canals, which I'm sure are nice when it is warm out.

All in all I had a good time at the concert and in Utrecht.  While I didn't get any autographs, I did get some inspiration on what to name any son I may have in the future: