Marjolijn Smits traveled to New York with her friend Indra Beurskens. For Indra it is the first time she visits Guus Meeuwis abroad, for Marjolijn it is almost a tradition. “I’m here to finish my trilogy: London, Paris and now New York,” she says on her way to Webster Hall.
Guus Meeuwis will perform on Friday and Saturday in the city that never sleeps. The Webster Hall in New York is visited by ‘our’ Guus and about 2500 mainly Dutch fans.
“Our mom is still there, but it’s not going well in terms of health.”
Marjolijn and Indra, both from Eindhoven, have planned a week in New York around the concert. Two days in advance they will explore the city by bicycle. “We go past the Empire State Building, but first to Webster Hall,” says Marjolijn. Indra adds: “That’s the whole reason we’re here, so we’ll have to take a look at that.”
Guus Meeuwis would actually be in New York two years ago, but corona threw a spanner in the works. And actually Marjolijn would travel to America with her mother. “Our mom is still there, but her health leaves much to be desired,” she says with a lump in her throat. America is now too far for ‘our mom’ to travel to. “That’s why I’m standing here with mixed feelings: cool that it happens, but actually this would be the big trip for me with my mother.”
Marjolijn’s intention was to complete her trilogy together with her mother. She attended Guus Meeuwis’ concert in London in 2015 with ‘our dad and us mom’. And a year later Marjolijn and her mother went to the Olympia in Paris together.
“I think it’s so cool that a dream will come true soon.”
Meanwhile, Indra and Marjolijn arrive down the street from the Webster Hall. “Great to see. It looks very old, you can see the history.”
The Webster Hall from 1886 is not only a concert hall, but also a nightclub and recording studio. The building was plagued by fires five times and rebuilt again. Guus Meeuwis will be in a room on Friday where Aerosmith, Eric Clapton, Guns N’ Roses, KISS, Prince, Metallica, Tina Turner and U2 also performed.
“I think it’s so cool that a dream will come true.” Marjolijn means Meeuwis’s dream here. “First London, then Paris. London was very cool, that was his dream and then it comes true because of the hard work. That is very inspiring.”
“London was a swirling crowd, Paris was different because that was just after the attacks.”
In that American environment, Guus from Brabant will soon be singing ‘Brabant’ and ‘Het is een Nacht’. It sounds like a joke. But according to Indra, it can be done easily. “It will be a nice Dutch concert, it couldn’t get any better. It is not surprising that Guus Meeuwis is here. This was once New Amsterdam, they just go back to their roots here.”
During the Groots concerts in the Philips Stadium, Marjolijn is always sticking plasters as a first aider. She can enjoy herself during the foreign concerts. “In London it was a swirling mass in a kind of temple, Paris was different because that was just after the attacks there.” How is the feeling in New York? We’ll know on Friday evening at eight o’clock US time.
