It’s actually been over a year (I can’t believe it) since the European tour with Informatik and Mesh. During the tour, I grew fond of Mesh and their songs and thought of turning one of their tunes into a 70’s, folk ballad (which is quite the opposite of what they do). Anyway, I finally got around to it and here it is. I hope you enjoy them (I enjoyed making them). There are 2 versions: 1) the stripped down acoustic version (which I anticipate most of you will enjoy the most) and 2) the Sea Changes / Gordon Lightfoot complete 70’s version (to which I couldn’t resist giving the entire 70’s ballad treatment … a la Beck’s Sea Changes or Gordon Lightfoot). I’d actually be curious which one people like the most, so please leave a comment or give a thumbs up to the one you like the best. And if you’re in LA, go see Mesh tomorrow night at the Echoplex (Thursday, April 21st).
This morning I played on KDVS in Davis. If you missed it, you can now listen to it here (and download it if you like). Thanks to Philip Fray, (host of the show — The Udder Side of Sac.), Graham Sobelman, Adrian Grey and to my parents for picking me up at the airport! Also thanks to Don Markese (for reviving my interest in “I Will Always Be Here” with his new version that I didn’t get a chance to talk about or play). And thanks also to Danny Peck and Tina Dico for getting me in the acoustic mood at 7:15 in the morning!
This is a rather lengthy post, so don’t try to read it at work (I had a lot to say about Berlin).
Erfurt
I never imagined it would be so hard to distinguish the cities from each other; I didn’t know we’d have so few chances to leave the venue. In fact, this might have been the point when this whole touring business started reminding me of my theater days: Every night it’s the same show, though in the case of a music show, you have the flexibility to change the songs, costumes, blocking and sounds. However, many more things are the same: the schedule, the comraderie and the inside jokes. I’ve laughed a lot during the tour but I wonder if an outsider would even understand what we were laughing about. Anyway Erfurt was perhaps when the blur started setting in. Considering that we were arriving from Switzerland (which meant that we must have gotten there late) I remember the venue being clean and it seemed somewhat modern while still reminding me of a German version of the city hall building in Placerville — 70’s architecture made of boring, artificial materials. Also this was the time that I noticed that Europe seems to have a lot more mid-sized “venues” than America. What I mean is that America has big theater style venues like The Greek Theater or The Hollywood Bowl and then it has bars like The Viper Room, Spaceland or Bottom of the Hill. But in Europe there seem to be a lot more mid-sized venues like The House of Blues in Hollywood or The Fillmore in S.F.
I think I recall that at this point I had been limited to WAY too many ham and cheese catering experiences and when I saw an opportunity to get a hot, healthy and nutritious vegetarian meal I jumped on it big time. Because Switzerland had made us late again (thanks Switzerland … pause NOT) we were rushed for time. For some reason we all felt desperately in need of a shower – maybe it was because we were forced to spend so many more hours that day stuck on the bus, parked at the Swiss border. Since our show time was much earlier, Mark from Mesh was gracious enough to let us cut in front of him in the shower queue. We moved at lightening speed — Da5id had no time to get into his usual singing Tourettes shower trance (of which I have recordings…. But don’t tell him yet… he’ll never read this).
When we got on stage we saw that the place was crowded to the gills which pushed the crowd all the way to the stage and placed (as Tyler put it) “the people in the front row’s faces … right at our balls.” At one point during the show, Tyler referenced this fact over the mic by noting that this was the most “intimate” shows we’d played. I followed up by commenting, “so I’m extra glad we showered.” And we were.
There was an after party this night down the street. It was fun to walk away from the venue (as it always is) and get a small taste of what it’s like to live in that city. It was a pretty small party, but still fun. Tyler got wicked drunk (as usual) and at one point was dancing on a table taking pictures with his weird mail-order “classic” film cameras from Japan and Russia. The place was an old stone cellar and they were playing Depeche Mode, like EVERY other place we’d been. I mean, it might be because of the type of music we are playing, but it does seem that Depeche Mode is WAY bigger in Germany than in the states.
Frankfurt
Janosch said that he had played this venue before and it was like Erfurt except dirtier. He was right: there was graffiti all over the back of the building including a picture of Frank Zappa complete with a caption that read, “Bobbi Brown” (which was so random, it made me laugh several times during the day — I have pictures… of the graffiti, not of me laughing… silly). There was also some awesome graffiti of the entire Muppet band (of which I also have pictures). I woke up late again this day and grabbed some coffee inside the venue. Although I tend to wake up later than the Brits (Mesh) I tend to be the first of the Americans to wake up. So I quite enjoy this time chatting it up with Mesh and the crew over coffee.
Tyler, Da5id and I had some time to go for a walk around the city after food and showers. It was pretty mellow because I think it was Sunday — lovely nonetheless. We managed to find a park to walk through and I think it was here that I started to notice that “graffiti” in Europe is superior to the graffiti in the states. There’s a lot less “tagging” and a lot more murals. And when someone does a good job, other graffiti artists seem to respect the territory instead of tagging their lame, chicken scratching signature over it – the one that only they and their cut-and-paste friends can read. I took some pictures on our walk that I will try to post later. I remember dinner being quite tranquil. I took my time – relishing one of the first times I had to really just chill.
We had been having one of Mesh’s fans (who had come to almost ALL of the shows!) film certain songs of our set from several angles from night to night so that I can cut together a live video for one or two of our songs. This night, I asked the ‘merch girl,’ Sandra, if she would film us from onstage looking out at the audience. I chose this night because I was told it was going to be absolutely packed, which I thought would look cool. Sandra was uncharacteristically shy about filming from onstage, so she filmed from the wings instead. We had more technical difficulties but this time it “broke the ice” and connected us with the audience and each other. I remember that more people were into the show at the end and I felt like our composure and persistent energy level seemed to pay off.
Berlin
There was a lot of buzz around Berlin. It was slated to be one of the biggest shows — Berlin being such a major city and all. In addition, the head of the band’s European Label was expected to be there to check in on our progress since Hamburg. We felt up for the challenge and to kick the show into over drive, the “Merch Girl” Sandra was going to pick up some of the keyboard parts and join us on stage. I should say that from now on I will just refer to her as Sandra since every time I refer to her as “the Merch Girl” I feel like I’m demeaning her in someway, which is not my intention – Sandra is the bomb. I was determined to see the Berlin wall (or what was left of it) while I was in Berlin and was surprised to find no one else on the tour shared my interest. It’s possible that I’m the only one who hadn’t seen it before but it’s also possible that the malaise of the tour schedule had raised the perceived importance of what would appear to be more trivial pursuits like: getting one’s hair cut. Although I suppose, there was a third explanation: that no one wanted to spend his or her free time hanging out with me. This is entirely possible, though I think Sean from Mesh would have come with me if his sound check wasn’t so early in the day (which made going, for him, nearly impossible).
I grabbed some breakfast which (besides the usual menu of breads, cheeses and jam) included access to one of those George Forman sandwich-press thingies and a juicer. I seized the opportunity to get (what I became known for referring to as) “Actual Nutrients” and made some fresh carrot juice. I asked the chef which train stop to get off at and left the venue.
Berlin’s subway system was no different than any other subway system I had ever encountered in the world: the designers managed to forget to include clear demarcations on the platform indicating WHICH DIRECTION the trains are running on either side. Just as in San Francisco (even if you do speak the language) your best hope is to try to find a station that is also in the direction of the station you are headed towards and hope there is some mention made of that station. It’s quite frustrating (even when I first moved to San Francisco) that train stations don’t simple label tracks as “North Bound” or “Sound Bound” etc. In San Francisco the lines are clumsily referred to by the name of the last stop on that line (which sometimes isn’t even the last stop). This system works ONCE YOU KNOW about it, but if you don’t know the sytem, then you are left wondering what direction “Baypoint” is – searching the entire map for “Baypoint” and trying to figure out how this relates to where you currently are (if you even know that much). I’m just saying, “Hey subway designers: try throwing a ‘North, South, East or West’ in there once in a while for those of us who like … READ MAPS!” (Ok Rant over).
Luckily for me, all Germans I encountered speak “a little English” which is to say: They had 10 years of English in grade school and use words like ‘insidious’. I asked an older lady which direction was towards “Checkpoint Charlie” (which is actually the sub-name of the station) and she pointed me in the right direction. Once I got there I was unimpressed with the touristy nature of this particular spot (not that I didn’t sort of expect it). And, like most tourist spots I’d ever encountered, it was complete with a crappy Italian restaurant lit up in its full, cheesy regalia and armed with a set of waiters ready to goad some sucker into paying 25 Euros for a bowl of spaghetti and then somehow still have the nerve to make you feel like a cheap bastard for not ordering desert. Luckily for me, I had already eaten and have developed pretty good tourist-trap-detectors. I managed to walk down the street till I found a section of the wall that still remained.
I was surprisingly unmoved. I mean, I felt the gravity of the place, but I think what I was sensing was the meaning that this place had for other people – but not for me. To me I was surprised to find that this piece of history meant little to me. Perhaps I am too young to know a world truly in the grips of the cold war. Or perhaps I felt, considering Germany had demolished much of Europe and slaughtered millions of people in cold blood, that having the country split in half by a wall wasn’t a totally unreasonable response. Maybe my lack of sentiment for the remnants of the wall stems from both the conditions I just described. Regardless, as if to reciprocate my indifference, circumstance responded by draining all the power from my camera’s battery just as I was about to take a picture of the wall. I wasn’t too heartbroken; in addition to my indifference, it had already started to rain heavily and so I made my way back to the venue.
As soon as we started sound check, I was pretty sure this show was going to be a disaster. As the opening act, you have to roll the dice with whatever sound guy the venue provides and in this case we got one of the worst possible characters: indifferent and/or incompetent. During the sound check I wandered (with my wireless guitar unit) into where the crowd would be and heard many problems with the mix. I went back on stage and after the song was done, I very politely tried to explain to the sound guy how I would like him to change the mix. My input made no noticeable difference (assuming he even implemented any of my requests). It is at this point in the story that I’d like to talk just a little about “the business of music” for which this scenario act’s as a perfect example. I know this is already a very long post, but I feel inclined to make a point here about the frustrating intersection of creativity and business.
Here is the dilemma: As soon as I said something to the sound guy about the mix he became offended because he took my requests as a criticism of his work. From his perspective I am just a “Prima Donna” artist who thinks he knows it all. Even though I spoke very politely, he will resent me for “criticizing his mix” and may even go out of his way to make me sound bad. On the other hand, if I say nothing, I will surely sound bad (this is a known quantity that I had already auditioned). It is a lose/lose situation. What’s sad to me is that this is almost always the case in any creative situation, particularly if you are good at what you do and you know what you want. Other people will almost always see you as a megalomaniac when it could be the case that you are actually good at more than one thing. So it seems sad to me that in this world of only greater and greater specialization there seems to be increasingly no room for generalists who know a little (or sometimes a lot) about more than one thing. These days it seems like it’s socially unacceptable to be good at more than one thing because most people are uncomfortable with people who are difficult to label.
The extra boost of energy emanating from Sandra onto the audience was not enough to make up for the fact that we sounded awful. And this had nothing to do with our performance. The head of the label, Stephan met us back stage and complained about the awful sound — pointing out all the same issues we had mentioned to the sound guy during the sound check. I was overtly angry and henceforth referred to the sound guy as “the mule.” From my perspective I wasn’t mad at the audience for hating us, but mad because the sound guy had just not done his job. He either was incompetent or wanted us to sound bad. Either way, I felt the mule’s actions were grounds for firing him and even hinted to Stephan that I’d like to see that happen. Being someone who has worked fairly hard to become good at what I do, I have no sympathy for people who are not good at what they do or deliberately do a bad job. There must have been 100’s of competent and enthusiastic sound engineers in a big city like Berlin. So I mentioned the point again: this guy should be fired. And in a way, the situation for the mule had become a case of self-fulfilling prophecy: I had become the Prima Donna he so desperately wanted me to be. In actuality, I don’t think I actually acted like a Prima Donna, but I did sense the rest of the people in our dressing room getting afraid that I might “go there” (likely because they had seen it too many times before). I quickly recalibrated my tone, but refused to apologize for being justifiably angry. I saw that everyone else was angry too, and suggested that it was ok for them to air their frustrations within the comfort of the private dressing room. But like everyone else that day, they ignored my advice.
Perhaps this was another part of this whole music business that really was different than the Theater: the actors, in this case, are less aware of their craft. I mean an actor backstage expressing anger is almost, to a certain extent, encouraged. From my training and experience I know that I can’t put on a good show or create art of any value if I am not comfortable with my emotions (particularly the uncomfortable ones). This principle is part of ‘Acting 101,’ but I guess for some musicians, it’s a topic they’d rather leave alone.
Well it’s been a whirlwind and I haven’t had a lot of time to post any blogs. I’ve been taking plenty of pictures and movies but I haven’t had a chance to upload them — particularly since I need to have access to a local network to handle the kind of data transfer capabilities needed for video and photo uploads. Anyway… I’m going to try to summarize a few things about the cities we’ve wisped through in the last week:
1) Copenhagen:
The venue was really clean and the people were very nice. The food was EXCELLENT (maybe the best we’ve had) and the venue looked like “The Hatch” from the T.V. Show “Lost.” There was a climbing wall on the backside of the venue. We had one of our best shows there. The crowd was REALLY energetic and we had a lot of good energy on stage (likely because the Record Label Exec. gave us some good advice after watching our first show in Hamburg the night before). The backstage had a wicked complicated tunnel system to get to the stage (just like that scene in Spinal Tap). I made a video of the route to stage (making sure to capture someone’s graffiti on the wall that actually references Spinal Tap with a “Hello Cleveland!”).
2) Rostock
The club was right by a body of water (name?). We actually got some time to wander around the city that was small and quaint. I think there must have been a musical school or conservatory there because I saw lots of young ladies walking around with instrument cases. Unfortunately I had no time or knowledge of German to meet any of these lovely ladies. On the way back to the venue we came across a giant protest in the street (which I have a little footage of — I didn’t want to provoke the police who seem these days, regardless of the country, to dislike being filmed). We found out later that the protest was about some local students from Rostock that had been imprisoned in France after being arrested at a protest of the G-10 or G-8 summit (or whatever they are called now). These 17-year-old kids were apparently being held “Bush style”: without access to legal council or communication with their families etc. Anyway, the show was one of the best we had because we ACTUALLY had FANS there There were a group of hard-core fans front and center, jumping up and down and singing along the entire time. After the show, we met most of these people and they were super sweet to us. One of these fans’ girlfriend got emotional when I said goodbye so much so that I thought she was pulling my leg. I still don’t know whether she was being sincere; it doesn’t really matter to me, but it was kind of odd.
3) Braunschweig
At first, I didn’t remember this show at all. I asked Janosch Moldau (the opening, opening act) to remind me about this show. He said: “This was the one where the audience was full of insurance agents”. Now I remember. The show itself was totally forgettable. The audience was full of folded arms and skeptical glances. I do remember some things about the day before the show because it was the only day that we got off (which came too soon). The reason for the day off was that the show was originally meant for Sunday but we had to move it to Monday because the mayor of the town had declared that “there would be no dancing” on that day. Apparently that day fell on a German remembrance day for the dead — sort of like German’s version of “El Dia de los Muertos.” Anyway, as a result we had a totally forgettable day off in an extreme outskirt of Germany where nothing was happening (a bit of a shame really). The upside was that we had a great Italian dinner that night at a restaurant at which Janosch told me the story of how he met his wife at McDonalds. He said, “I NEVER ate at McDonalds before because I hate it. But my friend urged me to go one night, and I ended up meeting my wife there. Now I’m loving it (pun intended)!” After dinner I went bowling with Mesh and the concert promoters. The guys from Mesh all made fun of my spinning bowling style, though they weren’t laughing after I hit 3 strikes out of the first 4 frames (thanks Sam Derby). They promptly incorporated my spin style into a nametag that they posted over my bunk on the bus. I just remembered one more thing about Braunschweig: every time the patrons flushed the toilet, we heard it in the dressing room over our heads and it was somewhat disturbing as we tried to eat our catered meals there.
4) Leipzig
This place really seemed like an old building and it was surrounded by a neighborhood that seemed very European (I’ve got photos and video which I will try to upload later). I was frustrated with the Bass guitar sound in this room. It was so boomy that I felt like I need not play anything faster than a quarter note because it would just get lost. I adjusted my playing accordingly. Before the show we had time to go into the city center because there were some provisions that we needed to buy. My “Day Shoes” (we only had room for VERY little because of the weight restrictions on checked luggage) had fallen apart and I needed something to wear besides my boots. Anyway, we drove into the city center and I found some cool shoes very quickly. Note to self: shoes in Europe are WAY more stylish… It took me 2 minutes to find 2 pairs of shoes worth buying. We got caught in rush hour traffic on the way back to the venue but this allowed us to see some cool sights from the car including one of Europe’s biggest train stations. The show itself didn’t go great. They put me in charge of controlling the “backing tracks” but failed to mention that they had switched the laptop into a different mode whereby I would need to click with the mouse instead of switch with the down arrow. As a result there was an awkward pause at one point where the next song wouldn’t start. The guys from Haujobb came to the show and met us backstage. I don’t know their music but apparently they are well known. I don’t think they liked our performance, but since I am not familiar with their music, their approval meant even less to me than it would have anyway. I was told that I was quite drunk and funny on the bus after the show, but it seemed like any other night to me. I don’t remember being drunk or funny.
5) Vienna
We got to Vienna quite late because of traffic though I wouldn’t know because I was asleep on the bus. This meant that when we got there everyone had to help the crew unload and set up. Mesh has a pretty big setup: lights, riggings, boards, drums, giant flat screens, LED’s. It was quite humbling to step into the shoes of the crew for a few minutes. These guys do this EVERY MORNING and EVERY NIGHT. Anyway, once we were unloaded we had a little time to shower, walk around and eat. Da5id, Tyler and I walked around and I fell in love with the city instantly. One beautiful gal smiled and waved at me for no reason as she got onto the train and I felt at home somehow. Unfortunately it was already dark and late by this time, so most places were closed. We wandered into a mom-and-pop hardware store because Tyler wished to replace the flashlight he had lost the night before. There was no catered dinner that night but rather a “Buy out”: the promoter had given us 45 Euros to buy dinner on our own for the three of us. Unfortunately the vegetarian place directly across the street from the venue was already closed but we managed to find some decent falafel in the restaurant right under the venue, though the smoke inside was almost a deal breaker. I think it was at this moment that Da5id summed up our feelings about the smoke into a good catch phrase: “I will miss Europe, but I won’t miss the smoke.” Everyone smokes cigarettes indoors in Europe and it’s quite annoying especially when you have limited access to laundry facilities. As Tyler said over the PA during the show, Vienna was the best looking crowd we had played for so far. As I found out later, Vienna has a significant fashion industry, which explains why some of the people in the audience seemed to look like models. This show was also noteworthy because we had a hardcore fan fly in all the way from Finland and a group of girls that came from Slovakia. I was so blown away by the Finish fellow’s effort that I made sure to spend some quality time talking to him at the bar afterwards. He was a super nice guy and I made sure Da5id and Tyler signed all his CD’s. After the show, I also met the three lovely ladies from Slovakia. They were some of the most friendly and approachable people I had met so far, which made me wish we had booked a show in Slovakia. Later in the evening I met a gal Bina that looked like a model though she swore she was not. She was there with her brother Ernst. When she tried to introduce me to him, she insisted that I couldn’t pronounce his name correctly. The ensuing dialogue was one of the most ridiculous conversations I’ve ever had AND will be re-enacted by Tyler, Sandra (the “merch girl”) and I in a short piece we have already entitled “The Importance of Being Ernst”. Seriously… there will be a video of this to watch later; Likely we will film this in Berlin.
6) Munich
I was looking forward to Munich because it was here that I had been hooked up with Jarkko — the foreign exchange student from Finland that I had met years ago. He had graciously offered to show me around Munich and I was quite willing to seize the opportunity to get away from the venue and the bus. I was quite tired from Vienna and slept in very late. By the time I woke up, it was time to connect with Jarkko. He swung by and picked me up and we swooped over to the schools o get his kids and take them home before we could hit the town. Munich is beautiful: so many old buildings and a surprising calm for a place of such stature. Jarkko took me to the city center and we starting developing an idea to get some classic beer. Though a touristy choice, we ended up heading towards the original Hofffbrau — I think mostly because I wanted to stick a flag in the ground for “Team Beer” in our ongoing battle with “Beer Team” (If you don’t get this last bit it’s because you aren’t part of a certain internal Digidesign feud). On the way there a woman crouched down on one knee in front of me with a camera and I thought: “why on earth would this woman want to take a picture of me?” Then she said: “Could you please move to the side? ” So I did, knowing that there must be something behind me for which my side moving was needed. I turned around curiously and was surprised to find literally a line of 100-150 female models walking in a single file line (I have bad pics). They were all wearing the same outfit and I can only assume that it was some publicity stunt for Prada or the like. Never before did I wish more that I had had a stack of flyers for the show in my pocket so that I could have stood at the front of the line and passed out flyers to the models as they passed by — all the while uttering the words of Mitch Hedberg: “Here, you throw this away.” Nonetheless, I couldn’t wait to rub it into the guys faces back that venue: “Hey guess what you missed while you were napping on the bus? Yeah….. A marching army of models!” Anyway, the show was OK though we had some more technical difficulties. The crowd wasn’t particularly memorable and I suppose neither was our performance. There was an after party which we later called “The Depeche Mode” party because it seemed like that was the only music they were listening to. I tried to meet some people there but it seemed like unless I was actually IN Depeche Mode they had no interest in talking to me. I met one gal who was dressed up in a black nurses outfit. We seemed to hit it off. Later I asked her if she wanted to dance and she said, “No thanks, I don’t like this song.” Having reached the age of 33 as a man, I’ve accepted some rejection from women as just par for the course, but I have never become accustomed to insincerity. I was annoyed that she couldn’t have just said no, as if the song had anything to do with why she didn’t want to dance. It made me wonder if women knew how little men actually like dancing in the first place. I think most of us just look at it something you have to do sometimes to meet women. So the fact that she didn’t like the song was particularly annoying to me considering that I was the one asking her to dance and I don’t even particularly like dancing. I was annoyed and tired and headed back to the bus early for bed.
7) Prattein (Switzerland)
The first and most obvious memory of the show in Prattein is that getting in and out of Switzerland was an absolute bitch. We got held up at the border on the way out for 6 hours. YES 6 hours. Apparently they needed to check the merchandise to see what we were selling and estimate the taxes we’d owe them. Mark, the lead singer of Mesh, was taking a smoke break outside the bus and was also taking some pictures. One of the border police didn’t like that, and told him he had to delete the pictures. I joked about talking pictures of him having to delete his pictures, but by this time, no one was in the mood for jokes about things that might lead to more waiting. Earlier, while I was sleeping, they brought the merchandise girl into the office to question her. The whole ordeal seemed absolutely ridiculous and arcane, particularly the part about how the Swiss base some of their tax estimates on the weight of the merchandise as if this is somehow related to the value of the merchandise. Anyway, finally we were on our way and when we arrived, once again we had to help the crew unload to make up for the lost time. This was absolutely the biggest venue of the tour and for the lighting tech Pete, it was an absolute dream. Pete, being the wizard he is, has a whole automated lighting board and computer system that he takes with him which can quickly assimilate the house lights into the show he already has planned with the lights he’s brought. He’s a wizard and we have a video of the entire show almost just for the lights. All over the back of the venue were pictures of bands that had played there before. There were a few names that I recognized like Alice Cooper, Cannibal Corpse and Helmet, but mostly it was a cemetery of unknown bands with the worst names you could possibly imagine like: The Company of Snakes, Mother’s Pride, Axxel, Birth Control and a gang of others so bad that the part of my brain that held this information erased itself. Deep down it reminded me of the night earlier when we had watched the documentary “Anvil” on the bus. It’s a real life “Spinal Tap” movie and it hit us all hard because deep down we’ve all been there before: struggling musicians who are hardly known and always a day away from being totally forgotten. Another reference to Anvil colored our Prattein experience insomuch that the venue was huge we had no hope of filling it (which reminded us all of the scene in Anvil when they played a “festival” in Europe: capacity 2000, attendance 178). It was quite annoying that the venue had no hot water, soap or towels in the backstage bathrooms. I had to wash my hands with shower gel and shake dry them. The food was quite good though and finally we were able to do laundry. Though, in an effort to make sure I capitalized on the laundry opportunity, I accidentally threw my stage pants into the washer. It was a race against time: the dryer vs. my call time. Luckily the pants won and I didn’t have to play the show in damp pants. All in all the show was good, and we sold a lot of merchandise even though it seemed like there was no one there (the room being so huge and all). I was a little annoyed with the Venue’s crew who were smoking the entire time right under our dressing room. The smoke wafted right up into my freshly cleaned clothes. I joked later with the guys on the bus: “Hey… maybe next time the crew can blow their smoke right into the dryer. I’ll make sure to set up an ash tray on my luggage next time.” Europeans are generally progressive people, but on the smoking thing, they are behind. Europe : Smoking :: America : Cars. We had to sleep in the parked bus at the venue because the border guards wouldn’t be able to deal with our crossing until 7 a.m. so there was no point in disconnecting from the electric power we were getting from the venue. Once we hit the border again, they held us up for 5 hours and, all told, squeezed €70+ in taxes out of us and €200+ in paperwork fees. In the end, we all agreed that playing in Switzerland wasn’t worth the hassle.
Well yesterday was a challenge: flying, walking with tons of bags, little sleep. As soon as we got here: one of the great things about being in Germany is that it’s not the U.S. What I mean by this is just a subtle attitude change in everything around me. For instance, at the airport, I noticed that all the rolling carts were free and they even had free Coffee that was quite good. You’d never see this in the U.S.; everything has a price in America.
Anyway, after little sleep and no food, we left the hotel looking for food and made a wrong turn. After hiking around what looked like Hamburg’s financial district, we found the Chinese restaurant we were looking for. Since I’m travelling with two Vegans, finding food can be hard, but by this time we were so starving they were talking about getting french fries at McDonald’s. Trying to order Chinese food in German is pretty hard and weird. I would have actually had more luck ordering in Mandarin which I do a little of, but not as much as David knows German. So he told the Waitress “Vegetarian” and they brought us some delicious braised Tofu dish.
Jetlag was rough and playing the show last night was difficult being so tired and achy. It went pretty well considering it was our first show and people were there to see the headlining band “Mesh.” I wish I had gotten footage of the Mesh’s set last night because the audience and venue were a sight to see. With all the fatigue and chaos of the first show, I literally never even thought of it. But I may be becoming a fan of Mesh. They are quite good and really write some great songs.
Last night was the first night sleeping on the tour bus. I was so tired I could have slept on a bicycle, but I notice that if you let the bumps in the road do thier thing, the subtle shaking is like a nice back massage. Anyway, this bus is deluxe: 2 Lounges, video games, DVD, coffee machine, fridge, flat screens, bathroom etc. Here are some pics from Hamburg:
Apparently Jesus has already resurrected in Germany and he is Harrison Ford
So I finally got my act together and got my own website. It’s pretty bare-bones but hopefully I will soon be able to figure out how to chisel this webspace into a proper site. Tomorrow morning I’m leaving for a tour of Europe with the band Informatik opening for a band called Mesh. I’ll be supporting Informatik on bass guitar and a little guitar on a few songs. I’m going to try to upload some pictures and videos of the trip so check back later if you’re interested. Also check back torward the beginning of December (maybe sooner) because I will be setting up a music “store” from which you can download my music (FINALLY).
There were a group of hard-core fans front and center, jumping up and down and singing along the entire time. After the show, we met most of these people and they were super sweet to us. One of these fans’ girlfriend got emotional when I said goodbye so much so that I thought she was pulling my leg. I still don’t know whether she was being sincere; it doesn’t really matter to me, but it was kind of odd.
