I heart Germany

Two more German shows. Yesterday was in the town of Offenbach, basically a suburb of Frankfurt. It was a weird show. Basically, we had a lighting guy who thought it would be a good idea to keep us musicians almost entirely in the dark the entire show and just put a light on Emanuel. Second, the audience was . . . disturbingly quiet. They applauded politely between all of the songs, and I know I'm not the only one in the band who was wondering whether or not they even liked it. An audience in America applauding like that definitely is bored. Plus, it was a reasonably small crowd, maybe 40 or so. However, we finish our last song and, just like Karlsruhe, they wouldn't let us leave. We played our encore and they wouldn't stop, so again Liz sang her irish tune, as again we were out of material. Another very solid merch night as well.

Last night we played in the town of Reutlingen, where I am writing from currently. This was a big show called the "Burning Eagle Festival", as our booking agent calls his company Burning Eagle Booking. There was at least 150 people in the crowd, and they went wild after every song. It was a strict set this time, so we shortened it a little, figuring we MIGHT get time for one encore. Again the audience went nuts at the end of the set, and again after our first encore, so we played a second. It was awesome, definitely our most energetic set of the tour (it's much easier when playing in front of a large, screaming crowd). By far our best merch night of the tour to date, close to 300 euros worth of CDs sold. Afterwards we hung out drinking with the other bands.

Today we drive through the black forest and play a show in Freiburg tonight. And then . . . 3 days off, maybe a show of some sort, but our booking agent is apparently working on some free accommodations in Switzerland. The French shows it turns out were WAY too far apart distance-wise and would have cost far more in gas than they would have paid in guarantees, so we're just going to hang out in the alps for 3 days. Damn, what a terrible thing . . .