Tour highlights, lowlights, dramatis personae, and awards

I'm guessing this is not the last time I will be touring Europe. I'm guessing this is not the last time I will be touring Europe with this band, or at least that is the hope. To that end, I think having an end-of-tour list of a sort might be appropriate. At any rate, here's a smattering of bests, worsts, and other assorted randomness.

First, the characters, or the people I've been spending 24 hours a day with for the past month.

Emanuel Ayvas - the eponymous front-man, and I hope he doesn't read this because I'll actually be saying nice things about him. Definitely one of the most brilliant musical minds I've ever had the privilege of working with (and I've worked with some amazing musicians), in any genre. And quite the character. Always writing music or lyrics, or recording random snippets of sound or video on his iphone, and sometimes basing entire songs around them. Probably also the most gutsy and ambitious person I've met, as well. This tour is funded by him, and we all get paid by him (I think a lot of people don't realize this, but the reality is that for a bunch of free-lance musicians, we could never go on tour without getting paid something, no matter how much we love the project. Just isn't feasible).

The rest, in no particular order:

Jeff Gretz - our drummer. Another brilliant musician, and well-versed in quite a few styles (classically trained, then worked with heavy metal bands for years). I sometimes think he could survive for months on only coffee and cigarettes. Has by far the most industry experience of any of us, as he has been touring regularly with various bands since his mid 20's, and also has a day job at a record label. Basically, co-manages the band along with Emanuel, and without his insights, I guarantee a lot of stuff would be much more difficult for us.

Nic Cowles - our flute player. Trained primarily in jazz flute, although also comfortable in many styles. Funny guy and, like Jeff, has a lot of industry experience. Unparalleled ability to see through and dissect bullshit.

Liz Hanley - violinist and backup singer. Amazing, bluesy voice, although can also hit the high C in the Queen of the Night aria. Talk about versatility. Trained classically, but now spends most of her time as a traditional Irish fiddle player and singer. The only female on tour with us, but handles it with great aplomb and patience, although her raunchy sense of humor is on par with anyone else's (except maybe Nic).

Gil Goldin - bass player. Trained in jazz back in his home country of Israel. Many people think bass players are a dime a dozen, and in NYC that's somewhat true, and for many bands this is fine, but I'd never want anyone other than Gil. Adds a dimension to the bass lines that just wouldn't be there with so many other players (although in all fairness I must say that the one sub we have had for him occasionally in the past covers the part admirably well), and is constantly throwing little nuances into the live set that never made it into the recordings.

Dennis Adler - our booking agent and friend. Without him, Europe would not be possible.

The list:

Best venue - Treibhaus, in Luzern, Switzerland. Great sound, nice, modern equipment, a band flat in the venue, and a good restaurant out in front where the band eats. What more could you ask for?

Worst venue - actually, not an easy one. While our second London show was our worst show, the venue itself was decent, with good equipment, and definitely had the capability of putting on a good show. The stage in Gent, Belgium was small and oddly shaped and thus very difficult to work with, but the sound worked out well enough and they put us up in an amazing hotel. Fucecchio treated us really well but it was like playing in a barn, with no soundproofing and high ceilings. This works well for some bands. This does not work well for this band. So there really was no worst venue, just different difficulties at different places.

Best (stage) sound - for me, at least, Faenza. Of course, I heard that it was due to the cello being overbearingly loud, but hell, I'll take it.

Worst (stage) sound - Manchester. The sound guy had no idea what he was doing; we eventually gave up and played the show acoustic. That said, I don't want this to reflect poorly on the venue which, on top of treating us very well, had an excellent system. They just had to bring in someone new for some reason that night and I guess maybe he lied on his resume?

Best crowd - tie between Lille and Reutlingen. Amazingly enthusiastic and made us feel like rock stars.

Worst crowd - London. Didn't care about us at all, talked through our entire set, and left early. Just can't play well under those conditions.

Best accommodations - 3-way tie between Lille, Haldern, and Gent. Gent had nice rooms, and I could see the spire of the cathedral out my window. Haldern was a wonderfully quaint quintessentially German bed and breakfast run by a couple who didn't speak much English, and had amazing showers. And of course Lille I spoke on at length.

Worst accommodations - London. 'Nuff said. Generous, warm host with no business hosting a 6-person band.

Most beautiful women - Tie between France and Switzerland. Closely followed by Poland and Italy.

Tour name - The Highway to Hull Tour

Moment of the tour - Visiting Bach's grave, or seeing Florence from the Piazzale Michelangelo.

Meal of the Tour - Faenza. 3-course gourmet Italian. OMG.

Rock star of the tour - Liz Hanley

Tour theme song - Baker Street, by Gerry Rafferty

Party of the tour - Tie between Poland and Lille. Lille was a crazy dance party. And Poland, well . . . as our drummer put it, "First time in Poland and I barely remember a thing."

Bartender of the tour - I forget his name, but the guy behind the counter in Poland. Brought us multiple rounds of shots during our set.

Character of the tour - our host in Faenza. On top of running sound at the venue, she tended the bar, did work in the restaurant, cleaned the place a bit, barked orders, and had a hilariously dry sense of humor. Do not fuck with this woman, was the vibe.

Beer of the tour - Hofbrau Dunkelweiss, or the Franziskaner Heffeweisse on tap. Or this Belgian beer I had in France. Or maybe this really tasty British Lager in Manchester.

Drink that everyone in EatFear can agree on - Whiskey. Bourbon, Irish, Scotch - we drink it all.

And to sum up, here is a ridiculously stupid iphone video we shot, mostly in Berlin. I think the emptied handle of Johnny Walker Black in one of the scenes says it all. A little explanation: that bit at the end is a shot of a brochure we picked up at a Swiss truck stop. It was so ridiculous we couldn't help but use it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVbVhFGkyJU

In order of appearance:

Jeff Gretz

Emanuel Ayvas

Brian Sanders

Liz Hanley

Dennis Adler

Gil Goldin

Our Belgian hosts

Nic Cowles

The audience at KOHI in Karlsruhe

Our tour van

Random Swiss brochure

Two squirrels

That's it. Tour is over, I'm home, and I'll be posting sporadically when I feel like it.

Home

So now I'm home. I've got a few blog posts rolling around in my head, we'll see how many actually make it online. The first, of course, is a summary of the last few days of the tour.

When last we left our hero, he was about to head to Antwerp for a house concert.

We left Karlsruhe much later than we had planned, due to a group insistence on finding food that was NOT made in a truck stop. A little side note about truck stops in Europe: Italian ones were the best, by far. I'm sure the French ones are similar (ie, they both serve the local cuisine), but having never actually EATEN at a French truck stop, I can't say for sure. The British ones are also good, provided they have an M&S in them. The food at the ones in Germany, however, is really pretty bad, and not only that, in Germany you have to pay .70 Euros to use the bathroom (although the machine then spits out a little .50 voucher good for anything there). Quite annoying.

At any rate, thanks to a late start and several GPS mishaps (she kept going temporarily insane and directing us off-track) we arrived at the show in Antwerp about 90 minutes later than we were supposed to, although it being a house concert it really wasn't a problem. Here is where I first learned that house concerts are awesome. You're pretty much guaranteed a decent meal and a place to stay. On top of that, it's very much like hosting a party - there's always plenty of alcohol. So basically what happens is you end up being the "guests of honor" of a sort, and the setting is so intimate that the audience HAS to listen and can't rally yak away like they sometimes do in a bar. Needless to say, by the end of the night in Antwerp, all the alcohol had been drunk, all the food had been eaten, and a very inebriated me was driven to a place to sleep by one of the fortunately not inebriated hosts. Had a great time, of course, made even better by the fact that two people we had met and then gone out with in Hamburg (they played before us) were at the show as well, stopping by on the way back to Germany from England. Always nice to make friends on the road.

The following day we drove to Lille. Now, we had been in Lille just over three weeks prior, briefly, to spend the night with the couple who was to host this house concert, but hadn't really seen the city proper. After getting in and eating a VERY late lunch (the band gets cranky when hungry, but meh, we survive), our hosts directed us to a big open-air parking lot where we were to leave the van for the duration of our stay, and then drove us to our accommodations, two apartments generously lent to us for the night. It was then that we finally saw Lille proper, and it was gorgeous. Much like in Gent (in fact, originally the city was Flemish), the old city managed to remain intact during WWII, and so we drove through a maze of winding cobblestone streets, surrounded by beautiful old buildings.

After hanging out for a few hours, eating food and drinking wine that our hosts had left us, we were driven back to the house where the concert was. The room was completely packed, with even two small children in the audience. Unlike the two other house concerts we played (and the one small bar with no sound system that felt like a house concert), this time we had a small sound board, some speakers, microphones for the vocals and acoustic guitar, and a very nice keyboard (the one we lugged around all tour was a piece of crap, to be honest). Playing a house concert is a lot of fun but, due to the lack of amplification, can be quite difficult, simply because strings and flute are naturally much louder than an acoustic guitar, and so it's very difficult to hear the strumming patterns; also, Emanuel doesn't have the loudest voice around, and so often in such situations it can be somewhat difficult for the crowd to hear him, and so we have to play much more quietly than we would like to. That night in Lille, however, none of that was a problem, and we played literally every second of material we brought with us, as well as a few things written on the road. The audience was amazing as well, cheering wildly after every song, which spurred us on to play a hell of a good set. I mean, of course we always give it our best every night, but crowd energy just has so much to do with it. No matter how well-trained one is, it's simply impossible to not have the crowd be a factor.

After the house concert, we stayed around for a while chatting with the audience (and of course drinking wine and Belgian beer), and soon it turned into a somewhat out-of-control dance party (I saw at least a couple people hit the floor, between the antics of the dancers and the inebriation factor). And a great time was had by all. At around 4 AM, our hosts escorted us back to the apartments (much different route walking than driving), and that was that.

The following day we had a day off, and our hosts generously offered us the apartments for another night. We then had the opportunity to walk around Lille during the day time, which we did for a few hours. The city was just beginning to set up its Christmas decorations, and, due to it being a Sunday, most of the businesses were closed, in spite of Lille being a city of 220,000 people (with a metro area of about 1,000,000). Of course we had to stop in at a local church, the Eglise Saint-Maurice, a beautiful building in the Gothic style, full of statues, sculptures and paintings. We then went to the Rue de Gand, a street known for its restaurants, for dinner, and of course had an excellent meal (how can one not, when in France?).

The next day, we said goodbye to our hosts, grabbed our instruments from their home, crossed the channel, and then drove to London for a show at a place owned by the quintessential hipster publication Vice Magazine. It was a free show, and for whatever reason just didn't work out for us. Lots of things went wrong, the crowd wasn't that into it (clearly not there to see us) and frankly, we were glad when it was done. Free shows can be tricky like that - when a show is free, no one feels any obligation to listen, and you are guaranteed to have people just there to drink, who don't care one whit WHO is playing. We played four free shows at venues on this tour, and only one was an unqualified success.

We then went to a flat that our booking agent had landed for us last-minute, as the venue wasn't paying for accommodations (not uncommon for London, or any major city for that matter). The host was a really nice, friendly guy, but why on earth he agreed to host a 6-person band is well beyond the scope of my reckoning. I ended up spending the night curled up between two comfy chairs I pushed together (my back was not pleased with me), and two of us spent the night in the van. None of us slept more than a few hours (except the two lucky enough to get a couch and a mattress, and we didn't begrudge them that). We got up the next morning, had a good English breakfast, and drove off to Hull feeling optimistic, as one is only allowed one worst show of the tour.

The last time we were in Hull, we had a great experience. The club where we played both times is called the New Adelphi, and it is somewhat unique in that the owner, a man named Paul Jackson (and a man whom we all admire greatly), insists that only smaller, mostly unknown bands are allowed to play there. In its 26 year existence, the club has given a stage to such stars as Radiohead, Oasis, and Franz Ferdinand (good company, no?). He also happens to really like our music; the club manager told us our CD had been in pretty much constant rotation there ever since our first performance. Hull is also the site of the best Indian food I've ever eaten, and it was waiting for us on our return. We had a great show, and the club had a good bit more people than it did the first time we played there. The New Adelphi is a club I'd be happy to play on every tour.

After the show, we did our usual sit-around-and-chat-and-sell-merch thing, after which we hung out with the club staff for a while, all of whom are amazingly nice people, and then said our goodbyes. This last night of the tour was to be our most difficult, but we had known that from the very first day. The issue was that our flight left from Heathrow at 12:50 the following day. However, we also had to drop our equipment off with the person we had rented it from at a town about an hour outside of Hull. We also had no interest in dealing with rush hour traffic around London. Thus the course of action had to be thus: we would leave Hull, drop off the gear, then drive to a gas station not too far from the airport to wait until about 8:30 AM. We would then get to Heathrow around 9, drop off the van with the rental company, and have plenty of time to get through check-in, security, and have breakfast before the flight.

This plan mostly worked as planned. The only hitch was the when we got to the vicinity of the airport, we simply could not seem to find a service station, and on top of is all we were running out of gas. After a stressful 30 minutes of getting lost and wondering where in hell we were going to find fuel, we finally managed to get off the highway, locate a gas station, and even find some signs for a back way to Heathrow (at that point the highway was bumper-to-bumper). I managed maybe an hour of sleep, and hadn't showered or changed my clothes since leaving Lille. But hey, that's rock and roll, isn't it?

The flight was fine, of course. I don't mind overseas flights, since these days you can watch a plethora of stupid movies on a tiny screen to pass the time. I had no interest in sleep, since I figured my best bet to beat the jet lag was to tough it out until the evening, where eventually exhaustion would take over and I'd awake at a reasonable hour (success, on that score).

Home stretch

It's been a few days, but here I am. Since my last post, I've been to Reutlingen (in Germany), Fucecchio (pronounced Fu-che-kio for any who are curious; I know I was), Faenza, and then here to Karlsruhe, in southern Germany.

The Reutlingen show was interesting. We were playing at a venue, Franz K., where we had been before, a place where we had one of the best shows of our last tour. Apparently, someone from Stuttgart had been there, and told some folks who then checked us out on the internet; thus, there were a group of young folks from Stuttgart, dancing like maniacs right in front of the stage. At first we didn't know what to make of them - we aren't exactly famous yet, and there they were treating us as if we were some big rock stars or something. That said, I look forward to the day when we can play a show in front of hundreds of people in that frame of mind - even a small group is a somewhat intoxicating experience in some ways. Afterwards we signed lots of autographs and sold quite a bit of merch - really quite a nice time.

The next day, we left Reutlingen at about 6:30 AM for the drive to Italy. It was projected by google and our GPS as a 9 hour drive, and they were expecting us at about 5:30, so we figured we had better leave plenty of time. It was a rainy, foggy day for a drive through the Alps, but let me say that in spite of all that it was one of the most spectacular drives I've ever been on. There were a few high points - the first was that we were just about into the Alps proper when we rounded a bend, and below us was an enormous lake, surrounded by mountains on all sides. The winding road offered spectacular views at every turn. Eventually, as we got higher up, it began to snow, and before long we were driving through a veritable blizzard, the trees all bending under the weight about about 6 inches of wet snow. Fortunately, the ground was warm enough that none of it stuck to the road, so we never had any terribly treacherous conditions. Eventually, after about fifteen minutes of driving through an alpine winter wonderland, we got to a 17 km long tunnel and, emerging on the other side, all the snow and rain was suddenly absent. That said, it had clearly rained recently, as some of the snow-melt trails down the mountainsides had become spectacular waterfalls. We eventually got to Italy, which was actually rather flat and boring for quite a while before finally turning into a winding road in another small mountain range.

Anyways, quite a nice trip.

Fucecchio itself is virtually a suburb of Firenze, which I didn't realize was the Italian word for Florence, a fact that I was much excited to learn. The show itself was interesting - we played a free show at a club where quite a few of the patrons were clearly not that interested in what we were doing in the slightest. And yet, we still ended up selling a fair number of CDs. I think the rather echo-y sound in the club did not help our particular setup either; I have to wonder if we would have had a more positive experience in a less acoustically live room. After the show, we stayed in a hostel, which was located in a 1500s era building constructed by the Medici family. Just so you know.

The day after the show in Fucecchio, we drove to Faenza. On the way we made sure to stop at the Piazzale Michelangelo, a tall hill overlooking the old part of Florence, from which one can easily see the vast majority of the buildings for which the city is famous, and from which I would imagine most pictures of the city are taken (I have one as the wallpaper on my computer - the view was quite a familiar scene for me). The show in Faenza went much better than in Fucecchio; the sound was much better, as the club had acoustically deadened the sound with cloth panels, and the audience was very attentive. It also helped that at this venue we were treated to by far the best meal of the tour at the gourmet restaurant attached to the club. After the show, we got to the club flat at around 1:30 AM, needing to be up at 5:30 the next morning for the drive to Karlsruhe.

Yesterday, the drive was nearly as nice as the drive into Italy had been, which really helps the time pass. It took about 10 hours with stops, and we actually arrived at the club somewhat early. The venue here in Karlsruhe is called Kohi, a place for which I have quite a soft spot. It was one of the best shows of last tour, despite the fact that at that point Eman had mostly lost his voice and we had to play it mostly acoustic. This time we had no such troubles, and gave the audience an entirely different set, always a nice thing to be able to do.

Tonight we play in Antwerp, at a house concert. I'm looking forward to it - house concerts can be quite a good time, and such intimate settings are often musically rewarding. We'll see, I guess.

Leaving Switzerland

After a nice, restful day in Schaffhausen - sleeping until noon, not getting out until about 3, and then walking around a city that reminds me of some magical Disney movies - the tour starts up again in earnest. Today we drive to Reutlingen, about 2 hours north of here, for a show in our booking agent's home town in a nice venue that we played at on the last tour. Then, tomorrow, comes the first of two hell days - the drive to Italy (and then two days later the drive back out again). I mean, admittedly, the drive is going to be gorgeous - through the Alps most of the way. But 9 hours drive time not counting traffic and necessary stops is nothing to sneeze at. Still, with 3 drivers, it will be doable. We have also heard rumors about the food in Italy - apparently it's tasty - so of course we're thinking it will be worth the trip.

The show here last night was a good time. The bar owner is another one of those Europeans who actually believes in - gasp - bringing unknown bands to play his venue. He knew he'd be taking a loss on this show (he admitted as much to us) but still gave us housing for two days, an excellent meal, and literally anything from the bar at any point during the night. So kudos to the Cardinal restaurant and all who work there - you're doing valuable work. The crowd was also very nice (ie enthusiastic) and as seems usual for Switzerland, definitely there to listen. Another top-notch experience in a country that I hope will continue to host us.

So for those of you who read the tour rule book, it's a very accurate and complete list of necessary things to be mindful of when on tour. To that list I would add, if you have a problem with someone, fix it. I was pissed at a band member, and told him so after a show. I yelled at him about some stuff, he yelled at me about some stuff, we shook hands, had drinks, and that was that. You just can't go on stage every night with animosity towards other band members if at all possible. I'm not saying you have to like every member of your band (many string quartets famously hate each other), although I happen to; but active anger about something is really tough to deal with on stage. I guess some bands manage to keep performing in spite of such things, but it really can't be healthy.

Probably won't be blogging much over the next 5 days or so, given the insane traveling, but we'll see.

Luzern

So here I am, sitting in Luzern, Switzerland. Beautiful place - all around are snow-capped peaks and old buildings, although I'm currently seated in a rather odd, boxy building painted bright green, called Treibhaus, which translates literally to "Greenhouse" (har har). I'm doing my laundry for the first time on this tour, a welcome relief, as I'm currently on my last pair of underwear and socks. Obviously it's ok to double up from time to time when one is on tour, but 3 days is a no-go.

Since last posting, I have visited J. S. Bach's grave (followed by the bar Goethe used to frequent), played a small house concert in Berlin, played a show in Offenbach, and last night performed here in Switzerland.

Clearly, with time to kill in Leipzig, the band had no choice but to visit the church where Bach used to perform, and where his body was eventually moved, to be buried near to the altar. A fitting tribute, given how much of his life he spent in service to that church (and of course to people as a whole, but one wonders if he had even an inkling of the impact on all of western music that he was going to have). Not much to say on that topic, other than it's yet another item I can cross off my life list. After that, we walked around Leipzig, where our host pointed out places of interest, and their history. After leaving the city center, our host then took us to perhaps the single weirdest shop I have ever seen in my life. It was a very large warehouse just full every little old knick-knack that one can imagine. For instance: a room full of motorcycles; a room full of medical gear and taxidermy (including some random prosthetic limbs); room upon room of antiques, including a full-sized bellows for working in a forge; rooms of little assorted oddities, decorations, and the like; and so on and so forth. Definitely worth a visit.

After Leipzig we headed to Berlin for 2 days off, where we stayed with our booking agent Dennis, as we always do when in Berlin. While we were there, Dennis had the bright idea of hosting a last-minute house concert. While not too many people showed up, a man working at a small record label showed up, and randomly brought two of the people who were working for the man running the Haldern Pop Festival with him (who we had met when we played in Haldern). Definitely a good thing for us, as they got to see us perform again, this time a completely acoustic set. We also managed to get a rough sketch together of a new song, which means we can play it in a pinch, and mostly finished an arrangement of another, which has since been added to the set. Definitely time well spent. Plus, Berlin has the best falafel and shawarma of any place I've been, which we took great advantage of while there.

After Berlin, we drove to Offenbach. We got out late, and had some real hitches getting out of town, caused by a certain place we were planning on stopping to eat being closed, and having to get through a horribly snarled traffic circle twice while looking for food. Then on the way the weather turned downright nasty, which meant we ended up getting in quite late (entirely our fault). They had expected us earlier, and so the band who was supposed to open for us set up their gear and was sound checking when we got there, meaning we instead had to open for them. The place was pretty empty all night and everyone who came listened to both sets. Still, we resolved never to be late for something again on this tour, although I must admit when we drive to Italy and then 2 days later back to Germany, that is going to be a real challenge, as the drives are 8 and 9 hours, respectively. At least they are through the mountains most of the way.

Yesterday we came here to Luzern. The drive through South Germany was beautiful, and even moreso when we got into Switzerland, despite the rainy weather (a quick side note: we had pretty decent weather in England, and English weather most of the time so far in Europe. Sigh). The venue itself treated us quite well, as seems the norm for Switzerland. I think that most of the bigger venues here receive government money, and thus can afford to treat visiting bands very well, as well as pay them large sums of money (especially given the expected crowd size). The show went well and the sound was excellent, although it was somewhat poorly attended, as expected by the man who books this venue. Nevertheless, they loved our show and said they would absolutely love to have us back again. Afterwards, we all shotgunned beers (a new experience for me - ick) and then went out dancing. Swiss dance clubs have always been a good time thusfar, actually play excellent dance music, and I have yet to see more beautiful women anywhere. Hopefully we can keep coming back to this country.

Today we play a show in Schaffhausen, about an hour and a half north of here. Tomorrow is a day off there, and apparently the venue is putting us up free of charge. After that it's back up into Germany, and then to Italy for a pair of shows. The next week should be both interesting and picturesque, to be sure.

Priceless

http://beenlookingforthemagic.tumblr.com/post/1427157150/how-to-tour-in-a-band-or-whatever-by-thor-harris

Warning: strong language and picture of a naked viking looking dude.

That said, f-ing priceless and absolutely TRUE tour rules. We are planning to print these out and hang them in the van.

Poland - the day After (well, now technically two days)

So Poland was a blast. Not getting there, or getting back from there, but the show itself. To explain the journey, well it's simple - Poland is in the process of completely overhauling its highway system to prepare for the European football championship in 2012, as joint hosts with the Ukraine. This meant that the only route to Poznan from Berlin was under heavy construction, was at best one lane going both directions, and at one point was even reduced to one lane, period; given the fact that this was the only available road into Poland in that part of the country, you can well imagine what wonderfully horrendous lines of traffic were created. And going out was even worse.

But the show itself -

We were playing in a smallish venue in the heart of Poznan, the old city center (construction dating back to the 1500s or thereabouts). We got there a bit late due to the traffic, but the only person there was a bartender - the stage was still covered with sofas and tables. Eventually the sound people came, and after some nice Polish beer (always drink the local stuff on tour - you never know what you might be missing), had a productive (if long) sound check and a nice dinner. During the dinner, the person who booked the show admitted that we should not expect a large turnout, as it was a cold, rainy Sunday night. When we got back there was maybe 15 people there, so she told us to have a drink and wait around for some more people to hopefully turn up.

And turn up they did. By the time we took the stage, the vast majority of the seats in the house were filled, including all the seats on the bar. The crowd was very enthusiastic, and we ended up playing quite a few encores. That said, what was most interesting was that in the middle of our set, one of the bartenders approached the stage carrying a tray of shots of Cherry vodka. Honestly, that's unprecedented for me, and as far as I can tell for most folks in the band. And let me tell you, it's a pretty awesome feeling to raise your glasses and have an entire crowd do the same and all shout the traditional Polish toast, "Nostrovia!" This was to be repeated once more during the encores. This meant that by the time we got off the stage, everyone in the band had had 3-4 shots (depending on pre-show drinking) and a couple beers. Needless to say, the drinking continued (Polish vodka with lemon goes down WAY too easily), and by the time we finally headed to the hostel, the entire band was stumbling drunk. Also another first for us. We've definitely all been drunk together before, but not nearly to such an extent.

After enduring the insanity of the Polish traffic once more, we finally made our way to Leipzig. Here we played an all-acoustic set at a small cafe run by a friend of our booking agent. Apparently she likes to showcase bands once a month, and manages to attract a sizable crowd. Last night was no exception, and the little room was packed with about as many people as would fit (I'd say about40). Anyone who knows me knows that I love Emanuel's music, and for the record I think it potentially loses very little when put in an acoustic setting. What it perhaps lacks in intensity, it makes up for in sensitivity, as me and the other non-amplified instruments can actually do things like dynamics, and vary our textures far more. It's a COMPLETELY different sound, but no less effective.

Also notable is that before the show, the booker told us that if any of us wanted to play a solo, this would be a fine opportunity. I made it known that having the chance to perform a movement of Bach in Leipzig, Bach's home town, was a long-time dream of mine, and last night I finally got the chance, playing the prelude to the 3rd suite in C major during our encores. And let me say, the Leipzig folk LOVE their Bach.

Today we have a day off, during which we only have to travel to Berlin, where we'll be staying the night, tomorrow being a second day off. We plan to use a good bit of the time to polish off some songs for a new album we're working on, but also definitely to check out some of the Bach history here in Leipzig before hitting the road. Kind of like a pilgrimage.

And today, a new country - Poland

Internet access has been spotty at best, and I've spent my last 2 days in Berlin - not a place where I tend to spend much time sober. But here I am.

Since my last entry I've played five shows and three countries: Tilburg, NL; Duisburg, Haldern, and Berlin in Germany; and Copenhagen, Denmark.

Of Tilburg there isn't much to be said, except perhaps that the morning before driving there we walked around Gent, and it being All Saints Day, managed to witness part of an old-fashioned Catholic mass in Latin the Cathedral of St. Bavo, with a full choir and everything. What a privilege, to say the least. And of course, bought some Belgian chocolate. After that, we drove to Tilburg, where we were playing in the same venue as Joe Satriani (albeit in a MUCH smaller room). Needless to say, the place was busy, as he had brought two tour buses, but we certainly were not overlooked in the shuffle either (ie we had food and a room and such). Anyways, the sound wasn't great there and we had a small crowd, but still a good time. I mean, it WAS the Netherlands . . .

After Tilburg we drove to Duisburg, not more than 90 minutes away. Duisburg was one of my favorite venues from the last tour; they really treat you right, with good food, excellent beer (it IS a beer garden, afterall), friendly staff, and a top-notch sound guy. This time was no different. After the show, we went and stayed with the same person we had on the last trip, a real character named Christoph. I say he is a character because he can't go more than a week without having guests crashing at his place; apparently he has random people staying with him constantly, from bands to couch surfers. Never charges anyone a thing, just loves people I guess.

Our next show was in Haldern, and was billed to us by our booking agent as our most important show of the tour, despite the fact that it probably paid the least and was in the smallest town. This is because the owner of the venue where we played runs a music festival that is, apparently, one of the most important in Germany (or so we've heard from several sources). Not for its size, or for who it brings, but for the quality of music people have come to expect, and it's also apparently well attended by people from other festivals looking for new bands, as it tends to showcase excellent groups that no one has ever heard of. So apparently playing at his bar is an audition of sorts for his festival. Fortunately, we were up to the challenge, and gave the strongest set of the tour (having a real piano in house instead of our crappy electric keyboard really helped). Not sure if it will lead to anything, but he was clearly quite impressed. One just never knows in such situations.

The next day we made the long drive up the Danish peninsula and across an island to Copenhagen. What we found when we got there was a small club, an impossible parking situation on narrow and crowded streets, a sound system totally unsuited to our type of music, and an audience that seemed by and large not terribly interested in listening to us. It's also the night that our sampler, on its last legs already, was simply not working and finally put out of its misery in a violent fashion by our clearly frustrated drummer (it was his to begin with). RIP.

Copenhagen being a less than happy experience, we were glad to head to Berlin the following day. Then yesterday, after a night of drunken shenanigans, we played at the Deutches Theater, a place that hosts all kinds of different events. It was a good show, with excellent sound, and our hosts were very attentive to our every need, even asking us what drinks we'd like on stage (most opted for a double shot of whiskey on ice). We got to bed at around 5 AM, and here I am, writing before driving off to Poland. I've heard that the Vodka there is some of the best anywhere and cheap as hell. And hey, while I've been availing myself of the cultural vices of all the various countries I've been visiting, may as well tack on one more.