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.
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