Season Lag

As if my internal space-time continuum wasn't screwy enough lately, I'm now in the southern hemisphere which means it's winter here. I mostly think of that in terms of "I better bring warm clothes" but what I always forget is that it also gets dark about 5 hours earlier than I'm used to. This combined with normal jet-lag is particularly disorienting. Everyone is prone to fits of exhaustion in the middle of the day and fits of wakening at ungodly hours of the night. I don't know whether to shit or go blind.

Thankfully the last 2 festivals are over. Korea was pretty much a nightmare although the band loved the gig. The brilliance of planning an outdoor festival during monsoon season cannot be over-stressed. It had been raining for like 2 weeks straight and the area around the site was flooded.



The site itself was just a mud field. I was expecting the Koreans to be like the Japanese in the way they run a festival. The Japanese are notoriously meticulous to work with. It's great. The Koreans...not so much. They were more like the useless crews in the Mediterranean countries. They did an admirable job of getting our gear across the mud field to the stage in the pouring rain though...



This dipshit thinks that just because he looks like a hobbit he can get away with going barefoot on a festival stage. I know that whenever I have to walk around where there's lots of electricity and water, I like to remove any sort of insulating material from my feet that might detract from the excitement of taking 240 volts. I wanted to drop a road case on his foot just to teach him a lesson.



We then flew to Japan for the Fuji Rock festival. I was there last year with the Futureheads and had a great time. The site is at a ski resort 3 hours from Tokyo and all the bands stay at the base lodge hotel. It's a beautiful spot and a great festival.

A Japanese woman and a lot of tents...





The Raconteurs sticking it to the Japanese...



This is right after our set ended. Look how many stagehands are on the stage. Now look how many are doing any work. They make US union crews look like workaholics...



The next day we flew to New Zealand which is somewhere I've always wanted to go. I spent less than 48 hours there. It seemed great though and looked amazing from the air. I think I may go back for vacation this winter when it's warm down there.








Now I'm in Brisbane, Australia. This portion of the trip is basically distilled down to flying, shows and trying to recover locked away in a hotel room. I ventured out tonight for dinner with Matt, Fab, Albert, Nikolai, Rob and Julian. After striking out a few times we ended up having an amazing dinner at a place I've already forgotten the name of. It's nice to be in English speaking countries again. It gets tiring feeling illiterate all the time. Let the 1 week countdown begin...