Another Euro Summer Pt. 2

Driving overnight from Italy, we woke up at a mountainous, lakeside resort in Klagenfurt, Austria.  We had to stop for 10 hours so the bus driver could sleep (they have very strict rules here) so we killed a hot summer day at a strange but beautiful resort filled with Austrians.  Austrians are an odd bunch, more German than the Germans I say.  Still, it was a pleasant enough day with swimming and sunning and trying to order food without meat in German.  Then it was back on the bus to Ostrava.  I'd never been to the Czech Republic before, and I didn't get too much time there, but it definitely felt different than anywhere else in Europe.  We did a weird festival where catering was in a castle.  

Zia & Dylan at the short table, Ostrava...

Then back on the bus again.  This time we did our driver stop in Nurnburg, Germany.  Some of us had a nice wander through the old part of the city, which is encircled by old walls & a moat (which is now like a park, with grass and a bike path).  It was a really beautiful city and a decent day off.  

Nurnburg moat...

Nurnburg river...

Nurnburg statue...

We then went overnight to Liege, Belgium for another festival, followed by another overnight to Amsterdam.  This bus ride featured the mother of all back lounge parties.  I can't divulge the details.  My mom reads this.  

Of course Amsterdam was a welcome, though short-lived, stop.  We did our own club show which was nice for a change and Chad & Erin happened to be in town so I got some time with them.  Unfortunately we had to get on the road towards Oslo with yet another driver stop in Copenhagen.  This was a more annoying day as the day room that 4 of us had to share was tiny and the weather wasn't great.  Plus we had to wait until 3:30am for the bus to pick us up.  On to Oslo...

This is what Danish kids play on...

Oslo was another club show.  Norway is my favorite of the Scandinavian countries and this trip was another fun one.  After the show we moved to a private, basement bar where we took over the DJ booth and have yet another rock and roll dance party.  This band has more rock and roll dance parties than any band I've toured with.  They are not afraid to have a good time. 

Oslo... 

I fell into bed for a few hours before having to go to the airport to fly to London, where I am now.  I had a pretty relaxing day off, with a trip to the Japanese Embassy thrown in for good measure.  Tonight we roll down to Cornwall for some strange family-day festival.  Should be interesting...

Tildy asleep with waffle...

Another Euro Summer Pt. 1

I started this Euro trip with a couple days to myself in Amsterdam. I landed in the morning off an overnight flight and made my way to the hotel. I spent the day wandering the city, napping off jet-lag and seeing a bit of Beck that night. The next day was much the same only RadioheadWesterpark in the afternoon to visit some friends on the crew and see the show. It was stellar per usual. The new, all-LED light show was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.

Of course it sounded brilliant and it was great to hear the new stuff. The next day, after my third pancake of the trip, I hopped a train to Paris where I met up with team Dandys. From there we were picked up by the tour bus and were off to Bilbao, Spain for the first show of the tour.
I woke up and stumbled off the bus in Bilbao to find a field of horses overlooking the whole city. You could even see the Guggenheim (which we didn’t have time to visit) shining down in the distant valley. The festival site was great, all hilly and green. Things ran a bit…Spanish as far as the show went but it was a fun day nonetheless.

Bilbao & the horses...
The next day was another, smaller festival in Cluses, France. We pulled into town (after a LONG journey during which the bus AC was broken.  This always happens somehow.  We took to holding bent pieces of cardboard out the hatch in the roof, angling the fresh air into the bus) to find out the festival was in the middle of this little town nestled in the French Alps. There were towering peaks in all directions and it seemed everyone in the little town turned out for this free festival.
Of course catering was filled with glorious, stinky cheeses, fresh bread & salads. We closed out the show just as it started to rain, which only added to the surreal feel of the day, and were off to Zurich.

After a non-eventful day & club show in Zurich, we headed to Italy. The whole purpose of our trip to Italy was to spend some time with Galo, a friend of the band's and great artist, who has a country mansion built by one of Napoleon's generals outside of Torino. We arrived at our hotel around noon on Monday. It was a family run place on their farm in the Piedmont countryside.
It looked like this...
I'm pretty sure we were the only one's staying there. For meals we'd sit out on the terrace with this view...
...and eat some of whatever they made that day. It was always fresh, delicious and simple. Octopus carpaccio, caprese salad, tagliatelle w/ricotta, lasagna. Oh, and the theme of this part our trip was 'rivers of wine'. Now, I'm not a huge wine person, but it's hard to deny how good this wine was.

So, after showering up we piled into a mini-bus organized by Galo with our whole group (minus Lee), Galo, his girlfriend Sasha and Chas & Tina (Chas is another artist who works with Galo and Tina is his wife. He's English & she's Croatian. They live in Amsterdam. They are awesome). We took a 30 minute drive through the vineyards, sunflower fields and farms into a little village for lunch.
Another beautiful patio, a really nice couple who run the place and absolutely ridiculously good food (and the aforementioned rivers of wine).

Later we meandered around the village taking pictures and digesting before heading back to the hotel for a nap before Galo's party.

Fathead & Sara...

Dylan getting his shot...
People who like wine...
Matilda...
How quintessential Italian is this?
Multiple angles...Galo's house is about a mile down a country road from the hotel. As I said it's an old country mansion with gorgeous, walled in grounds and is just about the most bucolic setting you can imagine. I showed up at dusk to find tables & chairs scattered on the lawn with people gathering around the food table which had a progression of goodness churned out of the giant kitchen by some catering friends of Galo's, including this cheese that had a rind made out of the grape stuff left over from making wine. It looked absolutely disgusting but was quite possibly the best cheese in history. So we stayed there until 6am, eating, drinking and getting rocked by Zia's DJ prowess. We walked home along the dirt road and I fell into bed for a few hours before getting on the bus to go to the gig. It was definitely one of the best days/nights ever. Wish you were there.

The general who had it built...
The gig was in Cuneo, which is about as big as you'd think. It was a wall-less tin-shed with all the accoutrements you'd expect from a rural Italian gig. Italy, like Spain, is one of those places better left to time off than to working. The highlight of the day was the pizza from the concession stand (which they fed us for dinner). It was made in a wood-fired brick oven by a greasy, round man from Naples who was apparently trained by the world's best pizza master (or whatever). Regardless, it was the best pizza I've ever had and it was the concession food at a shitty venue. This says a great deal about the difference between American & European culture (or at least SOME European cultures). Everyone was so spent from the night before that there was no aftershow that night. Just sweet sleep with no checkout the next morning.

The Dandys rock Cuneo...

The next day everyone except me & "the family" (Travis, Zia & their daughter Tildy) went into Torino with Galo & crew for a day in the city. I opted for a lazy day in the country and was glad I did. Lots of time relaxing on the balcony and 2 great meals on the terrace, between which I took Tilde for a walk through the farm fields to look at ponies. Now, Tilde is 3 and a half. I've never had a kid on tour before and it definitely adds a whole other dynamic into the mix. Luckily she's about as sweet & well-behaved a kid as you could want and it's actually been really fun having her around. She's at an age where pretty much everything that she says is either hilarious or cute enough to break your heart. She was pretty disappointed that the ponies we saw didn't talk like her 'Pretty Ponies' toys, and she really thought that they liked her enough that they'd let her ride them. Still, we had fun.

We got on the bus at 1am to head towards Ostrava in the Czech Republic, leaving behind the Italian goodness...

Westerly

After a day at home in Manhattan, I had to fly off to Portland, OR to start rehearsals with my newest employers, the Dandy Warhols. Because of the ridiculous price of flights these days, I got stuck flying JetBlue. Most people I know like JetBlue, and for short stuff I don’t mind so much, but I’m not generally a fan. The one thing I was excited about was that, since they have DirectTv on board, I could watch the Celtics/Lakers game on the plane. Can someone help me understand how they have a channel called “Big 10” which shows reruns of Ohio State basketball games from the 80s, but they don’t have ABC? They have every network EXCEPT ABC. After being delayed 3hrs on the runway, we were off, arriving in PDX at around 2:30am. I picked up a car and drove to the too-hip-for-it’s-own-good Jupiter hotel; my home for the next 8 nights. I could go off on a rant about this hotel, but I’ll just say that they have wireless internet, but not that reaches the rooms. Oh and they thought it a good idea to hold a lesbian rave in the courtyard outside my room. The Djs only went until 2:30am though, so that was thoughtful of them. Oh, and they did it 2 nights in a row.

At least there was a view...

Hotel annoyances aside, being in Portland was pretty sweet. The weather was stellar the whole time and I got to spend some quality time with some old friends. The Dandys folks are all really cool and they have an amazing headquarters/rehearsal space/recording studio/clubhouse (dubbed The Odditorium). I can’t really begin to describe the place, and somehow I didn’t take any pictures, but it was a great place to work all week. They’re very conscious of aesthetics and every room & nook had it’s own vibe. The week culminated with an amazing dinner, prepared by a couple chef friends in their semi-pro kitchen, with about 15 of us around a big wooden table. Suffice to say, I like their style.

After rehearsals we had the weekend off which I spent hiking around out in the Columbia River Gorge, one day with Amy, one day by myself. It was a bit crowded as it was the weekend and beautiful weather, but it was beautiful anyway. We climbed up, around and under various waterfalls, basking in their misty goodness and trying to remember why I would want to live in a place where the only wildlife gives you the shivers when it darts across your path and into a pile of trash bags.


Horsetail Falls...
Top of Horsetail falls...

The Footbridge...

Standing On The Edge....

The next day I got in a van with Travis & Nicole for the drive/ferry to Victoria. It was a pleasant enough drive, complete with the best strawberry milkshake ever (thanks Mrs. Beesley!) and the ferry ride was great. It was sunset and the water was as smooth as any ferry ride I’ve ever been on (certainly no Irish sea in winter!).


Our little warm-up mini-tour took us to Victoria, Vancouver & Seattle, all nice places to be in summer. Things went well and the shows were fun. All in all I feel pretty good about running around with these guys for a few months. I had a couple days off in Portland on the tail end (made a day longer when JetBlue cancelled my flight home) which was nice. Then it was off to NYC for about 5 days at home before a 7-week stint that has me doing a month in Europe with the Dandys, then straight to Australia & Japan with team Albert Hammond, Jr. In fact, I write this 35,000 feet above the Atlantic en route to Amsterdam where I’ll have a couple days to myself and a Radiohead show to see before I jump down to Paris to meet up with the Dandys and head to Spain for our first Euro show. Forget about the ball team from Harlem, we are the true Globetrotters. Good times ahead...