Eric Gardner's birthday today.
We departed Strasbourg, France today after the last two French shows of the tour. The night before in Nancy was a real pleasure with great fans and a smoking set from the gentlemen of the orchestra.
We've worked with some super promoters on this tour and here in Nancy our host, Jeannette was one of the best. A home-cooked meal and some time to spend just being regular folks was just what the doctor ordered for us. After the last couple of days of long drives, late gigs and early wake-ups, we were all more than a little fried. Sleep deprivation can wear your ass out.
The promoters we've worked with and for on this tour have been a new breed for me. The folks that put on these gigs are, for the most part, real music people. Good solid folks that are doing something they believe in. This is way different than my experience in the past where promoters are indifferent business people. It's reassuring that decent people can promote an artist and put on a good show in a professional and still humanistic way. I salute you all who have helped me on this tour.
The heat continues to be intense on the stages. We're all consuming enormous amounts of water over the course of a show. Nature's cooling system.
Last night's show was in Strasbourg, France on the German border. The venue was a community center that produces rock shows. This is a novel idea, but not unusual in Europe. The local government underwrites gigs for touring acts of all kinds. Local, regional and international bands of every description can come and perform. Imagine it: Government underwriting culture. Actually taking a role in providing something and somewhere for kids to do something positive, even if it's just having fun.
This is another example of how the European sensibility can be preferable to America, where arts funding is cut to nothing at every turn. No phys ed, no art, no music education in the schools, but you can get McDonald's and Pizza Hut in the lunchroom. In fact ,there's less and less education in the schools. The Bush Regime makes sure of that. Just check out his track record in Texas.
"The vision fails in the Promised Land/But they're building jails in the Promised Land."
On the night we played, we worked in the smaller of two rooms. In the larger one Sepultura, from Brazil, held their event. I hesitate to refer to it as a concert because it didn't strike me as a necessarily musical performance. It has musical elements in it, but, in a way, it was more advanced than traditional ideas of music. It was more like sound design. The musicians created a backdrop or soundtrack to the event where 600 or 700 young boys participated in the ritual of the heavy metal experience.
The ones in the front were slamming and throwing their hair and arms in the air, jumping up and down and generally having a ball. The older fans stood in the back and observed, kinda like the crowd that gathers around a car wreck. It was fun to be close to an event like this. It's not the sort of thing I see a lot of and it was cool to check it out.
Bye to France for now. It was grand being here. See you all again next time and thank you to all my French fans. God bless you all.
At the moment we're traveling up through Germany to Hamburg, where we'll spend the night on the way to the first of our Scandinavian dates. It's a long haul from central France to Denmark and, fortunately, we have a travel day to do it in. Not too tough.
Got hung up on the Autobahn for a few hours today. Traffic came to a complete stop as a squad of unmarked police cars screamed up the freeway head of us. Obviously, there was some heavy police action just up the road because traffic was stopped in both directions and then it was just all over. This delay put us 3 hours behind schedule but with no show tonight, no problem.
On the player today: Union Carbide Productions, Charles Mingus, Sonic's Rendezvous, Archie Shepp, and Black Keys.
God bless, w.
We departed Strasbourg, France today after the last two French shows of the tour. The night before in Nancy was a real pleasure with great fans and a smoking set from the gentlemen of the orchestra.
We've worked with some super promoters on this tour and here in Nancy our host, Jeannette was one of the best. A home-cooked meal and some time to spend just being regular folks was just what the doctor ordered for us. After the last couple of days of long drives, late gigs and early wake-ups, we were all more than a little fried. Sleep deprivation can wear your ass out.
The promoters we've worked with and for on this tour have been a new breed for me. The folks that put on these gigs are, for the most part, real music people. Good solid folks that are doing something they believe in. This is way different than my experience in the past where promoters are indifferent business people. It's reassuring that decent people can promote an artist and put on a good show in a professional and still humanistic way. I salute you all who have helped me on this tour.
The heat continues to be intense on the stages. We're all consuming enormous amounts of water over the course of a show. Nature's cooling system.
Last night's show was in Strasbourg, France on the German border. The venue was a community center that produces rock shows. This is a novel idea, but not unusual in Europe. The local government underwrites gigs for touring acts of all kinds. Local, regional and international bands of every description can come and perform. Imagine it: Government underwriting culture. Actually taking a role in providing something and somewhere for kids to do something positive, even if it's just having fun.
This is another example of how the European sensibility can be preferable to America, where arts funding is cut to nothing at every turn. No phys ed, no art, no music education in the schools, but you can get McDonald's and Pizza Hut in the lunchroom. In fact ,there's less and less education in the schools. The Bush Regime makes sure of that. Just check out his track record in Texas.
"The vision fails in the Promised Land/But they're building jails in the Promised Land."
On the night we played, we worked in the smaller of two rooms. In the larger one Sepultura, from Brazil, held their event. I hesitate to refer to it as a concert because it didn't strike me as a necessarily musical performance. It has musical elements in it, but, in a way, it was more advanced than traditional ideas of music. It was more like sound design. The musicians created a backdrop or soundtrack to the event where 600 or 700 young boys participated in the ritual of the heavy metal experience.
The ones in the front were slamming and throwing their hair and arms in the air, jumping up and down and generally having a ball. The older fans stood in the back and observed, kinda like the crowd that gathers around a car wreck. It was fun to be close to an event like this. It's not the sort of thing I see a lot of and it was cool to check it out.
Bye to France for now. It was grand being here. See you all again next time and thank you to all my French fans. God bless you all.
At the moment we're traveling up through Germany to Hamburg, where we'll spend the night on the way to the first of our Scandinavian dates. It's a long haul from central France to Denmark and, fortunately, we have a travel day to do it in. Not too tough.
Got hung up on the Autobahn for a few hours today. Traffic came to a complete stop as a squad of unmarked police cars screamed up the freeway head of us. Obviously, there was some heavy police action just up the road because traffic was stopped in both directions and then it was just all over. This delay put us 3 hours behind schedule but with no show tonight, no problem.
On the player today: Union Carbide Productions, Charles Mingus, Sonic's Rendezvous, Archie Shepp, and Black Keys.
God bless, w.
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