RIVS TOUR: from Spain to the east and north...
Home again; home again. Been back a week, getting things back into place and the store back up and running... I posted the rest of my tour photos on my FLICKR page...
And here, belated and with a certain air of forgetfulness (that stuff just disappears as soon as I get home, for some reason), is the rest of the tour recap...
17.02.2008 FRA, somewhere near Nice
18.02.2008 ITA, Trieste
Woke up somewhere just over the border of France and drove all day... endless succession of rest stops and overpriced food... I remember very little about the drive... tried to stop at an F1 hotel just before the Italian border, near Monaco... but, damned if we could find it... spent over an hour driving in circles through a desolate summer resort town... the proverbial 'seaside town they forgot to bomb'... finally jumped on the first hotel that was open; a 'three-star' hotel (which felt more like a one-star)... ate chinese food and watched 'The Daily Show' on CNN World... it is always strangly comforting to find ANY TV in English while on tour...
Wake up and got the fuck out of dodge... drove all day and finally arrived in Trieste... met up with Francesco, who helped us find parking and eventually we parked in his bosses shot at the theater he works at... everyone in Trieste is so nice... except for all the Italian fascist graffiti all over the place... we go to Francesco's parents apartment and Sylvia made us dinner... went to sleep with delicious food in our bellies and feeling like we were home...
19.02.2008 IT, Trieste, Tetris
Woke up, hung out with Francesco and got amazing coffee and amazing lunch... Italian food... more and more and more... walked along the thinker's pier and just relaxed all day... went to the venue and found a parking place in front... Tetris is really cool and spacious... I go to a weird hidden record store around the block... somehow, even though in Italy, we are served the worst pizza I've ever eaten in my life... we meet a nice couple who live nearby and do ethereal goth music for Cold Meat/Projekt (All My Faith Lost)... the show is good, if the crowd was a bit loud... after the show, we go with Elena (whose birthday it was) and Sylvia (who I want to be my mommy) to meet Francesco, who had to work at the theater ushering the Monade show... we hang out at the theater for a little bit as Monade pack up and then go back to the apartment to sleep...
20.02.2008 SLO, Maribor, Gustaf
Wake up and take our time... more amazing coffee and amazing lunch (at the same place, with Elena)... I find SIX Franco Battiato CDs from the 70's for like $6 a piece... hang out a little more, and head out for Slovenia... find the venue with little trouble, despite my anxiety about finding places after dark... I hate arriving places after dark... you never get a sense of space around you... there is an activist screening of a movie about the US invasion of Iraq playing before the show, which puts a weird vibe in the air for me and makes soundcheck very rushed... the show was fine, except for three French assholes talking in the back the whole time and sort of ruining it for everyone... THEN, these same assholes proceed to hang out directly by the door of the dirty room we stay in at the squat and talk very loudly for a while, until I make a treaty with them and agree to sword fight them with sticks... upon my defeat at the hand of these drunkards, it is agreed they will retire to their room and leave us alone to sleep...
21.02.2008 HR, Zagreb, Teatar & TD
Not a far drive to Croatia, so we take our time leaving... get out of the dirty room and find our promoter friend, Maartin... a Dutch guy from Utrecht who knows Rutger and Wouter and the Innerzone and Kikker and stuff... have a nice Dutch/Slovenian hybrid breakfast and talk for a while about Utrecht and such... leave and arrive nice and early in Zagreb, in time to check in to the hotel (which was beautiful)... and even got to walk around town and do a bit of sightseeing... meet back at the theater, a nice modern little theater with great sound and an amazing lighting guy... everyone at the venue is SUPER nice and dinner is fantastic... I order the gothest thing on the menu by accident (by destiny?)... black octopus risotto... so good... back to the venue for a relaxed night of playing to a quiet, attentive audience... he even played a new song, and a new intro to one of the newer songs... possibly best show of tour... followed by a surprise appearance by Elena, who drove all the way from Trieste for the show!... stayed up late drinking vodka and beer and hanging out with the promoters... we closed down the bar, in fact... good night sleep... in other words, CROATIA RULED!
I am going to have to continue this tomorrow... as I AM at work and have work to do... sorry... the rest of tour... soon.