Beginnings – First 10 Days of 2014 Tour + Tour Photos

Posted by Len Category: All, European & US Tour Diaries

Save your airmiles so that you can fly business class, it makes everything more fun! Though just because your bags are labelled as ‘priority’, don’t expect them all to arrive! Oh, no problem, just…MY GUITAR!! The first ‘lump in my throat’ on tour happened when the lost-luggage attendant gasped in an unlikely dramatic and sorry way, “Oh no, that’s not good!…can you please describe it?”

My Taylor guitar showed up later just before bed time. Marked with newly added stickers: ‘inspected’ + ‘urgent’.

With help from the elephant ears entertainment family, I am in the glorious city of Dresden, Germany for my first sleep and then pick up the super cool tour van near by in Dippoldiswalde, from Autoservice Ruhsam. My first concert has me headlining solo at a sweet festival in Czech Republic, so the gear is at a minimum. (The band and the AER gear get picked up in a few days). As irony would have it, the driver / tour assistant ended up being unable to drive in either direction. So, I drove ‘my bus’ from Germany to to Czech and back. I crossed an abandoned border crossing and soon thereafter see an outdoor sort of shopping-mall selling pop, birdhouses, soccer t-shirts etc… and I buy a 15 euro sheep’s wool-skin from a boy. I have a special feeling that this will be useful and a great tour souvenir.

Check Google photos of Rotstejn, CZ and Klokoci, CZ; I was in a very special place for the festival, with endearing hosts and 2 more sleeps. This is a hikers ‘n climbers ‘n bike riders paradise.

Thomas Fuchs (keyboards, Ulm DE) & David Sinclar (guitar, Vancouver CAN) & Frank Staudacher (bass, Ulm DE) are lassoed and round-up. I’m excited!

The Hard Rock Café in Munich, DE is in the middle the centre’s pedestrian area, where hundreds are passing by the tourist shops and the famed Hofbrau house non-stop. Like a good tourist, I partook in some window shopping and some real shopping. I found a special chocolate store and also couldn’t resist picking out a hot pink Munich t-shirt. :). There were a lot of dirndl’s for sale…October fest thing. High quality buskers colourized the streets; from Austrian yoddlers on beer crates to fantastic classical trios playing pieces from a few centuries. Nice to see Bomi there (Stefan Glogger – the elephant ears master connector).

Only one concert in Austria and with luck, in Weiz, Austria. A stage was designed in an outdoor passage way. A slight underestimation of the ‘not so warm’ weather had some guests sliding the nice white tablecloths right onto their bodies to stay warm (no need to keep a table warm!). Everyone we were introduced to was joyful and easy going. I was gifted printed out photos from last year’s concert in Oblärn, AT. How we came to this show? .. I was invited by an incredibly talented couple who are jewellers, and who one year ago collected some strands of my hair and a guitar string from both David’s and my guitar and then interlaced these with stones platinum and gold to make stunning jewellery pieces and a mini guitar (size of my pinky).  Franz Rosenberger Facebook .We delightfully toured around on our day off in style, where we experienced the Weltmaschine (the World Machine).

Today it still felt like summer. Schnapps anyone (warning … it’s hard to say no, especially with the smile that comes with the offer!) click here for THE CONCERT

Lieberbühne Robinson in Runding, DE gets awards! The most delicious vegetarian food (hot tofu chilli), most newspaper stories and advertisements, best Weizen beer according to Fuchie (aus der bürgel flasche), and its nearby in the middle of nowhere hotel – had absolutely the most comfortable bed (perhaps ever).

Days off are spent in a town that is surrounded by its original wall, whose shoerepair man is 95, whose bakery is famous in the Franken area, and 400 folks living inside the wall get free beer once a month from the brewery! They pump the beer from a long hose out of a window straight into the containers that one supplies. Sesslach. See ‘second home’ story from the paper, in the photos below! My new friend and photographer extraodinaire Ulli Koebe http://www.koebe.de drove from Kufstein to Sesslach to hang out! I look up to him. What a great feeling that is! He shared his views of how connections and decisions can best work amongst us humans, and his we all enjoyed his epic photos from his recent trip to Vancouver Island, BC.

Neudrossenfeld‘s 800 year old kultur-center concert hall set the ticket holders up on long tables, so all sat somewhat sideways to face the band. At the original contact with the venue, specs for a PA were asked about. The reply was, ‘Oh, what’s a PA?’. By a small miracle it worked out, as we were able to borrow a friends PA. How did this concert get added to the tour? I met a man named Heinz in Mallorca, Spain while shooting a video, and he invited me to perform in his town and then arranged it too … and so … we made it happen! Super cool, thank you!

Unnersdorf‘s venue was too small to accommodate our expected ticket sales…so an ‘open air’ was decided. We play for about 85 people who cozied up close to each other with blankets, pizza and beer. Our stage is the back deck of Zur Linde, light up by old school patio lightbulbs. The bands view: to our left a large bunker and an overgrown fire pit (would have been nice to stoke a fire…brrr…the shorts and high-heel idea was abandoned during sound check), and a local drummer graced us enthusiastically on stage with his chops (and the smallest Cajon I’ve ever seen!). Thank you Frank Hauck. Of special note!  Norbert, the owner, who worked his ass off in the kitchen all night,  sang us two Delta blues style songs afterour concert was over. With a combination of pride, exhaustion and joyful exuberance, he played and sang for about 9 of us ‘hanger-oners! He was a warm super highlight!

  

I Something bit me in the middle of the night! Now I have a swollen eye. I guess it is still warm enough for mosquitos…and as David Sinclair once so wonderfully put it when he got bit, “it reminds me I’m alive”. 🙂

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