Our artist friend Ben gave us a couple of his free tickets to Wolf Mother this weekend and it was like a blast to the past I never had. I was too young to go to hard rock concerts in the 1970's but I get the feeling Wolf Mother is the next best thing( minus the cigarette smoke and reefer.} I'm not sure what they are singing about, but I know I heard the word rainbow in there somewhere. No matter-the singers fro is bigger than mine and the bass/key player's moves resembled Animal from the muppets. I'm getting too old for the crazy mosh pit that was happening below, but we had center balcony seats with a perfect view(except for when the oversized frat boys would randomly stand up in front of us and start banging their heads or get their lighters out-even though there were no slow ballads to be had) When we got home none other than the sexy and talented Viggo Mortenson(with clips from "The Road") was on Letterman-the icing on our friday night cake. Saturday we went to a little indie club and saw Mr. Gnome. Don't let the silly name fool you. They are also a married two-piece that put out a big sound. I don't like too many female vocalists, but there was something really cool about hers.I also haven't been to a lot of shows lately, so two good ones in a row was a treat.  I'm sure you can check all this stuff out on You Tube while your lazing around on thanksgiving or if your looking for something to amuse yourself with. Michael and I had the day off together and we wrote and recorded a new song all in one day. We have never done that before and it was exhausting, but exciting to have that instant gratification. Our music lately is taking a heavy, bluesy turn and its been fun to play that way. We may be broke, but there's always something to be thankful for.XXOO-Katrina P.S.-you can check out Ben's beautiful charcoal drawings at www.benjaminmalay.com

Well of course November 13th is my birthday-Fall is my favorite season,scorpio is one of the most passionate signs, and the lucky(or unlucky depending on how you look at it) number 13 to boot. What other day would I have chosen to come into this god forsaken place? Happy birthday to me.

We have a 3/4 page interview in this months german edition of Gothic magazine as well as a song on the companion compilation cd. I dont really follow the gothic scene, but after listening to the cd and checking out the mag I was sadly disappointed, but not surprised to learn that its still the same tired crap that it was in 1984. The same overused electronic sounds and overly dramatic peter murphey style vocals with what I like to call "Goth by numbers" esthetic and subject matter. These are the people that give goth a bad name. The people who dont have enough creativity to come up with something innovative, new and interesting to make dark or "gothic" music a good listen.Frankly, I have no idea why we are in this publication. I'm done ranting. Happy Halloween. Hmph. 

After we check out of our hotel we go out in search of the wharf. Now Im really feeling like I'm back home as we eat fish and chips and watch the boats go by from the boardwalk. On the way out of hamburg we pass a very gothic church in ruins and blackened by the war bombings-kind of eerie standing in the middle of a metropolitan area. We drive a few hours through the countryside to our last show. We are playing at a hotel that sits on the riverbank in a little village. After we set up we are served dinner on an enclosed bridge that sits over the water and we watch the sunset and enjoy our last evening with Matteo and Hieko who has met up with us again from Bremen. For some reason I am feeling really anxious and a little sad and I take some time alone by the river. Rowers in a long thin boat go by and I know Ive got to pull it together to play soon. When I return matteo is finishing his set and the room has surprisingly filled up. Heiko says last months concert here had only two people. I start to feel much better as we play through our songs and the enthusiastic response from the audience gives the room a good energy. We meet several people afterwards who say that the guy who runs another reissue record label in Bremen saw us there and told them they had to come see us play. Luckily, it seems we did not disappoint  his friends. After we are all packed and everyone is gone Heiko, Simon, Matteo, Michael and I sit together for awhile in the hotel lounge to reminise and to say our goodbyes. Michael and I try to sleep for a few hours before waking at 2am to drive to Dusseldorf to catch out flight home.I never do get to sleep and I pray the navigation system doesnt fail us becouse I am the only one who drives stick and I am dead tired. We are on standby and the first three flights are full. After six hours in the airport we finally get on first class and get pampered for the next eight hours(thanks again to my uncle who works for delta) We have a layover in Atlanta where they have the best art of any airport I've seen. We have a few days to settle in before going back to work and we try to adjust at home. We are so excited to see our son, and he is so happy to see us that he is laughing and crying at the same time. After being together 24/7 you would think Michael and I would get on each others nerves, but we enjoyed every minute and we are fighting off a little depression being back at our regular jobs. I'm feeling a little hopeless that we will ever be able to make money at being musicians, but we are already trying to figure out how do go out and play again as soon as we pay this one off. It's in our blood and hard to shake.

We all are wanting a little privacy and a clean bed and shower so we walk around town after a lovely breakfast where we run into last nights sound guy who looks like river pheonix.All the cheap hotels are full so we stop at an internet cafe and find a good deal a little out of the city center. We have another show in Hamburg so we get to hang around and explore all day, but we end up napping for a couple hours at the new hotel we check into. We find the downtown area and do a bit of people watching and sight-seeing. We head to the next show which is a bar in a quaint neighborhood with little shops of local designers and handmade goods. Ulli wants to meet up with us again, but we tell her we are not playing tonight because the bar owner has had alot of complaints by the surrounding tenants when the music is too loud so drums are not allowed. We choose to sit this one out rather then compromise our sound and enjoy a lovely meal with our friends instead. I'm always talking about food, but it seems we mostly drive play and eat.Ulli has commisioned me to do art for her in the past and we talk about a new piece she wants me to make for her next purchase over dinner. It's fairly complicated, and I hope I understand what she wants as we say our goodbyes and go back to the bar to pick up Matteo.

We drive a few hours to Hamburg and driving in it feels alot like home. There are cranes by the water and we learn it is a port city like Seattle. We find the club Astra Strub and we are told it is the name of the local beer here as well. The place is small, smokey and painted black. Very dirty and punk rock. The guy working here tells us its kind of a legendary place where the people who worked at the brewery would come after work and it is in danger of being closed down as a club. After soundcheck we are shown our hostel and the place where we get free breakfast. Then we meet up with our longtime myspace friend/fan Ulli and her husband. We get some fish for dinner while we talk about music and art before the show. She has come all the way by train from Bravaria to see us play.She tells me Her favorite song is an older one which luckily we have rehearsed and I dedicate it to her. We go on last and there is a small but interesting crowd. The opening act sounds like a fellow seattle musician rosie thomas and its fragile pretty music. She tells us we remind her of woven hand. Another guy offers us pot after the show and we decline but exchange some great new bands. I ask what they are playing while we are packing up and we find a new favorite-PG Lost.  We hit the hostel bunks around 2am.

When I wake up we are left in the house alone after everyone has gone to work and school. I cant find Sonya who has been traveling with us. A strange man knocks at the door and I finally decide to answer and learn he is a family friend. The two of us start breakfast and chat about where we are from and why we are here. Micheal stirs awake and we have toast and tea in the kitchen. We explore the house a little in the light and Its really lovely for being built in the 1970's. The rooms are big with tall ceilings and there are antiques casually mixed with modern furniture. I pull the curtain to see where we are in the light and the whole rod falls off. Michael makes another great destroyer joke as we fumble to get it back on and in the process we discover we are in the middle of the farmlands. Its so open and green and quiet and beautiful. There is a tractor making its way over the gentle hills. We finally find sonya asleep on a loungechair on the back patio.Matteo has woken up and is soon writing a new song out there on a picnic table. We pack up and make our way to a tiny old village sonya wants to show us. We stop to explore a church graveyard while sonya lights a candle inside. When we get to the next village she meets up with a friend and we do another soundcheck at a cavernous tavern in what seems to be german suburbia in the country. We have a walk and by now the churches are no big deal-they are in just about every village, but we are always amazed at how old and interesting the architecture is and its so nice to clear your head there before a show. Good luck being able to do that in the states. The government buildings are usually breathtaking as well  and they are called the Rat House. We find an open one and wonder inside where there are old paintings and photos and creaky floors. We head back to the Tavern to play and the guy from France is there with his friend who is from this village. She says she takes care of a friends horse here, but really wants to have a more serious band in the city. I tell her the grass is always greener and I would switch places(but really I want both)Maybe when Im old. There is two guys with very straight long black hair at the show who tell me they are into pagan folk, so I'm not sure if they dug the show or not. The place was small and it feels like we are too loud for it, but I am starting to feel like I can let my body move how it wants to now while I am playing. After this many consecutive live shows it is getting to be more effortless to sing and keep time with the drums and the chemistry between michael and I is more apparent. This is what I have wanted to do for a long time and it finally feels good and natural. 

We drove to another beautiful town today and in time to explore the city for a couple hours. Our English friends have gone home and it's just us and Matteo traveling now. We meet Sonya who is one of the promotion people for Dandyland records and had come from Bremen by train. We walk around for an hour or so and it's starting to feel more like a vacation then a tour, but thats ok by us considering all the money we are loosing. The towns are all very close so there isnt the hours of driving you have on a typical tour and our 4 star hotel and alot of our food has been free, so we are not complaining. I doubt we will ever get this sort of situation again.We stop for dinner at a noodle house and its one of the best meals we have had here. The menu has all kinds of international flavors crossed with eachother. The waitress asks where we are from and then shows us her tattoo she got in seattle in 1994. We make our way back to the club and find a beautiful little covered outdoor eating area strung with little white lights next to a creek before we enter. We play to a packed house of what seems to be mostly college students.Afterwards we follow the owner of the bar to her home about 30 minutes out of the city. We all sit in her kitchen after midnight and eat soup. She makes Matteo some italian noodles and we meet her greek husband. We find she speaks several languages and teaches italian. She comments on my flea market necklace and disappears for a moment. She returns with a handbook for antique jewelry and shows me a page of silver jewelry with stamps like the one I bought. I learn that the stamps are like family crests and that my piece is from england. Score.

It is our last day at the hotel in Bremen. We head over to Heikos house and do our laundry while we have breakfast on their back patio.  He lets us borrow his computer and we are joking with him about how electronics and various things of our modern world hate me. I swear, sometimes I just go near a computer and it seems to freeze up. Michael has taken a cue from a Low record and nick-named me "the great destroyer".So far I have dropped his guitar, blown a fuse in his converter by my hairdryer,pulled the zipper off our luggage, and broke Michaels watch. We enjoy the last of the summer weather in the garden and just as we are leaving I knock over my drink right on to Heikos cumputer. (This trip is getting expensive) We head out fairly early to the next town. When we arrive there is nothing at the address we have typed in the navigation system. Come to find out we have not typed in the right postal code so we drove to the right address in the wrong town and ended up two hours out of our way. Luckily we had left early and we get to the gig just in time. 

We catch the tram to downtown Bemen again to check out the flea market  that runs along the river. A necklace made of good silver with four little stamps on it catches my eye.I bargain with the lady selling it who has an eastern european accent and pick it up for 12 euros. Another man selling random stuff picks michael and I out of the crowd to hand us a flyer for some gothic show and we chat for a bit. That night we head out of town to play Polyester. When we arrive we do sound check and meet the local opening act. It's a proper indie music club and I feel like I'm back home in Seattle. We head out for our usual walk before the show to get some food and excercise and low and behold,another old church! There is music coming out of it and we sneak in the back where theres standing room only. We watch the choir sing modern christian music in an american gospel style and they are very good. We stumble upon the old town retail area looking for bratworst on a roll. Its ironic we have had such a hard time finding such a simple thing in Germany, but perhaps its like finding a hot dog in seattle-you have to know where to go. We settle for shnitzel which is alot like chicken fried steak in the american south and we are not too fond of the fried aspect. Micheal has dubbed this dish "fried pork fritter" and I doubt we will ever eat it again. After we play to a full house a woman who looks to be in her late 50's has her daughter buy our cd and translate how moving the show was for her. Its odd people in this age goup and older dig our loud, raw sound, but it makes me happy we can appeal to such a broad range of people. After meeting some real nice folks we head back to the hotel and unload everyone in the caravan except for Lyden . He hops in our crossover rental and we go to the club by the art college to meet Simon (the sound guy) who is the 4am D.J.  We walk in and there is loud electronic music with heavy beats, but there is not a soul dancing, so Lyden and I get the party started. Soon Michael and Simons girlfriend have joined us and before we know it, just about everyone is dancing. I end up barefoot after about an hour goes by and it feels good to get my heart rate up. It is nearly light when we finally fall into bed exhausted.