howdy y'all -
well i'm back at home after 3 weeks of dates with the quireboys and the diamond dogs in europe. 1st off a big thanks to those 2 bands. it was a tour where you'd best bring your A game, or you were going to be embarrassed. mick, mike, sam and bruce - without your help this would have either not happened or been a total wreck. all the bands did a bit of cross pollination on a night to night basis, but db&hs would dearly like to thank keith weir of the quireboys for playing keys with us on our new songs. he let us know that he'd enjoy playing a bit if we wanted about 3 nights into it. 4th night he was drafted and never missed a tune we needed him on for the rest of the tour. now this ain't easy because we never use a set list and just call 'em as we go (although he was late coming in on one tune, i think he had to pee and i just started it anyway, he wandered on over and picked it right up like the pro he is). we told him to learn two for tuesday and runnin' outta time for starters, then he told us to work up lazy monday and i think i made him play hellzapoppin' without going over it at sound check. the last show in austria we just made him stay up there for the 2nd half of the show. since he was up there we did like a rolling stone (which warner had never played before, and i have no idea if quireboy keith (gotta keep your keith's straight this tour) had either).trial by fire indeed.
the high point shows for me were glasgow, newcastle, london and the 1st swiss date (i can't for the life of me remember the name of the town or club, anyone who has done the international flight thing will tell ya not to be bloggin' within 24 hours, so, of course, i'm doin' it within 12) but it was fantastic. i'm not at all dissin' the other shows, but it's like warner says "each one's a little snowflake", it's just those stood out to me.
the 3 guys i play with every night are amazing. i cannot throw them a curveball they won't try to drive out of the park (and believe me i try). keith trying to take it to a new place, warner begging for another sky dive and mauro with his "ok, what fresh hell is this?" look and then slamming it back down my throat are the show to me. i just give them a starting point, then try to keep up. i am blessed.
a very large thanks to the fans that came out to see us, even the ones in dudley (who need to learn that slapping your hands together at the end of a well performed song is not punishment).
we'll be at it again in the near future.
db 6/3/08