Friday Aug 8


GUTENTOG!!!,
Just decided to give you all a tour update thus far, whiled sitting in a "biergarten" in Berlin "ien Bit bitte", (one beer please) and off we go…..
Stariting with a bang at Lollapalooza in Chicago, I think all of us came off knowing that we felt good about doing the tour as a 4 piece again….as, much as I love and miss Ray and Louis C., playing a lot of old songs from our first S/T album felt great stripped down as a 4 piece…"it's the girls that make him Happy", "The Grand Apartment", and "It's the girls that make him Sad" have been making it into our set lists, so have stripped down versions of the new albums, "Sometimes you just want to", "Air Traffic Control", Guilt by Association", and "There's a Traitor in this room" have been super fun to play….It's kind of a downer that so many good bands played Lolla, but we literally flew in, played the show, did about 6 interviews of press, hung out for a few cherished moments with Perry Farrell and we were off in a car, to the airport, to got to Montreal.
Chicago was rivaled in enthusiasm by Montreal…it's the the first Osheaga festival, and that festival goes off..I got to see Spiritualized, NERD, Iggy and the Stooges, and the Killers. All of which were great…..
Iggy was staying at the same hotel in Montreal, and In the morning when we checked out, police were there b/c thieves came and stole off the Stooges gear….fucked up. Hopfully they find em….our gear was in a closet 25 ft from where theirs was ripped off.!!!!
Philly (Camden NJ) Download festival was almost the same lineup as Montreal….we got to play with the Killers and Iggy and the stooges again, but didn't get to see any of them perform that night b/c again….off to the airport to go to Boston, but I did meet some of the coolest fans who insisted on buying us drinking every 2 minutes….thanks!!
Cambridge, Massachusetts
The Middle East is a fucking awesome club!
It reminds me of a 500 person Casbah, (My favorite music venue in SD)….there are no frills about it…just sweaty, dark, and rock! Plus, upstairs is a kick ass Mediterranean restaurant that caters the backstage.....the best hummus, tabouli, and stuffed grape leaves ever. The show was killer!, and it was our first headline date of the tour, as opposed to festival slot, so we got to play about an hour and twenty mins, stretch out, and have some improvisational moments. Thanks for packing it, being rowdy, the free bottle of Jameson, and extra thanks to that guy who came on stage and sang the verses for Illegal Tender when we forgot the words, its been awhile since we played that one!!!….you guys rule.
Leaving boston, we hit the airport again, and headed to Copenhagen, Denmark. This was our first time in this country and were blown away by it…..we were so pumped at the crowd that showed up and knew all of our words, felt awesome!!….I swear everywhere people know the words to "A letter to Dominique"….what is it about that one?.....The food, the people, and especially the hippie commune (Castonia? I think) where our bus driver manages to score me a bag of weed for 20 Euro…and it is of fantastic quality! Thanks Bob!
And thanks to the person who wrote "LOUIS XVI REIGN DE" on the side of the bus in permanent marker…even though we are "LOUIS XIV" and the tour bus company is charging us 65 Euro to have it removed…..its still pretty awesome!.
Moving on….SVEE_DEN! Hands down some of the most gorgeous women/people in the world, but this pickled Herring thing? j/k….its weird in texture, but oddly delicious. Gothemburg, Sweedon was our first visit to this country as well….we played part of a festival called Way out West, but it was like a South by Southwest (Austin TX) in comparison. It was a series of concerts over 4 days and mostly took place in the venues around town…. We played a club called Sticky Fingers, and we played a packed room with a band called the Gutter Twins. They were killer, and had the singer of the Afgahn Whigs and also an idol of mine Mark Lanagan!…singer of the 90's band Screaming Trees, also did some songs with QOTSA, as well as the man behind one of my favorite solo records of all time…."Bubblegum". Geti it Bubblegum by Mark Lanagan band…..Insane! The show was great, country was lovely, and off we were, to here, Berlin GER!!!, in a 'biergarten' giving you all the skinny on whats happened in our world so far…
Our bus is parked in front of the club we are playing tomorrow, and tonight there is a "Karrera Klub Party"…..which to me means night off in Berlin, our crew's first night off, our homie Rich on tour video and still photog-ing the tour, and all of us ready to dance and get drunk to the hits of Kraftwerk, Scorpions, KMFDM,and of course Hasselhoff…..!!!!
Xo bxiv