LifeOnTour

When I saw that there was a four day break in this current European tour with my band, I immediately began researching somewhere to visit - that's just how my brain works. Never mind that we haven't had more than two consecutive days off since March, and that I've been globetrotting without rest pretty much the entire year... I was hungry for more adventure. I settled on a short trip to visit my good friends Kate and Eva in Ireland. I had met them at a show in Oslo, Norway in the Spring. They were visiting Norway and I was there on tour. We only hung out briefly in Oslo, but became instant friends, sharing a wonderful connection through our tastes in music, literature and film. They were eager to play host and show me around ... read more

Wow, let’s see, where to begin with this one…? We finished the first leg of our ex-Yugoslav adventure with a show in Zagreb, Croatia. Zagreb is a beautiful city - plenty of upscale areas with premium shopping, yet embraced by nature and history, with many lush green parks and lovely old architectural landmarks, including a really nice cathedral. We had a great show there. Although it had it’s share of technical difficulties and sound mishaps, the place was jam-packed and the energy was zinging! The next day had us making a long journey back into France. We passed through five countries in about 11 hours - Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland and France. Being from the US, where you can drive all day and not quite make it through Texas, this is a strange and interesting concept! ... read more

Our first stop after crossing into France from Spain was in Bordeaux. We stayed in a very industrial part of town - a little strange, with some hookers and shady characters hanging around. When we ventured into the city center we encountered some of the historic architecture that France is known for. There was a cool street market happening by an old cathedral, and it was a good day to be walking around Bordeaux. Bob and Lisa did an acoustic show that night, and Craig and I went to support them and to watch The Dirtbombs, a Detroit band that we played with in New Zealand earlier this year. It was a fun show - The Dirtbombs absolutely killed it and we all had a really good time. The following morning we embarked on our long ... read more

We have been zigzagging across Spain for roughly a week and a half now. Each day its natural beauty and the charming nature of the people here continually amaze me. Tours like this are often difficult to route sensibly, so rather than hitting the cities in their logical geographical order we end up traversing all over the map in odd patterns. We like to call this the “Star of David” tour. In any case, it’s an interesting way to see the country. We embarked yesterday on a beautiful drive straight up the country’s midsection, part of which we had seen the day before traveling south from Madrid to Granada. Granada, a small city at the foot of a beautiful range of mountains in the southern part of the country, was just as beautiful as I had ... read more

Wow… Barcelona is amazing. Had such an unbelievably amazing time there. The day of our show was spent resting and exploring the neighborhood. I had gone out the night before with Edu, our agent in Spain, and his friend Berta, Bob and Lisa as well. We had a delicious spread of Tapas in an outdoor café. Afterwards, we found a table at a crowded bar near the hotel. The neatest thing - every table had it’s own beer tap in the center… Everyone gets a glass and you serve yourself as needed. When your glass gets low, just open up the tap and fill up. A screen on the wall monitors how much each table is drinking, which adds an element of competition to it all. Suddenly you notice that a table next to you is ... read more