Adventure in the Basque Country

---

I awoke to a knock on the door of my room around 11 - it was our tour manager, Jordi, telling me that breakfast was almost ready. I pulled back the curtains, revealing a tranquil, misty rural scene of lush, rolling green hills. A flock of sheep was grazing nearby, and I heard the faint ding of a bell around one of their necks. There is a strange, lovely sensation that comes with waking up in a place that you did not see the night before. Stefan and I had stumbled into the house around 4am; it was dark and we were completely unaware of the surroundings outside, but we were in awe of the beauty of the house. It had the feel of a Victorian manor, all hardwood and antique furnishings. We are in the Basque Country in the south of France, only 75 km from the border of Spain.

Let me rewind to the day before. We drove south from central France for several hours before reaching the Basque region, where we immediately felt a shift from the busy highway traffic to the old-fashioned farmland countryside. The Basque have their own very unique language, and we began to see signs in their trademark, playful font, reminiscent of the old Hannah Barbera cartoons. We were heading to the EHZ festival, an open-air concert on a site near a small town called Helette. As we pulled up to the festival site we saw a field full of camping tents and a stage on a hillside, a scene similar to many of the European festivals we have played before. People were just starting to arrive on shuttle buses from the parking lot and congregate near the stage. We did a short sound check followed by an interview behind the stage. We began our set at 8:30 - the sun was beginning to recede behind the hills and mountains surrounding us, but the daylight seems to last forever here, and it stayed through our whole show. We played to several thousand cheery, energetic people. We felt a very spirited, happy energy from them, and the harder we rocked, the more frenzied and festive they became. There were smiles in every direction, and everywhere I looked in the crowd I was met with excited, adoring eyes and a very welcoming feeling. We finished the set to thunderous applause, drenched in sweat and filled with the indescribable, euphoric feeling of a great performance to a great crowd.
Manu Chao was next on the bill and I was very excited to see him perform. As we exited the stage, his band was very gracious to us, clapping and congratulating us on a job well done as we headed to the dressing room to towel off. As they were setting up, you could feel the intensity of the crowd grow. While the audience was warmly rocking and genuinely enthusiastic for our set, it was apparent that they loved and worshipped Manu, and the excitement was building as his show time approached. Throngs of people were streaming towards the stage and soon it seemed that every square inch of grass was filled with people. I headed into the crowd and stood in front of the stage a few rows back, getting jovial high-fives and Bravos from people in the audience and posing for a few pictures with fans. People were singing traditional Basque songs together and I was in awe of the spirit and vibe of the moment. Manu and his band took the stage and a beautiful chaos ensued. The sound at the front of stage was huge and powerful and the crowd was immediately whipped into a frenzy. We were packed in tightly and swaying together as one to the beat. When the band launched into an up-tempo, pulsing groove, you could feel the force of thousands of people pushing towards the front. There were times when I was utterly swept off of my feet, completely losing control and balance and clinging to people around me to stay upright; a sensation very similar to being in the powerful waves of the ocean, at the mercy of the force of nature. The stifling heat in the center of the crowd added to the excitement, with everyone around me drenched in sweat and gasping for air, yet filled with bliss from the amazing sound of the band and the uplifting vibe of the songs.

At one point I actually fell to the ground and several, sweaty people fell on top of me. I felt one of my sandals twist off and disappear, and it was a briefly terrifying yet thrilling moment. The people around me immediately made way and made certain that everyone was standing again and safe, and I miraculously found my sandal and got back on my feet. After that, I had had my fill of the insanity and I made my way through the crowd, bursting through the fence into a cool breeze and the open space of the backstage area. I grabbed a beer and headed over to watch the rest of the show on the side of the stage, literally glad to have survived the crazy scene in front and grateful for the experience. Manu rocks! His bouncy, reggae grooves and sing-a-long chants kept the crowd moving and the energy high. It felt great to relax and watch the crowd and the band from the safe sanctuary of the stage, and to really take in the magic of the festival feeling - by then there were 12,000 people spanned as far as I could see. After their set, vibes were very festive and cheery in the backstage bar area. Manu and his band were way cool, chatting with us about the show and sharing mutual congratulations for a fantastic evening - we warmed up the crowd and they destroyed it! I finally sat down to eat and had some delicious wine from the area.

Back in the dressing room, I reunited with Stefan, who had already done a fair amount of damage to the bottle of Jack Daniels on our rider. He had managed to get a group of girls backstage after a bit of negotiating with a thin, weasely Asian man with a big smile named Chang (or was it Chong?) who was in charge of the VIP area. Bob, Lisa, and Jordi were heading to the house to call it a night, but Stefan and I decided to stay for some more festivities. A runner at the festival offered to drive us to the house whenever we were ready, giving us cart blanche to party as much as we liked and explore the festival as late as we felt the need to. This freedom, on top of the unlimited beer, wine, and JD at our disposal backstage, sent us into the evening feeling wonderfully adventurous - the only Americans amidst thousands of crazy, festive Basque, French, and Spanish partiers. We were hanging with DJ Blue, a blonde female DJ from Brittany, a region in western France, who happened to speak really good English. We went to the main stage to catch the end of the next act, the outlandish Emir Kustarica. What a sight! A stout, sweaty man in a thin, blue, one-piece bat suit, wings and all, writhing around the stage and singing while his band pumped out an upbeat mix of gypsy and klezmer music that sounded to me like polka on acid. He had the crowd going good, and it was a blast to watch. We passed around the bottle of Jack and were thoroughly entertained by Emir’s antics and the band’s kooky energy. After the end of his show we parted ways with Blue and slowly made our way to the side stage, where she was to perform a closing DJ set at 3am. She began spinning trance and house beats and the crowd was moving, loving it. Before long, Stefan and I wound up on stage with her, dancing and pumping our fists in the air. It was much fun and a great way to end the evening. Our driver signaled that he was ready to roll and we obliged, sad to leave but eager to find our beds. As he drove along the dusty dirt road out of the festival, we were a bit unruly - hanging out the window, high-fiving wasted people on the way to their campsites and shouting goodnight in the Basque language, along with a few lewd French phrases we’ve picked up thus far.

In the morning I followed my nose downstairs to the dining room, where our hostess was laying out a fabulous breakfast of fresh baked croissants - possibly the best I’ve ever had - as well as fresh squeezed orange juice, homemade yogurt, fig jelly, banana bread, fruits, tea… It was amazing. We all sat down and shared stories from the night before, laughing and enjoying the delicious feast before us. I looked around, overcome with the beauty of our surroundings - the house, the yard, the sheep, the rolling hills of the Basque country… I was feeling good.

---