All I could ever hope for...

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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 catching up and you can’t help but try and out-drink them. Quite a riot, as you can imagine. I was awoken in the morning to change hotels with a dizzy head, and I ended up taking a wonderful long siesta in the afternoon.
Our show was at the Apollo Theater, which was only a short walk from the hotel. The theater is lovely, with wood floors and a really nice stage. The room sounded great at soundcheck and I was filled with anticipation about the show. We all dined with David, our tour manager, at the bar from the night before. Many fans coming to the show were around, and we were approached several times to take pictures and everyone was incredibly nice.
After getting ready at the hotel, I was pleasantly surprised to see a long line outside the theater. We took the stage around midnight and the place was packed - around 700 people - and the energy in the room was astounding. They greeted us warmly and we rocked the house. The audience was great through the entire show, and I had a fantastic good time playing the set. We had a grand little party backstage, with everyone feeling very festive and so glad to be back overseas and playing big shows. Craig and I made very nice new friends, Veronica and Marta, and we all drank quite a bit with the house DJs and Raquel from the venue. We had an early departure the next morning, and thus forced ourselves to leave around 4:30. We headed downstairs and were shocked to see that the show was still going full throttle, with DJs spinning dance music and the floor packed with tireless partiers, movin’ and groovin’ as if the night was still young. Barcelona rocks!
In the morning we headed to Valencia. A beautiful drive through mountains and valleys. The gig was a festival, with a big outdoor stage on an empty lot. After our early afternoon soundcheck we checked into a beautiful hotel, and thankfully had a few hours to rest before the show. The siesta is something I could really get used to! Once again, a great crowd at the show. Maybe 1500 people… The sound was quite good for an outdoor festival, and we played a great set in the headlining time slot. Much love from the audience.
We have now just arrived in Bilbao after not much sleep and a beautiful 7 hour drive. Headed to soundcheck, ready to do it all over again!

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