Woke up this morning in the sweet hotel we were given, opened the window only to be attacked by flying bugs, so I closed it again. The view was absolutely outstanding, lots of pics to come. Andrew and I roomed together, but woke up too late to catch breakfast, we pretty much starved till we got to the show in Italy.
We took a much deserved detour on the way to the show, and it was un-f**king-believable. We pulled through a canyon to reveal a huge cliff, below, a little town on the water. Lake Garda, absolutely beautiful, straight out of a tour brochure, but much more awesome. We were gonna go swimming. Even if we didn't go in the water, the trip and the scenery would have been worth the trip. The richest blue I've ever seen was the water, epic tall mountains surrounding everything, swimmer, boaters, and people parasailing. There were even topless sunning women, not that we were scouting them out, but we have been on tour for about a month now, so they would be a momentary object of spectacle when passed, but our attention would immediately switch back to the wonder of the surrounding nature.
We eventually found a parking spot, everyone prepared themselves for the water (most just wore jeans cause that's all we had) and dove in. Later we found that our chosen swimming spot was actually a dock for the ferry, but we were all out of the water in time to not get run over by it. After the beauty of the Italian lake, we were hesitantly back in the van. Our only choice for food was an American style food cart, which we all sort of frowned upon, eventually deciding just to get some coffee. Everything else was closed because it was Sunday, which doesn't mean much to us, as we never know what day it is anyway.
It was still a 2hr drive to the show, and after the beauty of the lake, everything else waned in comparison, which then brings us to one of the lowest points on this tour. First, we get a call saying that we have to pick up the promoter and drive him with us to the venue (later we would find out the biggest goof when he shows up driving a car). Luckily he's carrying a pot. We thought, "great, a home cooked meal for dinner." When we got to the venue, we were more than disappointed, we were just sad. We had to wait about a half hour for the dude with the key to show up, and when he did, the venue was covered in trash and bottles. It was a substantial undertaking on their parts to get the place cleaned up before the show started.
We were told that we should load in first before we eat, so we got the gear in, and setup the back line. Once we were finished, we waited by the van for someone to tell us we could eat. We were told we were gonna go to a place to eat (thinking there is more food, or some place more comfortable to eat, than the run down venue room). We pull up to an abandoned parking lot. Our passenger who is carrying the food pot gets out and opens the gate. There is nothing but trash, broken cars, a gutted bus that looked like someone was living in it, and out back, a picnic table surrounded by overgrown weeds. The worst of this all (besides the eventual food) was the presence of about a million and one biting, flying bugs. These insects where not present at the van, at the venue, and I made it clear I would have rather just eaten out of the van than go to this obvious goof of a location, but it's not the worst.
The dude opens the pot, we're all expecting some sort of pasta dish, maybe rice of some sort with veggies. Nothing could have prepared us for the let down we experienced. It turns out to be full of nothing but white rice, canned peas, and extremely crappier, canned mushrooms (all of it being stone cold). As the dude starts dishing out the food, everyone is silent, and hesitantly starts to dig in. Dave, however, starts into a giggle loop that ends in probably the greatest laugh I've ever heard come out of him. He pushes around his 'food' and just laughs hysterically for about ten minutes. Meanwhile, Eric, Andrew, and I are trying desperately to not be eaten alive by the millions of insects by walking out of the high weeds in the sun, and just keeping mobile. Finally, we all get fed up, no one finished their plate, and we walked off back to the van. We got in the van and drove back to the venue.
We mulled about at the van for a bit before deciding that we needed some real food, and Mike took us to a pizza place he had eaten at before. I've never been happier to eat some pizza (despite our past experiences with awful pizza from promoters on this tour).
The room in the venue is a tiny circular room that has a stage that can barely fit our gear let alone the members that use it. There was even a big duct tape X on the floor, that we found out signified an area that would collapse if trod upon. The building has no sign of ventilation, and all the windows are sealed and padded for acoustic reasons, so, no chance of opening them up to vent the heat. The show is a veritable hotbox. A sardine can put into an oven. I have no fan, and am probably going to pass out at the end of the set. We're gonna try to keep our set to 4 songs, and get the f**k outta there as fast as possible. We've all been looking forward to chilling at Mikes' place, eating some good food, and drinking some good espresso.
As a side note, my shoes are starting to fall apart. Bummer. I don't have enough money to buy new ones, so hopefully they're able to half-ass it through the rest of tour.
I could barely hold onto my sticks while playing, it was so humid in there. Croatia was hot, but I was actually able to hold into my sticks a bit better. Actually, now that I think about it, I think that was because they supplied me a fan for the show, cheers again dudes, I wish we were carrying a fan with us, I always have one when we tour the US. We only played 4 songs, and were not planning on playing an encore, to which we were fortunate enough to not be asked to play one.
We're driving to Mikes place tonight to sleep, then we wake super early and drink espresso, charging us for a grueling 8hr drive to France.
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