In Glarus- last show.... jammin' with Baum and Darwin on "16 Walls". Photos by Ivan Klaeoltke
Getting into it....
Photo by Ivan Klaeoltke
Last walk along the friendly orange signs that always showed me where to go - "wanderweg". In Sursee.
SWITZERLAND TOUR January 2007
(most recent entries first)
January 13th 2007, 10am, back in Harlem
It's not as hard to leave a place when you know you're coming back....
Here are a few more pics from my last 2 days in Switzerland, land of perfect hot chocolate, perfect scenery, perfect spelling of my last name, perfectly tricky dialects, and perfect place to tour.
January 9th 2007, 4:15pm, in Hotel Schweizerhof, Luzern (give the pics a second to load...)
I know I talked about driving yesterday, but again, driving in Switzerland is great. See pics below. Lucerne is a cool little city with lakes, swans, shops, bridges ("bruckes", pronounced brew-ker). See pics below. While I have pangs of missing New York and all of its familiarity, I still can't get over the history and detail and scenery here.
On our day off today, while Baum accompanied wifey Sandra, my new best friend, back to Basel, Darwin headed home to Sursee, I decided to stick around this hotel and hang out with the house-pianist, who's letting me play an hour set tonight. I already explored Lucerne and it's bridges and shops earlier today, so perhaps I'll take a bubble bath.
 Just driving to the next gig. No big deal. |
 Lucerne.  |
 New York is WHERE??  The group in Lucerne: Darwin, me, Sandy, Baum. |
January 8th 2007, 1pm, post-Bern gig, pre-Lucern show (scroll down for pics)
Driving in the car yesterday from Olten to Bern (capital of Switzerland, a beautiful old city that to me just seems absolutely perfect) I realized I really lucked out here. Baum, his wife Sandy, and Darwin are so generous in their teaching to me... I am like that 4-year old "what's that?, what's that?, how do you say that?" and they never stop answering me. I've gotten a few phrases to use in front of audiences which is fun, but I think the audience knows I don't really speak a lick of Swiss-German. I feel the bonding happening, even just in the car while listening to Live's most recent album and brushing up on Jeff Buckley and Stray Cats tunes. And our trio jam at the end of the shows is a highlight for me. (See pics below). The venues we are playing are all os cool and artsy and original. The people who manage them are completely into the event and super duper kind. I feel very welcomed here.
Yesterday, at the Olten train station, a man came up to us and asked Baum if his guitar was a Martin. Baum said yes, do you want to play it? And I'm sitting there, in my New York state-of-mind, thinking "This guy is going to take it and run, what the heck is Baum thinking??" But he didn't run, he played it, right there on the train station, and made up a song about Martin guitars and how he can't afford one. To watch the interaction between Baum and Vincent (i think that was his name) made me think there's a bit of a middle ground between being off-guard and oblivious, and all-too-suspicious and cold. In the middle is just generous. That evening at our show, Darwin told the story how he saw it and then I told my version during my set ("the dude was going to steal it!!") and the audience got a bit of
a kick out of my New York mentality that I can't shake.
I'm telling you, every single moment is an experience here. Amaaaazing. (Apparently, Americans [me] get made fun of for saying "amaaaazing" all the time.)
Here are some pics. Click on them to see the big versh.
 The group singing an encore in Olten. Photo by Stephan Lucien Sp¸hler |
 Singing an encore in Olten. Photo by Stephan Lucien Sp¸hler |
 This was a very cool venue in Bern- a cellar-type gallery. Apparantly there are tons of cellars along the roads with art galleries, music venues and all sorts of underground arts community hangs. The sound in this cave was amaaaaazing. |
January 6th 2007, 9:30pm-ish, chilling out in Sursee (scroll down for pics)
I always feel like when I get off a subway in New York City, at every stop I enter a new city. The C train at Bleeker Street is so very different from Canal Street, 42nd street, or 145th.
Switzerland is sort of the same. I spent one week in Gstaad, in the middle of the snowy Alps with its pitcutre-perfect Chalets, housing perfect swiss/french/italian/german-speaking inhabitants, playing a grand piano in a five star hotel, enjoying the company of good friends during amazing meals and challenging hikes. I was also enjoying the attempts of making new friends. These attempts are not so easy, but I am learning the importance of body language in communication. I am still cheesy even when no one understands my words. Good to know. I digress...
So I took a three hour train to Basel after leaving beautiful snowy Gstaad behind. At this point, I expected Switzerland to look like Gstaad. All of it. But no, Basel is a city. With industrial buildings and apartment complexes and two lane highways. So then I thought that Gstaad was where all the tourist books get their pictures. But no. We drove to Olten the next day and it is a smaller version of Basel, with adorable, colorful streets. Next we drove to Sursee where I currently am spending my day off at the home of one of our tour mates, Urs. Sursee is even sweeter. It reminds me of Rome with its cobblestone roads and churches being the tallest buildings around. So yeah, Switzerland is sort of like New York with more snow and less English.
The guys I am touring with are fantastic musicians. And at the very first sound check, we whipped together a few songs that we performed together as a trio (me on piano, they on guitars and harmonicas- imagine "Keep" with a harmonica... crazy!). Jamming actually came easily when in the comforts of my natural genre (pop/singer/songwriter?). Despite the fact they speak the hard-to-learn German dialect of Swiss-German, I think it's going swimmingly. I am meeting some amazing people who I am determined to stay in touch with, the shows have been well-attended, CDs are selling, and there are invites to come back this summer. Music really is a global language, and cheesiness my global personality.
 In Gstaad- on a hike with friends, at the top of the world-ish |
 Uphill hike in Gstaad. We kept hiking till we ran into gates of heaven, but they were closed so we turned around. |
WEST COAST TOUR June 2006
JUNE 12th 2006, 4:00pm-ish, on a plane from Dallas -> NYC
After all the planning and xcel spreadsheets and phone calls and booking and near-perfect planning, how did we end up in dallas? Dallas was NOT on my tour itinerary . . .
"It's just a black eye" my dad said, after I told him our tour van got broken into and $2500 of gear, including my keyboard, got stolen the morning we were leaving the west coast. I'm sick to my stomach even though things are fairly taken care of... rental car and gear insurance is working themselves out, police reports are in the works. I'll admit, i cried when i realized the mailing list with all our new friends and fans was gone. Why, 2 hours before the tour is done, must a perfect trip be spoiled? or is it spoiled? Geoff says they can take our gear but not our memories... unless, of course, they took the camera. which they didn't. I'm going through all the should'ves, could'ves but there really aren't many... maybe if i parked closer to another car the robber couldn't open the back door.... whatever. Oscar said the tour went so well that it was too perfect so something like this HAD to happen.... but we'll get good karma later. fine with me. at least i have our awesome recordings from yesterday in seattle and great pictures and new friends and memories with old friends. The band and I are tighter than ever. We missed 2 flights and were on standby for a third that onle had 3 seats available. I suggested they go ahead and immedietly heard "no way, if one of us can't go, we're all not going". love.
Man, 2 weeks of sun and beaches and amazing views and hours of belly-laughs are all making me feel better. An invitation back to Pebble Beach, tons of CD's sold, quiet time in the Redwood forest, word games inthe car over a nice meal of Goldfish and cashews, standing room only in San Fran, searching for non-existant vintage amp stores, working myself out of a musical identity crisis (see previous blog)... not much I would have changed on this trip. Maybe i'd back the car up more....
June 8th 2006, 8:15pm SALEM, OR
A weird time (and place) to be blogging.... behind stage at the Ike Box in Salem. Waiting for our opening band's crowd to show up, hoping the venue gives us free food and drinks since they didn't promote at all (thought it's a cool place so I don't want to poo poo it too much). We spend 8 hours in the car AGAIN today. Even the non-scenic routes are scenic and dizzying. Awesomeness. Again, lots of laughing, playing word games, and many more stops today due to some gastrointestinal problemas. We got a chance in the last twop days to qtake quick hikes through the redwoods. It's the most sight-seeing and nature-appreciating that oscar has ever done on a tour (and he's been touring for a billion years). Time to check out the crowd and rehearse/perform the songs we'll be recording on Sunday....
June 7th 2006, 2:43 pm, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
after playing for an empty barnes & noble yesterday (but still managing to sell some CD's) oscar made the stark comment in the car on the way to san fran that "that was a disaster" followed by uncontrollable laughter. that obviously led to the whole car singing the theme to Full House as we rolled into town. geoff worked his way through one-way streets and "game day" traffic to the Hotel Utah, already packed with eager musicians waiting for their 10 minutes to play the open mic. we were the feature act and played 8 songs for a packed room which sounded great, and despite a bit of guitar amp issues (loose tube, no big deal) it was a great show. the audience was quietly listening and also really responsive to the guys' solos. And it was great that everyone in the band had some family or friends show up. I felt so lucky to see some of my closest college friends and have them meet other friends. this is one of the reasons i'm liking touring.... it's great to reconnect. so san fran is gorgeous and sunny today, rare for the area, i hear. good for our first (and only) day off on this tour, splitting it in half exactly. everyone's off doing their own thing with friends or family and i've got a bit of down time before meeting friends for dinner. already checked out fisherman's wharf and the golden gate bridge. nice little town here. i'm going to go write a song.
June 5th 2006, 10:45 am, PEBBLE BEACH, CA
this tour is starting to pick up... we went from playing a full-on rock show at a college party at UCSB in Isla Vista on a balcony by the beach and sleeping in a cat-infested apartment to playing a 4-hour acoustic set with me at a grand piano in the lobby at Pebble Beach, where we stayed in the Governor's Suite (hello michael jordan and bill clinton... we're having a conference meeting this morning at our oversized conference table to discuss world peace over breakfast). The last two days have really been a trip. The two nights were completely opposite musically, yet it was the first time for both that I really felt comfortable with both versions of the songs... the loud rock felt so over the top for us that it was the most fun I've ever had on stage. I've never seen Oscar shread as hard. Mike sang his guts out literally (he felt sick after the gig and threw up... we've just been saying the show was so good that Mike puked afterwards). And last night, playing our entire repertoire twice through really allowed for ironing of kinks. Loads of nice people here bought CD's and really liked the music. We got giddy during our second break after some warm chocolate cake and drinks... it's hard to be in this wonderland behind a baby grand, looking at the smiling faces in my band and hold in giggles. Breakfast just arrived, gotta go.
June 3rd 2006, 9:10 am LOS ANGELES, CA
LA is cool and spazzy and spread out. We were told the Key Club was close by to the Guitar Center. By "close by" we guessed by car, becasue we walked for a hour in 145 degree weather (i may exaggerate a bit) before we realized that NObody in LA walks ANYwhere. crazy town. Anywho, they Key Club was rockin', so was our set. We are still figuring out what type of sound we want to have, rock or singer/songwriter and I'm hoping my musical identity crisis will work itself out over the next 10 days. We just keep talking about it and figure more stuff out each day. Love the band... they have been so amazingly helpful with moving my heavy-assgear and making sure everything is taken care of before and after a show (stuff i am usually doing). It's really becoming a team effort. Anywho, we allsaw a bunch of great friends and a few old aquaintances and madesome new friends. We're psyched to move on to Santa Barbara and play in the ocean again.
June 2nd 2006, 10am SAN DIEGO, CA
here i am, soaking wet after a nice little run/swim with fellow bandmate geoff. LOVE the ocean, and the crabs and the 8-foot long seaweed. very refreshing. a good wake up after a long night's sleep post being up for 24 hours straight going from JFK to van rental to hotel to burrittos to gig. It wasn't all bad, just tiring, the airport was like an obstacle course trying to get past security people with way too many amps and guitars. There's been lots of laughing and not too much stress though, so it's all good. The gig was fun, Mike played dumbek (hand drums) and we were pretty tight, running some of hte newer material for the small but attentive crowd at Portugalia. There were fireworks during our set (Sea World is a stone's throw away) so it was all a great start to what i'm hoping will be a unique and incredible 2 weeks. Despite a bit of inexplicable tight chest and sore throat yesterday all day, I've toughened up and decided not to take bull crap from amature promoters, to work out any musical glitches i continue to come across and become better at this whole game of being a performer. We leave pretty soon for LA where we'll see lots of good friends and hopefully bring the house down at the key club! till next time....
