I have exactly 6% battery power left on my computer. So this will be the quickest update ever.
for real.
Last night:
-show was awesome
-practically sold out. There were even people standing outside watching and trying to hear
-absolutely no room at all to walk in there! Took us forever to uncomfortably squeeze through people just to reach the stage. They were pretty annoyed until they realized we were the band
-played a good set
-were forced into an encore since a) we had no way to get off the stage b) they would not stop clapping
-we sold the merch OUTSIDE as there was absolutely no space for anyone to comfortably approach the merch table
-signed some cds, sold out of records, hung out with people from the show
-Ghent, Belgium is one of my new favorite places
apparently my computer is about to give up and die. sad. ate our last tour meal together. in the hotel. so bored. flight leaves at 2pm. !! Ready for home, ready to hang out with friends i've missed. see ya in Austin
Takin notes and keepin tabs on the road with Balmorhea from 2008-2013. Check out the archive for Aisha's previous European and American tours.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
old photos from Zaragoza, Spain
Castle in the middle of the city
Inside the castle walls
Inside the castle walls
Huge Cathedral
You're looking at Roman ruins, beneath the surface of Zaragoza.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
From the Netherlands
I just realized it's been a while since I've updated. Time has flown by me.
I'm writing you from the cozy lounge of the hostel in Utrecht, Holland where we'll be staying for the night. I'm sitting beside a series of paintings I don't really understand. The one just above me is of a man in a suit with large black circles for eyes, with his mouth open, holding this tongue that resembles a business tie with a field of grass between his body and his arms. well, alright.
In other news, the show tonight went really well! We headlined at a nice Rock venue with a stage that was finally large enough to fit us all comfortably. It was a packed house, and everything sounded awesome. Andrew's been a huge asset to this tour, professionally and socially. It's fun to have someone else in the mix! We were just thinking the other night of how many hours we must have spent all together in various vans. It's actually sort of depressing...at least 80 plus hours on this tour alone. I think I'll stop counting there.
Yesterday was the longest drive yet. I felt like I was quite literally about to loose my mind. I was already very tired, hungry and generally grumpy. Friday night we left right after our show in Pao, France and drove for 3 hours, arriving at our hotel at 2:30am. Then after what seemed like absolutely no sleep at all, we left at 9:30 and drove until 7:30pm. ...Yes. You counted that correctly. It was terrible. Poor Travis drove for about 7 of those hours, 7 hours of continuous gloomy skies and rain. ugh. BUT, thank goodness the staff at our venue in Asse, Belgium (yes, you read that right), were incredibly hospitable. We had awesome homecooked curry chicken + veggies and rice and, agh, there aren't words. I was the happiest I'd been in nearly two days, sitting at that table eating, and eating...and eating. I'm almost certain I out ate each of the boys. I went back for seconds and thirds, with absolutely no shame, I might add. A girl's gotta eat!
That show was great. The venue used to be an old Blacksmith shop, so there were awesome iron contraptions scattered about, and a huge fire place that crackled as we played. It felt like we were playing in someone's spatious living room. so cozy. We stayed with a couple whose parents ran the blacksmith shop. Such gracious hosts. This morning we slowly awoke to THE best breakfast: Three bags of pastries, two loafs of fresh bread, fresh squeezed orange juice, coffee, loose leaf tea, and an eggs and veggies dish. We all sat around a table and ate with sunlight shining through and the cutest baby crawling around smiling at us all. It was perfect.
Well, my laptop battery is going to die soon so I'm going to call it quits. Hopefully I'll get to post some pictures in the morn. Hope you all are doing well. Only one more show! We fly back on Wednesday. I'm ready for home!
See ya soon (most of you),
-aisha
I'm writing you from the cozy lounge of the hostel in Utrecht, Holland where we'll be staying for the night. I'm sitting beside a series of paintings I don't really understand. The one just above me is of a man in a suit with large black circles for eyes, with his mouth open, holding this tongue that resembles a business tie with a field of grass between his body and his arms. well, alright.
In other news, the show tonight went really well! We headlined at a nice Rock venue with a stage that was finally large enough to fit us all comfortably. It was a packed house, and everything sounded awesome. Andrew's been a huge asset to this tour, professionally and socially. It's fun to have someone else in the mix! We were just thinking the other night of how many hours we must have spent all together in various vans. It's actually sort of depressing...at least 80 plus hours on this tour alone. I think I'll stop counting there.
Yesterday was the longest drive yet. I felt like I was quite literally about to loose my mind. I was already very tired, hungry and generally grumpy. Friday night we left right after our show in Pao, France and drove for 3 hours, arriving at our hotel at 2:30am. Then after what seemed like absolutely no sleep at all, we left at 9:30 and drove until 7:30pm. ...Yes. You counted that correctly. It was terrible. Poor Travis drove for about 7 of those hours, 7 hours of continuous gloomy skies and rain. ugh. BUT, thank goodness the staff at our venue in Asse, Belgium (yes, you read that right), were incredibly hospitable. We had awesome homecooked curry chicken + veggies and rice and, agh, there aren't words. I was the happiest I'd been in nearly two days, sitting at that table eating, and eating...and eating. I'm almost certain I out ate each of the boys. I went back for seconds and thirds, with absolutely no shame, I might add. A girl's gotta eat!
That show was great. The venue used to be an old Blacksmith shop, so there were awesome iron contraptions scattered about, and a huge fire place that crackled as we played. It felt like we were playing in someone's spatious living room. so cozy. We stayed with a couple whose parents ran the blacksmith shop. Such gracious hosts. This morning we slowly awoke to THE best breakfast: Three bags of pastries, two loafs of fresh bread, fresh squeezed orange juice, coffee, loose leaf tea, and an eggs and veggies dish. We all sat around a table and ate with sunlight shining through and the cutest baby crawling around smiling at us all. It was perfect.
Well, my laptop battery is going to die soon so I'm going to call it quits. Hopefully I'll get to post some pictures in the morn. Hope you all are doing well. Only one more show! We fly back on Wednesday. I'm ready for home!
See ya soon (most of you),
-aisha
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Highlights, Recaps
Thought I'd post some highlights of things I never wrote about. Here goes:
Bilbao: Show in building with strange set up. On stage monitor mix = house speaker mix. awesome. by awesome I mean, sort of ridiculous. Six speakers placed in front, beside and behind the crowd. Speakers in the back of the room are the loudest. ?! Slept in a hostal and possibly frightened high-school aged Canadian kid randomly sharing the room.
Madrid: Awesome city. Huge for Spain. About 5 million people. Played in a club that followed the trend of existing in a residential area. Had an awesome city centre that we only got to see from the van window. Our promoter was awesome. So so nice. Met up with Mike and Rob's friend Paul, who'd join us for a few days. Hung out with Elizabeth Griffin (!) a long way from home. Slept in the promoters' house. Loved the kindness of strangers.
Portugal: Reminded me of Mexico in a lot of ways. City isn't very built up. Small city center full of older looking buildings. Played in an awesome theatre with a real piano.(!) Did a quieter set, played new unreleased songs. Got a double encore. Sold a lot of merch. I got reprimanded in the form of stern snaps for crawling trough the railing of the building to avoid walking 70 feet around it all.
Don Benito: played in the rival venue to the place we performed at last time. Met a crazy lady who kept running up and rapidly yelling things at us in Spanish. no shame. She once approached me and said "toca ahora, or (made vicious slapping motions)." Then she hugged me before I had a chance to formulate some type of Spanish retort. In her craziness, she: sat down in the van with us; hopped on stage in my face as I was preparing to play; almost used Mike's guitar to help her stand up; and tried to poke around on Rob's piano until he scolded her. What the hell. Anyway, fun show. Ate lots of pizza. But my favorite part is that we slept in an old HUGE former bording school. SUPER creepy at night. Travis, Nicole and I went exploring all of the 5 floors in the dark, trying to freak ourselves out. so fun!
Castellon: small venue. Squeezed on stage. Unplugged our instruments and played encore standing in a circle in the middle of the small crowd. Pretty awesome. Great dinner with promoter after the show. Almost died of hunger because we had to wait till after the show.
Bilbao: Show in building with strange set up. On stage monitor mix = house speaker mix. awesome. by awesome I mean, sort of ridiculous. Six speakers placed in front, beside and behind the crowd. Speakers in the back of the room are the loudest. ?! Slept in a hostal and possibly frightened high-school aged Canadian kid randomly sharing the room.
Madrid: Awesome city. Huge for Spain. About 5 million people. Played in a club that followed the trend of existing in a residential area. Had an awesome city centre that we only got to see from the van window. Our promoter was awesome. So so nice. Met up with Mike and Rob's friend Paul, who'd join us for a few days. Hung out with Elizabeth Griffin (!) a long way from home. Slept in the promoters' house. Loved the kindness of strangers.
Portugal: Reminded me of Mexico in a lot of ways. City isn't very built up. Small city center full of older looking buildings. Played in an awesome theatre with a real piano.(!) Did a quieter set, played new unreleased songs. Got a double encore. Sold a lot of merch. I got reprimanded in the form of stern snaps for crawling trough the railing of the building to avoid walking 70 feet around it all.
Don Benito: played in the rival venue to the place we performed at last time. Met a crazy lady who kept running up and rapidly yelling things at us in Spanish. no shame. She once approached me and said "toca ahora, or (made vicious slapping motions)." Then she hugged me before I had a chance to formulate some type of Spanish retort. In her craziness, she: sat down in the van with us; hopped on stage in my face as I was preparing to play; almost used Mike's guitar to help her stand up; and tried to poke around on Rob's piano until he scolded her. What the hell. Anyway, fun show. Ate lots of pizza. But my favorite part is that we slept in an old HUGE former bording school. SUPER creepy at night. Travis, Nicole and I went exploring all of the 5 floors in the dark, trying to freak ourselves out. so fun!
Castellon: small venue. Squeezed on stage. Unplugged our instruments and played encore standing in a circle in the middle of the small crowd. Pretty awesome. Great dinner with promoter after the show. Almost died of hunger because we had to wait till after the show.
Zaragoza, Spain
Buenos Dias,
I'm writing you from our Hotel in Zaragoza, Spain. This is just the beginning of our second day off. It's been a pretty good break. I walked all over the city with Nicole yesterday, exploring the historical sights of the city. Some underground Roman ruins, a beautiful cathedral, a temple, and an enormous castle-like palace that dates back to 1000 AD. crazy.
so crazy. and a ton of walking. There is a city art museum probably a 20 min. walk away, but once I figured out where it was, it was closed for the 3 hour siesta. Yes, that actually exists, and nearly everything closes in a time period that's frustrating for Americans attempting to sight see. I could be there right now, except for the matter of my exhausted feet. After walking for nearly 4 hours straight, Nicole and I returned to the hotel, only to turn around and walk for miles with one of the guys that put on our show here. He wanted to show us around town and eat dinner with all of us. So we walked. And walked.
And walked some more.
We even walked in a giant circle to kill time before what was an early dinner for the Spanish (7:30pm).
After my trying to bribe Travis to carry me to the restaurant for 2 Euros and multiple attempts to channel my brain power into levitation, we arrived at our destination. We had some gourmet toasted sandwiches and hung out for a while. I was a little puzzled by the decor, however. We were in an Indian themed restaurant whose food had nothing to do with India. strange. Nevertheless, it was a good meal, although I'm said that the day left me drained and feeling sick. I felt like a boring zombie version of myself. I think the hardest days of tour for me consist of fighting off that zombie.
Today is Thursday I believe. So we've got just under a week until we are back in the states. Only four more shows. Today, we'll drive to France. I am crossing my fingers that I can avoid eating another sandwich for the next 24 hours. I am ready for tacos. I am ready for some Austin.
I'm writing you from our Hotel in Zaragoza, Spain. This is just the beginning of our second day off. It's been a pretty good break. I walked all over the city with Nicole yesterday, exploring the historical sights of the city. Some underground Roman ruins, a beautiful cathedral, a temple, and an enormous castle-like palace that dates back to 1000 AD. crazy.
so crazy. and a ton of walking. There is a city art museum probably a 20 min. walk away, but once I figured out where it was, it was closed for the 3 hour siesta. Yes, that actually exists, and nearly everything closes in a time period that's frustrating for Americans attempting to sight see. I could be there right now, except for the matter of my exhausted feet. After walking for nearly 4 hours straight, Nicole and I returned to the hotel, only to turn around and walk for miles with one of the guys that put on our show here. He wanted to show us around town and eat dinner with all of us. So we walked. And walked.
And walked some more.
We even walked in a giant circle to kill time before what was an early dinner for the Spanish (7:30pm).
After my trying to bribe Travis to carry me to the restaurant for 2 Euros and multiple attempts to channel my brain power into levitation, we arrived at our destination. We had some gourmet toasted sandwiches and hung out for a while. I was a little puzzled by the decor, however. We were in an Indian themed restaurant whose food had nothing to do with India. strange. Nevertheless, it was a good meal, although I'm said that the day left me drained and feeling sick. I felt like a boring zombie version of myself. I think the hardest days of tour for me consist of fighting off that zombie.
Today is Thursday I believe. So we've got just under a week until we are back in the states. Only four more shows. Today, we'll drive to France. I am crossing my fingers that I can avoid eating another sandwich for the next 24 hours. I am ready for tacos. I am ready for some Austin.
Monday, October 19, 2009
last Wednesday ( I think) - October 14
There is so much to write about. But instead of trying to do a massive recap, I'll tell my favorite story from the week. It's a bit long, but worth it. Trust me. This is great story. I think it was a Thursday. And, rather than creating some interesting intro about Valencia, Spain, what it looked like and what it felt like. I'll just cut right to the chase--we played at a mall. And no, not some cool bar calling itself "the mall" in an attempt to be ironic. Just a plain, regular mall. This is a Balmorhea first.
Nothing was more funny to me though than the sound of Robs voice and the disgust it carried when we rounded the corner and he said "We're playing at a mall." However, we were also playing at a mall that we could not park at. Had it not been for careful suspicion, we could've found ourself in Mike's worst nightmare (professed to us once, so know this re-telling is void of hyperbole): driving our huge 9-seater van down a tiny driveway only to reach the mouth of a parking garage too short and getting wedged in. Stuck. Trapped. That's his nightmare. Though, I can't blame him. Upon realizing that we were about a foot and half too tall, he then had to direct the cars to move out of the way before backing out of the long tiny driveway.
This is not the first time this has happened to him.
Rewind to Bilbao, Spain, where we made the careless mistake of leaving him along to park the van, while we set up. After 15-20 minutes had passed and still no Mike, we were vaguely prepared for the story he told after finally walking through the door: He drove all the way down a small driveway to the garage and didn't fit, but this time there was a line of cars trailing behind him. After a pleading motion for them to backup failed, he exited the vehicle, and tried to yell in some sort of English-Spanish combo that the van was "Too tall, muy largo! Muy largo!" He says traffic was backed up as far as he could see, up the hill to the horizon. oh gosh.
Back to Valencia. We drive up onto the walk way and wind up parking in a giant pit of mud. gross. We practically run over this poor flowering bush as it's on the only part of sturdy land available beside the squishy slimy mud. It's probably safe to say it was the most careful load out, making trips carrying things inside.
So there we are, with all our gear crammed into this glass elevator in the center of a Spanish mall. And no one's at the venue. great. I wander around and look at things I can't afford before wandering into a Kebap restaurant and ordering a salad. I almost didn't , knowing that once I sat down, people would show up and we'd have to load in. And of course, with cinematic timing, I sat down, he brought my food and then venue owner exited the elevator. excrement.
So I scarf down this salad with un-unprecedented speed, pause to load some gear, and then return to the scarfing. Then all of a sudden we're leaving the venue and wandering around. I never fully understood what occurred. Something about the police coming, the venue owner needing to show something, and pretending we were just storing gear. well, alright. So we left.
We take off walking and stop at a gelato cafe. Suddenly the whole band has a sweet tooth. Everyone orders some kind of ridiculous desert, the next more extravagant than the last. Rob's was the fanciest, some kind of chocolate gelato treat in a milkshake-like glass, topped with a syrup and two protruding cylindrical cookie things ( I don't know what they were I didn't taste it). But for some reason, Mike's was the most amusing to me: a huge waffle topped with mint chocolate chip ice cram. Perhaps the amusement was hightened after remembering his repremand at Andrew for clearly spoiling his dinner by snacking on french fries at the kebap place.
This is getting so long and I haven't even gotten to the show. I'll try and pick up the pace. So we get back and the cops are gone so we set up and sound check and discover that there are no mics or mic cables and somehow our mixing board is tied into the dj console. cool. We position ourselves half on, half off of the stage because we are big and it is small and start crossing our fingers as we have to bypass our DI Boxes and plug directly into this board. And somehow, it worked! Andrew in all his magic made it work. After a hearty dinner of traditional spanish piaya (I butchered that, someone correct me), Andrew played the first ever instrumental Meryll set. And you can attribute it 100% to the lack of a microphone. I'm still unsure as to why there was a stage, and a sound system and a show without a microphone.
I also never mentioned that this is a swanky bar. There are two giant disco balls, each with a 2 foot radius. It is dimly lit, save for the neon colored lights spread about the walls, and the four flat screen TV's showing some flashy MTV style video on repeat with one too many dutch angles, promoting their OWN club. This is also a Balmorhea first.
But anyway, we play the set and everything turns out fine. Our promoter and the owner were extremely nice. The bought us a great multi-course dinner, complete with 2 bottles of wine and paid us extra, even though they lost money. We even got an encore that went really well. We sold some merch and did a quick quick load out. Then we went back to the fancy hotel they bought for us and slept our little hearts out. Slept late. Really late. As in 10 till noon late (it's amazing what kind of sleep happens when you draw down these metal window shades that everyone in spain seems to have). All rested up for another 7 hour drive in the van...
Nothing was more funny to me though than the sound of Robs voice and the disgust it carried when we rounded the corner and he said "We're playing at a mall." However, we were also playing at a mall that we could not park at. Had it not been for careful suspicion, we could've found ourself in Mike's worst nightmare (professed to us once, so know this re-telling is void of hyperbole): driving our huge 9-seater van down a tiny driveway only to reach the mouth of a parking garage too short and getting wedged in. Stuck. Trapped. That's his nightmare. Though, I can't blame him. Upon realizing that we were about a foot and half too tall, he then had to direct the cars to move out of the way before backing out of the long tiny driveway.
This is not the first time this has happened to him.
Rewind to Bilbao, Spain, where we made the careless mistake of leaving him along to park the van, while we set up. After 15-20 minutes had passed and still no Mike, we were vaguely prepared for the story he told after finally walking through the door: He drove all the way down a small driveway to the garage and didn't fit, but this time there was a line of cars trailing behind him. After a pleading motion for them to backup failed, he exited the vehicle, and tried to yell in some sort of English-Spanish combo that the van was "Too tall, muy largo! Muy largo!" He says traffic was backed up as far as he could see, up the hill to the horizon. oh gosh.
Back to Valencia. We drive up onto the walk way and wind up parking in a giant pit of mud. gross. We practically run over this poor flowering bush as it's on the only part of sturdy land available beside the squishy slimy mud. It's probably safe to say it was the most careful load out, making trips carrying things inside.
So there we are, with all our gear crammed into this glass elevator in the center of a Spanish mall. And no one's at the venue. great. I wander around and look at things I can't afford before wandering into a Kebap restaurant and ordering a salad. I almost didn't , knowing that once I sat down, people would show up and we'd have to load in. And of course, with cinematic timing, I sat down, he brought my food and then venue owner exited the elevator. excrement.
So I scarf down this salad with un-unprecedented speed, pause to load some gear, and then return to the scarfing. Then all of a sudden we're leaving the venue and wandering around. I never fully understood what occurred. Something about the police coming, the venue owner needing to show something, and pretending we were just storing gear. well, alright. So we left.
We take off walking and stop at a gelato cafe. Suddenly the whole band has a sweet tooth. Everyone orders some kind of ridiculous desert, the next more extravagant than the last. Rob's was the fanciest, some kind of chocolate gelato treat in a milkshake-like glass, topped with a syrup and two protruding cylindrical cookie things ( I don't know what they were I didn't taste it). But for some reason, Mike's was the most amusing to me: a huge waffle topped with mint chocolate chip ice cram. Perhaps the amusement was hightened after remembering his repremand at Andrew for clearly spoiling his dinner by snacking on french fries at the kebap place.
This is getting so long and I haven't even gotten to the show. I'll try and pick up the pace. So we get back and the cops are gone so we set up and sound check and discover that there are no mics or mic cables and somehow our mixing board is tied into the dj console. cool. We position ourselves half on, half off of the stage because we are big and it is small and start crossing our fingers as we have to bypass our DI Boxes and plug directly into this board. And somehow, it worked! Andrew in all his magic made it work. After a hearty dinner of traditional spanish piaya (I butchered that, someone correct me), Andrew played the first ever instrumental Meryll set. And you can attribute it 100% to the lack of a microphone. I'm still unsure as to why there was a stage, and a sound system and a show without a microphone.
I also never mentioned that this is a swanky bar. There are two giant disco balls, each with a 2 foot radius. It is dimly lit, save for the neon colored lights spread about the walls, and the four flat screen TV's showing some flashy MTV style video on repeat with one too many dutch angles, promoting their OWN club. This is also a Balmorhea first.
But anyway, we play the set and everything turns out fine. Our promoter and the owner were extremely nice. The bought us a great multi-course dinner, complete with 2 bottles of wine and paid us extra, even though they lost money. We even got an encore that went really well. We sold some merch and did a quick quick load out. Then we went back to the fancy hotel they bought for us and slept our little hearts out. Slept late. Really late. As in 10 till noon late (it's amazing what kind of sleep happens when you draw down these metal window shades that everyone in spain seems to have). All rested up for another 7 hour drive in the van...
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Swiss Pics (mostly)
Lausanne, Switzerland.
Dudingen, Switzerland.
Dudingen, Switzerland.
Through the Swiss Alps.
Ariano nel Polesine, Italy.
Italian Cappuccino by our friend Augusto.
in our bedroom in Italy. c/o Nicole Kern.
Thursday
Today has been a day of hot desert-like driving through the south of Spain. Some part of me has a fondness for west Texas but I think I feel comfortable saying that this landscape hasn't had much to offer me. Sorry Spain. However, Bilbao, where we were last night, was so beautiful. Its a city of about 1 million that lays low, completely surrounded by lush hills and mountains.
I'm writing you now from our free hotel in Valencia. It's incomproable to the hostel we stayed at last night, which wasn't a bad place by any means. But aside from the fact that there seems to be some issue with the air conditioning , this place is quite classy. My leg is propped up on a marble top desk, adjacent to our flat screen tv, while a nice cool breeze is drifting out our window. We have about 10 minutes before we'll hop back in the van and head for the venue, which is supposedly only a few miles away. Our GPS has been a bit misleading today. Earlier, she showed us driving through desert lands, apparently on some road she'd never heard of. Luckily, Travis stuck with his instincts and drove down the mystery road until it matched back up with our directions from space. That was probably the easiest part of his frustrating drive. I don't currently have the patience to re-live the 20 minute venture we went on to find the hotel that was only 5 mintues away. Poor Trav.
I'm hoping the rest of the day becomes less strange. Lunch was had at a semi-deserted gas-station food restuarant that's akin to the lunches you had in your middle school cafeteria, except these are twice as deceptive--they actually look like they'll taste good. I suppose it really is all about presentation. Secondly, you think that, say, a plate of pasta can't be thaat expensive, until you realize that the paper sign which is in no way located NEAR the pasta, says 5.90 euro. geeze. oh, and don't want, oh, an apple with that. Because that's 1.80 euro. Someone called this highway robbery and that's about right. Somehow, I had fun there, in the strangeness of all of it. Maybe it was because I never expected Berry White to be playing in a food cafeteria in the middle of no where spain.
Ok! It's time for me to go. Cross your fingers that we all stay fairly healty. I've had some scratchy throat stuffy nose business going on and Rob's feeling sick. We're drinking lots of Ecunecia tea and Emergency. Someday we'll finish a tour without anyone getting sick! someday...Alright! Until next time my friends...
-aisha
I'm writing you now from our free hotel in Valencia. It's incomproable to the hostel we stayed at last night, which wasn't a bad place by any means. But aside from the fact that there seems to be some issue with the air conditioning , this place is quite classy. My leg is propped up on a marble top desk, adjacent to our flat screen tv, while a nice cool breeze is drifting out our window. We have about 10 minutes before we'll hop back in the van and head for the venue, which is supposedly only a few miles away. Our GPS has been a bit misleading today. Earlier, she showed us driving through desert lands, apparently on some road she'd never heard of. Luckily, Travis stuck with his instincts and drove down the mystery road until it matched back up with our directions from space. That was probably the easiest part of his frustrating drive. I don't currently have the patience to re-live the 20 minute venture we went on to find the hotel that was only 5 mintues away. Poor Trav.
I'm hoping the rest of the day becomes less strange. Lunch was had at a semi-deserted gas-station food restuarant that's akin to the lunches you had in your middle school cafeteria, except these are twice as deceptive--they actually look like they'll taste good. I suppose it really is all about presentation. Secondly, you think that, say, a plate of pasta can't be thaat expensive, until you realize that the paper sign which is in no way located NEAR the pasta, says 5.90 euro. geeze. oh, and don't want, oh, an apple with that. Because that's 1.80 euro. Someone called this highway robbery and that's about right. Somehow, I had fun there, in the strangeness of all of it. Maybe it was because I never expected Berry White to be playing in a food cafeteria in the middle of no where spain.
Ok! It's time for me to go. Cross your fingers that we all stay fairly healty. I've had some scratchy throat stuffy nose business going on and Rob's feeling sick. We're drinking lots of Ecunecia tea and Emergency. Someday we'll finish a tour without anyone getting sick! someday...Alright! Until next time my friends...
-aisha
Monday, October 12, 2009
Monday
I failed to acknowledge that two posts ago, Touring Tales reached its 100th post! I feel like some small celebration should be had. I should be like google and try to recognize a festive occasion by redesigning my logo or something to feature small balloons of assorted colors. But that takes time and I don't realllly care that much. So just pretend that something special has occurred, okay?
Well, since my last post, we have left Switzerland and are in the middle of our second day in Italy. We drove through the Swiss Alps, which are still the most incredible piece of nature I have ever seen. I couldn't have imagined mountains so high.
We took a ferry through them. Yes, a ferry. You drive your van onto this large metal cart that's something similar to the shell of a train. Then the long line of parked cars is driven through a pitch black tunnel for about 15 minutes, after which the train stops and you drive away squinting.
I'm not sure what the point of such a tunnel is, but I will say that if it saves you from winding through instense switchback curves at ridiculous angles, it is worth it.
The show last night was so fun. I think it's possibly the best we've played on this tour. Andrew said we rocked out more than usual. He also said I was headbanging in one song, but I don't believe him. He has been so fun to travel with, not to mention incredibly helpful in making us sound great, even on tiny little sound systems. Magic Man. I think we've all loved hearing Merryl songs most nights. I'm trying to convince him to play Hemlock Football and let us sing with him on stage. He said maybe, but I think between the five of us who love that song, we can break him.
Well, we're currently hanging out in the venue we'll perform in tonight. There are probably, and quite literally, 100 bottles of wine on the wall. The lady who runs the place is awesome. She has a dry sarcastic humor delivered with such a straight face. It's hilarious. So is this deaf fluffy grey cat that likes us, but releases such a scratchy pathetic meow. I think she's my new favorite feline of this tour. I think I like her more than the grumpy orange 22 year old Swiss cat. Yes, 22 years old. Alright. That is all for today friends. Maybe some pictures later. Someone leave a comment and tell me something about what's going on in America other than all the Nobel Peace Prize talk. p.s. it is true that people all over the world love Obama. It's pretty cool.
Well, since my last post, we have left Switzerland and are in the middle of our second day in Italy. We drove through the Swiss Alps, which are still the most incredible piece of nature I have ever seen. I couldn't have imagined mountains so high.
We took a ferry through them. Yes, a ferry. You drive your van onto this large metal cart that's something similar to the shell of a train. Then the long line of parked cars is driven through a pitch black tunnel for about 15 minutes, after which the train stops and you drive away squinting.
I'm not sure what the point of such a tunnel is, but I will say that if it saves you from winding through instense switchback curves at ridiculous angles, it is worth it.
The show last night was so fun. I think it's possibly the best we've played on this tour. Andrew said we rocked out more than usual. He also said I was headbanging in one song, but I don't believe him. He has been so fun to travel with, not to mention incredibly helpful in making us sound great, even on tiny little sound systems. Magic Man. I think we've all loved hearing Merryl songs most nights. I'm trying to convince him to play Hemlock Football and let us sing with him on stage. He said maybe, but I think between the five of us who love that song, we can break him.
Well, we're currently hanging out in the venue we'll perform in tonight. There are probably, and quite literally, 100 bottles of wine on the wall. The lady who runs the place is awesome. She has a dry sarcastic humor delivered with such a straight face. It's hilarious. So is this deaf fluffy grey cat that likes us, but releases such a scratchy pathetic meow. I think she's my new favorite feline of this tour. I think I like her more than the grumpy orange 22 year old Swiss cat. Yes, 22 years old. Alright. That is all for today friends. Maybe some pictures later. Someone leave a comment and tell me something about what's going on in America other than all the Nobel Peace Prize talk. p.s. it is true that people all over the world love Obama. It's pretty cool.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Friday
Hey and hello!
It is 3:42 in the morning, and I know I should be sleeping but for some reason I'm up and anxious about updating. Mostly, I just haven't written anyone all week. So I thought I'd post a few things just to let you guys know that I'm alive and well.
I'm sitting on the floor next to an impressive pile of books in our friend Jacques' apartment. After the show tonight, we drove thirty mintues from Geneva, Switzerland to Lausanne. I can't really think anymore, so I'm telling this story completely out of order. But I'll just say that the place we played was crazy. So huge! We were the first band in the "Festival of Obscure Music,"...I'm not really sure what to say about that. Perhaps being obscure is more cool in Europe than it is in America. The night started with strange acrobats performing, followed by a man doing flips in and around the largest hulahoop I've ever seen, with the grand finale of two girls submurged in "aqua tanks" flipping around, waving their arms and looking creepy. yes. an aqua tank. So strange.
I guess I don't need to say that we felt out of place.
However, somehow people showed up and things went pretty well, save for a slight butchering of Harm & Boone...but we recovered. Friends we made from our last trip to Switzerland came to our show and offered to house us. And it's always fun to stay with friends, which is what brought us to Lausanne. The boys went with the promoters of our show in the spring and Nicole and I left with Jacques and his sister Vanessa. The faint sound of techno beats are sifting through the floor. Jacques' place is just above a night club, but it's cosy, especially with this adorable little kitten running around. It's been so fun hanging out. I thought I'd never see these guys again, so it's been great to spend the day with them.
anyhow. sleep beckons. In the morning, Nicole and I are going to a flea market to dig for some treasures. ! so excited
-aisha
It is 3:42 in the morning, and I know I should be sleeping but for some reason I'm up and anxious about updating. Mostly, I just haven't written anyone all week. So I thought I'd post a few things just to let you guys know that I'm alive and well.
I'm sitting on the floor next to an impressive pile of books in our friend Jacques' apartment. After the show tonight, we drove thirty mintues from Geneva, Switzerland to Lausanne. I can't really think anymore, so I'm telling this story completely out of order. But I'll just say that the place we played was crazy. So huge! We were the first band in the "Festival of Obscure Music,"...I'm not really sure what to say about that. Perhaps being obscure is more cool in Europe than it is in America. The night started with strange acrobats performing, followed by a man doing flips in and around the largest hulahoop I've ever seen, with the grand finale of two girls submurged in "aqua tanks" flipping around, waving their arms and looking creepy. yes. an aqua tank. So strange.
I guess I don't need to say that we felt out of place.
However, somehow people showed up and things went pretty well, save for a slight butchering of Harm & Boone...but we recovered. Friends we made from our last trip to Switzerland came to our show and offered to house us. And it's always fun to stay with friends, which is what brought us to Lausanne. The boys went with the promoters of our show in the spring and Nicole and I left with Jacques and his sister Vanessa. The faint sound of techno beats are sifting through the floor. Jacques' place is just above a night club, but it's cosy, especially with this adorable little kitten running around. It's been so fun hanging out. I thought I'd never see these guys again, so it's been great to spend the day with them.
anyhow. sleep beckons. In the morning, Nicole and I are going to a flea market to dig for some treasures. ! so excited
-aisha
Things have been so busy! But fun. I have about 2 minutes to try and write this blog before Michael comes back up stairs and hurriedly rounds us up to hop into the van. However, I will tell you that we had a delayed passage through the Swiss border which involved paying quite a heavy amount of taxes on our cds. The show last night was great and hanging out at Tribehaus, the venue, has been so fun. We slept in a room full of bunk beds and stayed up till 2am hangin out in our little lounge. band apartments are grand.
ok. I will leave you now and run out into the rainy cold.
until next time my friend!
-aisha
ok. I will leave you now and run out into the rainy cold.
until next time my friend!
-aisha
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Annd we're back.
After much debate, I've decided to attempt to keep a blog for Balmorhea's second European Tour. You've caught me in the middle of a redesign. It's alright starting to bug me, but bare with me here for a few days. Anyhow, my vow to myself and to you is to try and keep it short. We'll see how that goes...
Today has felt incredibly long. We hardly slept on the plane (except for Travis) and have been pretty tired most of the day, stealing little naps wherever we can get them. 10 hour plane ride + 6 hour time travel to the future + driving around + playing a show has made for an exhausting day. Andrew Hernandez is joining us for this tour, doing double duty performing as Meryll and our sound guy. It's so fun already having him around. I'm pretty excited about it all.
Tonight's show was alright. The first show of the tour is never my favorite, but we'll be great after a good night's sleep I'm convinced. We are packed in tight to a small apartment, owned by a gracious host. We haven't had good sleep in over 24 hours (perhaps 36 according to Travis). It's time for bed. I'm sharing a bed with Nicole. Hope she doesn't steal the covers (she does that sometimes)!
gnight,
-aisha
Today has felt incredibly long. We hardly slept on the plane (except for Travis) and have been pretty tired most of the day, stealing little naps wherever we can get them. 10 hour plane ride + 6 hour time travel to the future + driving around + playing a show has made for an exhausting day. Andrew Hernandez is joining us for this tour, doing double duty performing as Meryll and our sound guy. It's so fun already having him around. I'm pretty excited about it all.
Tonight's show was alright. The first show of the tour is never my favorite, but we'll be great after a good night's sleep I'm convinced. We are packed in tight to a small apartment, owned by a gracious host. We haven't had good sleep in over 24 hours (perhaps 36 according to Travis). It's time for bed. I'm sharing a bed with Nicole. Hope she doesn't steal the covers (she does that sometimes)!
gnight,
-aisha
Feel Free to Follow Along..
| Steinbruch | Duisburg, Germany | ||
| Le Clou | Nancy, France | ||
| Treibhaus | Luzern, Switzerland | ||
| Usine | Geneva, Switzerland | ||
| Bad Bonn | Düdingen, Switzerland | ||
| Porcupine | Ariano Nel Polesine, Italy | ||
| Clandestino | Faenza, Italy | ||
| L’Mono | Bilbao, Spain | ||
| Siroco | Madrid, Spain | ||
| Teatro De Faro | Faro, Portugal | ||
| Rincon Don Pio | Don Benito, Spain | ||
| Veneno Stereo | Castellon, Spain | ||
| Teatro Arbolé | Zaragoza, Spain | ||
| La Centrifugeuse | Pau, France | ||
| T´Smiske | Asse, Belgium | ||
| Ekko | Utrecht, Netherlands | ||
| Café Video | Ghent, Belgium |
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