Touring Tales With Ish: March 2013

Friday, March 29, 2013

On the Heels of our 11th show

Rome.

Hello again. I am writing you from Paris! This message is long overdue, but the days have been filled with driving (well, sleeping in the van while our driver does the real work), unloading, sound checking, virtually pulling our hair out because once 8 people try to get on the internet at once the network seems to waive a white flag just before imploding, playing a show, drinking wine, and then packing everything up again. Afterward, we stay up too late, sipping and talking (and some of us playing poker) until an early wake up call after which we do the whole thing over again. This, cyclical, ever-moving way is how we spend our days.

The last few shows were great. Rome was so incredibly packed. The people eagerly cheering before songs were even though. Camera flashes to my left. A blur of dancing bodies to my right. The room was alive. People were pumped about the show and that always makes all the difference. Drenched in sweat, we finished our set and returned for an encore. Good spirits all around. And so the clouds began to part on my grey emotional haze.

We had one more show in Ravenna, Italy before we said goodbye to our Italian promoter (he'd been traveling with us in the van for the past few days) and pushed on through the snowy heights of the Italian Alps, through Mont Blanc (the highest mountain in all of Europe) and into Switzerland

Two shows in that country. First one, well, we'd hardly slept and drove 6 hours so..I'll let that speak for itself. But last night was awesome, I thought. We are prowling through Western Europe. Just a few more days on the mainland before we take the Chunnel to England!

I feel like I am everywhere, and its begun to sink in a little more. What a peculiar and specific and dizzying way to see the world.

Ravenna, Italy.

Italian Alps.

Photos

Just some photos from the last couple of weeks. enjoy.

Dresden, Germany.

Dresden.

Vienna, Austria.

Rome.

Croatia from my hotel window.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

In Rome, we met this little poof ball of a feline.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Dresden, Germany

Turns out you can fit an Aisha inside an upright bass hard case.

This happened almost exactly a week ago, but it feels so far away to me. I'm writing you from Rome! It's been cloudy and rainy and cold in Italy. But food by the plenty and amazing hospitality is keeping us warm. We played last night in an auditorium that was the most cathedral looking non-religious space I've ever seen. Amazingly huge ceiling. stone structure. pews. fantastic acoustics. Oh, and it was built in the 14th century.

no biggie.

We had another epically long load in and soundcheck before walking across the street for a scrumptious three course meal. The Italians do it right.

The show was good, people were excited (we think? It's so hard to tell in such a huge room, sometimes), and we stayed in a cozy bed and breakfast in town. The days are grey, not unlike my mood it seems. But today we drove through miles and miles of mountains and they do some kind of refreshing work in me. The inside of every rock club starts to feel the same. Every European street outside the venue doors somehow follows suit. But tonight I am in Rome. And that's a thing to remember.

Vienna, Austria.
Photo by Andrew H.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Day 6

Greetings from Italia!

It's becoming harder and harder to know what to share as we do this thing that we've done several times over, now. I've spent most days in the van sleeping, and probably obsessively turning over the details of my life, over and over again. It's probably a good thing that life feels like its full of such possibility at the moment. But when I've got nothing but miles and miles of countryside and time, it's all I can do to quiet my brain and remember that I can't figure everything out. Or maybe anything out. Plans are a funny thing. Without any thought of them, you are wayward. Hold too tight to them, and you're poised for a disappointing awakening, I think. Perhaps if you are to fall into the rhythm of traveling, and life, too I suppose, you've got to adapt to the delicate tightrope walk of plans vs. improvisation.

I like to think about music in that way too. It's my tendency to become too attached to a melody, or one certain way of arriving at a feeling. Especially on tour. I like the worn path. But I forget often that in the beginning, the roads were endless, the melodies plentiful, and each song, each piece so full of possibility.

It's daunting sometimes. Such has been life inside my brain lately. It's been too much! But I am reminding myself to just put my mind exactly in the moment that I am in, for once. I'm in a cafe that is somehow playing songs I dread from American radio that somehow even over the ocean I still can not escape. It's cloudy out. I just successfully ordered my coffee in Italian. Doppio Espresso, sort of an easy one. I shouldn't be proud of that, but God it feels good to say a word in the local language. We've just spent the last two days in Slovenia and Croatia! I couldn't say a thing! Croatia felt just like any other European city to me. I didn't get to see anything other than old, narrow streets, mountains and well, a gorgeous coastline. That was amazing. I'd come back if for no other reason than to put my feet in the water and stare out into the sea.

Now we are somewhere in the North of Italy I would guess? I saw mountains. And signs for Schio, the nearest town. And now, very suddenly, it's time to go.

until next time!
-aisha

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Day 4 Slovenia

We've made it to the EU safe and sound.

This is one of the funniest parts of the day to me. I wish this was the stuff that people filmed or photographed about tours. The time before soundcheck or a show when the band is sitting around for some mysterious, unpredictable amount of time is intriguing to me. I think it is always my attempt at engaging in some sort of normal thing--reading, writing, meandering around the internet. Dylan is upstairs improvising brilliantly goofy songs about Travis which he sings over his cello melodies. Travis is interneting. Mike and Rob are outside updating Balmorhea pages. I'm sitting down on a wooden bench that's been painted to fade into the mural on the wall here at Menza, the venue in Ljubljana, Slovenia, writing to you. We spend every minute together, it's pretty nice to spread out every now and again.

It's our third time to play here! So strange to be familiar with a place that never once crossed my mind four years ago. We checked into the hotel and walked down the cobble street road to the same Falafel place we always go to. scrumptious. Yes, somehow it seems I'm always writing about food but it always seems like such a big part of the day! It occupies my brain space, what can I say.

We're sound checking now in this frigid room, so I'll try to make this quick. This is the fourth day but third show of the tour, and already somehow I've gotten sick! The run around of SXSW left me feeling hurried and frazzled. I played four shows, the last of which was Balmorhea's performance for the AV Club day party at The Mohawk. Less than 24 hours after that, I was on a plane and Europe bound.

I'm sort of still in a daze from it all. I feel like I just woke up and somehow arrived on the other side of the ocean. This is only the beginning of 5 weeks of traipsing around the continent. Time to buck up, perhaps!

Dresden was the first show (and snow) of the tour. Went well! We played an encore preceded by the thunder of the crowd stomping their feet. Yesterday we drove through a Germany covered white, through Prague and into Austria for our show in Vienna. We caught up with our old friend Jacques. I ate a pretty sick Kebap. Then we played a pretty alright show.

Two down. Many, many more to go. Ok, perhaps it's time I stand up and pay attention during this lil ol soundcheck. More to come!

-aisha

Balmorhea European Tour 2013

3/19

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