Touring Tales With Ish

2011-11-26T12:45:00.001-06:00

I've only been back in America for a little over a week, but already I miss life across the pond. Someday, someday, someday(!) I'll embark on my ex-patriot life! But until then, I'll attempt to get my fill in short stints and little adventures. The tour was great. We played super well together. And I miss those boys already.

Here are some photos to round things out.

ciao, till next time!

-aisha

Final salute to Feinkost Lampe. Hannover, Germany.

Goodbyes to our lovely hosts. Hannover, Germany.

Exploring the new art space in the home of the wonderful Klaus Frahm.

Really, his entire house is a work of art in itself. Beautifully designed. Michael took some great photos, which you can see here and here.

The stage for dinner. Klaus Haus. Hamburg, Germany.

Klaus Haus. Hamburg, Germany.

Tuscany. Italy.

My little set up. On stage in Vienna, Austria.

Kendall and Dylan. Train station! Vienna, Austria.

Vienna, Austria.

bye. bye!

2011-11-26T12:00:00.000-06:00

Nice video from Genova, Italy

Vienna

2011-11-14T16:21:00.001-06:00

Some photos from our day off in Vienna, Austria, earlier this week! enjoy.

St. Stephen's Cathedral. Huge. Beautiful. Amazing. Really, Really Old, since 1147AD.

Light projections on the inside walls.

It's an incredibly tall Gothic tower. The tip top is 149 yards above the ground.

Nope, not a statue. But a man that is currently spending his life acting like one.

Walking in Vienna's city center down a main street called Graben.

Home of my favorite coffee of the tour.

Mozart statue.

Mumok Museum of Modern Art. Pretty great in there. I loved it.

Sort of felt like a space station.

Leopold Museum of art.

2011-11-11T10:45:00.001-06:00

Hello from Berlin!

We are killing time until the piano tuner finishes his work and the guys finish wiring the stage. I always start posts like this with grand intentions and then am suddenly urgently interrupted. Lets see how far I get!

R o m e

The last time I wrote was Monday, which is crazy. This week has somehow flown by. You missed the night that our show in Rome got moved, then cancelled, then tacked on to the end of another show, forcing us to take the stage at 12:30am. insane. Apparently, If you don't pay off the police in Italy, they can find a reason to shut down a place. That spurred the cycle of show cancellations/a re-scheduling fury. We sat around at a derelict looking venue--complete with heavily graffitied walls, and one tiny bathroom with no lights or toilet paper--for at least 3 hours. The whole evening was some sort of comedy. Their house sound guys literally spent about 30 minutes soundchecking one microphone. Then, the first band set up and sound checked, then we hurriedly threw our stuff on stage in the shadows and were rushed away without a soundcheck, as in addition to two shows, the venue also booked a theatre performance in the same room... chaos.

People waited past midnight on a Monday for us to play 7 songs (!) That's likely more than I would've done for anyone. Oh, and to top it off, we only had about 40 cds left to sell. haha. Oh Rome, what a crazy time.

L j u b l j a n a

I. love. this. town. It's the only place I know in Slovenia. We played here one year ago, and were excited to meet up with our promoter Rok (Roc? sorry if I'm spelling it all wrong!)--same guy as last time-- and Sammo -- an awesome guy who works at the venue and does a fantastic stage lighting job. This was the smoothest day of the tour. We arrived with a warm welcome, big hugs and Club Matte's! AH, love that stuff. Fizzy matte tea in a glass bottle. It's only made in Germany though, so we mildly freak out every time we find some.

Anyhow--we set up with ease, had a long, thorough soundcheck, ate dinner together (OH MY GOSH this town has an awesome falafel place that we've eaten at about four times now), and then played my favorite show of the entire tour. Amazing. so much fun. Sammo said the crowd had more than doubled in size since we played last year (about 180 ppl. this time). Hanging out by the merch booth afterward, I met some really sweet people who were so happy to have made it to the show. After a crazy, stressful, exhausting night like the one in Rome, this day was 100% what we needed.

After this we had a show in Vienna, Austria that hopefully I'll get to tell you about next time. But now, it's time for soundcheck.

p.s. Berlin is quite, QUITE cold.

ciao,

-aisha

2011-11-07T05:06:00.005-06:00

Good morning. I am quite sleepy. Last night was our last dinner with our promoter who's traveled through all of our Italian gigs with us. I stayed up prettty late and woke up earlier than I should have. I would bet anyone 1,000 euro that I will promptly climb into the van and fall right to sleep.

I didn't take any photos yesterday, but here are some pictures from our stay Pisa!

checkin in.

The Square.

A little hometown San Antonio - a long way from Texas!

What I might've seen 100 years ago.

A huge, beautiful church.

2011-11-07T04:32:00.001-06:00

Food post! Each tour, someone reading this blog makes fun of me for how much I talk about food. But there is no way I could be in Italy and not share all the great, delicious thing we've eaten. I learned just a few things from the week of Italian food.

F i r s t wine is serious business. So good.

S e c o n d do not attempt to raise your glass of water during a group cheers session. No one cares about your inevitably very tiny water glass.

T h i r d wine glasses are allllways way bigger than whatever water glass you could have hoped to receive, making proper rehydration after all the wine you drank the day before nearly impossible. Go to the gas station and by the 2 liter bottle of aqua for 2 euro. Let it be a reset button for yourself.

F o u r t h Pastas always come first, even before salads. Here is the order of the courses if I've got this right: Pasta, meat course, third other thing that you didn't see coming (cooked veggies or a salad), dessert, a round of grappa (a type of liquor), a round of espresso (which I've decided is available to keep you from falling into a deep, deep, inescapable sleep after eating enough food for a whole day dressed up as dinner.

F i f t h and final observation, and my favorite, Italy is rich with regional tradition. Our promoter who has traveled with us our entire time here explained that gnocchi in one of part of the country is made entirely different in the other parts. Pasta is different. The typical bread served is different. Each region developed its own traditions and styles over time and has hung on to them still. I think that is incredibly amazing, coming from America where driving across the country on the highway begins to feel like you're circling round in an enormous loop, passing Chilis after Chilis, after Applebees, after TGIFridays, inbetween every state line. If we took a hint from Italy in this way, french fries would be different in California and different again in Arizona. A Boston Burger would be unlike one from Virginia. How cool would that be? To have so many different cultures in all of the space of our nation?

Anyhow, retrospectively explaining each meal with words only goes so far, so here are some pictures for you.

The best pesto pasta.

A sort of rum cake dessert

Happy Birthday Travis!

a puff pastry covered in chocolate ice cream.

Chocolate cake on a fancy plate.

The home of the multi course lunch.

Pasta in Tuscany.

Sharing time.

Some of the boys ate a huge, huge rare steak.

I did not partake.

on the walls.

Travis enticing the restaurant cat.

I almost fell down the stairs trying to get her attention. for real.

The view.

In the mountains.

2011-11-06T06:39:00.001-06:00

Genova, Italy.

I T A L I A

2011-11-06T04:01:00.001-06:00

Greetings from the land of delicious food, fantastic wine, late nights, energetic fans, gorgeous countryside --and shotty, shotty internet. We are still alive and well.

I just got back from walking to the leaning tower of pisa! How ridiculous that it is just standing there less than a quarter of a mile from my hotel.

I took my picture in front of it. Walked straight up to it, with my head tilted all the way back like a child and let it dizzy me. It just looks silly in photos, but in front of you, it's kind of amazing that it hasn't toppled over. The entire square is really beautiful and full of ornate, huge, nearly unbelievable constructions. crazy.

ok. as tour goes, it's now very suddenly time to go.

ciao,

-aisha

Teeny

2011-11-01T11:38:00.000-05:00

Sometimes in France, you stay in tiny hotel rooms where you can do this:

Tonight I am on a top bunk with a much more gracious amount of headspace. Today is our day off. We woke up in Dudingen, Switzerland, and drove back to Luzern to stay in the venue we played at a few days ago. They have a room with bunk beds, a lounge, and a washer/dryer/shower room. We are pretty cozy. There is talk of doing some Meryll recording with Andrew. There is talk of walking about for a cinema outing. Today in a pizza-Kebap shop I watched Swiss MTV and saw a video of a collaboration between Lady Ga Ga and Tony Bennett. ?!? what in the world. That was followed by one featuring Avril Lavigne rolling around on the ground with green hair. I suppose it makes sense that MTV is entirely bizarre all over the globe. Today in the pizza-kebap shop I also ordered my food without any English. And I learned that Pepperoni is definitely a false cognate. (not meat, just actual peppers).

From my window I can see mountain tops. It's silent in our room, as we're all fixed on our own individual screen time. It's 5:30pm and we're operating by lamplight. The sun goes down so early here! I'm excited to creep down into the abandoned venue room, hopefully alone, hopefully not freaked out by the fact that we can't find any lights, and play some guitar by myself for a while. BUT, for now, I think its time to get to work on that Meryll song I spoke of.

tschüss!

-aisha

One, Two, Twins?

2011-11-01T11:14:00.000-05:00

Travis in real life.

A "Travis" look-a-like in 2D on a flyer found in our promoters house.

Bike Bar

2011-11-01T10:54:00.000-05:00

On Thursday, after recording in that huge church in Gent, we took a stroll down to where we ate dinner a year ago. It is such a peculiar feeling to return to a city on the other side of the world, that you haven't seen in more than a year, and know almost exactly where you are going.

We turned down some side streets, winding our way to a dark unmarked door to a place the boys called "bicycle bar." It is akin to some sort of Hobbit hole. Upon opening the door, and pulling back a velvety curtain, you have three picnic style tables to choose from--two of them well lit by hanging lamps, the third resting unattractive in the shadows, with piles of clothes stacked about. This old man runs it. He just brings you a random beer when you ask (no menus) and there are a million trinkets-- everywhere. He has 250 bicycles hanging from the ceiling, among hundreds of other things.

I am finding that there is no accurate collection of words to explain what it feels like to sit in this place. But here is an image for Austinites: If the Cathedral of Junk guy bought a hole in the wall space and opened a bar, it would be sort of like this.

This guy also runs a digital guestbook on a desktop computer that looks as though it rolled off the factory shelves in 2002. He appears table side somewhat suddenly from the shadows of the ~~crypt~~ bar, and pressures each member of your party to sign said book. Dylan went. Then Michael (<--semi-scolded for not following the bar owners directions to a tee. You must end your post with the city you are from). Then me. After struggling to navigate my way around the Dutch keyboard, I signed with great compliments. As dark and bizarre as that place was, I really loved how secret it seemed and how there probably isn't another place on the Earth just like it. It takes some kind of courage, strength of vision or, I don't know, a degree of gentle delusion to open a place as cluttered, strange and unconventional as this.

All in all, if you can find it, go there. I liked it.

He talked to me for a good while...It's probably safe to say he liked me. He spent entirely too much time googling the Dutch name of the bar, then clicking on the Google search results to show me how popular it was. Page 8. Page 15. Page 34. All the way to PAGE 52 (!!?!)! The boys glanced at me from their table to see if I needed rescuing. "I kept looking back to see if you were in uncomfortable mode, but you were just smiling so broadly!" Rob said. Which is true! It's all true. I was laughing nearly non stop, completely taken by the ridiculousness of the situation. Sitting beside some old man who first is showing me catalogues of his train car collection, then bragging about his bar's stature by the vastness of its Google presence, and all with absolutely no shame.

Before I got up, and before he might have over charged us for our beers, he asked me to sign my entry "kisses from Austin, Texas."

Needless to say, I did not.

Photos

2011-10-31T14:22:00.000-05:00

Some photos from our first day in Europe.

Off the plane, through the airport, in the van, straight away to this:

warming up.

(literally. It was freezing in there. During soundcheck, in-between songs, I slid my hands back into my sleeves and breathed down them to bring my fingers back to life).

Rob.

Travis. Kendall.

Feet (mine).

Right behind us.

We spent a day recording for our next record and heard a previously unexplained animalistic cry in the background. The church is located in a small fenced in neighborhood, with a huge gate that is locked faithfully at midnight every day (locking you in if you are a straggler, locking you out if you are late. strange). Anyhow, all this to say that after exiting the church to investigate the sound, I didn't expect to find two cows moo-ing in the excitement of feeding time.

Travis, Kendall, and I stood outside their fence and watched, while the farmer stared curiously at us, dropped the bucket and walked away.

Brussels

2011-10-30T19:29:00.000-05:00

This is what its like.

"Candor"

France

2011-10-29T17:35:00.001-05:00

We've just finished our late night post show dinner at the home of our promoter. He walked us to his place, brought many bottles of wine and beer, and left us in the living room while he cooked a very, very delicious meal. So nice! so. gooood. Barley, chicken and ratatouille. We stuffed ourselves. and now we're walking to the hotel at long last. Maybe i'll tell you more about our day tomorrow if the internet gods are good to us.

ta ta,
-aisha

Ghent

2011-10-27T18:52:00.000-05:00

Greetings from Belgium!

We made it! We landed on Wednesday, and were off to quite the speedy start. But it's about 1:30am and we have to wake up at 9 tomorrow, so we'll see what my brain can do with about 20 minutes.

Last night we played in the Sint Elisabethkerk for the second time in almost exactly one year. That place creates such us massive sound! Its also, unfortunately, does a supreme job and insulating frigid, frigid air. I forgot how difficult it is to play an instrument that depends solely on the very specific muscle memory of your fingertips when you can't really feel your finger tips. crazy. But I think we did alright for having been awake for 30 something hours straight. That day of travel is a doozy. And although I slept on the plane for a good amount of time, I may have been the only one.

Afterward, we signed a bunch of things (cds, posters, the inside of someone's coat--haha), and then split up to go to bed. A few of us stayed with our friend Braum. He's been to all of our shows in Ghent, and this is the third time in a row he's hosted some balmies! And its so nice to walk into a familiar place with a friend even when on the other side of the world.

Travis, Kendall, and I pocketed our exhaustion for a while and couldn't resist staying up and chatting with Braum and his girlfriend Hayde. She made us tea, and he brought up some Belgian beer from their basement. Trav was amazed, apparently, he housed quite the collection. We talked about America and Belgium and fast food and Starbucks and how stupid it is that we all paid thousands of dollars per semester of college. Except our hosts--In Belgium, even if your parents are well off, you pay around $500 for the year. Sooo crazy.

It is cold here and this town is lovely. All day we walked on cobble stone roads, dodged bicycles, and struggled to read Flemish (or Dutch? They are similar) signs. Its so much quieter here at night, being miles and miles from the highway. And it could just be me, but it feels a little calmer here. I like it.

Ok. sleep time.

-aisha

Ta ta!

2011-10-25T16:27:00.001-05:00

Boarding our flight to Brussels!!!!

Up All Night

2011-10-25T05:29:00.000-05:00

I've deleted the start to this sentence about four times now (I just decided that the honest approach is the way to go), and its got to have something to do with my brain running at about half speed. In 3.5 hours I will have been awake for a full day.

This is the part in the pre-tour prep time when I stay up through the night (packing, cleaning, organizing--that is my method of choice) to ensure some kind of miraculous sleep for the full duration of the flight to Europe! It sounds slightly tortuous, but it works every time. Once that plane takes flight, my eyes are open just long enough to push all the appropriate buttons to make 30 Rock appear on the headrest screen before me, get cosy under that tiny complimentary blanket, annnnd then I'm out. hard. deep. beautiful sleep.

...But I'm hours from that, so lets not talk about it.

Lets talk about this:

My armoire.

My wardrobe.

That is the full spread of what will live in my my bag. ( far left) My favorite boots, tiny impractical black wanna be oxfords, ballerina flats on their last leg, new Simple shoes--water repellant and warm and fuzzy on the inside.

Next up: shirts for the stage. Followed by pants land. Followed by shirts to relax in. Bookended by warm things. That's all of it. For three whole weeks. Three, cold weeks. Three sure to be fantastic weeks.

Yeah..it's 5am and I'm not technically fully packed. But, well I had to give myself something to stay awake for. Ever feel like life is a series of you tricking yourself and tricking yourself over and over again?

Two and half hours until breakfast!

Look at that. We're not even gone yet and already I'm blabbing about food.

Alright, until the time change, ta ta!

-aisha

Fall European Tour 2011

2011-10-18T20:04:00.000-05:00

Exactly one week from today, I will be walking around on the other side of the Earth.

Balmorhea's fifth European extravaganza begins October 25th.

As usual, check back here for all the ~~dirty~~ deets.

Can't. wait. (!)

-aisha

October 26

Sint-Elisabethkerk

Gent, Belgium

w/ Christina Vantzou

October 28

Bozar

Brussels, Belgium

October 29

Le Ceeac

Strasbourg, France

October 30

Treibhaus

Luzern, Switzerland

October 31

Bad Bonn

Düdingen, Switzerland

November 2

Scighera

Milan, Italy

November 3

La Claque

Genova, Italy

November 4

Bronson

Ravenna, Italy

November 5

Caracol

Pisa, Italy

November 6

Mattatoio

Carpi, Italy

November 7

Init

Rome, Italy

November 8

Menza Pri Koritu

Ljubljana, Slovenia

November 9

B72

Vienna, Austria

November 11

HBC

Berlin, Germany

November 12

Feinkost Lampe

Hannover, Germany

November 14

Haus 73

Hamburg, Germany

November 15

Paradiso

Amsterdam

(Poster by Matthew Genitempo)

Homecoming - September 10

2011-09-11T02:21:00.007-05:00

! We made it back to Austin, safe and sound, my friends. I would love to tell you way too much about a mostly boring day, save for the few hours spent at Emos and my post show hangout with Andrew and Alex Dupree, but I am exhausted. We will see how much I get through. Tour is a tiring thing! And I'm nearly convinced that you feel it the most once you get home and lay in your own bed. It's like it all falls down on you right then.

BUT I will share that we played at Emos outside tonight as a part of the Wild Frontier Fest and it was so much fun! Granted, there is a silly amount of stress that comes with trying to set up and line check a 7 piece band that uses 20 some odd channels on the mixing board (weeee have a lot of stuff) in 10 minutes (deeeefinitely went over that). But we made it through. It was a quick show. People squished together as far as I could see. Lots of dancing. Lots of hooting and yelling and clapping. We only played 5 songs or so, but they were good ones. Fun ones! It definitely was not the most flawless set but hey, the people liked it.

We signed some records, some posters, some cds. Met some new fans. Met some excited old fans and posed for pictures (?!).

How in the world did I get here? Life is weird, but this is pretty great. And as life goes, this won't go on forever. So here's to my attempt to soak it all in now. I try to remember every detail of these days, so when I tell this story when I'm old, my kids might somehow believe that way back when, their mother was pretty alright at that there violin and played music with super talented good-hearted musicians--and for some reason, hundreds of people stood to listen.

Good night friends.

It's been a good one!

Until next time,

-aisha

September 8

2011-09-10T14:43:00.003-05:00

Saturday. The tour is almost over. We are currently trudging through some Dallas area traffic and listening to Broken Social Scene to keep our spirits up. Just three hours to the last show! But lets time warp for a quick second!

Wednesday we played in St. Louis, MO, after waking up in Bloomington, IN. We ate breakfast there with David Chapman, Travis' dad, before leaving the small college town for the big city.

St. Louis, St. Louis! I've driven your highways twice now, walked a grand total of 4 blocks, and I still have absolutely no sense of what you are like! I really hoped to finally ride up to the top of the famous arch, and to explore The City Museum. I'm writing from my cell phone so I can't link you to it, but its some sort of awesome museum that also functions as an all ages fun zone--think giant replica of a cave, giant spirally shiny slide, huge climbable tunnel fun land, etc. You know, all the great things about Discovery Zone that you loved as a kid and wished existed for your adult self.

Maybe I'm building this up in my mind... anyway, the St Louis show was infinitely better than our Bloomington performance, save for the fact that hardly anyone was there. 50 people? Maybe? We decided it would fall into the bucket of great but unmemorable evenings. Its weird how much the crowd shapes how you feel about things.

Thursday was an epic driving day. 10 hours! From Missouri to Dallas. Something about our breakfast at Denny's kept us full for 7 hours. Ugh. The day was comprised of mediocre food and weird mid western gas station stop after weird Midwestern gas station stop. We must've looked like freaks. Kendall with his long hair. Me with my Jamaican hair. And the mustasche men ambling about. The locals definitely found us um interesting to say the least, if their bewildered stares meant anything at all.

But we eventually made it out of the Midwest and back into Texas, nestled into our sheets and the familiarity and peculiarity of a suburban Dallas neighborhood.

Texas!

2011-09-10T14:00:00.003-05:00

Sept. 9

Dallas! At long last we made it back to Texas. After sleeping in at Mike's Dad's house, and eating scrambled eggs (18 to be exact) prepared by Mr. Kendall Clark, we loaded up and were on our way to Deep Ellum.

Club Da Da hosted a festival presented by Spune. Six bands, two stages, free stuff. why not? Today was one of those days where I wish I'd done some sort of time stamped journal, so when people get jealous and imagine that every moment of being on tour is thrilling and glamorous I can show them what happens most days. We loaded in at 2:30, and had a doozy of a soundcheck. I think we tapped out at about 5:15. Then we proceeded to undo half of what was just done, to make room for the three bands playing before us (this is way more frustrating than it sounds). We walk down the street to dinner. Eat entirely too much food. And then it's 7 o'clock...and we aren't scheduled to play until 11:30. awesome.

So what do we do? Grab a beer. Sit around. Twiddle our thumbs. The boys seek out Baseball on the TV and find it. I groan and wine and scoff. When they are huddled around the screen so enthralled, captivated--mesmerized one might say--in a sport that woos my attention for no longer than a meager 10 seconds, I am blatantly reminded that I am the only girl among 6 dudes. They watch. go on walks. And I wander. Somehow, after watching a couple sets, chatting and warming up, 11:00 rolls around.

We set up quickly did a short sound check and played the show and it was great!! The crowd was big and so excited. We all played super well. We've put together a pretty "rockin" set, as Andrew would say. Something like: Settler, Clamor, Coahuila, Night Squall, Candor, Harm and Boon and two new untitled songs. f.u.n. Everything sounded awesome from what I could hear. And people were hollering, un-bashfully cheering and seemingly having a blast. Now tell me, what more can you ask for?

photo by Clare Dempsey.

September 7

2011-09-08T18:30:00.002-05:00

Breakfast with Travis' dad. He rode his motorcycle all the way from Austin to Bloomington, IN.

Recap - Bloomington

2011-09-08T18:11:00.001-05:00

It has happened again- I let this thing get away from me. So now begins the series of back tracking posts.

Bloomington, indiana, home of the University of Indiana. This is probably the most random city on the map that we have now played four times for some reason.

But perhaps that has something to do with Bloomington also being the home of Travis' brother Austin, who is also a member of a string laden orchestral band called Brother John. They are a rotating cast of classically trained musicians led by composer/songwriter Travis Jeffords.

He stands front and center guitaring alongside Austin and before 15 people with music stands. Their sound is voluminous, made of voaclists, violins, a viola, cello, bass, flute, bassoon, drums, and some other instrumentalists I can't quite see. They incorporate some samples, some wordless vocals, thoroughly composed parts- perhaps the most sonically compatible opening band for balmorhea.

...too bad we had more flubs in our set than we'd like to remember. What are the odds that we would all make mistakes we never ever make?

Note: shows most definitely go better when the whole band has had more than 5 hours of sleep and has not just finished four straight 12 hour days recording in the studio.Go figure.Its okay though, things would get better.

Soma Day 4

2011-09-05T20:28:00.004-05:00

Well, yesterday was a bit intense. Lets just say, there were many takes of many things. Lots o scratch tracks. Lots o tracks scratched. BUT it turned out fine. Today we hopped back in and finished up the second song and haaaaaa it sounds GREAT! This record...man. I think I can safely speak for everyone and say that we're all more excited about this than any full length we've recorded before.

Mike is scurrying around, gathering our cups and glasses and washing them up. Kendall is packin up drums in the tracking room. Rob and Andrew are working on a final rough mix, while Travis and I sit back and enjoy the hugeness of this track!

We've enjoyed our time at Soma so much. Most of our time was spent inside these walls (nearly 12 hours a day), but we got to venture out into the neighborhood a little bit. From all that I saw, I have to say, Chicago is a pretttty cool town.

Good times. Fun times. We're packin up and headin out.

ciao.

-aisha

Soma Collage

2011-09-05T12:22:00.006-05:00

Welcome to Soma.

Michael. Tracking bass.

yup.

photo by Michael Muller

listening back.

The Set up.

Synth jam sesh.

Peeking at the hall mic.

Andrew, the magician.

Twins.

Soma Day 2

2011-09-03T16:58:00.006-05:00

5:00pm - This is our fifth hour in the studio today and things are going as good as they ever were! I just finished tracking some electric guitar. Mike is fiddling around on the bass here in the control room while Andrew is figuring out just the perfect sound. This control room looks like it is the brain of some sort of space station. The mixing board faces the window out into the tracking room. To its left and right sit two long wooden panels filled with more gear than I care to or know how to identify and explain. Knobs, knobs, knobs everywhere. Lights. Buttons. Cords. There's a whole wall of snyth keyboards and analog snyths that look akin to old telephone switchboards. And this thing:

which immediately makes me think its true purpose is to control a silvery robotic arm picking up and moving things around on the moon.

We are still working on the same song, but it's sounding prettttty great I think!

Dinner time all together once we get this bass done done done.

Soma Day 1

2011-09-02T23:16:00.005-05:00

We played at The Empty Bottle in Chicago last night and had a blast. Sweet venue. Cool people.Great Bill (feat. Jon Mueller and Brokeback).

I'm writing to you now from the dimly lit control room at Soma, the recording studio where we are tracking new songs for our next full length album. We've been in here since about 1pm, chugging away at the same song, tedious perfected piece, by tedious perfected piece. Rob is working on a vibraphone part, Michael is rolling around the wooden floored room in a wheely chair, and Andrew is at the helm, sittin behind the board, making things sound pretty magical!

We are taking our time. We are getting things just right. And we've got a long way to go.

Here are some photos from today. Enjoy.

Listening Back.

Synthing Out.

Colony Village Restaurant

2011-09-02T22:13:00.005-05:00

The Spot.

Store Front.

Big ol doors.

?!?

Andrew standing before an astounding dusty collection

of women's bowling trophies from the 1980s.

Gettin the heck outta there.

Notes

2011-09-02T13:52:00.001-05:00

Mustachemen

2011-09-01T15:33:00.001-05:00

Tuesday

2011-08-31T13:15:00.003-05:00

What tour is like

Basement green room.

400 Bar.

Minneapolis, MN.

Dylan

2011-08-30T12:31:00.002-05:00

Kansas city, MO

Kansas City Morning

2011-08-30T12:29:00.001-05:00

Puppy fest at Robs feet. Kendall's moms abode.

Yesterday's big feat

2011-08-30T12:24:00.001-05:00

Finished the saddest book ever.
Beloved. By Toni Morrison.

Midwest Tour Yall

2011-08-30T12:19:00.001-05:00

I always start out with the best of intentions for this thing, and then half way through every American tour, I give up completely BUT, here's to second chances!

And technology.

Yes friends, I've joined the masses and stepped aboard the fancy phone cruise ship. I am currently posting from the van as Andrew drives us through Iowa.

The whole gang is back together again. We are reading books, we are delving into some podcasts, we are listening to some synthy music, we are staring at water falling from the sky like we've never seen it before.

Mostly because we can't remember when we saw it last. When we left Texas two days ago, it was nearly 110 degrees. The high for our destination tonight is 74..?!! A 36 degree difference? Edit: Balmorhea winter tour.

Well, Time to get annihilated at Scrabble by dylan. Four hours to go in this van!

-aisha

home home home!

2010-11-22T08:57:00.005-06:00

We made it!

We are all back in our respective cities, safe and sound after a day of soaring above oceans and states and flying down interstate highways.

I was greeted last night by my roommate sitting on the porch holding this sign she made well above her head.

awesome.

Today was the first morning I've woken up alone in a room and it felt completely odd. And although I came to without an alarm, without an itinerary, I still immediately got up, brushed my teeth, changed clothes and began doing things: hanging up clothes in my closet, calling in maintenance requests for the new house, unpacking things..etc. I think I have forgotten what it's like to wake up and just...lay.

There will be some sort of summary or list of updates, and highlights, and photos, but first I think I need to remember how to be static and not have a thing to do.

...right after I run to El Chilito for some breakfast tacos (!! My first tortillas and warm breakfast in weeks!) You have no idea how badly I want this. Texas, I love you.

Nov. 17

2010-11-18T05:11:00.003-06:00

A Brief Foreword: I spent part of this blog bragging about the internet in the van and then it failed me-cut out just as I was about to post this. So pretend its yesterday and that this is in fact a timely account of things. ok, then. carry on.

--

Epic fail on updating the tour blog. oops.

We are rounding out the last days of this adventure. It's been a pretty great run.

Last night we played in Hamburg with Rachel Grimes. She's an amazing pianist who just released a new album and played in an awesome band that inspired Balmorhea called Rachel's. I've listened to their records so much--it was daunting to play for her. But I think it all went very well.

I just realized that I don't realllly feel like writing at the moment, but it's fun because we have internet in the van in Germany. I am writing from the van! I am writing you while in transit! This is the future, I suppose.

um.. que mas?

Highlights:

-opened for a band called Tindersticks in Utrect, Netherlands. Lots o people. Crazy to out and see the standing room packed full of faces. But more insane look up and see full balcony space(!)

-Can't remember if I told you that we played in a huge cathedral in Gent, Beligum with cellist Julia Kent (She won't say it herself, but she's played with many, many bands and is completely amazing). It was built in the 18th century and everything sounded amazing and so, so huge. A couple hundred people showed up I think. And they bought all the merch that we'd predicted would last us till the end of the tour. ridiculous . How in the world does this happen?

Tonight we are supposed to play on some sort of boat in Rostock, Germany. Should be interestingggg. only one more show after this...This has completely flown by! I don't feel tired at all. The rhythm of this, being on the road, has become so normal to me now that I'm not anxious to be home. But, that said, It's currently in the low 40s here in Germany, and I must admit that I can't. wait. for. some. Texas. weather.!!

Home on Sunday!
See you guys soon,
Aisha

Nov. 13th - France

2010-11-13T12:00:00.002-06:00

Hello!

I haven't written in days. Forgive me. But things have been going swell. They got weird for a second, but then got way, way better. We played to an enthusiastically full house in Madrid. Travis played his bass in a cage in what is usually a gay bar in Bilbao, Spain. Yesterday, we played in an enormous cathedral in Gent, Belgium that was build in the 18th century. ...And nearly sold out of all the merch that was projected to last us until the end of the week (!!).

It's been so great. I am not anxious to go home. I am not anxious for things to end. Everything is moving at the right pace, I feel. We are about to eat dinner before we play a house show in France at a very lovely, cozy abode.

This is the life, I think.

-aisha

2010-11-07T10:44:00.004-06:00

some old photos...

carpi, italy

Nov. 7 - Me Gusta Este Pais

2010-11-07T08:36:00.002-06:00

I was too lazy to go with Andrew to get pizza.
I am too lazy to get up and figure out the heater.
And I think I am also too lazy to write you a verbose update about the great time we have had in Spain.

But I'll give you just a little...

Basically, I love it here. Last night was our show in Ourense, Spain. If you ever get to gallivant about this country, you should definitely stop here. The outer edge of the city is a wall of rolling, lush hills, with a glowing river that winds all around. At different spots along the river are banks of natural hot springs, where you can sit and bask and do whatever you do in a hot spring.

We got to see the old city center this morning. Lots of old churches, old government buildings a big plaza where we prowled through a market of antiques. Everything made of a grayish stone, most of the roads cobblestone.

Our promoter led us around this morning. He took us out to dinner last night for Tapas and local wine with some of his family who all work for the venue. We had a pretttty great time! They are all so warm and welcoming and happy to get to know us, even me, the quiet one.

The show sold out at 90 people. It was a small place, but the crowed was close, packed together, sitting just at our feet. They were so incredibly silent during each song, but then exploded with joyous applause immediatley after. So, so fun. It's something about the energy in small spaces like that that I can't fully communicate--but it defintely makes for a great, moving, memorable show.

We signed some things, talked with excited fans, had some beers and called it a night.

Spain surely does do it right.

Two more hours of free time until load in for the show tonight! yesss!

-aisha

2010-11-04T11:14:00.000-05:00

view from my window. Lleida, Spain.

2010-11-04T11:07:00.005-05:00

Andrew in the Pyrenees

Nov. 3 - Balm vs. The Pyrenees - Chapter 2

2010-11-04T11:06:00.002-05:00

6:30pm - We are in Spain. The sun is down. It looks like the middle of night. The van is quiet. We're all tired or dazed or bored or something.

7:00 we reach the edge of Lleida! We are baffled by civilization. Other people. Lights. Buildings. Flatland.

7:30 - we pull up to the venue, over two hours late. Set up, soundcheck, walk to dinner with our promoter, who doesn't seem to care about our existence at all. "What can you make in 5 minutes?" he asks the cafe owner. The guy laughs, and points to his watch and says not much. "Is bread with Tuna okay?" the promoter asks us. A couple of us explain that we don't really like tuna. "Fine. Bread with Ham then?? What about bread with Ham?" He's speaking urgently. "Is there a menu we could look at?" Andrew asked. "WE DON't HAVE TIME! There is NO TIME!" He snaps back.

It's 9:20. The show is scheduled to start at 10. Doors supposedly opened at 9, however, there was absolutely no one waiting to get in when we left. This guy is uptight and angry for no valid reason. He's already told us that the don't expect many people. WE were the ones stuck in a van, lost in the twists and turns of the mountains. Surely, someone knew that tunnel was closed...At any rate, we tried to be polite. He tried to rush us every step of the way. "They are slow. So we must eat very fast," he says. "We're not in a hurry," Travis murmurs. "We have to eat some food, just for our sanity," Michael says kindly. An unsympathetic face. "Seven hours in the mountains..." I grumble, grabbing my "dinner," wondering how I'm going to make myself eat this ham."Well, it's very important the show starts on time," angry promoter man snaps. He sits for a minute more, then gets up and walks away. Leaving us to pay for a "dinner" we were led to believe would be paid for. What a sweetheart.

And that's where I'll stop talking about him. He doesn't care. He is pissed off. We play the show, and play it well. Never, have we worked with someone so disinterested, so disgruntled, so supremely rude.

But--in complete contrast with the rest of the evening, we pull into what must've been at least a three or four star hotel. And it's allll free. The boys give me a room to myself. I can't tell if sharing a room with a girl really makes them that uncomfortable or if they're just trying to be nice. I always assume it's the former. They like to shove me off into girl island sometimes, which I typically don't enjoy. I was momentarily perturbed, but then decided to enjoy the alone time. I watched 5 minutes of Hook on the Disney Channel in Spanish (I'm not sure why). took a glorious shower, and for the first time in three nights, slept in my real pajamas.

What a day.

Nov. 3 - Balm vs. The Pyrenees

2010-11-04T10:49:00.007-05:00

10:40am - I wake up to the bell tower alarm sound blaring from Robs iphone. Dylan and Rob are on a thin mattress on the floor. I am sleeping on a futon that our host declared was the location of some..eh, we'll say scandalous encounter. (gross--why, oh why did he have to tell us that? Couldn't he just change the sheets in silence? I sleep with the day's clothes on). Anyway, the alarm goes off. We lay on the floor as though we hadn't heard it. I brush my teeth and get out of there.

11:00am - After a great parking debacle (we were blocked in by a medical car), we arrive at the hotel and retrieve the rest of the band. So rested and fresh-faced...jerks (chiste). We stop at a roadside cafeteria where everything is hot with the illusion of real food, however, it all tastes very strongly of nothingness. I order "fish," "roasted vegetables" and "rice," with a bottle of water and relinquish 12 euro.

Noonish- we are on our way to lleida, Spain, leaving France, and all that stands between us are the great Pyrenees mountains! We have done this drive before, and it's beautiful, climbing up and up through the tree lined switch backs until you reach the snowy peaks, and then come back down again. So up and up we go! Michael is driving. We are wide eyed, glued to the windows. We pull off
to take some photos. I jump out for some pics that don't do the thing any justice. But I love that feeling of standing and being made aware of how massive the world is, being dwarfed by the mountains. People finish their cigarettes, climb down off choice viewing points and buckle up in the van. onward.

But not for long.

This whole way, we've been seeing some sort of temporary electronic sign featuring the word "tunnel." We guessed it meant that a ROAD to the one tunnel you take through the mountains was closed. But sure enough, we roll up to it's entrance and it's definitely shut down.

Thus begins what will become 7 hours of driving through, in, around, getting lost in, the Pyrenees mountains.

We got vague directions from the road worker, with Andrew as our translator. The boys bought a map, tried to get the GPS to create an alternate route.

And this is where I mentally check out. Never in my life have I been car sick. But today, with that glorified TV dinner sloshing around left to right with extreme switch back after switch back, hour after hour--ugh. I thought I must be in some extreme reality show challenge. "Hey, see how much of this gross food you can consume! Fill yourself, because you won't be eating for 9 more hours. Oh, haha, and now we're going to drive you dizzy up and down the mountains for 7 consecutive hours! But wait, don't drink too much water to avoid the affects of the climbing altitude, because they're aren't bathrooms in the mountains, silly!"

A few hours later, the boys pee outside. The Police drive by, and stare, but don't seem to care.

Meanwhile - I'm laying down, trying not to watch the blurry scenery. "Think about your elbows," I tell myself for some reason. I was paying too much attention to the whirling feeling consuming my head, the dehydration headache, the cartwheels my stomach was performing...

Tuesday - France

2010-11-03T19:07:00.006-05:00

ok. I have 20 minutes of internet left and if I want to continue thinking of myself as a good daughter, I should save some time to skype call my mom. But oh GOSH the past two days have left me with lots of words, so we'll just talk about Tuesday for now.

I'm not quite sure how to begin...

Tuesday

We pulled up to the venue, and parked while Mike ran in to assess the situation. We began to conjure up all sorts of horrible scenarios when a second look at the info sheet revealed the venue's capacity to be 40. Not 400. Not 40 times 3. Just..40. In about 3 minutes, Mike hops back in the van and says, "Literally, I can jump from one side to the other. We're not going to fit in there."

And really, we shouldn't have. I could've done about 1 cartwheel in there and got half way through the second one before I crashed into the wall. But we decided to play an acoustic set and squeezed ourselves in there akwardly in front of the bar. Mike and Rob on acoustics, Dylan celloing right before me; Travis on the "stage;" Kendal borrowing the other bands drums; and me perched up on the bar countertop. silly. Maybe 20 people squished themselves down the stairs and into this hobbit hole. We played about 3 old songs we never, ever play, and tried some acoustic versions of other things. All in all, we did the best with what we had. A girl came up to me afterward and said she cried during our set. ? How we accomplished that with our hodgepodge impromtu arrangements, I have no cluse. But somehow we sold some merch and garnered some applause. bizzare.

I skipped the part about how we ate Chinese food for the third night in a row. We come to France, we eat Chinese...is there some connection here that i've missed? Anyway, that was hilarious. I don't have the time, nor the skill in political correctness to explain the comic value of our waiter. Funny, funny man, continually speaking to us in French about food we didn''t really understand, and opened and closed the night by obnoxiously banging on a tiny, tiny gong.

I will also skip the part about how I slept. Sometimes an absence of words is best, I think.

tomorrow, hopefully I'll get a chance to tell you about what it's like to drive through the mountains for over seven hours and then meet the worst promoter ever.

but until then, I'm going to sleep in this swanky, free, hotel.

night,
-aisha

Tissues, Tissues, French Tissues

2010-11-01T14:33:00.002-05:00

it is 8:10pm. I am in France, and I haven't left this awkward, poorly lit room in nearly 12 hours. It's like my body has some 6th sense. It knows exactly when we might have some time in a town that is cool and decides to retract the immune system gates and let a virus of sorts waltz on in.

Gee, thanks.

But really, this is probably the best time in the whole tour to be sick. Today is our second consecutive day off, and lucky for me we've booked this hotel for two nights. It is not the coziest place we've been in (my bed, unfolded and placed diagonally across the floor, seems like some sort of afterthought), but as I go down the list of creature comforts, they are all present: AC/Heating, more than one tiny lamp light, bathroom, shower, toilet(!), warm water, windows.

Last night, I felt terrible. It took four blankets on top of me sleeping in tights, jeans, a t-shirt, and sweater for warmth to find me. I felt similar symptoms to the death flu I had in Prague last spring and silently panicked. But Travis was kind enough to give me some Theraflu. Rob retrieved hot water and a mug so I could prepare that awful-tasting medicine, and Andrew kept me company so I wouldn't be all alone.

I am on tour with the nicest boys ever.

While everyone has wandered about, found the sea, found food and acquired new garments at H&M (!), I've been confined to this bed. I feel sort of like Repunzel, gazing out of this balcony window, watching people strolling about in the real world and wishing I could come down. But it's cold and rainy and I know I have to stay bundled in here while I can. Tomorrow we have a show..somewhere in France.

I woke up to food the boys brought up for me from the Hotel's breakfast buffet. Then I set what would be my routine for the day: 1) Play a few rounds of Unblock Me on my ipod touch. (It's a game where you have to skillfully re-arrange wooden blocks to free a Red block to puzzles the exit.) 2) sleep. alot. 3) play a few rounds of Unblock Me. 4) sleep..

I think you get the idea.

Throw in there my waking up and pretending not to be asleep whenever anyone walks in, just because I've grown tired of being alone. We chat, they leave. And I go back to the routine.

I make it sound terrible, but I guess it hasn't been. I Skyped a bit with family. Wrote some folks. Thought a lot. It's rare to ever this much time to yourself. It's not so bad. But hopefully this illness has about had enough of me, cause I'm quite sure I'm done with it.

2010-11-01T03:56:00.001-05:00

just a fun little something made magically by a fan with photos from the show in Ravenna, Italy.

http://www.maikid.com/home/blog/balmorhea/

Ravenna, Italy

2010-10-30T13:34:00.002-05:00

Ciao!

We've only been gone for just over a week and already I am sick. It doesn't seem to be too bad, though. Maybe just a cold. But in the past three hours or so I've had 2.5 bottles of water, 1 tall glass of orange juice, 3 tea cups of Echinacea, fruit, veggies and a Sudafed. Lets hope I'm ambling down the path to a speedy recovery!

Tonight will be our last show in Italy. The town, Ravenna, is small and Industrial, but (a fact for the pack of trivia fiends I know) this is the town where Dante died and was buried. That's the big tourist attraction for this place, along with a music festival that occurs in the summer, right at the beach. The venue I'm writing you from is pretty nice. big stage. great sound. a greenroom bountiful with fancy cheese, fruit, tea, beer, meats, breads, some strange cheetoh thing that Travis kept throwing into people's mouths. Hope the show is swell! Things have been sounding pretty good these days.

Ok. I'm off to find a real bathroom. This is the second venue in a row where the bathroom consists of a porcelin hole in the ground... !? You have to squat! Everyone. Even ladies. not cool. not fun. I walked to a bar down the road last night with Dylan and Kendal, and bought everyone a drink, all for the sake of a real, legit toilet. Italy, I love your red wine. And your hearty dinners. But gosh, someone explain the lack of a seat!

2010-10-30T13:10:00.002-05:00

Slovenia

backstage- Slovenia

Photos: Poland

2010-10-28T03:10:00.001-05:00

Wednesday - Rome show!

2010-10-27T19:41:00.005-05:00

! I think it finally may have just set in that we just played in Rome. Rome!! Things are so old here! haha. And the streets are incredibly narrow. Never before have I wished for the vehicle containing my body to morph into a smart car. This is why I will never drive the van in Europe.

We travel around in this behemoth of a van and have to shimmy down streets made for pixies. We (and no joke here) literally drove through one of the archways of an ancient Roman Aqueduct... !! An Aqueduct!! Why are there even roads through those? One wrong turn or slip of the hand and boom, there goes ages and ages of history! AGH! But I guess when a city this ancient grows this large, you have to forge the new right up against the very, very, VERY old.

We arrived safe and sound, thanks to Michael's skilled maneuvering (no thanks to the crazy, erratic Italian drivers). And after one of the longest, most frustrating soundchecks of my life (but really, any sound check that delays dinner becomes quickly frustrating...), we got to play a really, really fun show. I'm not sure that I'd say it was better than last night's performance in Carpi (we've been recording our shows and critiquing them), but my gosh the energy was awesome. I'd say this was our biggest European crowd yet! Maybe 250? No se. The crowd went back pretty darn far. And they were so excited!

We played our encore, then headed out to the merch booth were we sold (and autographed) an unbelievable amount of records! Twas pretty incredible! I am still blown away when people react like this, so warm and gracious and thrilled. It was awesome. Then I thought of how much the way you feel about a performance hinges on the crowd's reaction to it all. You could play some strange things, but if after walking down from that stage to mingle with people who couldn't be more pleased and ecstatic, you can't help but feel like you've done something right.

Our promoters fed us a great dinner with a feast of backstage breads, fine cheeses, fruits, crackers, and wine. And now, we're all nestled into the hotel they booked us for the night. Europe definitely does it right. It's 3am and finally feels like bedtime. Kendall just turned in. Dylan's watchin movies I believe. And I'm here in my little Ish corner, interneting like a mad woman. Life as the only girl on the road ain't half bad, if you were wondering.

till next time,
-aisha

Recap! Monday - Ljubljana, Slovenia

2010-10-27T19:18:00.005-05:00

Alright friends, time for a little update!

I'm not quite sure where to start but lets rewind to Monday in Slovenia, just for fun. First day off! woo! We slept in, quiiiite nicely. ...too nicely, really. We were supposed to meet our promoter, Rok, for lunch at 1pm...however, I was the first to wake up, falling out of bed at 12:30, and completely oblivious to our meeting time.. whoops. Wasn't until I felt that weird feeling you get when you think you're supposed to be somewhere that I decided to walk down to the venue and see if he or the other Balms were there. Turns out everyone slept in but me. But hey, sleeping 11 hours after driving through the night--i should expect nothing less!

Anyhow, we had a great, relaxed day. Ate some Falafel (twice), hung out at a coffee shop where we met an American working in Ljubljana as a bee keeper! crazy. Large rolls of colorful tape hung from the walls of this place, which were filled with patron's little creations. kinda fun. Trav and Kendall left a little Balm trace for all to see.

Later that night, we sat down with Rok, our promoter, and Samo, a man who helped with the production of the show. This guy was pretty cool! The boys spurred what became a contemporary Slovenian history lesson for us all. In the middle of that, he fell into the story of the venue we played at just the night before. It was one of four or so buildings on the edge of a small courtyard. The outsides were covered in graffiti art and eerie, obscure sculptures. For you austin kids, from the outside, it had the feel of the 21st st. co-op, but was a space run by artists. In the early 90s, Slovenian artists squatted these buildings, which were once military strongholds.

The city government however, wasn't too keen on this. They spied on the property, searching for every opportunity to out the squatters, not stopping short of cutting of the electricity and water. But Samo, ha, Samo, he was the one who found a way to steal electricity from near by towers. He was also the one to run out in the middle of the night and turn the water back on after the cops shut it off, only to run out again the next night and do it all again.

This went on for a year and a half, the creatives fighting to keep this public space. And eventually, the city gave in. The artists (dancers, musicians, painters etc) were permitted to stay, hassle free. And since then, the area has been a hub for the arts in Ljubljana. The club hosts shows throughout each week and cooks a mean vegan dinner for its bands.

awesome.

If I remember correctly we stayed up way too late. Our bodies don't really know what to do since we drove through the night a few days ago. It's currently 2:40am. I've given up on trying to sleep any sooner. Today was swell. I'll tell you all about it soon! Check out Slovenia if you ever get the chance!

-aisha

Wed. Rome

2010-10-27T18:24:00.000-05:00

Just played an awesome show in rome!!! Woo!!!

Sunday - Slovenia

2010-10-24T18:10:00.007-05:00

Im typing on a keyboard that has things in weird places. i gave up trying to log into facebook because i dont understand why pushing shift followed by the q which holds the key to the "at" button does not in fact type the at sign. there will also be no apostrophes in this message because i just dont know how. Anyhow, we did the craziest thing yesterday. We played a show in poland to an underground room packed with 50 people resting in living room furniture. it was the closest ive been to the audience. one man was literally 4inches from my foot, and andrew had audience members siting beside him at the mixing board.

then. then, ha. we drove. ..and drove some more.

...and more even still.

12 hours of driving.

Slovenia is far, far away. rob drove the entire way. the rest of us, aside from mike, tried our hardest to sleep but failed horribly. i watched the sky grow lighter and lighter until we finally arrived at this venue for tonight. feels like an artist co-op, made of mulitple buildings. 11:30am. we spilled out of the van like zombies and wandered our way up to a freezing little room with 7 tiny mattresses.

crazy.

but after sleeping 2 hours there and 5 more at our hostel we were refreshed and ready for what would be the best sounding show we ve ever played. it sounded awesome. andrew brought along a mic for the violin that is blowing my mind. FINALLY, the amplified tone of my instrument sounds like what a violin really sounds like!!

fun times.

its 1 am. we are in great spirits, but ready to sleep. we figured out that since leaving on tuesday, we have only had 2 nights of sleep. ...!! that..is..ridiculous. i am ready for a bed. much needed day off tomorrow!

-aisha

Day 2 - 1st show!

2010-10-22T18:44:00.003-05:00

I'm writing from my iPod touch so forgive me for the brevity! At some point I will explain why travis' bass didn't get on the plane and why half of the boys spent our evening off driving 5 hours to go 20 km. But until I get to type with all 10 fingers, you'll just have to wait and wonder and choose your own adventure. Do it. It's good for you. :)

today we drove for quite some time. Took us 4 hours to do a drive that shouldve been 2.5. Ugh. Poland, how do u shut down a major highway and provide only 1 detour lane? Anyway, we were very late, and in turn extremely rushed. Soundcheck was fast. It was the first time many of us had played since the begining of the week. Felt weird to me! But I think we did pretty swell. Double enchore!

It's nearly 2 am and we just got back to our hostel. Our promoters took us out to a underground bar (literally), which was entirely unmarked, save for the little red door. Good people, the promoters. It's so refreshing and exciting to be around ppl who work in music and love the art itself more than the bottom line. America, you've got a lot of catching up to do.

Anyhow, perhaps it's time for bed. We are all in bunk beds in one little room! You guys know how much I like camp Balmorhea! Haha. Ok.
Signing off frm poznan Poland ,
Aisha

We have arrived!

2010-10-21T05:28:00.003-05:00

I'm posting from the van! I'm posting from the van!

We are in Berlin on our way to pick up dylan and andrew from the airport. Oh what a day we've had already. ...it's fun when you get to the airport and your airline refuses to fly your double bass to europe...(!)

it's cold as heck and we're flyin by the seat of our pants here, but hey, at least theres free wifi in the van... :)

more later!

-Aisha

Pre-Tour All Nighter

2010-10-20T05:55:00.007-05:00

It is 5:56am, and I am sitting at my computer next to this adorable little dog who, unlike myself, can barely keep his eyes open. Forty minutes ago he abandoned his bed to follow me mindlessly around the apartment: to the kitchen to get some water, to the bedroom to internet (yup. its a verb), back to the kitchen because I forgot the glass of water on the counter. Everywhere I go, he replants himself. He lays chest down on the floor staring at me because not only am I keeping him awake (somehow), but I am boring him. Writing things. Typing things. Ignoring the braided rope-like toy he keeps dangling at my feet. And after the shortest bit of time, his Puggish eyes slowly droop down to a close. It is the cutest thing.

I, on the other hand, am wide awake. All it took was one long 2am shower and some OCD-style apartment cleaning, and I'll be watching the sunrise in no time! This is the game I play before every European Tour, starving myself of sleep in hopes that I'll hibernate on the plane in a pseudo night's rest and wake up just before landing jet lag free! Works like a charm. ...However, we are driving to Dallas this time around which has upped the ante to challenge mode, as there are few things better than an early morning 3 hour car ride to lull you to sleep.

crap...

WELL--I've made it this far. Rob and Mike (Rike? Mob?..I'll work on this) will be here to pick me up in an hour and half. Bag's all packed! I'm ready to go! Fourth time to Europe in a year and half (At what point do we just invest in a house there?). Austin friends: See you in a month! European buddies: Here we come!

Europe: Round FOUR

2010-10-18T23:20:00.003-05:00

That's right. It's that time again. Get ready for some tales...

s c h e d u l e

October 22
Kontenerart
Poznan, Poland

October 23
Pod Baszta
Ostrzeszow, Poland

October 24
Menza Pri Koritu
Ljubljana, Slovenia

October 26
Mattatoio
Carpi, Italy

October 27
Init
Rome, Italy

October 28
Teatro La Claque
Genova, Italy

October 29
Tetris
Trieste, Italy

October 30
Bronson
Ravenna, Italy

November 3
Cafe Del Teatre
Lleida, Spain

November 4
Lopez
Zaragoza, Spain

November 5
Jazz Cava
Vic, Spain

November 6
Cafe Pop Torgal
Ourense, Spain

November 7
La Iguana
Vigo, Spain

November 8
Sala Berlin
Zamora, Spain

November 9
La Boite
Madrid, Spain

November 11
Le Colisee
Colmar, France

November 12
Sint-Elisabethkerk
Gent, Belgium

November 14
Tivoli
Utrecht, The Netherlands

November 15
Steinbruch
Duisburg, Germany

November 16
Haus 73 Saal
Hamburg, Germany

November 17
Stubnitz
Rostock, Germany

November 18
Nato
Leipzig, Germany

Sunday - May 2

2010-05-04T21:53:00.006-05:00

Sunday

Driving, driving, driving, all the way from Flower Mound, Tx to Amarillo. Oh man, it had been two years since I'd been through west Texas. I forgot how starkly beautiful it is. I think it must've rained a significant amount while we were in Europe, because the fields were a deep, vibrant green, stretching out as far as you can see. And the sky, well, this is what I was talking about when I said I wish I had more photos. It just seemed enormous. This is all I got, a crude shot from the camera on my Macbook:

The clouds looked as though someone had fattened them up and then stretched them out, pulling them in small wisps down, closer to the earth. It is unspeakably refreshing to drive down a highway free from the sea of fast food restaurants and strip malls. Just open land, all around.

The second highlight of the evening was definitely this place

photo by M. Muller.

The Big Texan. It's the ultimate tourist trap with a gimmick that only the insane would find too good to resist: if you can finish their famous 72 oz. steak, you get it all for free. Ok. Please. Take one moment to remember that 16 oz. makes a pound. Alright. Now consider this steak once more. 72 oz?!?

So of course we went in...And it is hilarious. A country band of very, very, very old men wander about the space, serenading tables with old country classics and hits. The double bass player seems the sassiest, with a furry monkey hanging from the instrument's scroll. The jolly-looking lead singer sauntered by our table, gruffly asking "you folks ready for a song or are you still studyin?" We looked up from our menus and laughed. "Still studyin," he replied. "There's a test on the back."

After paying $15 for chicken strips, macaroni, and a salad, and throwing in $3 for a pitcher of beer, I handed the waiter a twenty dollar bill, silently wondering if I'd lost just a little bit of my mind for paying so much money for what was essentially a Dairy Queen chicken finger basket. Oh well. DQ doesn't have about 50 different taxidermy animals starring down from the wall, complete with a brown bear climbing out of the wall. Or, I should add, an arcade shooting range game where successfully shooting a tiny plastic target likely animates a stage of zombie, disturbing saloon puppets. There was definitely a five dollar charge to sit among the bizarre, but maybe this time it was just about worth it.

MONO Tour

2010-05-04T21:30:00.005-05:00

You could say that this post was made due to popular demand. But truthfully, it was by special request. I wish I had pictures because they'd say it better and in about a quarter of the space, but since I don't you'll just have to imagine with me.

We are on the road again, and opening for Japanese band MONO. "Didn't you just get home?" you'll say. And I'll look at you quite straight faced, without words in masked silent reprimand, for asking one of those expendable, conversational pawns of a question. Then I'll smirk and say, "yes."

Retraction. That makes me sound like quite the grouch on the road, but it's not true! I'm actually rather excited to be mini touring through the west. We were home for just a few days. Long enough to get a fix of Texas things: Shiner, tacos, queso, humidity.

Friday night we played a show at Emos Outside that went pretty well. I found the mysterious but literal greenroom that sits at the end of a creepy hallway lined with chain fences. weird. The show was pretty alright. Lots and lots of people, enough to keep me from looking out into the crowd with any sort of concentration. People seemed to be into it, save for the bar crowd, shouting and tossing beer bottles about. But really, its Emos Outside. I expected nothing less, and there by was not dissapointed. But, I did, apparently, look just about 17 years old, according to this guy:

"Once Balmorhea started playing, it was what I expected. I have seen Balmorhea before in different settings, each with different crowds. Most were intrigued at what they were seeing, as it's not everyday that a large of group of 20-somethings, some even younger, see a six-piece indie orchestra."

...I'd love to kid myself, but we all know the "some even younger" comment was without a doubt pointed at me. agh. In the event that this post could somehow set the record straight, I'm 22. For real. Tiny, dollish face perhaps, but nearly 22 none the less.

Sassy. I'm surprising myself with the amount of sass in this post! geeze.

Saturday

Saturday night we played in Dallas at a place called The Loft. So, so fun! We had another large crowd, made extra special by the presence of Mr. & Mrs. Dupree, Austin Dupree and Adam Wright! So fun to see long lost friends and familiar faces.

And Sunday, well, that deserves it's own space, I think.

oh yeah...

2010-04-29T01:47:00.000-05:00

this about 24 hours over due, but forgot to mention,
home again.

:)

Frankfurt

2010-04-27T03:15:00.003-05:00

About to leave for the airport! By far, my favorite tour ever. Ready for some Austin, though. see ya!

Utrect

2010-04-25T18:11:00.002-05:00

indescribably sleepy. this will be a cave man post.
last night was fun. played a sort of private party in this crazy old machine room. All around us were huge gears and what looked to be parts of...well, giant, machines. Pictures are necessary.

Tonight was the last show of the tour. Felt more sad about it than i thought I would. We're gonna miss Nills. It's been awesome to get to hear him play every night. Had fun on stage. The crowd was pretty great. Had us back for a little encore. twas nice to be on familiar ground again.

I'm writing from the same hostel we stayed in last time. Sitting on a top bunk that is not against a wall and has no rails...here's to hoping I make it through the night without some sort of unfortunate dive to the ground. I've been exhausted all day. Quite ready for bed. Not ready for 9 hours in the van tomorrow, on the great marathon of dropping off Nills, returning the gear, returning the van, etc. oh geeze. It's been so fun though. Maybe my favorite tour yet of the 6 under my belt...

Alright. sleep time. see most of you soon!

Hamburg: Night 2

2010-04-23T19:17:00.002-05:00

This will be a speed post. We have to be out of here and on the road in 8 hours. We've got another hefty drive ahead. BUT I have to say that today was my favorite day of the tour, hands down. We just played a house show at Nills' fathers' house, the place where they both grew up. It is amazing. There are probably over 20 rooms in here, no joke. Anyway, amazing house. Amazing walk in the woods. Great homemade dinner. Such friendly warm people. Really, really awesome, amazing acoustic show. agh. I wish I had more time to write. But I'll hate myself if I don't try and sleep now. Hopefully, I'll get some more words in tomorrow.

until then, gnight!
-aisha

Hamburg!

2010-04-22T16:47:00.001-05:00

*tried to post this last night but Michael preemptively rushed me off the computer for no reason :)

Just finished our show in Hamburg.
went pretty alright. Encore was the most fun I think
Drove 7 hours from Poland today
Saw an awesome hedgehog last night in the grass!
so adorable.
beat Mario 3 with Andrew.
off to see a little of Hamburg!

Poland

2010-04-21T11:48:00.002-05:00

oh man. so here we are, sittin around in the venue in Poland just waitin for dinner time. The past couple of days have been pretty good. Thought I was going to die in Prague. A tickle in my throat the previous day quickly turned into a cough, which then turned into a cold, which in Prague of all places turned into a fever. ugh. I had the worst migraine, sneezy, stuffy nose, chills crazy sick spell that I've had in a long, long time. Somehow, I played the show, then draped myself under my coat and laid down on a bed of chairs. Apparently the show was good. I don't really remember.

Sadly, I missed out on seeing the city. It's like Prague didn't really happen. oh wellllll. Another time. Last night we played in Dresden in a cool little theatre. Great hospitality there and a really fun show. I feel like we're getting to the point where I say the same things about every place. drive all day. unload. wait around a whole lot. sound check for an hour. wait around for dinner. eat some food. play the show. wait around. pack up. go to bed. :: repeat:: I'm having fun though. Just under a week left. Hope that volcano calms itself and we get to fly home on timeeee.

Well, well, that's all I've got today I think. Everyone is skype calling around me, but I hate being on the phone a) when everyone else is on the phone, b) without any privacy, and c) when the internet is fickle. lame.

I think I'm gonna go read and dream about dinner.
short and sweet today.
adios
-aisha

April 19

2010-04-19T08:42:00.002-05:00

Made it to Prague. I'm feelin pretty lousy. Wish I'd gotten sick in a country I'd already seen. Can't get into the venue till 5. It's 3:45. We're all so hungry, but can't buy any food because we don't have any Crowns (they don't take Euro here). Ah. geeze. Hope we figure somethin out soooon.

April 18

2010-04-18T12:30:00.003-05:00

Sittin in a hostel bed in Nuremberg, Germany. Today is our first day off and we've spent most of the daylight driving. Tomorrow we play in Prague. I've never been there before, so I'm not sure what to expect. But I'm pretty ready to find out!

I've finally gotten sick. Thought I was about to make it out of the tour unscathed. I slept for nearly 4 hours straight in the car today. ugh. I haven't exactly been eating enough throughout the day, which doesn't help. I just barely snack after a breakfast that's usually bread + more bread and then fill myself with dinner. But hopefully the food situation will be good this week. Actual nourishment + vitamins, emergen c, cold meds and echinacea will hopefully do the trick!

Anyhow. Weird show last night. My violin kept going out for no reason, so I unplugged and played at the very edge of the stage. A bunch of other strange things occured. I'm gonna blame it on a stage poltergeist of some kind. hah. ah. ok. The internet here keeps going out so i'm going to surrender while hoping that this actually posts.

adios,
-aisha

Still in Vinelz

2010-04-17T14:56:00.006-05:00

photo by M.Muller.

My new favorite game.
(that I so lazily described earlier)

Been here since noon and have been taken care of so well. I watched a 9-year-old girl very confidently beat two grown men at Foosball. Later I had a semi-lengthy conversation with a Swiss man wearing an F--- Bush t-shirt (he says it was completely unplanned. he had no idea who we were or that we were from Texas) about health care. I wish that the people who are protesting any sort of reform could come talk to Europeans. The way it works here just makes so much more sense to me. You shouldn't be left with an unmanageable bill because you were ill or had an emergency or had to ride in an ambulance to the ER...That is absurd to me. It's absurd to people here. I just wish people at home could see things this way. Anyway, I won't get too political here...

This guy has joined the club of people who are shocked that we are from Texas because we "don't sound like it." haha. It's still funny to me, but not surprising. We are certainly lacking the drawl. I guess I don't spend too much time with people who sound like they should be from Texas. Oh gosh, if we all sounded like we walked out of Walker Texas Ranger or something I'm not sure I could handle it..

Still waitin' to play. Nills is playing my favorite song of his. ah. We need to play soon. We're all fallin asleeeep. First day off tomorrow(!)

Volcanoooo

2010-04-17T08:11:00.004-05:00

You were probably wondering about this. We haven't seen any ash, really. We are scheduled to fly out of Frankfurt. But we've still got 10 days. I'm not too worried. In my mind I say I wouldn't mind being stuck in Europe. But in reality, being trapped in Frankfurt would become quite expensive very fast. Sorry for the pixelated image. It was a good map showing the ash and airport closures. I bet it'll be fine, but eh, keep those fingers crossed anyway, will ya?

April 17 - Vinelz

2010-04-17T07:57:00.002-05:00

Hanging out now in an even tinier Swiss town, or village I guess I should say.
Oh man. It is so adorable. We parked our van and right across the street we saw two Shetland ponies in someone's backyard. Nicole, Trav, Kendall and I ran to the fence, grinning and taking pictures. Then the others waved us back. I think the sight of four gawking Americans was freaking out the family having a quiet Saturday afternoon.whoops.

This venue is cool. Half of us spent a good amount of the afternoon playing games: 3D checkers (awesome, by the way) chess, checkers with chess pieces, a simpler looking plinko-style contraption, and something that worked like the reverse of Hungry Hungry Hippos. I could explain it, but it would probably only further confuse you. Just know that it was extremely amusing and Kendall was the victor.

I'm looking forward to this show. Hopefully people will come out to this place, even further in the middle of nowhere (no one at the show last night had heard of this place). But the weather is perfect. It's sunny and cloudless outside. Tree covered hills and mountains surround, and now and again a rooster crows. Everywhere I go here I feel like I'm in some sort of idealized landscape painting. lovely.

April 16 - Dudingen, Switzerland

2010-04-16T11:42:00.002-05:00

Twenty minutes until dinner and the loudest soundcheck I've ever heard in my entire life (I think they're shooting to disturb the Richter scale with this bass. If I'd had a meal in the last six hours, I'd definitely feel the way one does after eating a disgusting theme park dinner and immediately hopping on a roller coaster. sick). Anyway, lets see what I can do.

The second show in Paris was awesome. I won't say much, other than we got to play acoustic which made it one of my favorites. This will sound stupid, but in the middle of a song, don't remember which one, I re-realized that we were in Paris. We were in Paris! For the second time in a year. Playing to a room full of people who were there just to see us. And though I've been playing shows across Europe every single day for over 2 weeks now, for some reason I was struck by it in a way that I hadn't been. I'm pretty sure I grinned, and definitely felt so excited and lucky to be doing exactly what I'm doing.

Last night we played in Chur, Switzerland and things sounded great. Travis's parents made another appearance, and it was great to see them again. I hung out around the merch booth and spent an hour talking to people after the show. When I'm in the mood for it, that is one of my favorite parts about touring. We signed a lot of cds and records. took a group photo. and eventually walked to our hotel and slept in. Oh man, how I love sleeping in.

I spent a lot of time writing in the van today, which I'm happy about. I've strayed from fiction for a long time and it's been great to come back again. Maybe I'll share it with some of you someday... I'm writing now from Dudingen, Switzerland at a venue called Bad Bonn. It felt so good to walk into a familliar place. We played here in October. This place is exactly in the middle of nowhere. It sits in the Swiss countryside. Green fields all around, adorable houses with horses and the sound of bells jingling from the necks of cows. It is great. I went for a walk with nicole down to the water and felt like a kid, running down the trails, picking up rocks. Switzerland is amazingly beautiful. That's all I can say. I'm in awe of the world again.

Sadly, on a less poetic note, perhaps I'm nearly over the hill as far as my ears are concerned, but I'd rather brave the cold than the decibel level in this room right now.
Only 11 days left!

-aisha

april 14 - Paris

2010-04-14T09:00:00.003-05:00

Hey hey.
This shall be a quick one I think! We played last night in Paris and are staying here another night, which has made today feel like a day off. Woke up without an alarm. Slept on in. Ate the best croissants in the world. Kendall scrambled some eggs and shared em with me. Had an orange, And a glass of the reddest orange juice I've ever seen. Sat at the table with Kendall and Marco, our host, and talked about French politics for a while. nice. Conquered the laundry beast afterward. It's gonna feel so nice to put on clean clothes tomorrow! Not a lot else goin' on. Just resting and being lazy...aka, my tour heaven.

performance tonight. long drive tomorrow. woo!
-aisha

Fraaaaaance!

2010-04-13T11:05:00.002-05:00

Here we are, settin up in Paris, France. We had quite the driving adventure last night after a show that seemed to sort of underwhelm us a bit. It wasn't bad at all, but sometimes you just finish playing and all you can think of to say is, "well, that happened." And then you pack up and think about sleeping. Or in this case you pack up and get stuck in midnight traffic, get misled by confusing highways, and drive for nearly four hours. Weird. frustrating. But Andrew and I distracted ourselves quite nicely with at least a 2 hour Super Mario Bros. 3 adventure on my laptop. so so fun. I forgot how fun it is to just keep playing video games and laughing until you're completely exhausted and useless. haha. Twas great.

We finally pulled into a hotel at 3:30am (first out of three we tried outside of london that wasn't completely booked) and I had a bed to myself for the first time in a long time and I felt like a queen!

Well well, we are in the middle of soundcheck and I feel strange sitting up here typing, SO! I think I'll go now. more later!

-aisha

From Brussels

2010-04-11T15:30:00.003-05:00

From Brussels.
Photo by http://kaldirimlar.com/
more here

Sounds

2010-04-11T15:15:00.005-05:00

Albums I've been Listening to In that Van of Ours...

In urban spaces: some beats: http://vodpod.com/watch/542-four-tet-hands

Most mornings: a friend: http://myspace.com/kellieanngrubbs

Today:

Edinburgh, Scottland

2010-04-11T14:55:00.004-05:00

Somehow, whenever I'm ready to write in this thing, my battery is quite near to death. oh well. I'll quickly say that last night was swell. We played in Edinburgh, Scotland for the closing of Peter Liversidge's gallery exhibit. He invited us to play this event and by some work of magic it happened to fit perfectly into our schedule. He was so excited to get to know us and make us comfortable. I can't remember the number of times he thanked us for playing. After the show, he took us, along with some friends, to this really awesome Indian restaurant. A girl who worked at the gallery told me that she vistited India before but still loved the Indian food in the UK better somehow. ?! Not sure how that's possible, and I've never been to India, but this food was pretty delicious. Ate way too much annd loved every minute of it.

We spent the afternoon with Peter's family, who made breakfast for us and joined us at the table. I've never had such service in a house! They were refilling drinks and bringing out more and more food. I feel like sometimes I don't know how to respond to strangers with such enthusiasm for getting to know me, because I can't imagine anyone being so excited to know a person they've never met and will probably never see again. That paired with a general sleepyness and thirst for a moment alone left me with a bit of a subdued reaction. BUT I hope they didn't think I wasn't appreciative or glad for it all. They were so nice! Peter, his wife and his father took us for a walk atop this till that provided for the most scenic view of the city. Castles, hills, the ocean and so much green grass. ah, beautiful. I would move there if I could.

I got to briefly know two of the most adorable kids I've seen in ages. Man, wish I could post some pictures. But they were so cute. I turned around and Nicole was holding hands with 4 year old boy George and walking. She asked him about the book he was holding and he replied "Shall I show you?" Shall I ?! See? cute.

I just ate a whole pizza (not huge, maybe a small). I've gotten quite cosy on this couch in a restaurant/bar/venue we've been in for the past four hours. I think Nils is about to start so I think I'll head downstairs soon. Tomorrow we're make our second 7 hour drive in 3 days, down to Oxford, England. Oh the glamor of touring :)

-aisha

April 8 - London

2010-04-08T10:46:00.003-05:00

Guys, you have no idea how nice it is to have my facebook and blogger back in English again. The Flemish, and German and French was getting a little confusing.

Today has been pretty alright. I feel like touring makes me very aware of every slight mood change I experience. And I think that simply noticing each change makes me overreact a little to them. It's a strange thing, what happens to my mind on the road. I have spent and will spend a disgusting amount of time trying to figure it out.

I've been feeling pretty quiet today. I think I need a good deal of time alone to recharge or reset or something. And the lack of that is probably one of the hardest things for me to adapt to on every tour for some reason. In its absence, I've felt a bit zombie-like. Hopefully it'll subside soon. Its quite boring this way.

The highlight of my day might've been the great video game adventure Andrew and I had this morning in the van. We installed a Nintendo emulator, and Andrew has an actual Nes controller that connects through a usb port! haha. so fun! We played pac man and then Mario 3 (my favorite), where he out-played me repeatedly...until the power went out on my computer and it was game over for real.

Traveling through the chunnel wasn't as exciting as I'd imagined. It just looked like a dark train ride. boooring. i slept through most of it. Then we had a slightly tense drive through crowded London streets, filled with impatient, and honk-happy people. agh! Things look sort of crummy in this area. It's not at all what I'd imagined London would be like. But apparently, I heard from a local that lots of artists live in this neighborhood. I heard a few different languages out on the street. There's a huge immigrant population here as well. We ate dinner in an awesome Turkish restaurant, and for some unexplainable reason, the waiter kept giving us free things! Free drinks! Free Turkish delight ( a traditional dessert). So, so good.

---I wrote the first half of this before the show. Things went alright tonight. Unlike our last show in London where about 8 people came, this place was packed. They sold 150 pre-sale tickets. nuts! I think there were definitely some weird moments in the set..not sure what happened exactly, but regardless, people were into it! We played Truth as our encore and sang the end without mics. It was great! Easily the favorite part of my day. I'm ready for bed now, but Mike and Rob are still chit chatting away with important people.

Tomorrow, well...not sure where we're going tomorrow. :)

starting to miss all you guys from home,
-aisha

April 7 - Brussels show

2010-04-07T18:06:00.002-05:00

I have exactly 6% battery power left on my laptop and a frightening looking outlet in my room. ack! I also need to be dressed and ready to go at 8am. Really, I should be sleeping. But I'm very wide awake.

I'm only writing to say that tonight was the most fun I've had playing music yet on this tour. I think I somehow got into an autopilot zone before. But tonight, we played nearly acoustic (just a small amount of strings and acoustic guitars coming through the speakers) and with a beautiful piano. It was lovely. It was incredibly refreshing to not worry about hearing myself, or the frustrating sound that is my violin running through a pick up. Maybe it was that. ...I don't know. For some reason that I clearly can't explain, my mind was in a different place, and definitely more connected to just making music in a way that it hasn't been in a while. And it made me really love doing what I'm doing.

I'm not sure I could be more vague.

All I'm trying to say in way too many words is that I had an awesome, memorable night. Favorite so far. That's all. Bed time now.

-aisha

2010-04-07T12:23:00.003-05:00

Amsterdam. M.Muller.

The Balmorhea Tumblr is a'tumblin.

Go enjoy some pics. Michael sometimes makes things look better in photos than they do in real life.

Andrew also begged me to document and share with you all that he loves sparkling water. There it is. He also just dropped two barbecue chips on the floor and ate them. Thought you should know.

2010-04-07T12:18:00.003-05:00

I think this whole time I've hardly written anything about our touring companion Nils Frahm. He is awesome. Annnnd wonderfully amazing at piano. Listen to his music here.

photo by M. Muller.

April 7 - Brussels, Belgium

2010-04-07T11:06:00.002-05:00

I haven't the patience to recap the last couple of days, so you'll just have to use your imagination a bit. :)

Last night we played in Gent, Belgium, which turned out to be a really fun show. I was a little nervous about it after walking into the venue. It was small, and recalling the squished, sweaty, sardine-like nature of our show in Ghent in October, I wasn't convinced we'd fit without some sort of uncomfortable situation occurring. But it was fine. They pre-sold tickets, set out some chairs and we fit nicely. They also gave us all the Belgian beer we could want and more food than most of us could really eat. Twas great.

Someone made a comment about how each of my posts describes everything we eat and I hadn't realized until today how much I've had food on the brain this whole tour! I'm not sure what my deal is...But having a good stash of snacks and some sort of huge dinner has consumed me lately. I just found a grocery store a block away from our lunch spot at Snack Seven (I had this chicken wrap with french fries INSIDE of it. weird!). I bought a tiny jar of nutella to dress up all the bread we've been eating, and a little box of chocolate chip cookies. Anyway, that was a slight digression (this post apparently isn't going to be linear at all, my appologies). Last night the show was wonderful. Andrew did a great job of making a mediocre PA sound great, and I think we all played pretty well. A success, I'd say.

We split up by twos and stayed with people who organized/came to the show. It's nice sometimes to stay at someone's house instead of a hotel. When you're always together all the time, for me at least, it's fun to do something a little different and then feel excited when you see everyone again. The hospitality of people who've never met us will continually astound me. The people Nicole and I stayed with gave us dibs on this large box full of Easter chocolates. They also provided me with the most comfortable bed I've encountered in a week. We slept so well that we slept in. But downstairs was a table full of bread, croissants, juice and tea just waiting for the two of us. lovely.

(there I go with the food again...)

Ah gosh, I've written so much about nothing at all. As I'm writing, Nills is soundchecking and the venue is getting spruced up with all sorts of lights and chairs. Maybe someone will take a picture and I can post it. The place is sort of tucked away behind this old white brick wall that has ivy strands climbing over it. And this huge stretch of what looks like wooded roots is sprawled across the side of the building. Looks nice. We have a real piano tonight that's just been tuned. It's a sold out show. Should be good, I hope!

Tomorrow, we venture off to the UK on this.

-aisha

From Amsterdam April 5

2010-04-07T11:01:00.002-05:00

Beautiful photos from our show in Amsterdam!
http://milov.nl/photos/5141/balmorhea-at-paradiso-amsterdam

Courtesy of Milo Vermeulen

April 4 - Ottersum, Netherlands

2010-04-04T13:20:00.002-05:00

Well, we made it! Just 20 minutes after I dosed off to sleep, Kendall woke up me up with a few taps on the back, bright (well, dark) and early at 4:40am. We brushed our teeth, grabbed the box of food the venue left for us and piled into the van. It was fun to watch the world get light. From black to blue to a paler hue and so on through sunrise. I remember staring out through the window in that kind of stare that traps you and keeps you from turning away. I thought through a lot of things that have been running through my mind the past few weeks, months even (I love that touring gives me space for that). I thought then about writing them out. But then, in a careless mistake, I thought about sleeping and that was the end of it all.

There are few things I remember about that 6 hour drive. The sound of Michael laughing comes in pretty clear, however. He, Rob and Kendall stayed up the entire tiiiime. Insane! But someone had to keep the driver awake. Today definitely could've been some sort of commercial for the benefits of coffee drinking. I woke up to "Boy From School" by Hotchip commin through the speakers and Michael yelling that we were only 15 minutes away and almost in the Netherlands!

Our show was in what was once a monestary and is now a venue. This place is amazing. We played in what could've been the old chapel, huge stained glass windows, high white ceilings and a stage enclosed with blue curtains. Things went quite well. Andrew thinks its the best show yet. We drew an older crowd somehow, eighty-eight people total. Did another encore, yet again. This is crazy.

After the show, we went back to our greenroom and had dinner. And oh man, I'm not sure if you read my last post, but I've been ridiculously hungry. Annnnd I ate so, so much! There was chicken in some sort of curry sauce, kous kous with tomatoes, salad, and quiche! Quite the feast! I went back four times. Twas delicious.

I'm writing you now from the gals room in the B&B we're staying at in Germany. It's so awesome! We have the whole upstairs to ourselves, four bedrooms and a common room for us to roam. It's maybe one of the cutest places I've ever stayed. It's 8:40pm and all I want to do is go to bed. Sleeping for 5 hours in the van was lovely but definitely not enough. There was some sort of crazy bonfire/ party happening around the corner that I think the guys went to, but I'm in such an exhausted state that I don't realllly feel much like talking. I'm in a bit of a hiding mood and mostly unashamed of that. Think I'll take a shower, get into my pjs and curl up under the covers. :)

Amsterdam tomorrow!

Day 3 - April 3 - Rostock

2010-04-03T19:14:00.003-05:00

There is probably a lot I could say, but all I want to say is that it's 2:30am and I'm laying on a top bunk while some terrible German version of a 90s grunge rock ballad is sadly creeping through the red, tagged walls around me. It's not alone though. It's keeping company with the voices of people who sound like they're conversing with their faces buried in pillows and the clanking of beer bottles being violently introduced to trash cans. silly. The backstage area of this venue has two rooms with bunk beds for the bands to stay in. As usual, Nicole and I are in what has become a gals room and the guys are across the hall. But just a few yards away is this troublesome bar, entertaining a drinking crowd. Not the best sleeping conditions.

Good thing I'm not planning on sleeping.

Somehow, in the wonders of booking, after headlining tonight's show, we are expected to be in the Netherlands by noon tomorrow, following what is no less than a 6 hour drive. This means that we have to leave here by 5am. The clock tells me it's 2:45am. My brain tells me I just might regret this, but I'm not sleepy in the slightest! We've been getting to bed so late, around 3 or 3:30 really. And I'm starving. We haven't really been eating lunch. I think we've been driving through lunch time, and arriving in town just in time for our load in and sound check. Our dinners have been pretty great but man, skipping that meal leaves my stomach screaming for something around midnight each night. So yeah, an empty stomach plus a bizarre internal clock is definitely keepin me from even attempting to sleep. Or even changing into my pajamas for that matter.

Anyway, enough griping. I'm not as uncomfortable as I sound, promise! The highlights of my day were as follows:

1) playing Nintendo on my computer (with a real controller!) today with Andrew and Travis.
2)a pretty filling breakfast served by a disgruntled indie looking German man
3)seeing a grown man walk down the street with a giant horse balloon floating in the air before him, tied to the zipper on his sweater.
4) oh yeah, and the show was pretty fun too :)

Day 2 - April 2 - Berlin

2010-04-03T12:30:00.006-05:00

Berlin!

Only a 2 hour drive today, which made for a nice slow wake up. Aside from my cold shower (guess that's what happens when 5 people get their act together before you do), the morning was great. Ralph, the guy we stayed with, made coffee and tea, toasted a basket full of bread, made some hard boiled eggs, and laid out plates of cheeses and dips for us all. So, so nice.

In Berlin we had about a half hour to sight see. We took a walk along the east side of the Berlin wall, bordering the river. I'd never seen it up close and was momentarily astonished by how short it was. It seemed so easy to climb over, but then I remembered that the height of a wall so heavily and explosively guarded is irrelevant. It's a work of art now. Each panel is completely painted over and stylistically independent of the one before it. It's quite the mosaic now, and draws probably hundreds of people daily who stop by just in front to get their picture taken. It's nice when things like that get turned into something beautiful.

Later we took a stroll through a Turkish neighborhood and stopped at a Turkish bakery where I was hit by a German bird! Yes, a bird. Please, do me a favor and try to recall the last time a tiny little bird miscalculated and sailed straight into you. I remember looking down and thinking, oh hey, look at those little guys, they're cute. And then right in the middle of my stride, about 10 seconds later, I felt this semi-forceful thud right into my shin! And then the little guy flew off. what. the. heck.

Our green room was stocked with water and beer, a basket of bread, and plates of cheeses, vegetables and fruit. Oh and a Sega Genesis with a tower of games. Really there was absolutely no reason for me to write anything about the green room, I just liked that someone put a Sega in there...

Tonight was our first show with in-ear monitors for the strings. It's tricky to get used to, but I think things went well. We got another double encore. It's crazy out here in that way. People love their encores. We tip toed through the mess of chords and hopped off the stage into this teeny tiny stairwell that was definitely not large enough for the six of us. Awkwardly close, we paused with the door slightly open (funny), because if it closed it might've locked, and then returned. Our newest untitled song is coming together quite well. And where it used to completely terrify me (in that it is so energetic and there's so much quick movement, it seems as though it could almost explode), I keep catching myself grinning in the middle of it. It's one of my favorites now, without a doubt.

After the show, we took a walk with all of our bags to a hostel 10 minutes away. It's sure nice when housing is free but it's even nicer when its not full of blaring 80s music till 4am...

Next stop, Rostock.

Europe Tour III - Day 1

2010-04-03T12:28:00.002-05:00

Day 1

(Sidenote: I wrote this days ago and just now realized I never posted it. whoops...enjoy)

We just finished the longest day ever. I first woke up Wednesday at 7:40am, central time. Got on a plane at 11:40am, flew to Dallas. Then sat down on a plane in Dallas, set to take us to Frankfurt Germany at 2:15pm. Then began the great sleeping fest. I woke up only to eat some lunch. Then slept again...for 6 hours (That's the kind of in-flight sleep that happens only after staying up till you're falling asleep while at a computer finishing your taxes at 6am). After a couple hours of flying and some mystery chicken in strange gravy amidst some sort of mashed potato substance, we landed in Germany. And suddenly I was forced to pretend that there really are only 9 hours from a Wednesday afternoon to 7:30am on a Thursday morning. awesome.

Lets skip all the driving and surprise mini snow falls to our arrival in Hannover, Germany. Finekost Lampe, was the venue. It's a small place, run by two of the friendliest people I've ever met. The inside feels like a cozy living room, couch seating, low ceilings and dim lighting by way of many many lamps. Here we met our new friend Greg, who opened for us and will catch a ride with us back to his home in Berlin. The owners made us dinner and shoved Club Matte into our hands. I think about half of us are obsessed with this bottled mystery caffeinated drink. It's some sort of tea-lemonade fusion that's pretty delicious. But it's only in Germany! so we're takin it while we can. Anyway, the show! So, so nice. Our set went pretty well--sold out crowd, double encore, a few questionable moments, but mostly really, really fun. Few times have I been a part of a room so crowded.

Afterward, we hung around and sold some merch, signed some things. Michael did one of his incredible van parking moves and somehow squeezed our 8 seater Sprinter through a path with only inches of breathing room. such skill! We spend the night with a man named Ralph, who we stayed with a year ago. He seemed to like us pretty well. He's had probably hundreds of bands stay in his home. I think we all got beds and pillows and some internet time, and awoke this morning to a mini breakfast buffet of breads, cheeses, eggs, fruit, coffee and teas. Now we're in the van, most of us in headphone land, leaving things quite silent and me on the verge of sleep again. Feels good to have the German countryside filling my windows. Next stop, Berlin!

-aisha

2009-10-27T16:36:00.002-05:00

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

2009-10-27T05:13:00.001-05:00

milking time, in the middle of the road in a mountain highway

2009-10-27T05:12:00.000-05:00

sheep crossing

2009-10-27T05:10:00.001-05:00

blocked by sheep in the road

old photos from Zaragoza, Spain

2009-10-27T04:48:00.006-05:00

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.

2009-10-27T04:47:00.000-05:00

Spanish Mountains

2009-10-27T04:35:00.000-05:00

somewhere in Spanish mountains...

From the Netherlands

2009-10-25T18:25:00.002-05:00

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

Highlights, Recaps

2009-10-22T03:30:00.003-05:00

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.

Zaragoza, Spain

2009-10-22T03:09:00.003-05:00

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.

last Wednesday ( I think) - October 14

2009-10-19T12:48:00.002-05:00

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...

Swiss Pics (mostly)

2009-10-15T20:40:00.003-05:00

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.

2009-10-15T19:56:00.009-05:00

France

France

Andrew. First European Meryll Show. Dordrect, Germany.

View from our room in Geneva, Switzerland.

Dinner in Geneva with our friends Jacques and Vanessa

Me, Vanessa and Jacques at the Market. Lausanne, Switzerland.

Nicole at the Market.Lausanne, Switzerland.