It’s been pretty non-stop this summer…actually, this week is my first real break with great weather finally too! spent many days on the road with ursula rucker this summer all incredible shows starting with amsterdam at bimhuis part of a festival. incredible acoustics in this room – another incredible show for us…we opened the festival, and it was a great slot for us, a packed listening appreciative audience. we stayed at L43 an incredible artist living space with 3 unique apartments and wonderful staff on board that took such great care of us those two days.
after exploring amsterdam thoroughly we left for wroclaw poland for an outdoor festival there…where we met dean bowman(screaming headless torsos)…our show was very big…broad brush strokes…very rock-ish…they loved it…we had fun playing the massive stage there…drank ‘mad dog’ at after show which consisted of polish vodka, rasberry syrup, and tobasco…ahhh…5 of those is not a good idea on an empty stomach (didn’t have dinner that night)…the following day flew to italy…drove to imola (a famous racing town)…where we played in a 600 year old castle…what a setting…an amazing show…

DUBAI turned into another amazing trip and show…we played in a club with a sub-par soundsystem that proved problematic during the performance but somehow we overcame it. we connected. people loved it. it was 110 degrees there…inside cold with freezing airconditioning everywhere. met so many amazing people here…we stayed at the kepinski hotel which was connected to a mall that housed a snow ski resort…haha…only in dubai. the sheer amount of wealth was staggering…on the way back to england was bumped off my flight (BA) so had an additional unexpected night over in london…that blew…..off to helsinki where we played the URB festival–a ten day festival at kiasma national art gallery there. we were scheduled for two nights of shows in their theatre, as it turned out, we could have sold-out two more nights, as many people were turned away from our two sold out shows. gintas missed his flight from new york, so the majority of our first day there was trying to find flights to get him there in time for the first show…as it turned out he made it 2 hours before showtime…helsinki is beautiful, a special place. kiasma’s producers virve and riita where fantastic…we had a blast with them and the rest of their crew. we broke out ‘loveless’ for the second show for the first time in a bout 3 years…gintas killed the drums on this track…
both nights here went out to various clubs…the final night after doing the bars we went for a 330am swim in the freezing baltic sea. how cool is that…invigorating no doubt…600am lobbycall for flight to heathrow…where we connected with inga and david our drivers to big chill festival…
after a 3 hour drive, arrived at our hotel offsite from festival (17 miles away)…so this really was not cool.
off to festival…gonna be no soundcheck…we had to carry our gear up on stage between acts, set up, check, and play…it was a bit rough, really loud, and i had NO drums in my monitor…don’t know what the monitor mixer was doing?…played to a packed tent of 1200-1500 people all on their feet with their hands in the air…we got them…we rocked it hard…a day off the next day at the fest where we met up with mix master morris, members of blueman group etc…saw some great shows…fink, tom middleton, andy gangadeens new band, and on and on…what a beautiful place especially if you can camp out on site…35000 people there…love to go back there next year…