Across the Pond

Hey Kids, I have a bunch of catching up to do here. I have a ton of pics from the last weekend's shows at Dee Man's, Z's and Daniel Street. I'm a little new to this blogger site so it takes me a long time to get these going. So much keeps happening too. Let me start with what the last 24 have been like, then I'll get everything all caught up.

Well, We're across the pond. Quite a travel day yesterday. BJ and Robert picked me up at my house around 3pm, we raced to meet James down in Milford in less than an hour, the airport shuttle was already at James' waiting for us. That's cutting it a little close. Then it was the usual NYC traffic as we blasted down to JFK. This lineup of James, BJ, Robert and myself is a lot of fun. We all seem to get along really well. The whole airport thing went totally smooth. We took off at 9:30pm.

We flew to Iceland. I knocked myself out on the plane and slept for probably 5 hours. BJ said I was snoring and drooling, I probably looked like the doctor guy from Cannonball Run. We landed in Iceland in the dark, so it looked just like CT in the dark...and we took off before I could really check anything out. Another 3.5 hours (and probably more snoring) and we landed in France. BJ was starting to snap. He couldn't sleep on the plane so he was feeling it.

We met up with a few characters that will continue with us for the tour in the Charles De Galles Airport in Paris. Wim is our fearless tour manager. He's looking ready to go. Also, Ryan, our driver, from Wales, very nice guy, helped us get loaded up into the dark green tour wagon, some kind of 14 passenger van thing. We all crammed into that with our luggage, full band gear, etc, and hit the road to Normandy, which seemed to take hours and hours. Also, Harry, the guitarist for Kane'd (our opening act for most of the tour) is with us to help out too.

France is very similar to CT, climate-wise. It has the same trees, it's probably a little flatter here, but very very similar. I'll have pics soon.

The venue is Rockalies, and it's like a huge round auditorium kind of place. Gaiton is in charge, a hyperactive Frenchman who's bursting with the love of music, he's very very happy to see us and is more than polite about getting us what we need. We get to the hotel and there's no elevator, no showers in the rooms, etc. Hahaha. Gotta love it. We switch hotels. This new one is tight, but nice and we can shower in our own room. Gaiton again, graciously getting us all settled. Very cool.

Across from the hotel is a huge building witha red roof, Capucine's grill. We hit that as we're all starving. I try the Capucine's pizza, which turns out to be a thin crust cheese, bacon, mushroom and a sunny side up egg. Who knew? hahaha. It was good. Gotta eat when you can. Oh, and French mustard frickin' rules. American restaurants serve you bread as you peruse the menu, here they give you these wafer crackers, sliced pickles and a little bowl of what I think is tuna. I dig this stuff. It's different.

BJ and James crashed, Robert and I take up Gaiton's offer to go check out the bands playing Rockalies tonight. It's a French cover band. I don't remember what they're called. Older guys, getting the job done... Robert and I start in with the red wine. By the time we leave, we've made a bunch of new friends, handed out a few HoL all access laminates, and Ryan hits a McDonalds on the way back to the hotel, which I skip. I'm really trying to keep the weight off this time. Harry has pounded countless beers. Nice kid. Looking fwd to hearing his band, Kane'd. Anyways, that's the latest. I'll check in as I can. Lots going on...

HoL Tour Rehearsal

Here we are. That's Robert Marcello, James Christian and me, rehearsing at Bob Conroy's in Beacon Falls, CT. BJ is directly across from me, which is funny cause he says it's like I'm singing to him during the backups. Awwwww.

It's sounding pretty amazing though, even if I'm pretty bad about waiting until the last minute to get the songs totally wired.

We did two rehearsals this week, and we're ready for the Daniel Street show on Sunday. James sounds as unearthly amazing as ever. Can't find my way home was pretty f-ing awesome I have to say.

I want to introduce Robert to you. From Sweden originally, Robert plays for Danger Danger and met BJ and I back in 2002 doing Mike Vescera's solo album. It's a small world, ain't it? He rocks.

Marty Weiand, (sorry, we couldn't take pictures of him, didn't want to break the camera)fearless engineer and lighting paratrooper showed up last night and we went through all the old road stories. There's some funny ones. It's good to be back and we're all feeling the pre-tour excitement and momentum. Special thanks to Bob Conroy and family for letting us invade their basement studio for the week. More soon...

Pre Tour

Yeah, I'm a rock star. Hahaha. These days that's a pretty complicated thing to be, especially for those of us up-and-comers. I have a family, a full time job, and a pretty kick ass cover band, if I do say so myself. In order to even do a tour, all of this has to work out, which is a very difficult thing to pull off.

My family, wife and son, are the first ones that hear about it, and if the tour works financially for us, then it becomes possible. It's not easy to be away from them. That's probaby THE hardest part of touring. I've been away for almost half of my son's birthdays. At least this time I got to be home for his birthday, but I'm away for Halloween, which sucks. The wife and kid are very understanding, and hopefully my son will grow up knowing that you CAN follow your dreams, but he will know the reality of that as well.

Then comes work. If I can get the time off without getting myself fired, it also becomes possible. My boss is obviously incredibly cool. I'm good (this time).

Then comes the cover band, or I should say local band, (Samurai Cab Company) as we've been experimenting w/ some originals. The HoL tour is about 5 weeks, and we generally play twice a week with Samurai, so there's shows to shuffle around and re-book. Plus, promotional packages have to be made so we can get more shows booked while we're gone. Mission accomplished as of today.

Gear: I needed a bass to fly with that I won't be upset about checking under the airplane. Had to get that together out of a tough bass I had and spare parts from my studio/workshop. I didn't want to take my green Magbass, only because if I lost that one, that's the only one there is. Too valuable.

House of Lords sent 20 songs to learn about a month ago. HoL is known for a LOT of singing. There's tons and tons of backing vocals. Since I drive an hour (one way) to work, I get about 2 hours to practice about 5 days a week. I'd say this is an indispensable part of doing tours since I simply don't have spare time really at all. I've rehearsed the bass parts and worked out a really great bass sound, but the vocals tend to be a lot more demanding than the bass for HoL. Plus the drive really helps cement the song arrangements in my head.

I've emailed Wim, the European tour manager about other stuff, like strings, wirelesses. He helped me with a GHS string endorsement, and verified that my other gear will be fine for europe.

Stage clothes are always an issue when you live paycheck to paycheck...I have some bequeathed to me from Don Dokken last summer. My lovely wife agreed to tailor these. Since I just had my birthday, I have some extra $ for some stage stuff, but I research and research until I find exactly "it". Takes me awhile. Plus I'm indecisive. Great.

I started dieting about 2 months ago too, since a lot of people take photos on tour. So this mean it's time to call my friend Jerry Angelica for a pre-tour photo shoot, since I'm probably at my skinniest right now.

Worn out yet? hahaha. Wait until the HoL guitarist Robert Marcello shows up tomorrow, he's playing with his other band, Danger Danger, up in Springfield, MA while BJ Zampa (HoL, Samurai and Diamondback drummer) does a Diamondback gig somewhere in CT. I'm doing a Samurai gig in Middletown, CT tomorrow night too, so we're all playing in seperate places. Next week we'll all be getting together and rehearsing the HoL stuff.

Next week will be totally insane. There's 2 Samurai shows, 10/23 & 24, and there's a HoL send-off show at Daniel Street in Milford on 10/25. I imagine we'll be rehearsing during the week, while i'm still working and trying to hang with the family. Hahaha...still want to be a rockstar?

If this is your first time here...

Hey, what's up? Chris here. I set this up to share some of my crazy travels and experiences with you. I'm the singer/bass player for my own band, The Samurai Cab Company, and also the bass player for House of Lords, a melodic rock band that's embarking on a European tour from October 31 through December 7. I really love traveling with a band, even though it can get totally insane, chaotic and difficult as well as incredibly fun. So, if you've ever wanted to go on tour with a world famous-ish rock band, follow me as the tour unfolds...