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...