Woke up in Dresden and headed downtown to check out the city. Supposedly if the city wasn’t bombed during the war it would’ve been considered the next Paris. A lot of the zentrum has been rebuilt accurately and that’s pretty amazing. The buildings that still exist that were saved from the war are totally stunning. Pretty touristy area but in a nice way. Lots of stuff to see. Interesting that there are workers rebuilding the older buildings accurately using modern day equipment.  Hiked back across the river to the area where we stayed and grabbed some food and got on the road to Erfurt. Dresden was a real surprise for us. The show, the city, the hotel, etc. Everyone treated us amazing and I wish we could’ve stayed longer. Extra thanks to Paul from Thalia for putting on the show.

These guys were pretty popular in Dresden. Thought this shot was funny as they were having a smoke and conversation and being quite animated before they walk 20 feet across the street and freeze themselves atop a box. We had a pretty good idea what they were talking about.

The venue we played in Erfurt was called Franz Melhouse. Nice to arrive and hear Snailhouse on the P.A. system. Guess those dudes played there last week. Would’ve been nice to share a bill with them on this tour. Alas… The venue is in this old building that used to be a restaurant at the turn of the century, called Melhouse. Great space that filled right up when we took the stage. I can’t believe how well attended these shows have been. Such a nice surprise each night to play to great crowds and hang out afterwards. Been a real treat and we’re all super happy about it. Stayed at a super nice hostel and got hardly any sleep because Tim snored like a freight train all night. Was going to stuff a sock down his throat but decided that we still needed him for the rest of the tour so I just put on my headphones and listened to the new Brian McBride record. Such a nice record… Got to nap in the van and so I’m recovered now. We stopped in Eisenach to visit our tour manager’s (Christoph) family. We visited his childhood home and he played with his old toys and he had a nap in his treefort while we climbed up to Wartburg Castle. Totally rad. It starts with a beautiful hike up through this old forest and then at the top is this magnificent castle. We spent about an hour hiking around the place and snapped some photos up on the top. Pretty crazy to see this place. It’s my first castle. Pretty gnarly. This town and castle has some wild history. Birthplace of Bach and the place where Martin Luther translated the bible and studied. Lots of deep history. Pretty interesting afternoon. Here’s some photos:

Tim and Sylvie at Franz Melhouse

This is a dungeon.

Jonas, Tim and Christoph attend Hogwarts

Tim givin’ props where props are due

From the castle roof

Evening Hymns takes the castle

This is where Johann Sebastian Bach was baptized

Birthplace of Johann Sebastian Bach

360 degree panorama from the castle roof

Off to Duisburg to play tonite at Steinbruch with some fellow Canadians, Brasstronaut. Then we’re off to Berlin tomorrow and getting into some heavy shows. Things are well out here. Stay well friends. xo jb

my man

Holy smokes. This jam is starting off a little more wild than the last one I’d say. Playing an abandoned house in Munich? I’ve started to CAPITALIZE my letters even in this blog entry. Okay. So we get to Munich and check in with our hosts Stef and Anna and they are starving so they force us to eat the most delicious lasagna I’ve ever had (next to my dear mothers) and it is amazing and then we head to the venue to shoot a few songs for hauskonzerte.com in this crazy abandoned house that belongs to the film school in munich. they use it to shoot student films in.

relaxing in the late afternoon munich light with stef. solid gold dude.

after the shoot we went to this pizza shop and finally sylvie and i got to eat baked potatoes filled with veggies and cheese. it was pretty great.  the show filled right up with everyone sitting on the floor and scaring us by how silent they were. it felt pretty special for us. lit by lamps and singing into this ol’ decrepit room. it felt great. night ended with fresh baked pretzels and Krug on the stereo. 7-8 hours of sleep makes a man feel limber and quick. massive breakfast by our wonderful hosts in munich (stef, anna and sally!!!!!) and then we hit the road.

i did the full drive to dresden. nice rolling countryside and soooo green. gotta love these old dudes who stop at a rest stop just to put back a quick coldie:

tim made me take this photo because he couldn’t get over the fact that they were drinking beers and hangin’ tight at a roadside stop.

felt good to finally stop and breath though. we played this perfect little theatre in dresden called thalia. the room filled up on a monday and we couldn’t be happier. i forget what it’s like to play to a full room of people that are so quiet. i’ll get used to it quick. we’re very grateful.

it was a lot of fun. everyone very chatty from the audience to the stage and afterwards we got to sip a bunch of jaspers with the jims of dresden. that made me happy. and it made tim happy too. he is out looking for falafel as i type this. he told us to leave our window open so that he can make a crow call from the street for us to let him in.  i suppose that’ll work. tomorrow morning we wander the city. tonite we send our love and greetings to our friends the wooden sky, who we’re here in dresden before us and left a nice impression, and a nice place to come play. xo dudes.

(breakfast update: tim left to go find falafel and found christoph and they ended up falling into a rager until 4:30am. tim bought a 3-pound falafel for 3 euro and they went to some dance club and went to a bar called lebowski where they were doing vodka shots and gettin’ loose. i’m a little jealous i didn’t stay up but glad right now that i didn’t.)

until then…

xo

jb

well we’re here. so happy to be back in germany again. as I type this we’re rolling through some pretty lush countryside enroute to munich. it was raining earlier and has since cleared up into a beautiful afternoon. tim is at the helm of our whip, a volkswagen transporter. it’s nice to have a lot more room this time, to not have to stress about packing things tetris-style, to be able to stretch out when you need a nap.

here we are in amsterdam. sleepy lil’ bandits.

we landed in berlin a few days ago. had two days in the city to de-jetlag, although i don’t feel i’ve completely gotten over the lag yet, i’m close. i have to be. we had a bunch of running around to do. picking up gear, etc. to take on tour and we had to rehearse. it was a bit much, landing in berlin and then racing around trying to get our shit together but we did it and settled in nicely with our friends terry and dorotka, who were kind enough to give us a place to stay in their gorgeous apartment in prinzlauerberg. we went to a beer garden for an afternoon brew and then it started pouring rain. ate dinner the first night at babel.

really amazing lebanese. maybe the best i’ve ever had. everyone was pretty happy about that meal and we grabbed some jaspers for later and stayed up too late sippin’ them at terry and dorotkas.

friday brought rehearsal day and an afternoon wander. practice went great. got me super excited about the tour. i had some extra running around to do and so tim and sylvie went on a little history walk with friends while i hopped the train to kreuzberg with a beer going and the new cass mccombs on my headphones.

the difference with this tour so far is that we have our friend christoph with us on the road and so i’ve been able to relax a lot more. trying not to become dependent on him but it sure is putting my mind at ease to have someone else to help out. dude is super organized and i’ve been able to actually spend some time thinking and wandering. hope i get to do that a lot. like right now, as i blog from the backseat of the van.
night finished with dinner at meta for schnitzel and käsespätzle. it was awesome. german mac and cheese!

pints with bearded tobi from our agency and a relatively mellow night.

up early the next day to hit the road to darmstadt. we played a venue called 603qm for the first show of our tour. it was a big warehouse kind of with a bunch of different rooms. we filmed a video session for bedroomdisco tv. looking forward to seeing that one. pretty cool area we filmed in. all the guys from the session were incredibly nice and it was a nice warmup for the night. had a great dinner cooked for us by a kind gentle german named daniel. zucchini and bulgar casserole with a white asparagus salad and plenty of pfungstadter beer. too many i’d say right about now. hit up a really great sauna at our hotel and got a real nice sweat on before the show. the opening band, motion city lights, was great. nice dudes too. our set was a mix of new and old. i’m really happy with how we’re playing these songs. trying to mix things up and freshen the older tunes and hone the new ones. had some amp problems half way through the set which was a bummer but i think we rallied. thanks to everyone at the venue for helping us out and being kind hosts.
finished the night with a party in a castle cellar. can’t really say much more than that other than right now i feel like a bag of garbage.
listening to wintersleep and rolling down the autobahn.
on the road. here we go. it begins.

Dear Europe:

Long time no post. We’ve firmed up our dates for our European tour and figured it’s time I posted them so people actually know where we’re playing. Here’s where they stand:

14.05.11 Darmstadt, 603 qm
15.05.11 München, Hauskonzert
16.05.11 Dresden, Thalia
17.05.11 Erfurt, Franz Mehlhose
18.05.11 Duisburg, Steinbruch
19.05.11 Berlin, Klang Klang Klang Festival @ Levee
20.05.11 Leipzig, Noch Besser Leben
21.05.11 Hamburg, Hasenschaukel
22.05.11 Köln, Aetherblissement
23.05.11 Freiburg, Swamp
25.05.11 Clermont-FD, Le Chapelier Toqué
26.05.11 Paris, Espace B
27.05.11 Dunkerque, We Will Folk You Festival
28.05.11 Rennes, Top Of The Folk Festival
29.05.11 Bordeaux, El Chico
01.06.11 SARE, Basque Country

Very excited to see some more of Germany this time over and so happy to be returning to France. We’ll be keeping a tour blog again as we drive, drive, drive… We’ll be playing a bunch of songs off of Spirit Guides as well as some new songs off of the new record, which will be coming out in the fall of 2011. The kind folks at Soundcloud have featured our record on their Tumblr and Facebook and we couldn’t be happier. We’ve made Spirit Guides streamable for the entire month of May: http://soundcloud.tumblr.com/post/5129012382/introducing-evening-hymns-spirit-guides

I have to go pack and rehearse and prepare myself for the flight. Can’t wait to see you.

Sincerely,
Jonas + EH