Easy trip to Heidelberg and we return our rental car and decide that it would be coolest if we walk to the venue, which is on the opposite site of the old town pedestrian village. Maybe not the best idea with Sylvie’s big roller luggage but we do it anyways. Pretty beautiful town, but usually the case is, the locals hate the old town as it overruns their space with tourists. It’s an interesting argument. Tourists are coming because the town is pretty. I can understand their frustration though. Heidelberg is a university town too so I can imagine the whole scene is pretty transient. It was really pretty anyways, and the whole town is overlooked by this massive castle on the side of a hill/mountain, that is amazing. I’d never seen a castle like this one before. My plans on hiking up there before the show were thwarted by a lack of time but I had it in my head that I must explore it before we leave in the morning.

We loaded into this cool venue and soundchecked and then it was dinner time. One of the best meals of tour was had here. We were taken to this really authentic German restaurant that also happened to brew their own beer. Yes! Unfortunately being a vegetarian you don’t get to really sample the classic German diet so I had to settle for tagliatelle, which was delicious regardless, but I got to watch everyone else eat, and share their sides which were soooo good. There was sauerkraut, cabbage and potatoes. All of them so good, especially the warm red cabbage. I had never tasted anything like that. The beer was amazing, and mine was served in a krug, which is a stone mug. Very cool experience.

Back to the venue to play as part of the Enjoy! Jazz Festival. Funny right? Anyways, with my pre-dinner krug, and some red wine before I took the stage, I was feeling loose and ready to chat to these people. Sly and I played a strong set and really had fun. From the stage I asked for a mountain guide to get up to the castle, which I was told turned off it’s lights at midnite, and I thought I’d found some interested participants, but alas, after the show, and after midnite, it was me and a backpack of beer and my camera that started the cobblestone-stepped trek up the side of the hill over Heidelberg, with this darkened beast looming high above me. I know in these situations I have to keep my mind from wandering or else it’s ghostville 2011 up there, which it probably is anyways, but I tried to sip my beer and keep my cool and keep walking. I made it to the steps of the castle, which were gated off, and took a bunch of photos of the town, and the wall protecting the castle. It was hear that I heard footsteps running down the cobblestone path really fast. I lifted myself over the wall to see who was running and saw a young man high-tailing it from higher up around the castle, zigzagging his way back to the main entrance, down the hill, near the town. It was really bizarre and quite unsettling to see and made me super uncomfortable but I decided to forge on and continue where he had come from, to see if I could get higher up near the castle to take some cool photos. Near the top of the castle, where the trail split, I set up my camera to take some timed exposures of the castle. Opened another beer and focused my camera and took some photos. When I got up to turn around there was a women standing 6-7 feet away from me! Not kidding! She had totally walked up while I was in thought and I had not heard her. Completely harmless, but totally scared the shit out of me. It was brutal. After that I decided it was time to head down and back to the bus. I mean, what’s an older lady doing sneaking up on me at a castle in the dark at 1am? Not fair… Back at the bus I spun a yarn or two about the castle and then settled into my bunk to try and sleep.

I was really looking forward to our return to Freiburg. It was one of my favorite stops on the last tour and this time we had more of a chance to see the town. We also had a hotel room, along with the bus, to shower and prepare for the show and the hotel had a sauna so I rocked a couple really nice sweats before the show and it was great. We played a venue called Jazzhaus and the staff and audience were beauty. Some nice man after the show offered me his business card and said next time Sylvie and I come through we have to stay with him, as I had “said many nice things about his town”. After the show, with the adventure spirit being strong in this one, I trekked out solo, again, into the darkened town to explore the beautiful little streets of Freiburg. This town is cool as it has little tiny rivers that run down the streets. Well, not rivers, but little baby canals, that are bizarre and really beautiful looking. Not sure if they exist just to keep the streets clean or not, but they are an interesting addition to the quaint buildings, and narrow streets that make up the old town. After an hour or two of wandering and a bunch of photos I hit the bus for another short sleep and prepared myself for entering Switzerland for the first time ever.

Our first Switzerland show was to be held at Parterre, in Basel, and it was our own headline show, so to speak. The Obel team had a day off and our agents had booked us a gig at this awesome little venue. We arrived early and setup and then the house sound guy took us for a guided tour of the old town, before we had dinner. Andy, the amazing sound guy from Agnes Obel, offered to work our sound for the night, as he knew the set and because he’s a workaholic. Being massive fans of the sound he does each night with Agnes, we jumped at the chance. After a beautiful little walk, and an amazing dinner, that I still don’t really know what it was, but it was amazing, we settled into the backstage area to sip some wine and eat some chocolate and hang out with the promoter and with Agnes and Anne, who had come to see us play (so sweet!). It was nice to have a longer set and also to play more new songs. The crowd was super nice. Interesting to see how each crowd reacts to live music. The French and Germans seem to clap for a really long time after you play a song, and the Swiss were more stern, clapping lots but also being very attentive and not laughing as much at my amazing jokes. I think they were amazing anyways. Sylvie is still on the fence about them. Met a lot of nice people after the show and then once the venue closed, all the food and beer and wine came out and we listened to tunes and everyone carried on and got a little loose and chatted about this and that. Nice little party. Andy and I finished with a smoked-peat scotch in the neighbouring bar after everyone went home, and it put me over the edge and sent me to bed, happy to have played Parterre, and certainly happy to have found a new friend in Andy, our Scottish soundman. Thanks to Andrea at Parterre for showing us an incredible time and treating us like kings and queens…xo

The next day Sylvie and I took a cab to the Basel Casino, where we were to play a show with Agnes Obel. I’m not going to speak too much about this show because it was a weird one. Believe it or not, Evening Hymns isn’t really a casino band. And we certainly don’t like playing them. It was a weird hiccup on this tour, that we made the most of, but a strange place to play, with a nice audience actually. Basically this cold huge room in the bottom of a Casino, that don’t really seem to care about live music, or whether my shipment of cds we had mailed to the casino had arrived. Thanks!
I was happy to grab another sauna before the show though, in the hotel that was attached to the casino. The highlight of the night though was my dear friend Kristen driving hours from Geneva to come see us play. I hadn’t seen her in years and it was great having a couple beers with her and catching up. So nice for her to drive so far. So weird for her to see us play a casino. Haha… I think I spent the entire time trying to explain to her that we don’t normally play casinos. Anyways, it’s tough on tour trying to keep in touch with people and I’ve learned it’s so important to make the effort to see people from overseas when we’re over here. Such an amazing bonus to being on tour in Europe. A chance to re-connect with old friends from afar. As soon as the show finished we were on the bus and off, rolling down the highway for the biggest drive of tour. I think it was 16 hours, to the south of Italy, to play a festival in Bari, Italy.

When I finally awoke on the bus and slid open the little window in my bunk I knew we were in Italy. This leg of tour was so exciting for me because I’d never been to Italy or Switzerland and it’s amazing to have music take me to these countries. Italy, from the window, looked beautiful, as we were winding along the coast to Bari. At a roadside stop I bought a pizza that was awesome and then continued down the highway. The staff in Bari met us at the venue and we loaded in. Great little theatre and nice staff. They gave us a runner to drive us to a hotel to take a shower. Such a strange room, and we had to show our passports to get the keys, to shower. Bizarre. Ha…. This was our first show with Sir Martin John Henry, who had travelled from Glasgow to play a week’s worth of shows with us. Nice to see his set and to have some new blood on tour. Also, nice to have another character on the bus to stay up late drinking with. Haha… We had a nice set and sold out of records (!!!!!) and then packed up the bus and the guys from the festival offered to take us on a tour of the old town of Bari, on the sea. We all piled into 3 mini cars and were whisked away through the streets of the city. We bought some beers from a little bar and then walked along the sea with a big posse and through the narrow streets of the old town, which had such beautiful light. Feels so exotic, as a boy from Orono, to be wandering through this town at night, sipping beers and carrying on. After a couple beers we were driven back to bus and after another nightcap it was lights out in the bunk, to arise in Rome at noon.

I have no idea how our bus drivers were able to coax the bus through the narrow streets of Rome but I was awoken in my bunk to the bus parked infront of the theatre we were to play in Rome. After a load-in and a bit of confusion at the venue about set times, and after trying to figure out how to get merch to the next show, Sylvie and I and Martin decided we should go wander with the 2 hours we had and see if we can explore part of the city. We set out on the city, walking through our neighbourhood with our mouths open at how beautiful the whole area was. I wondered out loud how far the Colliseum was away, maybe we could see it. We stopped at a transit stop and checked the map and figured it was close enough to walk. We set out at a quick pace towards the Colliseum and actually made it there within 45 minutes, as the sun had set, and the lights were on. Stood there in awe, not just at how amazing it is, but how awesome it was that we were able to walk there before the show. Took some photos and then hopped on the subway back to the venue. Pretty impressive use of the metro I think. 1 euro for 70 minutes worth of transit in Rome. What a deal! Got back to the venue just in time to soundcheck and then eat about 12 different amazing pizzas. It was perfect. We had a great show and afterwards met a lot of nice people at the merch table, where we had no cds to sell. Such a bummer, as a support act, where our only real source of income is cd sales, to run out of cds. At least we got to play this beautiful room for these great people, and to see some sights. I got a lot of really lovely emails from the Italians that attended both of our shows and I really hope we can get back there to play more shows in the future. Fell asleep on the bus and awoke on beautiful Lake Como, on the Switzerland and Italy border.

The drive from Milan to Munich is the nicest drive I’ve ever done in my life. It was, and I hate to use the word, epic! I guess I had no expectations for that drive. Figured it would be nice but didn’t know that it would wind us through the Alps. It was turn after turn of breathtaking mountains and huge valleys. It seems pointless to write about it and the hundred photos I took from the van window could never do it justice. I have decided to never live in the mountains so that they always carry this type of weight for me, but after seeing this countryside I feel like I need to make an exception. It was unreal. Totally floored me and I can only wish that we had more time to explore. A hike would’ve been amazing.

Nice to come back to Munich. Each time we’re there it’s too short. Just arriving in time to load-in and soundcheck and play and sleep and leave but it’s still a nice place to spend a short time in. Our good friend Stefan lives there and we looked forward to seeing him. He had filmed a session with us before for his website and so after our set we went for a little walk to film a video for “Asleep in the Pews”.  Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKafTQJTOfc

The show went great. Mika from Timber Timbre joined us for a few songs which is always so nice for us and we got to play to a packed room. Saw some folks from the last time we played Munich too. So rad! Beers were drank afterwards. More food was consumed, including the leftovers from our amazing curry+rice dinner. Another short sleep and now I write this on the road, in the back of the van, enroute to Koln.

I don’t remember much from the drive other than the Koln Dome coming into view on the way. So impressive. Brought back nice memories from the last tour. We played Gebaeude 9 which, like many European venues, is a big concrete box. They never really feel cozy until people get there but the engineers make them sound nice. We met up with our new friend Sabina and had a nice hang before and after the show. Also met a guy from Kansas named Kelly. Nice dude, friends with one of our Kutu labelmates Hospital Ships. Small world. Pretty uneventful night after the show. Back to the hotel to sleep for too few hours and then up for a big drive to the Rolling Stone Weekender Festival, north of Hamburg on the sea, near Kiel. It was a day of celebration though in Germany, on the 11th of November. People wear costumes and get drunk all day. Here’s a couple Jims outside our hotel room in full garb.

So we’re driving along the autobahn, minding our own business, when the police pull in front of us and put their sirens on for us to follow them and pull over. We get off at the next exit and they come and check our liscense and insurance, etc. Then they say that they want to weigh our van to see if we are legally on the highway. Well, at this point we’re frustrated as we’re going to just barely make soundcheck, but what can you do but oblige and follow them. They tell us to tail them to an exit 3 stops down the highway. They pull off the highway and into a truckstop, that has no weight scale, so they wave us around and back onto the country road, where we follow them for 15 minutes. It was ridiculous. You could see them looking all over the place, totally lost and without a clue as to where to find a scale. Eventually, after 45 minutes, we are pulled into a farm that has a big scale and they weighed our van, and we were over, supposedly, by a couple hundred kg’s. This cost us 35 euros, which you just have to pay, and then we got back on the road. So frustrating. Left us only enough time to load our gear on stage and start playing.

Sometimes I like being late, or behind schedule, or just in a mad rush to get on stage as it takes away from the usual preshow ritual of getting anxious, or overthinking things. This was a perfect example. I was a little stressed about this show, it being a Rolling Stone thing, etc. But because we were in such a rush to get stuff on stage and tune up we basically were thrown right into the fire. It worked out great. We played to a packed room and it was a really special show for us. We even got encored. Met a lot of nice people at that show. Afterwards we went and had dinner in the catering area… Really amazing food and pretty cool sitting there eating beside Jeff Tweedy and the dudes from The Notwist. Little ol’ unknown Evening Hymns probably looking like they snuck into eat. Ha…We got to see some Fleet Foxes, Wilco, and a few others, but the highlight for me was seeing Josh T. Pearson. I was given his record by my friend Ro and had listened to it a few times and it hadn’t connected with me to be honest. It was interesting but didn’t really grab me. Well his live show was beautiful and really pulled me in. Been listening to his record since then and it’s a heavy listen. Really amazing and worth checking out. Got to chat with him late at night and he is a true gentleman.

The festival was held on this old resort so artists and attendees were given little apartments to stay in. Pretty cool and super convenient for us to just wander and sip coldies.

Part of the excitement of the Rolling Stone festival was that I had arranged to surprise Sylvie with a surprise appearance of her really good friend, and no stranger to this blog, Dorotka, from Berlin. Her partner Terry and I had been in touch trying to plan a way to surprise the girls and so after our show Sylvie was helping pack up gear and voila! Dorotka magically appeared outside with our amps and guitars. It was a huge surprise!!!! Totally awesome. We drank a bunch of beers and had a really nice time. A bit of a bittersweet night though as we had to say goodbye to Timber Timbre and our friends. It was a short but sweet little jaunt through Europe with them, hopefully not the last! Beers were cheered. Hugs delivered. The road was hit.

In the morning Terry, Dorotka, Sylvie and I took a shuttle to Kiel and picked up our rental car for the next few days. No probs picking up our Skoda and we were off to Utrecht for a big show with Agnes. Nice to have new blood in the car and it made things more exciting, grant you Terry and Dorotka seemed to nap most of the way.

Boy did we get turned around in Utrecht. I took the rental car down a pedestrian street, and not just a short one, like a really long street with people and bikes everywhere. The police saw us but didn’t really seem to care. Tourists. It sucked but was good for a laugh afterwards, once we were safe and sound. Finally found the venue Vrendenburg on the outskirts of the city. It’s a massive, 1500 capacity, venue that was built as a temporary location for the old theatre in the city centre that is currently being renovated. Crazy that they’d build this amazing, huge space that is only temporary. It was amazing. Awesome food, stage, facilities. We got to play one of the biggest shows we’ve ever done and it was rad. I had a blast and people seemed to love it. Can’t wait to come back and play to these people again. They were an amazing audience. After the show we hung out on the bus and then drove into the town to stay at a dude named Eddy’s place, who T&D had found through couchsurfer.com… Really nice guy, who was able to also come and see our show. We settled in and fell asleep. Had an amazing rest. In the morning we drove T&D to the train station, said our goodbyes, and then Sly and I took off for Heidelberg, Germany.

So the club we played in Strasbourg was a big complex that housed a couple different venues. In the main room that night was a bunch of DJ’s playing and a rapper named Beans, who I had seen years ago in Toronto. Cool to run into him. Unfortunately we missed his set as Hymns played at the same time as him. It was a sold out show we got to play which is always an amazing treat. Really excited to see how well Timber Timbre is doing here. They are selling out these great rooms and people are losing their minds over the band. It’s exciting… Super proud of Taylor, Mika and Simon. We kept the night pretty mellow and caught up on some sleep. I also pulled off one of the tightest parking jobs I’ve ever done with the wagon behind the hotel. I’d like to think I impressed Sylvie with my skills.

Back to Paris. Pretty uneventful drive. Nice fall colours and a nice blue sky to accompany us. Hit Paris in good time and found the venue, La Loge, in a neighbourhood I had never been to so that was nice. So many neighbourhoods in Paris that are different from each other that exploring each section is really interesting. Similar to Toronto, but on a much larger scale. You get pockets of different culture here and there. It’s cool. And makes food choices always varied and exciting. Our show for Paris was presented with La Blogotheque. I’ve been a big fan of watching their videos for years so it was a great honour to share the stage with them. They screened a bunch of unreleased videos that were rad and then it was our turn to play. Sylvie and I have been playing the same set for most of this tour and it’s been fun working on presenting a tight set but we decided to experiment a bit more for the rest of the tour, to pull ourselves out of the regular motions. It was a good decision for us. Nice to try something new and smack our faces a bit. I think it went pretty well and I’m excited to refine things a bit more. It’s tough every night playing the same songs over and over and we’re kind of limited by what we can do as we are only a two-piece and want to keep things moving a bit on stage. I think pushing ourselves to try new things each night will keep us on our toes and in the zone. La Loge is a nice fit for Evening Hymns. Cozy and intimate. Got to see some friends too which is the best when you’re on the road and far from home. Always feels good to play to a packed house in a city like Paris too. Thanks Paris! Xo jb

We started the next morning too early and raced to Marseille. It was about an 8 hour drive I think. Pretty straightforward. Hit Marseille at night. Saw a bit of the sea. Dropped Sylvie off at the hotel and then had to drive back 30 minutes to the airport to return my car and catch a bus back into the city. Kind of a crazy thing to do after driving for 8 hours but it went pretty smoothly. Nice to listen to some songs in the dark on the bus racing back through the city. It’s those weird moments on tour that I love and make my life seem so bizarre. On a city bus, in the middle of the night, in Marseille, winding through the city.

Those two above photos are from this little pizza truck on the side of the road. Sylvs and I got lost on the way to the hotel and went to the opposite part of the Marseille that we were supposed to be in but magically we happened upon this little truck that had a wood burning oven in it. An older couple fashioned us up one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had. Sylvie and I drove through the streets burning our mouths and licking our lips. It was rad. I want to build one of these. I think it would totally slay downtown Toronto.

I walked to a club where Timber Timbre was playing, as part of the Inrocks Festival, and watched their set and hung out. Nice to have a night off to watch them play. Again, they drove people crazy. It’s a powerful thing to witness.

In the morning, reunited with the van and the band, we took off for our day off in Nice. A stunning drive and a really pretty town. Spent the afternoon wandering around by the sea. We settled in for a nice dinner and a couple bottles of wine our hotel room, with the balcony doors open and the rain falling gently on the town. It was a really nice mellow night spent in with friends so far from home. A perfect night off.

In the morning we left for Milan, Italy. Being my first time in Italy I was glued to the window of the van taking it in. It’s a gorgeous drive from Nice to Milan. The highway follows the coast pretty much the whole way. Huge vistas. Our first stop was at some roadside gas station/convenience store and we ate amazing fresh sandwiches and then hit the highway for the final leg to Milan. The venue we were playing was called Magnolia and it is out by the airport. Really big space with an amazing staff. They cooked us an incredible pasta dinner that was hands down one of the best meals I’ve had on tour… I was worried what the attendance was going to be like for our first show in Italy but it filled up nicely just before we played and we were treated to a quiet audience that seemed to really enjoy the show. Such a trip to be so far form home, playing in a country for the first time, and have such a delightful crowd. Lucky us… After the show, and some beers, and after getting my ass handed to me in foosball by some Italians, we hit our fancy hotel, had a jacuzzi, and went to bed, for few too little hours. Story of my touring life.

I will leave you with that haunting image now… the incredible hunk, ergh, hulk…

The next day we loaded up and checked into the venue, Union Chapel, which is one of the nicest venues I’ve ever had the chance to play. Sylvie described it pretty well in her blog post. It’s really a perfect room. A good soundcheck with our man Les and we hit the stage feeling pretty comfortable. Mika from Timber Timbre joined us for the first three songs which was a total treat for us. Nice to expand a bit for a few shows. I was super happy with the set. I think that being given time to relax before shows and to have a great soundcheck makes such a huge difference for our performance. In the past I’ve gotten so nervous before shows and this tour it’s been a more positive stress. More like an excitement or anticipation. Makes for a much more enjoyable tour. Anyways, TT killed it in the church and a lot of people seem to enjoy the whole night and we left as happy campers. One of the highlights of tour so far….

Union Chapel from the outside

Reuben dropped this chip and caught in his shoe by accident.

the man of movember

my jam

A few coldies in the hotel before we hit the hay and woke up to hit the road to the ferry again, back to Paris. Met back up with Agnes and the bus and watched their set at Casino du Paris. As Sylvie said, it was nice to just chill out and watch a set without having to play. We put our feet up and relaxed.

Our next show was in Caen, which I can never actually pronounce properly. I end up saying “cone”. Sorry about that. Another beauty night in a theatre. Great sound techs and super receptive audience. We tried some new songs and then retired to the bus to sip a few jaspers with Agnes and crew before splitting up again for a couple weeks. It started pissing rain so hard when we were on the bus and it made for such a nice evening inside. Feels kind of like camping when you’re on the bus. Settled into my bunk so late, knowing that we had to get up at 5:30am at CDG to grab our rental car.

After a few hours of restless sleep I awoke at the airport and went in search of the rental company. We ended up getting a pretty sweet whip for this leg of the journey. A Peugeot 508 wagon! Sylvie and I grabbed coffees and hit the road for Strasbourg. Pulled over at a park/rest stop/aire to sleep for an hour or so in the car. Actually was pretty decent. Feeling a bit better we rambled to the venue. It was really nice for me to have my own vehicle again. Driving on tour really connects one with the area I find. On the bus, or even in the van, you get to put your brain on autopilot while someone else drives and you don’t take as much out of the environment. It was nice to get behind the wheel and look around and think. I miss that on this tour. Not complaining. Just pointing out the difference of this tour and the last. Okay. Going to drop it here at Strasbourg and pick it up again in a bit.

Thanks for reading.

Jb

Sorry for the delay…

It’s been years since I’ve blogged and right now I’m in Nice, France, sipping a nice wine and listening to Illmatic by Nas and I’m going to try and take a crack at catching up…. We’ll see how far I get before I fall into my keyboard.

So Paris:

We spend a day just wandering. Literally, just wandering around with no goals. It was nice. Super lazy. Much needed. That night we hit this great restaurant up… Awesome veg option and we drank a bunch of great wine. This is my wine tour! No more beer… Just all the wine.

Woke up the next day and walked down the road by myself to Pere Lechaise, the famous cemetery. Spent about an hour and a half walking around looking for famous graves and enjoying the amazing fall colours. Feeling sentimental. Listening to records. The new Ohbijou, Bon Iver, etc. Pretty touching day for me. This cemetery is incredible. Every single headstone is worth stopping to look at and yet it’s completely endless…. So much to see. No time. Here’s an overview of what I saw:

I like the flowers on these graves

Cool headstone… literally.

Chopin’s Grave

Edith Piaf’s Grave

Jim Morrison’s Grave

A really nice way to mellow out and reflect on life before heading to Pitchfork Festival to DJ a couple sets in the afternoon. Took the train solo to this massive building that the festival was being held at. Here’s a pic:

Got to DJ two sets which was a nice chance to go through my ipods and pick out some tunes, which I find normally turns into getting hooked on listening to songs you forgot you had on there. Anyways, thought it went pretty well. I enjoyed it anyways…

Got to see a bunch of great sets. Kathleen Edwards, Canadian represent, warmed the room up. Jens Lekman, Lykke Li and Bon Iver all killed it. The Bon Iver set was especially amazing. So exciting to see people having that much fun on stage. I think that guy is making really important music right now. It’s super important to me and to see him playing that huge room and just having a blast was refreshing. Got to hang out with Kathleen and her band afterwards. It was nice talking Canadian for awhile. Oh and I got some sweet new shoes… Thanks to Greg and Claire for having us for the day. Good times.

Woke up early in the morning to hit the Gare du Nord to head to Amsterdam. I laid down the law with the beggars at the station. Ate an overpriced sandwich and caught our train. I caught a little sleep on the train. We were surrounded by this family from Holland, I assumed. 5 of them, presumably traveling from Paris on a vacation or something. I assumed all this… But I thought it was really sweet and it made me feel really comfortable to see this, seemingly, happy family on a nice trip together. They seemed content. Made me miss my family back home and I hope that one day we get a chance to travel for fun together. Oh the things one assumes and builds a story out of…

I spent some time on the train staring into the window. On the last train trip from Paris to London I did the same and it kind of inspired some of the lyrics for the opening song Arrows on our new record… Again here I was on the train from Paris trying to sort out some of my life by staring at/into/out the window on a train moving fast across the countryside of France.

We arrived in Amsterdam to a fine mist falling down and the hustle and bustle of a busy transportation hub. After lugging our luggage (is that where the term comes from?) we arrived at Bitterzoet, a former jazz club, turned indie club by the wonderful host Stuart and his sweet old doggie Syl (my favorite dog of tour yet). I fell asleep on the couch upstairs in the green room listening to the CBC on my iphone and drifting off, to be awoken by the pitter patter of Timber Timbre coming up the stairs. Reunited at last with our dear Canadian friends. Happy to be back in the fold with them, dashing across the countries. The show was a great start to our journey with them. Nice audience, cozy space, and an amazing TT set. An amazing feeling to be this far from home playing shows with these guys. TT and I did our first tour ever together and here we are… It’s a trip! We finished the night off in a typical Amsterdam blaze of glory, if you can imagine, and hit the hay for too short of a sleep before we raced to catch our ferry in Calais.

hiking around Amsterdam at night

On the way, at a gas stop, we were interrogated by the custom’s police, which is always fun. They said they saw one of us throw something in the woods and they went searching to see what it was and couldn’t find anything and they hassled us for awhile longer before eventually letting us go free. We hopped back on the highway, a little freaked, and caught our ferry. Phew!

Here are some photos from the ferry crossing to England. It was my first time traveling this way to London. Pretty cool.

Veggie lasagna, mushy peas and wedges. Not too bad!

Our van in the hull of a ship.

Sylvie playing with her food

After the crossing we went to our hotel to check in. Was pretty jacked to be headed back to London, mostly so I could eat ploughman’s sandwiches from Marks and Spencer. I really love those things. We got to town and checked into our hotel for the next two nights. It’s a pretty “hip” place to stay. The first night we shared the place with Lou Reed, Tori Amos and Alice Cooper. That’s right, we shared a hotel with Alice Cooper on fuckin’ HALLOWEEN!!!! Mellow night with a nice dinner and some downtime. Not much to report.

Next post will be really soon… I’ve got it all typed. I promise! xo for now… jb