heidelberg – december 10
we wake up.
we have coffee.
i am the first one up again.
but its we none the less.
the venue is the one right be the tracks. trains roll by.
they have a good spread for us in there. actual eggs too.
now its ime for some serious christmas shopping. last chance to do it and this town was built for it. so the day ravels, spending it there amongst the kind of shopping throng that surprisingly feels good cause of its old style christmas in high gear, old timey decorations and lights a strewn, cold enough to have to bundle up, complete with a castle looming over it all on the cliffs directly above.
i manage to finally find the long sought after correctly sized and styled jeans for the missus; levi’s, but they have longer lengths over here, women are longer over here i reckon, and then a few things too for the band. then back to the club for sound check. and all that went tour end right too.
after the check, its off to eat. a good find and a good omen of a restaurant. the waitress and the bartender seem more friendly then usual. they are end of tour friendly. i fall for them both while i am left there alone and the rest of the band scurry back to commence with the evening’s song. the waitress is half thai half german and the bartender dude is full on cuban. a fine combination and a warm feeling in there. hard to leave.
so then the show. i head back through the dark cold with all my buttons on my coat now popped off in vintage fashion. soon as i hit the stage i am reminded how strange the past shows have been here for us. and sure enough, right out of the gate, the weirdest set of the tour unfolds. really f@ckin weird. from the very first strum to the very last drum. weird. bizarre. and not at all satisfyingly so. the crowd probably is ok with it, but to me they look like we have pounded them to a pulp with weirdness.
it’s a good show to get over with. a night off would have been a better idea, and maybe we need it. then for the umpteenth time i get lost in the bowels of the club. it always happens here. very very weird. i thought i followed everybody out, but no, went some other way down some other hall and doors lock behind and i am stuck somehow somewhere. i end up outside the club wearing a sweaty t-shirt and freezing. so i just get back on the mothership.
after shower and cleaning up, i head back through the dark streets to have a last beer at that restaurant. its about 1:00 in the morning and it should be closing then, but the whole band will follow me there soon and we will have an end of tour party the night before this part of the tour actually ends. it will be the last night for the girls to be with us and also tour manager steve left, who refuses to fly. lonna will head back to arizona and continue and sarah to australia.
i arrive and the place should have been closing, but they let me in and it feels good and warm. we have hours till bus call. there is a woman also sitting at the bar and eventually she reaches over into my solitude and startles me with: “ i would lick the bottom of your shoes”. i slowly turn toward her and then i see that familiar smile that stains our audiences faces. ok then. so she was there and she loved the bewildering set and says has been there for the past 20 years too.
she reveals that the venue we played at used to be an older building filled with all kinds of artists that the city had to kick out and build this puzzle of a venue that only ever offers up the weirdest gigs we do. it’s a sensitivity thing, and this place seems mucked with a bad vibe from kicking out all those artists who were us before we wer whoever we are. we pick up on it like a curse. how can we feel good in a place like that and play the magic stuff. impossible. even the grand piano was difficult to adore.
then the band shows up and finally i take part in some serious drinking. the cuban bartender has fun talking spanish with sound man miguel. the band are in high form and sarah has a fine buzz on too. it’s a very good end of tour cluster. the waitress treats us like old friends so i fall in love with her too. why not. it will all be vaporized in a few moments when the bus rolls us away.
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