(click here for downloadable pdf tour poster)
our last il sogno del marinaio gig was 'pert-near seven years ago (oct 22, 2017 in nijmegen, netherlands) and damn if I ain't really ready to jump onboard to grab an oar to help w/paddlin this barque forward/onward/ahead w/more vigor! I know the tour's named after the third il sogno del marinaio eight song album "terzo" that comes out may 3 (you can pre-order it here) however, we're not only supporting that on this sally-forth but also our three song seven inch "wing and a prayer" actually just spouted up now - get here, crimony! bof are on improved sequence and we're gonna play most those tunes plus a couple from last tour. like last tour, paolo mongardi will be on drums w/stefano pilia on guitar and myself on bass... all three us were the people who recorded bof "wing and a prayer" and "terzo" also (though we did get help w/some friends on that part). on behalf of the band, I want everyone to know we're very inspired to try our best for every gig on this upcoming tour, play our fucking brains out and bring all we can to the gig-goers in every town we get a chance to bring this latest chapter of il sogno del marinaio music. last but not least, we'er most grateful to swamp for booking this tour, truly.
il sogno del marinaio
"terzo tour 2024"
wed, may 15 in fano, italy at bagno elsa
thu, may 16 in pescara, italy at scumm
fri, may 17 in napoli, italy at auditorium novecento
sat, may 18 in roma, italy at csoa forte prenestino
sun, may 19 in bologna, italy at freakout club
mon, may 20 in milano, italy at arci bellezza
tue, may 21 in prato, italy at orto sonoro santa valvola
wed, may 22 in padova, italy at circolo nadir
thu, may 23 in zagreb, croatia at vintage industrial bar
fri, may 24 in belgrade, serbia at elektropionir
sat, may 25 in graz, austria at ppc bar
sun, may 26 in staranzano, italy at dobialab
mon, may 27 in vienna, austria at chelsea
tue, may 28 in brno, czechia at kabinet muz
wed, may 29 in prague, czechia at the meet factory
thu, may 30 in hamburg, germany at hafenklang
fri, may 31 in dordrecht, netherlands at ds17
sat, june 1 in antwerp, belgium at blikfabriek
sun, june 2 in london, england at cafe oto
mon, june 3 in colchester, england at the colchester arts centre
tue, june 4 in southampton, england at the joiners
wed, june 5 in liverpool, england at quarry
thu, june 6 in kinsale, ireland at prim's
fri, june 7 in dublin, ireland at the grand social
sat, june 8 in letterkenny, ireland at rcc
sun, june 9 in glasgow, scotland at the hug and pint
mon, june 10 in newcastle, england at the cluny
tue, june 11 in brighton, england at the hope & ruin
wed, june 12 in charleroi, belgium at le vecteur
thu, june 13 in paris, france at supersonic
fri, june 14 in winterthur, switzerland at kraftfeld
sat, june 15 in villingen, germany at mps studio
sun, june 16 in bologna, italy at fermento in villa
stefano pilia, mike watt + paolo mongardi (l to r) in 2017, photo by matilde
(click here for hires version)
wednesday, may 15, 2024 - fano, italy
from paolo:
"Bologna. A long journey begins with tying your shoes" - paolo
from stefano:
Bagni Elsa id the first gig of this new tour. Finally we are going to play “terzo” and “wing and a prayer” new songs. “Terzo” has been recorded in 2019 in Pedro at casa hanzo and completed in 2020.
We also recorded wing a prayer 7” in 2020 trading files via web. we have been waiting to release them till now that we can finally tour. We had five days of practising in Bologna at my studio grabinski point. I am using the same fender 66 jazzmaster I used for canto secondo 2014 usa tour. now I got equipped her with goldfoils pick ups… and an audition guitar, a very cheap guitar i got in Seattle in 2016 and that I keep in an opening d tuning... like them both... crispy, bright and not low mid freq competing with mike bass.
I have to sing and spiel more than ever I did in my experience on stage. Shaky but positive..and good setlist... hills and valley are well placed. A lot of winds from the sea... rain does not drop out gratefully Spacepony opens the evening, Enrico Croci booked the first gig!
from watt:
pop at six... today is the first day of the "terzo tour 2024" but I actually arrived last week, on the eighth. that's cuz I haven't done a gig w/these guys in seven years and really need some prac w/them. I really enjoy this "terzo" album realistically I'm thinking no way can pretend we're "that album" cuz for me, an album is not a gig and vice-versa. it can be a good start to "build" a gig but it ain't that fucking bucket of whatever at the end of the dog and pony show, capito? we also got the seven inch to help us, three tunes we recorded separately/remotley a year after "terzo" - yeah, let me explain: fra paolo and fratello ste came to my pedro town in february of 2019 and we recorded the tunes for "terzo" at _casa hanzo_ w/peetzo (he's also secondmen organman). back in italy, they bof add stuff w/me also doing the same by using recordings I make at my studio tHUNDERpANTS in my pedro apartment. tim in wales ended up mixing it and I thought he did a bitchin job, truly. also the fratelli, I'm really proud to be part of this album. the three tunes for the seven inche ("wing and a prayer" / "tantrum" / "hail mary pass") was kind of my response to "terzo" and even more, the covid19 sitch cuz it looked like a vaccine was coming and so some "light at the end of the tunnel" which gave me optimistic feeling. I thought also maybe we could do some tunes composed on bass in very simple forms - I really think there is a future for the bass as a composition tool, really do. they bof also let me bring perk aboard to bring percussion and bongos. petra also brought singing and violin, she did likewise on some of the "terzo" album. music was such a lifeline for me in that sitch... well, fuckin since d boon's ma put me on bass actually! you can imagine now too, maybe always after that big sea-change for me when I was twelve and out of navy housing...
fratello ste found a b & b called "a casa mia" on via del pratello west of bologna's center of town. I really dig it cuz it's got a kitchen so I can cook. yeah, stuff I've learned from my ma but developed my way: saute style where I start w/a foundation of olive oil in a high-sided frying pan w/fresh sliced-up onion, zucchini, celery, ginger, garlic and chilies... after those cook up, I add the protein and then usually some kind of frozen vegetable like broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, greens beans, asparagus or artichoke - I rotate them all around cuz I feel I need variety. I spend about seventy euros (about $76) to get this much at a nearby mini "coop" store nearby and figure this can last the next six days and damn if it don't. we do our pracs about a half-hour hobble for me away just off via marconi on via grabinski - it's called grabinski point and two floors down is where we're at to prac. for an a amp I'm using the ashdown "rootmaster" I got in wales on the 2017 tour and for a speakerbox, I'm using the lombardi one I used when il sogno del marinaio was first doing gigs, it's got a 12" and 15" speaker mounted concentrically. I brought a little pedal from jhs called the pulp n peel that has compression, a tilt-eq, blend and adjustable "rat" distortion but I use these pretty minimally - it's also got a xlr direct out for just in case.
about prac: of course we gotta focus on each tune and how we're gonna play together for each one but after a couple days (eight/nine hours each), I have to have a spiel to explain what over forty years of touring has taught me which is a gig is not just one tune, it's a set which means a collection of tunes and not just that but the transitions in between each so I plead for some attention for that perspective. they're bof very kind to help me w/this, we finish working out all the individual song stuff w/one day to go and so on tuesday, we can rock some "dress rehearsal" - I think they call it that in the theatre world. man, I feel a lot me relieved cuz I was having some fucking anxiety nightmares - I get those the first week of tour anyway but this was still in the prac phase! crimony. we get to run through the whole enchilada twice and then we do an instore at hellnation which is a really happening record store here in bologna. enrico croci is here again and I spend almost the whole two hours (fano's about a hundred miles from bologna) spieling w/him besides meeting the improved sequence jefe gianluca (also freakout club) and jonathan (he put out "terzo" and the seven inch - I meet michelangelo also, he did the artwork for bof) and I'm so glad cuz they're great cats, I really grateful for their kindness.
gig day and we get to do one more rundown of the set... on my way to prac, it being my last time hobbling down via del pratello, I take many fucking photos - first day I've been here where the weather hasn't been sunny and like my pedro town, there's some light rain and so a little slippery but I left the konk pad real early w/bof sacks (one on back one on my chest) and move real REAL slow and careful. there's marble sidewalks a lot of the way but only once did my crutch 'pert-near slide out - that was enough to give me a heart attack! crimony.
we do the final prac and say good bye to "point grabinski" (it's been a good six days!) as we load up fra paolo's fiat minivan. I have very comfortable spot right behind him in his role as wheelman. enrico croci is gonna sit next to me cuz he's w/us to fano - he booked the fucking gig. of course fratello fede at swamp booked the tour but enrico croci booked this gig. we pull anchor around two and it takes a couple hours as travel southeast to the coast - the side of italy that's on the adriatic but I don't notice cuz me and enrico croci spiel the entire way, we have a good time. this venue is called bagno elsa and it's right on the fucking beach, I dig it MUCH! the sound of the waves, the smell of the sea... man, it reminds me of my pedro town - especially this one part we call "royal palms" - whoa! love it. the rain has let up but there's a little wind so they gig cats put up some stuff to help w/that... most though is still open-air, fuck yeah! carlo and allesandro are the sound cats and they're most kind truly. at soundcheck I find the orange box I brought (jhs "pulp and peel") solves a hum prob cuz this di on the ashdown amp has no ground lift - I will use this way for the rest of the tour, makes good sense to me.
the spacepony is opening up this show, a band from ravenna (up the coast) and I've known stefano and david for a long time, they've been to many stooges gigs and have always most kind to me. I dig their band also - they ask me to do a song w/them, their bassman nick lends me his fender p and their keyboard/violinist frank helps direct me, very kind. frank on the drums is also right there for me. we do soundcheck (bof bands) and then enrico croci takes me a little way down the road to chow at "bagnacciuqwa" and I have some pasta and tiny clams that's really fuckin good. crimony. we do more spiel, love it! however, he gets a yank on his leash and it's fratello ste saying the spacepony is on and I gotta get back to join them for "hopefulness" - our song together. I make it and doing ok though I blow some clams... it ain't nothing compared to what's gonna happen when it's il sogno del marinaio's turn. I enjoy the spacepony gig much and am inspired - however, that ain't enough!
fuck, I lose my nerve when we hit about ten after eight. crimony. clam after clam but I gotta say fra paolo is a "pillar of stability" for me and helps me hang on. there's just so much to remember! crimony. we keep the keel in the water - fratello ste is a big reason and so are the fano gig-goers, they're most kind and open-minded I feel and it buoys me up and keeps from totaling freaking out. yeah, all these years of tour and still this kind of thing can happen w/me. I don't know what to say, there's no excuse. I 'pert-near shat a pecan-log, I shit thee not, truly. oh man, there ain't enough hours in the day for me to chimp here about all the clams cuz there was fuckin buttload on account of me. ahhhh, so embarrassing but I don't know of anyway to get through it except to "walk through the fire" - kind of how mr bukowski put it, correct? you know he spent his last fourteen years in my pedro town? got to meet him once and he was very kind to me. his wife linda still lives there... anyway, I thank the gig-goers most kind to me and david from the spacepony gives me a tshirt - as well as a guitarman, he's also a longshoreman (like my secondlmen peeto and jer) and this has something to that. he tells me about a monument to sailors in his ravenna town he's gonna help move... good man, david - so glad to know him, truly.
enrico croci takes me to a 'tel nearby called "blumen" and I fuckin konk nearly as soon as I get naked and crumple... first gig of a tour always beats me up, even after seventy of them, I never get used to it. crimony.
thursday, may 16, 2024 - pescaro, italy
from paolo:
"Maiella Mountaiins view from the Scudo boat" - paolo
from stefano:
We hit the road round 12 to get to Scumm after a nice a breakfast at the hotel…it is a very tiny room..it was an old jail -I played here before with Zu in 2019 while we were playing Carboniferus ten years anniversary.
Arrived in Pescara we find out we were almost loosing the front left wheel of the van on the motorway..luckily fratello Paolo while driving heard a not ok noise coming from the car. So we went to a mechanic who quickly detected the problem... we have been very lucky.
Hope, trust, chaos, complexity, chances, evolution, creation, a.i., contradictions of life for dinner.
The gig sounds definitly more mature than the previous one fratello Mike suggested some good edits on a couple of songs
from watt:
pop at eight - what? yep, I was that fuckin beat and mainly from anxiety and almighty hand-wringing. I need to speak to fratello ste about some adjusts maybe to our stuff but first it's fill-out-forms-time w/the uk-these-days stuff. arrrgghhh but it's gotta be done, gotta. first I shovel some fried eggs they got at the 'tel next door (guess bof pads are owned by same whatever), coff from a machine (maybe some kind of coff-syrup getting mixed into hot water?) that makes me 'pert-near heave a couple of tiny salami - when was the last time I ate salami? damn, I used to chow it all the time but like a lot of other stuff I used to do all the time... quote the raven, correct? some cucumber slices and then outside fratello tells me about his dentist grandpa and gym teacher pop - his pop was the one who told him to go for drums after he told his pop he didn't wanna be a dentist... I think of al jolson and "the jazz singer" movie. I tell him about my pop and his twenty year hitch w/the navy, getting to chief... how my ma decided was it as far as moving and cuz of that, I met d boon and...
pull anchor at one... big bye bye to enrico croci, hope to see him again soon... he really seemed in good health and spirit, really did. we're supposed to come down the coast all the way to the next gig but cuz of a bicycle race, we gotta find a detour to get inland some to the autostrada. police all over at checkpoints but they were no help - the fratelli working together using a leash provides the success. a little bit of rain and some haze but not heavy - what is heavy for me is talking cold war stuff while remembering things my pop told me while I was a boy in those days, "broken arrows" and shit like that... we spiel only a little bit about this - oh, here's an "art" connect that came up: mr kubrick's "2001" movie - not one cat I've asked ever has guessed right what is it the bone "becomes" when bonecrusher does that bone-toss up into space... they 'pert-near always say "spacecraft" and sure it is but if you read the book mr clarke wrote, it's a fuckin weapon. ok, basta. the sprinkles of rain stop and we got some hazy sun for the rest of our drive while I switch from spieler to chimping diary and bof fratelli spiel w/each other up front in italiano. we pull over at a service area twenty of four to check out some weird feel fratello paulo has w/the coche... he just had the transmission belts changed so... "transmission belts" - hmm... front-wheel drive fiat mini-van, I got no experience but I respect him wondering what's up, something not feeling correct - the sign of a good man - he cares about the folks he's schlepping around, you know? much respect.
we get into pescara 'pert-near to four and a half (it was a little over two hundred klicks of road) and after checking out where the gig pad is, we head over to where the konk pad is, not too far away... called "hotel b & b" - fratello paulo calls some buddies who've got buddies who know a mechanic here and so he takes the coche over there while we do a little siesta at the konk pad. coming on six, time for load-in so damn if fratello's got some interesting news for us: the fucking lug nuts on the wheels were loose! crimony... he changed the tires right before we shoved off so... he said the mechanic man told him he "saved our lives" and fuck yeah I big time believe that. crimony. can you believe that shit? happened to one of joe baiza's drummermen, jason kahn. he told me about getting new tires for his ride and right after, on the freeway - in the fast lane - he notices for about two or three seconds his front port-side wheel ahead of him - WHAT?! then BOOM, sparks flying everywhere and the coche spinning as traveling on three wheels couldn't last forever! crimony. so glad he survived. anyway, I truly believe this mechanicman saved us from a real hell, truly. do I have "hope" in a guy putting on tires or do I have "fait" maybe? maybe this question is beyond semantics? "hope" is kind of "iffy" so maybe we check to be sure? maybe the word "trust" is involved? crimony. this stuff has to be settled w/action and not words, I think - people's lives are at stake (ours!), this is not for just spiel at the chow table! crimony.
the gig pad for tonight is called scumm and we meet the jefe luca who tells us this area is the old town left in the city cuz of all the destruction that was brought here from world war II. we do soundcheck w/soundman manut and I have us try some changes to two of our tunes - I love the "terzo" versions but this is a gig we're doing live so maybe some edits in parts could help. also fratello ste suggests I take a stroll on the bass when I do the spiel for "max roach 8 ball" and I agree that it's the best move for us at this point. the "edits" I suggested are for "pulling myself by the hair" and "none dare call it conspiracy" and if it was literature maybe the expression "more punchy" could be used cuz of what I feel is from us "tightening up" the arrangements in context of this set we're bringing the gig-goers. the room we're playing in is trippy, the jefe luca says it was a jail from olde-time. crimony. it is interesting though. after check we go only a little way to this chow pad called "tiella" - yesterday was rough on me a little bit, chowing right before we played. I explain to fratello ste it's better for me to chow like two hours before getting on stage and as for chowing AFTER gig, that's no bueno for me, I stopped doing that years ago cuz of it hurting me. anyway, this chow pad has specialty of abruzzo (the regione pescara is in) which is sheep meat on skewers, sheep live also and that's what I chow along w/a salad... it is very VERY good. I thought I would have fish cuz of being on the coast but there was none on the menu... trippy, huh? I'm glad I got to chow this. we have these far-ranging spiels about all kinds of stuff 'til right before our gig. on-stage time is ten and a half but no opening act so we're able to hit right on time.
I have my confidence way more together tonight than last night BUT there still are some clams from me. the pescara gig-goers are very kind though and help me actually more than intimidate me which is what happens w/me when I get afraid. there's a cat up front who really helps rally me, his enthusiasm is really contagious on me and also fratello ste w/the eye contact really helps me big time. again fra paolo brings good drums but he's not used to the eye contact thing... maybe that will develop? I have a real good feeling about us playing this gig, I actually laugh very much through the whole trip. I'm having a good time, really even though a couple of tunes I feel I'm being pushed a little too much - I can have a discussion w/the band tomorrow when we drive but really, it's a HUGE rally for me after last night, really is. understand I blew some clams, none mightier than the coda a whole step too high in "verse IX" or stomping all over where fratello was supposed to get us into the last big go 'round in "grabbing myself by the hair" or... or... or... you get the picture, wall fixture? not all together but a fucking buttload better in ways that I think mean way more than of what I was just kvetching over, YES.
I sign stuff from the pescara gig-goers, take photos... really kind people truly - one tells me he works bass, yes, a bassbrother - big hug! I always pack my stuff right when I finish and that's why it takes me a little time but then I never have to go back which is good when you're cripple... the jefe luca takes the veccio (old man) to the konk pad which is happening cuz it's midnight now - the latest I've been up since I left my pedro town. after all those pracs I would konk right after hobbling back to the konk pad, just too tuckered to continue and anyway, back home I only stay up to do gigs, otherwise I'm out like at seven or eight pm. now last night I did hose off like stonato but tonight I make sure I do and then konk.
friday, may 17, 2024 - napoli, italy
from paolo:
"Napoli, Auditorium Novecento, an historic recording studio from early 1900s, w/Fratello Stefano sleeping on the floor included...magical!" - paolo
from stefano:
We cross Abruzzo and Maiella national parks to get to Napoli Auditorium Novecento, a nice and very old recording studio now turned also into a venue round 16 o'clock we dive in to the bing bung bang noisy Napoli traffic... it is a vehicles concert river, they flow all over... not so dangerous as someone would think in my opinion cause everything kind of move slow... of course it requires attention.
It is hot... Cristian scarrymonster is here to wait us. We eat a pizza for dinner.
from watt:
popped at six and a half cuz didn't have the shade down enough to stop the sun-wake, am way sensitive so I wait it out 'til seven and hobble downstairs for the included shovel. well, more of that syrup and water coff from a machine but they do have cold water w/lemon in it and yogurt not sharing a buttload of sugar in a plastic whatever where you can add raw walnuts, pumpkin and flax seeds - that's real good. the fuckin weird "scrambled" eggs w/the hotdogs sliced up are like how I explain them but at least I don't get sick - that's a real good thing. there's a pear that's whole and real good. I go back upstairs and finally get the first day of tour diary up. out the window - well, it's a hatch and it's open w/out any flies or mosquitos - am really digging that. not too hot either.
we pull anchor at noon. we're going south a bit and then west across the appenini - from the adriatic coast to the mediterranean in a few hours. crimony. we pass the gran sosso but I'm ready for it cuz I was from the wikipedia site this morning, then writing to fratello ste to confirm:
>
> fratello ste,
>
> ah so... the "big rock"
> - where adolf hitler had that baka
> herr skorzeny rescue el duce so
> he could build his salo stronzo,
> correct?
>
> I might be a slow learner but am
> convinced I am here to learn.
>
> the irony of circumstance, huh?
> these sitchs are like perpetual
> classrooms for me!
>
>
> fratello mike
>
>
we pass these little forts and tiny towns nestled up into the appenini... two pm and we stop at this little panini pad so the fratelli can chow something... I don't know cuz I stay in the coche. I can imagine these parts in the winter, must be all snow stuff. it's autostrade but a lot of it one lane a side and then where there's construction, red lights stop you - how many people just take off? cazzo! ok, we're safe - wheel stayed on too so that pescaro mechanicman did good. we pass vesuvius - I think of saint helena in southern washington but also remember brother steve... just after four we get into napoli - it's the number two city of italy in pop but way denser than number one roma... I ain't been here in seventeen years and that was on the other side by the port... here, in the downtown, it's way wild w/the traff - whoa, INTENSE is too calm a word I'm think, makes me laugh out loud like some of my experiences driving in manhattan some tours. takes a while but we make it to the gig pad maybe forty minutes later, cris of scarry monster is there to say greet us, he booked a lot of the italian gigs this tour and I'm glad to see him. like a lot of cats who ain't seen me in a while, he notices I'm like twenty kilos lighter. that ain't a bad thing - I travel usually shirtless so he twists my port-side tit, says I look good naked. sorry but I got my levis on, hermano.
it's been like eighteen years since I've played this town last and only time it was w/the stooges at a festival - my only time here and we stayed on the other side where the port is so I never was in the city parts like this. whoa, there's a feeling for sure. that was the only time I was here - I mean I took a boat ride to ischia (where most the italian immigrants to my pedro town came from) and I spent a day a pompeii (w/brother steve and stooges road boss eric fischer) but... yeah, BUT - glad I did that but damn if I didn't down the road healthy enough to get to play this pad TONIGHT, auditorium novecento is an old studio from the early 1900s and the closest I could compare it too is the big room at united in hollywood, the sound is fuckin happening, really is. fabrizio is the soundman and sets our stuff out, great cat and the actual knobman for the gig (our fourth man), not just the setter-upper like part of the tag teams the last two gigs had. nothing wrong w/anyone, everyone on this tour so far has been really righteous to work w/and I ain't just saying that - you can't imagine the genuine spirit these people bring, it's beautiful.
next door to the venue is a small chow pad called "pappa and pizza" and cristian gets me some maguarita pizza - napoli is the home of this kind which is just marinara sauce, mozarella cheese and fresh basil leaves, it's really good. I never eat peetz any more, it's kind of way over for me but here it's different, just more simple maybe and that makes it better to me? don't know. do know this is good and also this fritter think that's got spaghetti and peas in some kind of big deep-fried puck... I use my hashi to chow tear it apart and chow it. I then go into the venue's control boof (remember this is a big studio) and chimp diary on at the end of this row of chairs fra paolo's using the rest of to konk on. oh, I met this u.s. guy before outside, gives me a red horn charm for good luck, I put it on my chain around my neck that holds the little anchor. there's some old tape machines in the boof here, a sixteen track two inch studer, a twentyfour track trident two inch and a two track studer... I start to remember all the minutemen records we recorded cuz they were all done on tape... remember that was forty and more years ago... engineerman ethan james gone twenty years now? and since this last march, spotski's also gone. crimony. love those cats... man, I miss them, miss them.
cris says there's a big soccer game for the napolit team so push-back on the gig to eleven bells. no prob, it's a firday... first friday of the tour. ok, time to do... all but lights out in the space except some bright ones on our seats... the gig-goers got seats too. we bring the gig w/out a word. I notice fratello ste's a little tired. his spirit is good though and he gives me much occhios ('eyes' in italian) - fra paolo not so much but is plowing good on the drums. I'm blowing less vogoli ('clams' in italiano) which is good but still the loosing-the-nerve thing plagues me still but for shorter times and not as frequent. I feel we gotta bring down the music for "the fall" more cuz if fratello ste gets louder, the character of how he has composed will get lost so I believe it's the band that's gotta get smaller under him. I will discuss later. hard to see the gig-goers in the darkness but I try from time to time... they're most kind to us. man, there's a lot of stuff to remember in this set of music for me, let me tell you. it's worth the challenge I figure though, fuck, life's a challenge if you face facts, correct? "avanti!" that's how john devries used to sign-off on his emails to me: avanti!
we finish up and many gig-goers come up to have me sign stuff and spiel. the bassman of la via degli astronauti is here and we have some spiel and hugs, a great meeting - I've played all the music I could find of their on my show and we have a good rap - that like twelve or something years ago - fuck, time flies - I give him my email address so maybe some collab? hope so. I meet a u.s. cat who works for the u.s. navy but he's also from cali - from up in eureka (not yreaka - we joke about that)... lots of good spirit and kindness from folks, really happening. so easy for me to put away stuff so it's no bother, am happy to be there for them cuz they were for us. whoa, I wanna come back - like w/fano and pescaro! crimony.
cris wants to get us back to the 'tel (actually an "apartment") I'll find out but first he backs us out a narrow crazy street - I mean it is wild and crazy w/everything pretty NOT calm but somehow we make out to this part of town where there's this big door that's got a tiny door... yeah, this tiny hatch that trips me out and I can't fuckin stop laughing. anyway, we get up to this floor w/this pad w/number nine over a hatch and man, it's this big-ass pad w/a deck w/marble pieces in ways I really dig and a high overhead... all very olde-timey but together still and like three times the size of my pad in pedro. crimony. hard to fathom, whoa. I hose off and get in a bed w/a netting around it, what?! well I konk soon, I'm tuckered but this pad is trippy. thank you grazie cris!
saturday, may 18, 2024 - roma, italy
from paolo:
"Fire of resistance in Forte Prenestino, Rome." - paolo
from stefano:
Slept hard. we got anchovies and real mozzarella for breakfast It is raining hard. we hit the road for Forte Prenestino, an old fortress, a squat. a lot of dust…people at the gig are very kind and supportive with us. Manfredi is a young guy from Brescia, is our sound engineer. Nice to see Donatello, Jacopo from Zu, Capocetta and Matteo, Emily and Giulia, Chiara and Daniele. good gig tonight. After the gig our van get blocked by the car of the opening band... we have to wait till 3:30 a.m. before someone come to move it... we go sleep at 4:00. Hard konk.
from watt:
popped at ten - can you fuckin believe that?! crimony. I can't remember when lately I've popped so late but so be it cuz I think my body felt I needed it. I feel very well. oh oh... ahhh! can't open the hatch! luckily there's another way, a back "hallway" trip (featuring a baby crib!) - of course this konk room is the conduit to the head! anyway, I still dig it much and wish I could be in one like it in my pedro town... the fucking art on the deck! crimony. there's some lightning, thunder and then rain as make up coff, they got all the stuff to make it moka-pot style. real good internet so I get that together also... we ain't gotta bail for a while. cris brings me a "maradonna" sandwich made w/a big airy submarine-sandwich type bread filled w/the napoli-style mozzarella ("muzzarella") - the best I've ever had, no fucking rubbery plastic-type stronzo but good creamy but not phily cream-cheese, some thin ham slices and sun-dried tomatoes. really REALLY fuckin happening. also some tiny fish w/very light breading - not greasy a bit, fuckin great. this bread slice hollowed out and stuffed w/spinach and melted cheese, crimony - what a chow! grazie cris!
the big rain subsides and we get out of dodge at three, bye bye napoli - where we konked was right by the autostrada we needed so no crazy driving experience like yesterday. we head north. I chimp more diary, need to catch up... soon I gotta get to photos cuz I got a buttload. soon... soon too fratello ste says he's got diario and again fra paolo the tour will do photos like the 2017 tour. most happening. my voce alone makes me feel kind of weird - I will do it but... I prefer "ensemble" diario, you know?
very nice weather when we get to the outskirts of roma ten after five, stop for fuel €1.68/liter (about $6.92/gallon), am told to use my fingers to pry open the hatch to the head so I can piss, no prob. we follow cris in his little fiat to tonight's konk pad which is an actual house this time not far from the venue, in cinecitta though we don't see any of that historical stuff, we're there for only a little bit to get the keys and drop off our sacks. we then head over the gig pad which where I was at last time I played roma, at csoa forte prenestino which is an old fort repurposed for more artistic stuff.
soundamn manfreddy has a device like a leathermen which helps me widen the shaft on the tone control so the knob that feel off last night (so glad the fratelli found it) can really fit "goot-n-tight" like my pop used to say. we do the stooges "tv eye" for the check - maybe fratello ste needs to learn the lick ronnie did? I still enjoy it. we go to the backstage and I chow some stew and the roma version of spinach, I dig it. cris brings mike cooper and his partner to meet me - he's a lap slide guitarman that I've had on my show (this one) and it's sure good to meet him in person, he has many interesting things to share w/me - he's from england but lives in roma now. here's a trip he tells me: he's never driven a car in life. crimony. sure is nice to rap w/him, so glad he heard about the gig and just showed up.
the openers magda go on and have an instrumental power trio for their gig, interesting. after them is this fire stuff, a type of life performance using fire in all kinds of ways w/some backup music - not live music but interesting stuff that goes real well these performers who are braver w/these fire trips than I could ever be, even some fireworks at the end, firecrackers. I don't think I've ever gone after an act like this, kind of a mind blow.
a quarter after eleven, we're ready to go. cris asked me to bring something rocking to start the gig and so I ask the fratelli if we can do our version of the stooges' "fun house" and they're into it. tonight's gig goes really good, best I think of the tour. I'm really getting more and more of my nerve up about the material and that means also knowing it better so even if there are vogoles (which they are), I ain't all lost, panicked and shit. every gig is better but this one maybe exponentially, I shit thee not. I mean I still do some stupid shit like for example, forgetting to push the cord all the way into the jack on my bass (georgie would've said "like a jackass") so the first couple of tunes has my going out - THAT'S the fuckin reason, I correct it. the roma gig-goers ain't sitting like the ones last night in napoli (different sitch) and are really helping me w/the spirit they bring, it's fuckin happening, truly. everything the band plays better than ever this gig I feel and the roma gig-goers are a big part but so are fratello ste and fra paolo w/what they're bringing - all this helps me, love it. we prolly could've brought another encore but I don't wanna milk it.
bassbrother giancarlo comes up on stage for first a big hug and then hands me a cd from his new band _dipso_ and it makes me really happy cuz this brother's love of music for me is beautiful and I feel most authentic, very inspiring for watt, truly. I sign a bunch of stuff and become part of a lot photos - I think people understand me giving fist bumps though some at first try to grab me. not their fault, habits get ingrained in people. a big sharing of joy is what I'm feeling and am most grateful. I get my stuff packed, it's pretty quick w/what little I got. I get off the stage and find a little stump to sit on, this cat alessio has me sign his copy of "double nickels on the dime" and tells me he's a bass player (his band: momenti di forte imbarazzo) and well, we get into spieling about stuff... a lot of folks it seems so far on this tour are concerned about me hurting cuz they see me using this crutch so when I can I try to explain I ain't in pain and it's just a result of being born w/bad knees and the surgeries I got in my early twenties wearing out, especially on the port-side and that's why I'm using the crutch: to keep from falling and not cuz I'm in pain and hurting. I try to explain about how cutting sugar way down has cut down the hurt in my hands and all my joints. people it seems understand what's when I speak to them about it but I think the appearance of me like this w/the crutch ('il zopo' meaning 'the cripple' in italiano), they think I'm really hurting and want me better. I explain that I'm grateful for having my hands good so I can work bass and maybe that's good enough - if giving the choice, I'm happy w/this way, really.
well, it seems I was kind of hidden, sitting on that stump and cris had trouble finding me - funny thing is that it takes him even longer to get out and actually has to park his car and find someone w/the key to get us out! kind of clown car ride but that's ok in the big scheme of things cuz I really dug the whole trip today. we get to the konk pad and hose off w/some liquid soap that's got maybe a raspberry smell? first time for me for that but I'm clean and ready to konk - it's fuckin after two! crimony. I konk quick, I'm beat. whew... sol glad about the gig though... I thank the fratelli I get to play w/and I thank roma.
sunday, may 19, 2024 - bologna, italy
from paolo:
"In Bologna I would have liked to sleep in my own bed, but..." - paolo
from stefano:
I get shower every morning… we go straight to get lunch at fraschetta del pesce near Cinecitta, then i take the wheel for the first time on this tour to get to Bologna. Till now only fratello Paolo drove us. We are traveling on his fiat scudo minivan. Very grateful to him for taking care of this.
Excited and anxious to play in our town tonight... so many friends are coming. C+C Maxigross are there too and open the night... they are close friends with Miles Cooper Seaton, a common friend, great musician and soul, that tragically died in a car crash. he played with Akron family band and spent much time in Italy, cause he loved it. we have been on tour together in 2016 while fratello Andrea was still on the band. we later recorded in Berlino "lo sguardo focalizzato" with him, a 9 min pieces conceived by fratello Mike. the piece is divided in nine little parts of which each of us proposed three of them... it is a weird strange piece of music that miles helped us to realize. we would like to release this one day. In the meanwhile we also did a 7" tribute to Miles with fratello Andrea, this came out last fall. a very good man, generous and in love with life, music and so many people he met. He really liked the jazzmaster style brown colour guitar Marco Pontillo built for me so we went to visit Marco, and Miles got him to built a strato model that now is with Tobia from C+C.
from watt:
pop at nine, whoa. go to the head to piss and notice a scale... now I left my pedro town weighing 163 pound so yeah, steady as she fuckin goes, huh?! crimony, I'm so glad I got my health, so glad. ste makes coff using the other sack of coff I got back when I first arrived in bologna at the coop near the "a casa mia" konk pad. "waste not want not" - not empty words but a healthy policy, I think.
quarter of one we pull anchor, we had small talk w/the konk pad owner, big nice guy w/a bad knee - he shows me his small surgery scar on one of his and I show the big scars on bof of me - his surgery from hurt and mine cuz I was born that way. we chow not too far away at a chow pad called "la fraschetta del pesce express" - I'm told the son of last night's konk pad owner is the chef here. crimony, is this chow fucking happening, I shit thee not. grilled fish that tastes like trout the way I like back home, a fuckin bitchin salad that accessorize w/chunks of octopus, lots lemon squeezed on everything plus some cold potato/octopus chunks made like a salad also. man, what a fuckin shovel this is, much respect!
quarter of two we're back on the road and for the first time this tour: fratello ste on the rudder, fra paolo at shotgun. we have some spiel about economics and also about giving and getting music lessons. I've never given lessons really so not a lot of experience but I always am asking the cats about it who are guests on my show.
quarter of five, after passing firenza (florence), fratello ste pulls us over at a servico area to switch ponies... an hour later: we're in bologna, home of our pracs for this tour... we drop anchor seven of six at the freakout club which is tonight's gig pad... fra paolo right out the hatch meets his wife carlotta and children cosmo and pandora. the pad boss francesco and soundman mike greet us and we set up the stuff. I've played this pad much - once even helping the flipper guys out - that was the last time - I was here, five years ago. we check w/soundman mike after meeting the openers for tonight c + c = maxigross, the fratelli know them. big man cosmo's got a stingray bicycle - you know, the ones w/the banana seat that go back to when I first came to california, some kind of a trip on choppers for kids not old enough to ride motorcycles, correct? I didn't think that then but now days, less younger it looks a little obvious.
of course the fratelli living here, they can chow at their pads, francesco's got rice and penne pasta for here and after chowing that, cris let's me camp out in his coche, I chimp diary. man, there's no fucking zanzari ('mosquitos' in italiano) yet, THAT is really happening cuz last time I was in these parts those motherfuckers ate me alive - everywhere except genoa, I shit thee not. I hear the openers start up at twenty after ten... they got no cat on bass - WHAT! I still like them though. strange however... I hear nothing after a little bit... cris comes over to me to enlighten me to the fact there's probs w/the p.a. system and the show's delayed... ok, out of my hands - we have to wait...
eleven bells and fratello ste comes to give me the go, ok I go in the gig pad and get up on the stage - where's zeno, the horn man from the openers? he said he'd play w/us, stucazz?! actually, I was confused cuz when fratello ste asked me about having a horn guy w/us (the reason why we're opening w/the stooges' "fun house" again), it was actually his buddy edorado marraffa - he's up here w/us so that's happening and he does real good - very honored to do this w/him and the band. there's lots I like about this gig despite some of the probs but then there's stuff I like to discuss further w/the guys tomorrow. I don't think it's as good as roma so the sense of "every night is getting better" is kind of now gone but that's ok - every time I've done has that kind of stuff. the good part of having a gig w/some probs is it can be inspiration to rally for the next gig... anything but a "cruise-control/autopilot" mode, correct?! I think so. oh yeah, in the third song ("purple, orange...") I realized I hadn't tuned up before we played and my fuckin 'd' string was way flat. got it by its end though. stonato watt - literally ('stonato' is out of tune in italiano but also used for 'stupid' - my grandpa and my aunt used it all the time). enrico croci's here and I dedicate two tune to him - one (the stooges' "little doll") I cut short though cuz well, just felt I had to. I ain't one to "go through the motions" or shit like that. another thing - third time in a row I miss the coda for "max roach 8 ball" - I tell the gig-goers (who were really happening tonight, really helped me through some difficult stuff, I'm most grateful), "maybe the reason parts are so they can get space" or something like that.
I pack my stuff up, then sign gig-goers stuff and take photos w/them - fratello bruno's here, he's the one who recorded il sogno del marinaio's "canto sequndo" album at his vacuum studio, just outside of town, big hugs for him. great cat. jonathan clancy's here too, very good, much respect. outside the owner of this pad gianluca tells me "I wanna hear 'dirt' (stooges tune) - it's my favorite song" and I tell him I could play it in my sleep but the band doesn't know it... I promise him I'll do it next time. hell, I should teach these cats all the stooges I know, huh?!
cris gets us to a b and b type of konk pad after one, of course we gotta get lost for a while but then all is successful. he wants me to go up all these steps where there's a bigger bed but fuck it, I'll stay on ground floor w/this smaller one, thank you much. I hose off and then am pretty quick I'm out, I'm fuckin beat... gig number five in the sack!
monday, may 20, 2024 - milano, italy
from paolo:
"Bringing some "Liscio" and popular dances in Milano ballroom." - paolo
from stefano:
I wait Mike and Hiyori at the studio, and my dad pass by too to meet Mike. glad that they finally meet each other. Mike took a photo of me and dad togheter and then we eat a piadina. i go to collect the records at jonathan, then we load the van and I drive to Milano while Hiyori and Mike go with Cristian in his car. Rains… arci bellezza never been. an old balera. Do not like it very much, bad acoustics but the people at the gig are very supportive with us. Thank you very much. my dear friend Alessandra comes to visit. So glad to see her.
from watt:
pop at eight. go piss and then find I can't operate new type of electric stove w/touch control... there's a moka-pot and I prep it w/water and coff I also find in a cupboard that opens vertical instead of w/horizontal hatches but that's for nothing so I clean it and then find coff cartridges for some euro version of those bullshit u.s. coff makers that use similar cartridges which are just fuckin holders for some bullshit syrup stronzo that gets mixed w/hot water - you wanna know jive? fuck. pennyfarthing up the yank, huh? I get the caffeine fix this way this morning. I chimp diary. cris in taximan mode at eleven - next stop: grabinski point - I know this pad. fratello ste is there to open the hatch. I answer email stuff... cris gets me a classica piadina - this is what I was chowing last week when I did prac w/for this tour, the only thing besides what I cooked up at the "a casa mia" konk pad. it's good a simple, sort of like a quesadilla. fratello ste's pop arrives - whoa! first time I ever got the chance to meet him, he looks great. just had back surgery, he tells me. crimony. it helped the pain he had, along w/much physical therapy. man, the pain thing... I feel so lucky not to have that going on, really am.
matilde arrives and the bails after a little while, she sends off fratello ste w/affection - I always feel big weight about getting my guys back to their loved ones safe - it is my number one priority - even ahead of playing good for the gig-goers which is a very close number two BUT getting my guys back safe home is how I always feel about the beginning of a tour. trippy though, tonight's gig five but we made a little loop here w/tour five here in bologna. however, I think it's worked out ok, it was a good plan fratello ste came up for us and I'm most grateful. I'm really glad I got six pracs in him and fra paolo, really am cuz I think it's starting to pay off for us.
ok, "the plan" now (which is always in flux!) is for cris to take me and miss hiyori in his coche to milano. ok, ready for "mr toad's wild ride" but I gotta tell you - I can do it ONCE this tour and I'll tell you why: I love this man. so, I 'pert-near never look out the fuckin window. we pull anchor at three and a half...
somehow we make it to milano alive just after six. we're at this kind of society of mutual assistance, they got a venue that actually was where the did boxing matches and it was also a gym, it's called arci bellezza and we try to solve as much we can the problems of acoustics but like we say back home: it is what it is. I think we can make the best of it though, I have hope.
people working at this gig pad... I wanna remember helperman depo, soundman frank and his helperman mirko for all the good stuff they did for us, very kind. I dug the farfella pasta and the salad that came w/it, very simple but made me feel good and healthy. we had good spiel at the chow table too, I dug that. no opening act, us in band-alone mode to begin a ten which we do on the dot. the milano gig-goers get up real close on us on this very low stage which kind of acts like a huge resonator or drum head, especially for fra paolo's kick drum. it is a gig I very much enjoy though. of course it's got clams but nothing big enough to breech the hull. I'm really proud of the fratelli, really am. I consider this a rally from last night in bologna and it makes me happy.
the gig-goers are most kind w/the support during the gig AND after at the merch table which I'm asked to go to (not by them, please understand) where lots get our recorded music, very kind, truly. paolo from genoa is here, yes! he put on a genoa il sogno del marinaio gig once, beautiful. giuseppe (superfreak) who's originally from bari (in italy's "heel" part - home the lepers crew) is too but he has no time to rap, damn cuz I could rap w/him forever... he's got a new arabia saudade (here's part II + part III also) - gotta have him on my show again so we can play and talk about it. I dig all his releases and last time w/even got to share the bill w/his trio - I tell him we gotta do it again next time I can. more people closer to my age talk w/me and have take photos, sign stuff, interesting. actually everyone very kind, so glad I'm getting it together enough to bring my part of the il sogno del marinaio music to them, really am.
cris gets us to the "alessanro hotel" not too far away and it's a quarter of midnight - yes! that late shit the last few nights was beating my ass up. however we gotta wait cuz the rooms ain't ready. no prob, it's only ten minutes and though it takes a few tries to get the elevator to work, up in the chamber I hose off and quick as shit am out and konked.
tuesday, may 21, 2024 - prato, italy
from paolo:
"Very good chow from the cooking spot in Prato, good people!" - paolo
from stefano:
Storm has flown away during the night. Beautiful sky with dense and sparse clouds. i read the newspaper in a bar near by. Aia court has condemned both Hamas and Israeli prime minister and defense for crimes against humanity.
I speak with Ross on the phone, she just lost her dad. We stop in Barberino for a sandwich and we get to Prato at Orto Sonoro Santa Valvola. A very nice sitch. From the stage I can clearly see the Calvana Mountain. In 2021 I arrived in Prato walking from Bologna through the Appennini, approximately 120 km. it took five days . Arriving from Bologna Calvana is the last peak of the path. The path Is named after the old trade route, via della lana e della seta , the way of the silk.
Obo and John Chow open the night. Paquale the sound guy. And good chow from the Raffaele parents garden. There is a lot of humidity... all the gear got very wet! But still is a very nice gig. I really enjoyed.
from watt:
pop at seven... damn if I didn't have a fuckin 'mare where I'm fucking drinking whiskey - and in the 'mare I realize I've fuckin blow the five hundred whatever-days I got w/out alcohol and it's a total dilemma... I can't tell you how relieved I was when I popped up cuz that shit felt really really REALLY fuckin real, I shit thee not. unconscious prolly dealing w/anxieties about the issue, correct? just let them happen I guess is the best "strategy" to cope w/it maybe cuz fuck it prolly itself is some kind of coping trip. I go downstairs to chow three tiny rolls (fuck the slices of white bread) and put a different lunch meat slice in each along w/a different little cheese. processed stuff but better than the buttload of sugared-up rest of what's here. I do a fresh apple w/a plastic container yogurt w/sugar and peach flavor - or is it sugar w/yogurt? the deskman from last night makes me coff and then another one, very kind.
we pull anchor at quarter of twelve, back in the coche w/fra paolo and fratell ste, cris is back to being on his own. we diesel up (yeah, that's "gasolio" and what we call gas they call "benzina" - fuck that up and you're out of the race big time cuz you gotta be correct or the motor's scissored) - they still do full service/self-serve here, I was wrong to assume (my pop said the spelling of that word was not an accident!) credit card/cash but anyone we pay €1.49/liter (about $6.11/gallon). quarter of one were out of the lombardi regione and into the emilia/romano one which soon finds us into total plug... but then it clears - like the sky, the storm from last night has blown east like the way most winds to north of the equator. we just heard roma bassbrother giancarlo's new band _dipso_ from the cd he gave me after the gig we did in his town. kind of hard to hear the bass in this ride but you could hear the guitar strumming away big time. I can't wait to have him on my show to talk about it, he's a real good cat. we pass a callafalara bridge I always remember and then finally I find out what this white structure - damn if fra paolo's wife carlotta works there and he enlightens me to the fact it's a station for the "frecciarossa" ('red arrow' in italiano) high-speed train. after all this time, I finally find out... I always thought of the cabrillo marine aquarium we got in my pedro town, frank geary designed it and the facade is sorta like this here in italy. whoa, we get word that cuz of this storm that just past through has hit tomorrow's gig which was for vincenza real hard and the pad which was outside is flooded. using fra paolo's hot spot via his leash, I put out the word:
important _il sogno del marinaio_ tour news!
we just found out an act of nature (big-ass rain) has prolly scissored our vicenza gig cuz of flooding so we're in search of a gig anywhere between prato (where we play tonight) and zagreb (where we play thursday) - does anyone have any ideas for us to play wednesday? we sure would appreciate it...
many tunnels as we get closer to firenze, can't send it yet... we cross into tuscany just before three... finally I can send out our "gig plea" using fra paolo's hot spot from his leash... we then pull over at some roadside chow pad called "il colle" - I stay in the coche and for me from fratello ste is this incredible focacchia sandwhich w/parma ham and artichokes, man is it fucking good. crimony! twenty after four we get to where tonight we're playing, a little garden farm called "orto sonoro" for the santa valvola fest and right out the hatch I meet the gig boss manuela (hope I'm spelling this correctly) who I get a feel right away he's most happening. he's got a buddy named rob who has mixed italian/u.s. parents and damn if we don't spiel for like the couple of hours, pausing only for a check w/soundman pasquale, really interesting cat and who also made the hummus which I love chowing w/the cucumbers, fennel and lettuce grown from right here! also the salsa rojo and guacamole - all real stuff and nothing jive.
can you believe it? we already got a gig to replace the lost vicenza one, not too far away from there, in padova - a pad we played seven years ago called _circola nadir_ - yatta! I feel we are most fortunate to have most kind people out in the world to help us out like that, absolute!
(back to my chow spiel) I then get brought two plates (one at a time) of penne pasta w/rag, 'pert-near just like my would make and then some pork loin w/salsa verde (italian style - like pesto w/out the pine nuts) and peas - crimony, I get so fuckin stuffed - I ain't used to chowing like this any more and it puts so much on me I gotta get to the coche to... to konk which I do like that and am out for a couple of hours, popping just in time to hear openers john chao who are fuckin great and just as smoking, o.b.o. (short for "oshinoko bunker orchestra") after them, whoa, two great bands to get inspired from... I tell manuala (not only gig boss but also guitar man for _john chao_ band) on my way to the stage (cris came to help me hobble in the dark, I use his shoulder), "I think a great thing one musician can do for another musician is get them lit by a most happening performance!" before getting up the stairs to begin our set, we hit about a quarter after eleven...
I enjoy the gig much. I can't see any of the prato gig-goers cuz it's completely dark but they give us good response though some goombas near the boofs are yammering and yammering... I hear this only when we go to our set's quiet parts and during my spiels (I only do two during the set) I admonish them w/cuss words but maybe there's a language barrier to make it more soft cuz really, what are you gonna do? yammerers are gonna yammer, especially borracho ones. us three on stage have good communication on stage, I'm digging it. only trouble I feel is in "verse IX" so we'll work on that. our "tv eye" (our version of the stooges tune) is happening so I think bye bye to "little doll" at least for now. yeah, happening gig for me.
I pack up my stuff and head for the merch boof, hector's here, the translator of the three operas I've done, so great to seem him, truly, giant hugs. I really respect this cat... he tells me he's working w/thollem these days - I worked w/thollem on the hand to man band album w/tim barnes and john dieterich - love that album! livio formerly of round eye came here from pisa as did engineer/recordingman ale who gives me big HUGE hug! livio and me catch up some but then I also get into some philosophy stuff to make more clear my take on musical collabs w/firenze musicman federicio who shares a connect w/me regarding mark stewart who we lost about fourteen months ago... damn that hurt, hurt real bad. crimony.
it's so good to spiel w/all these beautiful cats but I gotta pull the ripcord and let cris get us to the "luxury" (that's just it's name, don't get too happy but it's good enough for me, no prob) 'tel back in downtown prato... I hose off and konk soon - even w/that two hour snooze after the chow o.d. I am still fuckin tuckered... so be it, it is what it is... no prob. just happy to be getting to do this music and also have my health.
wednesday, may 22, 2024 - padova, italy
from paolo:
"Immensely grateful to Circolo Nadir people in Padova for saving our ass in less than 24 hours after that Vicenza was cancelled for meteo alert." - paolo
from stefano:
We are supposed to play in Vicenza tonight but the gig got cancelled, the big Cristian found an alternative at Nadir club in Padova. we hit the road after eating in a Chinese restaurant near the hotel. Prato is one of the biggest Chinese community in Italy cause of textile industries and trade. We played Nadir already before in 2017. Great night. The audience is great. Giorgia ed Alessandro who are now part of the Nadir organized the gig and they guest house at their pad. In the room we sleep there is il Sogno del Marinaio Nuovo Spirito tour of 2017! the illustration is Raymond Pettibon drawing of Steve Mcqueen in the San Pablo. Giorgia and Alessandro saw us also at All Tomorrow Parties in Camber sand! I guess 2015.
from watt:
pop at eight, hose off cuz if I'm gonna get everything I got washed in the laundry I'll do it to myself so as to contaminate the duds, correct? downstairs is only thimble-amount of coff and that's it - no chow but that's ok cuz I went overboard last night... I just ain't used to that kind of way of chowing anymore and really felt the consequences - thank god for those two hours of pre-gig konk, huh? this 'tel has plenty of china writing all over and I think I know why - everything around here does, it's an immigrant chinese community... old word was "chinatown" where I'm from. actually they're old fashion but the san gabriel valley back in so cal has many communities of immigrants from asia. stereotype thinking though I think makes it strange to think somewhere like italy wouldn't have them. at noon we follow cris to a nearby chow pad called "chin food" and I for the first time have chinese food cooked in italy by chinese immigrants. it's different than the chinese food in I've had the u.s. but so what, I like it much... it ain't completely different - I think what we got is more of cantonese version and from a time more long ago. I have some wonton soup but it's got seaweed also, I like it much. I have some shrimps in some aluminum foil made into a bowl to hold a broth w/vegetables they all are cooked in and fried rice kind of stuff w/real thin firm noodles instead of rice. also some steamed pieces of broccoli and bok choi. pieces of watermelon and oranges after. xie xie ('thank you' in china).
trippy looking out towards the hills for me when we get outside... I'm thinking that seven hundred years ago dante alighieri might've been looking at these same hills (from firenze of course but that's only seven miles away) before he was exiled for life from there. I got into his "commedia" late in high school - after reading that tolkein stuff and not like at all except for some of the dwarf script" he invented (took/borrowed from the vikings)... what the fuck was that about? anyway, the "commedia" really got its hooks in my and I read all the translations I could find... the longfellow one, the chiro one, cuz some were in blank verse, some tried to do a version of his "trinti rhymni" thing - also buttloads of concordances - I would do the same thing in my twenties w/jim joyce's "ulysses" (most of my tunes for "double nickels on the dime" I wrote right after finishing it).
this tour routing, hmm... go north from bologna to play milano ok, but then south to prato so we can go north again for padova? reminds me of the old days touring w/black flag where you didn't have much choice for this "backtrack" kind of stuff but at least these ain't hellrides here in italy. also I am so glad those most bitchin people in padova came w/a gig for us after losing the vicenza one, truly I am. I know cris tries his best w/what's out there, quite a trip to juggle, I can imagine. I don't doubt his sincerity. my bookerman in the u.s. I've had thirtyfive years plus, steve kaul, I call "the man outside the van" cuz he has been like everything for me when it comes to touring, like a cat in the band, literally. there's more than just those on the stage that make up a gig, people - there's the pad people too, all kinds of stuff "behind the curtain" even w/little econo sitchs like mine. believe it.
we cross into veneto regione just after four... fra paolo's got the lamb lies down on brodway" playing on the radio - I shit thee not. prolly the only genesis album I can handle and I don't really know why but I know 'pert-near every part of it and give him my take. I ain't gonna go further into, k?! we get into padova and to the gig pad circlo nadir at five... that's when the rain starts pissing down, real heavy. I'm glad we didn't stop for two hours like someone aboard suggested, so glad. real nice people here - il sogno del marinaio was here before, seven years ago. while we wait for the pad people to show up, miss hiyori gets some nuts from a close-by shop and a donner kebab from across the street, I do guardiano on the coche while the other guys go to maybe... well, I don't know where. I'm just happy we're here now and not in fucking huge-ass rain that starts pissing down on us. I've learned to relax, I don't need something happening every whatever... if I need something to do, I'll chimp diary - that's a big part of why I do it, to try keep myself together. man, is this donner good, a chicken on w/much salad but also w/a good amount of spice, the stuff I've been kind of missing. miss hiyori said the cookman said he was from paskistan. man, he cooked up a good donner.
the nadir people arrive at eight and we check w/soundman alessander after setting up. people start arriving... whoa, it's filling up! marco's here - he printed up the three opera translations hector (he was at last night's gig in prato) and I have him sign the copy he gives me... he asks "why?" and I say cuz you printed it, you're part of it! who is else is here? max from p.m.k. in innsbruck (austria) - crimony! so good to see him again, truly. man, we should be playing his pad this tour! next time for sure.
there's no opener, we hit at quarter of eleven. man, this is a very happening gig - I think for the first time not only is some cat dancing the whole time in front of fratello ste, it's also first time I feel the whole set as kind of one "whole piece" in a way, all woven together and damn if it don't seem to feel like if it's over before I know it, whoa. the ONE thing that bums me out is this guy who comes to sit in front of me and then whips out his leash and starts the doom scroll thing on it, like what the fuck is wrong w/you? go do that in the head. I don't usually look much at the crowd anyway but for sure I don't look again at this... I am so relieved when he gets up and bails (just before we do "partisan song" - maybe prophetic?), this is bizarre for me BUT I don't let it get too much attention even though I'm waisting bandwidth on it now, when that happened in that moment in doubled my resolve to focus on fratello ste and fra paolo and bring these padova gig-goers what we can in appreciation of them being here for us... fuck, we're here for them - it's mutual! then you got this other thing... it is what it is, huh? on a personal level I'm glad I got "none dare call it conspiracy more together cuz damn if I didn't get lost in its 'a' part last night prato, damn me. anyway, there's something recovering after a big clam, even if it has to wait to the next gig.
I pack up and folks are most kind, lots of good word and photo-taking, no prob, happy oblige and still kind of really amazed how this all came together last minute like it did. crimony. I end up spieling w/some of nadir people about how scissoring the sugar's really helped me. crimony. very kind of these cats, really. ok, cris beckons - down some really small back-alley kind of tiny-town "streets" to the middle of old padova where this 'tel, the "igea hotel" is a big hug for him while the clerk talks to me about one good thing about the rain is it's putting a lid on the fucking zanzari (mosquitos) and why I ain't chewed up like my last tour here in italy - ok, that makes sense. I hose off in the room and konk pretty immediately. they got me some china chow but it came right before the downbeat and then it's been years since I've chowed after gigs - that shit used to really wreck me and now waiting for more morning is way more than worth it for me. fuck, tiny shit like that - restraint things... they got a buttload of healthy result for me, huh? slow learner getting it together a piece at a time... hopefully!
thursday, may 23, 2024 - zagreb, croatia
from paolo:
"Great and sweet welcome at Vintage Industrial Bar in Zagreb." - paolo
from stefano:
Very strange dream last night: two apes were entering the room . the biggest one was the male and he was kicking a football to me very hard. The female was a bit more mild.. I found the necklace of fratello paolo on the floor and I pick it up. When the ring bells is 11 but still to early... I would have slept forever.
We say hello to our friend and italian tour promoter Scarrymonster.
here start the 2nd week of the tour and first gig out of Italy. We cross the boarder with Slovenia just near Trieste... The landscape in this part is really beautiful. mountains and sea, a bit like Liguria but more mild and welcoming. It Is a nice gig Matija is the promoter for tonight and Tom the soundman. We have sea bass for dinner and a good show later.
from watt:
pop at eight and half. there's coff from one of those syrup machines and some eggs w/hot water to cook them in - I didn't wait long enough I guess the first one I broke went all over the place. there's an apple though and some of that bullshit sugared-up served in plastic yogurt though. some cherry tomatoes too. back upstairs, I chimp diary. cris told us to be ready at noon so I go out and wait... one more hug when he finally arrives... gonna miss him!
pull anchor twenty after noon... there's clouds filling the sky but no rain, sun real bright.
talk to fratello ste about what we talked about yesterday on the drive to the gig regarding "minority communities" cuz instead of using example of movie stuff like "the godfather" I instead tell him about being in navy housing in pedro and that being separate from the civilians even though we went to the same school as them ("civilians" being anyone who's pop wasn't serving in the navy and having their families living in this fenced-off "housing" that had shore patrol guys driving around really slow make sure things were safe. we were our own world. of course this would happen again w/me when I became a punk rocker in 1977 - I had to keep it secret w/the squarejohns and only "came out" at gigs or w/d boon and georgie and a few other pedro cats into it. I know this is different than people w/their parents moving their whole lives to another country to kind of "start over" but I can have some empathy for some their experience somewhat, I think. it ain't easy.
two and half we pass into slovenia and immediately get diesel cuz it's on €1.46/liter ($5.96/gallon)... quarter of three diesel up the coche at 1.70/liter (about $6.94/gallon). fra paolo takes the wheel. fortyfive minutes later were in coratia and yes, the crossing is burro ('butter' in italiano), passport check - no border guards. most happening. some beat-up road and then we get on their version of the "motorway" which is pretty smoove. we pass rijeka - this town is where my secondmen organman and studio _casa hanzo_ man peetzo's ma is from. rain starts and is on and off for the rest of the ride to zagreb. we get to the gig-pad (vintage industrial bar) at five and a half, which is a half-hour early, bingo. I'm digging it. most times when you're late for soundcheck in my book, it your own fault so focus on that reality of the dealio is what I say. an unmanned border sitch sure helped, yes! hvala ('thanks' in these parts).
soundman tom I feel is gonna make a good fourth member for tonight. the gig boss matthew (spelling anglicized) is very cool people and we rap - he's very surprised I know about my secondmen organman peetzo's wife ljil being part of a famous pop band in croatian in the 90s called magazin and even more I know of bijelo dugme ('white button' in how they talk here) but hey, pedro has some croatian diaspora, correct? he tells me this pad used to be a button factory. his english is real good, tells me they teach it school here starting w/the third grad. crimony. after soundcheck, he brings us chow... yes, he got me cevapcici! I get this stuff at "slavko's" in my pedro town all the time, it's really good BUT this here for me is more happening, no disrespect but very tasty. love the ajvar, it's a condiment from these parts I really dig. along w/the onions and trippy bread (reminds me of a kind of india nan maybe?), it really aids and abets w/the little skinless links of some kind of mixed meat. crimony, I dig it. everybody else has this whole grilled sea bass which looks really good but I just had to try the cevapcici. what's a real trip is they brought six containers of potatoes, both as wedges and fries, what? there's no way I touch any of them but the rest is real good and we're two hours ahead of go time. we have a big spiel about whole food you cook yourself and processed stuff, I had just read about young people having this really high rate of butt cancer they never had before... fra paolo has lots of good infos on industrial food weirdness and I listen and learn... kind of scary but good to know.
nine and a half is our start time and there's no opener, we're in band-alone mode here in zagreb. we bring right on time and it's kind of strange I find right away about how there's a kind of separateness between us three that hasn't been w/us for the gigs previous this tour. very dark so it's hard to see the zabreb gig-goers but I can "feel" them in a way, almost like this "field of energy" kind of thing - well, there's one little group of yammerers but you hear them only in their quiet parts and I don't say anything about them 'til were 'pert-near done cuz why should they own this show, correct? we stumble at the end of our first tune's outro but get it together - this "getting it back together" skill we got I really dig, I'm most grateful we've developed this kind of thing. even w/some difficulties, we did pretty good... of course the "separateness thing" kind of bothers me but I try hard to not let it affect my mood, I wanna do good for the zagreb gig-goers. I dedicated "partisan song" to brother koja - this cat is a big inspiration to me, has been since I met him at a stooges gig in beograd we spiel for hours... same thing when I played there later w/my missingmen in 2014. I really dig the way he works bass - uses a wahwah alot and I dig his songs even though most of the spiel I can't understand - his band disciplina kitschme has had many forms and I've played 'pert-near everything I've found from on my show. I sure hope he's healing up cuz I heard he a near-fatal stroke and is w/his sister healing up from it. crimony. we do what I think is our best version of "verse IX" this tour, the one that uses words from james joyce. our closer again the stooges' "tv eye" and I'm digging the way this band does it more and more.
I pack up and get to the merch area, many cats talk w/me and have me sign much stuff. even though it's been a while since I've played here, many cats remember the last time (2014) - hell, there's cats who remember the first time, back in 1989! two guys from split (more south and on the coast, where peetzo's wife ljil is from) talk to me about blue oyster cult which is a band who's first albums had HUGE effect on me and d boon... they say they can get me a gig in split so I give them my email address, would love to play there. kornel, the boss at klub mochvara is here, so good to see him... he brought me some handmade ajvar, love this stuff. also a bunch of music, he's got a band called shumski I really dig. so SO good to see him. he also brought me a bottle of slibovitz I had to say no to but realized he had no idea I had to quit to save my life... I'm working on the 510th day w/out, I tell him - a big hug though from me for his kindness though, big hug. I wanna play his pad again soon as possible... he tells me it's their twentyfifth anniversary. whoa! can't wait to see brother kornel again.
fratello ste gets us to the "madison" 'tel just down the road and not too far away after I thank gig boss matthew for all he did... finally I get to konk around midnight, yatta! I am not a late night person for sure at this stage of my route, nope but that ok, really is...
friday, may 24, 2024 - beograd, serbia
from paolo:
"Big love to Aleksandar mom for cooking a very typical Serbian chow in Belgrade" - paolo
from stefano:
I wake up still tired and too early again..we load at the Vintage Industrial brewery were we play last night. a long driving to Beograd and two hours and half stock at custom boarder kind of warns me out.
I have been playing here in 2008.. a solo gig in a small theatre organized by Ksenjia and Ivana... can't remember the name of the venue..but I remember I really enjoyed that gig and it was the first time for me to visit Beograde "the white town" -Mike explained to me - I went back to town two years ago during summer to get to Greece from Bologna. We stopped one night in Beograde but I was so sick I had to sleep hard in a nice BnB on the Danubio river. We arrive at 16:30 at Aleksandar mum house. She cooked such a nice meal for us. Dennis from Skopje is there too.
Then we go to Electricpionir. Nino is soundman and we meet Vasco from Skopjie too, Mike friend. it is Good gig. We sleep in a comfortable hotel out of town.
A little note about the live arraignments I have not mentioned yet: I am using some Tape modular samples I did for terzo and for wing and a prayer, also Ramon Moro trumpet and Mike Giuseppe Garibaldi quotes in none dare and Petra Haden voice with some tape manipulation I did for it. It brings another electroacoustic dimension to our trio interactions in some events or parts of the gig.
from watt:
pop at seven and a half. I chow the salad I brought back from the backstage - it's good, has a trippy cabbage along w/the lettuce and tomatoes... I swear there is nothing like whole chow to make feel happening! just is. when done, I update the diario... fratello ste is finally w/me and fra paolo, yatta! I also found out that tomorrow saxman marshall allen is a hundred years old and still touring, MUCH respect! fucking much respect... what an inspiration for me, I very much wanna be like him. I go outside - very clear blue sky above, hvala. I get some photos...
just after nine we head down the road back to the gig pad to load up the equipment and they got a cup of coff each for us, very kind. we hit the road south for serbia. a sign overhead on the motorway says 21.5º c (about 71º f)... I chow from this small sack of dried fruit parts and nuts that was back stage last night. gotta watch windbagging while chowing them - actually I try to chew very much nuts... devetivulitis can come from pieces getting stuck in your intestines when less younger. at noon we pull over at a rest place to switch ponies, fratello ste now at the wheel. soon road sign says 25.3º c (about 78º f) but also big clouds ahead and feeling humid. rain's soon on though, whoa... then soon it stops, quarter of one but then so does traff, a klick from the border (.62 miles), w/people (us included) turning off their engines. we're here for two hours... something was up but once stuff gets rolling we first get looked over (but not stopped) by a croatian customs man in a boof and the show passports to a croatian borderman in the next boof. the we show passports to a serbian borderman in his boof and then get asked by a less-younger serbian customs man who are we and fratello ste says were a band and he asks, "who, ramstein?" and I say "no, il sogno del marinaio" and ask fratello ste to hand him a "terzo" cd. he has us pull over and then a much-younger serbian customs man asks fratello ste to come w/him and open the back of the coche, he asks fratello stay what are we carrying and he tells him "two guitars, amplifier and a drum kit" and the younger serbian customs man gives the gee-oh (go)... I'm thinking "what about the bass, what about the fucking bass?!" but of course say nothing,... 'til we drive away and then ask fratello ste "what about the bass?!" I tell him I now feel like chopped liver... I'm thinking "this is il sogno del marinaio and NOT sleater-kinney or john spencer blues explosion... is it?!" important thing is fratello ste handled the border sitch very well and made it as butter (burro) as possible and I am most grateful to him. still though, I'm wondering...
the rain has stopped. we send a girly-text to the gig boss alesksandar (he also helped put on last night's zagreb gig) to say we made it over the border BUT the two hour delay means we missed two pm time for the chow his ma made us., damn. the weather has turn real nice, big clouds now gone. we find his ma's apartment - it's not downtown and I'm worried about "tour priorities" (like fucking making the gig) but it's real stupid worry cuz just after four we find a cat name denis on the street who shows us where to park (both fra paolo and fratello ste working together got us real close, even w/a real tough internet sitch w/their leashes) and soon the gig boss alesksandar is there to welcome us for a chow his ma cooked special for us. man, is it good. first a tomato soup, then zucchini, a bean casserole, a chicken kind of schnitzel, asparagus (denis' time he says), broccoli, roasted bell pepper and even chlies - bright green ones (like pepperoncini maybe?), my first chilies on this tour since bologna (those dried ones I used in my cooking) and I'm digging this much. there is nothing for me like home-cooked chow that's happening, nothing. so much hvala for alesksandar's ma, truly. we have good conversation spiel too along w/the most excellent shovel - it's a good time, I love it.
we finish up and follow denis to the gig pad more downtown, inside an old former brewery "compound" that's been repurposed, it's also a record store and it's called anti-shop/elektropionir and we meet our fourth man for the night, nino. also, look who arrives: brother vasko from skoje in macedonia - ten years since I last seen him! crimony. big hugs. we spiel much. he tells me soundman nino is happening people. we do soundcheck w/him and then I spiel much w/brother vasko. we email much and I've done bass for some music for him but like I said, "in person" has been ten fucking years. again: crimony. we spiel much, spiel about everything - lots about brother koja... I wanna do music w/brother vasko for him.
no opening band tonight and when nine and a half comes, it's time for us to bring and we do. like last night the gig-goers here in beograd come right up front and like one guy who was in front of fratello ste in padova, we got a dancer doing it up big, much respect him. he's in it for the whole enchilada too. crimony. love it. I'm thinking of brother koja a lot... he is such a bitchin bassman, in "partisan song" during the second solo I do, I get so caught up in thinking about him while I'm doing it that I get fuckin lost and lose the ending, kurac! ('cazzo' in these parts) I blow clams in other places too, like in the march of "max roach 8 ball" (tune before) but find the part eventually and get that together. really good spirit from the beograd gig-goers, I rally myself, "hvala" I mouf to them, "hvala" most sincerely. I really enjoyed tonight's gig - I think one reason was I felt more united w/the fratelli... for some reason on last night's stage were a little too much in a straight line and I felt kind scissored from fratello ste and not as much tonight - something to think about. the only thing I bummed on was soundman nino not putting on the music when we were done for like what seemed an eternity after we were finished... I think in radio talk they call that "dead air" or something like that and it's fuckin awkward for me, I'm sorry. I "debrief" fratello ste w/those feelings right then and he suggests I write down what should be gone over w/the "fourth man" at our gigs when we're doing our check - before show time. I think he's correct.
I pack up my stuff and get down the stairs using fratello ste's shoulder... him and fra paolo did real good tonight, real good - I had a great feeling and also was doing it for brother koja, brother vasko too - all the beograd gig-goers here tonight - I thanked alesksandar's ma too even though she wasn't here - well, her boy was and he did real good making this happen. I sign stuff and take photos w/most kind people. so many times I have to I'm sorry it's been ten years since I played their town and will try hard to let that happen again. damn me.
denis drives us to a town called panchevo about twenty klicks away... he's from macedonia and says the music there is something he can't handle, the main fad is "turbofolk" and he can't stand it. I don't know much but then I've felt always kind of a minority regarding music. oh well. we get to a konk pad called "hotel tamis" and a look on my watch says quarter of midnight, yatta - like last night. big thank you and hvala to denis for all his kindness. quick I hose off and 'pert am konked real fast... yeah, I'm out but so happy how today turned out. hvala to everyone who made that happen.
saturday, may 25, 2024 - graz, austria
from paolo:
"Hair abduction on stage tonight in Graz" - paolo
from stefano
Incredible breakfast at the hotel.
To Graz is quite a long trip but the custom boarder is smooth this time. We arrived in town on time.
Striggles, Ronia are opening and Fritz is soundman, Lillly at the lights. Good gig. Crazy to load the van in the Rain getting out the gear from a small door and people entering to the discotheque night.
from watt:
pop at six and a half, a seven I'm downstairs for the best 'tel shovel of the tour. there's some fried eggs I get w/roasted vegetables and mixed cut-up fruits and a few cups of coff that's actually brewed up from beans and not hot water mixed w/some kind of syrup trip - yatta! there's flax seeds too I put on those eggs, interesting... I should try more of these at home. there's tomatoes w/onions w/oil and vinegar I'm digging and yes, for the first time, some fuckin mustard! crimony, I've really missed this, love it w/all kinds of stuff and just ain't to be had - gotta get a tube of "lowensenf" showere and carry it w/me, huh? yep.
bail at twenty after nine. this hike is like 360 miles to get to zagreb and will include four countries. crimony. we can do though, this is a good team. we decide to get of some dinars (serbski money), so we get diesel and for the first time this tour, the windows get cleaned. on my tours, every stop the windows get washed... just part of the routine and we peace it out - hodge was the window-washerman on the last mssv tour and he was happening. fratello ste does really good, a long squeegee helps and that's what's here, respect! he ever does a twofer on our front bambino, yes! he's a quick learner. miss hiyori does the sides, she's got much prac from many tours w/me, much respect. we shove off and continue north... a little wait at both border checkpoints, serb and croat but not that bad - nothing compared to the two hours yesterday, we all are most grateful. just after one we pull over to switch ponies (fratello ste now on the rudder), fuel up once more before we have to pay austria prices. I gotta dump, costs €.50 (croatia uses the euro now)... I find this great innovation: the hand air blower dryer is part of the faucet bringing the water, whoa! I get a sack of nuts that's really good - I've really scissored putting poison shit from stops on the road into me.
at three we pass into slovenia, no check on the way out of croatia (unmanned checkpoint) but a look-see on the passports (no 'puter check though) at the slovene side. very butter. a half-hour later we pass maribor and get off to a gas station to get a "vignette" cuz you need one for austrian roads and the border's coming up quick. €11 it costs, goes on the windshield. back on the road, the border w/austria is burro ('butter' in italiano), the borderlady in the boof waves us through - maybe this time cuz I got my yellow jacket on cuz like a fucking idiot I had it off coming into slovenia - understand the reason I'm always in it cuz I got nothing under it - hate doing that and most times in the boat it ain't on, same w/my shoes and socks. yeah, I feel everyone should know that (crimony!). I think about riding in this fiat scudo and am glad to say of all my euro tours (first one was fortyone years ago), this has been THE MOST comfortable, way enough legroom (no blows to the fucking knees), windows that open (no fucking seal-a-meal), hatch on bof sides so (no file fucking file-out), vents that blow air and are quiet if you need the windows closed (it's gets like a fucking roar), bitchen seats that are easy on the ass and support good in the lower back (not a fucking medieval confession device) - love it, really the best every for not having shit to belly-ache about in this regard. amen. thank you in spades fra paolo for providing, truly.
twenty after four we get to ppc, ten minutes before the "window to arrive" closed and the cats here are really kind and help w/the schlepp big time. there's some flights of stairs to deal w/also. they're all very cool - one cat is from serbia, lusan (pronounced loo-shan), so I tell him about the beograd gig last night and the great chow alesksandar's ma cooked for us. robert's the gig-boss and he's very cool, he has me sign his minuteflag record. his buddy peter (during the day he's a doctor of medicine!) knows a buttload about the old days although he wasn't there cuz of being too young. I mean I can refer to stuff I guess he's read up on it and it's 'pert-near like he was there! we spiel for quite a bit 'til time to check w/soundman fritz. there's a helper lady named lili who comes to my rescue when one of the screws holding one of my pickups has loosened up, she's got the phillips driver as part of the tools she's got on her belt, respect. we check and then I go downstairs to where backstage is, lusan brings me something to eat from a nearby chowpad: a salad w/big dark kidney beans, tomatoes, oil and vinegar dressing... w/it is some strips of grilled chicken I mix in w/it.
I get yesterday's diary entry 'pert-near chimped up when my old friend rupert arrives. he's got a radio show now and wants a spiel w/me for it. he asks me interesting and pretty heave question about "terzo" and I am happy to answer all he brings. I've known his main theme this "spiel session" is "dreaming by committee" so I speak of that perspective from my minutemen days up to this "terzo" album by il sogno del marinaio. he also brings up walt whitman who I'm very happy to talk about and even bring in mr melville's "moby-dick" cuz it was from around the same time of the "leaves of grass" and feel many resonances between the two. we finish up - rupert says he's out of questions. e fatta ('we did it' italian expression).
cuz of this long spiel w/rupert, I miss all of opening act ronia so can't comment but I finish up w/him in time to catch the last part of the striggles who I think are local and closer to my age, at least three of them. I met the one younger guy the have earlier, gottfried. they're a trippy band, the drummerman has no trap kit but plays electronic pads w/mallets. the all set up in a straight line. the sound is not derivative, all their own. kind of atmospheric but also kind of driving at times but never heavy. some spiel but I can't understand, I think they're doing german language for their lyrics but ain't sure. I enjoy these cats.
our turn and I hobble right up to the stage to contradulate bof gottfried and the drummerman... then the bassman... then the guitarman robert who raps w/me and I get his email cuz I'd like them to be on my show, yes, he's into it! easy set-up, we're ready to go and fra paolo brings our first number - whoa, the kick drum is into a way-big feedback zone, crimony! we push on though and soundman fritz solves that prob. the graz gig-goers have good herz ('heart' in german) and bring, very generous w/us. we reply w/trying our hardest. I fuck up the 'a part' of "none dare call it conspiracy" way fuckin big time but I don't think anyone can notice cuz it's a buttload sequence of chords - I play in time all the hits but am screwing up which notes are supposed to be those hits! actually, I'm playing the reprise of this part where it's half as many times for each chord, that's what's up. crimony. my bandmates keep it together however and we don't belly-up, good cats - much respect to them. even w/stronzos from like that, I enjoy the set much and laughing out loud buttloads of times. I really think we've (il sogno del marinaio) have a good set together for the tour and the "teething period" is now past. hallelujah. I have a technical problem and have to stop - a screw used to keep on one of my bass' pickups has "climbed up" and the pickup's right on the fucking string it's under! crimony. the helperlady lili who helped before once again brings it and saves the day - or the gig - I am most grateful to her, truly. real good gig tonight in graz, really happening to play for these gig-goers here tonight in graz for us, yatta!
I pack up and then helperman lusan helps me off the stage safe, great cat - he lets me use his shoulder while keeping his body firm... some people who wanna help me don't realize this is very important: keeping their body firm as I use them as a kind of a crutch to get down from somewhere higher up. that's trippy too, going up w/a bad knee is way easier than going down, just is - especially w/no fucking hand rail. I sign stuff and take photos w/most kind gig-goers, one tells me he's a farmer and being that goes real good w/someone who's a bassman - whoa, I'm way into that and hug him big time.
I hobble downstairs to the backstage and the gig boss robert and his buddy dr peter are there, we have a good spiel. it's a little tough cuz the sounds coming from the bulkhead are a fucking shitstorm... speaking of storm, yeah it's pissing rain outside... a cab arrives and dr peter helps me - this fucking driver uses the child form of german w/miss hiyori, giving her no respect and saying stupid shit like he doesn't know where this 'tel is while driving dangerously in the rain - I'm glad when we arrive somehow alive... it's a pad that's part of the "b and b" chain (we stayed at one back in pescara) and since check-in's already happened (by the fratelli before soundcheck), it's right to the room and hose-off time, then konk quick for me cuz I am beat.
sunday, may 26, 2024 - staranzano, italy
from paolo:
"The quiet before the storm before the sun again." - paolo
from stefano:
nother bad attack on Rafah, terrible.
We go back to Italy near the boarder with Slovenia just for this afternoon Sunday gig.
I have been here at Dobbialab 20 years ago almost.
vGreat to see Paolo, great to see Alessandro dear friend and bass player in Zaire, Fabiana, Franz Valente , Renato Rinaldi & Daniela - damn I was not seeing Daniela since almost 20 years-. we are supposed to playing outside but it is raining so everything is re-set inside. It is a very nice gig. At the end I am surprised by Korun young kid with term in his hand he want to be signed by us. Youngest human I saw at a il sogno del marinaio gig!
Luckily at 11 we go sleeping and I can read a bit.
Lately I dug into Simone Weil writings a lot.
I am reading this collections of her about philosophical topics at the moment I am reading the chapter on ethic and aesthetics that says: "It is necessary that the unicity of a piece of art is constantly in danger but saved at the same time."
It seems to me that is the same kind of seed that fratello mike brings in the gig and building it. He rallies! and being very sensitive to the ensemble general sound.
My digestion of the food tonight seems to not work that well but I can fall asleep pretty early round 11.
from watt:
pop at five and a half. I shave. sometimes I forget but my beard or mustache days over - I don't wanna ever have them again. I hate shaving however but what can you do? "grin and bear it" it's said back home. for morning chow this konk pad's got downstairs some hard-boiled eggs, cucumbers, tomatoes, a slice of swiss cheese, some kind of yogurt thing from a bowl I put flax seeds on.
we pull anchor twenty after ten and there's sprinkles of rain and a bunch of gray.. we got around two hundred miles to do, mainly west out of austria 'til maribor - the road's the same as whence we came yesterday. today at this point though we head west toward lubjiana and then from there towards the border w/italy and trieste. fratello ste's put on some piano from this lady from ethiopia, emahoy guebrou and it's very trippy. he says she was a nun. the sun's come out but still many heavy clouds.
we get into italy at one - unmanned checkpoints on the border so it's more burro than burro, grazie big time. we get into staranzano twenty minutes later, up to the 'tel but actually it ain't the correct 'tel - so glad I decided to wait in the coche... I mean we gotta be at the gig pad at two and a half so why all this hobbling especially when it's been like this all tour (I've started to detect a pattern)... you get told one thing and moments later (or moments before it's supposed to happen), you're "notified" things are changed... like this weather - sure, it's hot now but w/these big clouds overhead? like last night and that's w/a daytime w/clear skies and then it's fuckin pissing down. you roll w/it, just like getting around for me - I make I survey where I'm going before I attempt actually going there. twenty minutes later we're at the "correct" 'tel and hey, it's by one of those big "aldi's" grocery stores so maybe I can get some fuckin senf, huh? that's mustard in german but I'm thinking in a pad like this ("aldi's" is a german chain), I can find some. there's like thirty highway police cars at this 'tel, maybe a convention or a training dealio?
two and a half we pull up to this part of staranzano called dobbia and the gig pad which is call dobialab - the gig boss paolo there to greet us... looks like an outside gig. they got a hammock! I get in it quick though one end's got ants... and their eggs! I got room to let them but then I see them freaking out and grabbing their eggs to move them, kind of panic - I don't wanna be part of any homewrecker kind of thing so maybe I got fifteen minutes of a bichin time all slung up in it. we load in and start setting up when the sky opens up and the rain comes down. crimony. I go in a back room while a "plan b" gets put in effect, we're gonna play inside now. while waiting I konk for two fuckin hours - what? yep two fucking hours. well. I must've needed it. soundcheck w/soundman enrique is a little difficult for me but I get through it... terrible in this square room but fra paolo really helps w/that by playing lighter and I'm most grateful. I have to take out all the low mids and play softer as well. you gotta "work the room" - correct? yep, you gotta do that in this racket on MANY levels, capito? kind of like the rest of life also.
we've got home-cooked chow (maybe from gig boss paolo's wife?) that's really good: little olives and sun-dried tomatoes dreched w/olive oil, potato pieces w/green beans, simple pasta (kind of like small pieces of twisted rope) and light tomato sauce, this great rissoto w/vegetables in it, like a pilaf. all real good. this guy comes into the room and trips on me using a hashi, says he works lasers for some kind of light show. I have never asked anyone to use hashi but sometimes w/some people, well, they deal w/it how the do, correct? we have a big spiel about all kinds of stuff. I guess he's from here but went to different places and now he's back. he didn't one of the first rock tunes had a title in italian, it was in the chorus too: "tutti fruitti" ('everything fruity"). later fra paolo will have a big spiel w/me about coming from a minority sitch, I think he was specific about have opinions that seem in the minority w/the people he's had to deal w/and I explain I had to deal w/being a minority in the early punk days cuz people just could not let me be about... had to actually hide my "identity" to avoid all the hassle some people thought I should have to go trough to be part of such a thing, oh man. I can't tell you what a bunch of shit that was but I put up w/it (sometime fought back - don't wanna get into it here) cuz I was still in a way getting to let my freak flag fly... I ended up a minuteman!
there's an opener, they're from pretty close by I'm told and called pokriva nociva - they use what's called the "bisiacco" dialect of italiano... these parts are very mixed w/other stuff, w/italy and slovenia so close, even austria and swiss... crimony! kind of reflection of dynamic happening lots w/some humans ("lots of some humans!! very clear speaking from watt!!) - I think not just in these days. anyway, they open up the show and damn if way more folks are outside on the grass then inside, it's just the sitch and what the kind of had gig boss paolo decide, of course I support him cuz it bof makes sense and he seems a good guy. our turn comes when they finish and it's a like a quarter of eight when we bring it. all the people in the room helped the acoustic hell we had a soundcheck big time. trippy that soundman ernesto had to bail to play drums at some other gig but his helperman michele does good. I did have to do some eq changes on the bass amp regarding the mids further into the set. so glad the chair I'm in (different every night - hell if we got room in the coche for that). damn if I don't fuck up "none dare call it conspiracy" again - same section though not as bad - I caught myself. also the march part of "max roach 8 ball" - I gotta get myself together w/those two tunes better and bring less vogoles. I don't blow it out of the water but I know I can do better for the band, for the gig-goers - who, by the way are way happening w/the spirit they bring, really happening, genuine. thank you grazie dobbia people, truly.
we finish and I sign stuff - not so many photos but that's ok, I never say no and these days cats can do them quick - that's what used to gnaw on me: waiting and waiting... now a photo is just like that, boom-badda-binga and done. much sincere kindness w/the signing - so glad people like "terzo" - we only scissor one tune, actually cuz I ain't good enough to play it ("21st century marinaio dream") I think but it was fratello ste's decision but let me add I'd be shitting if I didn't tell you I was relieved he did that.
in the back room I am thirstier than a motherfucker - I've never taken time to put fluid in mouf while the gig is on... a very kind cat brings me "acqua frio" - yeah, I'm too stupid to know the correct word for cold but he helps maybe guess what I'm trying to ask for... so sorry I don't know more, I swear I'm trying in the areas of life marco drives the gig boss paolo, miss hiyori and me to the "hotel major" - already checked in so it's butter... I can go straight to the head and dump all that's left of that happening chow I had later. incredible to believe I'm hosed off and konked before ten, I shit thee not. crimony.
monday, may 27, 2024 - vienna, austria
from paolo:
"Little visit to the National Opera Theatre... an incredible grandeur hidden behind the scenes!" - paolo
from stefano:
I wake up kind of early but luckily I fall asleep again and I dream, which is usually a very positive thing for my rest. Even if I have bad dreams then my body and my mind feels in general more rested... dug like some "nodes" are getting unwrapped. I dream my studio is on a train wagon and I am mixing while the train is railing, there are three little statues... kind of kami in form of animals statues. Then I have a grey nice dog with me... he has a black maculage. In the dream my friend Michelangelo Setola, actually the man who did the artwork for "terzo" and "wing a prayer" dies. I meet his partner, Sara, and we cry.
I wake up and we go to vienna. I start at the wheel We play at the Chelsea again with the striggles, Thomas is the soundman. I meet Heimo! last time I saw him in Milano in 2018. In 2014 he guested us in Vermont. I meet again Stephan Galvan! Nice to see him again as well. He took some new pics for us, grateful. And Rupert for the long interview...
I love the gig tonight.
Almost I have not eat... still my digestive feels bit compromised from Staranzano so I feel a bit weak.
from watt:
pop at six which ain't early cuz of konkin when I did last night - eight hours out, huh? my body is thankful. we got just over three hundred miles to do, we're gonna go to trieste, go into slovenia to lubljana, to maribor, into austria to graz (same way we came yesterday) and finally to vienna. fratello ste's at the wheel as we leave the 'tel parking lot that's full of police cars, many hombre are staying at this 'tel, I saw a bunch at the morning shove which was not really happening except for a big bottle of tabasco (impossible to find this at "aldi's" close by, same w/mustard). no dice though when they open... hard to believe it's hard to find mustard or hot sauce in the places we've been looking for it in italy but that seems to be the reality on the dealio.
in the lobby 'til ten which we converge and then get to the coche which is the minority in a lot full of cop cars... hast hombres. we pull anchor at ten... cross into slovenia at ten-forty... eleven bells we're getting diesel at a fuel pad called "mol" - €1.68/liter (about $6.91/gallon), I get some nuts. I chimp diary, get graz done... we cross into austria just one, there's a border man in a boof but he waves us by - danke schoen. on the coche's music player we hear "tunnel the love" - crimony! this was the second tune when I did that tour w/tav falco in 1950 as one of the panther burns! tav also lived for about twenty years vienna - where we're headed (he lives near bangkok in thailand now), ain't that kind of telepathic? fuck yeah it is! about seventy miles from vienna there's some road construction, not so strange but what's trippy is we see (too quick to get a photo, damn me) a giant land mower on the side of the road cutting grass and stuff that is unmanned! whoa.
about two and a half we do a piss stop and switch ponies at a rastplatz. no rain yet, first drive in a while w/no rain. traff is pretty light compared to what it could be getting into vienna - great thing about not getting here even an hour later - we pull into the "hotel geblergasse" at four, makes it easier for after gig also. I want less hassle cuz of being il zopo ('the cripple' in italiano) so I stay in the boat... they have me in there an hour! it's ok though, I had window open and chimped diary. "control issues" arise on a tour, huh?! I dig playing w/these guys much though, no big deal really, no big deal.
we head for the gig pad and do a blow-by the first time, have to loop and 'pert-near do it again but back in a little street the wrong way to make it work, us being safe is the main thing for me cuz we were late already and hell, we get there when we get there. crazy shit can happen in panic mode so I think it's good to avoid. we arrive alive and THEN get ship-shap, everything ok - hey, there's the gig boss david, old friend and time for the big hug for him. five years since I last played here, it was helping flipper and it's called chelsea - maybe my fourth time here? soundcheck w/tomas, great cat - didn't finish the wiener schnitzel miss hiyori got me which is really good - five years since I last had but I don't wanna hold tomas up, I think he's done sound for me every time I've played here and always takes great care, always! great cat. saxman vid (croatian musician who lives in austria now) arrives and I invite him to join us on "fun house" which he agrees to. he did "sex bomb" when I was here to help flipper. stef, my buddy from spain who's lived here vienna nine years now raps w/me a good while. he tells me about finishing up tav falco's movie the urania trilogy w/him which I can't wait to see - I was on tour back in february when it premiered in los angeles. stef also tells me about his time in cuba, he's taking photos to make a book of the people there, he's going back in june for another six months, this time more santiago than in havana. I wish one day I could visit cuba, especially for the music stuff. love rapping w/stef, always. turns out he's got the same medical prob my sister melinda has, hashimoto's thyroiditis but he's taking care... seems we all got challenges to our health. a lot of stuff you can do is w/chow and that's what he's doing, like me - scissoring the sugar. crimony. we also talk about seandy - my last time seeing seandy was here in vienna, after a gig I did at a gig pad called _flug_ and it's heavy on me to think on what this beautiful person in my life (kim white was the connect), who I loved much... stef says there's a doc coming out - I think I'm actually in it cuz I talked to this austrian cat markus in my prac pad in my pedro town... losing people is so hard for me, I never get used to it, never. crimony. rupert heim is here to interview fratello ste... it's to part of the spiel he did w/me in graz.
after saying hi to the striggles guys who go first tonight (we played w/them back on saturday in their hometown of graz) I go outside to sit on a bench cuz the early evening air now here is like my pedro town's most times and I get a little homesick... this man heimo comes up and raps w/me - it's been ten years but I konked at his pad in vermont during the only u.s. il sogno del marinaio tour and it's so great to see him. we rap about all kinds of stuff, like my health (!) and heavy stuff like the rap in the van we had on our way here (also later w/stef and his bass player buddy from croatia) and world stuff - also had some rap about this w/the gig boss david, crimony... so much spiel about this subject can weigh on me and damn if it doesn't have some consequence later during our set. so great to spiel w/heimo though, really, I'm most grateful he's here tonight, a great cat.
the striggles do real good and I congratulate robert, martin, slobadan and gottfried each for a job well done. can't wait to have them on my show, can't wait! our turn and the stooges "fun house" starts us out cuz I don't wanna have vid waiting all night to play w/us. I have trouble w/the first verse spiel - what? I know this in my sleep! it's kind of a sign of things to come this gig... I extend the middle part so vid can get a good solo in... of course he doesn't know how we end it so blows and extra note - that's showbiz! hvala vid, hvala!! we bring what we've been doing all tour and damn if I ain't blowing clams in trippy places - very easy spots... I do get that part in "none dare call it conspiracy" more together than I have been, same w/the "march part" in "max roach 8 ball" but something is weighing on me - I've had this happen before. the vienna gig-goers are very kind to us, they don't show out big time but you can feel it... the bring the focus right on the performance and there's no yammering. even w/my ridiculous clams I still have a good time - I've found when things get rough - even w/trying to get it together - it's vital to maintain a happening spirit and not get dragged by something that maybe only you are feeling as far as being a drag, you don't wanna coerce most kind gig-goers even if it's unintentional, I think it's part of the responsibility you owe them for respect they're showing you. they do get loud when we finish, they really show appreciation and it humbles me big time.
I pack up my stuff and tell this one cat at the front of the stage I'll sign stuff and take photos at merch table where miss hiyori is. fratello ste helps me off the stage letting me use his shoulder and being firm as use him kind of as a tsue ('crutch' in jap). much kindness over at the table as I meet gig-goers there - hey, there's old friend peter who once I gave a tour of my pedro town when he came over! other cats too, most kind of everyone. paul, who served in the swans has a big spiel w/me, last we saw each was in 2019, working on james eleganza's "the only one" album, produced by our common buddy larry mullins and I give him the whole update on my dealio... good to see paul again, great pianoman. ok, out the gig pad hatch and final fistbump to him.
now I hobble down the little road... big hug to gig boss david 'til next time, then into cab to get to the 'tel and damn if I ain't all hosed off and ready for konk ten minutes BEFORE midnight! yes.
tuesday, may 28, 2024 - brno, czechia
from paolo:
"Pre-dinner exercises at Cabinet Muz in Brno" - paolo
from stefano:
Wake up and we had a breakfast outside cause we have this opportunity to have visit the Wien staatopera thanks to Francesco, fratello Paolo's friend. I still have nausea but I get very excited by the visit The teather is truly incredible, spectacular. The area behind the stage goes 20 meters below the groundzero. I have nausea all day but still I can play ok, I do not enjoy this kind of too much dry acoustic... good for bass frequencies yes but high freq suffers a lot Plus I always feel that the "air" and the "space" are missing..nevertheless these are good rooms for recording for sure... when people comes in they dry out too much. We enjoy to listen party thrasher and sun + dead - Vaclav and his son on drums, Simon.
from watt:
pop at six am. chow ain't til seven so I just lay real still... I had no choice but to pop cuz the curtains at this 'tel room don't close enough to block the sun and there's big sounds from the street but that's ok. I get this email from tenor saxman vid who did "fun house" last night w/us in vienna, it's from his friend goran in osijek, croatia - it's a poem he wrote for me thirtyseven years ago:
--------written--for Univerzijada in Zagreb 1987
Goran Rem
MIKE WATT
The Three on an empty downtown street. Name, unknown, upon arriving just as the music was ending - that was the name of the protagonist from the central avenue.
He read, walking through the absent midday crowd, he read the Croatian Petrarchists. They kissed these degrees of absence well.
A hundred thousand Watts of sound sweeping the street with Cage's Silence. In the scattered and acute sense of one's indiscreet staring, he played the 49th for the street.
Floating through his eyes. Some Two, which he felt were at an equal distance from him, for a short yet unusual time; him constantly drawing forward to the left and her paralleling to the right - wanting to encounter. Looking into the counter-reflective shop windows, he was saved from the contact, while slipping of words was further irritated by the swirling camera sweeping around huge glass cubes that he often entered.v
He finally approached the random Miss Child, exclaiming: Now we're in full color!
Now, let the camera die!
Osijek, 1987.
--------
from vid jeraj:
the galley is full of polish fourteen-year-olds (guess) on field trip to this old town full of art (also guess), fratello ste and fra paolo also have a buddy showing them so opera house w/what they tell me is amazing automation to the stage to help w/changeovers. hardboiled eggs are what they are and are pretty good when most the other stuff ain't happening for me so I leave it alone, there's some cucumbers and tomatoes along w/bell-pepers which make quick get big time nose-blows and congestion... I think chilies - even ones w/no heat are starting to be allergic to me so I'm gonna try and stay away and see what happens. we pull anchor at twelve and a half, fra paolo at the wheel of his fiat scudo to get us onward...
it's less than ninety miles 'pert-near straight north into czech republic (now also called czechia) and brno, their big town in their east. my first time to play this town though I've play this moravia region w/stooges before. we stop before the border to get a highway vignette, just like w/austria on the way to graz. no rain this drive! lots of pretty farm land, no big towns 'til this one.
we get to the gig pad at three, it's also a cafe and a record store called kabinet muz and it's in the of brno here - dig this graffiti on the wall next door:
lukas let's us load in (I serve as guardiano cuz I'm weak w/the schlep w/this port-side knee) and then let's me and miss hiyori up into the backstage while the fratelli go to the 'tel to bof check us in and rest 'til the five pm soundcheck. I add the latest gig to the hoot page, a pad called quarry in liverpool, england for the fifth of june cuz the two days off we planned cuz of fra paolo's request is now available for gigs cuz he has a different sitch at home and things have freed him some to play w/us. lukas introduces us to matej who is gonna be tonight's stage manager. all right.
soundman dominic checks us at five and a half - vaclav shows up w/his son simon so I have us do the stooges' "fun house" cuz that's what he wants me to do w/them in their set. very good sound in this room cuz of the acoustic panels on that completely cover the bulkheads. soundman dominic takes good direction too, I can give him the frequency fucking things up and he takes it right out. good man.
first time I ever chow seitan cuz that's what I have for dinner... didn't really know what it was, thought it was portobello mushroom w/a thick-ass gravy on it. there's roasted vegetables and potato wedges plus a salad w/no dressing also. the middle band for tonight is locals called party thrasher and I rap w/the bass and singer men who come backstage just as I finish shoveling that chow. singerman ondra malek tells me he's twentytwo - same age as I was when minutemen started! interesting cat, I dig how he feels "genre labels" fuck music up - yes, I agree I agree I AGREE!!! you know, there was this poster in the widow of this gig pad that had a fucking GENRE LABEL attached to every fucking band on their gig calendar - not ONE band was free of this shit, I shit thee not! fucking gulag thinking in my book. the funniest night of music was for fifteen may: three bands and here's their "species name" or whatever jive shit you wanna call it: punk, punkrock, punk-rock'n'roll - three bands, three 'pert-near the same fucking stupid-ass label... I mean, how much more fucked-up could something be? I joined this movement to get FREE of that stupid shit - "punk" was not a style of music but a state of mind! crimony. this is our human species at work here: creating prison cells out of trying to let the freak flag fly, same as it ever fucking was. what's a trip is this young man from here in czech didn't need fortyfour more years of learning like I did to figure that out... MUCH respect to him, truly. we even get into comparing skateboarding to music (he came backstage carrying one), can you believe reducing that form of expression to shitpile of categories? get me a fucking shovel!
I go out to play the stooges tune w/the sun+dead band and like an idiot, I come on stage one tune too early but vaclav says it ok... like a bigger idiot, the bass is out of tune - crimony. I stay away from the "worst offender" it sounds like, the 'g' string. we do ok for never playing it together before. party trasher is on next and since I ain't scheduled to play w/them, I go out front to listen and they are trip. on the window poster, they were branded "hardcore-punk" but this is crazy for me cuz they do all kinds of stuff, even their own version of the stooges' "search and destroy" as the closer. crimony. let me whisper it one more time: fuck this berlin wall garbage or like d boon in "shit from an old notebook" wrote:
let the products sell themselves
fuck advertising, commercial psychology
psychological methods to sell should be destroyed
because of their own blind involvement
in their own conditioned minds
the unit bonded together
morals, ideals, awareness, progress
let yourself be heard
not saying bands or music are products but hopefully you get the idea. end of sermon.
we're next and since it's seven minutes past when we're supposed to go on (first band started late), I go right up from the front of the stage and set up since everything but the guitar amp was used by the band before us. I congratulate the bassman, he was also a very good dancer! soundman dominic wants to check the drums but I nix that and ask him to be professional (which means this is a little bit showbiz and not a recording session) and let us bring it. I will not stand for the line-check shit in front of an audience that paid to see a gig, fuck that. he's real good though as fourth man for us tonight, very happening sound on stage - much respect to him. the gig-goers here in brno too are also very happening and I have a real good time playing for them and playing w/fratello ste and fra paolo - I really rally from last night, really do. that spiel w/the party trasher singerman also I think got me lit, him saying the age difference between us (fortyfour years) didn't mean one fuck. much respect to him. I extend out part of "purple, orange, green + yellow" cuz of fear of this point in a tour when a band kind of has the material "learned" or whatever and has the potential of going into "cruise control" or "autopilot" which for me is the thing to really fight against, fucking is that what life's about, to get to somewhere where you can "check out" and be out of the moment? fuck that shit in my book, fuck that shit sideways. I love rallying after a gig that was "challenging" (so to speak), it gives me some fucking hope ("a little bit, little bit" like bobby di nero says in that "good fellas" movie) in myself that I ain't forever floundering.
so for me a good gig but fratello ste says to me right after when I'm packing up that he felt things were "too dry" w/these acoustics, similar to the napoli gig. I go over to the merch table when finished. some cats came from poland, very kind of them. I get to thank all the party trasher guys and bof sun+dead father/son, get in the cab for the "intercontinental hotel" I'm told - before I do, I give the party trasher singerman a d boon sticker that reads "punk is whatever we made it to be" and wish him luck.
wednesday, may 29, 2024 - prague, czechia
from paolo:
"And the vibes still keep on goin' in Prague!" - paolo
from stefano:
The day after is again quite a smooth driving to Prague. I feels better and I enjoy breakfast at the hotel. We play at meet factory outside town. Interesting space, maybe too big for il sogno del marinaio. Vaclav and Simon opens..my pedal board get the handle broken but I can fix it with the help of Thomas the sound man... very nice dinner with several raw vegetables. We go to sleep as soon as possible cause we have to get to Hamburg. I finish to read Simone Weil chapter on ethic an aesthetic. Moral value of art teaches us that the spirit can descend into nature. moral, on his side, tells us to act following the true thoughts, the beauty testifies that the ideal can get into reality
from watt:
pop at six. so glad I resist chowing after gigs cuz I never wake up w/gut problem, never. there's more blue than white w/the sky out the window... yes, sun rises early in these parts now. also glad not wake up w/hurt hands and aching joints - scissoring most sugar (especially the bunk kind) really helped w/that. putting plug in the jug (scissoring alcohol) certainly helped but so did controlling other stuff I put in my mouf, good things for slow learner watt! seven bells and downstairs for asagohan, prolly best shovel after serbian one. a cookman fixes me up an omelette, whoa. very lean one which I dig. there's also liverwurst - when was the last time I chowed this? too long ago! of course there's senf and part of a baguette to go w/it, happening. real yogurt w/sugar or pointless plastic holder, coff made from beans (big-ass cup also so one-hit), roasted vegetables, fresh cucumbers slices and tomato wedges I supplement w/olive oil and vinegar - all good whole chow, no box shit ("if it comes in a box, you're going out in a box" I've been told) and I can really feel it.
back in the chamber, I chimp diary. check-out is noon but fratello ste last night said pull anchor half-hour after that so I'll be parking culo in the lobby for a little bit, no prob. prague is a 128 miles drive northwest from brno, most grateful for the small go before the hellride tomorrow for hamburg. we pull anchor at ten of one. we talk about that category stuff w/the music, talk about walt whitman... two and half is a piss stop and it looks like it's plastic-shitter land (two boofs, a twofer) BUT there's also a permanent trip - I stay in the boat and chimp diary. back on the road we come up on prague w/some traff, so good we're earlier than late. the gig pad for tonight is called the meet factory and appears to be a former factory repurposed into an art space...
we get in about three and a half... it's near a kind of rail yard so I get some photos... I see a gallery and then there's where the band plays, like a thirty overhead? more? good thing there's big black curtains hanging down to kill some of the ring. I don't think fratello ste has to worry about stuff sounding "too tight" tonight, nope. we do our check w/tomas and it's a little trippy but I think it all works out in the end. communication is very crucial w/humans I'm always learning... different stichs keep teaching me. I chow interesting grain and bean things prepared upstairs at this pad along w/some roots stuff and not-hot soup made w/peas.
mirek from uz jsme domo arrives and he has papers he wants me to sign to help him get his band over to the u.s. for a tour. good to see him, it's been nine years! I stayed at his pad five days cuz that tour had some HUGE fuckin holes in it w/no gigs, something I ain't really used to then, before that or now... mirek very kind to me, really.
death+sun open the gig w/some urging from me cuz soundman tomas said nine pm - actually he said, "on stage three minutes before please" and we got that hellride tomorrow plus last night there was some stall from the first act (them)... I hobble out to stand at the lip of the stage w/simon's doing his drums and watch their whole set. I really think if simon sticks w/it (he's fifteen years old now), he's gonna be a really good drummerman, I can just feel it. his pop does good on guitar and singing also... young simon shows me a lot of promise, has good feel... maybe a little work w/the kick drum - big man (the cat I took on the 2017 u.s. missingmen tour cuz raul + paloma were having their daughter sof) was this way too. you know, I think drums are so hard to play but at the same time I think it's so essential to have a happening one to play w/and in fact I think if you can play drums then you can play any instrument after that, I really do. they bring me up for their last tune which us three doing the stooges' "fun house" like last gig but tonight simon's got it way more together - like I said, simon shows promise and is a quick learner, I hope he sticks w/his drumming.
nine minutes to get it together, we do and go on right at nine. tough gig w/the acoustics but the spirit we got we each other in the band along w/the spirit of the prague gig-goers tonight is really happening. I enjoy tonight's gig much. I remember to put the bridge we yanked out of "max roach 8 ball" and put it at then end cuz it makes for a most happening segue into "partisan song" both cinematically (using this is as a metaphor) and practically (fra paolo can get his shaker) and stuff set up for that bambino. hard to work the dynamics in a pad like this w/the stuff we play but we try our hardest and I think in some ways succeed cuz of the reaction of the prague gig-goers who give us big respect... 'pert-near this whole tour gig-goers have been treating us not as "background noise" for their own trips but actually giving us much focus to try hear what we're bringing and I can't be more grateful for that, truly.
I pack up and hobble to the merch table where I sign stuff, take photos... mike from crooked mile is here, he was so kind to bring my wattplower bass from pisa to bologna so I didn't have to fly w/a bass. john too - last drummerman for tera melos is here, he survived big time cancer hell, I am so so glad he survived that, so glad. there's u.s. expats - more than the other gigs ("I detect an accent!") - that talk w/me too, everyone though very kind.
a cab gets here for a 'tel called "akcent" more inside prague (the gig pad was kind of outside, to the east). ok, twenty of eleven... I hose off quick for immediate konk, bof cuz I need to and want to.
thursday, may 30, 2024 - hamurg, germany
from paolo:
"Ferrari team pit-stop!" - paolo
from stefano:
Not sleet very well, I kept waking up several time he have a long driving in front of us. i start driving at 7:45 and the wheel goes to fratello Paolo round 14:30... But the last part is still long cause of a lot of traffic. Anyhow we get to Hamburg in time I have some sort of pain in my left shoulder and right leg..but I can eat and sleep for an hour at least before the gig. And it I a very nice gig. Funky is the soundman here and he did a great job. Very nice person. Great to see Nino from Barcelona after such a long time. We go sleep out of town so after the gig is 30 min more driving... good rest.
from watt:
pop at six. the trough downstairs is a good one, I have three czech boiled eggs w/some steamed broccoli and cauliflower, a salad w/rucola lettuce, five tomato wedges, eight cucumber slices, very fresh, oil and vinegar, very good. coff also. only twenty minutes to shovel this but the hashi keeps the chow from going down too quick - fuck that stupid shit. we all get in cab at seven and a half to get back to last night's gig pad, a very nice man waiting to let us in the back to load up the coche. all stuff aboard, pull anchor at 8:08 and I chimp that cuz there's a famous roland drum machine that has a name similar maybe? not that familiar w/drum machines though... it's a gray morning but at least no rain. fratello ste at the rudder... looks like northwest from here for 630 klicks (about 392 miles, kind of like my pedro town to s.f.) today for the first german gig of this tour in hamburg. yeah, on the way will be this land's biggest town and capital but we will not be playing there and instead, it will laugh at us as we pass by, yes we will swerve to avoid.
eight and half, we pull over for diesel. by the way, fra paolo checked the oil yesterday and we're ok, good to know. miss hiyori washes the windshield - good squeegee w/long handle but no cleaning fluid in the water, just water but better nothing. a clean boat is a happy boat... I give fratello ste five empty water bottles from back here behind his driver seat - what am I besides a bass player on this tour, a bottle collector? cazzo.
nine and half, we're at the border of germany and traffic is diverted for "polizeikontrolle" and two young polizei - one w/a machinegun (but finger next to trigger, not on it) asks in what fratello ste says later is very good italian if everyone is italian in the coche and I show my passport in the window, they decide we're ok and it's pretty much butter. this was not a formal border place but just a detour on an offramp so no customs kind of thing. they were polite to us and kind. soon after we see a falcon dive down grab a mouse w/its talons, lifting it high into the sky... around dresden we make driving vogole and have to bring the coche about, no prob, maybe five minutes of time loss - we wanted towards halle and not dresden - I learned a long time ago that for me in europe you aim for towns and not use number system so much... after halle we'll aim for braunschweig and then hanover before finally hamburg - I was baka to think we'd be baka enough to take route near berlin, totally baka for this sitch, scusi. so it's 640 klicks (about 398 miles), crimony - I'm a fuicking stonato. sun comes out around eleven, like "may gray" or "june gloom" in so cal, gloomy morning burning off to brightness. there's a message on fra paolo's leash from swamp booker boss fratello ricky and bof fratelli are trying to listen to it from the leash... I ain't trying to be all einstein but I suggest maybe playing it over the coche's sound system so they can hear better, hear the drama that is unfolding better. ok, the skies changes real quick, big BIG kumos ('clouds' in jap) and then rain, boom-badda-binga! but then... that clears and back to gray. euro weather... england is like this a lot. the rain is back and heavier... then gone - ok, this running commentary is gonna end! let's say things that way are kind of dynamic, a little bit. twelve and half we pull over a really-pack rest stop to switch ponies and the fratelli go piss, we continue now w/fra paolo on the rudder. we hit traff w/bad stau ('plugged-up traffic' in german) and some app fra paolo uses to try and get around via tiny roads. we end up stopping so he can piss but they got a luft machine ('air pressure pump' in german) so I do the check and we adjust, fra paolo arrives pissing and puts on his gloves, he is ready and we do it all over again correctly (I read the fuckin sticker on the hatch wrong like a stonato), we're back on the road and free of stau w/in an hour... more alternate routes via tiny sides roads (later on miss hiyori shows me the crazy route we were led on, baka routing, crazy!), a quarter after four we get into hamburg but gotta get to the port on the elbe which this ain't but it does get us to the konk pad (one of those of "b & b hotels" chain) in nearby harburg so we can check in and then get to hafenklang which is where the gig goes down tonight... maybe my fifth time playing here? eleven miles away but the weather is nice.... pull up in front at twenty after five, 'pert-near an hour to do that eleven miles. crimony. but we arrived alive, victory!
martina welcomes us and is very kind. we load in from the street but it's a quick cuz this team has learned the ropes. gig boss martina talks to me about where I am w/stuff - genuine interest and not just tiny talk, respect. we check w/soundman funky, real nice cat. upstairs in another gig pad plus where the chow is. I shovel pasta and green beans w/these tiny square pieces of grilled tofu, real good. up here there's two bands playing tonight: the cavemen (from auckland, new zealand) and killier kin (from new haven in connecticut). there's two from each band at a time at the chow table w/us, nice cats. I tell the new haven cats that k was born in their town - the guitarman says he heard about that. I talk about tracy pew when I find out one the cavemen guys is on bass. I saw the birthday party just once, it was at the roxy in west hollywood and I dug it much, tracy pew was fucking way happening, truly. great sound also. I wish I could see the cavemen but the killing kin band goes on like twenty after nine and I only catch one tune before I gotta hobble downstairs for our gig. damn.
we bring it on time at nine and a half - there was no opener but the hamburg gig-goers are ready to go, great spirit. I enjoy the gig much but also find some stuff me and the fratelli can discuss... it can wait for tomorrow. there's a real interesting dynamic in a comeback after some vogele that I feel the gig-goers felt and then we throw each other jacob's ladders and keep the keel in the water and I hear some gasps, there's some unsurenesses unsecured untethered - did someone count wrong or wrongly counted correctly wrong? are we in the moment? are we shitting our pants in the moment? is the moment shitting pants from us? there is the setlist to segment this dialogue... the gig-goers worked all week to get the bones up for the admission - I know the fratelli are trying their hardest. I hug the gig-goers w/one arm, hug the fratelli w/the other and we build the gig. we bring the gig. you know I did this gig also thinking of this man cristian... at soundcheck a man came by to pick up some musical and said we lost cristian a couple of years ago... I remember/ed him. crimony. I'm thinking of him right now. so faint... is some part in the way?
I pack up. so kind to get gig-goers kindness, truly. owen is here w/his wife and we talk about the channel now-barrier. I'm glad he's here, most kind of him. most kind of the man who brings me the water w/the bubbles, most kind. the couple talking about dublin, I get to talk about my 2004 bloomsday trip to that town a little bit, righteous! really nice hamburg gig-goers very nice to me. milo's here and it makes me real happy, big abrazo for him, big one. he's got much music stuff happening now including his arrrgo band, a great bassbrother I respect much - so many creative cats keeping me inspired, I love!
fratello ste gets the boat - him and fra paolo worked so hard to get us here safe. now they're w/miss hiyori loading up the stuff in the rain. there's still a drive back to the 'tel so I am quiet so they can focus, get us safe at the 'tel. it's dark and slippery as I hobble when we get there, I can barely myself keep myself safe, I go slow, real careful... I make it to the hatch. crimony. hose off and konk. crimony.
friday, may 31, 2024 - dordrecht, netherlands
from paolo:
"DS17 is a trippy place created by Yvo who built it himself. Yvo welcomed us wearing a Fuzz Orchestra t-shirt, a previous project of mine... Entanglement!" - paolo
from stefano:
Pain dissapears. I dream two dolphins, they want to play but I am kind of scared. One of them softly and playfully bites my right hand. It Is raining. Hard morning, traffic and a lot of constructions..hard to find the road. We arrive in Dordtrecht round 5..I meet Bruno.. sleep for an hour after soundcheck and dinner. Ivo prepared a very very nice dinne, with a lot of nice pickles and fermented vegetables, Eric is on the board..nice to hear new Bruno band..very good trio! I have not found enough time to keep the diary everyday so I guess I am forgot already a lot of thoughts like Bruno band for example.
from watt:
pop at seven, window full of gray sky but least a little dry? whatever, we keep on keepin on. I get downstairs to the trough and again shovel three hard boiled eggs, some cherry tomatoes/cucumber/radishes, some roll/liverwurst (again, yes!)/senf and some cheese/yougurt/flax seeds along a pickle and some coff, am digging it. I chimp diary 'til we pull anchor at ten and a half.
fratello ste at the rudder, I distract w/the spiel from last night I was saving for now (it was in order not to distract him last night - I am a baka stonato!), so a wrong move makes the re-do add some half-hour cuz of lots of construction and this is the harbor part of hamburg that's most like my pedro town's w/all the cans and hammerheads (containers and cranes), I'm actually digging this accidental sightseeing of the port here... anyway, I get back to the "topics" I wanted to discuss w/the fratelli about not giant stuff but things I feel safe enough rap w/them about cuz I feel there's a trust we got going so no one will take personal or something like that and let warp into a real fucking unworkable dealio. they bof have real good stuff to say also so for me it's a healthy three-way to head off any "tumors" that my potentially form. it's a good productive spiel. I think chimp diary.
right before one we pull over for diesel, an "avia" that's got it for €2.12/liter ($8.70/gallon) crimony, highest fuel cost of the tour big time, way out of line... well, I get a bockwurst w/brot und senf for my first scheiss chow the tour: €5.40 (about $5.60 u.s.) not so bad. good snap cuz of the skin but what's really in it? at two and a half we pull over at rest spot to switch ponies, fra paolo on the rudder... soon we're in the netherlands - don't even notice the border or a checkpoint - very butter! rain returns and is heavier, then calms, then comes down again, then kind of light, then kind of - you get the picture.
drop anchor in an industrial park in dordrecht (in south holland, near rotterdam) on the outskirts at quarter after five (fra paolo at first said "it's closed" but soon realizes he's wrong) and meet the pad/gig boss yvo and our fourth member for tonight soundman erix, bof are very cool people. this pad ds17 is also the home for fifteen artists, respect! then all of the sudden up on a bicycle pedals jan-bart from groningen, so good to see him also! crimony. I realize today our journey had us 'pert-near in the coche for seven hours. "it's not the klicks, it's the traff" I keep reminding these guys... anyway, we arrived alive so I am most grateful to bof of them.
things set up right up front, no mysteries here (I dig that much) while backstage circ/stoma drummerman wouter (circ is the one playing w/us tonight) explains
"clown core" to me... (here's a vid in porta-shitter) and knower stuff - drummerman louis cole is the cat common to bof trips and wouter says he's way into him. respect. this is the lead-in... I have a real good spiel w/brother wouter about all kinds of things, very interesting cat, much respect. his bandmates bruno and martin arrive - brother bruno gives me a righteous portrait of john coltrane - you know this is going in my pad in pedro to inspire me daily - you know it! he's a fucking happening bassman as well. I get to meet martin too, in person cuz the first time was on my show (w/bruno) - this is a real fuckin happening band soundwise for me so I can't witness to see what they bring live. in the meantime I get my mind going w/their drummerman wouter from tangent to tangent, all real interesting stuff for me, can't thank him enough. in the meantime I get brought home-cooked chow from a friend of pad/gig boss yvo's, some rice/vegetable trip along w/chicken chunks on little skewers. very good.
circ brings at nine and their set is a trip, like one big piece for me. the dynamics between bruno and wouter and martin is captivating, it's got me tripping on their trip big time. kind cinematic in an in-the-head way, love it. ok, we're lit up. much respect to these cats.
pad/gig boss yvo said ten and a half at soundcheck but now he says we can at ten after ten so we do. I really dig tonight's despite some yammering - actually I witness fratello ste for the first address such an issue... it was in "the fall" and he just stopped singing and playing his guitar so I did too w/my bass 'til things got healthier. I dig the way he handled it. me, on the other hand when I get a part we do softer bumrushed by some yammering, I tell the motherfucker to shut the fuck up and end up scissoring the tune. even w/this drama though I really dug the gig and the majority of dordrecht gig-goers were very respectful and supportive. they show it right after we're done and when I get finished packing up, I have many spiels w/them and sign many things and take photos. roland from utrecht is here, so good to see him again, him and his lady - bof real kind to me and I love the vibe I get from him regarding being alive and in the moment, it's what I feel a real good no front kind of communication from him. we talk about that chow his pop cooked for us once, fucking happening. he shows me his marc bolan tattoo, whoa... he knows it was me and d boons first concert we saw...
one more big hug w/bassbrother bruno - he says he wants to visit my pedro one day, cazzo - bring it when you can! pad/gig boss yvo is the taxi to this "bastion" 'tel not too far away (he's got the cap'n doing "dirty blue gene" playing... I got to do a version of this w/nels cline and michael preussner back in the wrestlin record days) and it's after midnight but not too much when I hose off and then konk pretty quick... boom-badda-binga!
saturday, june 1, 2024 - antwerp, belgium
from paolo:
"Super welcome from Koen and Christel in their home/artistic residence/recording studio. Very kind." - paolo
from stefano:
Great being at Crystal and Koen place for lunch and for the night. She cooked a very nice lunch! After two long driving the day before in a row their welcoming is truly special, The house for residencies they are building Is marvellous. A great gig at the Fabric where Peter the promoter works. Braam is on sound. Audience is marvelous, grazie. Gig are getting better and better.. the band is playing tighter and tighter and more expressive every night. So happy to stay at Crystal and Koen house, very kind and welcoming people, they are truly special and I feel very grateful.
from watt:
pop just before six... man, did I have some scary stuff in my head, making me pop. I wouldn't call it a 'mare (what scotty-san called nightmares) cuz it did have such disjoint stuff scary but actual real possibilities or whatever shaking me up. just after seven I go down to the trough to shovel. the lady there asking for room numbers cooks me an omelette once I give her mine, very kind. I also chow a salad where they bring me olive oil but say they got no vinegar? maybe like it was hard for me to find mustard in italy, huh? I still dig it. also, leverworst (how they spell it here) - third day in a row w/liverwurst for morning chow when I ain't ate it at least three or something years. crimony. I also have some bacon which has been a while since I last had. some stuff every now and then I've found is ok. we pull anchor at twelve... fra paolo at the rudder, only around 120 miles to drive today.
just after one and a half we cross the border in belgium - no stop... of course the granddaddy of the eu was benelux and that was the first part of europe I experience w/easy border butter. we come to share expression, not to bumrush or make people afraid - we don't come for anyone's jobs... all these things pendejos w/some kind of racket and trying to hustle people w/scare tactics - "it's them, it's them" while they take advantage of the panic they seize on, bakas. trippy how koen will spiel w/me about this kind of stuff later in this day.
it ain't even one and a half we get to koen's pad in the north part of antwerp, he tells me they call the this neighborhood deurne. we lucked out w/having just a little traff hallelujah. this pad koen and christel have is called dropahouse and they got it together to help artists do residency trips w/their expression. christel made us some pasta, meatballs and salad I like very much, so kind of her. koen tells me more about their plans for this pad, sounds really happening. I hope they have good success w/this. stijn from this belgian/dutch magazine gonzo comes by to do a spiel that's kind of guessing game I figure out after a while - he plays my music and I start to spiel about what it makes me think about by maybe it's kind of a listening test? I try to keep my answers referring to il sogno del marinaio cuz that's who I'm touring w/now - for some reason I thought he wanted to talk about "terzo" so that's how I started the spiel off... I'm thinking now, was this a kind of guessing game or test? he's a nice man. I wonder if I sounded like an idiot, didn't mean to. I just wanted to shed more light on il sogno del marinaio. I voiced my concerns about the gigs being too promoted from the idea it's my band which it ain't. I do really dig being a part though, really do. I really dig that tonight's poster has all three band memeber name on it, all of them the same size. miss hiyori returns w/the wash she did for everyone, so very VERY kind of her. we pull anchor for the gig pad.
just before five, more to the center of town, we get to this beat-up former industrial area re-purposed to be a kind of art colony. fra paolo gets the coche to this part called blikfabriek (this is where the gig pad is) and there's peter from the het bosch where I played for him a couple of times, so good to see him again, crimony! the soundman is bram, also from het bos, whoa. this whole complex is filled w/trippy art I check out 'til soundman is ready to check us. we come up w/a new transition between "partisan song" and "wing and a prayer" - let's see how it works out. the chow is real good... it's india style but made by a belgian lady. I have the spinach w/cubes of cheese in it, some nan bread and cauliflower w/I think poppy seeds. koen sits next to me and wants to know about this seven inch I made w/david pajo... from there it goes to him telling me about some scary elections coming up next week - scary cuz pendejos are trying their jive hustles. I was woke up by nightmares this morning thinking of the pendejos in my land talking about grabbing the guns so can get further along in their wannabe butch cosplay... trying to konk or being in a konk and that kind of crowbar upside the inside of my head make me pop. crimony I wish I could have d boon talk to me about so many things - this one of them. I got millions of stuff to ask him. sorry for being irrational here.
time change for the gig, fifteen minutes earlier now which is fine w/me. earlier always better for watt! I've never been w/the "stallsters" w/such a thing - is there such a word? we're the only act. stijn comes to take my picture again cuz the shots he got earlier at our spiel he said lamed out. ok. some other cats come to photos of me also. fratello ste comes up and says the go-time is now back to nine. crimony. this was w/like five minutes to go - why? the place is full, whatever, our time to bring it now. careful getting up on this stage, kind of has three "tiers" which kind of limits our setup options but we make do w/the best we can do. we bring the gig. I've always had good luck w/antwerp gig-goers, always have and tonight they bring it for us, much good spirit and enthusiasm. I feel it really push the band up, gives us a lift. this set tonight has many vogeles but that doesn't really matter to me cuz it was a real good time and those vogeles that at times really seemed to be on the verge of capsizing us always got resolved and made better so we could keep on keepin on. to me, that's a sign of a band that's really playing together and not just a group of individuals executing parts. this gig gives me good feelings about getting to play w/my fratelli, truly... and the gig-goers in antwerp here tonight.
I'm given a chair by the hatch and sign stuff, take photos w/those who ask me to. many many kind people here tonight, really kind of them, truly. koen (the other koen) comes up when I'm finish and we rap for a while, good to see him again. also the cat who did the poster, bert lezy - love that he put all three of our names on it and not just mine, so glad. koen (the other koen) tells me about his trip to so cal and even my pedro town and 'pert-near saw me play there but had to pull the ripcord at the last minute cuz of the sitch his buddy found himself in. damn. one day one way. I get one more chance to thank peter for bringing this gig and then I thank the dj man for playing wipers... I tell him about the first minutemen gig in portland and greg sage was there and it blew our minds to meet him. stijn (that journalist) comes up to me and says I was correct in saying il sogno del marinaio is a trio and not just a man-alone thing, he tells me seeing this gig tonight really made him realize that. crimony. thank you brother stijn.
christel takes us back to the dropahouse in her car (she calls it real old) and I hose off and right after konk most quick.
sunday, june 2, 2024 - london, england
from paolo:
"I had never noticed that there were seals in Calais..." - paolo
from stefano:
We take the ferry to Dover, I sleep till the white cliffs. We go to London pretty smooth..it Is Sunday. Great gig at Cafe Oto, Billy on the board, nice to see Luciano and most of all our dear Dep from Glasgow. The vibe is absolutely amazing and I think we play the best gig of the tour so far. very proud of this trio and the work we have been doing. Grazie to fratelli.
from watt:
pop at ten of six. I don't know how to use the machine they got here to make the coff, baka watt. christel arrives soon though and provides... she also cooks up an omelet that real good - a thin one but no grease and happening. we gotta say bye to koen and christel so very kind to us, truly. we got two hundred miles to do today w/a ferry ride in the middle so pull-anchor's at eight for us. they understand, I could spiel w/them 'til whenever but duty calls, kind of a sea-change is up for this tour but I think the band is up for it.
fra paolo at the rudder. it's gray skies ("june gloom" we call it in so cal) but only tiny bits of sprinkle for rain. we head towrds whent and then dunkirk - in eighty minutes we're in france and a little after ten and a half we're at the port of calais for the ferry ride across the channel... we get to the boof w/the french side of passport control and that man says our ferry ticket purchase didn't go through so we'll have to go to this nearby building and get them in person. no prob, stuff happens and that's why I like to budget a lot of time for border and airplane/ferry/train stuff cuz I just don't need the stress or anxiety if going gets a little bumpy, you know: you never know. being a cripple has helped me learn to be more calm, less impulsive and overestimate what I need to get things done so I got some buffer of safety or whatever. it makes for a slow go maybe but it's a steady one and seems better fitted to where I am in life. anyway, we get our ticket and get through the french side of passport control and the dfds ferry man puts on the 12:50 voyage. the sun's out now and we sail on time... I find a socket for power and start chimping after a good piss in the head, happy to foul their fine facilities, merci.
it's just after two and a half when we arrive in england to see the white cliffs of dover - no it ain't cuz we gained an hour, it's just after one and a half... anyway, one last look from a custom lady - she points to exit lane... whoa, much butter - fra paolo now wheels on the port-side of the road... onward to london but after a little bit, first a stop for diesel at a "londis" (what? new to me) and 74 liters for 130 pounds (about $8.46/gallon). fratello ste says his parents worked in the cantebury parts for a while in the 70s or something - his ma a nanny and his pop 'tel clerk? interesting but fuck if I don't konk soon after him telling me... crimony I pop right when we enter the london metro area, headed for the dalston part where cafe oto is, much pedro weather here to greet me, digging it. we drop anchor just before four. soundman billy arrives at five, good cat - says old soundman shaun is now in cornwall and it reminds me of pirate talk as we know, the one robert newton invented, I shit thee not... love that man's spiel. I think billy's gonna be happening as our fourth man tonight.
while fra paolo gets his drums together, I venture out in the pedro weather and find right around the corner a chow pad called "tortilla" and am wondering what these days mexican chow tastes like in this part of london, england. is it kind of a "shtipotle" trip they got back home or what? I get what they call "tres tacos" filled (weird way of putting it) w/carnitas. they do have real salsa from mexico in a bottle, el yucateco and I get some verde for the back-wack-sack to help w/other chow. these tacos are pretty tiny and the "tortillas" I guess kind of processed harina... it ain't much but it does has some taste I ain't had for more than three weeks and have been jonesing pretty bad for it. I wouldn't chow here again but I gotta say it didn't make me sick so a plus there.
back at the gig pad, we check and oh-nee (she pronounces it this way, I don't know how to spell it) seems like the manager for the night and makes me some pepperment tea - first time I've had that this tour. she gets us chow also, turkish shwarma I dig much, especially w/the el yucateca sauce I got. I get to meet the openers, (also) & friends which are comprised of aloisius and jaso, interesting cats. I chimp diary 'til I gotta use the head, some kind people watch my stuff. I go to the handicapped chamber and the flushing's fucked up so I take of the tank link and repair their toilet, no prob. back to my stuff - on the way, giles from I wanna jump like deedee gives me "venezuela 70" cd of "experimental rock" (he says) from that place during those of those times, kind of him. we catch up on how I am since I was last on his show, so good to see him again.
_(also) & friends_ starts their set which I find happening. they have many friends joining them and also they themselves (aloisius and jaso) switch off onto different instruments in what seems very improv but at the same time really played together... their set was like one big tune made of several episodes and it really inspires me for our turn... nothing like someone into music getting another cat into music lit, correct? can't thank them enough.
our go-time is twenty after and damn if we don't change and get ours stuff together in like ten minutes so were only two minutes late when fra paolo brings it. I'm thinking this is prolly as of now the best gig of the tour and it's cuz I really do know what we're playing part and parcel of the whole enchilada. I got real good connect w/the fratelli while at same time got strong support vibes from the london gig-goers. I wish I could bring this from gig one but maybe it takes the much of the tour (I think it's gig nineteen?) to get where I am now BUT I will say I really have dug the gigs so far and only few I felt were a little better than we could've done - one was the bologna gig cuz of the whole sitch that was in of and the other was vienna which is where I felt I was responsible for not having what I should of had but all the others I think reflected much of where the band was at at that time. fratello ste and fra paolo never give less than the all the go they got and I love that big time. really a very happening thing for me getting to bof serve and learn from them. it really interests me how each of these gigs develop and become lives of their own w/the gig-goers in each town being part of that "equation" also, I'm really into it. I think the sounds fratello ste brings from the recordings that supplement some of our parts could've been a little bit louder but then I wasn't out in the crowd so can't be sure. even if it was, when I add up everything, it was most happening.
as I'm packing up, gareth sager comes up and says hi - wow, gareth sager! he's been on my show a few times but I've never met him in person... I can't tell you how he and the pop group influenced us minutemen, especially d boon w/his guitar but he told me he wrote a lot of the bass lines too... I also loved his rip rig + panic proj... total mindblow he is here talking w/me, my talk is stumblebum and nervous. crimony. whoa. I can't help but talk about mark stewart - about what enrico croci told me... however, he said that's wrong, it was hematoma... too much to process and then he's gotta bail... many more kind people give me the good word, I do the sign thing, do the photo thing - no prob cuz am very glad to return the kindness... whoa, it's tim from unsung hunger, so glad to meet him in person after him turning me on to such great music, am really grateful to him. reminds of old days when you read about cats in fanzines and then you ended up sharing the stage w/them, crimony! end of the line: posse of london music cats: senor al, ben (says his back is better and I'm so gald), leevil ready to flow me more stuff to work collab w/ - there's also jonny from death by milkfloat - I think he's jonny, names can be fucked up by my lame memory sometimes but he sees me all the time, says he feels the fratelli are "less on the leash" or something? whatever, brother cuz I believe you being the gig-goer gives you the right to decide, whatever might be the reality on the dealio, correct? like me w/his name, can I actually be certain? I am fucking baka!
my old friends jose and kyoko help me hobble to the "premier hotel" only a couple blocks away but it gives me time to get a little spiel in w/them - I totally missed them back w/the tour I helped the porno for pyros cats out w/a few months ago, them flying all the way to the u.s. crimony, feel real sorry for that but this work can be trippy at times and hard to coordinate stuff. big hasta prontos to them bof. I hose off and konk "straight away" like they say in these parts. whew, maybe the best gig yet of the tour? I think so...
monday, june 3, 2024 - colchester, england
from paolo:
"To play in St. Mary at the Walls (now Colchester Arts Centre) built against the Roman Walls in early 1200s it brings me back to the sense of Sacredness that should be into Music." - paolo
from stefano:
I dream of big red flying ants... strange. I wake up too early. We take nice pics around with Andrew and his son Conner. Then we go to Colchester arts center, smooth drive. we played here before in 2017. A church reconverted in a venue. Very nice. this time we miss Mick chilly so we get some Chinese. Dep comes from London. Number one. Two opening band.. I forgot their names.. good gig. Chris on the sound and Larry at the light are very kind. Nice to get to sleep early.
from watt:
pop at quarter of six. go downstairs to shovel "full" whatever, pretty greasy and unsubstantial - you can really feel this kind of "foodstuff" when you're eating better whole stuff using good oil, really can. not to get high and mighty, just saying. at least I don't get sick. I chimp diary and take care of email w/very broken internet service, again, don't mean to be belly-achin
eleven is checkout and I hobble back over to _cafe oto_ and meet photoman andrew and his son connor who wanna take photos of il sogno del marinaio... he's set up a place where he's got a couch from a nearby pub called "molly bloom's" and puts it outside by it's green-painted bulkhead and we pose for him, I mean he poses us for the shots. he does let me include my crutch for some though. we take some at an antiques/cafe trippy place called "h.j. aris" where everything's for sale, all this old stuff plus coff and beer I guess also. very nice cat, says he might come to the last gig in bologna on bloom's day.
one bell and we say bye bye to london, fra paolo on the rudder. just over sixty miles to colchester... takes us two hours w/the traff and construction after pull anchor at two and a half. the weather is less sunny but no rain which is a blessing. we get to this old church that's be repurposed as the the colchester arts centre and park by the load-in hatch. love getting in early. I stay in the coche and chimp diary.
begin the load-in at four, meet sound chris, very nice... we set up and check w/him. I then spend some time listening to mick's bands music that he plays recordings of - we played this pad seven years ago and mick was in the opening band... this stuff he's playing me is vahallans and earlier stuff _curious band_ that I wanna play on my show when I get home... he gives me some via usb stick drive. I'd like to have him aboard to discuss colchester music scene. I will get two examples though, soon as I chow this china chow ms hiyori got me w/fratello ste (I dug it, skinny noodles again like last time I had china chow, in prato back in italy), first up at eight is ecto peach which has got a bassman wearing an "invisible man" headmask w/a small leather hat on top and full-on gloves (he tells me later for that "muted sound" trip!), a singerlady w/a great voice and very expressive gestures to make her point - dig it! the guitarman really has some trippy parts to go w/his effects and damn if the drummie ain't really focused on what he's bringing. I watch this band while scratching cuz of those thoughts of those pulgas - "I don't have them" I keep telling myself. crimony. up next is male model and they got a drummie who totally distracts me from those pulgas though, I big time forget those fuckers and wish I could bring the steve harris thing this bassman does - the one where he's moufing the words you know he had a buttload to do w/even though he ain't got a mic? this man doesn't either, he's real good w/the fingers though, the part NOT working the frets though he's pretty good too. maybe the guitarman is the shot-caller? I like his lead guitar, when he brings it (not a lot), I like it - I can see these cats evolving maybe to a trip where drummie gets mitch mitchell to do the elvin/trane dually while bassie gets more like dusty? a li'l bit!
ok, it's nine and a half: I'm ready to go - bof these bands have helped lift me, and also hearing that stuff mick played for me - thank you colchester music people! that includes gig-goers too cuz I have a good time tonight, enjoy our set w/prolly the highest overhead of the tour - it must be fifty feet and I didn't once look at the chords for either "pedro ten-four" or "none dare call it conspiracy" but I did do it for "max roach 8 ball" which is I think ok for that one since I ain't been spacing on playing that part all together like I did at one point on this tour, three gigs in a row. what a fuckin baka! anyway, this is progress for the il sogno del marinaio bass player, correct?!
pack up and meet w/the gig-goers out where the pew used to be, they're all very kind, they deserve photos, they deserve me signing things, no prob, glad to. glad everyone patient while I pack up my stuff, just gotta do that so I don't space on things and then get where they are - remember that stuff w/them coming on stage in milano?
so kind of the ecto peach gutiarman for the ride to the "north hill hotel" - right by where the china chow came from is what I guess and damn if it ain't so. I am so tuckered even though's one after eleven! hell, this it'd be three or fours late if I were in my pedro town on a non-gig night! crimony. I'm on tour and just had a good time playing in colschester, can't wait for tomorrow in southampton! I konk right after quick hose-off.
tuesday, june 4, 2024 - southampton, england
from paolo:
"First recovery show by plugging a day-off at The Joiners, once 'The Joiners Arms Hotel'" - paolo
from stefano:
I sleep very well finally. A day off filled thanks to Ricky at the Joiners. We played here before with fratello Andrea in 2016 I guess. we play a nice 40 minutes set. we are guest of three acts night. three young bands, two local one from Bristol. I have a nice time listening to them. Paolo and I get some food at the afghan Indian restaurant in front of the joiners.
from watt:
pop a quarter of seven but I had a few pops... a friend of mine sent me an email about her cats getting fleas in upstate new york and now she's getting bit when she's on her couch - I konked on that couch the night after opening for wilco in 2022 at that festival the have in west adams, ma... no pulga bites on me then but damn if I didn't start scratching my fuckin head when I was watching the bands who opened up last night's show and then having 'mares (what scotty-san rock action called 'nightmares') about pulgas and pulgas - arrgghh! this mattress is also too soft for someone like me who is used to firmness... like a deck. downstairs the 'tel lady cooks up "full" chow, not meaning a buttload but the fried egg/sausage/rasher/tomato/beans plate trip but more wholesome than yesterday's assembly line-like trough stuff, prolly cuz this 'tel lady took care. most kind of her. wish "full" also meant a salad w/good olive oil and vinegar w/it! well, like it's been said: you can wish in one hand and shit in the other - you tell me which one fills up first, k?
southampton's just over 150 miles southwest of colchester but london's right in the way so we'll have to swerve to avoid by taking the northern part of the loop around it (m25) cuz can you imagine trying to plow through that fuckin plugville?! crimony. we pull anchor at eleven w/even though gray skies, they ain't wet skies. some scariness w/the driving almost there, following too close just has trust issiues w/me and that's why I personally don't do it. paolo gets us safe to the "concorde club hotel" at two and a half, not far from the gig pad. please know bof tonight and tomorrow's gigs were just booked last week cuz of the holes that opened up in the tour cuz of sitch changes w/fra paolo so miss hiyori scrambled to do what she could and I think she did good. we roost here for a couple of hours. understand this is not our gig, we just got it a few days ago out of the kindness of pad boss ricky adding us to a bill that's actually for bible club who are from bristol. some loops and blow-bys (actually I should reverse that order), we arrive at the pad - maybe my third or fourt time here (my fucking memory), the joiners which has parts of it going back to 1810, I shit thee not. we do the load-in and as I'm do guardiano, I hear the version of crows they got here - they got different songs then the ones we got but I bet they're just as smart. soundman harvey checks us, nice cat and tells me he's been to the whisky in west hollywood after I telling him that after 'pert-near falling off the stage a year and a half ago and that's why I'm using a chair, this makes the third tour now. check done, I talk w/the pad boss ricky - he's the one who came through for us and we have a good time w/spiel about what's going down music-wise w/what got in common which is a fucking buttload - I don't care if southampton's how many whatever miles from my pedro town, me and brother ricky here's got a lot in common. yeah, we have a good time... I could spiel w/this cat forever and a day, 'pert-near. cats like him have really help keep me in this racket as long as I've been, I'm most grateful.
across the street there's an afghan chow pad called "baghlan" and miss hiyori gets me a shish-ka-bob meat w/out the kushi ('stick') part w/a little salad and nan bread that I dig much, fuckin happening. soon the show starts so I go to where the bands play...
first up is onelung and right away I'm digging on the way the bassman works his bass w/a pick, trippy technique and even more important is how it feels/sounds. the singerman I'm really digging too, I'm way into how he's sounding maybe from where he's from? don't get me wrong, art can big time help transcend a circumstance you feeling helpless to have a say in but it can also use stuff you group up w/to express what's big time personal - like sly stone said: "it's not where you're from, it's where you're at" - can you catch that drift? drummie loses his hat after some babbam and guitarman seem big time in man-alone mode though in lots of tones it seems he's the cat leading the charge! (a friend of there's later will tell me they'll have recordings I'll be able to hear - can't wait!). I feel pretty inspired by these cats, gotta admit. next up are auden - I'm enlightened to the fact bof these bands are southampton - brother ricky also told me southampton has a music college - crimony! I'm noticing the pedal thing - gives guitars kind of a keyboard thing but gotta admit I like it better than a lot of keyboards I hear at gigs. this cat's on his knees pounding on his pedals trying to get them to work or something... maybe a little distracted but that's ok. some tunes the bassman has a real midrange sound that really carries the band... they seem real young. the front man explains they're usually a five piece. they seem isolated from each other but clearly the front man is grateful for the guitarman helping them out. trippy about how about everybody shares equipment - different than the usual u.s. thing, everybody kind of working together sharing stuff.
our turn and we're ready five minutes early so quarter of nine is our go. I am very nervous tonight... I usually am, especially at the beginning but for some reason I 'pert-near clam cuz of fear but I hold on - or in a way maybe first time this tour I hang on to some gig-goers. of course almost always I'm reaching out to the fratelli and they're there for me tonight but when the hands get shakey, oh my god... don't wanna let them down. the gig-goers here in southampton tonight also don't need to get let down and in fact, they are real supportive. I feel pushed up. I feel nervous too, different "nerves" maybe? ok, I get lost in "none dare call it conspiracy" - like I took my eyes off the road like a baka. this has happened before where I play in time but find myself playing the wrong notes in time. crimony. I get back on board w/the "b part" and have to laugh - actually I started laughing after third tune, some of the interplay we got going, especially w/some of the endings really busts me up, can't help it. we get to the end of "partisan song" and I check my watch... the three song seven inch "suite" is next but I don't want us bogarting on the band after us so I holler "lorrrrrrrrrrrrrdddd!" to bring in our version of the stooges' "tv eye" for our closer. man, I so grateful for the gig boss ricky making this happen and he was real good working the lights for us also, respect!
I get my stuff packed up and rap w/some gig-goers, sign stuff and take photos... a buddy of the first band was rapping to me earlier and he comes over to ask how it was for me and I gotta admit to him the fear I had - don't if I confessed to "...conspiracy" vogeles but uh, he called them "jitters" - he says "you call them 'jitters' in the u.s." but I say "fear" when he says that. he tells me he's got a proj coming w/the guitarman of the first band. man, cats w/some resolve I gotta say make step back some and say whoa a little bit... maybe cuz I want it to rub off on me! how far is this town from london? I wonder cuz second gig in a row for this other gig-goer, thank you much for helping tonight, wish I could've last night also. bible club next and that same stool I've been using is unoccupied so I go plant myself back there and watch their gig, am digging them. the drummie is real good, whoa. bassie's interesting for me also, not a lot of low end but an interesting tone and works good w/the guys on guitar who also trade off singing. a friend comes on for a couple to play violin. I enjoy their set - hope they'll write me back cuz I give them my email address.
we load up and say our byes - there's onion, he used to work here and always helped me out, he's looking real healthy and I'm happy to see him again. of course I was trying to remember which gig was what - it prolly makes people trip a little why I should care about getting past stuff remembered correct but for me it's a technique I'm using that maybe'll help me not lose the whole enchilada, know what I mean?
"know what I mean?" - no, we're not staying at that 'tel where this guy couldn't stop yammering w/that after everyone had to stand outside cuz of a fire alarm getting pulled - can't remember when but it was w/fratello andrea on drums (him too was tripping on that yenta) but I remember it was this town! back in the 'tel I hose off and konk like that... what a gift that is, truly especially when you're head gets all full w/stuff.
wednesday, june 5, 2024 - liverpool, england
from paolo:
"The friend Phil - bass player for The Space - join us in Liverpool. A very special human being!" - paolo
from stefano:
Not well sleep, tricky dreams, I feel it could be a trouble day. We hit the road round 10. I have nausea all day, We get to Liverpool round 5, this gig has been organized by Joel Murray with jut a week advice from us We are grateful to him, it is so great to see again Phil Hartley… and Pasha Coxhill on his motorcycle. It seems I know them since ever but actually I do not, we just met a couple of times in the past tours. But they have such a nice and positive vibes I feel them as buddy forever. The Quarry is an old deposit for merch. Hiyori, Phil and I go to get some truly incredible and good Indian food. i break a string, almost before the coda of pedro ten-four.. I can let fratelli mike and paolo and the sample finishing the tune..and I can change the string just on time..a few fratello mike words we get into none dare. We go sleep in a very sad rent apartment after some missing direction on the maps… we ended up under the tunnel and we are forced to make some few miles before getting back to the right direction. I feel sad for the man at the reception, his eyes seems to be very sad and so tired. I sleep on the sofa... It is comfortable.
from watt:
pop at six and a half. it's a hobble to another building that includes crossing one of the very gangplanks that was on the queen mary liner which by the way has been in long beach (the east side of the harbor shared w/my pedro town) since it came there to be beached and become a hotel, I shit thee not. they got that kind of breakfast I've been chowing here in england, cooked to order like yesterday too. lots of pictures of jazz people I've never heard of on the bulkheads except for this color one of the heath brothers - one time raymond took me to see tootie heath w/tal farlow and warren marsh, whoa, what a gig that was, at the lodge at "riot" hyatt in hollywood, I think dezo's pop ozzy booked it. crimony.
back in my chamber I do a big soak in a skinny but long and deep tub that fills up pretty quick... I can stretch out my legs all the way, maybe my only big soak this tour? even though my joints are doing so much better after scissoring sugar it still feels real good. hose off and chimp some diary in the remaining time I got at this 'tel...
pull anchor at quarter after ten, weather is sunny w/big clouds but they're white ones. we head north to liverpool. I play the song john devries (had a band who played w/some gigs w/the minutemen called agitpop) wrote for me called "static" which is what I'm call the next missignmen album... our version of this tune will be the first track on it, we're working on it right now w/peetzo at the knobs at _casa hanzo_ in my pedro town, we'll get right back at it when this tour's done. speaking of done, this tour's two-thirds done now, whoa does time fuckin fly. we talk about the bands we shared the stage w/last night in southampton, I think when you can learn from other cats doing music, it's a real good thing, helps w/perspective and getting turned on trippy stuff you might not think about w/out the experiences of witnessing stuff from others as you're taking turns trying to make of a night of music for gig-goers. I think in way it keeps that gig-goer part of you important and alive. I big time believe life is about taking turns and just cuz you're maybe bringing it more than when you're absorbing it, it's kind of unhealthy in my thinking about you being in denial regarding such stuff, I mean where I'm coming from cuz of what my life w/such things has taught and continues to teach me. fra paolo then plays for us his new proj called _traum_ (german for 'sogno' -p he says proj is kind of a tribute to early 70s german rock and roll) that he recorded at his grandpa's country house... sounds interesting. I think some parts of an alien landscape - yves tanguy is a painter I dig very much and I think of some of his works.
rain starts up just after noon... not a big storm but it's wet for a while, then dry. twenty minutes later fra paolo pulls us off at a "welcome break" trip on the side of the road for a piss stop. back on the road, fratello ste now on the rudder, the driving's ok - real ok and I'm glad/grateful. about one and we're in major stau though, bad enough to turn the motor off. ok. back in the race, the rain gone too but it gets still stau the close we get to our goal, just alternating much so big time focus for fratello ste - he does good while at the same time hear about the people I've played w/in my close-sitchs (seems he wants to hear) too.
it's three when we get into liverpool, no rain and lots of sun even w/big clouds - like this morning whence (whence?!) we came. three and half and we're near the water and the gig pad quarry and it's a trip soundman jack and pad helperman aiden explain this was n underground railroad beneath from the biggest brick building in the world. it's like an pad in the arch of a viaduct. jack's from brighton I learn when I ask him about a liverpool venue I played called "heaven and hell" - too far back for him to konw of... I wonder about pads from the old days. I also trip on how way-older pads like this get "re-purposed" to end helping me do gigs now in the moment. crimony. jack and aiden help us load in and we do a soundcheck, sounding really good for such a sitch, the acoustic panels they've added to the overhead helps out big time, much respect. backstage they got "three gingers" tea, first time I've had anything called that.
brother phil arrives and he helps get some india chow pad not far called "sanshruti" and I get my favorite "trifecta" of india chow: nan bread (not garlic this time but still real good!) and pureed spinach w/cubes of cheese in it - a symphony in my mouf! love it. this has got part of a scallion on top too, maybe the best I'ver had? fratello ste has me taste some of the potato stuff he's got and damn if it ain't righteous also. crimony. I talk w/the drummerman joel from a.p.a.t.t., good cat. me and brother phil catch up big time - he's the reason this gig happened, plugged this tour hole up like that when it opened up less than a week ago. he's a bassman doing lots of music and that's a great thing, love it.
first up tonight is coughin' vicars who's singer I'm told prints up lots of the shirts for bands in liverpool. I dig the band much, they kick up much dust. bassman has a see-through bass. the singermen really sells the tunes, make sure you know he means what he says and has a co-singer lady really aiding and abetting, they're really great together - the whole band is... drummer is slamming and the guitarman reminds me of yesterday in southampton w/all those pedal-assisted sounds but his way. next is a.p.a.t.t. and they are similar to having their own sound which means they don't sound like the openers except for the ensemble singing which doubled (all four) but the flute/sax/keyboard lady trades off her stuff lots, as does the synth guitar man w/his keyboard thing. really good music cats w/the tunes having a million parts. no bass player but low sounds coming from somewhere... for one tune one guitarist busts out a china-made hofner just like the one I got and man does it sound good over the p.a., really does. I use mind for mainly composing (I keep where I konk so whenever I can get to it and work out stuff from head that just hits me), he's really good on guitar, especially his ensemble playing - the whole band has a real good way of ensemble playing and the can't it seems is the shot-caller plays a guitar that actually is a trigger for a synth and is actually playing all kind of samples, the same as a keyboard which he also does. drummerman joel is really a good drummerman, very grooving and very invientive but w/no overplay, I dig much. I dug the openers drummie also... trippy how more I'm about the drummer... damn, does joel have a vocab w/that instrument and so really relaxed... good singer, they all are the lyrics trippy. really good band, good faces from the bof keyboard/etc players to help sell the tunes - like the openers... maybe a liverpool thing I can learn more from? I think so...
our turn and I'm ready... we'll we're like eleven minutes on a work night so I kind of "expedite" our entry by kind of pleading w/fra paolo to bring it but once the boat's in the water, it's a pretty good gig, I'm digging it - jack's got good sound for us and the liverpool gig-goers are really happening... earlier I talk to brother phil's bandmate pasha and wanna do good for him as well as that bassbrother from a "mellow mellow" gig I played in this town years ago... this cat is dancing up a storm. can you believe this was gonna be a night off - just like last night, something from nothing - it's all about people.
after packing my stuff up I talk w/most glad gig-goers and also cats from the other bands... I have a big spiel w/the coughin' vicars bassman about my views about musicians getting lit, using for a metaphor this sculpture in my pedro town that was made in memory of merchant marine sailors we've lost: there's this rescue man coming down a jacob's ladder (out of the sky?) to grab this man in the sea, hand to hand and this being-rescued man has in his other hand his lifejacket which is about to let go of, like by doing that the whole trip is saying "you got me" and it whups me up everything I picture it in my head. lots of good feel all around, very happening, so glad to be here.
quick pack w/brother phil helping w/the rain suddenly coming after holding off all day. you can tell he's done this for a lifetime and a half, for sure. good man, beautiful. we blow by the "apartment" and get the privilege of paying a tunnel toll not once but twice cuz we gotta bring her about a parallel grid street systems at that prevalent in these parts. still, we make it to and inside (that's also a small ordeal) to "the pictureshow apart" (two different signs here have this spelling, the "ments" part w/a piece of whatever blocking it out) and I hose off in this kind of strangely renovated "apart" and konk like that right after, my body learning a great tour skill and w/nothing but letting go to make it happen. crimony.
thursday, june 6, 2024 - kinsale, ireland
from paolo:
"Very close at the pad we crash in Kinsale (first gig of this tour in Ireland) there is Fort Charles, a 17th century star-shaped fort" - paolo
from stefano:
The worst coffee ever I think.. a costa - it cost a lot but does not taste good:) I learned from fratello Mike. At the gas station in front of the rental apartment. We enter the third leg of the tour today going to Ireland. We take ferry from Holyhead, a couple of hour driving south west to Liverpool along the coast.
We enter Wales, beautiful landscapes and dark clouds.a rainbow, the sea often looks up at our right... castles. Waiting the ferry I listen to Mike and Hiyori talking about nature, religion, history..interesting to listen their point of views, ideas and the way they expose... I think Hiyori says something very interesting about humankind..humankind could be a form of art of Nature... I like their tripping out on these.
We have breakfast on the ferry..it is good and It is d-day memorial celebration so I watched some of the images of the memorial celebration on the the tv. First time for me to go this part of Ireland..when we arrive in Kinsale It looks to me like an Irish version of Rapallo the small town in Liguria where I was born..the tiny roads up and down following the line of the coast, but different light, flora and color of the ocean. We play in a very nice little bookshop, the Prism, ruined by Simon, Emmet is the promoter for this and Letterkenny and Finn is the sound guy. We trickly arrange all our set in this little space. it is a good gig.. we made a very long anchor with funhouse and tv eye. Almost 30 minutes! I fucked up sucking out the tape echo at the end of the blow solo part. intense, everyone is very happy. I am moved by Tj, who saw fratello Mike several time, he Is big fan of minutemen and he have such enthusiast and kind words for us, feel honored. after gig Paolo and I have a nice fish and ship and load the van.
We go to sleep at Simon house, in Charlefort, very nice little bay on the sea, nearby there is a fortress from 1600.
from watt:
pop at five and a half, shave and wash mouf/teef. get coff from shell fuel station across the the street, "it 'costa' a lot but tastes mazui" ('terrible taste' in japanese language) and then pull anchor just after seven. we gotta go north into wales up to holyhead to catch the ferry to ireland. fratello ste is at the rudder.
interesting driving through wales to get to caergybi (welsh for 'holyhead') where a ferry will take us to dublin in ireland - the welsh language is so much different than english, let me tell you! I trip on wondering why the "union jack" flag has scotland and england parts (saint andrew cross and saint george cross) but no welsh parts (red dragon on green and white)... well, maybe they all three share the color white? hmm... lots of castles, old mining stuff and very pretty countryside going past the windows... we spiel in the coche some about rome's trippy relationship w/the etruscans some, w/the greeks too... also w/judea... humans and how they seem to interact w/each other in different ways.
we get to caergybi safe just before nine, we get in line at the ferry station (irish ferries). this time we have ticket that is good and the lady in the boof gives us the go for terminal five. waiting w/the motor off, we (three of us, fra paolo bails) spiel about nature/man/culture stuff... in that order? maybe but prolly more mixed up, some history stuff and some speculation also. we board at ten and a half and are underway ten minutes later, it's a smaller ferry (called the "dublin swift") and the seat I got is real comfortable, by the most forward starboard porthole. I chow "full irish" breafast from this boat, thank you much to miss hiyori. it's eightieth anniversary of d-day and I remember helping the stooges w/bass back in 2006 w/us staying at the 'tel marcel proust lived at for a while in normandy, france... only time I got ronnie out of his chamber to see stuff, the tour boss henry took us to see a bunch of stuff associated w/that including the beaches themselves which was profound on me, the physical sense of me seeing w/my own eyes these parts. crimony.
we get into dublin just before one, get off the ferry w/fra paolo now on the rudder, the border w/ireland is pretty much butter though I get asked if I'm filming cuz a pad I played eight years ago had studio in its name (corsica studio), he's kind though and damn if he don't have to work sides of his boof! crimony. we get diesel at a "fuelgood" (I shit thee not) for €1.78/liter ($7.64/gallon), then head south for cork, seventeen miles south of that is kinsale where prim's bookshop / bibliotherapy. very cloudy but no rain. as we get to cork and pay the motorway toll, some sprinkles but no flood. so much of this tour's like this... is may/june kind of summer - maybe not? better than swelter or cloudsplitter though, correct?
quarter of four: rain stops but fratello ste's got his rain about to arrive and he won't I guess use a piss bottle (him and fra paolo start using italiano so you know something's up), they get off the motorway thinking they're gonna find a random "services" (their word, I think the welsh is 'gwasanaethau' - I know, we're not in wales but what the fuck? by the way, they call their land 'cumry') but no such luck... we wander but finally find a side road which I implore them not to park on blind curve... I tell them about a nightmare in my pedro town cuz of somebody doing a stupid move like that. we're back in the race safe in no time. off of the motorway for the final stretch, great driving by fra paolo w/the road becoming like it was dug as a trench, 'pert-near no fucking shoulder and many blind turns so you're hoping some stupid motherfucking doesn't have their coche "parked" as we round them... crimony! to relax, I think about the offramp I saw earlier on the motorway for a town called "horse and jockey" - where does something like that come from? (a villagea village in county tipperary)...
fra paolo gets us safe into to kinsale and at to prim's just before five, whew... that was a ten hour trip total to get here from liverpool but way worth it - the gig boss emmet and pad boss simon welcome us as we drop anchor and right away I foul the pad's facilities cuz I gotta piss like a race horse. me and emmet spiel a bunch to catch up while I chow fish and chips (my only time for this tour - count on it! it's happening considering what it is but I've really gotten out of chowing french fries and all the grease... crimony) from a nearby pad called "dino's" that miss hiyori most kindly brings me. we check w/soundman fin, good cat. early gig, we're going on at eight and emmet wants us to give the gig-goers a "value's worth show" so I think about what to do... ok, two doses of stooges tonight...
big spiel w/emmet about music stuff like rory gallagher, a guitarman I dug much as a teenager and still do - emmet says rory's family was from cork (the big town near here in kinsale) and in his words "qutie revolutionary" for playing in the north in the 70s (heavy times for there) - I saw rory blow away jethro tull at the colliseum in l.a. when I was in high school. there's other spiel too w/emmet about adventures we've had in the music racket over the years, some real characters we've bof have had the pleasure to have experiences w/and have "lived to tell tale" regarding such! his wife chikan-san asks me about chows I cook at home when she sees me use hashi... "nothing more dangerous than a good idea" I tell her (something I read a long time ago). ok, show time...
I dig us bringing a gig in book store and especially one in jim joyce's land! damn, ten days later would've been bloomsday but whatever, I clam a little bit cuz of nerves but not just that - tonight I'm doing the whole gig w/no fucking charts - not even a set list, fuck it: time to man-up and grow a pair, correct? I think so. I enjoy the gig much, prolly the best version of "verse IX" of the tour which I'm really into cuz that was from mr joyce's first published work, "chamber music" - we do it really relaxed and trippy, very connected but loose - this says to me the tour is really working. the kinsale gig-goers are most happening and I think way deserving of what's our longest gig of the tour: seventyeight minutes cuz w/stretch bof stooges tunes into 'pert-near a half-hour's worth. crimony. there's your "value's worth" brother emmet!
I pack up my stuff and this bassbrother named tj comes up to have me sign stuff, he's got a real good spirit and I get emotional feeling it, makes me tremble. laster, his sister telling me he's been fighting cancer. whoa... I'm so glad he could be here, truly. this is why you never cut any shorts at a gig, never. there's someone from texas who's lived here a while now who knows tim and beth, real good people in austin. her leash has a video from them "talking" to me! crimony. other gig-goers give em the good word, so kind. really really good gig.
pad boss simon gets me to the konk pad (an air b and b kind of cottage in a back yard) not too far away in his vw van - much much newer (but still older compared w/other cohces on the road now) than the 1963 one I had but it gives me a chance to windbag about having that one and how I got killed by it when it burned to the ground up in hollywood the day before a tour I did back in 1987... crimony. man, was I lucky, real lucky. eight after ten when I get to hit the hay after hosing off, love it. thank you much everybody.
friday, june 7, 2024 - dublin, ireland
from paolo:
"When in Dublin, don't miss its typical version of Cappuccino!" - paolo
from stefano:
A very good and long sleep, almost 9 hours, so grateful. Many dreams, shower and then we cook some eggs and drink coffee. We take a quick visit to the Charlefort fortress, beautiful view and all the bay, nice to walk on the grass.
11:30 we are on the road to Dublin. quite tiring driving mostly cause of the traffic. Keiron is the promoter tonight, very kind and welcoming, Joel on the soundboard First time at the grand social. We go eat some Korean deli next by... very good.. I finally have a real Irish Guiness.
Quite a good gig I thought, fratello mike felt guitar too loud in Max Roach and I got confused reading his hand sign. Out of this quite a good gig. So great to see Bushee again after so long, very good drummer and buddy, We sleep at his place tonight..three lovely cats there… we sleep in Bushee records collections room! We meet Melissa in the morning and they cooked us a very nice breakfast for us, truly lovely welcoming people.
from watt:
pop at five for a minute, konk and then pop for real at seven. there's no coff here but there's this mint and lemon tea kind of thing I have. I wanna put out word about tonight's show but the internet reaches only to this deck in another part of the backyard, up some stairs but the path to it is these little stones and damn, I ain't got shoes on so there's some hurts involved getting letting people know about the gig, nothing real bad though. it's happening after the ten hours to get here yesterday to have a relaxed time, yes. we're gonna stay w/tonight's opener's drummerman bushe's pad so maybe a chance at doing wash? thinking of that possibility, I change into the other pair of levis I brought (this pair I'm wearing now's getting ripe) and even the socks. after wearing the "tour shirt" my sister got me for the flight to get to bologna, I've put it on again. this whole trip I've be alternating between two pairs of levis, two pairs of socks, five pairs of chones and this one yellow jacket (kind of freaked that friend of onelung in shouthamton when I asked him what the jacket was for and zipped it down... zipped it up real quick right after cuz seemed to 'pert-near have a heart attack).
eleven and a half, last night's pad boss simon comes w/his red vw van w/the fratelli in the coche behind him... most grateful good byes and good luck (said he was gonna crew on sailboat soon, whoa!), we head north for dublin. first though we gotta take a tour of this parking lot near where the boats are - the tide's out and there's one sitting there propped up on its keel in the mud. fra paolo's on the rudder and the big sun that was in the morning is now clouded over w/some gray that comes w/that but no big rains.
I was thinking about last night and me on bass. I think most the night I my 'g' string was fuckin flat... I blame myself cuz even though I told fratello ste not to put it in the case when he asked if he could - I told him doing that hits on the tuners, I think somehow it still got knocked out - why didn't I fucking check before we started? I thought I was hearing things and well, I hate the inconvenience of those clip-on tuners and even more, playing w/one on but damn I should've checked. of course I brought right up when I couldn't take it any more. that's one thing I could've changed - I gotta learn from that. I remember d boon tuning on the fly all the time... one reason was there was no tuners cheap enough then for people like us. hear's what even more baka, I saw guitar string packaging in a trash bucket at the gig pad and figured it was fratello ste who was out of tune - what a fucking moron I am. crimony. the kinsale gig-goers deserved better than that. I will not let that happen again - I will check no matter what before show time. what a fucking stonato, seventy tours and I'm still letting shit like that happen? crimony.
almost two and we pull over for a piss stop... fratello ste used italiano w/fra paolo but I guessed right. you know hodge w/the mssv tours was shy about that kind of thing too... where I come from though, you big time fuckin believe it. we check tire air pressure while here... costs €1 (last check was free in netherlands), all four tires were .1 under so maybe machine is calibrated different? we get everything shipshape (front 3.3, rear 3.5) and we're back on the road, fratello ste now rudderman. avante.
happeing idea from fra paolo: even though we don't fuel, we fuel up anyway at a "spar" cuz of the price vs scotland, I think it's good thinking. €1.71/liter ($/gallon). weather turns really happening like my pedro town's most times even w/the traffic kind of slow - we listen to the stuff me and brother steve did w/estel back in 2008... damn, that long ago? I think of brother steve and it takes some wind out of me...
four bells and we get to the gig pad, the grand social w/the gig boss keiron there to greet us. he tells me he moved from seattle in the 90s to be here in dublin one year and... he's got an irish grandfather, so... we get to park pretty close after he helps us load-in the stuff. meet soundman joe who's from cork tells me he got to play once w/noel redding! he does a check w/us... works out good. wolf eyes was here last night, keiron tells me, dig those cats. bushie from the openers the hubert selby jr infants and big hugs for him, love this cat - met him when we shared a stage w/estel, great band (played them for the fratelli earlier). gig boss keiron says there's a korean store/chow pad but it has no greens and after yesterday's fish and chips in kinsale, I feel I need greens. there's a kebab place real close and they got salad to go w/a doner so I go for that, lots of pickles too, bof in the donner and the salad... maybe afghan style here? all good in the mouf and I feel my body likes it.
old friend timo arrives, he brought the show here into this pad w/gig boss keiron who tells me he's learned much from timo. I met timo twentythree years ago when working bass for j mascis + the fog? pretty sure, I dig timo much. we discuss us bof getting healthier w/better choices w/our lives. he looks great and his talk makes happening sense. respect. eight and half comes and time to see bushie upstairs from the backstage here. so glad to have this time w/timo. it's a real good spiel for me, so much we can relate to, so much...
yes, bushie's band: I go up front to get all three of the band in my face. they're missing a guitarist but I'm in front of the bassman anyway, he works good w/bushie. the sound makes me think of bob mould, I shit thee not. it's not a copy of bob's work, just makes me think of him. bushie sounds real good on fra paolo's kit.
our turn's at nine and a half... we bring and it sounds good, I'm nervous but we sound good. I got no charts or setlist crutches out but I do got the words to "max roach 8 ball" and it's in that tune we got trouble. I really wanted to do the words more like the recording and that's why I got the paper but for some reason, the guitar hits me in the face so hard it 'pert-near knocks me out of the seat. crimony. I signal to fratello ste but it's a no go and finally I gotta twice something him on the mic which I really hate doing on a bunch of levels but I was just getting clobbered w/his guitar-sound, total punish-fuck in the face. that's the only difficult thing though and the dublin gig-goers are so kind. they big-time deserve some stooges!
brother willy carroll of stone age zine fame is here to welcome me off the stage once I get my stuff packed, he's beautiful an also his partner lolo, so glad to see willy again - I can testify this man loves stooges as much as I do! this man fergus delly gives me his new cd, very kind to me. john and adhamh (a cat who interviewed me for this gig) meet w/me and I get two bottles of hot sauce from chris, most kind of him... I got a bottle of hot sauce earlier for another cat - I thought this was him but that was a man acting on his own! crimony. so very kind of bof of them. the gig boss keiron says I can play here any time I want. crimony. in jim joyces town! big hugs for him from me.
we back up the coche and get bushie inside to ride w/us to his pad in saggart, just outside of dublin. we gotta make sure the three house cats don't get out... mission accomplished. I am tuckered. I can spiel a little bit not much, just out of gas... up these stairs real steady like and then hose off, konk w/in moments after. crimony.
saturday, june 8, 2024 - letterkenny, ireland
from paolo:
"Letterkenny and the Regional Cultural Centre in its majesty" - paolo
from stefano:
Lovely green road to north of Ireland, first time to go to Letterkenny… we play at rcc... Paul, Youi and Jeremy very nice people. I take a walk after soundcheck and dinner… I really need to walk a bit. Good gig,
from watt:
pop at six and a half, bushie's got the coff going downstairs, much respect. I get to spiel w/him for like five hours but I could've went on for five hundred more, I shit thee not, love rapping w/bushie, love it... we must've covered at least a hundred different trips, really interesting cat, really interesting. damn if I don't wish he lived in pedro! got have him back on my show, he's got at least three music projs going now including yurt which has got something new coming... love cats so full of life like this, they get my lit like nothing else. ok, just gotta shove off... bye bye to bushie and his most kind partner melissa, they bof give care to hurt people for work... also three cats share their pad w/them, all three w/very distinctive personas, love it! they were very kind also. I had a really good time here, truly - real good for me for the last nine gigs of this tour, real good. man, do I dig bushie... already missing him...
pull anchor at noon... fra paolo on the rudder we head northwest... letterkenny, about 150 miles northwest of dublin and saggart is about ten miles southwest of dublin. weather is cloudy and windy but still sunny and dry. ok. very pretty countryside up here, not many towns. ten after two we cross into northern ireland, names of the signs change a little... you can tell a little difference. at a filling station near some place called mountjoy we do piss stop and switch ponies so fra paolo can study music for upcoming stuff w/zu day after this tour ends. we continue north 'til we get diverted east towards a town called strabine and there the traff gets a little plugged cuz of demonstration downtown but it ain't real heavy and soon we're back in ireland, the signs change back... fifteen miles later we're in letterkenny and we reach the rcc just before four - this is the gig pad for tonight... my first time playing this town, the first time for me playing this northwest in ireland in fact. paul the tech man meets us at the load-in hatch and evaluates the sitch... yes, we can get the ball rolling now, thank you much, brother paul!
the gig boss is jeremy and he I ask him about emmet in cork and timo in dublin and yes, he knows bof and in fact respects them much for "connecting w/the small guys" - he's in his twenties, I'm glad he's here for us. soundman huey does check w/us, I get a good feel when he says the low-mid ring on fra paolo's floor tom "sounds musical" and decide this cat prolly make great fourth man for us tonight, respect. he knows how to get the monitor eq together before doing the mains also... damn at the end of the check does he tell me the he too works bass - much respect!
the fratelli and miss hiyori get india chow for dinner and for me they bring what I usually get w/this kind but it seems kind of not happening which is prolly the first time I've felt this way about nan bread w/saag paneer, maybe the it's the way they prepared it but however, I thought it was bunk BUT I didn't get sick so that's a plus. dominic angelella opens the show - I can hear him as I try to force this stuff down and only get to see his last tunes but I dig it and rap w/him when he finishes... a u.s. cat w/an irish wife and now living here, he says he's into it. respect to him.
we start right at the quarter of ten time soundman huey gave us earlier at our check and I enjoy this gig much. very kind spirit from the gig-goers here tonight in letterkenny - very dark on them w/very bright lights on us so I can't see well when I do look their way ('pert-near never cuz I'm focused on the fratelli) but I feel them real good. I fuck up the front part of "pedro 10-4" pretty bad but it's no matter cuz we're playing really well together. soundman huey has the sound real good for us too, nothing like last night. we try a new intro for "wing and a prayer" and I'm into it, just needs a big hit on a crash for the one and I think we're there w/that one. tonight I really dug what we brought, it makes me feel good.
also it's good to get the good word from the gig-goers, I sign many "double nickels on the dime" double albums plus other stuff, look at photos from gig-goers who've seen me in belfast before, very kind they're still w/me and interested w/how I'm playing w/this proj. I always feel a sincerity w/this kind of stuff w/cats who'll look you right and tell you straight up they're glad I keep on keepin on... means buttloads to me, truly it does. I than them much right back... bassman soundman our fourthman for tonight huey also. I apologize to opener dominic for being an idiot and spacing on remembering his name - damn me. he surprises me by saying he's actually a bassman who did solo guitar for his singing tonight! crimony. oh, I meet ian, who's got organs w/bushie on drums - he's been kind enough to have me on board for some of their tunes, real glad to meet him in person.
right to the load-out, we hurry to beat the rain that's threatening... we make it. after saying farewell and thanking rcc techamn paul (he told me during the load-out the bad water I read about on the wikipedia page is about old lead and asbestos pipes... also the illegal ain't just from romanians like that page also said but there's irish crime family located here also) fra paolo drives us not too far to the konk pad, "the station house hotel" and I got a room made for zopos w/a big head w/lots of handles and even a seat where you hose off. I do that and am konked just before midnight. yes!
sunday, june 9, 2024 - glasgow, scotland
from paolo:
"A particular of the beautiful old house of Dep, in Glasgow. Dep is very very kind and welcoming man" - paolo
from stefano:
We leave early to catch the ferry from Larne to Cayran. It is raining but it is a beautiful road both the Irish part and the Scotland part. We see the sea several times, intense dark colours, clouds and rocks..driving is much more pleasant when the landscapes are so beautiful. We get to Glasgow in the afternoon, we played at the Hug and Pint. Never been here. It is a small venue... it get quickly so packed ! The kindest Howie Reeve opens the night with songs on bass.
I loved the gig tonight. Glasgow it is one of my favorite..last time I have been here was for Tectonics in 2022.
We go to our friend Dep to sleep at his house. We always stays with him in Glasgow, love him, he is great and kindest. I brought a copy of my last Spiralis Aurea double vinyl for him in my suitcase cause he is a huge record collectors. He gave me a boxset he just released with his label wattsofgoodwill "some songs." Grazie Dep.
from watt:
pop at twenty of seven, the trough soon opens downstairs and I shovel my last "full irish" breakfast, this time actually using a spoon to get the last of the baked beans down the hatch, it feels trippy in my hand cuz it's been a long while since I used a shovel, I mean a spoon. prolly the least greasy of these full chows I've across the channel here. I detect loud u.s. accent from nearby table and wanna fuckin hobble away as far as possible... I've always felt this way when facing this kind of sitch: a loud u.s. voice in a foreign (foreign to me) land. crimony. I shave and use a pair of scissors made for little kids miss hiyori got me to cut my fuckin nose hairs, they must be disgusting but I hardly look at mirrors and so don't notice. get a great email from hermano milo in barcelona, he was at our gig at hafenklang last week:
Hey hermano Watt
The Fall is the song! Many songs in the world but this one drives a circle in my mind!
I found out that the awesome drummer from Il Sogno is the one from Fuzz orchestra. Nice band I have one record from them that I love. We made a gig for them and FM long time ago!.
Hamburg was intense, life changer. Now I’m recording at Hukot until the end of all times. Tributing hermano Steve (I have now a quite interesting band from France).
In October will tour a little bit with Arrrgo in Italy.
Glad to visit again Pedro show.
See you hermano Watt.
Nice Saturday!
Milo the other
now it's wet sunday. we to do just over two hundred miles today... we pull anchor quarter of nine w/fratello ste as rudderman, I keep yellow coat on (usually it's off when we drive) cuz you would not know it was june. we head for derry, soon in northern ireland and then east towards belfast. the rain subsides (but not the gray) as fratello ste gets us safe to larne (about twenty miles north of belfast) around quarter of eleven - that's where the ferry is that's gonna take us to scotland. we go to the "p & o" terminal to wait it line, the ferry shoves off at noon. this boat, the "european causeway" has an interesting load-on hatch, it's the entire bow so I'm figuring it's got ramps in the aft and we'll depart that way. yep, good guess. the voyage is calm and I find a place w/hardly any people so I can chimp diary in peace, this is a good thing.
the ferry drops anchor and let's us out at cairnryan at two, gray but no rain... hello scotland. "watt" is a scottish name but my sister melinda said she's investigated our past and my pop's people were "ulster scots" -ulster's where we just came from. well. like sly stone said: "it's not where you're from, it's where you're at" - maybe there's some certainty in that? I know there's a a james watt college in grincock and that's my pop's exact name though everybody called him "dick" which was his middle name. ok, we now got an eighty mile drive to glasgow. fra paolo now at the wheel, it's not the biggest road we're on up the west coast. the sun breaks through about a hollywood (thirty miles, from my pedro town to hollywood), at prestwood, near the airport... another good part is I only gotta say gwyliwch eich pellter ('check your distance' in welsh), once before, big time to fra paolo for understanding. quarter of four we're in glasgow and we find a parking place right in front of the hug and pint - tonight's gig pad. drew meets out front and tells us about the baka who used his truck to tear the meter out of the ground to try and steal the money out of it - he says people use cards to pay now so that was really baka and also fucking up his truck at the same time in the effort. soundman keiron is like the gig boss in dublin keiron, w/a u.s. accent cuz he spent a bunch of time where I live. he's cool people and check us... we get done and I get to talk to tonight's opener, howie reeve in man-alone mode like he usually is w/his acoustic bass. good to see howie again.
upstairs they got some kind of calzone/stromboli thing I get down piece by piece using the hashi but it reminds me of most u.s. versions of italian chow which I ain't really into giving some better choices - love italian chow in italy though, don't get me wrong. prolly that way w/any chow, it's good if you can make choices and not get either that fake and hate or the fraud your bod, correct? I don't get sick though so maybe that's an ok thing. I go downstairs to the gig room to watch howie, he does real good. he's looking healthier too though he said diabetes has got him but I've read you got a shot at putting a reverse on that crap w/changing the chow... "scissor the sugar" is me wearing out that mantra w/constant spiel replay regarding that but man, I've seen doing that help me - I'm a case study! anyway, howie gets me lit for our turn.
quarter after nine and we bring, the glasgow gig-goers really giving us focus and respect and us in return maybe bringing a gig in return 'pert-near as good as cafe oto's in london? I feel it's a real good one. biggest clam for me is still learning the revised intro we've worked out for "wing and a prayer" but even that wasn't that bad, am really into this gig, really am. can't see one face the few times I take my eyes off the fratelli but I can feel the spirit... I'm doing the gig in part cuz of this spiel w/a gig-goers between howie's stuff and ours, sitting back where soundman keiron's stationed, he tells me about losing his pop maybe five years ago. - he's got a tattoo of d boon on his arm... he's most sincere w/me and I tell him I wanna do tonight's gig for his pop. he tells me he's in a band playing irish music so I think he understands what I'm telling him, having a reason to do what you do. it keeps getting "updated" by the moment but I think stuff like that helps me keeping on keepin on. like a baka I space on the first verse of mr joyces's poem (the ninth part of his "chamber music"), damn me... but can't get too freaked out kvetching about it cuz that can lead to even more clams - just gotta man up and grow a pair. "memories and elephants are playing in the band" mr fogerty once wrote in a tune of his, good stuff to propel oneself through one's own buttload of horseshit.
I pack up my stuff and get the word from gig-goers most kind here in glasgow, some have seen me play here through all my phases, while some like this one cat who tells me he's waited thirty years and this is his first time. crimony. upstairs, at the merch table (where I usually like to meet folks and sign their stuff and get photos snapped), I get a cd from a musicman who made it in his pop's memory, beautiful. also cassettes from puppet midnight and the sum shapes, most kind of them - have played bof on my show. many kind people have me sign whatev, the venue's got free posters so why not? I never refuse but I do like to use my own writing instrument. a bassman says he finally got to play his wattplower live, big respect to him... I say to him: "that's what it's for, playing to prove you're alive!" there's a cat named keiron (not tonight's soundman one) who I have to explain what my pop thought was real important for me, having a "plan b" for just in case... "just in case for what?" he asks and I further explain to him that's the point, "whatev" - correct? I wish him safe seas and to keep the keel in the water, he gets that cuz he said he's crewed a sailboat. respect.
we do the load-out and pack brother dep up front in coche so he navigate fra paolo to his pad cuz that's where we're konking, prolly the closest I ever had played to him in his town. I've been in this pad many many times and dig it much. I hose off and he's got a couch unfolded an already for me... just after eleven and I'm out, thank you most big time brother dep.
monday, june 10, 2024 - newcastle, england
from paolo:
"Little detour to visit some remains of the Vallo di Adriano (Hadrian's Wall), 87 Miles long, coast to coast" - paolo
from stefano:
t is a lovey sunny morning, We have a very good breakfast, salmon, eggs, kefir and fresh fruit We hit the road to Newcastle and we stop near by the Hadrian's wall for a visit at the Cluny Phil Hartley joins us coming from Liverpool. So nice to see him again, great buddy. I meet Oliver after almost 11 years!. He has some vinyls for me that he promised to ship eleven years ago from his uncle collection. what a surprise to see him again. Lovely Bugman opens! Steve and Ryan! Anthony on the board. also tonight a very good gig. We go sleep in a hotel.
from watt:
pop at seven but earlier I woke up maybe at three hollering "samui" ('cold' in nihon-go) and for the first time this tour had to get into the nemaki ('nightwear' also in nihon-go) I brought - I thought for nothing but nope, came to the rescue. anyway, take off the nemaki to put back in the dai-dai bolsa... there's the two pairs of yellow socks bushie gave me back in saggert - so kind of him, I spaced mentioning that, so sorry bushie. I have a real good spiel w/brother dep about music and other stuff, lots of good perspective I get from him but he also wants to know more about my collabs, I tell him it seems at least one thing a month comes out w/me getting to be a part, I'm way into see what happens w/such adventures... trippy how I got into music to be w/just ONE GUY but then I find myself now making tons of connects and finding value and learning w/all these trippy endeavors - crimony, if music ain't a gigantic lifeline for me, truly grateful for all these cats letting me try what I can to make the low flow or whatever the tune calls for in that moment. brother dep's got here for us REAL yogurt and the biggest fuckin blueberries I've ever seen - crimony! also some salmon and really orange-colored scrambled eggs, trippy. good eats, love it.
today's haul is 150 miles southeast to newcastle via carlisle, we yank anchor w/no rain and fra paolo on the rudder at eleven and a half, can't wait to see brother dep again... prolly in less than a year w/mssv - yeah, mike baggetta's already got it booked I think at stereo. crimony. love the idea of the bandleader booking the tour he himself is working, love it! reminds of the days when chuck dukowski was doing that while working bass for black flag. traff ain't too bad, no staus. we talk about wrecks I've been in, the one in 2001 when I was helping j mascis + the fog and the only cat in the boat s/seatbelts on and the one w/me on the wheel w/fIREHOSE in utah - damn me for not chimping diaries in those days. we make carlisle just before one and a half w/more sun but not clear skies, so be it. bye bye scotland. we take a little side-road after turning east for newcastle and drop anchor at birdoswald roman fort a monument to a roman fort built as part of hadrian's wall like 1800 or so years ago. crimony. this is an hour well spent I think... my third time at the wall but all have been different places. to think that the roman soldiers here were syrian bowmen! and so much of the wall getting pilfered and repurposed for other stuff here by people in the moment. we see some tourists as we make our way to the coche and as one climbs up on the wall like a baka (signs ask you not to do this cuz what's left of the wall is considered fragile), another one says "I think we shouldn't do that" and this einstein's reply is to her is "I think we should shut the fuck up" - I hate overhearing other peoples most enlightened discussions, makes me feel like a dick leech, you know? maybe there's times when people should be able to keep their assholeyness a mystery, correct? maybe...
fra paolo continues steering us 'pert-near parallel to the wall for the rest of the way to newcastle... we arrive at the cluny just after four, fra paolo pulled the whole shift and did good. brother phil from liverpool is here to meet us, yes! also, still no rain, more yes. now I know the gig boss sean directs us to a load-in place... I've been here like maybe four times before but we're in a different room, "cluny 2" and I think I'm digging it more then where I've been before but actually anywhere would be good for me cuz I dig this place. pad boss joel put bugman on again to open up and I meet the mainman ryan and his drummie steve (it's a twofer). soundman ant's a great cat, I think way opening for our fourth man tonight. I tell brother phil that brother dep knew all about his band space when I told him about it, small fuckin planet, correct? crimony! brother phil helped w/the schlep and he's working out some recording dealio w/soundman ant, maybe he's documenting this gig? I hope he's prepared for clams! I don't try to bring them but when you dare, you roll the dice and risk bring the vogole - I think it's worth and in fact, ask fra paolo to get a little more risky w/the center section of "pedro 10-4" cuz my part is pretty rooted and anchored down enough for him to get a real man-dance on, like 'pert-near w/his hands in the air like he just don't care, maybe have his freak-outs go across the bars instead of being fenced by them. he says he will try. bene.
the cluny galley serves me up a cluny burger - my first burger of this tour. I dump a lot of the "crystal" hot sauce john gave me in dublin, the acid aids and abets 'pert-near as much as the heat w/this stuff, I can dig it. I then have a long rap w/bugman mainman ryan about his music journey... real interesting cat, his whole life a geordie (someone from newcastle) and it's a trip to learn he started playing in bars at ten fucking years old. crimony! started on drums which in my book is what everyone should learn to graduate school - this goes for science majors, polisci majors, home ecc, the whole fuckin enchilada - that and visiting other countries... if I was school czar, that's what I very intensely suggest! bugman ryan says he worked bass on a boat for a while w/irish musicians and dug it much, learned buttloads he said pulling that shift. we talk about me learning punk up in hollywood, talking about the germs and darby, pat, lorna, don - talking about relearning what rock and roll was for me trading arena rock passive potatohead sentence to club in person mindblow one-on-ones w/others getting their shit blown, taking fucking turns digging it! we got halt at ten after w/his drummerman steve says it's show time.
I go out and witness their gig the port-side up front, right at the lip w/one eye ball for each of them, 'pert-near marty feldman style. helps me get lit for our turn - thank you bugmen! we bring and right away we got a newcastle gig-goer up front not only dancing away but calling out stuff - like he knows our moves! it ain't a bogart though cuz it's right we're bringing, like he's a bunch of tall grass getting tossed by the wind, it's trippy and I'm into it. everyone's got a different way of experiencing a gig. I blow some clams in "the fall" - hope brother phil documented that w/his recording. fucking baka watt! the keel's still in the water though, I enjoy this gig very much, maybe my favorite newcastle one ever. I'm most grateful to bof the fratelli and the geordie gig-goers for help making that happen, truly. also soundman ant, I think he did great - actually I think he was also learning a young cat next to him the whole, I love serving also as a teaching example!
I pack up and immediately cuz of where I'm situated do the in-person connect w/lots of most kind cats w/photos, signing and spiels... one of them's pop makes canes for shepherds and also hand ones but I politely tell him I gotta use this one that works w/my forearm cuz I use my wrists big time to work bass and gotta put as little strain as possible. everyone so kind, truly. I'm most grateful. I wrap w/the gig boss sean, telling him I wouldn't let him down w/any stall shit and we brought it right at nine bells even though fra paolo had just nine minutes to get his stuff shipshape. I think I'm gonna see him again in less than a year, ain't that a trip? most my music life I ain't had shit that planned forward, kind of a trip.
brother phil most kindly helps us schlep for the load-out and we give him a lift to his 'tel, he's got session tomorrow in his liverpool town. so kind of him to make this journey so we could share one more gig w/him, yes! fra paolo then gets not too far away to a 'tel called "rooms inn" and we meet the only kind-of mean motherfucker of the tour... I see him also treat this china cats kind of rough and ever after apologize to the young man not allowed to help his lady buddies (maybe one of the was his ma?) w/their sacks. crimony. better not to get caught up in the quicksand of a baka's trip though... a giant filled-to-the-brim cup of coff is on the reception desk that reads "the boss" gives me a clue only "diminishing returns" would result w/a wrasle in the mud w/this persona... maybe just a sour-ass mood has infected him for now. no elevator but that's good for me - not being sarcastic - "don't use it. lose it" is very real in my book... that hobble around the old roman fort helped too. quarter of midnight and I'm hosed off and in the sack for quick konk. success! thank you much, geordieland!
tuesday, june 11, 2024 - brighton, england
from paolo:
"And the West Pier is still there... Love Brighton, people here really loves music" - paolo
from stefano:
Terrible breakfast and Looong driving..traffic along the road but sunny. we get to Brighton at 15:36. it starts raining there just after parking the van. We meet Tobi the promoter, soundcheck with Leon. And Alex arrived with his barefaced cabinet Amazing light neodymium speakers, very powerful. Fratello Mike uses one of this tonight. I prefer to use the fender deluxe just cause I do not have a proper eq preamp to run Alex model D amp. i finally see again brother Sam and my friend from Italy Claudia ! other nice guys we met in Colchester and London comes to see the Brighton gig, it so nice to see them again... very cool... I can't remember all their names... so sorry. It is another very good gig. We go sleep at Lizzy and Russ house.
from watt:
pop at ten of six. chow at this 'tel is at seven so down there to see it on table near reception desk - it's in a sack! many sacks on this table and I choose one - also there is last night desk man (maybe shift over cuz now a smiling lady behind desk?), he's smiling! no words but he's smiling, that's a good sign. much taiyo ('sun' in jap) coming through windows also, another good sign. I feel like a most fortunate watt. back up the stairs, good exercise - I miss my elliptical trainer back at my pedro apt! they got ofuro here, I do soak but though the tub's deep enough, the length comes up way short and I got sit w/ninety degree angle. I got the water way hot though, prolly the most I can stand and when I pluck myself out, my feet are redder than a boiled lobster but that's good cuz I can feel the qui flowing all through me w/any blockages bumrushed and opened up, real good feel.
twenty after ten fratello ste pulls off at a "service area" in yorkshire to get diesel for the coche... no squeegees in england - is the country to allergic to such a thing? are we gonna have to look at this birdshit on the starboard fore window (I think we got it in ireland) the rest of the fuckin tour? well, maybe on the continent tomorrow we can find relief from this not too big thing... hell, I'd really dig having the windshield washed - miss hiyori has great technique, my missingmen drummerman raul also. it's £118 for 67.2 liters, crimony. not too long we hit big stau as traffic goes down to one lane and like in u.s., selfish baka don't know "zipper" method of one vehicle at a time merging w/each other cuz of me-me-me horseshit, thank you for reminding me being a pendejo is a worldwide privilege available to all if you want it cuz of the rest of us certainly do, correct? crimony. we blow a navigation clam soon after and have to bring it about around sheffield but that's ok cuz at least we didn't something stupid like trying merge across a traffic island, correct? twelve and half, just before leicester we pull off at "welcome break" by my request cuz I gotta push mr brown into the pool. what do I find in such a boof to do this? my fucking chonies were put on this morning after my soak fucking backwards - you wanna know a definition of veccio?! crimony. ok, I get ship-shape in a couple of ways and get lost getting back to the coche and the team not as easy as it could've been but I do. rain starts to come down but not real heavy, fra paolo now on the rudder for the rest of the trip. I show fratello ste the two routes for brighton from newcastle on my craptop and tell him the vogole was around leeds, that's where he got confused... a good example of why you gotta keep these algorithms in place. sure, this east route saves you two out of 350 miles but it puts you through/around how many fucking big metro areas compared to the more west routing? well, the main thing to me is we arrive alive so in the big picture, it's really ok. he drove us good, kept us safe and I'm most grateful to him. we get to the ringroad m25 a quarter after two and the rain has stopped. happening.
we get into brighton via hove (next door), good job from the navigatore on fra paolo's leash. the last part of the journey me and him talked about tour boats... me about my new ford transit-150 (it'll be a year old in august) and him w/what's maybe next after this fiat scudo which I dig much but is a little long in the tooth. it's quarter after when we get into the hope & ruin" - actually behind in an alley to do the load-in, a nice man named mikey who works here helping us get access. meet soundman leon, very cool people - he's got a cat "shadowing" him - like w/soundman ant last night, this is part how new soundcats get schooled at this job, learning by doing and dig that idea much. just wish I wasn't baka and forgot bof these learner cats names, so sorry! meet gig boss tobi who tells me about bands his been road boss for that just hate days off and I can big time relate, really big time. crimony. I remember him from seven years before, good to see him again. nothing like a good connect w/a good gig boss who helps keep their scene happening while you're away, make it happening to when you come back. I'm also grateful for him for reminding me soundman leon's name ain't leo cuz like a baka, I already forgot and was saying "leo" over my fucking mic during my check. crimony! alex from barefaced arrives w/one of his https://barefacedaudio.com/super twins for me to use tonight, YES! finally I get to meet alex in person after using my own super twin back home for a few years now, love it much! I also got a super compact he gave me that I love much also, incredible stuff. we spiel much... hell, besides having this company (only seventeen minutes away by foot - he schlepped this cab himself), he's also a bassman and we talk much about his bass/drums/singer trio - something I've known about via email and in fact have inspired me to start my own bass/drums duo proj w/righteous brother steve reed called _steel sense_ (you'll be able to see us play sooner than you think, we've been jamming many sundays at my prac pad in pedro, getting it ready to happen!) where we'll bof also sing together - brother steve was soundman on all four of my first opera tours, I had him use a mic from the soundboard to sing along while he mixed the gig, loved it! can't wait to get this baby going HOWEVER - back to this gig in brighton: earlier miss hiyori brought me great kebab she got from up the street a few blocks, said she wanted to chow some lamb before we return to the continent so I continuing chowing mine while rapping w/alex from barefaced... man, does he got some great plans for stuff coming up - we also talk about "action" on our basses - he likes it real high, kind of surprised when he tries my wattplower and it makes me think I do got the 'g' string too low cuz it's been bottoming out all tour... just gotta find a allen wrench that'll fit - I got one in the sack I carry my wattplower back home but that's back in pedro! crimony, I'm baka. so good to spend this time w/barefaced alex, so good. I meet the cats in tonight's openers for us, a local band called perch and they learn me it's not the fish noun and not the place verb but the place noun, as in a bird's perch. later in the backstage room, the band jefe chris tells me it started as a side-proj and now is a full-on band. we talk about origins of peoples, his and mine, trippy stuff - we have a good time. I drink throatcoat tea. we spiel 'til it's time for his band to go on... I ask him when he's done, if he likes television and he asks me, "the band" and I say yes. former go! team bassman arrives to see me, he looks great, most healthy! I tell him how I'm trying to get myself healthier and how it's worked, how grateful I am. of course it's not easy but for me it's big time worth it, need to do. mrs kaori comes to say kon ban wa, their former go! team boss ian arrives. brother sam who I got a proj called cuz also, crimony! very good to see everyone but I ain't got much time to spiel cuz then the fratelli says gig boss tobi says the go maybe should go now instead of the nine and half everyone heard at soundcheck... as long as it's ok w/him, I'm ok w/it. I let fratello ste plow a way for me through the brighton gig-goers to get to the stage
.it's always very nervous for me to play in front of friends when I know I'm there, always. it starts out w/a shaking in my leg and then before I know it, my hands are likewise, damn me. I keep strong eye contact w/the fratelli though, especially fratello ste and this helps me big time... I keep the blowing of volgele down to a minimum somehow... crimony, sometimes I get past a part and I'm thinking back immediately "how the fuck did I remember to do that and what was it anyway" which is pretty dangerous if you wanna fuckin be w/your guys in the moment, also be there for the gig-goers, these brighton ones are fuckin right on, much respect to them. I must've sweated my most of the tour this night not so much cuz of the temperature (which has been really cool all tour considering it's supposed to be summer) but cuz of my nerves. kind of relief when we finished but now thinking back, this one was pretty good.
right away as I'm packing, barefaced boss alex comes up and starts rapping to me about the gig, how he noticed how I worked bass using the passive tone and volume controls, changing the pickups for different tunes... it was his first time seeing me do a gig and I can tell he was relating to me as another bass player. he tells me what I do w/the stuff on the bass is what he does w/his boxes. I'm most grateful for him bringing this speakerbox of his to use, truly I am. mike panther paw gives me the good word - wants me to do spiel of olde-timey texts w/my stumblebum speak-spiel - there's another cat who said the same thing to me but damn me for fogetting his name but it makes me wonder, do these two cats know each other? did they confer before the gig to suggest this same trip on me? enquiring minds wanna know! the go! team boss ian spiels w/me once I'm packed off the stage, he says for him the gig sounded like one big tune w/different parts and I explain to him how we didn't wanna try duplicating the album but rather putting together a show is different than trying to recreate what you did for an album. yeah, I asked for some changes w/some stuff when we were doing those five days of prac before gig one in fano and still we were making changes as the tour developed. I think this is a natural evolution for a band that is really playing together and not just playing parts, correct? the way I know it, anyway... so glad the fratelli are into it cuz for me it keeps things alive. I see karl, I made a collab w/him called _to connect_ that still has to come out, brother damon at nomad eel records is working on that... good to see karl again. last time I played this club he was in the opening band the emperors of ice cream along w/his brother who now is living vancouver, canada he tells me. crimony. brother sam and I can spiel a little more now, we got actually two cuz projs in the pipeline, one dedicated to charley plymell (who wrote and recited the words for it, it's called "sideways eight") and one for his stuff he's developing since he moved east of here to hastings. trippy how much his accent is like barefaced alex's but maybe that's cuz they bof grew up here, huh? crimony. I tell him about this other proj I got relating to our buddy charley in the meantime called the _bunches of button-ups_ that's got eight songs I wrote and did bass on to give to nathan and frank of we are the asteroid to do guitar and drums on... also mike baggetta later added guitar and now finally petra haden is gonna sing lyrics written by charley and also add violin and mandolin in the meantime. finally I spiel w/jamie again about the band thing, about him seeing tonight's gig and how it's not a "mike watt side proj" but an actual band where I'm pretty much just a third of so much the other two fratelli bring. I use that memorial to the merchant marine sailors statue in my pedro of town to describe how I feel it is being in a band, a real band. I can tell in his eye he gets what I'm saying and I'm glad cuz it means much to me... him being a fellow bassman I think helps. thank you big time jamie.
the boss lady of this pad, sally, asks me to recreate my "start your own band" spiel for something she wants for the internet, no prob, glad to be able to work her pad. we load out real quiet in the alley, pally cuz there's neighbors, correct? yes. we head over to brother sam's buddy lizzy's pad and get there before her and russ - she was so kind to give us her chiave... there's a very old cat guarding that decides we're ok and for that we're most grateful. lizzy and russ arrive and we have a little spiel... russ has got some years of no drinking under his belt and gives me good words to use in my wraslin' w/that stuff, most kind of him. they bail to let us konk in beds here, so kind. I hose off and am out 'pert-near like that... easy to do when you feel safe, I'm most grateful to lizzy and ross, truly.
wednesday, june 12, 2024 - charleroi, belgium
from paolo:
"Retracing the footsteps of brother Andrea who, as evidenced by this photo, was here at Le Vecteur in Charleroi in 2016..." - paolo
from stefano:
Wake up very early to get to the ferry in Dover and we say bye bye to Lucy a nice sweet cat and bye bye to the island. We arrive in Charleroi at Le Vecteur round 17. There are some pics of when we played there on previous tours with fratello Andrea. It is a busy noise night. It take a little while for some people to listen and not speak. They seemed to enjoyed very much.. we even got a dancer on stage in a couple of tunes... it is a good gig. Didier the promoter very kind to us, so is Baptiste young soundman. We sleep upstairs.
from watt:
pop at six and a half and then lay there for a little while... don't know how to make coff so have to wait. lizzy instructed miss hiyori so when it comes and it is very good. do 'puter/internet and diario chimping work 'til quarter after eight schedule pull-anchor time but I delay w/drama dance involving where the fuck is the usb stick I got from fra paolo of his tour photos... ends up being in my fucking jacket pocket like a baka, I can't believe it. a lot of times I have to do one thing at a time cuz if I try and "parallel process" it goes fucking haywire and then bof endeavors suffer. crimony. anyway, after putting the team through this all-for-nothing stronzo, we pull anchor at eight and a half w/fratello ste as rudderman and the sky gray but dry... it's a light gray w/taiyo trying to break on through to this side.
ok, back to belgium via france, back to the continent! it's a little less than three hundred miles that we gotta do and that includes a ferry ride across the channel so following ross' advice he gave us last night, we get back up to the m25 london loop and then avoid a wrongway decision at the last moment when I remember "maidstone" - lots of times overseas here I'm reminded not to rely on cardinal point helpers, better to know town names you're headed for. arrive in dover twenty after ten and the border stuff much butter, merci thank you much. open the hood for england security check then check in w/a boof man for p & o - opposite from the other three ferry episodes we've had on this tour. so be it, as long as it's butter, I'm into it... WAY into it. still not raining, yes. I chimp diary. fra paolo check's the coche's engine oil after waiting twenty minutes as we wait in line to load into the ferry, good thinking. he checks the burned-out fog lamp but unfortunately does not have a bravo to replace it, maybe at an upcoming fuel stop? we board on what seems a pretty new ferry by the look of the huge windows to let in the sun and the power outs right out at the table. our last ferry ride of the our shoves off a quarter after noon four last wednesday gig of the tour. we roll off the ferry nine after two... a half hour later we're across the french border and are in belgium, heading east towards charleroi. I read to everyone from our diary for the 2017 "canto segundo" tour cuz that's when we last played where we're playing tonight, le vecteur is the gig pad's name. the other belgium gig on this tour, this is in the waloon and the other one we played eleven days ago in antwerp was in the flemish part. glad to play anywhere I can anywhere I am to be honest. it's gray w/much cloud cover but no rain... I konk and about a hollywood (thirty miles, the distance from my pedro town to hollywood) away from charleroi, I pop to find it raining a little bit... three car wreck on the side of the road as we get into town... scary consequences of you know what - I hope no one hurt bad but there was an ambulance... to the middle of town, the rain's stopped and we get to the gig pad quarter of five. the gig boss dj is right out front to greet us and help us load in the stuff, most happening. damn, five weeks from today I arrived to start prac for this tour! I think of this sitting in like the lobby here - there's a photo of me and fratello andrea when we played here... I start wondering about time and what does it mean - does it get more intense when there are things to remind you moments have passed? "moments" that word makes me think of chunks of time, like a certain size but can't it also mean "free of time" if it make it singular? is the language inefficient? maybe not honest, maybe a front? I wish fratello ste was w/me and fratello in that "moment" the camera caught.
the production boss tom is most kind... he takes me upstairs, I remember this gig pad now, the konk pad is here, w/a kitchen and everything. miss hiyori says they're ready for bass so we give soundman baptiste some stuff to check, a little stooges and a little walt whitman from fratello ste... I really like hearing fratello ste recite mr whitman's stuff, really do. there's a man here w/some allen wrenches and we try them to see if they'll work on the saddle of my bass - nope. fratello ste says he's got some and he tries, says he even sae standard (u.s.) but they ain't the right size, oh well - they bof tried. production boss tom brings some salad w/lettuce and tomatoes, I think miss hiyori made it while she was doing laundry... I wanna stay down here even if it is kind of the lobby or whatever cuz it has a much better atmosphere then wehre I was. I chimp diary... there's an empty chair next me... I talk to this kind cat sigmund - he was at the antwerp gig and knows koen, the cat we konked w/and we have some real good spiel, he first saw me w/my missingmen doing my third opera at schuba's in chicago... anyway, he's interested in my projs and we rap for a good while... when he bails a cat from around named eric sits next to me and we have a good spiel, stuff about my diary writing so yeah, I get into the moment thing I was chimping about... another eric (same name) joins us and he's asking about how I do different projs (I explain a big part is cuz of the bass, the nature of that machine!) and then about minutemen and him being a young skater... the spiel gets into ideas and I bring up the idea of why such a gap between the invention of the chariot and the invention of the bicycle. it's a trip.
the production boss tom has us delay our go time fifteen minutes cuz of a slow change-over, no prob, tom's cool people. we go and as brothers we bring this gig. I know from the prior spiels I just was engaged in that there's gig-goers very focused for us. maybe my best bass solo in "partisan song" this tour - don't know why but I've been having trouble w/that canto and maybe cuz I can't "throw" the bass cuz I'm sitting down? something physical about doing bass in that role, kind of trippy for me. I notice fratello ste gets physical w/his solos even though he's in a chair, fra paolo also, hmm... also about tonight's audience: it appears there's a dancer among them, even coming on stage... a little later, I can kind of tell we built a good momentum... sort of a barometer kind of dancer! merci.
I pack up and soundman baptiste said it was his best mix in this room, saying it was cuz of the sound we brought him, the sound of the stage itself and I suggested something about us three trying to have a conversation that was interesting for the gig-goers and he told me yes, like that. very kind of him. also the cat w/the green pants, I liked him and his friend w/the distinctive nose (earlier he recited to me the first line of the stooges' "1969" - respect!), bof real nice to me, very genuine. I also thank sigmund and the erics for being there - I also got thanks in the head when they were pissing, after I was pissing. lots of the charleroi gig-goers most generous.
up the elevator and hose off... we lost an hour coming across the channel (different time zone - now nine hours ahead of my pedro town instead of eight) and I am tuckered. so glad it's easy for me to konk these days, so glad.
thursday, june 13, 2024 - paris, france
from paolo:
"In Paris we pass the 10,000 km mark since the start of the tour. Well done Scudo!" - paolo
from stefano:
Waked up too early. Not a good sleep and almost no breakfast. We go to Paris... I start to sneeze... maybe I am allergic to this town. So much plug and traffic, We play at supersonic. We have been here before in 2017 but we played in the other room... Charlie the promoter and Simon on the board. Fratello Paolo and I got a nice Vietnamese pho for dinner. Humanize Resources opens the night, they are cool... fratello Mike has to use a nano cabinet..it ends to be another good gig... I was a bit worried before soundcheck but actually I can hear a lot form the p.a. So much plug to get back to the hotel after the night... more than an hour and a half. I sneeze and sneeze… I die in the bed.
from watt:
pop at six. can't find filters so have to use paper towel (luckily plain w/no printing on it) instead. crimony. k's bday yesterday, she replies to my well-wishes email saying her and her brother paul are ready to be on my show to spiel about the music they made w/their old friend glenn. so hard to lose people, I know - it's one thing we can hang on to: the music we make together.
our ride is 'pert-near miles southwest to paris from here in charleroi (half an s.f.)... real neat place they got for the coche to be here at this le vecteur gig pad, very secure and easy for the load-out... bye bye to pad boss dj... fra paolo on the rudder, quarter of eleven we pull anchor... forty minutes later we're in france - bye bye belgium. much sun w/cloudy sky, very mild weather than I'm digging. that cd that cat in glasgow gave me of music he made for his father is still stuck in the coche's player. crimony. oh well. I didn't mean to plug up fra paolo's machine, 'pert-near like when you blow out the dumper at a buddy's pad, kind of. damn me. twelve and a half, we pull over for diesel, €1.65/liter ($/gallon) - in france you find a lot of filling stations automated/unmanned and this "intermarche le drive" is one of them, first pump we try doesn't read the card correct but better luck w/second one. fra paolo has to piss like a race horse and this pad does not provide... I don't bring up the piss bottle solution, I have before but the resulting being ignored is louder than a fucking no. there's a tire pad nearby and at the same time he might have found a lamp for the coche? success BUT no pisser... damn, guess he's gotta tight a knot in his cazzo. the stau soon starts, much plug like back in so cal, fuckin hurry up and go way slow, too many fucking coches... two and a half, we arrive at a "kyriad" 'tel near the creteil southeast 'burb of paris. then we crawl to the gig pad in the bastille part of paris, it's called super sonic and we're actually playing the shop (it's a record store), we drop anchor at quarter after three, good job on the rudder from fra paolo.
gig boss charles welcomes us and helps us do the load-in...we get done and I'm led upstairs to the backstage... who shows up? macario from my 2014 and 2015 missingmen euro tours of my third opera! we talk for a little bit to catch up but he's gotta get to his work w/the circus electrique... he drops of some of the ten inchers he pressed up for his label of missingmen versions of some tunes I wrote for the munutemen in those days we toured w/him. we wish each other good luck and then I chow the donner served up like burrito miss hiyori got a little way from here along w/a salad and some ayran, I chow this and feel much better, some perrier water also helps a stomach and feeling in my bones I haven't felt this tour... well, I chowed nothing this morning. in the home stretch now, I need my health!
we do a check w/soundman simon and cuz of the sound stuff here in the neighborhood the gig pad's in, I gotta use this little 2x10 box, whoa... well, "work the room," they say - correct? yep! I meet the people in the openers who say they're from the paris suburbs, they're called humaines ressources and the bassman thibaut gives me a pedal, whoa! nothings written on it, just three knobs and a footswitch but I can't wait to try it when I can. he tells me it's a bass version of a "tube screamer" - d boon used the original ibanez version for his solos on the "double nickels..." and later minutemen albums but never live. I thank him much.
eight is when they hit so I go down to watch them, I dig. gets me lit for our turn - I tell their synth guy when they finish one great gift a music cat can do for another his get them lit so I thank him. we hit at nine and though I'm through the nano speaker box, I have a real good time, I enjoy the set. didn't hear much of me but I think soundman simon got it out there cuz of the good response of the paris gig-goers. if I was totally miming it I don't think it'd be the same thing even if it feels like I'm miming it up here. in "the fall" chorus part, the first one that comes up, I 'pert-near take my own fall, tilting over on the stool - yeah, first stool I use of this tour, am digging how I can swivel around like I did during the last tour I did, the one w/porno for pyros in february and march... this kind of dealio lets me wheel around so I can look different ways easier than just sitting in a four-legged chair on my culo.
I pack up my stuff - since I used the house speakerbox, there's only the ashdown amp plus my bass, mic and the jhs "pulp n peel" pedal. a few u.s. guys give me the good word and tell me places they've seen me at. sandrine's here, so good to always see her, we talked before I played - forgot to mention but the in between-time between bands I learned about the elections that were just here in france. I was glad I voted for jimmy carter when us eighteen year-olds were given the vote back home back in 1976 but after that registered independent - am sad to read he's very sick now and prolly misses rosselyn much. anyway talk before/after w/sandrine very happening, she's gonna see ig tour boss henry in warsaw soon she takes our photo to show him.
I go upstairs to get bubble water down the throat and meet the opening band alto sax man - he tells me he's only twentysix, we'll alright: forty years younger than me... seventyfour years younger than fellow alto sax man marshall allen who's still touring - like I wanna be! what I don't wanna be is forever getting to the konk pad but tonight's a hundred minutes (I shit thee not) to get out of the stau/plug of a traff nightmare we gotta go through but you know what? we arrived alive so I consider it a victory... on that took a buttload of time but still a victory! I hose off and konk, happy for good gig w/the nano speakerbox in the french gig for this tour in their big town.
friday, june 14, 2024 - winterthur, switzerland
from paolo:
"J & L Defer opening the act tonight at Kraftfeld in Winterthur. Thier music did me very good!" - paolo
from stefano:
Wake up feeling better. good breakfast at the hotel.. I start the driving, it is a nice road to get to Switzerland. It is raining softly and light create silver shining effect on the road... the cars seems to sail on small watery cloudy island around their wheels. Very relaxing atmosphere... we have some contryside road almost at the boarder with Switzerland. We played here before. big noise from the electricity into the amp kind of distracting me in the beginning of the set... but we adapted. Fratello mike asks to move the subs from behind the stage to Mainze the sandman... it is a good move and make a big difference. i really like J&L refer who played before us.
from watt:
pop at six and a half. I had a real trippy dream. adam yauch and adam horovitz were in it but it was like when they we're younger and not aware of their "check your head" days yet - like I knew of that stuff and them doing it but for them it hadn't happen yet and hear I was w/them and talking about stuff they were very surprised I knew them for, like wanting to know about themselves parts I knew of yet were unknown to them. very strange and trippy. mike d comes in at the end too but for most of this trippy dream it's the two adams. I have no idea where something this strange came from, no idea. crimony. I go to this 'tel's trough and get some eggs w/out the fried stuff, finally even it's got some milk in it, french style. also fruit w/yogurt not from sugar-filled plastic vessel. a fresh peach also plus some coff that's from beans. baguette also, three pieces... for me there is no better bread - even better than sour dough which is the only kind I chow these days IF I am chowing bread which ain't much these days. there's something about the crunch of the thin crust matched w/what's in the inside soft yet airiness cuz it ain't at all all dough, capito? the thing is doesn't last more than a day this way, after that it's like styrofoam but so be it. go to the boat too early, like a baka I thought the plan was eight but it was nine - my fucking memory.
where we need to go is 371 miles east by southeast of where we are now. after nine we pull anchor w/fratello ste at the rudder, heading for troyes. rain is on and off, skies are gray w/a patches of sun every now and then. good thing is traff is light, we're past troyes and on to belfort... not a lot of cities out here, much much nature/farmland w/wide open vistas from the atuoroute. we leave the autoroute around meuse for tiny roads that slow down for tiny towns. I guess more direct... (remember last night!). I got my coat off as usual and am bare-chested while chimping diary, shoes and socks off also. the patches of sun are gone and now it's just a heavy gray to go w/the light rain, on and off... we stop at a rest stop called "aire du terte" about forty klicks west of belfort for two reasons: one for fratello ste to add yellow rain to the sky's gray rain and two for fra paolo to replace that burned-out fog lamp cuz stuff like that at the swiss border might be a prob. success. fra paolo now on the rudder for the rest of our journey, we make it through belfort just after one and a half and are back on the autoroute. rain lighter, gray lighter but still rainy and gray. we reach basel and enter switzerland there,just before two and a half... it is very butter, just some questions about cigarettes and alcohol, we got none and just have to buy a highway vignette for the windshield like in austria and czechia. thank you borderman. fra paolo also receives a five swiss franc piece. voila.
the drive to winterthur is really slow cuz of construction... it's not far (fifteen miles northeast) from zurich but the stau is massive and much respect to fra paolo for bearing w/it, 'pert-near a repeat of fucking the go-way-slow for 'tel last night ride. crimony. we go to the re-purposed former industrial area where the gig pad for tonight, kraftfeld is and fratello ste has go in advance and get us actually up to the pad, we finally drop anchor at quarter after four... and we're in a light rain but load-in goes, they got great hatch here right where the bands play, good thinking. I meet soundman mansie, seems like perfect cat for "fourth man" role for tonight. I foul the facilities here, gigantic pisser here, crimony - I ain't gotta piss that bad but who knows? gig boss mathias is very cool people, glad to meet him. I get the box bassman thibaut gave me last night in paris - maybe I can use it for the solo I do in "partisan song" tonight? I will try. I meet tomas from last time I was here, good to see him again, yes - I mean ja! the rain stopped and the sun is out, ja! soundcheck w/soundman mansi (very happening cat) is prolly the most involved this tour cuz the bass bins under the stage are totally bogarting shit up the yang. him and gig boss mathias move these from under the stage to in front and to the side, we have him mute them actually cuz these room w/out them prolly has the best sound of any pad we've had on the tour - I shit thee not! ain't that a trip?
upstairs they got these olives from greece that are most happening w/the bread they got here, I cut very thin slices and blend it w/the hummus to make oishii mouf-stuffs... this from a baka who's cut way WAY down on bread too. crimony. I meet tomas, the gig boss from last time I played here, so glad to see him again, he works upstairs here, VERY glad to see him again. I chimp diary. this kind man who works here makes me a simple salad of lettuce, onions, oil and vinegar - it feels REAL good in me, real good. how kind of him, truly. sorry I don't know his name. damn me.
opening act is a local twofer called j & l defer and I dig them very much. lots of stuff, trading off much but very interesting landscapes they create, way into it. this berliner maunel talks to me in between - soundman mansi asks for five minute delay, no prob. anyway, these manuel has berlin connect - me and the fratelli are all kind of bumming no berlin gig on this tour, like "why?" crimony. this berliner manuel discusses w/me how gigs are promoted and this sets me off a little bit about how my name is put ahead of the band name _il sogno del marinaio_ cuz I think this really hurts the gigs, makes it look like we're not a band but some kind of fucking "subservient vehicle" for a bogarting ego out of control. fuck that. this is what I call lazy thinking and if they wanna mention one guy in the band then either they mention all three of us or just the band names, capito? verstehen sie? crimony. don't mean to get the panties bunched up but this just frosts me when I get thinking about me, really does. next il sogno del marinaio tour this better not fuckin happen, better NOT!
our turn and we bring it, the winterthur gig-goers move up close, very kind - I never ask people to do that stuff cuz damn if there ain't enough people playing hombre (cop) in their lives, they don't need a fuckin baka bassman cosplaying authority on top of it. I wonder if the tour is beating up fratello ste cuz I get a little of that but then I also get another side that says, "I got you, fratello mike - let's do this." fra paolo has really come along w/this tour regarding the baka bassman in the band, has much better communication during gig time (off gig time also) and I feel happening working w/him, has good connect. actually I've had that since the very first il sogno del marinaio gig I did w/fratello ste back in 2009 but I know tour life can wear on him - this is the first tour I've done w/him that he hasn't began it w/a cold or some sickness I think?! crimony, it's been that way a lot w/guitarman tom watson too, starting tours sick - fucking last mssv tour but got well after the first week of gigs and daily doses of real authentica tacos - crimony, the power of music and good chow! amen. I really enjoy this gig, very happening for me. even w/pedals which I've always been a failure w/goes ok, I use that one bassman thibaut gave me for the "partisan solo" and though I had to adjust it while playing, I thought it was a real good thing! crimony. I will ask the fratelli about tomorrow cuz I don't wanna bogart on the band. I thank the winterthur gig-goers much for them just being them - so much of that this tour, I really find it good luck we find them, they find us.. together at these gigs, most happening I tell you and never get tired of it, also I am really glad about this tour, the way I learned the music and helped built a gig for it w/the fratelli, really am. so glad this gig here near the end (only three more gigs left) gave me some perspective to think what's really important about what I'm doing.
I pack up my stuff and the openers talk to me, very kind people and I thank them much for letting us share the stage w/them and helping me get lit for our turn - same like last night, very much into that. after that this man asks me a trippy question: "why do you play w/two italian guys?" I reply that maybe cuz they're are from italy. at the same time I think in my mind why to him they are not guitar and drummer men and instead men from italy to him and then I think of the flyer for the show that has our band name in italian and that it says my name only, my family name from my father which is scottish and this is an issue for him? I've been fighting this all tour - every time I see a flyer for our gig, I have to remove my name let only the band name, il sogno del marinaio, remain. it makes me so angry I have to do this but if I don't, people will get the wrong idea and think it's my band when the reality is that I am a member of this band and it is not like mike watt + the missingmen or mike watt + the secondmen or mike watt + the black gang cuz w/those band names, I DO include my name in the band name. crimony, it is so frustrating. I explain to this gig-goer here in wintherthur I did playing w/these two guys from italy and that's why I'm w/them here in his town tonight. down the road I might play w/two swiss guys, maybe three guys from wales, maybe collaborate w/someone who is always on the move and has no permanent home. I don't want him to feel bad though and tell him I am glad he is here and that we got to play for him. I talk to other gig-goers also as I make my way outside...
down the road a little bit is "depot 195 hostel" and that is our konk pad for tonight. the gear will get loaded tomorrow on our way of town, in kraftfeld it is safe. I hose off and konk very quickly, such a gift my good health has brought me. I think having a good helps too, so my mind doesn't kvetch over the vogeles for what can seem an entire fucking eternity. hallelujah.
saturday, june 15, 2024 - villingen, germany
from paolo:
"MPS Studio is a very very special and historical studio started in 1962 and managed very sweet guys, Toni in primis, who try with his association to leave everyone original like in 1963. Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson, Robert Wyatt, just to name a few, they passed through here. Beautiful"
- paolo
from stefano:
Again I wake up too early..damn! I feel head heavy and painful... there was time to gain back some rest but no... It is a smooth drive to villinghen. We play at MPS studio now ruined by Tony and Viktoria... incredible musicians recorded here in the past - the Duke! just to mention one- they have incredible equipment from the 40's and a Saba German mixing board... only two of these has been made. it is very nice to chill out with Tony, beautiful house, books, arts and lovely cooked food. Peter on the board.
Compared to all the previous gig I feel kind of anxious tonight..maybe cause we are almost at the end, maybe cause I feel tired maybe cause we are also recording. plus it is very hot under the light. the studio is amazing and the audience is enthusiast about the performance . A big thanks to Tony and Viktoria for taking good care of us. I finish the Simone Weil book I am reading on the tour. Last chapter is about Plato and the myth of the cavern: "If someone is unable to comprehend Eternal forms is not because a lack of intelligence but because of lack of morality" Hope I can sleep well tonight.. but...
from watt:
saturday, june 15, 2024 - villingen, germany
pop at seven. I send out word about tonight's gig, standard stuff. cath chung sent me this poem:
understand me.
I'm not like an ordinary world.
I have my madness,
I live in another dimension
and I do not have time for things
that have no soul.
- charles bukowski
mr bukowski spent his last fourteen years in my pedro town, he's parked in the same boneyard d boon's in, across from the navy housing I moved to from virginia on western avenue. there's a bunch of recently built mac-bullshit overpriced soon-to-crumble jive mansion/cell blocks threre now. crimony. hey, I realized something... wire was on emi and so was pink floyd - maybe that's why the first wire album's called "pink flag" I'm thinking, maybe them tripping they'd be on such a lable in 1977 espcially? hmm... fuck, what are album titles for? I start wondering about wondering...
there is this cafe nearby called "portier" where I have coff and I also get served a croissant which I take mouf-fuls from after soaks in the coff, a piece at a time... never tried this before. I dig how the croissant is big and airy but more cuz it has no sugar I can taste.
sixtyfive miles to villingen - short hop, the fratelli (who have done all the rudder work) I believe truly deserve! it's gray out but I think the sun is threatening to come out. we put the coche at the kraftfeld aft hatch and load out at eleven and a half, fra paolo at the rudder we head north and enter germany a little after noon, total butter for the crossing (empty boofs), we get diesel at a "rewe" that costs a little more (€1.91.5/liter = $/gallon) cuz fra paolo says his mechanic recommends it every so many klicks... hey, there's a squeegee! crimony, for the first time since crossing over the channel we can finally clean our windows w/out using have to wait for nature to piss rain on us. hallelujah. miss hiyori also gets blueberries and cherries direct from farmer and little stand here, very good. I wish there were more berries across the channel - brother dep though had the biggest ones I ever seen my life at his pad in glasgow. crimony. we soon pass over the beginnings of the danube, crazy to imagine how big it gets before dumping into the black sea.
we get to the gig pad in villingen at two, it's from 1962, mps studio and what a history here. I met the gig boss toni in berlin years ago and it's great to see him again, he's return to where he grew up, in the black forest. he lives upstairs and first shows around the studio... duke ellington recorded here, count basie, oscar peterson... mr ray brown! I remember raymond taking me to see mr ray brown at "catalina's" up in hollywood, loved what he brought just loved and it helped so much understand why I'm so grateful d boon's ma put me on bass... can't thank raymond enough for helping to make that happen. absolute. we see the recording room... whoa, the world's biggest piano, a bosendorfer. crimony. tonight's gig is gonna be recorded here. soundcheck w/soundman peter goes good, very easy to work w/cuz he comes right there w/us w/u an ipad to make adjusts, I dig his style, no 'tude and totally in "fourth man" mode. most grateful for the help, truly.
upstairs gig boss toni and victoria cook us up some great pasta spaghetti, dig it much. they got two friends visiting here they are very nice, buddy named tomas also... actually two tomases arrive, one to help gig boss toni out and one who goes back w/him when they were going to punk shows. gig boss toni gives me this doc he just did on west berlin music called berlin super 80... there's a copy of his doc on mark stewart called on/off that sits on a wood "art" cube my ma made when she got an art b.a. at long beach state and I see every night before I konk... me and gig boss toni talk about mark, him in the pop group incredible influence on us minutemen, really huge effect on us. we talk about mark, gig boss toni knew him when they bof lived in berlin. very heavy on me... I do tonight's gig for mark I decide. it's also being recorded so that makes it also a pants-shitter for me. fuck, life deals you a hand and you gotta play it the best you can, correct? I also talk at the chow table about the first pizza I ate in europe - it was here in germany but in osnabruck (I also met richard hell there, us minutemen and black flag were opening up from him, I was speechless when he shook my hand and said "hi mr minuteman" - crimony)... the pizza had olives on it but not w/the pits removed! I had no idea and 'pert-broke my fuckin teef - same thing happened in new york city when I had my first pork chop sandwich and didn't know it still had the bone in it! crimony. I am slow learner.
we're in band-alone mode and hit a nine. clean gig. I say that and also say it was a pants-shitter, both are slang stuff. first part of the fucking gig I was afraid out of my mind and know I committed some stumblebum shit - how do you say in german - maybe "farfromgroovin?" - some points but not totally holing the hull but that's prolly cuz all these gigs have hammered some critical parts in them muscle memory especially when the fucking mind is freaking out or on the verge of. about halfway though I loosen up though - stop frettin so hard and play better w/the fratelli... they call it "red light fever" - you playing worse when you know the "record" button has been pushed. crimony. such a fucked up thing to suffer from. the gig-goers here villingen though are very happening, some gasps in the stooges "tv eye" parts where I "ram it!" help me big time, really big time... the sounds were kind of transferred feels I was getting all night that finally I think helped me bustin through all the scaredy-cat shit. cirmony. fra paolo and fratello ste bof played really good and saved the fucking gig, man, they saved my culo tonight big time. love these fratelli.
after I sign, rap, take photos after packing up, the gig-goers here so nice to me and I'm shaking like a leaf whishing I could've done better, so embarrassed I go upstairs to toni's pad and that bitchin chair I spent all afternoon in, him trying to feed me lemon cake but me stopping after-gig chowing has helped so much, also just the sugar thing - nothing w/him but for me, scissoring most that stuff really has helped my joints. crimony.
there's a 'tel called "romaus" that's a prisoner escaping legend attached to it gig boss toni hipped me to, I get there and hose off, konking right after, my nerves are fuckin shot. that's show biz. for watt anyway...
sunday, june 16, 2024 - bologna, italy
from stefano:
I wake up again too early again..at 4 and I cannot really feel asleep again till the sun is already up. I have terrible dreams... outside sounds mixed with imaginary internal landscapes There is a big storm in a town on the water... it could be Venice for the architecture but it is actually very hilly. My bike literally fly away cause of the wind -strange I have a bike in a town that reminds me of Venice - There is a war, a civil war, half of the town gets under water. I have bubble on my skin and a piece of bone get out to my shirt... scary... I wake up few minutes before the bells rings..and I have still painful head and eyes and I feel not rested... anyhow we are going back to Bologna our hometown... for the last gig.
Do not feel alright physically but I am very grateful to fratelli Mike and Paolo for the music, the gigs, the good energy and the inspiring talks and to hiyori too for her kind presence and the good care she gave us. My diario for "Terzo Tour 2024" finish here. I let fratello mike only to tell the tonight bologna gig epilogue. Grazie to all the nice people we met and everyone involved in making "Terzo" happening!
from watt:
pop at six twenty. it's bloomsday so that's got me thinking too cuz it's also raymond's bday. crimony, I miss him much - fuck do I miss him much, breaks my fuckin heart. the trough at this 'tel opens at eight. I get coff from machine but it uses beans, ok. yogurt is plastic container lame bullshit type ("you want yogurt w/your sugar - ok, a little") but I also have two in between soft and hard boiled eggs for last german chow of the tour. back up in the chamber, cath chung sent me another poem:
I am
a series of
small victories
and large defeats
and I am as
amazed
as any other
that
I have gotten
from there to
here.
- charles bukowski
something in my head to go w/bloomsday? absolute!
375 miles to bologna from here in villingen so we bail at nine, bright w/taiyo lighting up white/blue mixed sky and good mild temp, fratello ste on the rudder. south whence we came yesterday, in a half-hour w/at the border w/switzerland and again most happening bof sides are butter, danke schone (bof sides say here) very much for such butter. me and fratello ste talks some hermes trismegistus.
twenty of noon, we pull over at rastplatz gurtnellen for piss stop and to switch ponies, fra paolo now on the rudder. we get to the gotthard pass and it's a real slow-go, they piece out the traff w/stop lights, keeping the tunnels safe cuz you know some bakas have to tailgate like bakas, just have to. finally we get into the gotthard tunnel and it's a big one but luckily lots of space between bakas (that includes us). we pass into the italiano swiss canto - one day I wanna play lugano, one day/one way! I hear they dig jazz/fusion there. crimony.
one and half we cross into italy and again it's butter (unmanned), voila! still very sunny also, this whole ride has been no rain and actually no gray either... grande... forty minutes later we pull over at a q8 to persuade - to we really need to persuade mr brown to enter the pool? I have no idea cuz I remain in the coche and fill a piss bottle. thee bells and we cross over the po which is like italy's mississippi. I know we're getting closer to bologna when I see that train station quarter of four we pull over at an esso - not for fuel but to switch ponies again, fratello ste back on the rudder cuz fra paolo says he wants to finish his stuff for the diario. getting warm but at least not humid - these parts can get humid, let me tell you.
four and half, we arrive at the gig pad, it's in the parco di villa angeletti which is pretty much in the middle of bologna, northeast of the train station. last hellride of the tour done, HUGE respect for fra paolo and fratello ste for bof doing so good at it, so good and safe. really big respect from me. they also played their culos off too - though we got one more gig. we're playing by this kind of refreshment boof called fermento in villa which means outside gig but rain does not look like it's in the picture so what a bitchin way to end the tour, truly! the p.a. has to be brought in and set up so I got time to update the diary w/my fratelli's stuff. I also check-in for my flights tomorrow to get me back to my pedro town... luckily I get an aisle seat. paolo's partner carlota arrives by w/their little ones pandora and cosmo... the big man's got his hair cut! little sister has zanzari bites, I hope I don't get any! crimony. we check w/soundman david, very cool people but something wrong w/fratello ste's guitar amp mic when we try "fun house" and you know stooges w/tiny guitar ain't happening, correct! bet on it. soundman david gets on it and I bring my version of funkadelic's "maggot brain" have some vogole trying to remember it so we use to test the mic fix on the guitar - trippy though is fra paolo trying some kind of math rock stuff on what could be just an easy going shuffle - what? fratello ste too, maybe just fire up and em w/a flat six?
chow is at this place and I'm broght a great salad w/sun dried tomatoes and like whole spinach leaves plus a wood cutting board of these thin meat slices and some cheese, a sack of pieces of hard bread to go w/it. trippy. like most chows this tour, I don't do it w/my guys but I can see them at a picnic table... the weather's real nice and they got their bologna people w/them which I want them to enjoy. another trippy thing is no enrico croci - damn, I wish he was here to see how much progress I made playing w/my fratelli. cris from scarry monster is here though and that's a very good thing. I'm really glad he helped us out much on this tour, real glad and grateful, truly. giancarlo's here too - really wants me to play the stooges "dirt" and I tell him for sure next time, for sure. there's a couple of hours before our go-time of nine so I got to the coche to keep from getting bit up by the zanzari, really wanna to avoid that if I can.
ok, fratello ste gets me from the coche for the last gig. no opening act. I met fra paolo's pop going up to the stage, his ma too - crimony! so glad but scary also cuz I wanna do good for their boy - VERY glad to have thirtytwo gigs behind me of what we're playing... also a chance to make up for what I thought was my lamest performance of the tour when we played here last, at the freakout club (where enrico croci last saw me also). we bring the gig and I'm so proud of the fratelli for really bringing it, all this hard work has really paid off. I watch them as we're doing and am so into it I got hardly any time to look at the bologna gig-goers but I can feel their spirit real strong, it's most kind of them. I know this gig means much to the fratelli too cuz it's also their home town but you know what? since it is the thirtythird gig in the thirtythree days I still am curious to find something out, a little test kind of... remember one of the goals I was trying to do w/this tour and w/these fratelli was to big time try to play in the moment so when we get "max roach 8 ball" I on purpose make my spiel part shorter BUT still w/the same cues I've used all tour to get us to the baka march part but damn if they don't make that move and just keep plowing ahead kind of what seems mindlessly, so I holler on the mic "hey, ain't you gonna stop or what?!" to get them out of autopilot mode. they do and am a little disappointed but don't make too much a deal out of it cuz it's a real happening gig, I'm enjoying it much and that was in the big picture a little thing for the gig-goers but inside, well... I just think these guys are good enough for doing something that ain't very easy, staying in the moment and being connected as a band playing note by note, beat by beat - not a like they were feeding themselves a scroll for a player piano cosplay dealio, capito? it was a real live test so I had to just spring in on them - not to embarrass anyone but to see how far we got w/trying to realize the non-sleepwalk mode, you know? we still good w/that, neither that tune or anything after was made lame and I thought we did good, real good. I'm really proud of fratello ste and fra paolo, I really am. this tour really made me aware of how lucky I am to get to play w/them and I'm really looking forward to "quatro" - can't wait to compose for and record it, truly. this tour big time is informing what I wanna bof bring to them and how I respond to what they bring to me. this tour in a way is "an investment" on the next chapter of il sogno del marinaio, I really think so.
I pack my stuff for the last time - get my mic and my two boxes for the orange clothes sack - I'll keep this wattplower here in europe so I don't have to schlep it - I got one back in pedro for those gigs. I get done and again meet fra paolo's parent and at the same time fratello ste's! crimony. I should've got a photo w/all four of them. I make sure they know how much I love their boys and how I'm most grateful for them playing their hardest EVERY gig but making sure also me and miss hiyori were kept safe, really righteous of them to keep that focus, GREAT tour brothers - I tell all four they should be proud of raising such men, absolute!
many good words from the bologna gig-goers, signing their stuff and taking photos of them. I meet the cat who did the voice for "il guardiano de faro" on the first il sogno del marinaio album, whoa! (mrs kaori did the original on the cuz album) also ferruccio from cut, yes, big hugs. there's a croatia cat here w/his lady and we talk about balkan stuff, cats like brother koja and brother vasko - he saw us twice this tour, in zabreb and now in bologna... I mention the gig boss for bof balkan gigs aleksandar, his ma making chow for us their beograd pad and he says there's nothing like home-cooked serbian dinner. dobro! he knows about komiza too, where most the croat cats who live in my pedro have people from. kurac! great way to end the tour, rapping w/very kind people.
cris scarry monster is here for ride to "hotel bologna airport" but first big BIG-at-once-bof hugs w/me and the fratelli... I truly am grateful to them for this tour - yes seventieth BUT I think very important one for me in many ways, ONE that was very important in ways that really matter where I am now in my life. I can't thank them enough... not just another tour, no. you can't predict these things I think, they're in the moment, made of moments. "quatro" - I'm thinking "quatro" very much... so much help from the fratelli w/the spirit, w/the music, w/the working the gigs!
the plane rides home... first was airbus 220 was late cuz of swiss weather and it appeared as if I was gonna have some bravo (plan b) to put into action but this young swiss air helperman jammed me in a cart and then a wheelchair around the zurich airport, find bravo routes (including the train) when alphas got all plugged - he got me on the boeing 777 in time where I chimped the rest of this diary and watched the "frerrai" movie in a row in the stern w/all three seats empty plus the one in front (even more happening!) empty, crimony. I got so much help this tour... miss hiyori so much SO MUCH. love her.
my sister melinda picks me up at lax monday to get me back to my pad in pedro quarter of seven pm, crimony - so much help from her and it's trippy but I think of the gig-goers as she's driving me to pedro, all the help from the gig-goers, truly... even the ones w/the trippy questions after the gig... crimony. lucking fuckin watt, lucky fuckin watt...
another one in the sack...
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