the last stop

I'm writing on the airplane, up over greenland. The progress map is giving me regular updates as to our progress. Estimated arrival time: 5:18. distance traveled: 1811 miles. Altitude: 3600 feet. Headwind 25 mph. Current groundspeed: I don't know. It's not telling me right now. It was earlier, I think we're doing something like 530 miles an hour. Maybe more, I don't recall exactly what it was. Oop, there it is. 530 on the nose. Outside air temperature is -70 degrees F. I didn't realize it was that cold up here. I'm glad the heat is on.

I don't remember exactly where I left off on the blog, I think it was just before the Paradiso, in Amserdam. That was a good gig. The Paradiso is more of a club-concert venue than many of the gigs we did in Holland. The big room felt a lot like the Great American Music Hall in SF. We played in a smaller room behind the main room, we were the after-act (like after-party, but with a band). Ane Brun played the main room. I hadn't heard her music before and only got to catch a few of her last tunes but enjoyed very much what I did hear. I'm looking forward to listening to more when I get home.
[update: I was just looking at her website, and there's video of her show at the Paradiso, at anebrun.com.]
Paradiso was the first Rock Star gig we did with backstage passes and dressing rooms and all. A fridge stocked with soda & beer, and a quart of Jameson on the counter. Privileged access is a fun thing. Paradiso and Blue Highways were the two such gigs. I found it interesting, but logical, that they kept track of people who had access by wristbands (the kind that tear when you take them off so they can only be used once). My experience in the states is that they always give you some nifty laminated card to hang around your neck from a lanyard. You can take it home and hang it on your wall and feel proud. But, the spent, torn-off bracelets are fairly unimpressive by comparison.
The performance itself at Paradiso was a lot of fun. I felt like the group really had our stuff together at that point and we were able to crank out a solid, high-energy set for the crowd that had already heard one really good show and had their party pants on.

Adam had brought his field recorder to the show and the next day I transfered the Paradiso performance to my iPod and since it was a nice day out I went for a good long walk along the local canals and listened to the whole thing. It's always good to get a sense of what things are sounding like on the front side of the main speakers. It's doubly nice when what's heard is not only instructive (it's always instructive), but also reassuring that things really are going well out there. I was glad it was both.
After the walk I practiced or the first time in longer than I should have let go by. I've been traveling with this stick bass, it's been in some of the pictures. It's much like a regular upright bass, at least on the fingerboard & strings, but has no body. No body means very little acoustic sound. It's a lot like when you put a needle on a record but don't have the speakers on: you can hear a little just from the vibration of the needle, but it's quiet and kind of tinny sounding. And, the amplifier was in the living room and I was usually too self conscious to stand in the living room and play all my exercises. But, I finally decided to try taking the bass upstairs to our bedroom and see if I couldn't hear enough bowing it to play without an amp. It turned out that worked well enough and I happily kept at it for an hour or so and it was one of the most cathartic things I'd done the whole trip. It's funny how eating your spinach can be so good once you finally sit down and do it.
That evening we played a "house concert" in the conference room at the offices of a company that makes playground equipment. Very much the polar opposite of the Paradiso, but also a truly excellent gig. It almost goes without saying that the audience was gracious and attentive. This whole trip I never did get used to what listeners the Dutch are, I hope I never do take it for granted. It was also really nice to not play through a PA. That is, except for the instruments that need amplification (my stick bass and Adam's electric guitar when he was playing it), we went acoustic. Everything sounds like it should, it's easier to blend. It was the only one we were able to do like that the whole trip.

[I'm back at home now, trying to finish this post up]

The next day was the Blue highways festival in Utrecht. I guess it was the most "important" gig of the whole trip. There were some terrific folks playing and it was an honor to be on the bill with them. Iris DeMent's set was awesome as was Michael Fracasso's. It's also good fun to be able to run into awesome musicians backstage and be able to have a normal conversation with them. I had a nice conversation with Chris Smither backstage about our daughters (his is 3 1/2, mine 16 months). Our set was well received and I'm hopeful they'll have AJ & us back next year.

Our last day we went into Amsterdam and saw the sights one last time. It was the only weekend day I'd spent in the city and it was a different place with so many folks around. We had beers and dinner and went on a boat ride in the canals wich is a nice way to see the city. The tour guide pointed out to us the metal pipe that runs along the top of the edge of the canal. It was put there at great expense by the government in the 70's to keep cars from falling into the canal. The statistic is that the guard rails save them the trouble of removing 1 car per week from the canals.

The flight home was a breeze and I enjoyed an emergency exit row to myself. I've never had such a short 11 hour flight. Customs was kind of odd. The officers at SFO saw us, this wore out looking group of musicians with their instruments and were chatty but in an off-putting probing kind of way. One of them asked Alisa how much her fiddle cost. Another asked how long we'd been there and how many gigs we'd done.
"2 weeks, 8 or so gigs".
"Eight gigs? That's a lot!"
We shrugged. Only answer direct questions, otherwise stonewall. Totally fishy customs agents.

And now I'm home, about a week now. It was a good trip and I'm glad I'm home. When I first got home I couldn't tell that Amelia had noticed I was gone at all. The reception she gave was the same as when I get home from work in the evening. But throughout the week she came to me more often and hugged me for longer.

So like that, home again home again jig jiggity jig. Don't know when I'll travel again with the ol' stick bass. maybe I'll put some words up here about that when I do.