We had a lot of free time today. On the way to Pegognaga, we stopped at the small cute city, Mantova. We didn’t see any Japanese tourist but one older guy standing front of a restaurant knew some Japanese words. He tried to get us in to his restaurant. It looks like Japanese money come to this city too.
Today’s venue was very interested. From outside, it looked like a dead building but they had a nice bar inside and a live space upstairs. There were also a bland new library behind the building. We got there way too early and enjoyed the internet time. Around 6pm, they told us to start loading in. We did and we were ready to do a sound check. The sound guy, I meant the sound engineer was talking to a girl and we went back to the laptops. After a half hour or so, he finished talking to the girl and told us he was ready for a sound check. While we were checking my vocal mic, he stopped and answer his cell phone. Which never happened me before. I guess it’s okay in Italy for a sound engineer to take a call during a sound check and make a band wait for 5 min.
After the sound check, there was a dinner party. Many older people came for it. The bands got our own table and had dinner with them. I asked Lupin if those old people were staying for the show. He said “what do you mean by old? They are old as you are.” It was true and I didn’t say anything back to him but I hate the Italian.
When I was enjoying after dinner espresso at bar, this one guy told me that someone wanted to do an interview. I went to get WGF and went to the library. I wasn’t exactly sure but I think it was for a local cable youth channel. As you can guess, it was a bad interview. One question the interviewer asked us was who was our favorite singer. WGF said Mick Jaggerr. And I said Madonna. That was a bad answer. I should have said Lady Gaga. That would have made me look more hip.
When we got back to the venue, my generations were leaving and younger generations were coming in for the show.
After the show this one girl told me that she came to see us with her friends who have seen us in New York. I double checked to make sure I was understanding right and she said “yes, in New York”. My brain started Google search and found the result. I remembered. I met an Italian couple when we played at Cake Shop in New York with The Blind Shake. I asked her if her friends were still at the venue. She went to get them. When I saw the guy, I said “Cake Shop?”. He said yes with an big smile. I asked him “you bought our t-shirt, right?” He again said yes. I remembered at the merch table he asked me for a discount since he came all the way from Italy to see us. Of course that was a joke but that’s how I remembered. My made in Japan PC in my brain is still working fine even it’s an old generation.
It was very scary. Early in the morning, someone opened our door. Hiro and I had our own room at the three stars hotel. For this tour we stayed at non star to four stars hotels but this was our first three stars. Anyway back to the story. We were both in deep sleep. Then I heard some noise. I opened my eyes and noticed our entrance door was open and this one guy with a hat on was standing. I didn’t have my contacts or glasses on and also I was still half sleep. I didn’t know what was happening. I could only see his shadow. Without glasses I could still tell Hiro was on the bed sleeping. I said hello to the hat guy. It was Lupin’s Torino friend who came to Milan with us. He said something about he got kick out from somewhere and wanted to sleep in our room. I was confused so many things like how he knew our room, how he opened the door and such. But I was so sleepy and told him come in and went back to sleep. When we got up we found out that he was supposed to stay with his friends. But his friend couldn’t come to the show and he stayed at the promoter’s place. Around 6 in the morning, the promoter woke him up and told him that he had to go. The promoter’s girlfriend was coming home or something. The promoter drove him to our hotel. Since he booked the hotel for us, he talked to a guy at hotel. They let Lupin’s friend in to our room. They thought Lupin was sleeping in our room. When you’re on tour, so many unexpected things happen.
We had a lot of time and walked around the city of Milan. From the big city, we went to a small town called Treviso. We had a such great dinner yesterday and were all excited what we were getting tonight. Yesterday the promoter took us to a family own restaurant. It wasn’t fancy but it was a nice one. WGF was talking about Carbonara all day and guess what? The waiter asked us if we wanted meat tomato sauce pasta or Carbonara. We all ordered Carbonara. We enjoyed our meal. When we finished eating waiter came back and asked us something in Italian. Lupin asked me if we wanted pork or beef. The Carbonara was a first plate and they had second course. We, non Italian were all surprised. I was already full eating bread and the pasta, but ordered the beef of course. It was rare stake (I’m sorry Peelander-Z. It wasn’t medium rare) and came with potato. We were all happy and full the end of the meal. We didn’t pay, but we were told the meal was only 10 euros each. Italy is a great country.
Again life can’t be perfect. Tonight they made us tomato pasta. That was it. No bread. They only gave us 4 can of beer, not each they were for four of us. Our great rock star manager talked into them and greatly we got a bottle wine during the meal. Lupin challenged himself and order a beer at the bar to see what they would do. His challenge failed and he had to pay for it. Which is really rare. Most places treat Lupin as same as the band. Lupin told us later that we had a guarantee but the owner asked for discount. Lupin told him no fuckin’ way. Love our manager…..sometimes.
Lupin’s mom made us lunch again. She made foiled cheese lapped with ham and breaded fried veal with cheese on the top. It was a little too heavy for the first meal of the day but it was really delicious.
We thanked Lupin’s mom and left our Torino home. We picked up one of Lupin’s friend who we hanged out yesterday. He came to our Milano show. On the way, him and Lupin talked non stop for almost 2 hours. Lupin told me they were talking about girls.
Today’s the sound check was very interested. Two young guys were doing sound. They moved so slowly and was really unorganized. It was worth than working with college student sound guys at Universities. First they were really confused when we told them that we want to set up drums on the front. They were worry about a overhead mic might be too close to the PA speaker. Somehow European sound people love to use overhead mics. WGF told them his china cymbal was very loud and we didn’t need the overhead. They looked unsure but they were okay with it. Then one of them asked me how I want to do my amp. I wasn’t sure what they meant right away but they were asking me if they should mic my amp or use direct outline cable from my amp head. I’ve seen sometime they use output instead of mic for bass amp but never seen or asked that for a guitar amp. I nicely told them I prefer using a mic for the amp. I ask them to use two mics if they would. I told them since we don’t have a bass, it would be nice to get high and low sound using two microphones. I also told them I might kick one any way so it would be nice to have a back up. They look confused but they used two mics for my amp.
They took long time to finish setting up and told us they were ready for the sound check. We’ve noticed that floor tom mic was missing. I told them that and they took another 5 minute to put that on. Then they told us to start playing. Normally sound people ask us to start from a bass drum to check each line. These young talented sound guys didn’t need that. I should say the young sound engineers. That’s they call themselves here. We started to make noise. While I was playing guitar, I stepped off the stage and listened how the mix sounded. They had nice big PA speakers but only the kick drum was coming out. The room was a long narrow concrete room and without micing anything it was already loud. We weren’t sure why they spend long time to put all the microphones and only using the kick drum and vocal mics. At this point, I didn’t care. I just wanted it to be done. Honestly, we don’t really need a sound check. We just need quick line check before we play. But in Europe they won’t feed us unless we do a sound check.
We finished then the opening band did their sound check which they took for ever. It took half hour or so for young talented sound engineers to get the bass sound from the PA. Then the band took more than half hour to get right sound for them. We were all so hungry but we had to wait for the opening band for the dinner. Total they spent more than an hour for the sound check. Funny thing, their set was only 20 min. long. What a hell!
We had long long drive today. We left Spain, drove throw France, and 11 hours later finally we arrive to Torino, Italy. We drove by Cannes and Nice, and had a great view of Mediterranean Sea side but it was a really long drive. For 11 hours, you can fly from Japan to the US. Just sitting, my butt started heart.
Torino is Lupin’s home town. He was the promoter for this show, very professional promoter. He did a great job. We met many his friends. It was a great Sunday night show. For the dinner, we had the biggest pizza ever. This is Hiro’s first time in Italy and he is already in love with this country. After the show, they even gave us three different kind of cake. It wasn’t too sweet like American sugar to make you fat cake.Tonight we stayed at really nice Lupin’s parents house.
We had another long driving day to Barcelona. The venue was a bit far way and sadly we couldn’t see the city.
It was an big venue in warehouse district. They had a nice stage and looked very professional. However the sound on the stage was so bad. Maybe it was top 3 awful sound on the stage for my shinning musical career. I’ve played someone’s living room/basement to First Avenue. We can normally handle most places. Usually if there is a wall both side of a stage, noise bounce back and you can hear very well. But this place had open space both side of the stage and also was very high ceiling. The sound guy who had been drinking beer since we got there wouldn’t let me turn up my guitar. Even we did sound check, my vocal from the monitor was way louder when we played. I wanted adjust but I was sure it would take 5 minute to communicate with the sound guy in English. I kept playing. What would you do? Yes, drinking is the best solution. I had a shot of whiskey and let it go. Of course I had to stop the bartender. She used a small beer cup and started pouring the whiskey. I was sure if I didn’t stop her she probably filled the cup.
We had another long drive tomorrow and Lupin wanted to sleep, we left the venue quick. We stayed at the promoter’s nice apartment. It was located right front of the beach. He had one guest bed room and three mattress in the living room. Of course, our rock star claimed the guest room right away.
His apartment was on the second floor. From the living room window we could see the ocean, I meant sea. Lupin always correct me. There was a bar right next to the apartment. Instead of the wave sound, we could hear drunk people talking outside. We had a nice sleep listening drunk talk in Spanish.
Friday night! is a lame night in Spain. At least it is for us. It was very low turnout. Last Friday in Gijon was too. We had great week night shows and were looking forward to Friday. Even the promoter didn’t feed us. We had Doner Kebab for dinner. At the Doner place, an older waitress lady asked if we needed anything to drink. We order tap water. She came back with a big bottle water. I guess she didn’t understand us. We told her that don’t worry, we don’t need water. Then she came back with a large coke bottle. She told us it was free and entire stuff were looking at our table. We don’t try but I guess people can tell we’re rock stars or we have a rock star manager.
People in Spain are very friendly and they come to talk to us frequently in Spanish. After the show, two couple came in to the bar. One of them came to the merch table and asked me and Hiro questions. He was curious about our music. He was very drunk and we were hoping he would buy something and give us money. He didn’t speak much English but with help from his three friends we tried to communicate. He was saying he has money and would buy our CD but wanna know what we sound like before. Hiro and I knew right away this guy wouldn’t buy anything. Every time someone tells you himself has money, that means he has money since he doesn’t spend any.
It wasn’t much going on so we let those two drunk couples harassed us for half hour. Then we went back to the two stars hotel and enjoyed Friday night surfing internet.
Last night we stayed at a hostel, no star hotel. Sometime life is hard. They had a breakfast but it was very simple cereals and toast. When Hiro and I was eating, we met a girl and a guy staying there. Hiro asked them a few questions. The girl said she was from Switzerland. She was there for studying flamenco for one week. The guy was from California. He was there since September. Hiro asked him if he had some kind of a visa staying that long. The guy said if you’re African, police would stop you to check your passport. But if you’re American, they don’t care. Hiro and I both didn’t believe this guy at all. He looked like a Spanish and his English had obvious Spanish accent. We knew he wasn’t from the US. Then I looked the girl and she didn’t look like Swedish either. Hiro told her we went Switzerland before here but she didn’t ask us where in Switzerland. If someone tells me if the person has been in the US, I’d ask where. We knew she was fake too. We figured people staying there have some kind of dark with them and you can’t really tell the truth about you. But I didn’t care. I wanted to be honest with them. I told them that I was here looking for a job at a China store.
I don’t know if I mention but Lupin is our driver/tour manager. However he is acting like a way more rock star than we’re. After the check out, we went back to the venue because the rock star Lupin didn’t want to drive last night. If a hotel is near by a venue, he would ask the promoter if we could leave our stuff over the night. That way he could drink like a rock star and doesn’t have to drive. As soon as we get to a venue, he asks for a beer. We ask for water and coffee. He drinks all night. He usually tell us what time is the check out. Most time we have to wait for him. Sometime he tells us “let’s go” 20 min. before the time he tells us.
Today we were in small beach town, Estepona. Somewhere in between Granada and Estepona, somehow Lupin got off the free way. We didn’t know what he was doing then we notice that he was getting lost. He was saying something in Italian for 30 minutes and finally got back to the free way. We couldn’t tell why he got off the free way.
Even with Lupin’s guru-guru time, we got in the town a little early. We walked around the town and went to the bar. Load in was at 6pm but no one was there. We waited. At 6:30 I asked Lupin if he had the promoter’s phone number. He told me it was booked by the same promoter as last night. He had his phone number but didn’t have the bar owner’s number. I asked him to call the promoter to get the bar owner’s number. He told me he talked his girlfriend yesterday and didn’t have minutes left on his cell phone. What kind of tour manager doesn’t have a cell phone actually works? I’m a nice guy and didn’t say anything. At 6:50 we were still waiting. I told Lupin that at 7pm if still no one shows up, he had to do something. At 6:55 Lupin told me that the promoter told him last night to show up at 7pm. I asked him why we showed up at 6pm then. He told me the paper he got from our booking agent said the load in was at 6pm. He thought maybe someone might be there. It would be so much easier if he told us that at 6pm.
Anyone looking for a job? We need someone actually can drive and make us look more rock stars.
Today was the last show of the tour. We made it without breaking anything but we lost one thing. Or I should say we were stolen one thing. At the Barcelona show someone took our drum stool. We found different one in the green room. We thought the opening band took ours by mistake and left theirs. We didn’t have a choice. We took that one we found in the green room which was much cheaper than one we had. We got the band’s e-mail address and wrote them. They wrote back and said they don’t have our drum stool. Since we were renting our drums and a guitar amp, Lupin’s boss told us we had to have the same or similar quality of the drum stool when we return them. We went to a drum store and bought a new one even though WGF was going to use it only once. Luckily we could trade in the one we found in Barcelona and got some discount.
