Welcome to Seattle...?

It feels like we took a wrong turn somewhere along the way.  We arrived in Munich at around 3pm yesterday afternoon, and it's been cold and rainy for a good portion of the last 24 hours.  So no, we aren't really in Seattle...we're in Munich, but the weather and scenery both remind me of the Pacific Northwest.

The show tonight is at a place called Feierwerk, which is a compound of sorts, about a 10 minute drive outside of the center of Munich.  Feierwerk has four different music venues, a skatepark, an on-site "hotel" (where we are staying) for bands on tour, and I believe there's also a cafe.  After arriving here yesterday, I took a shower and a nap before we all went out for dinner and drinks.

For dinner, we went in to the center of Munich and met up with Marco Walzel, who runs Avocado booking.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, he's an old friend of ours who booked some shows for Swing Kids when we came over here fifteen years ago, and has booked the current tour.  Anyway, we all had dinner at a sushi place with Marco, Ivonne and Mekk, who both also work for Avocado.

This is Marco (on the left) and Jose-

Another of Jose, with Mekk -

And lastly, here's one of Mekk with our tour manager/driver, Ondra -

After dinner, we grabbed some beers (it's legal to drink on the streets here), wandered about and met up with some old friends of mine; David and Hugo Da Cruz.  David and Hugo are brothers, and I met them when I was touring with Sweep the Leg Johnny about eleven years ago.  We played in Wasserburg, their home town, and later came back over and played a number of shows with David's band.  They've both been over to the US several times to visit since Sweep came over on tour, and we've stayed in touch throughout the years...

    ...so after meeting up with the Da Cruz brothers, we finished our beers and headed to a bar called the Schwarze Hahn, which translates to Black Cock (as in rooster, not the other cock...in case you were wondering).  The bar had something of metal theme going on, so for those of you who know me well, you probably have already guessed that I felt right at home.

This is Hugo, hanging at the Black Cock bar -

And here's David, hanging with Nathan, also at the Black Cock -

We hung out at the Black Cock for a while, had some beers, chatted and so on until around 11pm, when everyone in the band decided to head back to Feierwerk to hang and drink beer back at our "hotel".  Right around that time, Hedwig, another old Munich friend of mine, who used to play in a band with David and lived in Chicago for a brief period of time, showed up.  I didn't want to say hello and then immediately split, and of course, David and Hugo are both quite persuasive...particularly when I've already been drinking...so I split from the group and took off to another bar with my three Munich friends...not really having any idea as to how to get back to Feierwerk...but I wasn't really worried about it anyway.

Drunk.  Me, Hedwig and Hugo hanging out late -

The four of us stayed out until around 2am, until I realized that I was pretty exhausted.  David hailed a cab for me, gave the driver directions, and it actually ended up being a lot easier to get back here than I thought it would.

After arriving back at Feierwerk, I hung out with the Blue Note guys for a bit.  Nathan and Jimmy and I had some more beers, talked shit and fucked with Jose, and then finally crashed out around 3am.

Surprisingly, I slept VERY well, and didn't get up until around 11am.  Even with all of the napping I did yesterday, I must have been a lot more exhausted than I probably would have admitted to yesterday. 

After we got up and got moving, Ondra took us back in to the town center.  Justin, Jimmy, Nathan and I took off to find some food, while Ondra and Jose split from the group to go see the Dachau concentration camp.  I'd already seen Dachau when Sweep came over here, and didn't feel like I really needed to see it again.  To be perfectly honest, I don't think Dachau is the best of the concentration camps to visit...the best way that I can put it, is to say that it's something like the Disneyland of concentration camps.  If you really want to experience the horrors of the Holocaust, I suggest going to Poland to visit Auschwitz/Birkenau.

Anyway...after grabbing food, coffee and wandering about, we're back at Feierwerk again.  Tonight is the first show of the tour.  Wish me luck that it goes well!