some random shots

it's raining here on a cool and peaceful morning in serbia. there is a farm just behind the house here with a rooster that wakes me in the morning... kinda nice really. the farm grows corn. actually, all we've seen in terms of crops being grown throughout this region is corn... and yet we are never served corn with our meals. hmmm... i have a few minutes so i thought i would post a few more random shots. here's the view from the restaurant we ate at before our show in velenje, slovenia:


our tour manager, the amazing freddy spaepen:


freddy is currently writing his thesis for a master's degree in philosophy. the last two tours we were with him he spent much of his free time reading various philosophical texts, highlighting and taking notes. after much thought, he has whittled down his focus and chosen a relatively specialized topic, one without much in the way of previously published work: the nature of evil. he now spends all is free time typing his paper, due july 31st. if he's not driving, eating, sleeping or filming our shows, freddy is hard at work:


outside the the route 66 club in zagreb, croatia:



the mighty gretsch guitar: it's got a sound and look all to itself that i love. since we've been touring europe since the spring of '07 i've met lots of folks who come to our shows just to see and here one of these great guitars in person. my everlasting thanks to holly rock at rudy's music stop in nyc for setting my guitar up so well... it's never let me down! here's just a cool photo:


dueling digital cameras on the way home from the show in sibenik:


some of the rocky terrain on the road going to split, kastel:


as i mentioned in my previous post, the family we stayed with in split, kastel made two huge meals for us on the two nights we stayed there. they had a cute 4 year old daughter who was very curious about us but understandably shy:


eric confronts a bosnian larry david impersonator at a grocery store near the serbian border:


playing the gig in mostar, bosnia. this started out as one of those "what the hell are we doing?" kinda shows but ended up being one of the highlights of the tour thus far. the venue, marhsall, (as in marshall guitar amplifiers) was located at the intersection of three busy streets in the old section of town, maybe 100 meters from the famous bridge. the owner, tito, decorated the interior of the club with a variety of electric guitars, banjos, mandolins and woodwind instruments. in honor of the bar's namesake, he even had a vintage 100 watt marshall plexi head installed behind the bar... the same amp ac/dc, hendrix and many others made famous. i mean the guy has vintage amps out as decorative kitsch... how cool is that? to drum up more business, tito had us play outside the bar on a sloping, uneven street. after hooking a PA through the house sound system, we went at it for roughly two hours. we only had one mic for the show so carolyn took on the majority of the vocal work, even singing lead on songs that i usually do. we fielded requests and carolyn did an dynamite acapella version of janis joplin's "mercedes benz." it was a fun challenge for us and we had a great crowd of folks there. i suppose we were a refreshing alternative to the bump n' grind bosnian discotheques in mostar. a photo:



the incredibly sweet, incredibly stinky, non-english speaking woman who rented us a room for the night:


some shots of the bosnian countryside en route to nova pazova, serbia:






enjoying a rare breakfast delicacy on the road: melted chocolate bars and bananas. living the dream, living the dream...


we've been turned away twice while trying to enter a new country on this tour. once while entering bosnia and once entering serbia. we have to travel with this thick sheaf of documents detailing our equipment list and our intents and purposes upon entering these countries. the smaller border crossing stations we have encountered apparently haven't had the expertise to know how to handle these documents so we've had to turn around and head to the next border crossing. we've also been pulled over four times by local police, claiming that we are either driving to fast or spotting an out of date inspection sticker on the car. it's all BS and these guys are just looking for some extra cash. they spot a foreign license plate and pull us over. twice we've had to fork over a few euros... €50 all together. the other two times freddy was able to talk his way out of it by explaining that we are an american rock band. you should see their faces light up at this. in these two occasions we simply handed over a couple of our cd's and they waved us on. here's a shot i caught of freddy paying off a corrupt serbian cop. note the grin on his face as freddy opens his "bank," as the cop calls it:


this is the first time any of us have been in a country where the writing bears little resemblance to english. much of the letters and symbols here in serbia are completely new to us:




yesterday we entertained our host's nephew. here's eric amazing him with his magic tricks and me teaching him how to play "johnny b goode."





we're off to belgrade today... stay tuned for more!

Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia

hello friends! i am writing this from our house here in nova pazova, serbia where we played a great outdoor show for the folks here last night. we were told that we were the first american band to ever play this town! sorry for the long delay in updating this here blog but our internet access has not been that hot on this tour. here's some news and pictures: we had a fun time in slovenia last week before heading into a studio in ljublana to record some more tracks for freddy and lisa. here is the stage outside the max club in velenje, slovenia:



after our week in slovenia we headed south into croatia. view as we come out of some mountains towards sibinek:


sibinek is a small but beautiful town right on the coast of the adriatic sea. we were put up in an apartment rented from a nice local family right in the heart of town. sibinek is laid out in small, winding little streets very similar to the other old towns we have visited in italy. the family there actually thanked us for our US aid in the war and gave us each a seashell for good luck. ain't that sweet? they fed us well and even had a beautiful collie to entertain us. after walking around the town and the harbor the morning after the gig, we headed south to split kastel for two days on the sea side. here are some shots of sibinek and some shots of our drive along the coast to split:













setting up for the gig:






as i've said before, outdoor sound can be kinda tricky. sibinek was a bit of a challenge. beware the soundmen who show up wearing whitesnake and saxon t shirts:


carolyn getting primped:


walking around town the next morning:








this is just an amazing gut and we couldn't resist:






some shots from the drive to split, kastel. the photos really don't do the scenery justice... insane views of the sea:






the drive to split, kastel (just north of split) took just about an hour. our show in split, kastel was part of a 5 day biker rally and camping weekend. we played on a huge stage looking out over the sea for a few thousand biker dudes and their ladies. again we stayed in an apartment rented from a local family who fed us well and were very happy to have us. the landscape in croatia, especially by the seaside, is very dry and rocky. the vegetation consists of more desert like plants that you might see in southern california or maybe florida. the coastline itself doesn't have that much in the way of sandy beaches. most of the bathing areas we saw and had a chance to swim in were man made and built up with lots of sand. me getting out of the water:


view from our apartment of the sea:




our hosts made us a huge meal for the two nights we spent there. we had a full day off and then another day to rest before the show that night. this tour really feels like a vacation... a funny thing about this region is that 'vegetarian' means 'fish' to the folks here:


the next day we drove into bosnia to the city of mostar. this town suffered a lot of destruction during the war here in the late '90s. much of the old city was destroyed including the city's landmark bridge which was later rebuilt. folks there explained that the bridge linked two halves of the city: the eastern muslim/serbian side and the western croatian side. there are still many buildings here showing bullet marks and signs of the violence that took place. hard to imagine considering how peaceful and beautiful it is now. there were many tourists here and we met folks from the states and canada as well as many other europeans there on holiday. a bullet ridden house:


views from the bridge:






today i spent the day fixing up some of my gear, eating some delicious fresh watermellon and teaching a 10 year old serbian boy how to play johnny b. goode. our food is being served now i have to run. more stories and photos to come... stay tuned!