2/8/15 day 19: Herrenberg, DE

It was a pretty poor breakfast showing this morning. Coffee, Brötchen, some jam and sliced cheese in plastic.... Like craft singles. Singles?! Really? We are in German for Christ sake... Embarrassing!

Short but beautiful drive to Herrenberg; lots of small towns with a steeple in the middle, bridges over deep valleys. Arrived in Herrenberg at like 11:30. Drove right to the club to see if we could find Johannes the owners son/booking agent and sure enough he was in the restaurant checking the newspaper for word of our show; just a listing this time, no pic, scheißer. Good dude, that Johannes. We all walked over to La Dolce Vita for a coffee and catch up.

After coffee we walked around a bit and the whole town was shut down for the afternoon. Guess what was open? Yeah, one last Döner. I opted for the Falafel Yufka which was delicious. We all agreed that we should open a Döner joint in Burlington... It would crush! Maybe next life time. I kind of like touring Europe playing music.

We walked around a bit but it was bitter cold. Peter and I headed back to the hotel and sat in the lobby with a Pilsner. I then caught a 12 minute nap and then walked down a couple blocks to the venue; Mauerwerk. It has a really nice stage and great sound system. Robin our sound engineer is super efficient and had our settings saved from last year so sound check lasted all of 15 minutes. Little tweaks here and there and done.

You r gonna get a bath back in Phx, you dirty little monkey.

"Peter, look cool."

Had a delicious chicken curry dinner in the restaurant (still kicking myself I didn't get the Schnitzel though, what the hell was I thinking?) and warmed up in the green room with their local brew Mauerzwerk until show time at 8. Very civilized baby. You can tell we are at the end of the tour because we didn't completely loot the green room. Usually most everything comes with us; fruit, drinks, candy bars, small pieces of furniture. We left a tray, A TRAY, of candy bars... That never happens.

Green Room reflections, baby.

One last cascading selfie with Johannes.

Great last show. 84 beautiful melted German faces. (Our new friends from Pfullingen showed up too! Shout out to Virginie and Ralf! Ralf made us each these hand made cards with his art on them. Very inspiring.) Felt really good about the performance. We recorded it too, so should be able to share at some point soon. Sounded clean and well rehearsed, like the end of the tour should. I love that we we were tweaking up until the last show. Let's do a verse vamp after the bridge in Love Song. Let's tease Stir it Up AFTER the third verse of What I'm Looking For. Let's get funky on Leading Me Home. Still working. Always improving. Dropped a couple hot jams for an encore, a "Bid You," done. 

Street scene: Mauerwerk, Herrenberg, DE. Can you spot the tour poster?

Hair is getting more and more angular and I dig it. Very rock and roll.

After the set, we chilled next door at the restaurant. Mauerwerk is half great venue and half great local restaurant. We met a couple at the bar that saw us at Dexheim last October and made the 2+ hr drive to see us tonight. They bought a couple rounds of schnapps and we chatted with Johannes and his friend Aline. It was a good hang but we said our goodbyes around 12 and made the short walk back in the freezing cold to the hotel.

We had our traditional tour end debrief in Jeffs hotel room with the traditional portion of scotch whiskey. I went with the Oban 12 year; smooth not too smokey. We split up the remaining loot and the booty (most importantly the Swiss chocolate from our new friends Salome and Joel from Zurich) and retreated to our own rooms to pack. Didn't fully power down until 3am. 6:50AM wake up call coming in hot... Another great tour in the books. So grateful to Peter and Jeff for making beautiful sounds with me, Tommy (and the whole Seitzinger family)  for booking the tour, all the amazing promoters that asked us to play, and the amazing new friends and fans. Honored, humbled, grateful.

2/9/15 day 20: STR>ATL>PHX

650 am wake up calls are on my shit list. Quick rinse and ran down to the hotel restaurant for frühstuck. Such a pity we had to bail at 745. This breakfast is fairly righteous. Fresh squeezed OJ, nice breads, meats, cheeses, yogurts... I mean standard stuff but high quality shrizz. Out the door by 7:55 a little frazzled but steady. 

Roads had a light coat of snow and there were very few cars on the road. Made the 25 minute drive to the Stuttgart airport and returned the rental car at 830, right on schedule. Checked in, dropped luggage, passport control, located my seat. Stuttgart to ATL. Yeah baby.

Watched "Fury" and "St Vincent" and caught maybe an hour of sleep. Brutal. I need to figure out this whole sleeping on an airplane thing. Used to be no problem now it's just frustrating.

Had three hours in ATL so I found a little piano bar and tasted an IPA for the first time in weeks. I don't know man, I think my idea to import IPA to Germany could work! I have a whole marketing strategy prepared. Contact my assistant for details.

I did sleep to PHX. By that point I was deleriously tired. Basically slept the whole flight home. Stepped off the plane to 50 degree weather and was happy.

Home sweet home. Until April friends. Stay tuned for Italy and Slovakian tour Spring 2015.

2/7/15 day 18: Tuttlingen, DE

I opted to skip breakfast this morning and sleep an extra hour. Coffee and yogurt wasn't enough to convince me to get out of bed. Met the guys at 11 and walked across the street to the promoter's Johannes' office. Last night we met a gentlemen who runs an Electrics Museum in the same building so we spent an hour getting a personal tour of the exhibits. It was pretty rad; electronics from 100 years ago to present day. And everything worked. It was a trip. Got to see the inside of an old jukebox and listen to vinyl singles from the 50s, among other things.

After that we said goodbye to Johannes and checked out a killer little chocolate shop a pretty righteous selection of fine chocolate. Then we hit the Döner stand by the car which came recommended, although was mainly average, and hit the road. Beautiful drive along Bodensee and more rolling hills full of sleeping grape vines.  Rolled into Tuttlingen, parked and hit the streets. Found some Glühwein to warm us up and then back to the hotel for 30 mins of downtime.

At the club around 445. Next tour we are pushing the sound check time back. We are always the first people here and Id rather an hour of downtime than 30 mins.

Had a coffee while waiting for the sound guy to show while P and J read and did crossword puzzles. Did a quick sound check in the Rittergarten and sat down to eat dinner with the husband and wife promoters Joachim and Sibylle. Super sweet folks who live in the Black Forest and do about 50 shows a year. We had a great meal; herbed baked chicken, boiled potatoes with caremlized onion, and steamed brocolli with a light cream sauce. It's the first home cooked meal in what feels like ages. So simple and so good! After dinner Joachim busted out some schnapps and we tasted a couple of his favorites; Zibarten, which are small wild growing plums, and Mirabellen which is a small orange fruit. These are the more exotic of the schnapps and they were pretty tasty. 

We had a small but dedicated crowd. And we had a fun set. Loving how Leading Me Home is sounding with the more funky approach.

Sat with Joachim and Sibylle a little after the show and then said our goodbyes and headed back to the hotel. We must be getting old because we all declined to stop for a beer at a bar right next to the hotel. In bed by midnight!

2/6/15 day 17: Tettnang, DE

Up before my alarm today. It's a peculiar time, the end of a tour; real life knocking on the door, while tour life sleeps on the couch. Wondering when one will finally leave so you can let the other in. Hard for me to stay present which is a shame. So much awesomeness floating around in the air.

Walked down to breakfast around 930 and vowed not to 1) eat meat 2) eat bread 3) eat cheese. That limits ones intake greatly. I had a yogurt and a small bowl of granola. It wasn't enough to fill the tank but at least i stuck to my guidelines.

Peter met us at 11 with news of a second hand shop so we loaded our gear into the car across the street and trudged into the snowy streets of Leutkirch to find it. Spent about 15 minutes rummaging around old coats and games and ended up at a cafe by the car. Splurged on some delicious baked goods (think "Ich bin ein Berliner") and a cappuccino and headed back to the car for the 45 minute drive to Tettnang.

Drive was standard; little villages, roundabouts, snow... Only this time we started passing hop fields upon hop fileds. Like as far as the eye could see. Come to find out, this region is world renown for its hops. Google it. It was a beautiful site. Sorry no pics, driving.

We made it to Tettnang and met our host Johannes who gave us the keys to the hotel rooms around the corner or Torschloss.

We dumped our stuff in the rooms and headed out on a walk about to the castle. It was so cold though we didn't last long. But we made it to the Tettnang Schloß and snapped a few pics.

Walked back towards the hotel. At this point the nose and ears were starting to lose feeling. Ended up in a little Brauerei for lunch. I went with the Tagesmenü which was some grilled chicken with rice and a yellow curry. It was delicious and different.

Went down for a nap and rallied in the lobby of the hotel at 5 and walked down to the venue, KITT, which is a performance space and movie theater. About a 100 seater and we sold the mother out in advance.

After the quick sound check we walked up the road to a little Italian joint. Enjoyed a nice salad and some tortellonis with stone mushrooms and roasted walnuts. Added some Montepulciano and it was on. Great dinner courtesy of KITT.

Fat and happy we walked back to the venue around 715 and relaxed and warmed up for the show. We had some dear friends at the show; Simone (Tommy's wife) and Luna (daughter of Uli and Salka) from Baienfurt made the trip. The crowd was fun. Loose and light, laughed at the jokes and were very appreciative. We felt good too. Harms were killin' and we did Leading Me Home with a little funky lilt which felt nice.

Encore and Bid You and we were done. It always go too quickly. After the set we had a drink with the promoter and his girlfriend and a friend around the corner and chatted. It was a great night.

We were saying that maybe today was the best all around day; cool little town with loads to look at, nice hotel walking distance to venue, great dinner, great venue with awesome sound and sound man, awesome sold out crowd, good post gig hang. Can't ask for much more than that. Only two more shows and then it's back to reality... And sunshine!

2/5/15 day 16: Leutkirch, DE

Had a nice lazy morning in Baeinfurt. Huge floor to ceiling windows in the Seitzinger house revealed a bright blue sky and loads of sun light; a first this tour. The house felt warm and cozy while outside everything sparkled under a coat of snow. The bare limbs of the trees quivering in the wind. Lorenzo the cat was sprawled out on the rug under the coffee table by the couch, as was little Emil. Lorenzo spends most of his days sitting motionless, staring out into the snow and then finds a spot away from the two kids and naps with one eye half open. You can tell he's not amused by all these humans. Tommy says in the summer he basically lives outside. He's just patiently waiting for the thaw and saving up his energy and then he's gonna blow this joint. The tiles on the main floor are heated which makes a huge difference for Lorenzo the cat and little human Emil. Emil spends about 80% of his day wriggling around on the floor until someone swoops him for a meal or a snuggle. One minute he will be flopping around on his belly and then two minutes later he is under the kitchen table on his back happy as a clam. Occasionally he'll check in and shoot you a glance and a half smile and continue on his adventure to find the clothes pins or tangle himself up in the hoola hoop. The hoola hoop hasn't been this popular since the 80s. Emil is bringing it back single handedly.

We said our goodbyes to Tommy and Co. as well as the Boettcher family and made the peaceful 45 min drive to Leutkirch without international incident. We passed through tiny little villages along the way, all under a good 6" of fresh snow. Blue bird skies all the way made we wish I had brought my shades but those are back at home awaiting my arrival. Passed a couple cars but basically the towns were deserted.

Leutkirch had some activity; cars, people, shops, etc. We parked the car at the Härle Brewery (our venue for the night) and met Herr Härle, the man himself, who showed us our hotel around the corner, and hooked up our dinner plans at the brewery restaurant. We did a short walk around the downtown area; nice

little town, nothing we haven't seen. Sounds terrible to say but it's true. It's still awesome and quaint and very German though. Germany closes between the hours of like 2 and 5. Not like hospitals (although I can't say for certain) or big supermarkets but basically everything else. And everyone goes inside their house and shuts their windows and waits. So here we are

walking around the little downtown "shopping" area trying to find lunch. Jeff spotted a Döner joint on the way into town so we walked over there. There literally was no other option. Peter even tried to deny the Döner and walk across the street to an Italian restaurant but it was closed. He came back slightly defeated but at least he tried. Jeff and I had given up hours ago. The Döner was only average. We all agree it's way better than any alternative in the states; fresher, healthier, cheaper. However it's still starting to get old! Jeff is going for a record; a Döner a day. We all think he should start a blog.

Went down for a nap after lunch and rallied at 530 in the lobby. We headed over to the restaurant for dinner and enjoyed a killer vegetarian meal. This is the first time we all got the same dish at dinner. It was spinach dumplings with browned butter and 'Berg Käse' (think a soft Swiss cheese) with a side of roasted winter vegetables and side salad. It was really delicious. Probably the first time I didn't have some meat product for dinner on this whole tour. It was a welcome change. Sorry, no pic. It was all gone in a flash.

Walked the 300 meters behind the venue; a 120 year old brewery that is still operating (and making one of my favorite beers).  The room itself was fairly non-descript but it was the room where they wet the barley and let it germinate and then dried, at least that's what I understood when Herr Härle explained it. And it's all still original. The place actually still had a faint smell of barley which I thought was cool. 

Had a nice little crowd, a little light but it is mid-week and a brand new market. The 25 some odd folks were into it though and everyone seemed genuinely sad that we didn't get a better crowd. We thought it was great! Great sound system, cool room, great beer... Not sure we needed much more on a Wednesday.

Home stretch now. Only a couple more gigs and then it's back to reality and the stories yet untold in Phoenix.

2/4/15 day 15: Baienfurt, DE

Another super righteous night of sleep. I could get used to all this sleep and rest! Up about 930 and in the family room shortly thereafter for coffee and Fruhstück. We had a band meeting with Tommy around 1230 and discussed Nov 2015 tour and Spring/Summer 2016 tour. Plans are devised, countries will be conquered, ears will be gently caressed far and wide. So stoked! Can't believe this is my life!

After the band meeting we took a band outing to Federsee in Bad Buchau. About a 45 min drive through the countryside. Very beautiful blue sky, bright sun, snowy ground situation. Perfect conditions for an afternoon drive. 

It was about a 30 minute walk to the end of the walkway which looked out over the pond. The air was crisp and my ears got cold but otherwise it was a great little adventure.

On the way in we drove through a little town we wanted to check out so we stopped in Bad Schussenrieder on our way out for some food and drink. I went classic German: Bierbraten, Kartoffel salat, und Brot.

It's perfect cold weather German comfort food. There was a big jar of mustard on the table which tasted amazing with the bread... The whole thing was a slice of

German heaven. So tasty.

We picked up some of the beers we had just tasted and a loaf of bread because we had dinner plans next door to Tommy's at Uli and Salka's house. They are the owners of the Hof Theater and amazing restaurant we love to eat at.

We walked over at 6 with Tommy, Simone, Lotta their daughter and Emil the little guy. Dinner was an outrageous soup with leeks, hamburger, potatoe, and mushroom in a cream and white wine sauce. Nice bread, delicious red wine... Then some fresh pears, more

Bread and then cheese. Killing. Uli and Salka are great. Uli is an actor and Salka runs the restaurant and loves horses and speaks French with Peter, who loves it. They r really warm and fun to hang with.

Really delicious scotch Uli shared with us.

We had a great hang talking culture, art, food, life and then walked around the corner to Tommy's around 12. Another great night. Excited to work tmrw!!

2/3/15 day 14: Baienfurt, DE

Had a good long sleep in today. And I needed it. Game ended around 4:30am and we didn't get home until about 5am. But it was worth it. What a game! So cool to be able to watch it. Loved seeing pics of Phoenix. Looking forward to being home soon. We've had snow almost everyday. It's cool and all but I miss the heat and the sun. Haven't seen the sun much at all. We had it for about 5 minutes yesterday on the drive but that's it.

Hung out with my man Emil today. Cute little guy. He is the son of our agent Tommy and wife Simone. Their daughter Lotta was also home but she was busy watching Pippy Long Stockings on the TV.

Headed into Ravensburg for the afternoon. We were all starving by then so we stopped into the first Döner joint and powered into a nice little sandwich. Still on the hunt for the finest Döner in the land. Today was average. Good but average. Bread was decent, yogurt sauce was nice and garlicky.

Wandered around a little. Super nice little town with loads of shops and folks walking about. It started snowing heavily so we popped into a little cafe for a coffee and some wifi. Coffee was nice, wifi wasn't working. Fail.

Scenes of Ravensburg. Right after I took the shot on the right, it started coming down hard. Nice day to chill in a cafe and read or write or sleep, like I wanna do. Headed back to Tommy & Simone's at 545. Tonight is pizza & karaoke night at the Seitzinger house.

Enjoyed dinner with the whole fam. Had some great red wine from Tommy and Simone's wedding, and some nice local pizzas. Favorite was the Parma ham, arugula and Gorgonzola. Killin'.

Afterwards, we played/sang play station II singing games. It was like the German version of rock band. Jeff was the undisputed winner. I wanted freedom to improvise... The judges didn't appreciate my desire to be unique.

Called it an early night. Everyone is either a little fried from the game last night or recovering from a cold. Either way, everyone checked out by 1030. Goodnight world.

2/2/15 day 13: Baeinfurt, DE

Had a really nice long night of sleep. Up at 945 for a very modest breakfast and then hit the road for Baienfurt at 11. Made a pit stop along the way for a coffee and a cascading selfie in the winter wonderland that is Germany right now.

Made it to Baienfurt around 1 and had dinner at the restaurant attached to the venue; always a tour highlight and the Sunday brunch did not disappoint. Loads of good hot german comfort food in rich gravy. Creme Brûlée for dessert. Took a 20 min nap on the couch in the green room until Tommy rolled up. Then we met with him and his wife Simone for a minute before walking back to the venue for sound check which finished around 5. Got cleaned up at his house next door and made it back to the venue at 615.

Snow was coming down all afternoon.

I wasn't hungry for dinner which is a shame... The dinner that the restaurant serves is the stuff of legends but I just wasn't hungry. I'll eat there before I leave here on Wednesday though. We hit to a nice crowd of about 70 at 7:15. Per usual, the crowd was fun and respectful. Had 'em singing for Printemps À Paris and clapping along to 1000 Little Pieces. A young couple from Zurich made the two hour drive with mom to see the show. They requested Easy as an encore, so we rocked that one and then Here Comes The Sun and Bid You. Great night. Love playing the Hof Theater. Such a treat.

We wrapped around 930 and got a ride from Uwe our sound man to a bar in Ravensburg that was showing the Super Bowl. It was awesome! There was even a hot dog eating contest before the game... Because, you know, all American bars do that!

I got myself a cheeseburger, ordered up some beers and we sat and watched the game (read: were loud Americans). Maybe the most interesting aspect of the game was there were no commercials. At time outs and quarters, they just went to a wide angle shot of the field... No super loud annoying commercial, just silence. It was amazing! Oh, and we won!

Settling in for a LONG night. Game started midnight our time.

Burger options were interesting...

Game faces

Celebratory Obstler. Go Pats!