04/08/16 day 6: Freiburg, DE

Breakfast at 10 and out the door at 11:30. The meal was relatively modest (bread, meat, cheese, yogurt, coffee) but Sabine the owner is a big sweetheart and the place is so stinking vibey. I think Chris her husband has already emailed our agent Tommy about us coming back next year. Can't wait. This will be a highlight of the tour for sure; great stage and sound, great dinner, solid performance, post gig hang was super fun, sleeping accommodations were on point... Can't ask for much more.

A short hour drive south to Freiburg. Blazing down the autobahn doing 190 km/h with the sun shining. It was pretty glorious.

We rolled to Hotel Alleehaus directly and unloaded our gear. We have the last two doubles in the building apparently. We immediately walked over to Feierling, my favorite brewpub in town. There we met my old friend Brent Meister who studied with me here in '97. He made the trip down from Paris. So righteous to see him and get caught up. Feierling's flagship beer is this unfiltered (natur trub) masterpiece that's light but flavorful. It's so tasty and easy to enjoy. Loved introducing it to cousin Alex whose mind gets blown on the daily. I'd like to think I have a hand in it.

A study in green

Cousin Al getting the good stuff.

We disbanded around 4 and I opted to catch a nap back at the hotel while Jeff and Alex wandered the town. We got together around 6 in the lobby and crossed over the Dreisam River to Wodan Halle for sound check. Wodan Halle is a great room; nice big stage, seating for 100. The music is booked and managed by our friend Ray Austin, English cat whose been in Freiburg for years and years. Ray is a character. He is a musician himself, in fact, Peter, Jeff, and I sang harmonies on a tune of his which is coming out shortly. I'll post when I know more. Anyway, sound check was breezy and quick and then we crossed back over the river to an Italian restaurant for dinner. I went Penne Gorgonzola with broccoli and a side salad. It was okay. Nothing spectacular. Not worth mentioning. Definitely not worthy of writing about in a blog...

Anywho, back at the venue by 8 and after a quick vocal warm up in the green room and an opening set by our friend Jojo we hit it. Really nice crowd of 100 beautiful Germans. The room felt super cozy. Long Biergarten tables pushed right up to the stage made it intimate and interactive. People singing along and bopping their heads. I was really psyched. A bunch of folks had seen us perform in the area before, so there were a bunch of familiar faces. I thought the performance was really solid. I thought When We Were Young sounded really good, and Crumble for that matter, which opens the second set. 

3 encores. Three separate times we thanked them and left the stage only to be called back. It was awesome. We did Bid You Goodnight, Don't Look Close, and Free Fallin'. Felt super groovy and the crowd was loving it.

Closed the venue down selling CDs and greeting new and old friends. An older couple befriended Brent and they came with us for a drink after the set. We walked over to Zum Schlappen which is a bar Brent and I used to go to back when we studied here. It was jamming with college kids, as well as older folks (like us). It was so busy we decided to stand outside for more space and get caught up. We even got to witness a couple of drunk dudes wrestle on the cobblestone... Ah, Freiburg!