04/13/16 day 11: Shruns, AT

The sun made a brief appearance this morning for breakfast of French toast and maple syrup (direct from VT) which Jeff expertly executed on the stove.

A grey slate of slow moving clouds moved in from the south as we packed the car and said our goodbyes to Tommy, Simone, Emil (who appreciated Jeff's culinary skills), Uli and Salka.

In order to drive in Austria you need a permit which you can buy at the border for a period of 10 days, 2 months or one year and you stick it to your windshield and then the eye in the sky sees that u have the right permit and you don't get fined. Pretty simple system. Two years ago we got nabbed for not having one. We weren't trying to be naughty we just didn't know we needed one. Even my "dumb American" approach to the cops that day didn't work. (See blog post 4/26/14 day 19: Öblarn, AT.) This time we were prepared.

It's amazing how different Austria looks, even in the border towns, from the natural colors to the preferred roof color of the houses and the mountains that seem to spring up as soon as you cross the border. We didn't drive long on the highway before exiting into a valley through a few small towns with majestic snow capped mountains all around us. 

We pulled up to our sleepy Hotel Both (1 minute from the venue) and met the sweet old woman who appears to be the owner. We requested rooms with mountain views because, well, most all of the keys for the rooms were hanging behind her which means occupancy is pretty low. She happily obliged and  made a call to her friend down the road for us to have lunch. Gasthof Löwen was where we lunched on schnitzel and salad.

This is a classic side salad in Germany and Austria; potato salad, shredded carrots, sliced cucumber, white cabbage, tomato. This one was so good. Dressing was killing. They lightly salted the tomato which was perfect. It's not often I get stoked on side salads, but this one deserves some praise.

Back to the hotel for an hour nap, which was glorious, and then over to the venue at 5:15 for sound check and then dinner. The venue Kulturbühne is an old movie theater from the 50s. Tonight it was getting soft rocked by yours truly.

Everyone at the club was super nice and even though the sound check was a little rocky at first, we got things dialed in and sounding sweet.

Johannes was opening for us again tonight so he and his girlfriend Monika drove down from Stuttgart. Around 6:30 we all walked down the street in the rain to an Austrian restaurant on the corner where i had, yes, a big salad with grilled chicken. It was called the "fitness salad" which made me feel less guilty about the huge, delicious Wienerschnitzel I had for lunch. I also ordered a side of "Montafoner" Käsespätzle. "Montafoner" is the local style. Käse means "cheese." And "Spätzle" is a style noodle that is very common in southern Germany and here. Anyway, it was delicious. It's the Austrian Mac and cheese. Peter gets an award for the "oddest dinner" and "most surprised look when the waitress brings you your plate." He ended up with fried white asparagus with smoked salmon and capers and wasabi. Definitely not what he thought he was ordering. His expression was pretty priceless.

My side dish is on the right. The cheese was a perfect blend of melty and stinky, which I mean in the best way. Total Austrian comfort food.

Back at the venue just short of 8pm. Johannes hit first with three songs, then we joined him on vocal harmonies for his fourth song; an original "who in this world." And then our set which I thought was pretty solid. We were having monitor troubles but we rose above and I think all in all it was a good night.

The crowd was appreciative but SUPER reserved. Usually the crowd will finger snap along to Peter's "The Beauty that Sureounds" or intuitively sing "ooh la la" in Printemps a Paris... Not this crowd! Well, there were a couple young whipper snappers in the back who were into it, but they were the exception. Not that they weren't appreciative of the tunes, they just weren't going to play along. After the set we had great feedback from the crowd though and sold CDs and chatted up some locals and then chilled at the bar and rapped with Christian the owner and some of the staff.

Walked back to the hotel, which was probably quicker than driving but it was raining earlier, and called it a night. Feeling good about Austria. It'll be a hard nut to crack but I think our music translates here. Also, I want to come back in the winter and do a "ski/music" tour...