04/10/16 day 8: Biberach, DE

Caught the tail end of breakfast. Love the late breakfast. This morning it was 10:30.  It fits my schedule nicely. I went yogurt with granola and fruit, croissant and coffee this morning. Kept it light, kind of. Croissant smeared with Nutella are low cal right?

Said our goodbyes to cousin Alex who boarded a train bound for Rothenburg, outside of Nürnberg. Happy for his travels and adventures to come but it was nice to have him with us. He was helpful and brought a certain amount of tomfoolery and a keen sense of shenanigans.

We walked to the harbor right next to the hotel for a hot minute and checked out the sites. The sun made an appearance and the streets were busy with tourists. The cafes along the water were bumping; folks sipping coffee and drinking beers. Perfect day for it.

A lion and a lighthouse flank the entrance to the harbor. If u look closely u can see a Zeeplin floating in the background. We walked out to the lighthouse. It was an impressive view; the alps in the background... I mean, damn.

Rolled into Biberach around 2. Drive was uneventful. Peter and I did our 30 minute body weight exercise routine on the grass on the side of the hotel while Jeff walked around the city. That's three work outs this week, which was my goal. Feel good about that. Didn't even get wierd looks from the staff as we jumped around and squated on their front lawn.

30 minute nap after the cardio felt amazing. Out the door at 4:15 for the 2 minute walk to the venue which did an execellent job advertising the show. Similar to Lindau yesterday; nice big posters scattered around town. Venues take this stuff seriously over here. And it pays off. We met some folks tonight that just came based on the posters. Hats off to Ben Bloom for snapping the photo and my homeboy Adam Armijo for designing it!

This venue is ridiculous; first of all the stage is HUGE. It's a very large versatile room that does concerts, plays, musicals, etc. They set the room with four tops and Tommy said there was over 100 pre sale. It kind of reminded me of the big room at Tempe Center for the Arts.

The hospitality was on point. Nice dressing room, nice dining room with homemade Maultaschen (they are like big boiled meat dumplings) and potato salad. A couple espressos when we arrived set me straight. I was suffering from a post nap slumber but a dopio espresso snapped me out of it.

The show by our account wasn't our personal best. Don't get me wrong, it was solid but our standards are high after a week of shows. It was good though s we tweaked a couple vocal parts in the car today and very well received by the attentive crowd. We even had some friends roll up (shout out out to Ralf and Virginie who drove an hour to see their second show of the tour) and Simone our agent Tommy's wife who brought her parents. We all thought that was awesome.

Right across the street from the hotel is a Chinese joint (which surprisingly was still open) so we stopped in and grabbed some noodles to go which we devoured in the hotel bar. Peter brought a bottle of Sriracha from home which made this exceedingly mediocre noodle dish super tasty. Was in bed by 11:15 which is glorious.

This week has flown by. Amazing shows and fun times. Really looking forward to a couple days of relaxation at the Hof (our home away from home) in Baienfurt though. Need to recharge the batteries, do laundry, and have a home cooked meal.

Ciao from the guys. One week down. 4 to go.

04/09/16 day 7: Lindau, DE

Opted to skip breakfast for a couple extra minutes shut eye. Not sure it accomplished what I was hoping. I missed breakfast by a mile but the kind woman at reception hooked up some coffee. As we were loading out of the hotel Brent walked up and met us at the front door of the hotel and we all headed into town for Euphrat Döner; still one of the freshest, tastiest, well rounded Döner on the planet. It didn't disappoint. They make their flour tortillas fresh, there is a designated cat just doing this in the back, taking orders, working the meat slicer, greetings friends at the counter. Döner is only as good as its casing; either bread (fladenbrot/pita) or tortilla, and this stuff is fresh off the griddle. It's unreal.

We bid farewell to Brent by the Uni Bibliotek, walked back across town and grabbed the car in the parking garage and headed back into the Black Forest. Such a fun drive winding up through thick forest past ski hills and little valley villages. About an hour into the trip we hit the Bodensee (google it) and cruised along the picturesque coast with rolling vineyards, orchards and hops vines. We crossed into Bayern and over a small bridge to the island town of Lindau which as you can probably imagine is clean, quaint, and beautiful. We had about 45 minutes to chill before walking over to the venue; Spielbank Casino is a beautiful new building perched on the edge of the island. Upstairs you got your table games, downstairs the slot machines, and on the ground floor a small venue and restaurant. The stage is great; monitors sound crisp and clean, sound guy knows his business.

We dined in the restaurant at 6:45. Had some nice meals; I went with the grilled meat platter with fries and a salad. Tommy our agent rolled up around 7:30. We warmed up and hit the stage at 8 after Roland the entertainment director offered up some of his friends small batch single malt whiskey...

Great crowd. Reserved at first but heads started bopping, and there was even a lone dancer at the back of the room.

Germany, Switzerland, Austria all get a piece of the Bodensee.

Kind of a big deal...

Got called out for two encores. It's funny, sometimes the reserved crowds demand the most back. We obliged, willingly, and hammered Bid You and then Don't Look Close. CD sales were down (by percentage of attendance average) but still good and loads of good feedback. We are coming back to Lindau in November so people were stoked to tell us they will see us again. We hear the venue (zeughaus) is beautiful.

After the set we ventured upstairs and tried our hands at various games. I won't mention names or net numbers, but I didn't win. I did double down on an 11 but he had an ace showing. You always double down on 11, baby. I'm just saying, not in this particular case.... Sorry. Swingers reference. German casino, which I've never been into is very reserved compared to Vegas. It also requires jackets which they loan out for the night. Peter was the most pleased with his outfit.

There was also talk about a proper casino tour with the other 9 casinos in Bayern, which is either a brilliant idea or a terrible idea. Let's just say my luck was better in Vegas...

Another statue of Neptune. Tübingen had one too.

Pano view from the venue back towards the main land. To the left is the bridge, venue on the right. Big tree in the middle.

Sweet projection on the side of the venue

Bridge to Lindau. This town was buttoned up when we walked home around 12:30.

Night y'all!

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!

04/07/16 day 5: Kappelrodeck, DE

Up around 9am. Had a decent nights sleep. Could've been better but I shared a room with Alex and his snoring. Apparently, the Apple doesn't fall far from the tree... Breakfast was fairly righteous; really nice spread of some classic German fare.

Peter and I continued our exercise plan, which felt surprisingly good. 30 minutes of body weight exercises intended to kick your ass (among other things).

After the work out our friend Ralf showed us around Tübingen which is an awesome little city on the Necker River. Dig if you will...

Pano view of the Marktplatz

View from the castle

After a nice long walk about we hit a great Döner joint and introduced Alex to the magic.

Game changer...he will never be the same.

Said our goodbyes to Ralf and hit the road to Kappelrodeck which took us west through the northern tip of the Black Forest. Beautiful serpentine drive along the hill tops over looking tiled roof villages nestled in the valleys below. Temps dropped to just above freezing as we bombed through pine trees and remnants of serious snow fall on the ground. We arrived in the small town of Kappelrodeck around 4:30 with vineyards flanking our sides. Super picturesque little scene.

Our venue Vaya Casa is a gem. It's hard to explain but it's part medieval castle, Spanish casita, and music venue. Pictures don't really do it justice either. It's an old open roof barn that sleeps 11 with exquisite woodwork. It's rather stunning. The stage was set and the PA was fantastic with our new friend Matthias behind the console.

After our set the owner got on stage with tears in his eyes and explained how much the music meant to him and his wife and emplored the audience to tell their friends about us. It was so heartfelt and genuine.

As with many gigs, we were treated to some house specialties in the schnapps variety. Got a bottle for home. Such a treat. Another amazing night for the books.

04/06/16 day 4: Tübingen, DE

Up a little earlier than planned. My hotel windows faced a small square and at about 6am farmers started to gather to set up for a small market. So by 630 I thought some punk kids were having a party. Not much you can do against that. I decided I'd just get up and have breakfast downstairs. 

After breakfast I watched the last episode of Walking Dead which I had downloaded to my iPad. Holy smokes! Neegan is a complete dick!

Met the guys at 11:30 in the lobby and said our goodbyes to Kemal the hotel manager who might be our second biggest fan in Göppingen. Took a quick spin through the farmers market and found a nice old lady selling Pinova apples which made me very excited. We discovered this varietal last tour on the banks of Bodensee and man, THIS is an apple. Crisp and sweet. So I was stoked to find them today, however these were much smaller than I remember which gave me pause. I bought two tho and ripped into one only to be slightly disappointed; these lacked both flavor and crispness. Must not be their time. So I threw that rotten apple back at that old lady and said "bad old lady!" Just kidding.

Made it to Tübingen by 1:30 or so and made our way to the Hotel Fortuna which is a nice little spot outside of town a click. We loaded into our rooms and headed back out in search of food. We headed off in the direction of Reutlingen after the suggestion from the girl at the front desk. We drove about 10 minutes through non-descript neighborhoods and found no options. The prospect of food wasn't looking good until we randomly drove past a little neighborhood Biergarten and I slammed on the brakes. 

What a gem! The sun even made a short appearance. We feasted and toasted our good fortune (which happens often on these tours).

Peter "Ich bin gluh!"

It was glorious! I went traditional Wiener Schnitzel with fries and loved it.

After lunch I went down for a short nap but allowed myself some time to check out the spa attached to the hotel. The main attraction was a sauna, pool, and steam room. The band had the place to itself and this spa wasn't a "naked" spa so there was no danger of seeing any hanging chads. It was really nice. Not up to par with Seehotel Fontane in Neuruppin but sufficient.

On the road to Sudhaus at 5:15 and rolled up around 5:45 due to some traffic heading into town. Sudhaus is a really vibey building, it used to be a brewery than a furniture manufacturer, and now a cultural center with a bistro, art gallery, and a couple stages. We loaded in and sound checked when I got a call at about 6:45. Jeff put a German SIM card in his phone which allows us now to send and receive calls. This call was from my cousin Alex who is on a three month euro adventure. He planned to be in Tübingen for the tSR trio show but was at the first venue; the venue for our show had changed from the time he saw our calendar... I hopped in the car and picked him up. He was wandering around scaring the locals. Reunited!

Bliss/Chartrand

We dined on bacon wrapped Pork medallions with fried mashed potato croquettes in the bistro upstairs.

Green room band stickers.

Our friend and fellow singer/songwriter Johannes opened the show with a 25 minute set and then we hit two 40 minute sets. The stage was good, the Pa was good, and we had a full house of about 50 people. It went really well I think. The stories flowed a bit better than the first night and my German felt stronger. A bunch of friends including Simone and Ralf and Virginie, made it out which was awesome! A great night all together.

04/05/15 day 3: Göppingen, DE

Oh man! Had a righteous sleep! 10:30 to 8:30am. Might have set a record for longest, most thorough sleep the first night of a tour ever. Felt like a million bucks when I strolled down to breakfast at the hotel. It's a modest spread; nice fresh breads, juices, meat, cheese, eggs in various form... The standard fare really.  I stuck with some coffee, scrambled eggs, and half off a brotchen.  We ran through tunes in the empty dining area at 10:30. Occasionally the breakfast waitress would stick her head and encourage us on with something like "das klingt gut?!" As if to say "you guys don't suck as bad as I thought you would!"  Actually, was really happy happy with rehearsal.  We remembered a lot of what we had been doing on the last tour and it's already sounding pretty sensual.  Gotta give credit to Peter and Jeff for bringing their A game every time.  As Peter mentioned after I honked up one of my own tunes "A- for the band, B- for the big guy!"  Ain't that the truth, brother!

Peter and I had agreed to go get some exercise in the park after rehearsal, so around 1 we jogged to a little park next to a church around the corner from the hotel.  The park had minimal activity; a couple older cats sitting on benches staring off into the distance, young kids smoking butts, laughing, conspiring no doubt. (Clenches fist and squints eyes and mutters "damn kids" in his best Scooby Doo villain voice) Before I left Phoenix, my trainer put a 30 minute body weight routine together that focuses on core, but hits upper and lower body as well.  We were both cooked by 1:30 and hobbled back to the hotel to meet Jeff for lunch at 2.  And hold on, lets give credit where credit is due here, people... Did you hear what I just said?!  I exercised on tour! I think this is a first.  I brought exercise clothes and running shoes with me from AMERICA and I've ALREADY used them.  I mean, come on, I'm impressed.

We had scoped a couple Doner joints the day previous and Jeff had picked a favorite, so we crossed the main square and continued down one of the main streets in town lined with retail shops and restaurants.  I will be frank with y'all; I wasn't blown away with this Doner.  Now, hear me out, I've had a couple of these in my lifetime and it was just a little plain.  The bread was the best part; warm and slightly crispy but soft and a little chewy.  The bread was banging, it was the insides that lacked something to be desired.  It was just Doner meat, chopped ice berg lettuce, tomato slices, and yogurt sauce which lacked flavor.  Jeff, bless him, brought a bag of Frank's Red Hot packets which basically saved the day.  It took a fairly lame Doner and made it something special, man.  Thanks Frank's!  We started talking about how we should be sponsored by Frank's and make a video from Doner joints all over Germany where we have the cats behind the counter taste the sauce and film their reaction and start the hashtag #franksredhotambassador.  I think some of that plan is slightly ambitious, but the hashtag? That's just a money idea.  Does anyone know a higher up at Frank's?  Does anyone know Frank??  Anyone?  Bueller?

The weather was perfect Spring weather.  Cloudy with intermittent sun so we decided to take advantage and make for good sleep with a tall beer.  The square was busy for a Tuesday afternoon.  It must be school vacation or something.  We definitely weren't the only ones with this idea.  The little cafe (where we had dinner the night before) was doing some business when we rolled up.  Back at the hotel by 330 just in time for a nap.

Out the door at 5:15 for the 10 minute walk up the hill to Radio Fips which is an Internet radio station that has been a supporter of mine for years.  The lounge where we usually play was in the middle of a remodel so the new location for the live show/live streaming was in the basement of a church on the old American army base on the hill.  Many of the old buildings were still standing (barracks and hangar) and are now being used for office space and other private businesses.  The church, which was planned for demolition but ultimately left standing because many fought against it, is now a sort of cultural center that puts on events throughout the year.  It was nice to see the Fips crew; friends of ours now for years.  Actually, Radio Fips was The Sweet Remains Trio first gig in April 2013.  Good friends and long time supporters.

The show, which was live streamed at radiofips.de, was good.  We did a 60 minute set to 25 beautiful Germans that by all accounts went well.  My German felt really rusty for some reason.  I forgot all the stories that I usually tell and the words just weren't coming back to me.  That was slightly frustrating.  At some point, I just decided to speak in English and play music.  The incomparable Steffen Schenk who organizes and books all the live music for this series interviewed us a couple times throughout the hour and we were able to promote our upcoming shows.  After the set, we sold CDs and rapped with the locals.  It was a good night.  A solid first night of the tour.  Back at the hotel by midnight and after a quick powwow in Peters room (he scored a double room, while Jeff and I have more *cough* modest rooms) I hit the hay.  Radio Fips will be streaming the show again.  I think Sunday and Monday at least.  Check out the radiofips.de website and if you are feeling adventurous, click "horen" ("listen").  You might catch me saying "fuck" on air... Whatever, it's Internet radio... I do what I want.

04/04/16 day 2: Göppingen, DE

Landed in Amsterdam about 7. Super fried out, hungry, and in need of a proper espresso. Wandered around a bit, reoriented myself, found a couple cappuccinos by my gate to München but let's be honest, it's gonna take more than espresso to get the big cat back on track. Luckily, some of this spits familiar and Dutch to me sounds like drunk German, so my chances are good; I'll find what I need here and make my way to München without international incident. I did pack some Euros in the gtr case, so I'm good, although, these days, they all take debit without batting an eye. I just feel like handing them their currency gives me license to start dusting off German. Unfortunately, no one is impressed and all answer me back in English. Maybe I need a more angular, euro-centric wardrobe. I mean, I look like Brian from The Independents for crying out loud...

I dont even think I was fully in my seat before I passed out on the plane.  I think that half a sleeping pill was delayed release. I woke up as folks started to disembark the plane in Münchener Flughafen. Arriving in international terminals in the morning is strange. It's a maze of nondescript hallways. It's like you are in airport purgatory for 15 minutes before you are allowed entrance into the normal areas. 

It's Spring in München complete with bright green pastures and birds chirping and going about their business in an orderly fashion, as one would expect German birds to do.  The plan was to meet Jeff and Peter at the Sixt car rental booth and true to their word, they had assembled there and had already discovered wifi.  Got the keys to our brand new Opel Zafira and hit the road.  Short drive today; a quick 1.5 hr trip NW to Göppingen outside of Stuttgart.

Eyes are puffy but spirits are high. Getting the rental car at Sixt.

Short drive to Göppingen which is the scene of our very first tSR Trio gig three years ago this month. We are actually staying in the same hotel and the manager still has North & Prospect in his stereo.

This brand new Opel Zafira is the tour whip. Fits three musicians comfortably including guitars and luggage.

I hit the pillow hard for about 2.5 hrs and met up with the team downstairs in the lobby around 6. We walked around Göppingen looking for a good spot to grab some dinner and settled on a restaurant in the main square of town. We sat outside and enjoyed the cool spring weather and got caught up over plates of pasta and discussed the new set list for this tour. Too many hits baby!

Prost, Jungs! Becks on draft aint bad.

Grabbed a gelato on the short walk back to Hotel Dreikaiserberge (I went with mocha and Nutella) and was in bed by 8:45. Glorious! Gonna power down hard tonight!