Europe Day 11

Not to take anything away from the unique experience of playing on a floating boat, but the location of last night's show managed (somehow) to top the spectacle of our show in Lille. Pulling up to the venue yesterday after a relatively long 7 hour drive that had us traversing the northern border between France and Germany, the first thing that stuck out was, without question, the MASSIVE lion that had been carved out of the cliff overlooking the venue. The building that we loaded into was nestled against a small mountain that was situated in the center of Belfort. Surrounded by re-enforced stone walls, ramparts, and centuries-old military look-out points, it quickly became clear that tonight's Rhymesayers presentation was going to take place within the confines of a real, honest-to-God, French Fort. Yep!

Side note: Grieves and I weren't scheduled to play at all yesterday, as we joined the French leg of tour after several of the dates had been booked and filled. One of the French acts pulled out of their slot, however, so we had the unexpected opportunity to play.  A lucky break for us, and we were grateful for the chance to play a bit of music!

After a 6 pm load-in and sound check courtesy of Pierre, the exceptionally helpful and competent sound man, we had a couple of free hours before the show. I was pretty excited to explore the town a bit, so I took the time to take a bit of a night run through the fort and a bit into the town. There are so many aspects of this trip that have left me a bit overwhelmed at the breadth of opportunity and experience that I've been so lucky to have a chance to take part in but, for some reason, running through that French Fort last night took the cake. Snow in the air, ground lights illuminating the tunnels and ramparts, not a single person around, and a panoramic view of the town of Belfort from several hundred feet above. Fucking incredible!

<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/karpjg/BelfortFrance310201031120101?feat=embedwebsite#5447321523285224098"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zQcAOK4jlfc/S5jGEHTBaqI/AAAAAAAADA0/I4tGTx93a54/s288/DSC00644.JPG" /></a> A quick wash in the second strangest shower I've seen in the past two weeks, and I headed back to the venue, which happened to be a short two blocks from the front door of our hotel. A local restaurant had been contracted to cater the event, and a veritable banquet of cheese, salad, and jugs of wine awaited when I walked in the door.

The opening act took the stage around 9. I couldn't understand a goddamn word out of their mouths, but the crowd seemed pretty excited, so I'm guessing them to be local personalities of some stature…I think? The highlight of their show was a 4 Emcee-deep unison performance of a Snoop Dogg tribute medley…in French.

Grieves and I took the stage shortly after 10pm. As excited as I was to be there, this was the first time that we really, truly, encountered a significant language barrier in the presentation of our set. The crowd was receptive and open, but clearly had trouble understanding a goddamn thing we said. We put on a good show, and the sound was exceptional, but I left the stage frustrated at our attempts to get through to the audience, frustration that was compounded by the fact that I broke two guitar strings during the opening song of our set…and I'm pretty sure the 1/4" jack on my guitar is starting to fail. Everything always breaks!! The interesting thing is that, despite my personal reservations about the success of our show, the warmth in reception from folks out in the venue after we got off stage seemed to indicate that we were received much better than I thought we would be. Go figure! Whatever the case, the highlight of the evening was, without question, the chance to meet a local Gigolo/Hash Dealer by the name of Said'. Whoa.

Grieves and I had grand plans to explore the town's nightlife after the show, but after several nights of very minimal sleep, coupled with an increasingly thick blanket of snow that was beginning to make navigating the streets a bit of a challenge, we decided to retire to the Hotel Cristophe to get some shut-eye. Thank God.

I woke up relatively early this morning and, after another run through town, decided to head back up into the Fort to take some daytime pictures. While I wasn't able to get as close to that fucking lion as I would have liked to, I'm glad I got the chance to experience the arial view of the town before I left.

On today's docket is a super short 1 1/2 drive to Strasborg, where we're rocking at a venue called La Laiterie!

Until tomorrow....

Europe Day 11

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