Europe Day 14

I woke up this morning to our final day in France. As if my paragraph upon paragraph of superlative-laden drivel hasn't been clear enough…this has been an incredible trip. I'm so grateful to Brother Ali, who certainly went out on a limb by welcoming us onto this trip, BK-One, Rhymesayers, and all the promoters, friends, and family that allowed us to make this a reality. 

Last night we played in Orleans, a Western city known for…right. No offense intended to the inhabitants of the town, but Orleans was by far the least picturesque destination we've hit thus far. It wasn't explicitly unattractive, but after the castle/fort/river-boat filled stops of days past, a "normal" French town felt almost disappointing. We've been spoiled. 

After a 4 hour drive, we pulled directly in to the venue, and began loading in. An antiquated elevator system brought us from the garage directly up into the backstage area, and soundcheck was painless…due (more than likely) to the decibel limit imposed on live venues here the general sonic clarity of the PA and monitoring systems seems far superior to your average American club. It's nice to be able to, you know, hear what I'm playing!

Our dressing room was well appointed with Red Bull, beer, and water. The venue's kitchen had prepared a small pre-dinner snack for us, which appear to be a pile of raw cabbage, sitting next to a larger pile of rice mixed with salted fish and hard boiled eggs. One bite of the rice concoction furnished a mystery bone of some sort so, in the interest of avoiding any sort of foreign dental emergencies, I decided to pass on the delicacy…

Dinner was served at 7pm sharp and was, once again, fucking amazing. Fresh salad, amazing cheeses, root vegetables, carafe's of local wine, fresh bread, fresh caught shrimp…the standard chips and salsa back in the States will never be the same.

The opening emcee, Med Killah, had a full live band with him which, in the world of local opening acts, is usually a pretty big red flag. The resources required to run sound for a live band, even if the soundman is intent on running sound negligently, unavoidably takes time and attention away from the headlining acts. Tack on the inevitable disruption to the stage set-up, and you have what usually amounts to an unpleasant experience. Thankfully, yesterday was a pleasant surprise! Med Killah and his band was full of life and energy…he rapped in French, so I was completely in the dark as to what he was saying (much like the French crowds have been towards us….hmmm), but his stage presence was there and the band was pretty fucking good. 

Our set was relatively successful, though yet another broken guitar string is leading me to believe that there might be something structurally wrong with the bridge of my Stratocaster. Technical problems aside, our energy was good and, despite the language barrier, the crowd was open and receptive to what we were trying to do. 

Ali and BK, and always, destroyed the stage. Interestingly, last night was the youngest crowd I've seen thus far. Grieves and I are used to playing all ages shows for rooms full of underage kids, but our trip through Europe has, thus far, placed us in front of a slightly older demographic. 

The show over, hands shook, and pile of raw cabbage left undisturbed, we began loading our shit out to the van. Eric and I took the first load down in the elevator. I pressed "1" thinking that it was the correct destination. The elevator door opened to reveal a full, Olympic sized, ice hockey rink. Whoops.

Back to the hotel, and straight to bed, as I'm really beginning to feel the weight of the fatigue from being on the road for the past 2 months. It's an incredible experience, but sleep is often the first casualty to this lifestyle. 

I woke up at 8 and headed out on a run…while I did manage to track down the local river (every French town we've been to thus far seems to have been built around a river and/or series of central canals) I'm no more enamored with Orleans as a destination than I was when I arrived. Ah well.

We're on the road to Paris right now, with a luxuriously quick hour-long drive that should land us in the city with several hours to spare before load-in. Hell yes!