Bilbao Espana, fly to Barcelona ES

TOUR THE PLANET...
MONDAY OCT 20 -
Bilbao Airport, Espana to Barcelona Airport
SPANISH BOMBS - The Clash
London Calling (1979 UK, 1980 US) -or- The Clash Live at Shea Stadium (Oct 2008)


"Spanish songs in Andalusia...."

"..Costa Brava..flying in on a DC-10 tonight.....freedom fighters died up on the hill"

"....Spanish bombs.... yo quiero infinito....yo te quiero, Oh ma corazon....!"

Wow. a history lesson....a trip thru the glory , fascism, civil war and fiery history of this place.....

What a great song!!

Punhcy riff, layer acoustics (!) and electrics that come in in layers, Strummer and Mick Jones great combo-vocals... I still loive Mick's voice -- he has a great new band called Carbon/Silicon with Tony James of Generation X.

Tthis is simply one of the greatest albums of the 80s, or really any time. so fucking timeless. I can't possibly calculate how much I've heard this LP....I've owned it on cassette..LP...CD...double-CD reissue.....or how colossal the Clash are to my personal mythology. Joe Strummer...man I miss that guy, Never saw the band, but caught Joe once with the Mescaleros, which was glorious.

A lot of people don't know i'm basically a DIY punk at heart -- paying attention politically and LIVING THE CHANGE not just placing your faith in the "next savior" , self -awareness and the whole animal rights influence from the straight-edge side...using technology to better things but fighting commercialism and materialism. The politics.... intense and direct and showed me a way to write angry songs that said something general and didactic....but kept it fun and not slogan-like. And they taught me early on that both sides usually need some critiquing, but fascism was the worst of all.

In 1980 I turned 15 on Feb 9. I got on the train and went down 3 stops from Hazlet NJ to Red Bank, and got "London Calling" with my allowance or whatever I had. I had heard a little of the Clash's debut album, and had taped their Sep 1979 radio concert, I was sold. It's all I wanted, and I wore that little cassette out, I still remember how exotic it was, this new music we had been hearing for a month or so on the radio, this band from England with so much intense, pure punk energy and slashing guitars had...blossomed into a kaleidoscopic blast of countless styles and textures..wow! acoustic guitars...horns... more deep reggae.....funk...rockabilly..and some bona fide runaway hits like "Train In Vain (Stand By me)" or "Lost in the Supermarket". still such an amazing album. Some stuff on there sounds like..really no one else. "Rudie Can;t Fail" and "Hateful"...wow.

I hate the term "ahead of it's time" but I guess it fits here. I also firmly believe nothing is really 'dated'. It may remind one of a time, or be identifiable by the sonics, but how can art be dated? Is Beethoven or Haydn "dated". You NEVER hear anyone say that. When the Beatles used a harpsichord on a track, was that "dated" since the instrument was 200+ years old?? Music fans can really be morons. Anyway -- if you don't know LONDON CALLING go run now and hear it. the brand new (oct 2008) release of the Shea Stadium show is blowing me away every couple days as well -- this was from the tour they did with the Who (my fave band) and David Johansen.


Today's setup time was very intense and difficult for me, maybe i'll revisit that later. Terrible personal stuff, and several days later I am writing a lot, still in therapy and making sense of the world. Somehow I held it together with the help of a very great, compassionate crew and the band. We were in a nice small club (300 cap), the kind Adrian prefers by a long shot.

(PIC: streets of Barcelona, w/typical quiet clean commuter tram. Evil Socialists!!!)

Nice tight setup again -- MARSHALLS, yeah! We had originally ordered fender twins for this tour, with the OPTION for Marshalls, but when Adrian used some Marshalls the 2nd date he fell in love with how they made his Johnson Millenium sound.


ADRIAN BELEW POWER TRIO:
the gig tonight was just great -- I think the band would rank it the best so far--- maybe tied with Vevey or something. I agree - very ROCK n ROLL energy onstage. Always for all of us performers -- a close, packed club is THE BEST , seeing the crazy increasingly buzzed crowd just a few feet from you is unbeatable, really! This place is called FORUM BIKINI, medium stage, very deep and again the band up front, tight. Didn't need my espanol as much tonight, I just kept my head low and got in there and did the job. Very much flying on auto-pilot this night.

Very psyched, energetic crowd, lotsa Crim fans again right up front singing all those words. The band was visibly pumped -= Adrian LOVES this kinda packed crazy vibe out in the audience....as I said The Crimson material went over extra well here in Espana.

The gear has been working pretty well despite a snafu or two....the Boomerang looper has been working fine --in Russia it was intermittent, driving us crazy. I thought it was a power-supply issue, but now it turns out it may have been a faulty XLR direct out on the amp. Fortunately the Johnsons rule and there are TWO channals of XLR out, so I just switched it and we've been golden. (PIC: Adrian Belew Power Trio rocking the nearly 300 happy Spaniards in Barcelona)


We stayed in the city of course, and it was great wheeling thru the clean, busy streets with our promoter for both Espana gigs, runner and general great new friend and music freak - -Sergio Merino. More cool modern architecture..even saw a classic bullring, being refurbished..into a shopping mall. wow. good for the bulls. Sergio explained to us that the Spanish anti-cruelty movement is very strong, and has really pushed back on this brutal, bloody sport. I didn't realize the bull was gutted and chopped up immediately , and sold at VERY high prices to restaurants nearby, so-- people as they poured out of the stadium, would go to their fave place, get some drinks and very soon eat some of the actual bull they just watch get tortured, gored and finally killed. I am glad humans have been headed steadily away from this kind of senseless behavior for centuries now, even tho' some people never will, and so it is. No reason to stress about that. I'm here to help those who want to move forward, and eat a compassionate diet.