In Australia at last....

G'day mates!!

Well, I couldn't resist. Get ready for TOO MANY silly puns and references..... sorry in advance.

Left: Here I am Rockin' IN AUSTRALIA to AC/DC's "whole lotta rosie" from the crushing live album IF YOU WANT BLOOD...

It's great to be here..wow...what a DAY (literally) of travel.... I started with 3 or so hours of air travel from Asheville NC to Nashville TN, then a short drive to BelewCentral, where I crashed in the Fripp Suite, then packed up Adrian's remaining fly-gear, and caught a 3pm flight to Denver, then LA. In LA I met up with the Slicks, and we hopped on the United flight for FOURTEEN HOURS to Sydney Aus, then hung about in that fine airport, until we flew to Melbourne, where we'll be for the next 3 days or so. TIMEWARP!! We left the USA on saturday...now it;'s MONDAY afternoon, we got here around 1130am...weird...

OF course in typical style I had to crank up some AUSTRALIA connected music for the flight over, mixed into my playlist - unrelated to OZ -was lotsa Fiona Apple (Tidal, Bootleg:Orpheum Theater Boston '97), the new McCartney album as THE FIREMAN, fantastic, not as spacey as the earlier stuff but plenty psychedelic/acoustic bluesy folk (of course), Steve Hillage "Green", lotsa Zappa music (incl. Lather, Sheik, Orch Faves, Mothers of Prev., and some great Zappa/gear interviews...) and of course AC/DC..the mighty rock champs from down under....

How much do I love these guys ??.... let me count the ways. Let's start with THEY ARE THE FIRST BAND I EVER SAW ONSTAGE at a real concert...I was 14, it was Madison Square Garden, (summer 1979) they opened for Ted Nugent...tickets were about $10....as were the T shirts and programs...wow! It was ..incredible... Somehow my mom let me go to that one..inexplicable. But it kicked my ass....and here I am. An unapologetic rocker, thru and thru.

Plus BON SCOTT was still alive...man oh man. Tragically he would die 5-6 months later...
Well - I went on to see them with Brian Johnson 2 or 3 more times thru the years...and will attend a show pretty soon on the SOLD OUT USA tour going on right now.

My fave Angus Young story - true or not (??) - is when some journo asked him:

"Angus..you've been accused of making the same album eight times..what do you say to that??"

Angus replied with a snarl:

" Tha's a durrrty lie !! Ah've made the same album TWELVE TIMES !!"

Ah yes. they are PERFECT. don;t ever fix it. I had the joy of running rehearsals for the AC/DC show when I worked at School Of Rock, Bergen NJ...what a blast that was.

Anyway -- of COURSE I also had to rock some MEN AT WORK (because I'm the corniest, silliest man alive..) As i was listening to them -- I came upon a store..and guess what they had for sale: Yes , the infamous yeast spread of Australia: VEGEMITE. Some of you may only know of it from the MAW song "down under"..it;'s a STAPLE here, as MARMITE is in the UK..similar stuff. Think of a combo of
Miso paste and peanut butter, perhaps??? A salty, yeasty conccoction they eat here with EVERYTHING...especially toast and cheese. Altho' our tour liasion suggested 'toast, avocado and vegemite' ..Hmm.. will have to try that, I've already rocked some on flax crackers - fantastic!

So - mark me down as Idiot Tourist. There I was in an airport natural food store..buying Vegemite while Men At work was on. I dare you to do something more stupid.






Hmm.. Then THIS stuff caught my eye.... Um... guys...what is this cheese MADE OF, exactly..?? "Tasty"..huh??

I love finding words and signs in other lands...that would mean crazy stuff back home...or vice versa, or viva voce, or whatever.

But wherever I go , it's a chance to see how fucked up humans are in their quest to torture, maim, abuse and then SLIT THE THROATS OF innocent, or even not so innocent animals. Today's entry in the "Slow To Evolve" sweepstakes is this little display of various JERKY products..including Emu, Kangaroo and Crocodile. Poor little bastards never saw it coming. Emu??? I thought they were ..endangered? Guess not. And - of course if someone "farms" them ..then they can hide behind that I guess.. Well...lotsa work to do...at least it's a few steps better than factory -raised, drugged up, irradiated cows, chickens and pigs, as in your typical all-american egg/cheese/ham breakfast ....BON APPETIT!

We're OFF today and tomorrow (Tues) as well...Adrian arrived in Sydney a few days before us to do press, he gets here (Melbourne) tomorrow some time....and our first gig is Wed in town. I dropped Allan Zavod a line, hopefully he gets it in time and can make it out to the show... Allan played keys for many great bands, his own jazz, classical and fused projects first and foremost, but also for the great 1984 Zappa tour ("Does Humor Belong In Music") video from the pier in NYC... and also some great Ponty tours and albums.


If you are in Oz or know someone who is.....

ADRIAN BELEW POWER TRIO
DEC 2008 - AUSTRALIA

03 WED Melbourne, The Corner Hotel
04 THU Sydney, The Basement
05 FRI- 07 SUN Adelaide Int'l Guitar Fest.
08 MON Newtown, New South Wales The Vanguard
09 TUES Newtown, NSW, The Vanguard
10 WED Cronulla, NSW, Brass Monkey
11 THU Bulli, NSW, Heritage Hotel

Back from the PROJECT/OBJECT tour....

(Ike Willis talks to P/O keyboardist Eric Svalgard at rehearsal, Wilmington Delaware, 13 Nov 2008)
Ah yes, a fun and fine time was had by all.... despite the OBSTACLES and attempts to stop what we do.... (more on that in a bit)

But -- Suffice to say ...it was fun, musical, and HISTORIC (Ed Mann and Ike Willis have not done an extended Zappa-music tour since....1988..!) We just did an 8 city tour (It was 9 until problems were visited upon us), and the fans out there ...you are so amazing, all of you!! thanks again...

Ed and Ike are the longest-running Zappa alumni, ever, and it's our distinct honor to have worked with both of them for so many years. Stand by for video links etc as things get put up..















Ed Mann sets up his gear, then meets some old fans - JAZZ CAFE', Wilkes Barre, PA 15 Nov 2008

Belew Tour, almost-Closer...LEVERKUSEN DE

Leverkusen....The Rockpalast sponsored GUITAR NIGHT

(LEFT: you can see the cool lineup we were part of during this festival, with Living Colour and Dominic Miller (Sting's longtime gtrist)

I'm Home now -- but reminiscing about what seems like a few days ago...we were nearing he finish line on this little tour.. (and the Finnish Line, we'd be close to that country soon)

It was such a great tour...after all the obstacles, brickbats and problems...we did it, I'm very proud of the whole thing, I did a lot of the early bricklaying work in the spring of 2008 to get this ball rolling -- and besides thanking The Slick Parents and everyone at TeamBelew, I have to thank especially my dear friend and EU booking agent Wolfgang Scheel at NovaConcerts for coming on board and booking a spectacular set of dates, all in such amazing parts of Europe, we all got a new appreciation for the physical beauty of the continent...from the air and ground.

The 2nd to last show of that EU tour ...We played at a 9 day music festival In Leverkusen DE, a great (2000 cap) venue that I had been to once before, in 2006 when I was Tour Managing/Teching for Al DiMeola. THAT show is immortalized on his recent video SPEAK A VOLCANO, clips of which I'm sure are on youtube. what is there is the final gigs (so far) that I did with him -- Israel, spring of 2007 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kogs1RpHmlI&feature=related - really amazing stuff , filmed by my buddy Ehud Lazin.


ANYWAY...great time in Leverkusen.... we were on a bill sandwiched between Dominic Miller and Living Colour, one of my fave bands of all time.... I have been seeing them since sometime in 1985....well..before they were Living Colour and it was "Vernon Reid" then..."Vernon Reid Trio" etc.

1985...I went to see one of my guitar gods JAMES "BLOOD" ULMER (if you don't know him -- again , run to youtube now.....)

and there was this guy, unknown to me VERNON REID opening up--- I might have seen his name in the Village Voice playing small clubs...but there and then I became a Vernon Reid freak -- he was incredible, that much I remember. So-- started to scour the papers for ANY chance to see this guy . Yes the 'papers' (this is pre-internet, kids!!)

So I watched as his trio morphed and changed, I started finding him on recordings by Ronal Shannon Jackson, right around 1985 he and Bill Frisell released a duo record, "Smash And Scatteration" within which they played ALL kinds of instruments that fascinated and interested me...banjo, guitars, guitar synth, drum machines, all kinds of wild AND traditional sounds..

thru the years... Vernon kept breaking the rules (and still is!) in "My Science Project", GTR OBLQ (with David Torn and Elliot Sharp), Yohimbe Brothers (with DJ Logic & Leon Gruenbaum on the Samchillian Tip Tip Tip Cheepee), Masque and several other projects...touring with the great JACK BRUCE's band, doing Hendrix tributes with the Gil Evans big band, you name it!

Living Colour was just really great in Leverkusen, and especially cool to see them the night before the historic election..... I ran into Dennis Diamond - Vernon's longtime guitar tech and everything-gear-guy (there's Dennis at right)
None of the guys knew I was at the gig - so I had a blast seeing the shock on their faces one by one...

After Dennis... The first band member I saw was drummer extraordinaire Will Calhoun...who was walking back into the venue from sending out his ballot via priority mail of some sort.....half the fun was seeing the look on each of their faces as I surprised them - !!

It was a serious Geek-Fest as I hung out with Vernon for a while talking gear and checking out his extensive bank of effects, laptop and new amps (he's beta-testing the new Bugera tube amps and combos....)

(LEFT: Vernon Reid explains his sci-fi guitar signal chain as Dennis plugs a few things in...)

Vernon hipped me to a few new plug-ins he had recently discovered, and we talked about "Guitar Rig", a software amp/FX system he uses that we are checking out for Adrian as well. Notice the killer Roland VG-99 to Vernon's right ... IMHO that is just one of the sickest new devices to come down the pike in YEARS.... I don;t have one YET but I use the Boss GT-10, which has the same computing brain, just for a regular, mono guitar signal as opposed to 13-pin GK hexaphonic signal....I used that on the recent Project/Object tour....


Here is a part of Vernon's effects bank .. a Boomerang looper, the Roland FC-300 pedal (I love that one, very useful), an Eventide Mod Factor multi-modulation pedal, the yellow thing is a Digitech, I forgot which one.. is that the Space Station..? and a wacky custom pedal (the little red guy ontop of the Boom). Yikes!!!







ADRIAN BELEW POWER TRIO - LEVERKUSEN
(ADRIAN BELEW and his trio under the TV lights, in front of an energized crowd, Leverkusen DE, 3 Nov 2008)

An energetic, stellar show....fortunately captured forever by german TV WDR....an awesome multi camera shoot of a fine show. At this point the band has just one date to go...and this one was NUMBER EIGHT in a row... wow....

I think Eric was (unnecessarily, but understandably!) nervous that Will Calhoun was in the room...it pushed him into some cool new stuff....check out his drum solo...

the crimson stuff went over extra great tonight -- and as always "e" was great, the fans here really got it, a captive 'guitar audience'

This will be a real bonus to "introducing" this band to a whole wider , EU audience....a it was captured in expert German style...with a 5(?) camera shoot..stand by for ways to see the complete thing....

Hanging out with Vernon Reid the day after the show, I'm about to leave for our flights to Lithuania...

Lithuania by way of Latvia..was a surreal and wonderful.... We got there on election day for the USA, and for us the news of Obama's win came at about 3 or 4 am...my TV Was messed up so I found out by checking the net every few hours...I was pretty serene about it -- trying to not set myself up for disappointment in case it was ANOTHER Diebold election....but ..wow.. woke up to a new direction.

Obama can;t do it ALL....Let's see what we can do. It starts with CITIZEN ACTION on a daily basis..recycling..using less..eating lower on the food chain... buying sustainable products....paying attention to packaging...fuel usage...reproducing responsibly (or not at all)..supporting non-violence as a way of life...conflict resolution ...supporting green candidates....all of this will make a REAL change..and finally we have a president who would at least LISTEN to such talk.

Criss-Crossing Germany/Some Bad news...

Mothers Of Invention and Keith Emerson

Today is a bittersweet day....

Jimmy Carl Black left this earth

Keith Emerson celebrated his 64th year.


Keith did a version of LUMPY GRAVY, that made me happy to listen to today...celebrating both he and Jimmy Carl Black era of Zappa-musik.

I found out last night that the great Jimmy Carl Black has died, lost his long battle with leukemia and cancer....

What a great guy, a sweetheart to the end. I didn't know him well but he always stayed in touch and sent helloes my way thru common friends. I still remember the day I met him, Summer of 2000, it was a big Zappa festival in the middle of Illinois...ill planned -- hardly anyone showed up for the size and scope of the event...he and the other Mothers walked into the cafeteria..amazing!! Roy Estrada, Bunk Gardner, Don Preston... to meet them all at once ..still blows me away. They knew all about P/O and we hugged, shook hands, Jimmy had that wide perma-grin...it was amazing for a young Zappa freak....

We all went in and had a meal, it was great. Somewhere I still have un-developed pictures from that day. Remember developing film ?? Another things that has slipped into the past....now, like Jimmy.

Project/Object played at the fest, as did the Grandmothers...and Banned From Utopia with all the 70s/80s guys..unreal!! it was the first time Ray White sat in with us.. I think JCB sat in that day as well - doing Lonesome Cowboy Burt with us...

My fondest memory is -- at some point I was hanging out with the Granmothers....in their rickety mobile home they were touring in.....and you could hear Banned From Utopia was taking the stage.

So I had to literally pick between continuing to hang out with -- cmon!! the MOTHERS.... with Jimmy was rolling a joint the size of my finger...or see the Banned From Utopia, who I hadn;t seen live in 5 years!


Um..I opted for the joint with the 60-something year old legends. THEN i went out and saw the 40 and 50-something yr old legends!


We met Jimmy again in 2002 at the GREATEST Zappanale..the one where the statue was unveiled... the mayor (kapellmesister??) came and did a speech and promoted the whole thing..Ike Willis..Mike Keneally..Scott Thunes...Candy Zappa and Bobby Zappa were there....the Grandmothers...and I had the honor of playing the set with them - Don Preston, Bunk, Napoleon, Bob Harris, Roy Estrada..and Jimmy Carl Black on a couple numbers....with Miss Pamela dancing and Bobby And Candy Zappa watching a few feet from me...I was terrified for the 1st couple songs.. but it remains my pinnacle Zappa memory, along with taking Frank a sign and participating in his show for 30 seconds..

Jimmy - R.I.P !!!

Keith -Happy Birthday..play one for Jimmy!!

Hallow'een in Zurich CH

Today back to the 5+ hr drives.... this time we head south to Zurich, completing our SWITZERLAND TRILOGY ( to go along with the Netherlands Trilogy). We have played now in ALL THREE sections of CH (confederatione Helvetica, the official name of switzerland...)..we started in ..Lugano (Italian Switzerland)....stopped in Vevey (French Switzerland)...now in Zurich (German Switzerland). Such a crazy country!! What a nutty experiment...and it works..!
Again the EU truck stops and their great salad bar serves my Van-Floor Gourmet Table well.. some fine Insalata Verde with a garlicky broad bean salad, some kraut and tomatoes etc... wow.


ADRIAN BELEW POWER TRIO --THE SHOW
...another great show!! I was fooled - we all were- with this place when we got there and saw the little stage...the small amps.....it's a jazz club (Bill Frisell coming up next week...) and that always wiggs us out a bit...right away we were considered TOO LOUD ..and that is usually the case..... also the sound system is usually waaaaay inadequate buit no, this system was actually pretty ballsy...

but as i let the posters and listing on the wall sink in, I realized it was more diverse than "just jazz" -- they had funk bands, pop stuff, electronic...and the main floor area was open/no seats, so that was a good sign.

Sure enough - they crowded in there and were a rocking crowd!! It got pretty packed....

here as in in NL, some super-Crimson freaks were flipping out when they hit those numbers...and I was even surprised by the RARE appearance of "Elephant Talk"..very cool...

In attendance were some local friends of ours- including a transplant from the USA-- our dear friend and brilliant songwriter Chris Harford !! Chris is here for a couple months..it was still surreal to see him there, so far from our familiar haunts.

I started seeing Chris play...oh god..was it 20 yrs ago. ??? Holy Fuck the time is flying. I guess we're making the best of it tho'....

Chris.....I was put on the spot to describe his music to some local friends... urgiong them to go check out his weekly Zurich gig...I say it's utterly unique... he doesn't filter his emotions it seems.. just pours out his story for better or worse. Yes-- you can hear wide ranging influences...the Band..Joni Mitchell, Neil Young..the Clash...80s indie rock...Jefferson Airplane.....but ... Chris sounds like Chris...from a whisper to a scream.. just check him out!!

A great place, some great old and new friends, a club owner that LOVED the band and was a total sweetheart to us...a hotel across the street....some good food...
A great night, personally a great first visit for me to historic Zurich......

.. in Nederlands...To Eindhoven 30 Oct 2008

(PIC: bikes outside my window...)









Van Halen
Van Halen (debut)
Live Bootleg - 1982??

...people forget the VH brothers are Dutch -Indonesian!!.

As you may know..The Dutch..during their brutal, murderous imperialistic/colonial years.... slashed and burned their way into dominating Indonesia.....and moved some of the people to another colony ..Suriname. I was born next door to Suriname, in ANOTHER former Dutch colony - now called Guyana. When I was born in 1965 it was called British Guiana..confused yet..???

SO ANYWAY..... when I come to Netherlands at some point I always make a beeline for some amazing Indonesian and/or Surinamese food..there are a lot of Indonesian people here. And thank the gods...because such a union produced those fabulous Van Halen Brothers.....

To celebrate their incredible rock-genius I had to blast the untouchable debut album "Van Halen" and then a random concert from 1982...just fuckin' roastin, Eddie is when he's on. Unreal


Urban Dance Squad
Life n' Perspectives Of A genuine Crossover

Then a few tracks from another great dutch band....what a shame they only stayed "underground" in the US despite some close calls at getting a bona fide hit with "Deeper Shade Of Soul" on their first LP. This was the 2nd one, my favorite -- it's really all over the place and just...wow, such killer riffs and melodic ideas. this gets a lot of spins thru the years, it's so good and...timeless.

Saw them once with...was it Living Colour at Cornell University...?? I think so. God the years are rolling by. All good.

These guys were really unique -- Rude Boy's great hip hop moves over a LIVE band...that was all over the map--- kinda like Manu Chao meets Fishbone or something. they could go from soulful funky stuff to anthemic rock in a flash, always glued together with the turntable and funky bass. Kind of a pre-cursor to all the rap-hybrid stuff of the later 90s,

UDS always reminds me of that amazingly fertile, happy late 80s/early 90s time -- with Fishbone, Living Colour, Jane's Addiction , Rage Against The Machine, Soundgarden, Faith No More, King's X, Red Hot Chili Peppers (Blood Sugar!), Bad Brains, Rollins Band, fIREHOSE, Voivod, Meat Puppets, Butthole Surferss, NIN...all the Lollapalooza nation stuff.

I listen to a TON of new bands, sampling them on iTunes and their myspace pages. But I don't often hear anything that's not a hybrid or derivation of a lot of the above bands.....there's some REALLY great stuff out there , you just have to seek it out.....music is alive.

Adrian Belew Power Trio -THE SHOW

what a killer show!! I'll keep saying it -- the band thrives-- like any good live band - on a rabid, involved and engaged audience. And this show, closing out the Dutch Trilogy (Groningen, Den Haag, Eindhoven) was just memorable stuff...

Started out with a spirited soundcheck, including trying out some parts for the "e" recording sessions coming up...

(PIC:SOUNDCHECK..eindhoven)
A soundcheck made extra special for me -- as my friend the great Theo Van Rock had shown up early to hang. As you may remember- Theo is the sonic architect behind the board for virtually all of the Rollins Band LPs/CDs whatever. Rollins always listed him as a band member, and rightfully so -- that band always had the most incredible sound, and he found a way to capture their might in the studio too....so he was there smiling approvingly at all the crazy math flying by....

The venue EFFENAAR is a stand alone building, with a big "zaal" (stage) and a small stage. there was another show that night so the enegry in the place was high wiith super-efficient dutch production and hospitality people scurrying about. With the hotel a 5 min walk away we were in great shape, able to get back and rest after soundcheck and a nice dinner at the venue, including some indonesian veggie curry, awesome...





'e'...the new work-in-progress the band has been doing.....this just rocks them every time -- it sounds better as they go along...the looping guitar stuff really becoming seamless...and the band keeps digging deeper for the improv stuff in 'beat box guitar' and 'madness'. Like everywhere here in NL, some super-Crimson freaks flipping out when they hit those numbers...Soon it was over with THELA HUN GINJEET, the usual encore of choice for this tour..

Just a great, high energy show.... the backliners brought EXACTLY what the band ordered, so everyone was happy -- the perfect Yamaha drumset, Marshall 1960 4x12 cabs and the Ampeg SVT w/8x10. Yes, they read the rider...
Actually, I can't hate -- virtually everyone on this tour has been really great here with the backline...VERY few snafus....i don't wanna bash -- but the CLUB THAT WILL REMAIN NAMELESS, BUT RUN BY AMERICANS, fucked us up on the gear a bit. Whatever.

We ended a great night with a stroll down to Theo's favorite bar for a quick nightcap and some conversation. He's currently doing sound in the NL, once in a while a small tour in the USA, and also some studio work with some of the guys from URBAN DANCE SQUAD. Cheers!

EINDHOVEN NL