24 Oct - Driving Milano, Italia to Worgl Austria..

FUTURE MEMORIES LIVE: Patrick Moraz (1979)

Today we started the leg of the tour with our rented van and driver, Peter Ullrich. Peter is a real cool guy -- we're lucky that he is also a ex-musician (horn/classically trained) and now a music-maker "I play the computer" . He also taught me the right way to say "Behringer". (The "ger" is said with a hard "G" , as in "anger", not like "danger")

We took off from Milano IT by 8:30h and after negotiating some traffic we hit the highway. (Buildings above just as we got on the highway. Man this damn iPhone camera is not bad for what it is...)

Dammit !! As we drove away from the hotel we realize we were mere blocks from a fantastic section of town with load of fresh produce sellers, all seemingly right from the farm. Just what I live for -- the locals and their fresh fare....and some local fresh live food...

Always happens tho' . When I'm PLAYING on tour I get a bit more walk-around/explore time... but when Tour Managing, it's often mostly hotel-room time, ironing out stuff for upcoming shows..tweaking gear requests, planning interviews for days off, crunching some numbers .

Anyway nice drive thru northern Italia into Switzerland. Would totally move here in a minute, love it. And -- feeling luckier all the time that Cheri & I moved to Asheville NC...we have mountains as awesome as this, no doubt. Not the cool chalets etc . But really -- the peaks are kinda reminiscent...

So todays musical tie-in is Patrick Moraz.. just 'cos he's from the little land locked "neutral" place they call..Switzerland. Like I said -- there's no rhyme or reason to what triggers a particular musical choice during the day -- but I DO try to listen to someone or some piece somehow connected to where we are....

SWITZERLAND -I love this place, always liked the idea and first came here in 2006 on tour with Al DiMeola, for the AVO fest in Basel. A crazy end to THAT show was coming back to the hotel late night to have a beer -- and running into one of my fave drummers, the inimitable Vinnie Coliauta, at the hotel bar! Even better -- getting into a conversation with him about the crazy unanswered questions surrounding 9-11. Vinnie was in town with Herbie Hancock and Nathan East to play the next day. Sick!

I love to tweak my ill-informed republican pro gun friends and shock them with the info that 'evil socialist switzerland' actually has perhaps the most guns owners per capita on earth! Why? At one point it was the LAW that you had to own a gun, and the state could randomly check up n you - check yr gun , ammo, etc. You had to learn HOW to use, clean, hold, store, load a gun.

The state was the one who organized this, very sensibly. I think that's called A WELL REGULATED MILITIA. That's the part of the 2nd Amendment that EVERY gun nut I have queried on this wants to skip by. Test a pro- gun person on that sometime (when they're not HOLDING a gun....). Most of them FAIL the test -- if you ask them if the "2nd Amendment is iron clad" and they think it should be "law of the land". They always say YES OF COURSE, I LIVE BY THE 2nd AMENDMENT.

Well- I always then ask them - "Why do you think it' s ok to SKIP the 1st half of the amendment.??" you should pause and look at the Amendmment yerself....HERE

They love citing the example of Hitler being 'socialist' so that means socialist take your guns. The usual stunted mental capacity of the US gun nut. Using the one bad example of Hitler (who was just a MANIAC and inexplicable) --their logic goes --because Hitler seized guns... then socialism is bad 'cos he was a socialist.....huh??? It's fun watching the election circus from afar this year..and seeing the right sling around the word 'socialism', a concept few of their supporters , much less Ms. Palin, could actually define. Hilarious. Here's a woman who JUST got her passport at age, 43 was it?, telling us about socialism. Fucking moron. And she might win.
ANYWAY -- THE MUSIC !! Even though we are just passing thru today -- we're going to AUSTRIA after all....Switzerland rocks!! I am just starting to read about about their crazy history --and Swiss keyboardist Patrick Moraz is just one of their great imports......remember his early 70s prog-trio with Refugee with Brian Davison and Lee Jackson of the Nice (early band that Keith Emerson's was in....)

Patrick has.....so many great records like "the story of I", "Out in the sun" and of course the great Bruford/Moraz LPs and tours , which I was lucky enough to see in NJ back in about 1985, a great show at which I met keyboard/violin legend Eddie Jobson. I met Eddie again thanks to the week we all spent in Russia (Belew Trio, Tony Levin, P@ Mastelotto, Patti Smith Band, Keith Emerson, KTU ( gunn, mastelotto, pohjonen) [see my August/September blogs & photos abt this amazing trip at Robin Slick's IN HER OWN WRITE page.

This Moraz album is so unsung and ahead of it's time.... really it is.
I'm kind of a synth freak, I've had the pleasure off performing ojnstage wiith Don Preston while Bob Moog was in the audience (bragging, I know!! but I mean, C'MON, Bob Moog!)

I've owned three Moogs so far (RadioShack Rogue, classic Rogue and currently a Minmoog-Voyager RME) and countless synth classics like a Sequential Circuits Six-Trak, Korg Poly-800, Korg Poly 61 (the LAST non MIDI synth they made, in fact the first one was the Poly 61-M), Korg Mono-Poly, Emu Proteus, Emu World, Kawai K1 II-R, Ensoniq Mirage, various guitar synths, sequencers and samplers.

And I'm here to say that if you love 70s classic analog tones, creative music, and live solo performance - and haven't heard this album, do so. The reissue tacks on two introspective solo piano pieces "Black Silk Pt.1 , Pt. 2"

But the synths kick in for "Eastern Sundays Pt.1 , Pt. 2". What Patrick did was have a live performance on TV, you have to see the picture sheet in the LP to believe it, for 1978, amazing stuff for solo playing. He is in a room FILLED with at that point state-of-the art gear,...every major synth it seems is in there -- Moogs, Oberheims, sequencers, drum machines...and the goal was to create pieces of music for...Live TV. I think the experiment was a success.I've been spinning this Lp for 25 yrs or more and it's still fresh sounding....

You can now get this all on DVD -- and there's some great video of the event here

"Metamorphoses Pt.1 and Pt 2."
After some bubbly sequence and a funky drum patch sets up the groove.... Pat plays around with some textural stuff over the top of it -- white noise, sampled vocals, R2-D2 blips, percussive synth teases.... And then - throwing a sonic curve ball amidst all the technology....some good old fashioned PIANO takes the lead voice for a while.. I love that contrast. There's an almost Indian/tabla duel on some sort of electronic pads, and what sounds like sampled Gyuto Monks chanting.... I mean , this is realy an amazing album considering, again , that it's THIRTY YEARS OLD , and at times one would guess it's Aphex Twin or Bjork...


Part 2 goes deeper into the vocal samples...and some really cool funky Moog stuttering bass , all the while shifting moods. really cool driving music, some of the rhythms are very train-like, propelling...the one lame track is the closer/bonus "Paris In Bottle" the title gives it away, it's that lame "blowing on a bottle" pan pipish synth sound , a syrupy melody over an insipid little beat.. ugh! I wanna jump off one of these mountains when I hear this!


ADRIAN BELEW POWER TRIO:

The gig tonight was at a rock club KOMMA, cool place - bar with "rauchen" (smoking) downstairs. I like saying "rauchen" because it sounds like "rrr-rocking!" And tonight the band was "rrr-rocking!" as they do when it's a standing place with a rock -stage feel, light show etc. they are introducing this set to the new EU audiences, and that they did indeed.... as usual people soaked up "e" like they knew it already, (maybe they DID from youtube..?) great supportive crowd, the band sounded great....

Ade had a pair of 2x12 Marshalls tonite, sounded great. For sure we love the Marshalls, have been getting 4x12s (1960 A and B) but this was a sweet change. A tight sound , maybe a tad lacking in low end but cool...



A nice wide stage, and great sound system with Meyer speakers and subs (Meyer is just..the best, or close to it,. It's what they have at the Berklee performance center - the entire PA).
Here's the cool poster they made for the show -- we saw them all over town on the way to the venue.....



















We stayed in this amazing Austrian Chalet, the KRAMSACHERHOF....looking out the window you had lousy views like:



I like the Austrians. Some may say - you're crazy, Andre' -- they are the source of Hitler and so much xenophobia. Well- I respect that. They're up front about it! And hey -- WHY can't you decide to keep your country ANY way you want to -- if the majority says so?? Isn't that democracy, Isn't that what we SAY we want?? Until the voting disagrees with what we dream of ..?? I'm all for local rule.

Today -- at least the minority of people here, in places like switzerland, germany who think a certain way -- have the SPINE and BALLS to call it what it is. They actually form parties with names like "Keep Austria Pure" , "Switzerland for the Swiss" etc....and they campaign, run their candidates & issues, and win or don't win.

BUT THEY'RE NOT HIDING BEHIND some crap lie like "we're the party of Lincoln" while unleashing the same racist/fascist policies....or winking at vicious racists at their rallies. So here's to Austrian, Swiss and other real-politik. Tell me what you really mean. I prefer that.

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.

SUNDAY OCT 19 - San Sebastien ES

TOUR THE PLANET...
SUNDAY OCT 19 -
Alitalia AZ0096
Milano Malpensa Airport, Italia -to- Bilbao Airport, Espana


(What else!??)
SONG FOR BILBAO - Pat Metheny Group - Travels (1983)
SONG FOR BILBAO - Micheal Brecker -Tales from The Hudson(1996)
Micheal Brecker/Pat Metheny/Jack DeJohnette/Joey Calderazzo//Dave Holland/Don Alias/McCoy Tyner


(Picture Of Bilbao by AC's new iPhone..) Finally I make it to Espana...wow!! I studied Spanish starting at about age 10, one course of it at Queens College in Georgetown Guyana, S.A. simultaneous with French, which sadly I never revisited (yet). Man - that was REAL schooling. Math, geometry, geography, science, english, spanish, french, gym, all at age 10. Wow. Imagine me in a little uniform - I loved it. I push back intensely on the idea the "uniforms cause uniformity" -do I see like I don;t live my own life, cut my own path? They were just cool, I was "in" and going to a real special school that my dad and uncles had been to...anyway, as usual, I digress. !!!

The point is -- I learned some spanish then, always loved it -- and then did 3 years in high school when I finally moved to NJ in 1978 (after 2 years in Brooklyn NY). So -- Spain/Espana -- always read about it , studied a little bit of the literature and dug the food, culture etc. So - a personal milestone to be flying here, the last big Euro-country I haven't seen, the last big colonizer/imperial power as well. man they killed some motherfuckers. Jesus.

All that's left to see here is all of Scandinavia, Belgium, and the tinies like Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco , and then the south-east europe like Greece, Turkey. With Adrian I just returned to Hungary, and went to Russia for a week with the Trio this aug/sep. I've been thru a bunch of Eastern Europe touring with Al DiMeola, and played concerts with Project/Object and/or Don Preston Akashic in Germany, Holland, England, Northern Ireland, Czech Repub. and Austria...

So Today we flew from Milan into Bilbao airport. So finally the place I imagine from the music will come to life...actually I have to say the song makes me think of brazil even tho' i've known for quite some time it's in Spain. I bet there's a Bilbao in Brazil, it just sounds like it, even tho they speak PORTUGUESE there not spanish. I bet you could stump Palin with that one.

After setup and before Adrian got there for soundcheck I got to step outside and get some amazing San Sebastian air and sun. WOW, again the SUN in Espana is incredible...really..otherworldy feeling as it hits your skin - what is it?? ! Is it psychological??? They really rock that in all their "come to espana" vacation ads etc, almost a cliche. well - I'll tell ya - the sun is intense!!

I got just within a block or two of the venue - right across the way I saw what I needed -- a fresh live fruit/veg tienda [shop]. I was happy to say I was able to do the whole thing in spanish "las uvas son Bio?" [are the grapes organic] since i saw the BIO sign...awesome, they were, and huge,juicy, incredible. Lotsa great grapes on this trip, and they have all been from pretty close, like France, Spain, Italy, etc..which always feels good.

Though that just reminded me (as I write this in the van days later) I snagged a VERY ripe kiwi at the breakfast buffet today and better have it -- wow that's good...not PC at all...Even tho' I sometimes inspire chuckles, and comments about about "eating nothing" and "empty calories" ..I am having such a great, energizing, super-diverse, food tour...enjoying the amazing fruits grown in europe like pears, apples, plums, olives, avocadoes, dates, grapes (and raisins), oranges, grapefruits, clementines, pomelos, and stuff imported from way south like bananas, kiwis and even a decent pineapple in Worgl.

As it's super easy to get organic food here -- they call it BIO (for biologique, basically french for 'grown naturally', biologically,not chemically), I have no problems getting great protein like fresh raw almonds, one of the ultimate protein and calcium sources we know of....also easy in the great truck stops to get some of my fave other high protein nuts like brazils, hazelnuts, cashews, the occasional peanuts, plus I always travel with pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and some green foods...

SONG FOR BILBAO
a bouncy, fun groove sets it up - and a rare song by Pat Metheny in a way - the classic Roland GR-300 synth sound he has made his signature for 28+ years jumps right in and takes the MELODY LINE instead of showing up later in the song for one of the solos.... rarely does he do that...... after a long piano solo by Lyle Mays Pat goes for it, what a happy, sunny piece of music, like the region of Espana itself. I had the version from "Travels - Live" in my ears as we landed, then later as we drove the highway out of Bilbao area to San Sebastien thru beautiful remote hills...the newer version from the very awesome TALES FROM THE HUDSON by the late MICHAEL BRECKER. Pat, like Adrian is one of my favorites because he has tried just about every guitar advancement that has happened -- and writes on so many different type of axes.

VERSION 2 - MICHAEL BRECKER What a great record -- Jack DeJohnnette, McCoy Tyner, Dave Holland, the sorely missed Michael (died early in 2007), and Pat again, on the GR-300. A killer take on this classic tune. I love the GR-300, Pat, like King Crimson of course was one of the first to have it on a record with "Offramp"(1982), but many of you can evoke a memory of it instantly by thinking of King Crimson's "Sheltering Sky", the screaming melodic guitar-synth that comes in over the strummed chords...also it's doing the huge pads on the front of the Police's "Don't Stand So Close", and the reggae-stabs on "Spirits In the Material World". Just a brilliant synth. wow. I still remember hearing that for the first time...and Adrian and Fripp made it a signature sound in their 80s work.

Adrian's GR-300 can be seen in many 80s Crim videos, and also on the back of one of his greatest records "Desire Caught By the Tail", and it still sits in his gear-closet in StudioBelew. He got it IN japan on a Talking Heads tour - probably the first one to leave the country! See - what's unique about it - still -- is that there is NO PITCH ANALYSIS, the custom guitar has hex pickups-- that are using the STRING ITSELF as an oscillator source, you are processing the sound of the strings. So-- you can do everything you do on a regular guitar - -slides, pick scrapes, harmonics, and get something sensible back out. Similar to what is going on with the Roland VG99 technology, which I'm so happy to be a part of bringing Adrian back to - it's certainly a key piece in his new and changing arsenal- allowing him to do alternate tunings, offset parts, and soon backwards delay and other special effects...this too is NOT A SYNTH, instead processes the six individual string signals in amazing ways. BTW I am writing a book on Guitar Synth history.... more on that later...

ADRIAN BELEW POWER TRIO:
the gig tonight was at a theatre called Teatro Victoria Eugenia. They are introducing this set to the new EU audiences. For a theatre, people were pretty rocking but it always feels restrained when people are seated, and adversely affects the band a bit. This was also a special gig 'cos our booking agent in the EU - Wolfgang Scheel was visiting with his wife Julia. It was great to get to hang out with them a bit and have them enjoy a full show. they loved it and he's even trying to juggle his schedule to come see another show!

The stage was huge, but as usual I set the band up in a tight formation center/downstage.



(SOUNDCHECK IN SAN SEB.) It was a great sound system, and being so close they were able to generally avoid the "lost in space" aspect one can get on a huge theatre stage. Having a little spanish under my belt helped negotiate some gear wackiness, and it was deemed a good, enjoyable gig by the band, tho' everyone prefers a rock club !





As usual -- 'e' killed the crowd, people are always blown out by this new tune, the backbone of his upcoming new CD, the first one he'll record with the trio. The Crimson material went over extra well here in Spain, it seemed.

Julie has a nice loud Ampeg stack, and Ade had a pair of 4x12s (1960 A and B). they just sound great, now I am thinking abt getting a 4x12 for my Boogie head, but maybe, strangely the Line6 cabs..which sound amazing the couple times I have used them with DiMeola.

we stayed in this amazing , modern architecture hotel, very cool....clean edges, wild! And having just left a 2 day visit with my architect sister Lisa, I was hyper aware of the endless creativity of architecture... spain is well known for it's forward-looking ideas in building design, art in general, I mean they cough up Goya, Dali and Picasso for starters....

touring the planet....

[Pic: Your intrepid reporter In amazing Lugano Switzerland, Oct 2008. And, once again, I'm not even on the Intrepid...]

Well i'm back I guess...

jeez....haven't blogged in quite a while..I guess not since the Russia dates this aug/sep....and certainly not to my old page "robotvomit.blogspot.com"....inna while. I discovered there was a band and all kinds of stuff with that stupid name,... and needing a site more in line with my upcoming tour-management page .... i thought I'd start again with a cooler name that I can't use up..

You can find the stuff I wrote/pictures i took at:

http://inherownwrite.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html

It's been fucking non-stop. After the amazing RUSSIA trip... I flew back to Chicago..one day off in a hotel nr the airport...and started a 3-week tour with the Derek Trucks band . It was awesome, we went from Chicago to the west coast - and one fly date in Canada. Gonna post some pictures with that sometime soon - some great guys , what a crew.

Derek -- awesome human being and WOW, he kicks sooo much ass on guitar, the master of slide. I really learned a lot there AGAIN about guitar. I've now tour managed for Al DiMeola, Adrian Belew and Derek Trucks... each MASTERS in their corner of guitar-worldness. I, um , better go practice!!

Then I was home for three weeks-- almost every waking second finishing up the advance work on THIS tour AND the december Australia dates..AND the up-coming Project Object dates with Ike Willis and Ed Mann. Check out our newly refurbished webpages.... under development as we speak...www.projectobject.com

Right Now (15 Oct - 05 nov 2008 ) I'm on tour again with the ADRIAN BELEW POWER TRIO, primarily Tour Managing but also Guitar Teching for Adrian and Julie Slick , his bass player. We're crisscrossing thru most of Western Europe, and a bit of Eastern....and it's a spectacular time to be here, just as autumn season is in full swing....

Right now I'm going thru some insane stuff in my personal life that needs some mental soothing and distraction therapy, and writing has usually been that for me, so I'll give it a try.

Another balm, a major therapeutic is of course...listening to music.... and when I'm travelling, I often play a little game where I try to listen to some music relevant or connected in SOME way to the locale I am in, or even just passing thru or flying over...

So here goes some random notes about what I consider some cool music, and the places that inspire their choices on my iPod...and some tales from the tour. It could be that i'm in a place someone is from...or has played recently. OR maybe a song title fits in with a city name, or it's an artist's birthday or anniversary of a great release. Almost any excuse!! But my travels are indelibly music-connected -- or course starting with the REASON I am usually in town anywhere -- the concert I am performing, or that of the artist I am working for.

So - thanks for stopping by and enjoy my ramblings if you would be so kind.