More Fun in Oz....

BACK IN BLACK --AC/DC's best selling album, the second best-selling album of all time, and
the biggest selling album by any band, with more than 42 million copies sold worldwide. In 2006 Back in Black was certified by the Recording Industry Association of America as the fifth best-selling album in the United States, with 22 million copies sold....
(wikipedia)


Australia's been really cool. I am bumming we are not going into the hinterland...the outback.....Melbourne was slightly diverse..but I see more black people in Germany!! Where are my aborigine homies!!?? Actually I saw a few aborigines around town -- I love their completyely unique, CRAZY big-curl afros. I have Ethiopian blood, and being on the east side, the highlands of Africa, perhaps early settlers came from the eats side. I gotta do more research there...but ourr TM here tells us what one would expect -- like the native tribes in what we call america today --- they get a raw deal here -- and lots of alcoholism, poverty and unemployment prevails. You'd be shocked to know that industry gets away with a lot more polluting and toxic stuff ...out where the aborigines live.

Sad shit. I hope to learn more about that.....bur for now we're here to spread...some music --After chilling for a couple days off in Melbourne we did the first gig there -- at THE CORNER.


THE CORNER HOTEL
a Good gig in general.....a few rusty spots....no gigs in a month but killin' energy. a really crazy crowd, maybe 350 or more people there...

Nice ROCK club..no damn SEATS...they were right up front STANDING, our best and biggest crowd thus far.... last time he was here a cpl years ago -- Adrian crowd surfed!! So--at the end of the show, he turned his back to the crowd and fell into their arms!! It was great, totally unexpected (well not TOTALLY) but very cool and wacky for him! (You can JUST see him in the live shot to the right)


Great high energy show... the sound in here a little high end , but it was dealable.

Melbourne: very cool city, got read more about the crazy history of this country.....

(RIGHT:CHECK OUT THE BANDS IN TOWN..if you squint, near the middle you can see the ADRIAN BELEW listing, right above "HOLY FUCK")

The stores in the downtown...one funny thing I noticed in all the rock / clothing type places.... THEY LOVE AC/DC !! haha you;d think that was a cliche, but ...maybe it's cos there is a new CD and tour, first since 2003...but EVERY music oriented/fashion place had AC/DC mugs, shirts, banners, even calendars in some cardshop in a mall I ducked into (relax, I was looking for an Apple store, and saw some geek walking in with a Mac keyboard...)

Lunch one day was some amazing Indian, in a tiny little place with a few seats. The kind of place Anthony Bourdain is always in. I love that guy, even tho' he hates vegans, or at least tools on us pretty constantly. It's cool. When I get to meet him I'll put things in perspective for him.

LEFT: Great Indian food!! REALLY great stuff here ---As good as ENGLAND, yes, where I've had the best Indian food in my life. Go ahead - laugh -- you've been totally lied to about food in england -- it's stunning if you get your ass out of cliche fish n chips shops. And - like here - IT's ACTUALLY FUCKING SPICY -- unlike what has happened in the USA - thanks to crybaby, pussy americans who keep fucking up EVERY spicy cuisine with their decades of WHINGING about "It's too spicy ..! waahhh!!"

THEN DON'T COME IN HERE THEN!!! THIS IS SPICY FOOD!! STOP Wrecking it for the rest of us!!

God.! where was I...?

Alright, alright, i know. Of course you can fidn good Indian in the US -- it shouldn't take so much looking, tho'.

Anyway --Of course!! -- here in Oz...we're basically in the same time zone as much of Asia! So -- consequently you have TONNAGE of Asian restaurants... Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Cambodian, Vietnamese. This little Indian place was awesome, of course it's a good thing I love Asian food, very easy to get 100s of animal-free dishes....thanks to poverty, consistent interpretations of buddhism, hinduism, islam and also sheer practicality most asians eat LOTS of vegetarian foods daily, whether or not they also eat animal flesh.

(LEFT: Wherever you go, whhatever country you;re in...some one has taken a shopping cart far away from it's store. Classic, global phenom...)


Off to Sydney, and THE BASEMENT
another historic city.. Umm.. there AREN'T many cities here, mate! So -- you get done with Aussie -historicc city travel VERY QUICKLY.. there's 21 million people on this island/continent..NY state has 19 million. This place is HUGE, actually bigger on dry land than the contiguous 48 states.

this club is kind of a jazz/songwriter place....maybe like the bottom line (NYC) in a basement. Small cap , maybe 200-250 PACKED?? we had a nice crowd of around 150-175, again -- the seated/tables thing is always a little un-nerving...show #2 so the band really started to hit their stride, the tour company we are hooked up with is awesome, Charney our local tour manager is totally cool and has done some great tours all around the globe. They have been getting exactly the backline we asked for, whch is rarer than you may think!

Great show. great watching the crowd from the side, You can really see how special it is..to live this 'remotely' and when you get artists you love playing here, so special to them. But -- I don;t wanna OVERPLAY that -- just about EVERY artist comes here at some point - certainly all the majors and tons of punk rock and inde bands.... they LOVE music here and with afair amount of festivals and a good economy, bands can afford to make it happen. If you;'re in a band GO TO OZ!

blogging from iphone??

hello there...
This just a shoutout from sidestage at the 1st Belew Australian gig in ages... And 1st with the power trio.
This is a tech-nerd experiment to see if I can indeed blog from my iPhone...

Let's see. Stand by for some pics and more info on how the tour is doing..
Cheers!!

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......