11 June 2006

Back in the USA plus Greece, Iceland and a touch of the blues.

We're in Philly. It feels great to be back in the USA, and I know Dweezil and the band are really excited to perform Frank's music for American audiences.

The past few days have been an amazing advenutre. I'm sorry about the silence since Athens, but internet has been somewhat of a rarity - plus we've been travelling, so we get little time to try to sneak onto an open wireless network (if any).

So let me tell you about Greece and Iceland. Wow.

Athens was amazing, and the band spent some time on the morning of show day seeing the Acropolis and Parthenon. I was able to bore them with nuggets of art history and architectural trivia regarding the Parthenon's construction and the types of columns used. I think it impressed Scheila. Finally my degree in Art History was good for something. ;) From there we had some amazing lunch before returning to the hotel for a quick shower before heading to the venue. It was a long drive, but we got to see the seaside before arriving at the Olympic Complex's softball stadium.

The stadium actually hadn't been used for anything since the Olympics - we were the first in there since, and there was a large dirt pitch between the sound desk and the stage. Behind the sound desk there was a grandstand. The venue filled quickly and the show began in earnest with the sun setting in the background. The crowd were really excited to see the show and were singing along loudly. As the sun set, the night wind whipped up the dust from the pitch, but it looked cool as hell through the lens of my video camera. I spent most of the show climbing around the stage capturing the nuances of the performance - including probably one of Aaron's most amazing keyboard solos thus far (perhaps with the exception of his "Peaches" performance on the Royal Albert Hall pipe organ.) As soon as that new laptop arrives, I'll get snippets up for your viewing pleasure.

The show was great - and everybody really brought it in a big way. Steve's demonstration of tongue harmonics for Scheila was a funny moment (Scheila had asked him about it earlier and Steve said he'd show her how it was done) - and Scheila's sax solo was also another highlight. In fact, it was just one of those shows where everyone just had an extra special or comical moment and a chance to shine.

At the end of night everyone was a little windswept had a fine layer of softball pitch dust coating on them (along with their sunburn from earlier sightseeing), and spent the ride home preparing for what would be a hellish travel day to Iceland.

It sounded easy enough: a flight from Athens to Copenhagen, a layover followed by another flight from Copenhagen to Reykjavik. But it turned out to be a big waiting game because of a strike in Denmark. Argh! So, the airport became our living space for a while, but it was kind of fun. Ipods were traded, people played eachother songs, and we found a few wireless networks that we could get on to for some email checking. Steve Vai met some fans who told him that they were 5 when he last toured there with Whitesnake back in 1990. Fun.. but by the time we finally got to Denmark, the waiting was getting old. We finally arrived in Reykjavik at 2am, but of course it's almost like broad daylight at night, so it was an odd sensation for all of us. Bleary eyed, we surveyed the countryside through fogged-up van glass before collapsing into our hotel rooms.

We explored Reykjavik the following morning, and we loved it! We went to the main shopping street to check out the sights, before heading down to the water and then the main cathedral that sits at the top of the hill. Beautiful stuff. An hour before the show, I took Steve Vai out to show him where we had walked, and surprised a few fans who couldn't believe they were bumping into him just walking the streets before the show. I could write a bunch more, but let's get to the show.

The show was smaller than previous ones, but the audience was excited to see the show, and their applause was as loud as a crowd twice their size. The venue was an art museum hall, and was a tricky one to mix sound in, but the band's energy and performance overshadowed any minor problems.

After the show, we all went out to see some nightlife and met some fine young Icelandic ladies who went out of their way to show us a great time and take us to some of the citys hotter nightspots. We were really impressed at how friendly and welcoming the locals were, and even ran into groups of people who had seen the show earlier. It was the best way we could have ended the European leg of the tour, and left all of us wishing we had another day to spend there.

Dweezil and most of the band went to the Blue Lagoon hotsprings and spa before the airport to rub mud on themselves and other spa-related activities. A few of us slept in. The flight home was pleasantly brief, but we all kind of had the blues about leaving Iceland. (Except maybe Joe who was loudly fantasizing about the Philly Cheesesteak he would soon be "throating.")

We can't wait to return to Iceland. It's an amazing place with wonderful people.

So here we are now in the dressingroom in the Tower Theatre. It's the first US show, so the crew are getting used to the new equipment. I'll be back later to report on the gig.

I hope you enjoyed this Zappa Plays Zappa meets "The Lonely Planet" blog entry. It'll be strictly Zappa from now on, I promise... ;)

Mikey
Zappa.com Webmeister

POSTED BY MIKEY AT 2006-06-11 10:48:22