Off to France!
One nice side effect of Jeff's misreading of the vacation rental's location was that we already had a head start to get to Toulouse in France. This came in handy. We started out relatively early, and the trip didn't seem that long. Once we were in France, the first thing I noticed was that the prices of everything in gas stations/convenience stores pretty much doubled. Spain is pretty ridiculously cheap, for Europe.
We were going to Toulouse, where we originally thought we might have a gig, but things didn't work out. Our friend Misty White lives there, and she hooked us up with a radio interview, which would allow us to play a few songs. I use the term "us" loosely, as this being an acoustic gig, it really didn't include me....well, maybe vocally a bit....but I did beat on things in the radio room. It was rather fun, though, and I tried not to destroy anything. At one point, somehow, I knocked a light bulb out of its lamp holder. Still not sure how that happened, but that was as destructive as I got. I sheepishly screwed the light bulb back in, as a good boy does when he's 57. My personal highlight was whispering "appelle," in the final break of "Driftwood." I'm almost as clever as Cody.
Before the radio gig, Misty shepherded us to a great restaurant. After all the bland Spanish food, I was ready for something more French. So, I had pizza.
We stayed in perhaps the nicest hotel of the entire tour that night. Not sure how we got that....well, I do, actually. Jeff booked it.
That's all I have to report about Toulouse. Le jour prochain, Grasse.
Sunday, October 20, 2019
Hickoids / HMT 2019 Tour Wednesday, August 14
The next day, Bilbao. Bilbao is also near the northern coast of Spain, maybe a little more inland than Santander, and to the east of that town. So, off we headed. Unfortunately, Jeff had misread an address where the vacation rental was booked for this night, and it turned out to be a bit over an hour east of Bilbao. Now, I'm a bit fuzzy as to what came first, if we went to the vacation rental and then drove back to Bilbao to do laundry and play, or if we did laundry, headed to the vacation rental, and then back to Bilbao to play, or what. One of these things happened.
At least, we had two vacation rental rooms this time, although the woman working the desk when we checked in was, I would say, "softly threatening" to us. She picked up on us a being a band right away. Flo did most of the talking with her, and she used the word "molestar" a lot, as in "they better not bother people at our quaint vacation rental." After staying at a few of these vacation rentals now, I can say that bands are generally not welcome at them, but the price is usually right. (I didn't write about the 2016 Euro-tour, and the funny goings-on at our Noordwijk vacation rental in the Netherlands. Our German tourist neighbors were not fond of us.)
So, in the midst of our Bilbaoing, we did laundry at a laundromat where the signs were in both Spanish and Basque. I'd been told Basque is similar to French, but I didn't see that at all. Good thing Spanish was around in most places. This sign might have both....I'm not sure.
While we were doing laundry, Tom found a tapas place that he really liked, but I suspect that had more to do with the cute barmaid than the food itself. (I was quickly souring on Spanish food.) Nevertheless, we had clean clothes some time later and could prepare for the night's rockin'.
The club was called Shake!, and if I remember correctly, this was another one closed for August that opened for them Hickoids. Not bad. I liked this one a lot, although the stage had a missing portion to the left of the drums that the show runner filled in crudely with a table. It worked.
Special guests at this show included some of Rice's British family - his cousin, her husband, and their two grown kids. It was nice to visit with them, and the husband was pretty humorous, and a drummer to boot! He did fall a bit on the racist end of the spectrum, interspersing comments to me about drum brands with anecdotes about what cowards the French are (I guess that stereotype will never fade away). According to Rice, he's a big Brexit fan, so I suppose the package is complete. It was rather funny to hear Rice apologize about him later; I thought he was kind of funny, and he had a wandering eye, which just added to the whole effect.
We had the long drive back to the vacation rental, and Cody was in full effect this night. By the time we got there, his inside voice was completely gone. He had to be reminded not to "molestar" people as we walked to our rooms.
At least, we had two vacation rental rooms this time, although the woman working the desk when we checked in was, I would say, "softly threatening" to us. She picked up on us a being a band right away. Flo did most of the talking with her, and she used the word "molestar" a lot, as in "they better not bother people at our quaint vacation rental." After staying at a few of these vacation rentals now, I can say that bands are generally not welcome at them, but the price is usually right. (I didn't write about the 2016 Euro-tour, and the funny goings-on at our Noordwijk vacation rental in the Netherlands. Our German tourist neighbors were not fond of us.)
So, in the midst of our Bilbaoing, we did laundry at a laundromat where the signs were in both Spanish and Basque. I'd been told Basque is similar to French, but I didn't see that at all. Good thing Spanish was around in most places. This sign might have both....I'm not sure.
The club was called Shake!, and if I remember correctly, this was another one closed for August that opened for them Hickoids. Not bad. I liked this one a lot, although the stage had a missing portion to the left of the drums that the show runner filled in crudely with a table. It worked.
Special guests at this show included some of Rice's British family - his cousin, her husband, and their two grown kids. It was nice to visit with them, and the husband was pretty humorous, and a drummer to boot! He did fall a bit on the racist end of the spectrum, interspersing comments to me about drum brands with anecdotes about what cowards the French are (I guess that stereotype will never fade away). According to Rice, he's a big Brexit fan, so I suppose the package is complete. It was rather funny to hear Rice apologize about him later; I thought he was kind of funny, and he had a wandering eye, which just added to the whole effect.
We had the long drive back to the vacation rental, and Cody was in full effect this night. By the time we got there, his inside voice was completely gone. He had to be reminded not to "molestar" people as we walked to our rooms.
Hickoids / HMT 2019 Tour Tuesday, August 13
And so, the parting happened. Michelle had wanted to spend some time in Madrid, going to museums and whatnot. She had a couple of nights reserved at a Madrid hotel near the Prado museum, and we needed to get her to the train station and headed that way. Flover was a huge help in this endeavor, talking an anxious Michelle in what to do, steps to take, etc. Once she got there, of course, everything was fine, and her hotel was near everything she wanted to do.
We headed on to Santander, which was the next stop on the Spanish Road. Santander is on the northern coast of Spain, in Basque country, and has a beach feel to it, for sure. We were staying at a vacation rental place a substantial walk from the beach. And we were all in one room. But this wasn't as bad as I'd feared, all seven of us in one place. A couple of folks slept in the van that night, and I confess to it being the only night I did not shower while on tour. But I'm getting ahead of things....
The show in Santander was at a place called Rock-Beer TheNew (sic).
As with many places in Spain in August, it had been closed for a couple of weeks but opened for our gig. And it turned out they had used the closure time to rebuild their stage and revamp their sound system. The stage was almost ready when we got there, and a little more work cemented its readiness. The sound system was another story. It had a long way to go, and unfortunately, after we were on stage and ready to go, it still had a way to go. Seriously, we were on stage about 45 minutes before we could actually start the show proper. It got pretty funny to me after awhile, but once we got cranking, we were fine. I felt bad for the club staff and the owner (whose name escapes me, but he was a great guy); they were trying any and every thing they could to get things going. It all worked out fine. I thought the gig went well, although memories are short on this one, for some reason....other than the long wait at the beginning.
Back to the vacation rental. Somehow, despite the aforementioned cramming of us all into one rental, I had a room to myself. Still not sure how that happened. I think the others think I need my space, due to the CPAP machine. That's really not true; I just need room for the machine, and an electrical outlet, and that's about it.
We headed on to Santander, which was the next stop on the Spanish Road. Santander is on the northern coast of Spain, in Basque country, and has a beach feel to it, for sure. We were staying at a vacation rental place a substantial walk from the beach. And we were all in one room. But this wasn't as bad as I'd feared, all seven of us in one place. A couple of folks slept in the van that night, and I confess to it being the only night I did not shower while on tour. But I'm getting ahead of things....
The show in Santander was at a place called Rock-Beer TheNew (sic).
Back to the vacation rental. Somehow, despite the aforementioned cramming of us all into one rental, I had a room to myself. Still not sure how that happened. I think the others think I need my space, due to the CPAP machine. That's really not true; I just need room for the machine, and an electrical outlet, and that's about it.
Hickoids / HMT 2019 Tour Monday, August 12
Up. At. The. Crack. Of. Dawn. We had a long hustle this day. First, we had to drive back to Madrid...about six hours. Then we had to pick up the van, equipment, and driver. Then all of us would hustle to Zaragoza and play there that night. Was going to be interesting.
The previous evening, before leaving for Grazalema, I had discovered a snag. In the office of the hotel where we were staying was a sign stating that the hotel was currently unable to process credit card payments and to "please arrange a bank transfer or pay in cash." I was pretty miffed at this, and Michelle was, too. I really didn't remember if that sign was in there when we registered; I didn't think it was. Now, they had undergone some hard times for sure, withstanding a major flood the previous fall, but this was an inconvenience, for sure. What it meant is I would have to pull as much cash as I could from the bank in Benaojàn (thankfully close by), and hope it would cover the bill. Frankly, I mistakenly thought that since we booked through hotels.com, that the bill was already paid. I found out that was not the case. And, after reading up on the situation a bit, I saw this was a common practice among smaller hotels in Europe. Kinda pissed us both off, but there wasn't much I could do. So, Sunday I had pulled out my maximum (around $362 - €300 with conversion), and I had enough to pay our bill. We left so early Monday morning, nobody was up yet, so I left the cash under some papers in the office with a note to please email me that they received the money. (They did, later that day.) And then, we went by the bank again before leaving to pull more money (thankfully, it was already the next day back home, and I could get some more). Minor irritation, and I wouldn't receive any rewards back from my credit card, but oh well.....
So, Michelle and I headed back on the road to Madrid. I spotted and followed the band vehicle, and we even made a common food stop along the way. After the looooong six hours, I pulled into the Madrid airport and made it to the rental car return. A woman checking in the cars instantly noticed the scratched side of the car from the night in Villaluenga del Rosario, but I was covered fully, so that wasn't an issue. Another whew.
The rest of the band arrived after we were already checked in; we waited in the airport exit. A few more minutes, and we were hooked up with the MVP of the tour, Mr. Bechito "Flover" Martinez. He was to be our driver, equipment hustler, translator, and everything valuable for the next few weeks. The Sprinter van we had was larger than the Transit van we were accustomed to on these European runs; there was plenty of room for folks, and certainly room for Michelle, too.
The ride to Zaragoza was around three hours, and we had just enough time to unload in the club (which was a basement bar, fomerly a prison in the 15th century!) and then check into our hotel, which was only a couple of blocks away. The rest of the band was staying adjacent to the club in some club housing.
We had a nice couple of sets, the HMTrio first, followed by the Hickoids. The audience area was nicely stocked with seating, making this primarily a "sit-down" show for the audience. Also, this was the trio's first appearance in Spain, and Patrick (Harvey) was particularly stoked. The Hickoids set went well, but the crowd was, by then, smaller. It was a Monday night, after all, but the seating arrangement, I think, had something to do with it. The HMT is perfect for a seated audience; the Hickoids not so much so. But there were still fun moments...
The previous evening, before leaving for Grazalema, I had discovered a snag. In the office of the hotel where we were staying was a sign stating that the hotel was currently unable to process credit card payments and to "please arrange a bank transfer or pay in cash." I was pretty miffed at this, and Michelle was, too. I really didn't remember if that sign was in there when we registered; I didn't think it was. Now, they had undergone some hard times for sure, withstanding a major flood the previous fall, but this was an inconvenience, for sure. What it meant is I would have to pull as much cash as I could from the bank in Benaojàn (thankfully close by), and hope it would cover the bill. Frankly, I mistakenly thought that since we booked through hotels.com, that the bill was already paid. I found out that was not the case. And, after reading up on the situation a bit, I saw this was a common practice among smaller hotels in Europe. Kinda pissed us both off, but there wasn't much I could do. So, Sunday I had pulled out my maximum (around $362 - €300 with conversion), and I had enough to pay our bill. We left so early Monday morning, nobody was up yet, so I left the cash under some papers in the office with a note to please email me that they received the money. (They did, later that day.) And then, we went by the bank again before leaving to pull more money (thankfully, it was already the next day back home, and I could get some more). Minor irritation, and I wouldn't receive any rewards back from my credit card, but oh well.....
So, Michelle and I headed back on the road to Madrid. I spotted and followed the band vehicle, and we even made a common food stop along the way. After the looooong six hours, I pulled into the Madrid airport and made it to the rental car return. A woman checking in the cars instantly noticed the scratched side of the car from the night in Villaluenga del Rosario, but I was covered fully, so that wasn't an issue. Another whew.
The rest of the band arrived after we were already checked in; we waited in the airport exit. A few more minutes, and we were hooked up with the MVP of the tour, Mr. Bechito "Flover" Martinez. He was to be our driver, equipment hustler, translator, and everything valuable for the next few weeks. The Sprinter van we had was larger than the Transit van we were accustomed to on these European runs; there was plenty of room for folks, and certainly room for Michelle, too.
The ride to Zaragoza was around three hours, and we had just enough time to unload in the club (which was a basement bar, fomerly a prison in the 15th century!) and then check into our hotel, which was only a couple of blocks away. The rest of the band was staying adjacent to the club in some club housing.
We had a nice couple of sets, the HMTrio first, followed by the Hickoids. The audience area was nicely stocked with seating, making this primarily a "sit-down" show for the audience. Also, this was the trio's first appearance in Spain, and Patrick (Harvey) was particularly stoked. The Hickoids set went well, but the crowd was, by then, smaller. It was a Monday night, after all, but the seating arrangement, I think, had something to do with it. The HMT is perfect for a seated audience; the Hickoids not so much so. But there were still fun moments...
After the gig, we went to eat a bunch of tapas at a pretty good joint and then went walking around (although it was getting a bit chilly and windy for ol' shorts-wearer here), checking out some of the architecture and statuary around. (Zaragoza is the birthplace of Francisco Goya.)
And then....Michelle and I headed back to our hotel for some rest and to prep for her departure from the group the next day. Waaaaaaahhhhh!!!
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