Well, it's time, right? Not that I've really had writer's block or anything, but I'm finding I've had less inspiration to sit in front of the keyboard and write. Not sure why, but I need to finish up a recap of this recent (but becoming more blurry) Hickoids tour. I left off with us going from Toulouse to Grasse.....so let's start there.
In Grasse, we stayed in an area we stayed in in 2014, in a house we stayed in then. In 2014, the house was a former biker clubhouse (I forget the troop's name), and we stayed there a couple of nights while driving to shows in Toulon and Marseilles. This time, we were staying there a couple of nights while we played our one French show proper, in Marseilles. Most of the guys were going to rehearse songs to be recorded in Barcelona, but I, playing the lowly drums, was not invited to that. But hey, that just meant Phil Amar and his girlfriend took Flo and me to a lake near Grasse, and we had a great time. But I'm getting ahead of myself....
The Friday night show in Marseilles was, without a doubt, the hottest show I've ever played, temperature-wise. The previous record for me was held by some Honky shows with L7 in the upper Midwest in August....particularly Iowa City. This was unbelievably hot/humid, in the basement of a club called La Salle Gueule. Yes, it was one of those where you had to schlep equipment down some treacherous steps, but I've dealt with worse. There were two other bands on the bill, the first one being a Russian band whose name escapes me, and the second being a long-term punk band, somewhat famous in the area, whose name also escapes me (it's been awhile). I don't know how I held onto my drumsticks throughout the gig, but I did. And I didn't pass out, but I thought Rice was going to at the end. He looked dazed, took his bass off during my often-used "New Day Rising" beat outro and just left. I was worried about him! Turns out he was fine. Most people, including our intrepid host Phil, could not make it through the entire show, but our friends Ray and Sandrine did!
So, that was the Marseilles show. Not the nicest folks at the club, either, for whatever reason. I was told to put my shirt on not long after playing, so I was a sopping mess for the rest of the night. We stayed in a hotel within walking distance of the club, so I headed over there before too long. I was rooming with Rice and Patrick, and we dubbed it the "prison hotel." Everything was functional, but I've never been in a starker, barer hotel room. Two beds, a hanging TV, and one small table, and that was it. No complaints from me, though; as I said, everything worked.
The next day was the lake trip, after some grocery shopping (that might have been Friday), and we had a wonderful dinner at Phil's place....where I tried escargot for the first time, and liked it! The day had started out crappy, as we got the news that Chad Holt had passed on. I don't remember much about Sunday......we had another dinner at Phil's, though. More escargot! And then, it was off to Barcelona......back to Spain.
In Barcelona, we were recording in Mike Mariconda's studio, but we were staying outside Barcelona, close to Badalona. So, we had about a half-hour drive everyday to and from the studio. Not bad, though, and I did like our rooms. The studio experience was okay; I had never recorded with Mike before, and had only met him briefly back in the REF days of 1999. It was an enjoyable experience, though, although I suspect not much can be done with a lot of what we recorded. Getting the Canadian Medley down was a definite highlight, and we finally laid down two songs we've worked on since 2015. The other new stuff needs time to gestate and sounds really flat to me in these performances. Time will improve that, if we ever get to it. Hell, a lot of those dynamics are up to me to drive, I know. We just didn't prep to record, simple as that.
After those three nights, we headed to Madrid on Thursday the 22nd. During the trip to Madrid, Jeff received the awful news that his brother Barry was probably not going to make the night. After that, the band didn't all know what was going on at the same time. I was under the impression Barry was still hanging in there (and thinking Jeff might have to bail and fly home), when I was informed that Barry did indeed pass earlier in the day. Jeff made the painful decision to finish the tour, as really, there wasn't much he could do. So, we played Madrid that night and continued on.
In Madrid, we stayed in a nice apartment that housed all of us easily and had two bathrooms! On Friday, we headed to Aracena, a small town to the west, almost to Portugal, and that was the shot in the arm everyone needed. What a fun show....wow. There was a huge festival going on in the town, but that didn't stop what seemed like half the town being crammed into this small club to watch us rock. It was something. If you're on Facebook, you can watch the link below....
Hickoids in Aracena
Great hostesses in Aracena, too. We had a wonderful breakfast the next day, and then it was off to Jimera de Libar for our final show in Spain. And this turned out to be a weird one. The HMTrio played first, and we had our usual fun set. Afterward, as the other guys were getting set up, I pulled my mic stand and mic to me and saw another mic stand in front of me. I assumed that was Rice's. We played our first couple of songs, and then I realized Rice didn't have a mic. I offered him my mic, but he declined. So, it was going to be a two singer performance, and Smitty had already told me he thought his voice was about to go out. I thought I'd better participate more. So, I sang more backup than usual, sometimes covering Rice's parts (something I have experience with, as he's missed three tours). After the gig, I noticed something weird with Rice; he wouldn't talk to me, wouldn't look at me....I had obviously upset him somehow. And this went on for a few days. Rice didn't look or talk to me until we were back in the States. To this day, I don't know what he was mad at.
We headed back to Madrid the next day, having the night off but prepping to fly back the next day. We stayed in the exact same apartment we'd stayed in on Thursday night. Rice moved out of my room and into Patrick's room, so I had "a night with Cody." With ear plugs, that's not really a bad thing.
And we flew home the next day, after a heartfelt goodbye to our rental van and fantastic tour MVP, Flover!
I'll write about the "'Murican Continuation" in the next post.....
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