AMP: Artists' Meeting Place and Resource Collective

Picking up where I left off last time...

After the best show of the tour and a late Sunday night at Struik in Amsterdam we woke up early Monday morning for English Breakfast Radio - an 8:30 AM radio show for English speaking beings. Mark, the host, was great. A funny guy who kinda reminds me of Simon Pegg. More handsome of course, Mark. We did a couple of live songs with just acoustic guitar (no piano carrying in the morning), joked around, took an on-air quiz and drank coffee and tea in tiny paper cups. Thank you Kim, Sarah, Mark and the rest of the crew. The rest of the day was spent being reacquainted with Amsterdam, on foot.

Tuesday Chief calls to say he can't get me a car until Thursday. I cancel my Aachen Germany show since the train schedule doesn't work out. More Amsterdam. No complaints.

We wake up early on Wednesday for another morning radio show, this time on Amsterdam FM. What a waste. Completely disorganized. We played one song and were cut off in the middle of the second one for what I think was a traffic report. The host wasn't prepared; didn't know my name; didn't promote any shows - just filled ten minutes before the 9:00 AM news. Definitely not worth getting up for. But hey, the rest of the day is free and the weather is perfect.

Thursday I leave Chief 3 messages about the car we were supposed to pick up in the afternoon from a small town in Belgium, 90 minutes away by train. We'll need it for the rest of the tour. Chief doesn't call back, email or text and I get antsy. Time to rent a car on my own. Internet searches yield a cheap station wagon and we're good to go. As we go on stage at Cafe Skek - our final Amsterdam show - Chief finally calls to let me know I can pick up his car tomorrow morning. Too late. We won't have time to do it in the morning so my new rental will do. The show is lack laster but Liza, who we met a few nights earlier brings her sister and along with Daniela who shows up, the bar crew and the random giant Dutch folk we get some love back.

It's Friday and we're on the road to Baar, Switzerland. Long, tiring trip. Mike does most of the driving, lucky for me, since I stayed up a bit late the previous night. Traffic gets heavy as we get closer and we're running late. We finally make it after 10 hours on the road. Robert greets us. Super nice guy. He put this thing together, after reviewing my CD in a local publication and hearing I'm going to tour Europe. The show is in a small private room and unfortunately only a small handful of people show up. We set up hastily, find a Swiss plug adapter and somehow get through the show... The middle 'E' key stops working in the middle of the set - turns out the reed broke, which means it's going to be dead for the rest of the tour since there's no access to Wurlitzer parts around here. I'll get through it. It's a sleepy town -- we crash early again...

Saturday. Zug! Right down the street from Baar. Pretty town; good show; great audience. The Zugsters turn out to be some serious whistlers. This show is a Robert referral as well. Pre-sold tickets and a full house but I'm able to sneak in may friends Samantha and Carlos who happened to be in town, just by coincidence. Thanks for the goods Carlos. Thank you Aleksz for having us. I'd love to come back next time I'm in Switzerland.

3 free days before our next show in Slovenia. We drive through Austria -- Innsbruck, Salzburg and Vienna. Share drinks with some fine people. Vienna is ridiculously beautiful. I'm amazed. I wish I had more time to spend there. Walking around for just a day leaves you wanting more. I've had enough pork and baked goods to last me a lifetime. A lifetime of a 2-week-old baby.

Wednesday - Ruse, Slovenia. A tiny town about 30 minutes outside of Maribor, a much bigger town. Matej is the man. He organized this thing. We play in a local theater to a small but enthusiastic audience. They have a Yamaha baby grand and I switch between my Wurli and the piano every couple of songs. Fun show. Matej, his brother Mija and company have us over their crazy after-party, the majority of which will not be described on this page. Suffice it to say that they saw fit to activate, in a small room and narrow corridor, a smoke machine big enough for an AC/DC concert and a minor light show. Small town Slovenia is not what I thought it would be. The next afternoon they have us over for BBQ, cooking something called chevabchichi (sp?) and of course more Lasko beers.

Thursday, Celje, Slovenia. Jure from Spital greets us. Another great guy. I love the place. The show is excellent despite one miserable anti-anything-American fucko and a lunatic woman who claimed I gave a "lazy" show since I didn't play long enough and, on top of it, was "ironic" when I told the crowd they whistled well. I secretly love her. Everyone else seemed to have a great time. The Celjsters whistle along to my "Whistle Along" song as well as the Zugsters. A big group of chicks from Italy dance around and sing along all night. Another key breaks on my Wurlitzer - this time a middle 'A'. I'll need some creative chord voicings from here on end. Stayed up for another few hours chatting it up with the Slovs. Me likey.

A cool little show outside Gorizia, Italy followed. We played in a wine cellar with some pretty deep acoustics. Playing without 2 keys in the middle octave is a challenge but Mike on guitar covers up well... Their wine kicks serious ass, as well as more light-hearted ass. The more quiet, wine sipping crowd was a contrast to the previous night. I think it went well. The next day, Saturday, was free and spent entirely in Venice. Much better than Venice, CA.

It's our final show. Sunday evening in Conegliano. Hey, they have a piano. A pretty good one as it turns out. Could not have had a better ending to the tour. We play multiple onchors, not to mention odd cover songs - Breakdown, Urgent, Crazy, Creep - to extend our on-stage time. Thank you Denis. Thank you Katiucha. Thank you Mauro. We need to drive back to Milan so we can catch some sleep before our flight the next morning but wind up hanging out at the bar, jamming a bit with a local guitar player and squeezing out the last bit of pleasure out of Italy... 3 days is not enough. We head back late. The street and highway signs in Italy have to be the worst I've ever seen. The main problem is that there's no follow-through -- you'll see a sign pointing you in he right direction only to encounter multiple road choices without further explanations 2 minutes down the road. The type size is also tiny, apparently made for low-speed donkey-back travel. Anything over 5 mph and you'll miss the size 8 font pointing you to the correct highway.

Mike was a great travel mate. He's heading back to LA while I'm going to visit family in Israel for another few days before heading back home. This tour has been amazing. I met some incredible people along the way. Thank you Terri, Chief, Robert, Mark, Kim, Kat, Mirco and everyone else who helped me put this thing together. I have a strong feeling I'll be back next year for a longer tour with a bigger band. I have many hours of video footage. When I get back home I'll do some editing, clip uploading and hopefully by the summer a little short film about the tour.

If you've made it up to here, thanks. More music coming very soon.

Peace,
Holmes