End Of Tour Party, Los Angeles

...Not at the Sunset Hyatt though, sadly.
The past few days were a bit rugged- played in Kourtrijk then left at 4am or so for 2 planes to Bari. Played that evening after a typically hellish Italian soundcheck/gear experience (and typically amazing food followed), only to leave at 5am for 3 more planes home. Normally we'd have taken a direct Frankfurt-LA flight on Lufthansa, but this wasn't possible due to the scheduling, so it meant an awful YouNighted "Airlines" experience and a layover in Dulles. Next time we'll stay the extra day to make the nonstop possible. In any case, Kourtrijk and Bari were ok gig-wise, though Bari suffered from a very boomy hall, along with all the other problems. I think it's pretty much impossible to have a smooth concert experience in Italy unless you eliminate the Italians themselves from at least 90% of the production process. They've still got it goin' on in the food department though, which goes part of the way toward making up for the other glaring shortcomings one always encounters there in the concert world. In a general sense however, for a group like this where a significant amount of technology and logistics (and not enough money) are involved, playing live these days is pretty difficult. The combination of lack of money for a road crew (despite the Herculean efforts of our fantastic tour manager/FOH man Arnaud "Arnocito" Mercier) and the draconian airline overweight baggage policies and their attendant costs makes for grim scenarios pretty much every time. Photos from top: Johan (left) from Einsturzende Neubaten, who's a big JH fan, turned up to see us in Kourtrijk. Bottom: Me at soundcheck in Bari.