Shitegeist

I am half awake in Copenhagen today. I've mostly been hiding from the sunshine, and catching up on some sleep. It's been a pretty long couple of days, and it's almost 11pm and the sun hasn't set. Ahhhhhh Scandinavia.















It all started with an 11 hour flight from SF to London.
















It ended up being pretty alright after I was moved into business class. I had a full bed, and slept for about 5 hours. I also drank lots of champagne and watched shitty movies. Not too shabby.















Welcome to Dusseldorf. A truly magical place.















It's not all bad when slippers are involved.















It was a roasting summer's day in Germany.















In a haze of jet lag Farmer Dave and I walked down to the Rhine and had beers and tapas at a cafe on the bank.














It was a nice end to a very long day. Also, Farmer Dave is back in the spicy nut business, for those who are so inclined. They are, I hear, a natural, but rather spicy, diaretic.















It was straight to bed because we had an early day the next morning for our show with Pearl Jam at the local enormo-dome.















Just as a random aside: Before going to bed I watched some bizarre infomercial for a Time Life documentary on Nazis.....in Germany.
















Just as another random aside: That little guy from The Arctic Monkeys looks exactly Harry Potter when you draw some wee glasses on him.
















Right. So day 2 was the Pearl Jam Jam. Oddly enough it rained all day.














I was re-introduced to the German fashion sense that, regardless of east or west, is typically awful. This guy had on a pair of lace-up leather SHORTS, and was also wearing a German military helmet all day long. My favorite addition was the fact that his fly was down for about six hours as well. Achtung!














The show that was initially in an stadium, but was dropped down to a mid-size arena suffered from the two huge German festivals on the same weekend. It also may have suffered from the fact that no one listens to Pearl Jam. Just a thought. I never would have imagined that a band named after ejaculate would have found such lasting international success.















Nice guys though, and their crew were tops as well. The Futureheads opened the show. I didn't see much of Jamie's old pals, however the were accompanied by the worst light show that I have seen in ages. Ray Charles could have done better, and he's blind. And dead. Also, since the venue was pretty much empty when they went on their show sounded like someone throwing a box of ping-pong balls down a well.















I wish I could say that I watched more than two pearl Jam songs that night, but that would make me a liar. I saw one song from the side of the stage. They had been playing for nearly an hour and I didn't recognize a single song.
















Then I wandered out into the crowd to catch some of the light show. It was colorful.






























Bobby does the most spot-on impression of Eddie Vedder that I have ever heard. Unfortunately he did it all day long whenever anybody spoke to him.














After the show we packed our tiny truck to the gills and got ready to hit the street. Oh, we also picked up our bus...














Let me preface this by saying that Jack Kerouac doesn't know a damn thing about a transient lifestyle. Migrant farming, hitch hiking, sleeping in boxcars...try stepping onto the most dismal, decrepid, rank smelling, yellow tour bus that you have ever seen with the knowledge that you will be stuck on it for at least two weeks.
















It really is illuminous banana yellow. Somehow it is many times more embarassing than the pink one we had a few years ago.















The stench of mildew, hot urine and bleach (presumably used to cover up said stench) was overwhelming.















The lone pine tree air freshener did little to combat the odor. We need 400 or so, like the dead guy's apartment in Seven.















We did all that we could. We settled in and watched Hot Fuzz, all the while trying to ignore our surroundings.
















We had a day off in Hamburg before the downward slope of festival season. I went down to St. Pauli just for kicks, and ran into Ranata, the only person I know in Hamburg. She ended up riding along with us for the next few days. It was great to have her out. Plus, she brought us a case of kinder eggs to ease our addiction to crummy chocolate with weird plastic toys inside.
















...And so it began. Cheers.