today we drive to bordeaux. apparently this part of france has not gotten the memo about that thing called winter. it's amazingly beautiful down here and of course, yawn, everyone and everything is very sexy. same old thing everywhere in this country.
bordeaux holds a special place in our hearts because of our old friends here and the great things that have happened. for example, one time we played an in-store at the virgin megastore. we pull up and there are huge posters with our faces plastered all over the windows-we play, the place is packed. meanwhile, scott had eaten a bad sandwhich at a road stop and got food poisoning. midway through the last song he pushes his way through the crowd and throws up right by the front entrance of the store. huge posters of him in the windows and he's puking his guts all over the place while people stand back and watch. very glamourous. meanwhile our van is parked in back and someone breaks into it and steals everything. so in keeping with this tradition, scott gets mugged after a late night stroll looking for a phone and cigarettes. thanks bordeaux!
also, in keeping with our mentor, buddy rich, scott fires all of us tonight and promises to get a replacement band in nantes. he rehires johnny so we can get paid, and rehires me and tom so we can load the van. then he gives us 2 weeks notice. we are fired again. all in all, i was fired 3 times (quicktime movie) , sohrab 5 times but rehired with a pay cut. i fire scott and promise to get a replacement singer when i get to la. i hear the guy from extreme is available.
well this is it-our last show and tonight we play with guitar wolf from japan. they are full on leather and hair products-must swap info on hair products with them (always a going concern with the gvsb école du coif). scott rehires us since he has trouble finding a replacement band on such short notice. our friend francis decides to come with us to nantes as our posse. the crowd is very good to us, considering we are just the replacement band for us. the show goes well even if i screw up a lot and hit myself with my drumsticks.
we are sad to be finished because we had a great time. but before we can get choked up about it, we are kidnapped by some french people from france and taken back to a secret restaurant called l'enfer du nord and forced to drink high quality belgian and french beer for free until 6 in the morning. this is ok because we have a 900 km drive to amsterdam tomorrow starting at 7:30 so we have a good hour and a half of sleep. not bad. pas du tout. i am taught an excellent expression "j'ai le bison" which means I have bison in my head or a hangover-i fear the worst tomorrow.
apparently my drinking defenses have been well honed over this last month. i awake after a good half an hour of sleep and we hit the road. i would have slept long and well if it wasn't for one irate german banging on my door to wake me up. we all stumble back to the van, except scott who had the good foresight to just pass out in the van the previous night. now's our chance to bid adieu to françis since we couldn't that morning. adieu! the german drove like a bat out of hell all the way back to amsterdam and then he was on his way. the day driving back was pretty uneventful and our flight back to the us was pretty much the same except for our takeoff being delayed for 2 hours for some "equipment" problem. all better for us to sleep off the booze of last night.
well there you have it. a whole month of me blabbing on and on about a lot of crap. we had a great time and we want to thank you all for coming out and seeing us. hope to see you again very soon!
