Thalia Zedek Tour Report #4

Wednesday, October13: Luzern, Switzerland

Day off for both bands. I took a walk around the water of the lake, and the old part of town, here in the Swiss Alps. Some of the other folks took off on a train, or found a hotel for the day... about half will stay on the bus and save money on hotel cost.
I spent the evening with G.S. tour manager Steve on the bus for some quality time, watching trashy catastrophic films, like "Twister" on the VCR.

In town, I saw a rat for the first time on this trip, which reminded me of home, where there is a huge city-rat problem in my yard. Funny what reminds me of home.

Thursday, October14, Luzern, Switzerland. Venue: BOA Kulturzentrum.

During the Thalia Z show, the guitar amplifier was sounding strange and defective, throwing us off a little, and Giant Sand had a few sound problems, too - but they turned it to their advantage with a rambling and adventurous jazzy space-jam mixed with songs. Guitar-guy Anders did his best with a borrowed amp, and Sound-guy Anders was tearing his young hair out in frustration, but the crowd loved it. Excellent piano improvisation by Mr. Howe Gelb.

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Friday, October 15th, Rubigen, Switzerland (near Bern). Venue: Muhle Hunziken.

This venue is special - it is an old wind mill and is full of strange sculptures, circus ride rockets, and stuffed monkeys. The first floor with the stage looks up through 2 or 3 floors of balconies with crazy angles.

The show is recorded by a professional TV crew for Swiss television show called "Weekend Music". 6 cameras from every angle were focused on the bands.

A rockin' show for Thalia Z and Band, and Giant Sand seems quite at home with the TV cameras... Howe starts playing from an upper level balcony with his wireless remote signal guitar... his side of the stage is empty, and for a few minutes the TV crew can't find him. - He's tricky.

After the show, many of us go to the nearby cow-field to see a sky full of bright stars... we are at a high altitude on a clear night, so it is a rare sight for most of us who live in cities.