Thalia Zedek Tour Report #5

Saturday, October 16, Geislingen, Germany. Venue: Ratschenmuhle im Schlachthof www.raetsche.de

We are all warmly received by Joe (Joachim?), who loves to talk politics, especially leftist politics, and Fred and Rosalia, parents of friends Fabrizio & Flavio (Fab & Flav) - who are musicians with a band called the Go Lucky's. We all go for a nice dinner, and later, the show is totally crowded. The bar sold out of beer two times through the night. Someone said it was the biggest show they had ever seen there.


Sunday, October 17, 2004, Munich, Germany. Venue: Hansa 39

Another packed show.

It's Sunday... a completely lazy day or all. I day-dreamed about staying in a chair until the moment we had to play, then hitting the stage for the gig, then going straight back to the chair.

Emma from Australia was there. She hopes to get the Thalia Zedek band to play in Australia sometime.


Monday, October 18, Zurich, Switzerland. Venue: el Lokal. www.ellokal.ch

El Lokal is owned by Viktor, who is a retired football (soccer) player who now runs a successful cafe & music venue. El Lokal makes its own beer, which is legendary.

I've played at el Lokal, and it's previous location (known as "el International") 4 or 5 times with Willard Grant Conspiracy and Thalia Zedek, and it has always been great - totally packed until you can barely move, with a small stage that is like an island... performers have to swim through the people to get to it, and then they are stuck there.

It is the final night of Angelika & Reiner's music vacation. Reiner wore his special hippie pants.

After the show, when the people leave, it became a party for the band, and a dance-fest, with Viktor and the friendly and beautiful people of el Lokal.

Snake (Thoger) tells us a story of how he has broken his nose 3 times through the years while dancing. He is a busy boy.

After the venue closes, Viktor joins us on the bus for talking and a Marx Brothers film (just the piano performance sections).



Tuesday, October 19th, Geneva, Switzerland. Venue: PTR / Usine.

Last time we were here, someone broke into the van of our friend Tara Jane O'Neil, and this time, two people were caught trying to get into the tour bus... maybe not the best neighborhood, but it's a nice venue - a big, black, rock & roll hall.

Friend David Schindler was in attendance, who is a music promoter & booking agent... he reminds me of an indie-rock Oscar Wilde, with a giant brain and smooth tongue for talk.

Also present was "Good" Thalia, and her brother Massimo.
"Bad" Thalia (Zedek) called Massimo a "private dick on the take" because he's a private investigator. I hope I haven't "blown his cover" (secret code talk for "revealed his identity").

The show was not as well attended as the others on the tour, but it felt good and intimate. It is our last show with Giant Sand. Oddly enough, we sold the most amount of records at this show with the least amount of people.

Ours was one of my favorite performances of the TZ band... i felt free and able to interpret my viola parts loosely and in new ways.

I was invited to sit in with Giant Sand for a couple of songs. "Poor Wayfarin' Stranger" which, as far as I know, is a traditional cowboy song, and also a new G.S. song still in development, the name of which I forget, but something like "Romance of Travelling" or "Revenge of Travel" (?) - I wrote the title on my hand, but it has washed off by now.

The night ended with a lot of hugs and talk of the future.

Thus ends what has been referred to as "The Spider Tour" because of a large amount of spider imagery and actual spider and web sightings along the way. We'll wait & see what the Thalia Italia tour gets for a nick-name.


Today is my brother Stephen's birthday, and I hereby send him good wishes.