We've made it Down Under! After a successful tour of Europe and the UK, we headed to Australia with a one night stopover in LA to do laundry, catch up, sleep in my own bed and just reconnect with life, even if for just a brief moment. Our flight to Sydney left late Tuesday night and I slept for the better part of 11 hours out of the 14 it took to get there. We had to change planes for Melbourne, but after boarding the new plane, it was determined to have a malfunctioning part, so the plane was switched. The whole ordeal added almost three hours to our trip, but it didn't really seem to bother me too much. From home to hotel, it was a 24-hour adventure; more mind-blowing than exhausting.

Melbourne, at least the beach area of St. Kilda, where we were staying, feels very much like Venice Beach or Marina de Rey. In fact, what I've seen of Australia so far has a similar feel to California. Adelaide was very much like Sacramento in autumn. Yes, it's autumn down here and quite beautiful. Australia seems to be much more like America than England, even though this is still a Commonwealth state of the Empire. So far I like everything I've seen, and I know we're just scratching the surface.

We played our first gig Down Under last night in Adelaide as the opening act for popular Australian singer Paul Dempsey of the band Something For Kate. Apparently, they are the best selling Australian band of the moment and this is Paul's first solo acoustic tour. Grant is getting a lot of good exposure with packed houses expected everywhere. We performed an in-store for a local record shop before the night's gig, packing the basement theater of Big Star Records.

Now we are on our way to Perth on the west coast of Australia. Though we are moving as fast as we were in Europe, the pace seems to be a bit more relaxed, as we've been flying everywhere due to the distances involved. After a show in nearby Fremantle on Sunday, we return to Melbourne on Monday for two promotional days and two show days, so we will have the chance to settle in a bit. After these shows, we break away from the opening slot and play headlining shows in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland, New Zealand. Then it's finally time to come home, but I'm getting ahead of myself. First things first!

Eric

PS. Unfortunately, I wrote two final journals in Europe that I wasn't able to send back to Stacey, our webmaster, so a bit of a hole has been created. I will eventually get those posted, though perhaps it's best to just move forward. I plan on writing a final overview of the entire tour, complete with photos, once I get home.

We had our last major drive of the tour as we traveled to our tenth country in three weeks. The route from Stockholm to Copenhagen was quite scenic, and the 400 miles were quickly passed either watching the moose speed by, sleeping, or talking with the guys. As much as I have enjoyed the almost daily 400-mile drives, I will certainly not miss sitting in the van. Traveling by plane really wouldn't have gotten us to our destinations any faster, so it's just the hard physical nature of sitting in a van for long periods of time.

We played Stockholm last night, but a comedy of errors kept us from getting to see much of the city. First of all, the hotel staff was completely inept in giving us directions from the highway, so we circled around central Stockholm three times looking for exits that didn't exist. Then, once we had narrowed it down, we got stuck on some one-way streets, (even driving down one the wrong way!), and basically getting very confused. After a while, and it took a while, we merely had to laugh as we made wrong turn after wrong turn. We even asked some passers-by for directions, and after trying to explain very hard, they declared "we're not from here, you know!" Whatever.

We finally found the hotel, which was tucked away in a residential district, but only had time to check in and go to the venue. Another adventure awaited us and we quickly got stuck in dead-end streets and more one-way signs. We even called the club and asked the person who answered if they could explain where the club was located, to which they replied "no." Whatever. Finally, we figured out that the club was actually on a sub-street level in the middle of the square we had been circling for 20 minutes. It was totally invisible from the street, so if not for the help of a different passer-by, we never would have found it.

What we did find was a salsa bar that a local promoter had rented for the show. The tropical island setting was slightly bizarre for our show, but the crowd was again wildly enthusiastic and we had the sweatiest show of the tour! Stockholm rocks!

I'm about to go back to tonight's venue for the show, as we had some time to kill after soundcheck. I will have a few hours of time to look around Copenhagen in the morning, as our gig tomorrow is in a nearby city, Malmo, just inside the Swedish border. (Denmark and Sweden are divided by a stretch of water and linked by a bridge/tunnel system.) I hope to see a little bit of the architecture of the city, but I'm afraid I will see just a few highlights before running out of time. It's almost time to head back to London, where we will have four days off completely. We've been moving so fast and working very hard, so we are all looking forward to some time off.

Eric

The one thing that keeps surprising me about Oslo is how similar it feels to Seattle. I mean, it's almost eery. To any and all Norwegians who may read this, I mean this in the most complimentary way! The weather is a bit chilly, but everything from the atmosphere to the architecture to the foliage, Oslo has the air of familiarity, which is comforting. Plus everyone I have met here speaks a very high level of English, which makes getting around just as easy as back home.

Grant and I flew in yesterday and were met by Erica, a representative of the promoter, and Joackim, from the distribution company. We climbed in to Erica's beat-up 1978 Opel, a feat in itself, and made the 40-minute journey to Oslo City. That evening, after Grant and I both enjoyed a soothing sauna at the hotel, we were wined and dined by some very cool people from the distribution company at one of the best restaurants I have ever encountered. Dag and Ketil, the bosses of the company, walked us from the hotel through downtown Oslo to the Italian restaurant built in the former monk's quarters of the Oslo Dom church. The chef is a friend of Erica's, so we were given a five-course meal of the chef's choice, consisting of an appetizer of a grilled scallop in hollandaise, thinly-sliced hams and salami, a main course of lamb medallions infused with herbs, culminating in a dessert of strawberry soup, raspberries, berry sorbet and a dollop of chocolate mousse. Along the way, we were treated to fine Italian wine, including a light red berry wine that was almost fizzy due to its unique fermentation and bottling process. It was unlike anything I had ever had. Oh, lest I forget the olive oil served with the bread! It had an almost fruity taste to it. Hard to explain, but easy on the taste buds!

But enough about the food. (As you can see, I was quite impressed by the meal!) Afterwards, we were taken to a hip club called Mono that, at midnight on a Thursday evening, was packed. We met and talked with some friends of Joackim's and generally had a great time. Everyone was highly anticipating our gig the next night, so it's like we already have a built-in appreciative audience awaiting us. One thing to note is that when we've come into many cities, we haven't seen many posters advertising the gigs. Apparently the reason is that most of these shows sold out so fast just by word of mouth, that the promoters didn't even make posters or, sometimes, even flyers! That's saying something.

Today I slept in and then decided to go take a walk around the city center. Ketil, the managing director of the record label, had offered to take me on a little sightseeing tour, and I took him up on it, mainly because I wanted to see the Vigelands Sculpture Park. Built in the 20's, the park is filled with statues depicting the beauty of life and humanity, centered around the Monolith, which is a single-stone monument, perhaps 50 feet high, consisting of intertwined nude human bodies of a variety of genders, ages, shapes and sizes. Quite amazing, actually. I took photos, so I will post them in the future when I get home. (My Internet bills are starting to hurt!)

Eric

Yesterday we had our first proper night off since hitting the Continent over a week ago. We still had to travel about 300 miles from Munich to Vienna, but we actually stopped for lunch in a small town called Branau and had our first non-convenience store lunch! After a leisurely lunch, we continued on our way and arrived around 5pm, giving us time to relax a bit before going out to dinner. On the way into Vienna, we caught a radio station playing a track from Grant's album, so we all got excited about that. In fact, Grant and I are just a few minutes away from going to that station to do an on-air performance before tonight's show.

Cologne and Munich were truly great shows. As I mentioned before, the crowd at the Sunday show in Cologne was the lightest we've seen, but the most enthusiastic. Munich had more people and just as much energy from the crowd. In fact several people came down from Cologne to see the show for a second night in a row.

So last night it was recommended that we go to a typical Viennese wine tavern for dinner. There is an area outside the main section of the city called Grinzing, and we climbed into a cab for the 20-minute ride. The neighborhood was very quaint and had a number of touristy and legitimate restaurants. We first tried the touristy place because they had a strolling band playing waltzes for some of the dancing customers. But we knew that the food there wouldn't be worth the trouble, so we next found a place across the street that was perhaps the best food I've had in a long time. Mind you, I had white asparagus with Hollandaise sauce, but the simplicity of the dish was its genius! Angus, a wine connoisseur, chose a bottle of Austrian white wine that was the most delicious white wine I had ever enjoyed, so as you can see, we had a nice relaxing evening and re-energized ourselves for the last stretch of the European tour.

Today I slept in, but felt ready to take a walk around the hotel, since we are located very close to Schonbrunn Palace, perhaps the most famous palace in Austria. As I walked into the palace grounds, I suddenly remembered going there 18 years ago with the Sacramento Youth Symphony. Behind the main building, which is impressive in itself, are gardens, a hedge maze, a huge fountain and, perched up on a hill, a memorial to one of the former residents, perhaps a prince or king. I decided to climb the hill, and was happy that I did because the view of Vienna below was quite spectacular. Unfortunately, I was out on an exercise walk, so I didn't think about bringing my camera. But it made me stand and admire the scenery longer as I knew I would have to remember it in my mind's eye.

As I walked back to the hotel, the rain started coming down, so I grabbed a sandwich in a supermarket and headed back to my hotel room to do some string arrangements. I know it's not exactly glamorous, but this is how I'm spending my time!

Tomorrow Grant and I fly to Oslo. Spike and Angus are valiantly driving/ferrying the distance in order to get all the gear and luggage there. Apparently, while in Scandinavia, we have some pretty massive drives, so we haven't seen the last of the van just yet.

Eric

P.S. I just returned home from the gig. Each show seems to be getting better and better and each audience is even more appreciative than the next. The power of Grant's music definitely transcends any language or cultural barriers. I am very excited about seeing Scandinavia, so tomorrow is a big day!

One of the interesting stops on our tour has been Berlin. Both the hotel and the gig were in the old East Berlin section of town, which gave us a look at how tings used to be before the wall came down. The architecture is the first thing you notice, as it is very bland, industrial and utilitarian, rather than aesthetically pleasing. There are many boarded up buildings and storefronts, yet a plethora of Thai restaurants and other trendy shops.

As we left Berlin this morning, we drove through the city down Karl-Mark-Allee towards the west, passing through the Brandenburg Gate, which was covered for renovations by a cloth decorated with a surreal Dali-like painting of the gate itself. We are now traveling at about 100 mph down the autobahn towards Cologne and tonight's gig.

Our gig last night was recorded for broadcast on Radio One at some point in the future. Aside from a small technical problem with the guitar at the top of the set, it was a good gig, though the Berlin audience was a bit muted despite the fact that they were definitely enjoying the show. It's interesting to see how audiences vary from city to city and country to country.

The day before Berlin, we were in Hamburg. The drive from Paris was hellish, but we had a great hotel in Hamburg, which was great because we had miserable rainy weather and it was a day best spent inside. I caught up on emails and did a little arranging work. Grant and I had some of the worst Italian food ever for lunch. I was later told that Hamburg has the best sushi in Germany!

The gig went very well. The club, Logo, was located not far from the famous Star Club, where the Beatles began their rise to fame. It's not there anymore, but I think that Astrid Kircherr, the woman who took the early photos of the Beatles and helped create their look, has a gallery and sells prints of the photos. Logo had a cool poster of some of her stuff, so I took a photo of it for my own memory.

So for those of you who have not been on tour before, here's what a typical day is like. Everything centers around the gig. So we have to move on to the next city with plenty of time to make sure we get there in time. We leave a city by 11am, drive an average of 4 hours to the next town (or country as the case may be) arriving sometime between 3-5. We then check in to the hotel and have a few hours to either explore the city or rest. Since the evening is pretty busy with soundcheck and the gig, I usually opt to rest. Grant and I get to the club around 6-6:30 and start soundcheck, which lasts for about an hour. Then we have about an hour before the show to relax and perhaps eat, before going on stage around 9. We play for about 90 minutes, by which time it's approaching 11. Spike and Angus break down the stage as Grant goes out and meets the public and signs autographs, and then we slowly start gathering the gear for the loadout. We get back to the hotel around midnight or 1am, with a lobby call of 10 or 10:30 the next morning so we can start the process all over again.

It's a grueling schedule, but it's amazing how much we've seen in the last seven days. We've played some fun shows, and still have much to look forward to, as the album is in the Top 20 in Norway and the London show should be huge. I found out that I will be traveling home to LA for one day between London and Australia. Oddly enough, it will be just like staying in a hotel for one night before moving on to the next town. I'm happy to have the chance to be home, however.

We just made a stop at one of the cool German service stations. Aside from the usual rows of soft drinks, sandwiches and candy, these places have all sorts of things for sale, and the inevitable pay toilet. I'm sure that whatever the business is paying the attendant to sit and take money from people is more than what they bring in, so I'm still not sure why they are even bothering, but hey, who am I to judge?! This particular rest stop had everything from postcards and teddy bears, to metal signs adorned with funny German sayings. It was hard not to pick one out for the kitsch factor and bring it home.

The German countryside is flying by outside the window and we're making good time today. Looking forward to another great show tonight. And of course a good hotel bed for more of that elusive sleep!

Eric

P.S. The Cologne gig was quite magical tonight. The crowd was the smallest we've seen, but perhaps the most enthusiastic, singing along to many of the old and new songs and basically going nuts. Feeding off the energy from the audience, Grant even pulled out a song, America Snoring, that he hadn't played in six years! I just stood back and watched the show at that point. Tomorrow is our last German show and then we get a day off to travel the 300 miles to Vienna. The last time I was in Vienna was at the age of 14 with the Sacramento Youth Symphony, so I'm very excited to be going back as a professional musician playing with such a wonderful artist. And the tour rolls on..