montreal jazz festival

rm. 809 wyndham hotel
a short flight in to montreal for our show this evening...hotel is very comfortable. beady belle from norway opened for us at clubsoda...funky norwegian music w/ vocalist beady belle ( annette peacock meets kate bush)...a real nice show...it was cool to hang out them...check them.... doc gibbs
joins ursula and myself for this show tonite...although not much rehearsal time, a very successful show...doc added some talking drum to philadelphia child to great effect...we def had some great musical moments...would like this trio to develop if we could...we shared the bill with vikter duplaix who was djing after us...eric benet and halle berry also showed up back stage before our show...kinda surreal seeing halle here, as i had just seen the new x men and swordfish films the night before...sound on this gig was superb as well as production - flat screen tv's adorned the stage with lo fi images and collages...this is an amazing festival. everyone is playing here...wish we could stay longer. so much to check out...maybe next year. wind down with some fine french wine afterwards.

www.beadybelle.com

catania, sicily

had 3 hours of sleep and one great shower. left for rome airport passing ancient monuments of the past. a nice flight into catania, hassle free. juris our promoter is there to greet us and deliver us to our hotel valentino tucked away on the 3rd floor and alas, no elevator here. thank god for derek and juris who helped me up a considerable amount of steps with 3 flight cases, luggage, and guitars. the rooms are quite nice, and have a great vibe. the hotel is situated at the edge of the shopping district which we take full advantage of.
beautiful stuff here. the citys architecture is dark via trace amounts of lava from mt. aetna nearby.
tonites show is in the country (kinda) at mercatti generalli. another outdoor show at beautful club. the weather is absolutely perfect and all the gear seems to be functioning fine. no worries tonite. lush vegetation and beautiful friendly people here. the show is very good. ursula and i are very strong tonite, i had my best show here so far. wonderful.
and finally! had a blast...after our set dj jacomo spun a wonderful dance set for all the smiling faces. note to self: careful with the mohito's!

amsterdam, the netherlands

the traffic in naples is bananas. absolutely no rhyme or reason. insane. but it keeps moving and somehow all the trucks, cars, buses, mopeds, motorcycles, cyclists, and pedestrians seem to make it. we fly into munich for a brief layover and then into one of my favorite airports....by the time we reach our hotel ibis it's nearing 11pm and we are all really tired. i am on my own again to explore amsterdam by late night...be the time i arrive in center it's real late...most establishments are closed or closing but i wonder around anyway and follow all the people...this eventually leds me to an area of dim glowing red lights...what a site to stumble up on...scattered around are the famous coffee shops, galleries, retail stores...i head back to bus station for ride back to airport around 2:30.
cabs back to ibis hotel are 20euro for about a 7 minute ride...i opt to wait for hotel shuttle @ 430am
so much for sleep on this trip. we leave for philly at 11am.

lo squardo di ulisse festival

arrived at venue an abandoned metal factory near the sea and mountains...really interesting. lots of found art just lying around here...quite a setting.
this festival is film, concert, and djset ...fontella bass, pole, and many interesting world artists will appear here over the next 10 days...not to mention amazing cinema. i opened roadcases to find broken line6 pedal and an mpc boot error which took awhile to figure out in the desert like sun...i'm dripping with sweat. finally everything is set after rebuilding the line 6. it's been a wild tour for gear craziness and all with no tech support. dinner is superb mussels, swordfish, gnocci, salata mista...

the show: after '25th hour' screens we take the stage to an awesome backdrop of special efx lighting and projections. we were banging right out of the gate with 'get ready'. sound is superb and consistent. highlights: supa sista, 4 minutes of fun, what?, and return to innocense lost. the audience was great with everyone by sets end hanging at the stage. a big success..and we are invited to return in the winter. so this is the end.
a good tour, no doubt...beers consumed, back to hotel...tomorrow we leave for a layover nite in amsterdam. i'm planning to go to the city for a walk around since i've never been.

naples, italy

a day off. shopping district is the call. we taxi across town and begin. saw the nuovo castle and many architectual wonders...vesuvius looms in the distance. no time to see pompeii this time or the sunken city but hopeful to come back someday.

catania/naples

my mohito of a headache this morning led me to expressos and breakfast on the outdoor balcony of this unique hotel. jacomo is downstairs to take us to the sea for some r + r...and what a beautiful drive. after many winding turns we make it to the beach made up of giant lava boulders that all beach goers throw their towels on for some fun in the sun. the water is so clean here. what can i say.
back to hotel for shower, packing, and on to catania airport. another comfortable 1st class flight courtesy of our alitalia stewardess sitting next to a seat of my guitars. greeted by fabrizio and bused to our best western hotel napoli style and then off for some napoli pizza...it's good! ursula and derek rest and i leave with fabrizio to go to opening nite of the festival. romanian brass band plays...sounds bulgarian to my ear. the smell of morrocan hash is in the air here as well. dj spins afterwards some brazilian music...and i'm back to hotel for some napoli tv...lo and behold, some fellini is on to wind me down.

rome, italy @ megahertz festival

tonite in rome, we are playing as part of a 3 day festival, much like summerstage in nyc, a beautiful outdoor setting for the megahertz festival. dego from 4 hero is here, as well as omino stanco who
played an amazing set. trouble started early for me as i was mildly being electricuted and the mpc was shutting off...crazy. a bad grounding problem with this electricity and transformer. finally had seemed to correct everything. soundcheck went fine. skip to showtime: mpc running for our intro, and as i began to play - no sound!!! two of my devices were off including the preamp powering my guitar!!! show promptly halted as i had to figure out a work around, but not before i was electricuted again touching audio cables...really bad grounding here...and it freaks you out, let me tell you. finally, the show went on without a hitch although not up to our usual high standards. people loved it though, especially supa sista....a bad show for us, but not as bad as rotterdam. tonites performance was upsetting and off balance. the sound on stage was bad, not full. a disappointment for our first concert in rome. fucking hell.
dego was on after us, and spun for 10-15 minutes until the rome polizia shut him down. a very weird day here...afterwards, paolo and i got lost in rome taking in all the historical ancient landmarks. unbelievable. tomorrow to catania, sicily.

reggio emilia, italy

the home of parmagiana. fantastic rest here at the home of frederico (president of the maffia club). we were able to spend some days recuperating and walking around the centre of reggio emilia. while here, ursula was invited to do a session with 2Blue for their upcoming release. enrico and rocca are the 2 producers that make up 2Blue and they invited me to do some ambient guitar on a different track. a nice session and two nice tracks.
the last day here ursula and i took a trip to bologna and saw this wonderful city. amazing must come back here again. incredible hospitality from our hosts...and a visit back to modena to see the astounding paintings of local texturalist stefan ricci...you'll be hearing alot about this amazing artist sooon...tomorrow we fly to rome.