What a few days it's been!! The fates have led me back out onto the tour bus (or perhaps better said the Boogie Train) of my old pal and bandleader Michael Katon. We'd worked together over a decade ago, through 8 European tours over around 5 years, in the late 90s and early 2000s, but except for a few local gigs we hadn't been playing together recently. So getting the call was a charge! After this last year, I really needed to get out and play a tour somewhere, and this was just the ticket. Cynthia, bless her wonderful heart, totally agreed and her support convinced me to give it a shot.
Mike and I got together occationally for a few weeks, at his house and over Skype, running over possible tunes and just getting used to playing together. There was some question for a while as to who was gonna fill the drum chair, until he got ledgendary rocker Johnny Bee to come on board! By then there wasn't much time though. After a couple of rehearsals with him and Bee, we packed, said goodbye to our friends and loved ones and climbed onto a Delta flight heading to Amsterdam.
The first flight was looong...not just that 7 hour trip, but due to engine troubles we were in the plane on the ground for 2 hours!! Kinda frustrating. But fortunately the jet as underbooked and we could stretch out a bit, I even commandeered three seats and made a bed of sorts, and had a few hours of what seemed like sleep. Then from Amsterdam to Dusseldorf on a very small jet, and there we were...stiff and very bleary indeed, but OK and glad to see our friend Henny who had come to pick us up.
So here we are. Mike and I got out our axes and played a bit, talked with Henny, ate and drank some of his excellent Belgian beer. Henny is one of the good guys, by the way, an excellent cat that I'd met on our previous travels. A very funny and intelligent Dutchman who is about the size of a standard Sequoia tree. His house here in Beek is very comfortable and a great staging area for us to get it together...tomorrow we'll head out to the music store and get a few things, we'll call the rental agency and collect the amps and drums, just sort things out. There's a couple of days before we get on the ferry and go to England, our first leg of the tour!! I'm pretty jazzed about it.
Well, I don't know if I'm making much sense, so I'll stop now. Jet lag is such a strange thing...I thought I'd outsmarted it but here I am awake at 3 in the morning! Back in Michigan it's about 9. I'm gonna try that bed again.
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