Sweden 2010, Day 11

Wow… 6.30 came quickly. I was the first one up, being careful not to wake the boys as I tiptoed out to the shower house at the campground. It was cold, quiet, and a light veil of fog tickled the landscape. It made me wish that mornings at home were like this… it might actually inspire me to wake daily with the dawn if I had this kind of peace and natural beauty to greet me.

The boys woke up when I got back, and we were packed up and on the road by 8.00. It should take us 9 hours including stops to reach Ljungy. However, the van is leaking oil, power steering fluid, transmission fluid, and apparently blood as well, if the way it screams is any indication. We drove for miles one road that was being torn up and rebuilt, and I fear we broke a shock. Oh well. It’s running… for now.

Everywhere you look in Sweden, especially as you get farther south, there are lakes. Big ones. Early in the morning we passed a few that had beautiful little houses on the shore, with little docks with little boats. It almost made me want to lead a little life here. The whole lifestyle here is appealing. Sure, they have their problems and complaints like anywhere else in the world, but it is regardless a beautiful culture and country.

I apologize if I do not get too far into the details of the drive… it was kind of numbing, truthfully. We passed a lot of little towns, a few larger ones, a couple of big cities, and so much beauty that my heart began to ache. The boys were very entertaining. My butt fell asleep from sitting for so long. I drank a lot of coffee and suffered a full bladder in silence so we would not have to make excessive stops. We were due in Ljungby for our sound check at 17.00, but could not get there until 17.45. No worries… they were not even ready for us, and they knew we would be late.

One complaint only about this tour, and in fact, about some shows I play at home… guys, TURN THE FUCK DOWN. The monitors can only get so loud before they feed back, or turn to mush, and either way, I can’t fucking hear myself. In fact, once the overpressure on the eardrums reaches a certain point, the brain can no longer distinguish pitch from noise. As a singer, I need to hear pitches, both yours and mine. Rocking more decibels than a jet engine does not make you cool… it makes you deaf. Part of the work of being a long-term professional musician is keeping your stage volume reasonable so we can all perform to the best of our ability, and letting the FOH boost the volume to earsplitting levels for the crazy fans that don’t do this day in day out like we do.

After sound check, we returned to the hostel where we are staying and got ready for the show. The stage tonight is HUGE! The venue itself is massively cool, and populated by teens and twenty-somethings. God did I feel old. I think this might be the ONLY thing to do in this town. We were the third of 5 bands. The crowd was not large, but they were eager and loud and supportive. We only had a 25-minute set for technical reasons, but the 5 songs we played definitely got us a few more avid fans. They loved us!! Everyone complimented us on our songs, our sound, our stage show, and how professional we were compared to most of the acts that blow through town. To the last person, they were also stunned by my voice, which of course makes me feel good.

After the show we got a couple of beers and headed back to the hostel. We were pretty wiped out with adrenaline hangovers and the long drive, so once again we hit the sack early. At least Sunday we do not have to leave at oh-dark-thirty, and we have the night off. We are headed to Stockholm and I think our next show is close to there.

Miss you all!