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Wednesday, May 23th, Kaluga, Russia
I guess the way to start this tour page is with the story of our trip here
Tuesday's show was in Panama City, and Wednesday's travel presented some challenges.
Starting before dawn, we left the hotel for the airport.
Blurry checkin... as usual trying to talk them into allowing our bags without charging extra. Some shifting of stuff between suitcases to avoid overweight charge for any one bag...
The flight to New York, JFK, seemed like about 4 hours -- I wasn't counting.
A lot of trouble awaited us ... we didn't have the right visa for Markus to transit through the U.S. We did have a visa for him to work here, which was a pickle to get ...
and we assumed (bad idea) that it would allow him to spend a few hours not working, before flying out... but, to make a long story short, after three hours of fussing, we made it to
the Aeroflot counter, just barely, and, again shifting baggage weight (the rules are always different, of course) we made it onto the flight to Moscow.
A mere 9 1/2 hours later, we arrived at Sheremetyevo airport, and immigration was a breeze - who'd have guessed!
Nice people met us with a van - however the drive to Kaluga was quite a bit longer than the 2 or 3 hours we'd expected. It took 5 hours, largely due to
bumpy roads and long waits for trains to pass. We were feeling dishevelled, to say the least.
Very happy to arrive at our hotel outside Kaluga, we checked in, and soon after assembled in lobby for a dinner with the festival promoter.
That was at a friend's house, and the trip there took an hour, with some almost impassable roads ... so hopefully nobody minded as our mood darkened just a tad...
But dinner, and some vodka, fixed all that.
Oh, there were a few other folks there...
The food was great. (Did I mention there was vodka?)...
There was a band playing, including the amazing Russian Stick player I'd heard before...
and, well fed and having made new friends, we headed back to hotel and the end of one of the longer road days I've ever survived!
Friday, May 25th, Kaluga
Time to get to work...
A quick run into the city - I didn't see much...
Then soundcheck.
On this tour, there is not only Stick Men, but Adrian Belew, and his Power Trio - the show we'll be presenting has a set of each trio,
then an encore set of all six players, doing King Crimson music. We're calling it The Crimson ProjeKct.
Here's the drummers, Pat Mastelotto and Tobias Ralph
Adrian Belew
Markus Reuter
Julie Slick (I think she may be tired from the flight over!)
Robert Frazza, helping organize things... and that's John Sinks on his knees fixing Adrian's rig
Great see Sasha again - he's the promoter who brings us to Russia
Ready to go on...
Sasha announces us...
At last. We came a long way to get to play our music!
And after the show... some signing...
Lots of gifts for us!
and a nice dinner, pretty late at night, at a Kaluga restaurant...
Oh, there were some other folks there too!
When in Russia...
Okay... that's what I call a Russian style after show dinner!
Tomorrow we take the van back to Moscow for our show there.
Wednesday, May 26th, Moscow
The van trip here took... longer than expected! Quick drop off of bags at the hotel, and we headed to the venue of tonight's show.
What a place -- huge hall, called Crocus -- I thought it was a club, but more like a convention center!
Even with the top part of the seating blocked off, it's impressive how many seats.
Lots of help with the setup...
and the stage size matches the hall
Some issues with Adrian's rack...
Ready to go on...
I didn't take any shots during the Stick Men set, but good to be at the stage side during Adrian's set...
This is a big stage! To think that I thought it was a club...
Then, with the drum duo B'Boom, we're underway with the full six of us playing
(Markus starts it with a loop)
No more pics of the players, but what an audience!
Tomorrow, the overnight train to St. Petersburg. Should be fun.
Better start a new page for the next pictures.
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