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March 9 - another early lobby call to catch a flight to Oslo. We expected it to be chilly in Norway, but really not so bad... I guess Winter is over, at least where we've been
so far on the tour. (Well see if St. Petersburg has any surprises for us!)
I've had some great times here in Oslo, but this is another in and out visit, so there won't be much to it except playing our show.
The venue seems to be primarily a jazz one... I see a poster of my pal Steve Gadd backstage
Here's our poster
Off the upstairs dressing room, a door to the balcony... great for getting a photo of the audience as Markus begins the show with his soundscapes
Again, I have plenty of shots of the audience, but not of the band!
Something unusual; Adrian went out alone for the first encore and did a quiet version of Court of the Crimson King
Nice show for us. The next day promised to be the easiest of the tour - only leaving hotel at 2pm for a flight to Paris, where we'd stay at an airport hotel, and have no show.
As often happens on the road, it turned out quite differently than we thought. Between getting bags, lugging all our gear to different terminal, and finding the right hotel bus at Charles deGaul Airport,
we were hours getting to the hotel, barely able to find some dinner down the road.
So, for a 'day off', it wasn't a treat.
This is the day of the full tour converging. Until now it's been the band, and Robert Frazza, our sound engineer, and Francesco Grieco, our agent/promoter. Today we flew to Paris from Oslo -
the tour bus will arrive tomorrow morning from Berlin. The merchandise (cd's, tour program) is arriving from Rome by van, with our amps and gear. Erik, who will organize and sell the merch, is arriving from
Austria. Andrea, who will do monitors, flies in in the morning, from Florence. Stephano, doing lights, arrived tonight from Bologna.
Oh, and Daniel, Adrian's guitar tech, is coming in from Nashville.
Whew.
Morning at the airport hotel
The bus arrives:
Only an hour drive takes us to the venue, in Compiegne
Erik sets up the merch booth for his first time
Soundcheck
Before we'd done the show is large segments, Adrian's band, Stick Men, and full 6 players doing Crimson pieces. Tonight we're trying a different approach, with more coming
and going, and other combinations. So, we put up setlists in the dark areas beside the stage, so if you're waiting there to go back on, you can see what the plan is!
Markus starts the show off
And, indeed, after a few songs, I'm right there beside the stage and can get a different perspective on Adrian's group
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