I’ve gone with the Flow, but it’s for Europe to wrap

Flow Festival — Helsinki, Finland — 13th August 2011

I am not sure what happened. I was doing so well, and then suddenly I couldn’t bring myself to write these blogs. But I’m back, and I’m wrapping this second European tour.

We arrived in Helsinki the morning of our show. We were graced with incredible weather once again, and so I went out for a walk around the downtown area to find out if I can find something ooh to rub everyone else’s face in. The street that ran along the waterfront of the harbor was incredibly beautiful, ornate 5 and 6 story buildings of wonderful European colors crammed together shoulder to shoulder looking out over the chilling waters of the Baltic Sea. I weaved my way through a street market of fresh fruits and vegetables, seafood, kitschy handmade souvenirs, and jewelry. But, once I got into the functional city, Helsinki lost its luster. Within the beautiful classic perimeter of the city, its interior had clearly attempted a modernization which left it feeling like Times Square circa 1982. On one of the main thoroughfares running parallel to the waterfront was a narrow but refreshing urban park (really, it was a wide median in the middle of a street) which attracted many locals and tourists with protests, vendors, and perfect grass to lay on. Or, as one group did, a perfect place to host an 80’s teased hair, leggings, side ponytail theme bachelorette party.

That night was the Flow Festival. A music and indie art festival in an old shipyard. We were the headlining act of the night on the secondary stage. Always a letdown to know that we’re not on the main stage, but this night was different. The band which I stumbled upon in our tent before our show was actually a pretty vital building block for our own live performance. During another European Festival run, Janelle had actually played alongside this band a year earlier. Though I never could figure out the name of this band, I will always remember its sound: an odd mix of Eastern European gypsy music, tango, Hispanic polka, and electronica disco. I have never seen a group interact with an audience as much as this band, and at a certain point in their set,their frontman makes the entire crowd sit down on the floor while the band gradually decrescendos. Then, in a very quick rise of energy, the band kicks back in and the whole crowd stands up and goes crazy. A very cool scene to witness. If you come to a Janelle show, you will witness it, because we found inspiration in that band and found away to do something similar in our encore. A fitting end to this tour which brings this story full circle for me and this band.

Longflightlove,
-Wellstrungout

John Wayne May Take Issue With This…

Way Out West Festival — 12th August, 2011 — Göthenburg, Sweden

This new bus which I mentioned in my last post was incredible. Unfortunately, we were only on board for about six hours… We had a hotel the night before, and the drive to Gothenburg was only a few hours, so our time was limited with this incredible luxury. It was a sad moment to pull into the backlot of our festival stage in Sweden.

Tonight we are sharing a stage and a festival with Robyn, Prince, Fleet Foxes, and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. This is an insane lineup. The festival was located in one of the most beautiful landscapes I have seen in a very long time. This is a city park at its finest- slightly rolling hills occasionally topped by small groupings of trees and perfectly green grass.

Our busses pulled in just as the front gates to the park were opening up, an army of people trodding under the iron arches created an undulating sea of blonde hair, fair skin and perfectly tailored skinny jeans. Scandinavia is so heavily bathed in the beauty that we in America find to be so rare and valuable among our citizens that I could not help but feel as though I was a second class citizen, poorly dressed with bad hair and an unsuitable complexion.

As the flood of people began, I heard a familiar tune lilting over the trees. Why could I so easily bob my head to this song, why do I know the lyrics, what is this? Who is this? That moment hit me, this was the band that had so far eluded me by either a few hours or one day at all the other big Euro festivals. It was Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros fresh off of their train tour with Mumford and Sons. A band which I have wanted to see perform live for over a year. A performance I figured would be best watched from stageside- so with our viola player Andrew Colella, @_colella, we took our festival passes to the stageside entrance and walked behind the scrim to the far side. After only a song and a half, we were promptly escorted out of the backstage area. Even though we were playing on a main stage, our passes were worthless. An embarrassing yet humorously memorable experience to say the least; kicked off stage at noon in Sweden.

I spent the rest of the afternoon running back and forth between our catering tent and the various bands that were playing on our stage or the stage across the field from ours. The Hives, The Avett Brothers, Fleet Foxes. At some point in all my running around we played a show which was tons of fun and to a massive crowd, as always. I never know what to say about these shows, especially writing about them weeks afterwards. So I will leave you with fun.

Like I mentioned, we had to leave behind our bus and we have yet another early morning flight to head to Helsinki through Copenhagen. Here we go again….

Planelove,
-Wellstrungout
@alxpage (I’ve never plugged my Twitter…)

OhYa Scandinavia!

Oya Festivalen — Oslo, Norway — 11th August, 2011

I’ve always wanted to travel to this part of the world and it is an insane concept to be playing a festival here. We’re coming into the final stretch of my second European tour, this time with four shows in four days in one of the most expensive areas of the world. In fact, as I came to learn, Oslo is the most expensive city in the world as far as cost of living is concerned. For example, I paid about 45 Kroner for a soda, only about $9 in the US. Needless to say, for this week I would be a practitioner of the Scandinavian diet…..The Oya festival was located in the heart of Oslo and is one of the biggest festivals in northern Europe during the summer. Here, we opened for Kanye West again just after our good friends Mayer Hawthorne’s performance. However, many of the acts we really wanted to see had already played the day before. So, backstage while being fitted for a pair of Swedish jeans by a company called Emmett, I heard rumors of an American band called the Antlers performing in a club in the city later that night. My plans suddenly shifted towards finding a way into this overly sold out performance. The Antlers are kind of like the new Radiohead, vocals like Sigur Ros and a band like Appleseed Cast or Minus the Bear.

We talked to a few people and our handler backstage managed to get a few of our names onto a guestlist for the show. So, after we played our set, which was to a super high energy crowd, we headed back to the hotel to drop off our bags and intruments and made an immediate turn around to go to the venue about two miles from our hotel. With only a minute to spare, we walked into the club right as the opening band was walking onto stage.

We grabbed a few $10 beers at the bar and started up a conversation with a group of Oslo-ians who recognized us from our show at the festival. Their English was not quite fluent and our Norwegian was beyond non-existant, so our conversation was very fun. Somehow it turned into a game of “what animal do you look like”. My ever-so-debonaire compatriot Andrew started the game out perfectly by saying that one of the girls in the group looked like a condor…. Luckily, I don’t think that word translates in Norwegian easily. However, her friend then said that I looked like a word she didn’t know in English, so she relayed it to the group in her native tongue: vaskebjørn. Raccoon. I look like a raccoon.

I guess I see her point.

It was a great late night. With days of musical performances like these, sacrificing sleep is something I will gladly do. We are busing it to Sweden for the Way out West Festival.

Vaskebjørnlove,
-Wellstrungout

Now that they’re done with that civil war, I’m going on vacation

Terraneo Festival — Split and Sibenik, Croatia — 10th August, 2011

It was a late night flight on a very small plane into a country I knew nothing about, a city named Split, and a hotel that was rumored to sit seaside. I wasn’t sure of the national language, the currency, or the culture. I just knew that I had a day and a half of off time. I will gladly take it, no matter. My British friends told me days ago that Croatia was the prime vacation spot for most Europeans- similar to a Mexican beach getaway. I wake up the next morning, having only seen the roadside lights on the midnight drive to our hotel, to this incredible sight.

I got out to the beach the next morning and rented a sea kayak for about €7. Whenever I get a day at a beach in an area like this, I always try to get a boat to explore. When mountains ride up to the shoreline there are endless possibilities for exploration and beautiful scenery. I paddled through the cross current of the harbor to an outcropping of massive rocks jutting sharply out of the water just beyond where a hillside plunges into the water. (You might be able to see the rocks: look between the two large palm trees at the left of the photo. Do you see the small boat or buoy between them. Go straight up from there across the bay.)

After about an hour and a half of rowing against a current which seemed to be moving in every direction opposite of where I was headed, I headed back to the hotel to meet up with some of the band for lunch. We walked a bit up the beach to what seemed to be the locals’ stretch. We got pizzas and a few beers and sat on the sand in the mid-afternoon Croatian sun. Scorching all around. The pizzas seemed to get hotter as we were eating them than they were when first served. A few of the guys also couldn’t help but comment on some of the ‘local scenery.’ However, it was clear to me that these people were a few years shy of what is universally acceptable….. So I asked the waiter, who confirmed their age and their relation to the owner of the restaurant.

We quickly left.

Later that evening, Janelle planned a beachside party for us, with rum and vodka shots from water guns and some DIY mix drinks. A beautiful sunset followed.

Lance Powlis in the sunset. Awesome trumpet player.

Tanju- Our world class European tour manager.

Paul Vassalo and George Twopointoh. Dinner at the beach.

The next day we drove for a couple of hours south to Sibenik, Croatia- another beach town but far more small-townish. By far one of the weirdest looking and oddly run hotels I’ve seen. It was pink, shaped like a pyramid with the top third removed. A massive pool that had no cover, left entirely to the whim of the sun. A pool that sparked no interest, especially with a sea only 50 meters farther down the path. In the lobby, waiting for my room, I was reading the hotel announcements on the television when suddenly, after a wedding announcement, appeared a picture of a fully naked woman, prostrate and from the worst angle. The front desk staff were, understandably, embarrassed as this was clearly a terrible computer glitch. But, it made for a great afternoon of jokes.

We have about three hours before needing to leave for the festival. So we jump into swimsuits and walk down to the beach, which is absolutely plastered with people. If we had wanted to sit down, we would not have had a chance for kilometers. People on people on people. So, we walked for a few kilometers and eventually got to a portion of the beach where the crowds seemed to dwindle: a manmade sandbar, with, of course, a bar on it.

We went for a quick swim at the sandbarbar and cut our feet up nicely on the sharp rocky shores. Heading back to the hotel, Andrew, Stephen and I got a bit hungry. So we stopped at a shack on the beachwalk for pizzas and a hotdog. What else would you expect? Besides, we had no clue what those other things were on the menu. Play it safe for once Alex….

We drive a little bit through the rolling hills of Sibenik to finally arrive at our venue- a military training grounds with stages interspersed between abandoned barracks and marching fields. Quaint. Tonight we are performing alongside The National, another Indie band that has recently started to become mainstream. It is very windy on stage and after the sunset, it is quite cool. The wind kept our fog machines from serving any purpose except for blanketing the artist tent in a veil of odd smelling mist. Our show went very well and the crowd out here was large and responsive. I could do more cities and festivals like this. We’ll see how Scandinavia treats us….

Splitlove,
-Wellstrungout

There’s something purple in the state of Denmark

NPG Festival — Copenhagen, Denmark — 7th August, 2011

Yet another flight, London to Copenhagen. We’ve had a flight every other day at this point, and it is definitely getting old. Funneling 25 people through the check-in counter at a foreign airport is nothing short of a miraculous task akin to herding kittens.

Luckily, due to the Purple One’s incredible planning, the venue in Copenhagen was only a 5 minute ride from the airport. As we walk into the artists’ area with all of the dressing rooms and catering, I start reading the names outside each trailer and my mind starts going crazy: Nikka Costa, Larry Graham, Maceo Parker, Chaka Khan! I knew immediately it was time for church. Larry Graham is the icon of funk slap bass, Maceo is a living legend as a saxophonist and uncle to our guitarist, and Chaka is a super star of pop and soul. Then, of course there is Prince himself.

This is going to be a long day.

We have a tradition on this tour. Our most anticipated shows are plagued by technical problems. We had a hum coming from our guitar amp, the in ear monitor packs were totally non-functional for the string section, input lines were crossed, signal issues into our sound board and probably a slew of other things that I don’t even know about. Luckily, we have a crack team of guys behind the scenes who picked us back up throughout our set fixing all of these issues. But, as you could imagine with Prince standing on the side of the stage, tensions were running high.
Despite the issues, we had a great show and we were even more excited to see a tag team of legends take the stage after us.

I am aware of Chaka Khan’s legacy in music, but I only know her biggest hits. With that said, I was transfixed upon every note, every smile, every word said, every step taken by that woman. I was in awe for over an hour, stunned by the soul and musicality flowing off of that stage. During her hit “I’m Every Woman,” her band broke down into a vamp where Chaka Khan started talking about her daughter back home missing her mother, screaming out “Mommmmmmmmyyy!” In that moment, standing alongside the rest of my band and shoulder to shoulder with Prince, we all lost our freaking minds Tears welled up in the corners of our eyes, knees grew weak, and shouts of amazement took us by force; all of us.

Somehow I was lucky enough to hit record just a split second before she hit that note. Just an incredible performance. This is a performance I will never forget.

While waiting for Prince’s set to start, the first act of the day, a brass band, started walking through the artists’ area jamming on a vamp. It was great.

Of course, Prince’s concert was incredible, long, fireworked, and funky. But now it’s time for the night to start.

THE JAM SESSION

We go back to the hotel to freshen up and wait for the location of the jam to be announced. By midnight we pile into vans with our instruments to go to the undisclosed location. In the past, it has just been a rehearsal space or a small closed venue. No. With a thousand people lined up outside the venue, this was a public jam session.

Nerves are now shot.

There have been several Janelle Monae/Prince jam sessions since I have been on board, but this was the first time the strings were invited. So I was ready, I was prepared, I was going in, I was going for blood.
Prince’s band started the jam on some classics: Parliament Funkadelic, Earth Wind and Fire…. Prince pulled our horns on stage to back the band. Then our guitarist Kellindo. Then it was a Janelle Monae set: an improv take on Tightrope, and a hip hop run by our George Twopointoh (2.0).

I’m still not on stage.

Some background: Yes, I was invited to the jam. Yes that assumes that I was invited to play. However, these things are somewhat personal and pretty political. You don’t just walk onto the stage and plug in. Someone needs to bring you on. Unfortunately, this is a Prince jam, so everyone is on game and of course, concerned mainly with not making a fool of themselves. So, no one is really thinking too hard about anyone but themselves and their instruments. That is not a dig on anyone, that is just how this type of thing goes. This is a career making moment.

So I didn’t get the personal pull onto stage, but that is fine, because I know I have several Prince jams ahead of me. But it was cool to stand next to Prince for a few hours watching my friends go hard. I’ll take it, and I did until about 7:30 the next morning when I went back to the hotel to rediscover sleep.

I walked around Copenhagen for a few hours later that afternoon before heading back to the airport to fly out to Croatia for an off day. I’ve heard that Croatia is where a lot of Europeans go for vacation, but that little civil war they had a few years ago is the only descriptor in my mind of our next locale.

Copenloven,
-Wellstrungout

There’s snow in my canvas shoes…

UCCU Center — Orem, Utah — Monday 30th, 2011

What should have been only an 8 hour drive into Utah turned into almost 11 as we drove through three snowstorms as we passed through Wyoming early Monday morning. It was certainly a sight to see- highways in white at the end of May. Despite the rough driving conditions, it was a very pretty drive, and even better we made it safely- mostly. Bruno’s crew bus had a mechanical issue in the middle of the night, so one of the other buses in the caravan had to turn around and pick up 10 guys to get to the venue. The tech guys are always the first people into the venue. They have to build the stages, hoist the lighting rigs, run the power to the stage and the mixing console, and set up all the sounds and lighting boards before lunch. Yea. They have one of the toughest jobs in this industry. On that note- big shout out to our tech guys! Alex McLeod on our stage mix and general badoutness, Reggie Griffith on house mix, Paul Vassallo for backline and guitar tech/anything and everything and Cory from Bruno’s camp running our lights. Killer group of guys.

So we pulled into the venue and grabbed breakfast at catering. Soon the idea was hatched to get in a round of golf at a nearby course, so Andrew Colella, viola, Marcus Lewis, trombone, and I hopped a cab from a really sketchy company which we are still worried might charge us again and drove down to Provo, Utah. (I am terrible at golf, but I wanted to get some exercise and hit a few for practice, so I tagged along) The course was at the base of a chain of mountains, so the views were incredible. Storms rolled through several times while on the course, so the wind was brutal. The constant wind pushed our hard right slices to the fairways of the holes to our left. It was completely unworkable. Here are the pics:

We got into soundcheck as Bruno was wrapping his up. I love it- so jammin! His band took to church! I was delivered, I was saved, I was groovin! They were jamming out to some old gospel hymns in a way I can’t describe, but in that moment, it was the most unholy Holy music I have ever experienced. So good. God never meant for his songs to jam that hard- irreverant. (Sidenote- Bruno’s trumpet and sax players, James and Dwayne, were in a band with our keys player called the Jaspects out of Atlanta. They were incredible and were at the top of the game. They worked with a girl with some pipes who went by Janelle Monae. http://www.myspace.com/jaspects DO IT.)

The crowd that night was really fantastic. It was the last of four straight days of shows, and we put our all into it- and so did the crowd! This was one of our most pumped up audiences yet. Everyone was moving, everyone was having a good time. We felt it! Apparently the music editor for the local paper saw it differently! It was one of only a few bad reviews of us, but it cracked me up! He must have showed up in ear plugs and a sleeping mask! As a fellow newsman, I just hope his editor didn’t try to fact-check any of his article, because his job would be on the line!

Just so you know, George is the do-er of the impossible. This catch? Impossible. Thrown from across the room, he caught this can at full extension while looking the other direction. Done. George Twopointoh. No, do not think that this is a last name from Sudan. George 2.0 of AnyOneMan, TurnOffTheTV, and an incredible artist.

Off to Seattle! A 16 hour drive, woosh. Two days of R&R. See you on the flipside when we head to Canada.

Love. Road. You know.
Wellstrungout