Catching up on the tour...

Saturday, September 5 2009
Show #3 BBQ & Blues, Osan Air Force Base
Osan is an extremely nice base, with the officer’s club resembling some of the nicer country clubs Rusty and I have performed at. The BBQ & Blues Festival was just getting into full swing outside the officer’s club when we arrive. As our bus pulled up we were geeked to see our faces plastered on a huge banner strung across the intersection. Too cool. We unloaded our borrowed amps and keyboard and do a quick sound check. Lee went to work with audio crew from the Korean sound company to get our instruments and vocals dialed in and everything seemed fine at that point. Since we still had several hours before our performance we were directed to a private room in the O club that has been set aside for our use. Some of us set up our laptops and go to work on video clips, posting to our tour blogs and sorting the photos we’ve taken so far. The rest of the group heads back outside to hear the first act, a local band.

The first half of our set sent off without a hitch. Great crowd, great response. Then right at the end of the set sparks began spitting outward from the outlet box Dave’s keyboard was plugged into. We quickly yank the keyboard’s transformer cable but the damage was already done. We took a break so the MC could take care of some announcements and we could confer with the sound company folks to try to come up with a solution. Before Dave and I could leave the stage smoke began pouring up out of the Line 6 guitar amp. Another piece of gear fried. The only solution was to change up the set and finish the performance as a four-piece, with Dave watching glumly from side stage. We all felt bad that some equipment got wrecked, even though it wasn’t our fault and there was nothing we could have done to prevent it.

Monday, September 7, 2009
Show #4 Labor Day festivities, Hanson Field House, Camp Casey
No luck in finding a transformer or getting the fried one repaired for Dave’s keyboard. We were disappointed at the possibility that Davey might have to sit out a show or two until we could resolve the equipment issue. Fortunately, Frank --- Our main AFE contact in Hawaii contacted the owner of the equipment rental company and made arrangements for us to borrow a keyboard for the show from a band called USA Express who was scheduled to play earlier before us at the festival.

Lots of families in attendance for the Labor Day activities, which included entertainment, demonstrations, vender booths, and games and contests for both kids and adults, inflatable castles for bouncing – all the normal stuff you see at a community festival.

Dave usually plays a Hammond B3 at our shows but AFE was unable to provide a B3 for the tour so Dave has been hooking a laptop to the keyboard and is using a B3 simulator program to get his B3 sound. It’s not an ideal arrangement for him but sounds pretty darn good, all the same.

It was great being able to perform outdoors. There has been little variation in day/night temperatures since we’ve been here, with only one humid day. We were the final act of the evening and by the time we took the stage it was dark. The only drawback to the outdoor shows here have been the big ass bugs. At Osan, we had to contend with spiders spinning webs in the equipment on stage while we played. At Camp Casey bugs that looked like mayflies started landing on us as soon as we started playing. At one point I looked over at Rusty and saw a half dozen of the mayflies clinging to his shirt and a huge praying mantis making its way up his back at an alarming rate of speed, heading straight for his ear. I got the feisty little interloper off of him but he/it remained up on stage with us through the rest of the show. At the end of our set the camp’s Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) director presented the band with a gorgeous engraved plaque. Then we were able to spend some time signing autographs and chatting with some enlisted folks who’d hung around to say hi. Everyone has been very friendly and appreciative – we all look forward to the time we spend after our shows talking with the military folks and finding out where they’re from originally, how long they’ve been away from the states, etc.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Tommy D’s, Camp Humphreys
Each venue/event has been quite different. Our last Korean show at Tommy D’s was more like a regular club gig than a concert. When we arrived we learned there had been a bit of a snafu with communication. A local band, New Sensations, was also scheduled to perform the same night. Their show was cancelled so we could go ahead with ours. Instead of being irked, the band was very friendly and came out en force to the club in support of our show, which we thought was really, really nice. At Kunsan, JBL Simple Tunes (from the Philippines) had their show pushed back until after we’d done our 2-hour show, They came out early to hang out and talk, and then asked for autographs and chatted for a bit before setting up their gear and performing. We were able to stick around and hear them too, which was nice.

At 9 a.m. we checked out of the Kaya Hotel and boarded the bus to head back to Incheon International Airport. Today we fly to Narita Japan and we’ll be met by Spike, our new AFE contact person. We stop at the warehouse to drop off the equipment we have used for our Korean shows and then our last trip with Mr. Yi.

We were very sad at the prospect of saying goodbye. Mr. Yi has been very gracious and patient with us this past week. Our trip would have been much more stressful and much less successful had he not been so willing to go above and beyond the call of duty. After Pete discovered his borrowed drum kit was lacking parts Mr. Yi located a music store en route to our second show and even helped negotiate the best price for the parts since none of us could speak the language. When the keyboard transformer and a guitar amp fried during our performance at Osan, Mr. Yi found a huge music mall and volunteered to come in to work SIX HOURS EARLY to drop some of us off on base to do laundry while he chauffeured the rest of the group to the mall to get the transformer repaired and find the other gear we needed, and on our last full day in Korea he picked us up several hours early and drove us back to the shopping district just outside Osan Air Force base so we could shop for souvenirs. Bluzapalooza IV stayed on track thanks to Mr. Yi so it felt right to gift him with one of the Bluzapalooza tour jackets he had admired earlier in the week.

Thursday, September 10, 2009
Destination: Tokyo, Japan
I am enthralled with Tokyo – at least from the window of the bus. We have been in Japan for just a couple of hours and already have been seduced by the sophisticated beauty of this megalopolis . According to Wikipedia the greater Tokyo area is home to some 35 million people, making it the most densely populated metropolitan area on Earth. Tokyo and Seoul are the largest cities I have visited to date. Years ago I had the opportunity to perform in European cities like Paris, Amsterdam and Cologne – cities more known for their history and old architecture, but Seoul and Tokyo are a huge contrast - very vibrant and contemporary, while maintaining an exotic air. I don’t know that I would enjoy living in such a huge city, but visiting is certainly exciting.

Saturday, September 10-11, 2009
Yokota AB
Before we can check into the hotel we have to stop at the guard station to get signed in and get our temporary base passes. This takes about an hour. We’re all exhausted and the photos on our temporary passes look fairly demonic. For this leg of the trip we’re being housed on base at the Kantos Lodge where we each have our own suite at the Kantos. We have good coffee, Wi-Fi and the mattress is soft – a huge improvement over the concrete hard beds in Korea. I definitely could linger here a while but we have two short nights here. In the morning we pick up our PA rig from storage and head back over to the guard house for yet another round of paperwork and photographs. It takes well over an hour to process our temporary passes. My second photo isn’t any more flattering than the first.

We walk over to the Officer’s Club to set up. It’s a nice size room with a formal atmosphere and a decent size stage. We go back to the hotel for about 90 minutes then walk back over to the restaurant for an excellent dinner. We eat an embarrassing amount of the wonderful warm, dark bread and honey butter. As we leave the restaurant a lady named Tara Werner walked over to introduce herself to us, saying she’d been to our website and was looking forward to the show. By the end of the evening I felt like I’ve made some new friends and that we definitely will stay in touch.