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Baltic Tour Volumen 1's Tour Diary (2003)
(Tour:Baltic) - toured with Josh Vanek, Andy Smetanka, Mike "Private Dick, Dirty Finn" Valentine - Toured Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania |
09/10/2003 Riga, bustling crazy city
Day 10 - Entry 1
I'm witing this through the fog of a head cold in Kuldiga. But, I'm jumping ahead. After the magic of the summer cottage and Russian jeep (which Vanek stalled and 10 of us pushed to start with Bob at the wheel), we moved towards Riga in the Blue Whale. The 100 km journey took nearly as long as the confusion in the bustling city while we tried to figure out parking. Riga is a big city, but like every big city we've been in, the streets are narrow, twisty and bursting at the seems with traffic. Everything was designed for carriages it seems.
Anyway, we all got a little frazzled, but Miikka got us to where we were going and scored a bitchin' parking space. I would have been in tears if I had been driving, so once again I thanked our lucky stars for Mike "the finn" Valentine, total badass.
The club was cool, like a larger Jays. We were early, so we loaded in and then walked all around old town. We got some lunch at a buffet, gambled a tiny bit (on a game called enchanted unicorn) and then met Janis. He gave us a quick tour and then we went to Radio Naba for an interview. We sorta fumbled our words during the interview because we were pretty weary. But, hopefully we didn't sound like complete retards. One radio listener won free admission by correctly answering our question: What is the capital of Montana?
The other bands were really good. Trobles was 2 trumpets, sax, guitar, bass and drums. I couldn't describe the style, but I liked it. The other band had a harder name to spell (I'll update it when I see a flyer). They were sort of poppy with an underlying folk feel. Again, really great. Vanek tells me that they are called Balozu Pilni Pagalmi.
We blasted our set from a stage that looked and sounded like it was at the end of a subway tunnel. Then, once again, we rushed out into the chill night air in sweaty, malodorous suits. Janis and Una put us up again, only this time it was in their appartment in Riga. We all staked claims on couches and cushions and Bob found the latenight scandanavian entertainment for gown-ups on TV. I, of course, averted my eyes, thought of my beautiful wife and passed into slumberland.
NOTE - The preceeding passage may or may not contain some revisionist history.
It was around this time that some us started to get caught in the grips of a cold. Bad news for 8 dudes that are pretty much living on top of each other.
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