dublin, version 2.0

yes, they do know how to party in Dublin. If anyone tries to tell you differently, punch them him in the fucking shnoz. Yes, tonight was the first show of the tour, and yes it was with a drummer shara and i had never played with before, but it was straight up P R O - no bones about it. Plus, his name is Binder.......but not like the 3 ring kind. It's pronounced closer to bender, like the robot on futurama, but with an i......SO irish. Anyways, the show was awesome. Everyone was in top form - even the audience! you could hear a pin drop throughout the entire performance. To make up for the fact that Binder only had 1 day to learn the material, Shara did about a 5 song solo set before we jumped onstage. She had a certain swagger going though, so by the time Binder and i came onstage the audience was already puddy in our hands. The main highlight of my night tonight came after our performance, in the VIP room (N.B. vip room sounds WAY cooler than it actually is...). The opening act of the night, headed by an irish singer/songwriter named Jennifer, was great, but gained outstanding marks after proving to be worth while drinking associates. As i slowly consumed the bottle of complimentary red wine provided by the venue, i witnessed a couple of funny things. First of all, one of the late comers to the party - steve? - entered with a story of the ages. Apparently, he had gone out for "A SINGLE PINT" with friends on a Friday, and woke up at Schipol international airport in Amsterdam on the following Sunday with no real recollection of what happened or how he had ended up there. To top it off, he found 400 "quid" (pounds?) in his pocket and got to hang in the DAM for two days because of it. The topper of the story, however, is that he decided to fall asleep in a photo booth at the train station in Amsterdam............... apparently some frisky germans donated a couple of euros so that he would have photographic evidence of his drunken stupor - a nice move if you're asking me. And apparently he was strip searched upon his return to Ireland the following Monday. He didn't seem to mind too much. Before i had the chance to make a clean getaway, the evening erupted into a full-on sing along.......David Bowie, the Beatles, that song with the chorus that goes "on the roooad agaaain.....on the road agaaaain......" Furthermore, I forgot to include that this crazy cadre of weirdo Dubliners had a bunch of good hash and an instinct towards the dramatic. It was a good time. Tomorrow, our tour will take us to Belfast, in Northern Ireland. Apparently this is the birthplace of the irish car bomb. One of my favorite all time alcoholic beverages. nate