Portugal...my kind of "gal"

Wow. What a day. What a day and what a night. I guess at this point I'm writing about yesterday, but it's all sort of blended together into one present tense memory of an amazing city called Lisbon. There's a certain familiarity and warmth to this city - and this country - that resembles the essence of a exuberant golden retriever. I'm a dog person, so I mean this in the most positive possible way. This whole place sort of wags its tail all the time.

Part (or most) of the reason I'm enjoying this place so much is because of the fact that I'm having a blast with my peeps in MBD. I haven't played a show with Bdub and Shara in almost a year and a half, and I have to say that it kind of had the bicycle effect feeling - we certainly didn't fall on our faces. With only a couple of rehearsals, we seem to have achieved mid-tour form rather easily. Our set last night at the gorgeous Theatro Sao Luiz (I don't know how to make the squiggly accents on blogger) included songs we haven't played since our tour opening for the Decemberists in 07', which now feels like EONS ago. The show felt like a million bucks, and Shara's pipes were a-blowin' last night. Like, furreal. Many of you know Shara has been an honorary Decemberist for the past year, KILLING tracks on "Hazards of Love", and touring the country NAY the globe. But it is nice to see her straight fronting again. Big ups to jenny john colin funk marcel rick cuddles natequizzle wherever they may be.

Theatro Sao Luiz actually reminded me of some of the venues from that tour, like the Tennesse theatre in Knoxville, or the Alabama Theatre in Birmingham. Sao Luiz had a magical, ornate vibe, drenched in history in spite of a renovation 7 years back. The acoustics were fantastic, and we took full advantage. This was the first MBD throwdown in Portugal, and it felt like the people dug.

After the show, we retired to the "oh"tel with our bottle of Jaymo to discuss the decay of Western society and the melting of the arctic ice shelf. Kind of reminded me of our inconvenient truth convo in Glasgow so many moons ago.

As I mentioned yesterday, I've gained a wife, Bdub's gained a son, and Shara and James have become homeowners (D-troit!) since last we rocked the house. I guess these facts make me further realize how much I adore these people.

I woke up at about 10:30 and strolled about snapping way too many photos and sipping the best cafe con leche (lesh???) I've ever had. The day off afforded us all the opportunity to truly see Lisbon in its entirety, and provided a pretty good number of laughs as well. I mean, the night literally ended with watching animal bloopers on Nuno's couch.

Yeah, that just happened.

Needless to say, today was fun, and last night was great. We saw a city with a true place in history, and got to be true tourists in the purest sense of the word. We've had a chance to eat some beautiful food, listen to some gorgeous Fado (pronounced Fadu), and seen our beloved Nuno in his true element. Day off pictures on the way.