Roaming. In Rome.

We woke up late after a hard day's work yesterday and set out to burn this town down. And, of course, when I say burn it down, I mean check out all of the popular tourist haunts. And by all, of course, I mean the coliseum. It's the bomb. We ate some lunch, we snapped some selfies, we made some friends, and we watched Ninja Asssasssins in Italian.

**For the record, you're really not missing that much by way of dialogue when you see a movie called Ninja Asssasssins in a foreign language.**

Shara and James are on to Paris for a solo show tonight, so Brian and I have held down the Roman fortress in the mean time. Tomorrow will ferry us on to our next destination, Athens, the site of recent riots and the cradle of "western" civilization (irony). How the mighty have fallen.

As for Rome, it is indeed something special. But the people really have to learn to pick up the dog shit. Seriously. It's obnoxious. We Americans may be loud, presumptuous, obnoxious, and acutely arrogant, but at least we know how to keep operate a plastic bag. Also, what the fuck is with the graffiti? Seriously, it's not that cool. We're not in the South Bronx circa 1979, and there can be no argument that graffiti is improving the visual aesthetic of this historic city. Having just finished my honeymoon in Athens, we will be seeing plenty more pointless tagging in the days to come.

We had a simple, blissful day today, and we both managed to avoid stepping in a turd. Funny looks aside, I really do love being a TOURist.

NECK FACE NECK FACE NECK FACENECK FACE NECK FACE NECK FACE NECK FACE NECK FACE NECK FACE NECK FACE NECK FACE NECK FACENECK FACE NECK FACE NECK FACE NECK FACE NECK FACE NECK FACE

Coimbra, Espinoa

On to the next, on the next! It’s been a couple days since my last post, so I’ll give the old “reader’s digest condensed” version. We arrived in Coimbra in the afternoon after a short two hour trip north from Lisbon, settled into the comfort inn, and made our way over to the venue. The city itself is small, but our soundman Nelson (aka Nelly aka Son) told me that it’s the most educated place in Portugal given its status as a primary school town. Apparently Coimbra is home to the oldest university in Europe, a fact which I can neither believe nor confirm. But I guess we’ll take his word for it.

Nelson is an interesting character. He speaks great English, has a beaming smile, and tells some of the filthiest jokes I’ve had the pleasure of hearing. Something about a joke being translated into a secondary language is hilarious; the punchline always needs a little help from the body language and gesticulation of the teller. One of them involved Sean Connery and his famous prowess in the sack, but it’s just barely over the line enough to validate its omission from my blog (my Grandma won’t find it very funny).

After sound check we ate a MASSIVE lunch of grilled meat, including steak, pork chops, blood sausage and some of the most goddamn delicious chorizo I’ve ever tasted. The show was a little tough on account of some technical difficulties, but we powered through.

The next day brought us even further North to the seaside city of Espinho, where our venue was the performance space of the Espinho Academy of Music. Playing music for an audience full of music students requires a top-notch effort, and that’s pretty much exactly what we put out.

Before the show, we recorded a little stripped-down live performance of Apples and Gentlest Gentlemen for some Portugese Indie music blog in the foyer of the auditorium which should turn out pretty cool. The guys seemed pretty p r o and filmed using a mini-steadycam rig. Shanda and Nelson took us for lunch afterward in a restaurant with an open-fire oven, and we ate some true authentic Portugese food. Only downside was my sweater now smells like a campfire.

The show itself was the best so far by far, as evidenced by the fact that we played three encores, each one receiving a standing O. I think last night was the most connected I personally have ever felt to an audience, probably because of how close the seats were to the stage. We finished up, packed our gear, and said goodbye to Nelson and the rest of the crew, who would be heading back to Lisbon directly.

Today’s trip puts us back in Lisbon for the night before our flight to Italy tomorrow. By chance, our friend and fellow MBD member Marla will be in the city tonight, so we are on our way to meet up for some lunch. Our next show will be in Rome, followed by Athens, and then home sweet home on December 12th. More to come soon.

Lisbon day off.

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.

Muito Muito Muito

these are pictures.

Portugal. Back in the Saddle.

So, Portugal. Nice to meet you. Heard a lot about your beaches, handsome women, funny accents, and international soccer standouts.

The trip out wasn't quite as easy as Bdub and i had hoped it would be, what with the bus accident in the holland tunnel and the generally incompetent Newark airport staff on hand to make things interesting. Jersey obstacles aside, we finally made it onto the plane and settled in for our 6 hour hop across the pond. Even though it's been over a year since my last tour of duty with MBD, the whole process feels familiar at this point. I couldn't be happier.

A lot has happened in the past year for me. I got married, I turned the corner on my mid-twenties, I taught myself how to cook, and my Mom says I've "really grown up". I don't know about that last one, but the other elements are rather exciting. Especially marriage. Also, the cooking. The mid-twenties thing feels a little more uncomfortable in a vaguely existential way. Questions like "how do i make money?" and "why is beer so expensive?" and "who is Myley Cyrus?" and "do I look fat in this spandex workout suit?" abound (oops). But even more exciting and titillating are the prospects of my bands back in the NYC, ArpLine and Inlets. We will be releasing albums in the front half of 2010 - or as i like to call it OH TEN!!!! - and most likely logging some serious hours on the proverbial road. Needless to say, I will do my best do document anything and everything worth a glance.

Until then, our stops will be 2 more in Portugal, Italy, and finally in Athens. Should be a grand old time.

I left my heart in San Fransisco.

Our friday and saturday shows took place in the beautiful mid-section of sunny california, where we enjoyed nice weather, nice people, and a healthy dose of rocking. Since our sets were longer than the 45 minute jams of the hotel cafe in LA, these shows took on a different character. We got to be a little more patient with our transitions, our pacing, and everything in between.

The friday show happened at the montalvo arts center in Saratoga, CA, where we arrived after about a 5 hour trek from the southland. Nestled in the forest and accessed only by a winding and wandering road about 30 minutes from San Jose proper, Montalvo is a strange place with a vibe somehow reminiscent (sp?) of some kind of cult. As we drove up, we expected to see people dressed in all white with shaved heads and strange beads around their necks, but to our disappointment found only normal, lucid, and otherwise uncompromised humans. Another strange factoid about Montalvo is that I actually came here in 2002 while on tour with Linda Ronstadt, although my responsibilities on that tour were much different. Instead of being a musician on that tour, I was essentially the lowest rung on the crew ladder, working as an assistant to the monitor engineer. All i remember from that show was being lonely, homesick, and sick to death of hearing the song "blue bayou". yeeesh......

The first person we met at the venue was Ray, the stage manager. He had white hair and a soft face, and later on the evening showed off his pithy sense of humor by ridiculing Brian and my ridiculous stage outfits. If i were Ray, i probably would have made fun of us too. On this tour, as opposed to other past tours, the MBD rhythm section has the dubious honor of wearing suit pants, a white shirt, black suspenders, and massive, comical bowties. In all honesty, we look like valets. Valets, or a bad version of a James Bond 007 halloween getup. I will say, however, that we do certainly make it work. Or at least I keep telling myself that. Notwithstanding our stage fashion, MBD had a wonderful show at Montalvo. The stage was wide and deep, with perfect stage sound, and had an audience of extremely attentive (eerily so) and appreciative mostly 30-50 year olds. It's always feels a little bit odd to get loud and really let loose on a crowd of people in seats. You never really know how they're relating to a song until it's over, because the interaction is much different. At rock clubs, where audiences are standing, maybe dancing, maybe bobbing their heads, it's easier to get a sense of return people. The down side of that, though, is the inevitable chatty factor, which can sometimes get in the way of the gentler, softer, and generally more delicate songs.

After the show, Brian and I hung with Chris the monitor engineer and the sound dudes for a bit, talking shop and past shows at Montalvo. I love hearing the sound crew perspective on past shows, especially when the shows are by bands I dig. The medeski, martin, & wood show of 2005 was a highlight on Chris' list of memorable Montalvo performances; i'm sure it was trip-tacular. After our load-out, we got into the van and headed to our place of rest for the night. Little did I know what was in store for us.......

Instead of the usual hum-drum hotel thing, we got to stay with Heather, a lifelong friend of Shara's, and her new husband Gary. The house was a newly renovated and beautiful place, with high ceilings, a dream kitchen, and all the amenities. But the kicker of this whole stay was talking shop with Gary, who just happened to be a 17 year veteran DJ of the local San Jose country station. I'd never met a professional radio DJ before, and I have to say that Gary blew me away. From the first words I heard him say, it all made sense. I thought to myself, "OF COOOURSE he's a radio DJ!" he had that warm, booming, curiously familiar voice that would be out of place in any other occupation other than radio. We chatted long into the night, hearing stories of interviews with country greats like Trace Adkins, Garth Brooks, and countless others. This man was a downright spokesperson for country music, and it was wonderful to hear someone so steeped in the heart of mainstream radio speak so passionately about the art. I think the quote of the night from Gary was, "there's ride a horse to save a cowboy, and then there's ride a horse to save a cowboy...." I think it had something to do with the group "big & rich", but I can't remember quite why it made sense. Gary also had two beautiful big dogs, one a german shepherd and the other a golden lab, who were both a joy to be around/play fetch with.

After Shara, James, and the rest of the house retired, Brian and I stayed up watching a national geographic channel expose on the intellect of monkeys entitled, "Who's Ape-ing who?" It was classic. After that, we wrapped it up with a little bit of "Meerkat Manor" before hitting the haaaay.

The next morning Heather made a Jimmy Dean breakfast pizza which was pretty much the most incredible and audacious breakfast I've ever eaten. It's amazing how easy it is to kill 2 hours just chatting when one of the contributors to the conversation talks for a living. Gary really did have some great stories about his 30 + year tenure in radio, including a truly unique perspective on the events of 9/11. Seeing as he is the morning DJ for the station, Gary's job was to get information to his listening public, a difficult task considering the event.

After some hugs and many thank-yous, we left the house around 3pm and headed into San Fransisco. Just for the record, i LOVE San Fran. It's a city that never ceases to impress me with its beauty. After a rather loud soundcheck, James, Brian and Shara went to dinner with a friend, and I wandered around a bit. On my time-killing perambulation, I found myself in a very familiar place. It was a little park on top of a hill overlooking the city, with rows of stereotypically SF houses lining the streets on two sides. Suddenly it all made sense: I AM STANDING IN THE PARK FROM THE FULL HOUSE OPENING SEGMENT. You know the one. Sometimes this whole touring thing is just too good to be true. ps....what's up with that weird last shot of the grown-up middle daughter ? boobs much? i heard she had a meth problem. go figure.

After a taco, I headed back to the venue to catch some of the opening band. They were great. I can't remember their name, but they were really great. Our set ended at around midnight, and unfortunately for MBD we would have about an hour to sleep once we finished our responsibilities. We had to drop off the gear, drop off the van, settle, sleep for a second, and head to the airport. OUCH. So began our 17 hour day of travel to Barcelona. LITERALLY. 17 hours.

It's weird to basically just erase a day from the calendar by sitting on a plane. But landing in Spain makes it all worth it. More to come soon.

LA is fun?

the answer: yes. After a very early flight out of JFK on monday morning, MBD arrived on the ground in Los Angeles at about 10:45 pacific standard time. For me, this tour has felt like a vacation ever since the moment i stepped out of baggage claim at LAX, breathing in the warm, polluted, LA air. instead of our usual 15-20 items of luggage, including a variety of instruments and personal effects, our final tally came to about to a manageable 12 items. Not too shabby, even with the new checked baggage taxes American Airlines have been so kind to require.

LA always sort of feels like home to me. It's something about the sunlight, the smell, and the constant motion of the city flying by outside your car window. After renting the van and the subsequent patch of 405 traffic, we arrived not at another bland, sterile hotel, but instead at the place i grew up. Waiting for us there was my mom, armed to the teeth with chocolate chip cookies, blueberry scones, and of course, love (aaw). My mother is at her happiest when she's entertaining guests. She whips around the house, preparing sandwiches, pouring coffee, and making small talk with anyone looking to chat. Sometimes it's possible for certain guests to overstay their welcome, but we could only stay about 4 days, 2 of them being show days.

After our little welcome session, mom left for a lecture at UCLA, and we enjoyed a full-on veg session. We all joked that this didn't really "feel like tour", on account of all the free food, comfortable furniture, and complete lack of stress we were enjoying. I had lunch with my good friend Rishi at our old haunt, Sak's, eating some deliciously awful teriyaki. Everything about the afternoon felt familiar in a way. The two of us chatted about our lives - my new engagement, his thriving family business, and how on earth we all made it out of our teenage years alive. This conversation was a theme of my stay in LA. It felt like every old friend i saw realized (as i did) that our lives as adults are fully underway.

Shara and James did some napping, Brian met up with his best buddy Keith, and I drove around a bit. Something about driving around in LA makes a person feel like time stands still. You sit there, shielded by a canopy of plastic and glass and metal, wondering all the while how on earth the whole system functions. There are so many cars, so many people, so many different lives, and all of them stopping and going all over town at the same time. It's really a miracle that anyone comes out of it alive everyday. With new york, this same cycle happens. The only difference is that the people with two feet on concrete outnumber the cars about 10 to 1 at any one point of the day (or something like that?)

I got home at around 7 to enjoy a nice home-cooked meal with Shara, James, and my mom. I excused myself after stuffing my face to catch the end of the celts-pistons game at my good friend max's house. Max lives in NYC nowadays, as does almost every single member of my maniacal cadre from high school. A lot of these friends, including my buds Sam b, Adam k, David r, Scott K, and countless others, left LA after returning home after college. They all seemed to reason that LA seemed to familiar, too "easy" after college; they came to NYC to "suffer a little", as Sam puts it. Surprisingly, those of my friends who have not yet spent time in the big apple, have echoed the same sentiments about the LA lifestyle. Ironically, I visit LA from NYC and it just makes me want to come home. NYC can beat you down and make you feel insignificant, but it seems that a fault of living in LA is that it's just too easy to be comfortable with the everyday. I hung at Max's into the night, enjoying laughs and some memories with good friends. Tuesday would be a show day.

The hotel cafe is located on cahuenga blvd in the heart of old-school hollywood. It's stage is small, quaint, and not too high off the ground, with a capacity of about 120. The theme is dark, cavernous, and extremely mellow, with candles on tables and bars in the front and back. After a wicked opening set by PEDESTRIAN, we took the stage at about 9:15. Because of the size of the stage, the lack of a proper sound check, and a boatfull of new material, our setup was a little tense. Beads of sweat ran down from Brian's sweet hairdo and dampened his dress shirt; my hands shook as I set up my pedals; Shara fussed with her tone. The new variable in the trio lineup is a roland SPDS drum pad/sampler, which provides a good amount of ambient sound and overall texture to the new stuff. For Brian, however, who already has by far the most intensive pre-show setup ritual, it is booth a pleasure and a source of anxiey at this point.

For all the frenetic worry of this first show, we got through all the songs without anyone getting hurt. I think we even did a pretty darn good job. In attendance were about 15 of my friends, some of them shouting out encouragements such, "YEAH NAAATE!!" or "SIIIITOOOOOO". After the show, I had some drinks with max braverman, another bud from the days of yore (sp?)

The next night at the hotel cafe was a much more comfortable show, and Zack from Pedestrian actually came up and played some piano with us on one of the "bring me the workhorse" singles, "golden star".

Afterwards, i met up with my friend sam feld and her new man at a bar in silverlake, where i got to witness firsthand the LA equivalent of the "hipster" style. I saw a lot of torn t-shirts, tight jeans, non-matching neon outerwear, and ugly 80's sneakers. hmmmmm..... Sam is one of my LA friends who can successfully convince me that LA has fun, happening, and worthwhile options for an evening drink.

Thursday was a day of adventure. I woke up and tried to watch the previous night's laker game, only to find out that the 4th quarter did not record. For those of you who didn't watch/didn't care, it was apparently an AMAZING 4th quarter. Kobe really made it happen. After drying my tears, I embarked on a 3 hour journey to Alhambra in order to eat the famous "TRIUMPHAL PALACE" dim sum. Flanked by friends Sam Shpall, and Ayall "Frog" Haggai, we ate the caloric equivalent of a thanksgiving meal. We arrived just in time, too, getting the last orders of the day before the restaurant closed. Frog is a passionate, passionate eater, and provided an amazing soundtrack to the meal. "WE JUST DOOMINATED THAT MEAL. DOMINATED." I've never dominated food before, but they say there's a first time for everything.

The evening's activities included a visit to my FAVORITE place in the world, "the apple pan", and a vigorous, if not hotly contested poker match. In the end, it came down to a heads up battle between myself and Max B(raverman). I came out on top, winning with a pair of queens on the river to beat max's 10s. I turned my 10 dollars of leftover per diem into 100, and i went home happy!

As I finish this blog, i'm in the dressing room of the "independent" in San Fransisco. I'm a couple days behind, but will be posting more tomorrow. thanks for reading. nate

philadelphia (the state, not the movie)

Yesterday was a tough one. Shara woke up feeling like pooop, and had evidently lost the battle to escape the grips of a wicked flu. As I opened the blinds at around noon, the sky was grey, and it was raining hard and sideways. Ick. As we got down the lobby to rendezvous with Shara and James, Shara was huddled in her hoodie, looking like she had seen a ghost. She had been up with a fever for much of the night; some of the medicine had made her sick to her stomach; things were not looking good.

I've been playing with Ms. Shara for about a year and a half now, and she is without question one of the tougest people I know. So, I had no doubts that we would still do our in Philly. She hibernated in the back back seat while James, Brian, and I pressed on towards the city of brotherly love. For much of the day we were driving through an actual snowstorm, the first of the year for me. After a couple hours, we were in the clear, and the skies were beautiful. After sound check at the North Star bar on 27th and Poplar, I headed to my friend Charlie's bar, called Doc Watson's.

I got a ride there from the promoter, who gave me the lowdown on Phlily bands right now. He mentioned MAN MAN, which i've heard a lot about, and the band ILLINOISE. Er something like that. Charlie treated me to a DELICIOUS philly cheese steak and a beer, and showed me his awesome place. i went to high school with Charlie, and he has really done well for himself here in Philly. The place is three floors, with a nice music venue and a room for private parties here. He lives in a loft on the 4th floor, so he basically wakes up and works every day of the week. I commend the man for his work - it's a great place. Check it out if you're in Philly.

Our set at the North Star was at midnight, a fact which didn't help Shara's condition. We rallied, however, to a small but lively (too lively, perhaps), and overcame a pretty wicked flaw in the bar's sound system. The place itself was a little weird, too. When i got there initially, they were playing "Braveheart" with subtitles on mute, and when i left, the movie was "A Night at The Museum." We got done around 1:20, finished our load out at about 2:10, and arrived at our hotel at around 2:40. Foolishly, Brian and I stayed up a while watching crap tv and breaking down the evening, finally calling it a night at around 4:30am. Luckily, our van call was 1:00pm the next day for the drive to Arlington, VA.

I ended up taking the last leg of the drive, which meant I had to master the friday night beltway NIGHTMARE. The I-395 of the DC area is notorious for its friday evening traffic, and I nearly lost my mind getting to the venue. Somehow, we arrived only 30 minutes late for load-in, and soon thereafter had a low-key sound check for the 10:30 show. Tomorrow I will be New York, and I can't wait to come home!

more andy warhol pics

yay! art.