Brussels

Ahhh...post breakfast at the Sheraton!
So far our show in Geneva was the best one of our tour. The sound onstage was excellent and we all played SO well I think we surprised ourselves! L'Usine was a great venue, a little too big for us, really, but everyone there was so nice. We even had dinner along the banks of the river outside the venue. The hotel in Geneva was really nice, too. It had the largest mechanical clock in the world in the lobby and was the setting for some cartoon with a dog whose name I can't remember now! Andy and I had breakfast on one of the top floors with a panoramic view of the city. Geneva was gorgeous, really classy and beautiful and right smack in the middle of the Alps.
The drive to Schorndorf was long. We arrived at the club, Manufaktur, so see all this anti-American graffiti on the wall, which wasn't that surprising, but a little ironic considering that Werner, the promoter at the venue, was extremely welcoming to us. They gave us some pasta, bread and cheese (of course), and lots of beverages. The sound at Manufaktur was really good. We signed a bunch of CD's and stuff and got out picture taken for "the Rolling Stone of German". Which is funny because in Barcelona we got our picture taken for "the Rolling Stone of Spain". Some high school girls invited us to party with them after the show in Stuttgart (which is the city Schorndorf is closest to). We were amused by their offer! The next morning Devendra need to go to an art store so we went to the town center, which was just about the cutest little town ever. It looked right out of Epcot Center! SO cute! Then we went to a music store and made our way to Hasselt.
The autobahn was exactly how I thought it would be - we were going maybe 100 km an hour, but there were tons of BMW's and Audi's flying by at least twice the speed like it was no big deal at all! We stopped to eat at this wonderful rest stop that had great food. They prided themselves on the fact that they were Swiss! We ate sandwiched and grilled vegetables.
Hasselt was great, although I expected it to be because Andy had been to the venue twice before, once with Tussle and once with Dev. Koen, who runs it, is great and came to our show in Brussels last night, too. It sort of reminded me of an SF warehouse. We had a vegan meal cooked for us by some anarchist kids. The sounds was pretty good there, too. That night we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express.
So next...Paris! We played La Guinguette Pirate (The Pirate Ship) which was actually an old Chinese junk converted into a restaurant and show space. We were rocking back and forth during soundcheck! It was actually one of the first places Dev ever played, when he used to live in Paris. It was a really neat experience. Todd, our booker, and his wife and mother-in-law met us there. There were also a bunch of kids from Arizona State, too. Quite a few people knew about us beforehand and made a point to see us in Paris or even plan their trips around the show!
Although the show itself was really cool, there was no backstage and the soundguy didn't really speak English, which was a little problematic. He was great though, this really happy African guy who traded a bunch of African music with Andy! And I must say, the hotel we stayed at was GHETTO. It was the crappiest hotel I have ever been in. There was only a sink in our room and a toilet across the hall. I had to carry my suitcase up 5 floors (with a little help) - no elevator! And we had no time to explore Paris at all. No Tour Eiffel! My card is running out so Brussels will be later....
I'm having a great time and all that French I took in school is coming in handy!