“I beg your pardon! I love you”
November 13, 2004
We just played in Zurich, Switzerland tonight. For once we’re not travelling to the next city right after the show. I’m in my hotel room watching West Side Story in German. The songs are in English. Oh, Tony and Maria just saw each other for the first time. A lovely moment in any language. I miss my husband.
The audience tonight was a little on the mellow side until we played Train Wreck. People were clapping to the beat when one woman rose and urged the entire audience to stand up. They did. That would never happen in Toronto. The rest of the show was totally interactive. People came right to the front of the stage. “I beg your pardon! I love you”, yelled one girl from her new spot at Sarah’s feet. It became a different concert.
The Euro tour began on Oct. 9. We have played 20 concerts. We have 3 more to go before we fly home on Nov. 20.
Last night I went out for sushi dinner here with Sarah’s front of house sound engineer Gary Stokes, who is an old friend of mine. On our way out I saw that the music being played in the restaurant turned out to be courtesy of a guy spinning vinyl in the corner. Nice to see. After that we went to a little bar for a nightcap where they were projecting current Euro pop music videos on one wall. This inspired comments from Gary and myself such as, “oh look, it’s the Russian Avril”, and “hey check it out, there’s the Slavic Madonna.”
“BOURGEOIS COMPLAINT" KORNER:
Yesterday I had a very expensive, inferior massage here at the hotel. It was as though the woman had maybe seen someone perform a massage on TV once and someone gave her a certificate. The wussy, ineffectual massage is a fairly common occurrence when travelling, even in high end hotels. This should not be allowed. Come on! Dig in! Hurt me! At the very least use your thumbs. God gave us opposable digits for a reason. When you’re on tour a good massage can change your whole outlook on life. For one thing, it’s usually the first time anyone’s physically touched you in weeks in any lingering, meaningful way (if you’ve been behaving yourself). A bad treatment makes the phrase “stressful massage” not such an oxymoron.
This marks the end (I hope) of "Bourgeois Complaint" Korner.
Moving on...
I was flipping channels before going to soundcheck today and stopped at what seemed to be a continuous, very smooth aerial travelling view of the Alps, town by town with all the spectacular nature in between. The path of the camera never stopped. Every once in awhile the camera would sweep down from the highest mountaintop right down into the face of some guy on his front porch, or people swimming in a pool and they would look up at the Camera Plane (like they’d never seen one before?) Only children waved. Adults stood stock still and seemed scared. This went on for a good 40 minutes. The spacey music, saturated colour and disbelief that what I was seeing was real and not Switzerland in model miniature made me sure the program would be best appreciated while high but I still really dug it.
“SHORT TERM MEMORY" KORNER:
-Sarah was slightly delayed arriving to the Copenhagen soundcheck and the boys all switched instruments to amuse themselves. Brian played Dave’s Hammond, Dave picked up the bass, Ash played Brian’s little keyboard, Luke went to the drum kit, Vince played Luke’s guitar.
-Every night right before we go onstage our tour manager yells, “circle time” and I stick a straw in my bra. I like a straw in my water onstage. I have a stash of straws in my wardrobe drawer backstage. We all have drawers labelled with our names or nicknames. Mine says La Rose. When it’s circle time we need our hands free to, well, join hands and form a circle, which is why I stick the straw down my top. Everyone is used to me and my straw sticking out of my top but jokes are still invariably made about drug use involving straws, or last minute inflation of my breasts before showtime. Ash took a pretty good shot of my pre-show straw display in Cologne.
-In Antwerp a mystery bird was making a rooster-like racket through the night by the river across the street from our hotel. Also in Antwerp, Butterfly premiered a hand drawn sign on her dressing door: “The Secret World of Butterfly Boucher - Beware of three-headed spitting frogs.”
-We all think that Eric Prydz video, “Call On Me” (very popular over here) is pretty funny. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about: a guy has taken Steve Winwood’s song “Valerie”, removed the verses, given it a four-on-the-floor dance beat and has made a 1980s-style video for it in which one cute guy (presumably Eric Prydz but I have my doubts) is the only man in a room of gorgeous women in an aerobics class. It verges on soft porn and stays so true to the '80s aesthetic that I wonder if he means for it to be funny/nostalgic. I hope so. I also hope Steve Winwood is getting his royalties, and if so, then I wish I was Steve Winwood because it’s playing constantly.
-After the Munich show while driving to Zurich we all watched a new David Bowie live DVD filmed in Dublin last year. Amazing. When Sarah is finished touring this album I plan to focus on my own music again but I’d clear the deck to sing with David Bowie. Or Elvis Costello. Or Kate Bush. Or Neil Finn. Sorry Meatloaf.
-I think the Exit signs in the venues here are cute. A stick figure man is running for his life down a flight of stairs. Every venue in every city on this tour has had the same one. It’s not a sign we have in North America. Ours just say EXIT. I also like the Euro-wide habit people seem to have here and there of drawing different expressions on the face of the stick man running from disaster. Tonight in the Zurich venue the Exit sign took it a step further, showing you the burning flames the stick man was running from.
...Well, as the name of this last segment suggests, that’s all I remember. That I can repeat.
And with that teaser, goodnight.
xo KR
We just played in Zurich, Switzerland tonight. For once we’re not travelling to the next city right after the show. I’m in my hotel room watching West Side Story in German. The songs are in English. Oh, Tony and Maria just saw each other for the first time. A lovely moment in any language. I miss my husband.
The audience tonight was a little on the mellow side until we played Train Wreck. People were clapping to the beat when one woman rose and urged the entire audience to stand up. They did. That would never happen in Toronto. The rest of the show was totally interactive. People came right to the front of the stage. “I beg your pardon! I love you”, yelled one girl from her new spot at Sarah’s feet. It became a different concert.
The Euro tour began on Oct. 9. We have played 20 concerts. We have 3 more to go before we fly home on Nov. 20.
Last night I went out for sushi dinner here with Sarah’s front of house sound engineer Gary Stokes, who is an old friend of mine. On our way out I saw that the music being played in the restaurant turned out to be courtesy of a guy spinning vinyl in the corner. Nice to see. After that we went to a little bar for a nightcap where they were projecting current Euro pop music videos on one wall. This inspired comments from Gary and myself such as, “oh look, it’s the Russian Avril”, and “hey check it out, there’s the Slavic Madonna.”
“BOURGEOIS COMPLAINT" KORNER:
Yesterday I had a very expensive, inferior massage here at the hotel. It was as though the woman had maybe seen someone perform a massage on TV once and someone gave her a certificate. The wussy, ineffectual massage is a fairly common occurrence when travelling, even in high end hotels. This should not be allowed. Come on! Dig in! Hurt me! At the very least use your thumbs. God gave us opposable digits for a reason. When you’re on tour a good massage can change your whole outlook on life. For one thing, it’s usually the first time anyone’s physically touched you in weeks in any lingering, meaningful way (if you’ve been behaving yourself). A bad treatment makes the phrase “stressful massage” not such an oxymoron.
This marks the end (I hope) of "Bourgeois Complaint" Korner.
Moving on...
I was flipping channels before going to soundcheck today and stopped at what seemed to be a continuous, very smooth aerial travelling view of the Alps, town by town with all the spectacular nature in between. The path of the camera never stopped. Every once in awhile the camera would sweep down from the highest mountaintop right down into the face of some guy on his front porch, or people swimming in a pool and they would look up at the Camera Plane (like they’d never seen one before?) Only children waved. Adults stood stock still and seemed scared. This went on for a good 40 minutes. The spacey music, saturated colour and disbelief that what I was seeing was real and not Switzerland in model miniature made me sure the program would be best appreciated while high but I still really dug it.
“SHORT TERM MEMORY" KORNER:
-Sarah was slightly delayed arriving to the Copenhagen soundcheck and the boys all switched instruments to amuse themselves. Brian played Dave’s Hammond, Dave picked up the bass, Ash played Brian’s little keyboard, Luke went to the drum kit, Vince played Luke’s guitar.
-Every night right before we go onstage our tour manager yells, “circle time” and I stick a straw in my bra. I like a straw in my water onstage. I have a stash of straws in my wardrobe drawer backstage. We all have drawers labelled with our names or nicknames. Mine says La Rose. When it’s circle time we need our hands free to, well, join hands and form a circle, which is why I stick the straw down my top. Everyone is used to me and my straw sticking out of my top but jokes are still invariably made about drug use involving straws, or last minute inflation of my breasts before showtime. Ash took a pretty good shot of my pre-show straw display in Cologne.
-In Antwerp a mystery bird was making a rooster-like racket through the night by the river across the street from our hotel. Also in Antwerp, Butterfly premiered a hand drawn sign on her dressing door: “The Secret World of Butterfly Boucher - Beware of three-headed spitting frogs.”
-We all think that Eric Prydz video, “Call On Me” (very popular over here) is pretty funny. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about: a guy has taken Steve Winwood’s song “Valerie”, removed the verses, given it a four-on-the-floor dance beat and has made a 1980s-style video for it in which one cute guy (presumably Eric Prydz but I have my doubts) is the only man in a room of gorgeous women in an aerobics class. It verges on soft porn and stays so true to the '80s aesthetic that I wonder if he means for it to be funny/nostalgic. I hope so. I also hope Steve Winwood is getting his royalties, and if so, then I wish I was Steve Winwood because it’s playing constantly.
-After the Munich show while driving to Zurich we all watched a new David Bowie live DVD filmed in Dublin last year. Amazing. When Sarah is finished touring this album I plan to focus on my own music again but I’d clear the deck to sing with David Bowie. Or Elvis Costello. Or Kate Bush. Or Neil Finn. Sorry Meatloaf.
-I think the Exit signs in the venues here are cute. A stick figure man is running for his life down a flight of stairs. Every venue in every city on this tour has had the same one. It’s not a sign we have in North America. Ours just say EXIT. I also like the Euro-wide habit people seem to have here and there of drawing different expressions on the face of the stick man running from disaster. Tonight in the Zurich venue the Exit sign took it a step further, showing you the burning flames the stick man was running from.
...Well, as the name of this last segment suggests, that’s all I remember. That I can repeat.
And with that teaser, goodnight.
xo KR
posted by Kathryn Rose (aka KR) at 3:07 p.m.
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