Saved the best for last. Thanks to Sun Mee for an awesome last-day-of-tour brunch at her place.

This is it Folks. Tonight. Uno mas. Home tomorrow.

Unless...

In other news apparently Tim has agreed to name his kid Bruce Springsteen.

Must've been one hell of a night.

Location:Ickstattstraße,Munich,Germany

Style is like religion and we've got both.

New York street meat ain't got a thing on these.

Location:Zweibrücken,Germany

Little Rheinfalls goofin' this afternoon -- three pairs!

We all had such a great time with Philipp and Sylvain in Winterthur that they also made the trek to play with us in Lucerne. There were some complications (see Tim's injury post below) that made it even more interesting than the other night.

You MUST check out their band: Pullup Orchestra

Much love to those dudes.

Feeling better oh friends and lovers...

Location:Dietenbachstraße,Freiburg im Breisgau,Germany

Passed on dropping 500 Swiss Francs at the ER to be told it's officially not broken, but that pinky finger was swollen like a Johnsonville Bratwurst two songs in. Things are gonna get interesting around here.

Team Sleep back on the road.




Location:Grudligen,Littau,Switzerland

Driving over the Alps in the daylight. Much better than our tradition of doing it at night.


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Big, big thanks to Philipp and Sylvain for playing last night near Zurich. What a great first Swiss show ever. Between the horns, the house-made shots and the best dinner of the tour yet, we're considering a three-week Switzerland-only tour.

We take issue with "soft indie". We take even greater issue with a flyer for a soft indie band that includes a punk chick popping a squat. Luckily, the awesome people of Saluzzo knew what to expect anyway.

This haunting piece greeted us in the bathroom of the B&B last night.

Last night was a bed & breakfast with a nonna who apologized for not speaking English because in Piemonte, "beautiful people speak French, no English". Yesterday's dinner was at an Italian version of a VFW hall, the clubhouse/cantina of a biocce league in wonderful Saluzzo. As we were filling up with XXXX and pasta, we were surprised by the staff bursting into the little dining room with a write-up for the show and a photo. They were pretty excited and I think we agreed that in exchange for us signing it, they would hang it on the wall next to the photo of this season's biocce champion. Pretty sure they're sending us a trophy too. Saluzzo's near Torino, in the middle of the huge, flat plain that's surrounded by mountains on three sides and Meditarraenean and the rest of the boot on the other. Got our mini one-hour vacation on the Riveria di Ponente yeseterday on the way from Genova. Perfect break at the half-way point of tour.

Dinner in Genova was at Maria's, a little shithole that's still serving Maria's 50 year-old recipes two years after she passed. Completely unmarked, dark even when you're in its little alley, but fantastic hospitaliano. Try the pesce con patate. All-in-all, Italy has been what it always seems to be on tour: slightly short on organization, record buyers, and English fluency but more than making up for it all in the friendliness, food, weather and wine.

Rick Steves couldn't touch this version of Europe with his three-foot bong.

Thank you Italy, you were gracious and warm as always. We're back online folks, and Switzerland you are indeed a sight to behold...

Good to be in Italy.

Location:Salita del Prione,Genoa,Italy

Not a lot of internet here in Italia. But that's a good thing.

Location:Via Giuseppe De Paoli,Genoa,Italy

Jesus Christmas, lots of firsts tonight. One: there's there's no right way to do this. Read into that for days, but I continue to be surprised at all the ways that art crosses commerce. People cross people; notes cross each other and sound guys from here to Poland sigh in unison when they see Curtes' piano. Now, where's my hotel room? Life is good and we'll manage, but the miles always pay off. I'll take that to the grave. The show tonight in Austria was all wine glasses and cougars. No judgement, just saying. We did our best, then took video of each other sliding across the floor backstage. Does anyone remember goddamn Jody Davis? Block that plate, Wilson. Look for visuals in a post tomorrow morning. Signing off for now.

Location:Weihermähder,Dornbirn,Austria

Or someone called ahead from Vienna.

Location:Farbergasse,Dornbirn,Austria