OK, now that I've had a bit of time to recover, here's a brief rundown of the tour. It was an amazing trip, getting to see so much of Italy, meeting great people along the way, and playing music. It was a real working tour - a dozen shows over seventeen days, with 3700+ km of driving between them. On top of that, Italy was experiencing a heat wave, with temperatures ranging from 95-105 degrees and humidity in the 80-90 percent range. Not the easiest on a bunch of shmoes in rabbi outfits!
The tour revolved around the Surfer Joe Summer Festival in Livorno, Italy - a weekend of surf guitar right on the water hosted by the Surfer Joe Diner, done up in a very authentic American '50s style. Our tour was arranged by "Surfer Joe" himself - Lorenzo Valdambrini, owner of the diner and leader of the band Surfer Joe and His Boss Combo. We travelled with two other northern California surf bands, Frankie and the Poolboys and the TomorrowMen. Perhaps travelled "with" isn't entirely accurate, as there's significant overlap in the lineups - Shecky and Karen of MBP play in the Poolboys, while Shecky along with Treyf play in the TomorrowMen. Further overlap - Tony and Ferenc (aka Frankie) play in both the TomorrowMen and the Poolboys. Streamlined, though poor Shecky was on stage for every set every night. I, on the other hand was free between the soundcheck and our headlining sets, so I got some neighborhood wanderings in where I could.
Seaside in Livorno
We started at the Festival, with each band headlining a night - The TomorrowMen on Friday, MBP on Saturday, and Frankie and the Poolboys on Sunday. The festival was open to the public and free, and the stage, set up in the seaside park abutting the diner, was full of people, both surf music fans and casual listeners.
Stage at the Surfer Joe Summer Festival, beckoning passersby with the drip drip drip of reverbed guitars
Our set was at 11PM, following Germany's excellent Kiluaeas. With the audience primed, we started into our set and the response was fantastic. We even got laughs for our attempts to read select items from the Dead Joke Scroll in Italian, though it was unclear if they were laughing at us or with us.
All too soon it was midnight and after two encores, we completed our set.
Meshuggeners on stage!
I'd say we got the best time slot on Saturday night - Friday night attendance was affected by another outdoor concert in tour and on Sunday Italy was playing in the European football (soccer) cup. Italy's games would affect future shows as well.
As mentioned elsewhere, I had a new guitar with me for the tour - the M-3 "Meshugga Model/MMIII". I picked it up from the M-3 guys the day before leaving, so it was a trial by fire to get it dialed in. I was using a Twin Reverb reissue amp and outboard Reverb tank, so with a few tweaks I was able to get the sound how I like it. Halfway through the tour, things got more interesting as I switched from using the Twin to a Hot Rod Deville, as Ferenc was having difficulty with the Twin and his Strat. While I'm not a fan of overdriven guitar, this was a mean, edgy combo. Even on the half power settings, this amp couldn't keep clean. There was a raw jagged tone to every note. By the end of the tour I was coming to appreciate the compressed fuzziness, but I'm happy to be back with my Showman.
MMIII resting with new friends, reissue Twin Reverb and outboard Reverb tank.
We took advantage of the time off on Sunday and Monday to visit Pisa and Florence. Beautiful, postcard perfect cities.
A leaning tower - the famous one, but others exist in Italy. We saw one in Bologna as well, plus a few in passing along the autostradas
View over Florence and the Arno River. In the piazza in front of the big brown fortress with the tower in the center of the photo are classic reproductions of Michaelangelo's David and about a dozen classic Roman statues.
Tuesday took us north to Bergantino, a small town on the Po River about 70 km north of Bologna. Bergantino is home to the Ungawa Tiki Bar, and is THE local hangout. Unassuming from the outside, the interior is an amazing display of creativity on the part of the owner - all the artwork, bamboo, mosaics and tikis were his handiwork.
Frankie and the Poolboys playing at the Ungawa Tiki Bar.
I was a little worried at first how we would go over in such a small town. No doubt they'd never had a band of surfing rabbis come through town before. Thankfully, my concerns were quickly abated by the enthusiasm during our performance and especially the warm words from audience members after the show. This positive vibe continued through the tour.
Castle on strategic hillside overlooking the sea. Picturesque vistas abound in Italy.
A word about Italian audiences - people must take naps after work, because they're going strong till two or three in the morning, regardless of the day of the week. This held true throughout the tour and even included families with young children - kiddie carnival rides ran until 2AM.
This being the case, we rolled into the motel at 3AM, dog tired. Thankfully, this hotel had AC, and with that on, we promptly knocked out for the night.
Wednesday we had off, so we visited Bologna on our way back to Livorno. In Bologna, we had met up with Amerigo Crispi of the Bradipos IV surf band. We did shows with them when they came to California last year so it was very nice to see him again. The Bradipos IV are based in Caserta, but work had brought Amerigo north so gigs are less frequent for the band these days. He was a lovely host, having us over for coffee and cakes (and cold water!)
Walking down one of many arched sidewalks in Bologna. There were more covered sidewalks than not, which was very pleasant in the heat.
Thursday we headed from Rome - this was the start of the real "road show" - from this point on, we'd be in a different town every night. We got to Rome in time to visit the Colosseum and the Forum as well as the old Jewish Ghetto. It was amazing to see all this history, especially as an American where our national story only runs back a few hundred years.
View across the ancient Roman Forum. In the distance is the Arch of Titus, and just over the rise is the Colosseum.
"Stolpersteines" - small plaques with the names of holocaust victims in front of their home in the Jewish Ghetto. A very moving tribute by a German artist who has been placing these at the homes of those lost to the Nazis around Europe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolperstein).
The gig in Rome was sparsely attended due to the Euro Cup match between Italy and Germany. Among the attendees, however, was a young man from southern France who was amazed to have stumbled across a band of rabbis - he came on stage to sing along to a couple of traditional numbers, and I think it's safe to say no one is going to believe him when he gets back home!
Friday took us to Caserta, home of the Bradipos IV. We were greeted in town by Amerigo's brother Massimo, who invited us over for coffee, beer and homemade grappa - sitting on his terrace, soaking in what breeze there was to cool us down, it was a very nice welcome to town! We played in a club they frequent that's basically an open room facing the street. The street, in the classic style, was narrow and cobblestoned. Roughly half the width of the street was covered in tables and chairs for the club, and somehow cars and scooters were supposed to weave through the crowd standing in the rest of the street. The vibe was great and the whole street was bopping along with us. One of the high points of the tour!
Going meshugga at Caffe del Centro in Caserta.
Saturday morning we had a long drive to the town of Pisticci. Before leaving Caserta, we stopped at a delicatessen to get some fresh buffalo mozzarella - supposedly the best in Italy. I didn't have much elsewhere to compare it with, but holy cow (or would that be holy buffalo?) that was some amazing cheese! Imagine the experience of biting into an apple - a slightly stiff skin with a succulent, juicy inside - only with cheese that then pretty much dissolves in your mouth. Wow.
Mamma mia - now that's mozzarella!
So, Pisticci. Pisticci is an ancient fortress town on a hilltop situated roughly in the arch of the Italian "boot". Getting there involved driving through badlands that wouldn't be out of place in the American west - if spaghetti westerns weren't filmed here, they should have been.
Looking down at the surrounding valleys, Pisticci.
In Italy, musicians get treated fairly well. It seems the standard is for the club to supply dinner, beer and a place to sleep. Most arrangements were fairly spartan, but Pisticci took the cake - we were put up in a penzione with most of the beds up a ladder and in the attic.
All the comforts of home?
The gig went well, though was one of the more mellow ones. Given that this was perhaps the hottest and most humid weather we faced, that was fine with us!
Yet another Castle on the sea. Seriously, they were everywhere!
The next morning we headed for Cosenza - a major city and cultural center. Here we were scheduled to play an outdoor festival in a downtown park. Note that I say "were" - the show was shut down by the cops after the Poolboys' set. We never got the full story - there was something about a noise complaint, but the proper permits had been drawn, and there was an odd story with conflicting statements in the paper the next day - the locals seems to think the mafia was somehow involved. That may have been the case, or perhaps some sourpuss was pissed that Italy lost to Spain in the Euro Cup finals that evening, and called to complain.
The stage that never was - we sound checked in the 100+ degree heat for hours in the afternoon, so I guess that's almost a gig.
At this point we got another surprise - our Monday night gig in Crotone was cancelled. Thankfully the promoter paid us regardless (as had been the case in the previous night's debacle). We decided to take the extra day in Cosenza and relax at what was far and away the nicest accomodations of the tour - a casale in the hills above the city with a pool and prosecco on tap. Here was the rock and roll lifestyle!
Now this is Rock and Roll!
With an unexpected day of rest to revive us, we headed out Tuesday morning to Lecce, on the heel of the Italian boot. Lecce is a beautiful city, sometimes called the Florence of the south. We got to town early enough to stop at the beach for a quick splash. The Adriatic was calm and especially refreshing in the intense heat. We played that night on the sidewalk outside the club which abutted a massive old fortress. Another fun night of enthusiastic crowds and chatty folks afterwards. There was one guy who asked me questions about gear, prefacing each with "excuse me, Abraham..." Close enough.
The massive Castle of Charles V in Lecce. In the center of downtown, there's an excavated Roman ampitheater that's still used for classical music concerts.
From Lecce we headed north up the Adriatic coast, and then headed inland through the Apennine Mountains to L'Aquila. The approach to the city from the eastern coast passes through a 10km long tunnel through the high peaks. L'Aquila was hit by a 6.3 earthquake in 2009 and extensive damage was done throughout the city. Much of the city center, built over hundreds of years of unreinforced masonry and concrete, remains uninhabitable. Outside the city center, life is vibrant, and we had a fun show.
Extensive damage in the piazza at the center of L'Aquila. Most buildings downtown are still boarded up.
The next three days had us back on the Adriatic coast, hopping between the beach towns of Pescara, Vasto and Pineto. With all the heat we'd been experiencing, it was a great treat to have access to the sea to cool down!
Miles and miles of beautiful beaches line the Adriatic shores. Note the castle in the background.
Of the three, Pescara was the highlight. Here we played at a beach club, with the stage set right on the sand. There must have been something magical in the air because the crowd went absolutely wild. The crowd was so pumped up that after our set we did an ad hoc jam of surf classics with everyone switching off instruments that kept them going until well past 2AM. Vasto and Pineto were also good shows, but after the magic of Pescara, it was hard to compare.
The MMIII getting some sand between its toes - now that's the way to play surf guitar!
Vintage Vespas (Vespae?) on display at the club in Vasto.
Finally it was time to head back to Livorno for our last gig, at the Surfer Joe Diner. Then it was time to pack up and get ready for the long flight home. An amazing adventure, and memories for a lifetime!
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