Here's what Christian Gibbs reports from Swinging Europe. Looks like he made quite a few new friends over there! and Christian, we definitely want one of those rare tour CDs! C. Gibbs is playing live with his new project Lucinda Black Bear at Petes Candy Store this Saturday at 11pm!
"Our mini-European tour went swimmingly. Switzerland was incredible. Sausages and Chocolate were eaten, my eyes were burned with tear gas, I saw a street fight, heard "These Boots are Made for Walking" sung in a Swiss accent, sold all my T-shirts and nearly all our cd's, made many new friends and hope to return to that clean and splendid town soon. The drives were especially long from city to city (2 hrs max). Frank (a.k.a. Privateman) was nothing less than stellar in his ability to rock the cello, mini Korg, piano, and snare. Not to mention his fine agile maneuvering of our tour vehicle, the Hatchback Renault (see tour photos here).
By the way, we have a Tour Only CD with some new songs on it. It features mostly sparse acoustic guitar and cello. There are 3 left but will make more if enough people want them. After the many long drives we were exhausted and had to store up on provisions for the next day's journey. These included Grether's Pastilles, breaded Cauliflower, asparagus wrapped in Horse Bacon, and many other fine Swiss delicacies not including the Wurst Case Salad...Nonsequitor: A word of advice- -dont venture out in Bern at 7:30 am on a Sunday locked out of your hotel room thinking you will find a nice warm cafe to ease your insomnia..the Bears are nice though ( again pictures here). Zurich trully kicked Swiss ass, the crowds were great. The Haffenbuffet at Rorsarch was a decent enough show with a great view of the lake. Thedrive to Austria (2 hrs ) was well worth it for the food alone. While in Dornbirn we hung out with real live pigs and drank in the beautiful countryside of the nearby village...then off to the Swiss alps. I couldn't help thinking of James Bond everywehere I went. Frank may have been slightly annoyed at my James Bond inquiries as well as my "Brokeback Alps" jokes, but he didn't show it. Solothurn kicked Butt Baroque style as we did a completely acoustic set at The Kreuz. I there encountered the only slightly mean Swiss person in my life when the next morning I attempted to make myself one of those little coffees they are so fond of during "complimentary breakfast hour". I was harshly reprimanded in German. However, the hostess quickly redeemed herself and was assuaged by my eventual fully caffeinated demeanor.
After a fond farewell from Frank and Adrian I found myself on a train to Paris from Zurich...There was no food for the long journey but I survived on Grether's Blackcurrant Pastilles and made it safely to the 19th district where my friends Kit and Gaelle reside....I had a difficult time getting out of the train station as every sign indicated "Sortie" and I was damn well sure I wasn't getting stuck on a train to some town named Sortie. After stumbling on a few hooker's doors on accident at 1:00 a.m. trying to find the 5th floor I eventually made it to shelter and was treated to a late night snack of baquette, stinky cheese ,and salmon. The next day we ventured off to Rue de Rivoli on bicycle to the art squat and I was introduced to a multi-national burgeoning creative force. We saw a great band "Nervous Cabaret" . The next night was a party/show on the Seine with this Italian gypsy band of which the violinist Malomiento accompanied me at my show along with Barry, a french Canadian flamenco guitarist. It was the first show ever that I traveled to on bicycle and in Paris no less. I got a flat tire and while Kit was getting a patch kit (n.p.i.) this art kid from Berlin decided to have a half hour photo shoot with my stickered and battered guitar case. A beautiful day it was, and after lunching at Cafe Pompidou we went to the museum across the square and saw the Hans Bellmer exhibit....this also after a brief gander at Notre Dame and a bicycle stroll near The Louve. Our show itself was great and the lovely French folks endured my bad-broken english as I was now speaking a dialect "Swarzenegger-an" in nature due to my abandonement of superfluous determiners and past tense conjucations to better communicate with my French, Swiss and Italian brethen. It was a good tour and I even came back with some play money, a bottle of French perfume and a big 2lb. bar of chocolate for my lady....C."
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