Montreaux, Vienne, Milan, and a once-in-a lifetime World Cup experience

The past few days have been pretty incredible. We've been busy and on the move and I've been pretty tired, but they've been incredible nonetheless.

Our last day in Montreaux was fantastic. We gave a clinic for students during the day and had the rest of the night off. Since we were artists we had backstage passes to any of the concerts we watned to attend. We saw the incredible John Scofield, Jack Dejonette, and Larry Goldings. They have an organ trio that plays some pretty experimental stuff. The music was really inspiring. Afterwards we went to the Jazz Cafe (the venue we had played the first two nights) where we knew all of the folks who worked there. We partied with them while watching a great Cuban trio. I met up with a friend Id known from Kalamazoo who was there performing as well, small world. I ended up jamming with the final act of the night, a singer we had met earlier at the festival. His bass player had bailed so I helped him out. It was a lot of fun playing some other music. I think I got to bed around six AM.

The next day we traveled to and performed in Vienne, France. It was nice and the gig went pretty well but we were in and out of there so there wasn't much time to see anything.

Yesterday we flew to Milan where we played the Blue Note last night. The gig was okay, there weren't many people there and Steve had to shush the crowd at one point because they were so loud but cest la vie, you always have gigs like that here and there.

Today we had the day off in Milan. As you all probably know Italy played in the World Cup championship against France today. So we headed down to the middle of town to watch the game. We ate a bit, walked around a castle, hung out at a cafe and then proceeded to Duomo Square to watch the game with approximately 10,000 insane Italians. You heard me, 10-fricking-thousand. The place was packed, everyone was going crazy, Italian flags and bullhorns everywhere. Once the game started the people were in a frenzy. France scored first which shut everybody up but it didn't take long for Italy to even it up. The game went to overtime then to penalty kicks. When it was all said and done Italy was victorious.

I wish I could truly convey to you all what the celebration was like. It was absolutely crazy, I doubt Ill ever see anything like it again. Thousands upon thousands of people walking, cheering, dancing, yelling, singing, waving their flags, sounding their horns, cars honking with people hanging out of them shouting at everyone on the streets ... It was the largest, purest celebration I've ever seen. I have pictures that Ill post eventually that will hopefully do it some justice. But the experience was a blast and one I will never forget and I feel lucky to have been there.

Getting home was a chore however. The city had shut down so there were no taxis and many of the subway stops were closed. Luckily we were able to catch a train for part of the trip then talk a concierge at a different hotel into calling a cab for us. We made it home safe and sound.

So that was my incredible day. Tomorrow we head to Spain where Ill be for the better part of two weeks. Hopefully Ill be able to talk my one of my bandmates into letting me use their laptop so I can get some pics up then.

Hope everyone is well. Besides missing my wife and my dog terribly, I am sparkling.