El final del concierto y el análisis

Al final del concierto todo eran sonrisas, abrazos ... Todos habíamos vivido una noche única.

GRACIAS a todos los que asitisteis, gracias a todos los que hicisteis posible la gran asistencia, gracias a los que faciltasteis la promoción, la organización, gracias a Gari, gracias Steve & Miracle 3!!

Y fijaros en la crónica que Wynn hizo del concierto y de su estancia en Bilbao con nosotros. Una de sus mejores citas!!

11.30.10: The Road To Valencia

I was eating breakfast this morning with Jason, dining on Spanish pastries on the 7th floor of the five-star Silken Hotel in Bilbao, overlooking the metallic waves and curves, sloops and slopes of the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenhiem just outside our window and Jason said "This is how it should be every day."

This is not how it is every day.

On tour the level of accommodations varies greatly from day to day. I remember that in Copenhagen our hotel very much resembled the sailors quarters of a budget overnight ferry and that other shows have had rooms that resembled a college dormitory. And ti's all good, all part of the daily roulette of touring. But every so often you get lucky, very very lucky and get a hotel that allows you for a moment to think, "Ah, this is how it is-this is what it's like to be a rock star."

"I guess this is the kind of place Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds stay in every night," suggested Jason. He might be right.

Much of the credit for the nice rooms as well as good promotion that led to a great attendance (on a Sunday night, no less) in the elegant Bilborock club must go to our new friend Mikel of the WOP Band that organized the event and opened the concert. WOP stands for Walk On Project, a charity organization put together by Mikel to help support the treatment and research for various pediatric diseases. Linda and I are going to join them in the studio in a few weeks for a benefit record and this show was the kickoff of that relationship. And what a night it was. Fortified by our happiness and good fortune, we responded not as lazy, pampered arena rockers but rather as giddy, fortified, reinvigorated touring veterans, glad to be there and knowing this would be a night to remember.

I've played Bilbao many times over the years and this was certainly one of my favorite shows in this lively Basque city. A nice mixture of the old and the new (and one of the nice things about this tour is that the songs from "Northern Aggression' seem to be going over as well as older material from my solo records and Dream Syndicate catalog). We managed to even break away to a local tapas bar for various delights involving octopus, cheese, ham and various delights "in their own ink." (My Baseball Project bandmate once considered calling his band's record "the Minus 5 In Their Own Ink"-what a great name that would have been!)

Now we're back in the van. Alvaro is playing a CD that he bought at the hotel, a collection of blues music put together by the hotel for their guests. What kind of blues can you have at a hotel like that, I wondered. Jason replied, "The checkout blues." Good point, Jason Very good point.