It’s Saturday night and we just finished our sound check. We’re splitting tonight’s bill with a band from Nashville and a singer from Toronto. We are seven hours north of Switzerland in Lauchhammer, Germany. Yesterday I walked around Schaffhausen, up to the Munot, and all around town, including a little stop at Saitensprung, a wonderful little music store that sells some amazing guitars. I spent a fair amount of time alone. At around four the band met up for a drink at a tiny local bar. We were completely out of place there, and no one spoke English, but once they figured out that we were a band they were nice to us.
As far as the actual show went, we played at Dolder 2, a great little room owned by Tom Luley, who we have known for ten years now. Tom was described by Paul as “strange and somehow special.” In reality he is a great guy and we love playing his place. Even though it was a Friday night almost no one came out. We played for ten people, but we really played for a young kid named Sven who was really into the music. A highlight for me was that I got to use an amp made in Schaffhausen. Harper Amps is the brand. The sound was very clear and Fender like. My normal rig on tour is a vox amp modeling unit. I love it but a real tube amp makes me much happier. Tonight I’m playing through a 1990’s Fender. Not as nice as the Harper, but still fun.
After last night’s show Keith, Kevin, and I should have gone to bed like Rob did. Instead we went out for drinks with Tina, Nadine, and Max, three tenths of our audience. We were up until two AM at the Cuba Club. It made getting up this morning and driving for seven hours a bit of a challenge.
Tonight there are two bands and a solo singer. The other band is from Nashville and the singer is from Toronto. We all are dinner together in the green room. This place is called the Real Music Club, and the name is accurate. We have a Real Sound Guy, Real Monitors, and we get treated like Real Musicians. Let’s hope there is a Real Crowd and that we all play Really Well!
Alex Anest 
I’m sure you will all play really well!