Day Thirteen – Did the Days Drag By?

What was supposed to be a mellow day got a bit complicated yesterday. Kevin woke up with an inflamed vocal cord. Fortunately we had Veronica. Having no idea how to negotiate medical services in a foreign nation, I called her and she told us to meet her at Innsbruck hospital. We packed up our gear and booked it out of Scharnitz. Thirty minutes later we were in Innsbruck. While Kevin was with the physician with Keith as moral support and Veronica (with the seven month old baby she nannies) negotiating, Rob and I drove over to the school where we were scheduled to do some sort of vague performance/discussion. I borrowed Kevin’s guitar and the teacher we meet found a cajon for Rob. We played some tunes as a duo for about thirty five middle school kids. They were wonderful. We answered questions about music and about Detroit, and then they started asking us to pronounce German words because “it is funny the way Americans talk”. Well, two can play at that game and we made them pronounce the word ” vivid “. Because it is funny the way Austrians talk. We finished with a sing along to Let It Be just as Kevin, Keith, and Veronica arrived.
Veronica really came through for us. We would not have made it to our gigs or our hotels without her, and there is no way we could have gotten Kevin’s throat looked at. She won this tour, hands down, always staying calm and guiding us through difficult times. Being on tour is not vacation, especially this late in the trip. Having someone who knows which way is up makes a huge difference.

After the workshop we were hungry. Unfortunately eating in Innsbruck is apparently illegal between 2 and 6 pm. We walked around for 45 minutes looking for a restaurant that was open, finally finding a Greek place that had no menu. The proprietor sat us down and, after a brief negotiation in which we realized that we had no language overlap (me: Spanish, English. Him: German, Italian) we settled on him speaking Italian and me answering in Spanish. It worked and we ordered our food. It took a long time to arrive but was delicious. We were all quite hungry.
We left the Greek restaurant and walked back to the van that we had left at the school, with permission and a parking pass in the window, to find that it had been ticketed. Oh, Austria, did I mention you are a little bit overzealous with your law and order and fines? We took the ticket and drove to the venue, giving the ticket to our official contact, Helmut. He agreed to deal with the ticket.
Our venue was a black box Theatre built directly underneath the train viaduct. Let’s call it “cozy “. Other businesses using space beneath the viaduct include a dance club called Plan B and a strip club called Bad Girlz. It was a nice place to play and the crowd really appreciated the music.

This beautiful boy enjoyed our show.

We did great with cd sales. After the show we were exhausted but hungry again so Veronica took us to Kaiserstübe, the Fleetwood Diner of Innsbruck. The waiter even judged Rob for ordering a pizza with no cheese. I started to fall apart at the restaurant. I was just so damn exhausted I could not speak. I dropped my fork and Keith moved it with his foot so I could reach it easier. I asked him to leave my fork alone. He said he was just trying to help. I said I know, but I can’t deal with moving objects right now.
We finished our food and conversation with Veronica, dropped her off at her place and went to the hostel where we are staying tonight. Two more shows. I’m looking forward to getting back to Switzerland and wrapping this thing up.

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