Sweat necklace wake up on short bench seat with stuffy head and itchy eyes. Can’t tell if sick or if afflicted with allergy hangover. Doesn’t matter. Go back up the 635 stairs and have coffee/juice/bread/leftovers.
Tonight’s venue is in the basement bar of a multi story corner building which also houses a café and residential living quarters. Interesting place. Above the front door are a red and black anarchist flag and a huge banner in German that translates to something praising the working class. This enterprise is refreshing, something that seems impossible to pull off in the US but is surprisingly common in Europe. The sleeping room is on the third floor and as we are being led up to it, we are told there is no smoking except in the basement because the building is 700 years old. History and a place to sleep without sniffing cigarettes sounds great.
Basel is an attractive city. We are early and there is time to wander around. I want to go for a jog but my running shoes are in the van. On the way to go get them, I walk along a large river where young boys are being taught the fine art of gondola boat pole pushing. Looks strenuous, especially seeing scrawny eight year olds attempting to do it. The van is so far away that I decide the walk was workout enough and turn around to head back.
Show flyer
Creepy cat art Dinner is vegan lasagna packed with probably every single stray food item sitting around the kitchen, including a ton of spinach and sunflower seeds. I’m still feeling shitty inside myself and don’t trust my immune system so decide not to drink tonight. Trip to Starbucks for internet use. Return to show, still early. Go with Greg for walk across river into city center. It is Friday night and we run across large groups of Basel youth hanging out at various locations in town. Hundreds of them basically just sitting and standing around doing nothing. They somehow remind me of the packs of birds circling above landfills. Or high school. Guess there is nothing else to do here.
The show is full of humans and they decide to party with us during our live performance. Beers are thrown and dropped, mixed generation moshing occurs, crowd instigated singer crowd surfing happens, and I finally get my voice back for the first time since the first show. We are berated until we play more songs, causing more sick mosh activities to go down. Very good show.
In the morning, I plan to wake up early and go jogging followed by internet vidchat appointment with home base so I’m not part of the brutal post show alcohol abuse this evening. I manage to secure a shower before bed and on the way up to the sleeping place, I make a stop to observe tomorrow’s hangovers beginning for both bands.
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