Ljubljana!!!!

After three week of touring across Europe, on the verge of getting sick, averaging 4 hours of sleep the past few days, being pulled over by the border police today, and generally feeling worn down, we arrived in Ljubljana.

We immediately went to Matt's (Dub Trio's EU live sound engineer) house. His parents, Dora & Boris, greeted us with a firm handshake and big hugs. NICEST PEOPLE. We then sat down to an amazing lunch of vegetable matzo ball soup (very healing), parsley'd potatoes, mushrooms in cream sauce, rocket salad, steamed vegetables, and patitza for desert. All washed down with a fruity and slightly effervescent red Slovenian wine. It was so great to get a home cooked meal.

A couple hours later, upon arriving to Gala Hala for sound check, we found a nicely stocked backstage...thanks Kaja. And our good friend Dornik brought us a great bottle of Slovenian red fermented grape juice (Simcic, Refosk 2008). We then made our way to dinner at a decent Slovenian Italian restaurant. The garlic cream soup was rich, bursting with flavor and was exactly what my body needed to help encourage my white blood cells to get their shit together.

After dinner, back at the club, we enjoyed a little Slivovitz as a digestif before taking the stage...thanks again Kaja. The gig was fierce and pummeling!!! GREAT CROWD! GREAT SOUND! GREAT ENERGY!

All in all it was a healing (except for the lack of oxygen due to the excessive amounts of cigarette smoke in the club), fulfilling, generous, and great day in Ljubljana.

A Steady Diet of...

As I traverse towards Linz from Vienna, I thought I would share several, almost daily, themes on this current EU Dub Trio tour.

1. Musli topped with honey for breakfast. Each hotel seems to have a different blend. I prefer one with small fruit pieces or chocolate chips thrown in for sweetness and texture
2. Perfect pushups and core strengthing exercises
3. PBS's Frontline, TED talks, & Radiolab podcasts
4. Not getting enough protien for dinner as vegetarian eating dinners provided by club catering...glad I stocked up on cliff bars before tour started
5. Mediocre wine provided by club catering...augmented by a few choice purchases on my own dime
6. Reading about The Bradly Method
7. Not getting enough sleep
8. Realizing I'm lucky enough to travel the world and share my art
9. Being annoyed that they still haven't outlawed smoking in every club or venue i play
10. Admiring the autumn countryside views


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When in Rome...

While on tour, i always try my best to get out and sample
some of the local treasures the cities have to offer, Whether it be music, food & libations, art & architecture, etc.... even at the expense of not getting enough sleep sometimes.

However, i've been guilty of making an excuse like..."oh, i don't really need to check this or that out because i'll be able to find it in nyc." I am spoiled living in the best city in the world.

Well, after being on this current European tour, I can tell you that things REALLY are better where they come from. A sense of place and context can really make an experience one to remember. I pretty much already knew this, but this past week it really hit home that "local" rules!!!

i mean the olive oil in Greece tastes AMAZING!!! ..and it didn't travel thousands of miles for me to pay double (or triple) of what i would pay for it in Greece.

Being in Tel Aviv and going to ANOTHER great hummus place, far outweighs going to "Hummus" on 1st ave and St. Marks again...even though their hummus is legit.

Drinking a bottle of 2005 Bordeaux, bought from a French supermarket for 5 Euro, is a much better experience than paying the huge markups we deal with in the US.
Or similarly, drinking some local Ouzo in Athens, from a distillery that been around since the 1920's, is so much better than buying a bottle at the Duty Free shop on my flight out.

Going to see the Monet exhibit at The Grand Palais....even though i didn't get in because the line was 3 hours too long, would have been a lot more hip than checking out a retrospective at The Met. Again, similarly, seeing the "Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan" painting at the Tetryakov gallery in Moscow was ruled.


No matter where you are in the world, get out there and explore. EXPERIENCE is not underrated.