Tuesday with Adrian and the Vaccines at Headhunters for the HAAM benefit was a BLAST but will get to that.

Europe (well, Denmark and Germany) was AMAZING. Talk about an expanded world view. Everyone who is able needs to travel abroad, especially us isolated Americans. And yes, we DO have an accent. If you can tell where someone is from by the way they speak, that is an accent. Shows were awesome, venues were great, the promoters and everyone involved were all good people. Bent (our tour manager) was great as well.

Got back in Monday night. Woke up early Tuesday morning and dove immediately into TCB. Paying bills, depositing my hard earned money, running errands, getting caught back up on life. Did not even have time to take a nap before heading to Headhunters with my roommates to play with Adrian and the Vaccines.

The show: Yeah, we practiced 2 weeks ago. Yeah, I was late getting there and had to load in, park my van, then immediately set up and play. Yeah I was playing my beater bass which feels like a toy. But it was still AWESOME tho I was admittedly struggling with the bass and backing vox parts (not used to playing so FAST heh!) Had lots of overwhelmingly positive feedback. Best comment was from Leon of Trash Rockets: "I loved your OH SHIT fills!!! You know, when ya know you got a change coming up and have to somehow segue into it... you did great!" Saw lots of old and new friends and was a great night of music all around. Thank you Kristin Crowfire from Sabbath Crow for orchestrating such a great shindig.

Picked up my bass at the airport yesterday, was a low key reunion betwixt myself and my beloved Cate Blanchett. Strung her back up and was like YES, THIS BASS IS AMAZING AND I AM GLAD TO HAVE HER BACK. Got to play her with Eric Tessmer Band at Maggie Mae's to get reacquainted.

ETB sounded good, sure didn't feel like I haven't even touched any of that music in 2 weeks. Show was still a bit of a kick in the teeth. Now there is NO soundguy at Maggie's until they hire a new one, and I didn't know what til end of 1st set. Levels were set, then we were on our own. Add to that the distraction of spilling a cup of ice water all over my Phase 90 right before we started. People filing in during first few songs, had a good crowd. But for all we know we could have sounded terrible. And no one present seemed to know how to get the ETB logo to go full screen, so there was the annoying toolbar and border and didn't look as cool. Well shit. Hit the wall second set and had to get a slice of pizza from across the street.

Today spent FINALLY cleaning and organizing my room, as well as finally unpacking. Been so busy in TCB mode that my room has been a disaster area for most of the summer, traveling with just enough time to come home and repack before heading out again. But by tonight I should finally have my bed back...