Saturday, May 19, 2007

Show Day in Stockholm, Sweden

Woke up on the bus, which was parked inside the building, around 8am. I'm gonna have to get out and take a walk around at some point. It's just unnatural to me not to see daylight every day.

Last night was the first ride on our buses since flying over. I've got the nicest bus I've ever had in Europe. We use an Austrian coach company called Beat The Street. I'm on a double-decker with a huge lounge (that seats 9 or so) downstairs, another lounge upstairs that seats 5-6, and 14 bunks, also upstairs. We've got 11 people on the bus, and for most of the tour, there will be at least one wife/girlfriend onboard.

And the air conditioner absolutely, positively stomps ass. I nearly froze my ass off last night.

Because I travel with the band party on this tour, as opposed to the crew party with whom I usually travel, I'm also doing a bunch of flying. Josh doesn't brutalize his band, which is nice. The crew buses will be starting an 845-mile drive tonight after the show, which includes 2 ferries. I'll be going out for drinks after the show, sleeping in an awesome hotel, the Rival, and taking a flight tomorrow afternoon. Departs Stockholm 4pm, arrives in Amsterdam at 6pm. And we'll be there before the crew.

Yeah, this tour is spoiling me.

Tonight we're staying at the Rival Hotel (pronounced reev-all). It's owned by Benny Andersson, one of the 4 people who make up the band Abba. I'm thinking he's a distant cousin of Terry Anderson, my buddy back home. But then again, maybe not.

The bar at the hotel tonight was cool. All the women there were drop-dead gorgeous. I'm talking hot, hot, hot. The dudes were all good looking, too – just not my thang.

Anna, our local Live Nation rep, met up with Blaine and me at the bar and she brought along Martin, the young fellow she's training. She bought us a bunch of beer (Carlsberg's) and lots of funny conversation ensues.

After the bar closed at 2, Anna and Martin split and I headed to my room to watch the race from Charlotte. Wish I could stay awake to see the end, but no way. A little after 3am, the sun started to come up, so out I went.

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