Rocket to Russia: Day 0

201011051300

Seeing one's name in cyrillic script is slightly jarring.

Dateline: Prague
Local time: 9:11am.  
Weather: slightly overcast and cool.

As bassist for electric guitar icon (and extremely nice person) Joe Satriani on a European tour I thought to regale you, dear Boing Boing reader, with the exploits of an American rock band touring in Russia.

We've been traveling around Europe with two buses (one band and one crew), one tractor trailer loaded with tons of audio and lighting gear, and our crew of about 20. But we're stripping down for this leg: no buses, no truck, and only 13 of us are making the trip. Everything besides instruments (which must fly with us as checked baggage — what could possibly go wrong?!) is being provided by the venue.

Because of severe weight restrictions and their attendant costs, we've been valiantly pitching overboard anything not absolutely essential for this leg.  Astonishingly I was able to drop at least twenty pounds of road accretion onto my bunk in the bus (that we will be returning to in Budapest in four days).  I will attempt to post as regularly as connectivity and time allow, sometimes from a Blackberry, and hopefully more often using a real camera and laptop.

(Ed. note: While we are waiting for Allen's next dispatch, why not enjoy this live performance of Soul Surfin' by The Mermen.)