A Broad, Abroad (installment, the sixth, I think...)

Came home last night, to Zurich, then took an immediate train to Basel where I gave a reading with the intensely talented, lovely and formidable Ivy Alvarez. Her new book is called Mortal, and lemme tell you, it's good. Hung out in Basel with the poet Andrew Shields who arranged the reading, and rode back into Zurich with the also quite talented, lovely and formidable Miz Dusie herself, Susana Gardner. It was a great night.

But now I am hurrying to pack. I have tickets for two shows in London, and then I return to Zurich for a bit.

I have much to tell you all. Including posts about Keith, one of the roadies who used to be a tour manager for Kim Wilde and Rickie Lee Jones, Wally, a crowd control guard who I met in Dublin who pantomimed suicide throughout the entire set of the opening act and who much prefers country music to anything else and will be seeing George Jones in Ireland sometime in the near future, the German women who stood behind me in Dublin-- a high school physics teacher and an organic farmer-- who showed up at the concert without tickets but were able to score some once arrived, Caroline and Susan, the women in Glasgow who've seen Nick live more times than I have hairs on my head and promised to hold my place in line at the London shows, the drunk and toothless Glaswegian who kept coming up to me as I stood in queue asking me if I was "up" for anything*, the man in the concert in Glasgow who brought his 14 year old son to his first NC&TBS show. It's as instructive and as interesting for me to meet the people who come and see Nick as it is for me to actually see the concerts.

In Glasgow, we were spared Dave Graney and his Lurid Yellow Mist as an opener, and were instead treated to the PHENOMENAL Barry Adamson. How come no one told me such a Mancunian as he existed? Do you not know his work? Go and check it out immediately. It's jazz and blues with a lot of horns and Spector-esque Wall of Sound. Incredibly compelling performer and apparently long-time friend of Nick and a former Seed of sorts himself.

Here is a YouTube clip from the Dublin show. As you can see, the stage is too high and wide for optimum Cavian viewing. But: at about 52 or 53 seconds into the clip, in the lower right hand corner, you see a big ole head of black hair turning around and smiling to talk to who would have been the high school physics teacher (the blond in pink standing next to her was the organic farmer). That big head o' hair is me.

Enjoy.

--
* I wasn't.

Comments

[Noah Burke]

Next time wear a bright color yourself so it will be easier to find you. Thanks for inviting us along on your adventure.
NB

[JAE]

I'm either wearing a puple or a blue shirt tomorrow night, I think.

I'm glad you're enjoying the reports!