Jimmy Bowskill Band - European Tour Blog - Jan - Mar 2010

February 6, 2010

At 5am, and hour and a half after dosing off, I wake to my alarm that barely registers. I’m exhausted. I rush upstairs and wake the guys (who slept through Jim’s alarm) and we feverishly load the van and hit the road. I don’t mind telling you that we all felt AWFUL. What’s more, with our one hour sleep under our belts, we had a 10 hour drive to look forward to. Ah, touring. Thank goodness we’re Canadians.

I take the first driving shift, armed with a coffee, a Mars bar and a Red Bull (the stuff is positively awful but it works) and we hit the road. After about 4 hours I start to fade and Pooch, who has slept very little during the drive while Jim and Dan had fitful sleep, takes the wheel for a couple of hours. I have a bit of trouble sleeping but it doesn’t last. I wake again when Pooch’s shift finishes and Dan takes over. I sleep for most of Dan’s shift and we soon end up in Braunau at around 4pm.

Gugg Theatre…setting up after 10 hour drive….Braunau, Austria

The venue is a beautiful, modern theatre and the front windows are adorned with fantastic posters advertising the show. We set up and sound check then head to the hotel for a quick shower to try to wake up. I down a Red Bull backstage while Dan has vodka and Red Bull then we take the stage. It should be noted that we have slept about 4 hours in two days and we were starving by the time we went on. However, we had a fantastic audience of about 160 people who boosted our spirits a great deal. We even got two encores. What a great little town.

Poster in window…Gugg Theatre…Braunau, Austria

Afterwards, we were very busy at the merch table and the friendly locals offer to have us over to their homes for coffee while we are here. When the crowd dissipates, we go upstairs and have a fantastic meal then make our way down to the bar in the theatre lobby. The exhaustion gets the better of us and none of us finish our drinks. It is time to sleep and we know it. We have a full day off here tomorrow but we know most of it will be spent in bed. We head back to the hotel and barely say goodnight to one another, numb from exhaustion.