September 11 - Le Romandie, Lausanne Switzerland

Lausanne is where the Olympic committee likes to be.  Our corrupt ham sandwich-faced mayor wants the 2016 Olympics in Chicago.  It will leave a moon-sized crater of crime and garbage in the city while lining the pockets of his waddling, bloody-eyed pals.  It would be a shame if Chicago’s image were to get tarnished.

It was a night of farewells.  Our last European show with John and our last with Magnolia Electric Co.  Goodbye friendly faces in strange places, goodbye built-in designated driver, goodbye endless supply of surprise snacks, goodbye dressing rooms, goodbye 500+ capacity venues, goodbye unique, childlike perspective, goodbye humorous tour manager and sound man.

Le Romandie is built into a bridge.  It is in Lausanne.  It is a hilly town.  There is a lake.  You do not have time to walk to the lake before soundcheck.  But you can try.  You will likely end up jogging around a park near the lake.  It may feel good to run.  The walk back up the hill will make you sweat.  This is all you will see of the city.

On stage the Olympics and our dangerously worthless mayor were mentioned but it seems the kids just wanted to dance and talk.  Someone asked John why we dress the way we do.

“Is it for the girls?”

 

“Vanilla Bean” closed the set like this:

 First verse: John – piano Tony – drums

Second verse:  Esther – piano Tony – drums John – dancing on stage

Third verse: Esther – piano John - drums Alan, Tony – dancing in crowd

 The end of the song washed into a sloppy Magnolia Electric Co-ver.

For the Magnolia set, Jason Molina applied burnt cork to his face as a farewell to us.  Again, I can’t express how wonderful this band was to us.  Jason Molina, Jason Evans Groth, Michael Kapinnus, Peter Schreiner, Racebannon Sal, Ben Schreiner, and Jan Veltman will be missed.

I’m sure they will miss us raiding the fridge, staining the dressing room with make-up, borrowing guitar equipment, bumming smokes, being absent for load-in and load-out, selling their T-shirts as ours, and beating the shit out of the snare drum.  But most of all they will miss our smell.

Hopefully that smell wafted over to the Olympic committee.