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I had a wonderful time on the East Coast the past few weeks and spending a week in NYC was fantastic! With all that time I was able to become more familiar with the big city. Saturday and Sunday night at the Blue Note were a blast! The shows were a lot of fun and I enjoyed talking with fans after. Someone told me that they flew all the way from Buenos Aries to see a few of our shows at the Blue Note and absolutely love it. A few other people said they liked our show so much in Norfolk CT that they had to come see us in NYC to catch another one.

The interesting thing to me about playing 2 shows a night for 6 nights is: In the mornings and afternoons I'd go and do different things around the city. Next thing I knew, time flew by and I was walking down the stairs with the band on the way to the stage. Our tour manager was always at the bottom of the steps saying the same thing to us for every show as we walked by. At that point it really felt like I was in the movie "Ground Hog Day"! Especially about 7 or 8 shows in, it was pretty trippy.

TRAVEL DAY:

After the last show, I got back to the hotel, caught an hour of sleep and then had to get up to catch my ride to the airport. (BELOW) This is what it looked like when my wake up call came -



So off to the airport. After the super long lines getting through security, I got to the gate. Interesting connection too, non stop to Seattle then on to Oakland. It didn't really bother me though. I thought at least I could get 5 1/2 hours of sleep on the plane, nothing else to do today. I got to my seat. After some time past they were almost ready to close the doors. The travel Gods must have been shining down on my because I had a whole row to my self! At this point a calm and peaceful feeling came across me. A vision of me laying down across all 3 seats: happy, comfortable, warm and sound asleep. I then started to smile. "Sir, may I get you another pillow, blanket or how about a nice warm cup of hot coco" the flight attendant asks. I reply with, "you know, that would be just about perfect"............................... but I actually hear -

"Yup, 27 A & B and the seats in the row behind are yours, enjoy your flight!"

Wait a second, what?!! I quickly look up and see two families with 3 babies and extra bags starting to move into my row and the row behind! I scramble to quickly look at my ticket to see I could possibly be in the wrong seat or maybe I was accidentally put in the baby section. But I was in the right seat. The next thing I hear is this super high pitch scream that just about melted my ear drums off and then felt kicking on my seat from behind.... To top it all off the Captain then announces that it will be a while for take off, about 35 min or so as we're #18 in line.....

Anyway, when I got home my cat Herbie was very happy to see me. I was then greeted by Cosmo with a hiss and a swat and then she gave me the silent treatment for the rest of the evening. Although, she was meowing, purring and walking all over me at 4:30 am to wake me up, right on schedule. Back to her usual routine with out a beat skipped.

It's good to be home.

Friday Night in New York City.

I enjoyed both shows very much last night and the audiences were fantastic! About to get ready to head down to the Blue Note in a little bit, looking forward to tonight's shows.

This week in NYC

It's been great to spend a week in New York City. In the afternoons I've been getting out and walking around the city and going to a few of the museums. Earlier in the week I went to the museum of Natural History. My first time there and thoroughly enjoyed it. I put the "Opium / Dreaming" album on in my headphones and walked around. It was nice to walk around with the music and look at the sights. About 10 min into it, I began to notice that the music started to fit what I was looking at in a really interesting way and some how the timing of each song lasted about the exact time I was in each room. Walking into a different room with a different song set such a interesting and unique tone to what I was looking at. It's hard to explain so I suggest you just go there and try it. I didn't take time to read anything, just took everything in - looking + listening. My favorite part was when I walked into ocean section. The song "Chi-Wahwah Beauty" happen to come on as I walked into the enormous room all lit up in blue and trippy lighting as if you were under water with sea creatures all around. A huge blue whale hung from the ceiling as if it was diving down. The perfect song for that room. (electric wah wah guitar with trippy synth sounds). A great experience.

Yesterday I went to the MoMA museum with Ottmar. Beautiful museum, it was great to walk around in there and discuss the art together. As I was looking at some of the art I noticed the struggle between my right and left brain. Part of me initially wanted to say, "I don't understand what that is" and another part of me was saying, "accept it for what it is". I wonder how many people notice that or if they ignore those feelings. It's so important for us to be able to express our selves - thoughts + Feelings - through art and not suppress those feelings. It's also very important to have more art programs in schools - as much or more then Science and Math. No offence Science and Math but you've been on the top priority for a long time and it's time to make some space for Art.

Tonight in New York City

Great to be back in NYC. Bandmate Michael Chavez and I got out to a ball game last night. It was great to see the new Citi Field, great ball park. I strongly recommend the nachos from the Nacho Grande cart. The best ball park nachos I've had yet! Yeah you read that right, the best ones yet. I had the one with cheese and jalapenos.

Westhampton Beach

Great weather in Westhampton Beach, I went for a nice walk today. After soundcheck I gathered my things and made sure everything was all packed up as the bus is dropping us off in NYC tomorrow and don't want to leave anything behind.

Infinity Hall - Norkfolk, CT

Infinity Hall, the surprise of the tour for me. A Great venue in a great location.

Beautiful weather in New England this time of the year. I went for a nice walk and came across a great rushing river. I let Ottmar know about it and we both walked back there together to take photos of it. Great dinner and wine at the venue then up to the stage for our performance. When we walked out on stage we were met with a very warm welcome from the audience, lot's of applause through out the set. The view from stage was really nice. At times during the show I found myself looking around this great little venue, the architecture, the stained glass windows and the little lights all around. It was also nice to see people sitting way up on the back balcony with LED candles flickering on all the tables. What a great vibe in this place, it had something special about it, I just love playing in venues like this.

The performance felt great and the show was over before I knew it. I hope to come back here again. Thanks to everyone who came out to see the show tonight!

Cambridge

This morning I walked around Harvard square and stopped in Pinochio's pizza for a slice, then off to soundcheck. After sound check we all met up for a delicious dinner at the hotel where the Regattabar is located. Two shows tonight, didn't look like there was a bad seat in the house, very intimate setting.

Afterwards, back on the bus and into my bunk to watch a movie.

Let's have a look at tonights setup shall we?

Changed my rig around a few nights ago and have been enjoying the new set up.

Today at the Ridgefield Playhouse

Photos taken at soundcheck

Photos I took this morning

Berchmere - Alexandria

Always a great audience at the Berchmere. I really enjoyed the set, some nice moments in the music tonight. No problems with my thumb nail either, I repaired it this morning and it worked fine for the show.

A little technical difficulty During sound check as there was an issue with my keyboard not putting any sound out. However, it turned out to be something other then the keyboard and in about 15 min later we were back on track with the sound check.

Rams Head - Annapolis

Great show at Rams Head, always a warm welcoming audience there. At the end of the set on the very last guitar strum, half of the acrylic on my thumb nail popped off tearing half of the tip of my actual nail. No time to make a repair as I had to walk right back out on stage to play the encore. Trying to play a rumba strum with out getting my nail caught in the strings was a good challange, had to adjust the way I play but still seemed to work out fine. Fortunately there were no more songs after that.

It was great to be back in Annapolis, I've always had a good time in that town.

PICTURES FROM THE SHOW

A word from Stevo

Hello there,

So I've received word the past few days from some fans that they have wanted to yell stuff out or give some hoots during our performance. I want to let everyone know to please feel free to give some hoots or yell out if you're enjoying the show. We enjoy knowing that the audience is having a great time.

Timmy!

TODAY - ECHOES RADIO

Performed on Echoes this morning. We played 4 pieces that turned out really nice. Great bunch of guys down at Echos, they made us feel very welcome.

Sellersville

Two shows tonight in Sellersville. First one at 4 and the second one at 7:30. My strings weren't happy today because it was raining out and very humid. It felt like I spent the entire first set set tuning. By the second set my strings seemed to be somewhat settled but they still needed some tweaking. I have to say that I enjoy playing later in the evening, I'm a night person. 4 is a bit early for me, I think Ottmar feels the same as he performed beautifully in the second set. Overall we had a nice time today and it was great to talk with some of the fans and sign a few CD's after the show. Thanks for coming down tonight!

Special thanks to the fans sending links to their photos from the past few shows!

Today in Buffalo, NY

Saturday Morning: Got out to see the Falls this morning. Haven't been there in years and was great to see it again. Looking forward to the show tonight.



Sound check: When I got on stage, I noticed that every time I got out of my chair I was getting all of these static electricity shocks. It took me a while to figure out that it was the plastic chair they set out for me, or at least it seemed to be some type of plastic. So I asked to have it swapped out for a different chair and I got no more shocks.

Show: Nice show tonight.