On the Copa, Copacabana........

So after 8 hours of turbulance we landed in Rio De Janeiro. Ive heard all the horror stories about the crime, the poverty etc etc and im here to tell you thats it all a load of........Truth!! This place is not friendly, what do you expect when one of your party is robbed at gunpoint 2 hours after you land in the country.....by the police!!! Yes, you heard me!!
Our hotel luckily has a private beach with machine gun armed guards or else we wouldnt be able to go anywhere as its not really safe to walk around on your own and at least 6 of our party including me has had to change rooms, some up to 4 times for a variety of reasons from no drainage to flooding from the room above to Cockroaches!!! And this is at a Sheraton!! So its equally worrying when you see a hotel named The NO-GO Hotel.
I also have a great view of a Favella, which is one of the many slums in Rio.

The only good part of the trip so far was going up to Carcovado mountain to see the Christ The Redeemer Statue that sits atop the mountain overlooking the city.



I have to say the view is pretty amazing from up there.

You can see the entire city and it looks quite nice from up there. You also get a great view of Sugarloaf mountain which was the site for the cable car chase in the James Bond movie MOONRAKER.


So, here i am sitting backstage before our show in Rio tonight with Juliette And The Licks again before we fly to Sao Paulo tomorrow for the 2nd leg of the TIM Festival with Bjork and Arctic Monkeys also playing and then onward to Argentina next week where i am quite amused to see that on my Work Visa i am named as


An "ILLUMINADOR".
I Like the sound of that, i think it will have to go on all my paperwork from now on.

STEVEN DOUGLAS - ILLUMINADOR

Heading South!!

So after the fun of a few days off in LA and going to see a great album launch show from Jimmy Eat World at the Wiltern, it was off to Mexico for a couple of shows but first up was a trip to the the pyramids at Teotihuacan just outside Mexico City.

There are 2 pyramids here which are 3rd in the line of biggest pyramids in the world after Cheops in Egypt and the Pyramid Of Cholula which is also in Mexico.

The Sun Pyramid


And the Moon Pyramid


And in between the two runs the Avenue Of The Dead which according to legend is where in just one night over 80,000 human sacrifices took place to the Sun/Moon Gods!!


And yes i got the obligatory cheesy tourist picture


Next day was the MTV Latin Video Awards which we werent playing at but blagged into the parties anyway.
After that we had the show at the Foro Sol Baseball stadium.

This was the place where U2 filmed theyre PopMart Live DVD, its quite a big old place and there was a great crowd of 50,000 people there going nuts.
Also on the bill were Incubus


But i think our lot stole the night tonight as the crowd went crazy during the set


Next it was off to do a show in Guadalajara which was probably one of the loudest crowds i've ever heard almost drowning out the band at a couple of points(which is no mean feat).

After that it was a couple of days off so we were treated to 3 days at a resort in the rainforest in Panama, another tough day at the office eh!!

This was the fantastic view from my room!!

We took a few day trips during the few days we had including ones to see some Monkeys


And Toucans

And besides spending the rest of our time sipping Pina Coladas and playing Extreme Pool Volleyball. We also took some time to visit the Panama canal whcih runs from one side of the country to the other which is about 50 miles long.


And we also took a day trip to visit the Embera Indian Tribe dep in the rain forest. First they took us to a waterfall for a swim and some rock diving.


And then onto theyre village for some lunch and some traditional dancing.


Here I am with our guide.


So after a great few days we are now headed to Brazil!!!

One Final Push!!

No, im not pregnant!! This is the start of the final run of proper shows on the Sams Town World Tour which will see us hitting 7 countries in the next few weeks. After a nice break at home organising such grown up things as buying a house, car, life insurance and a pension and going to see The Police, Rufus Wainwright and some football (Not at the same time, that would just be too weird). It was time to leave real life behind and head out again.


First up was a secret show in Athens, Georgia at the famous 40 Watt Club which was the regular haunt of a young REM.


It was an interesting night seeing as the band decided they wanted pumpkins on stage spelling out the name, since they had no lights really since it was a 600 capacity club. So here we were in the alley behind the club 10 mins before showtime.



And here is the end result


It was a good show in the end with a few firsts happening. The new single "Tranquilize" being played for the first time, as well as the "Murder Trilogy" being played for the first time. This is a 3 song interconnected story featuring "Jenny" and "Midnight Show" from HOT FUSS and the first song which had never been heard before "Leave The Bourbon On The Shelf" which will be on the forthcoming B-sides album "Sawdust".


And here is a random picture from the streets of Athens,


Yeah i've no idea what it means either!!

Next day was the echo project festival in Atlanta, where we were back on a bigger stage again and i actually had a few lights to play with.


We had a couple of days off before our next show so i headed to LA for a few days off and seeing some friends and family.
Here is a few random photos of LA weirdness

Damn you Madonna!!


Yes that is a 6ft Tall 280 lb man in a silver foil dress witha viking helmet on!!


Hopefully you can see this. Some resourceful young chap has taken the liberty of blacking out a few lights on the crosswalk stop sign to make a rather rude gesture.....Made me laugh anyway!!

In the words of the great John McClane

"F**KING CALIFORNIA!!"