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!!"

Brrrr!!

So, after the marathon travel day we finally arrived in Tahoe for our day off before the show at Montbleu casino. It was actually quite cold so im pretty glad i carried my jacket with me for 3 weeks just so i could use it for these 3 days



There wasnt exactly much to do in Tahoe though in Sept as it was a little too cold to go out on the water and not cold enough to ski-ing yet. They also werent really sure about the dates of Octoberfest either


The only thing of interest i saw was this Sheriffs car


Unfortunately this wasnt a sign of my future as a sheriff, apparently we were just in Douglas County.

So after 2 days of casino life it was show day. Todays also featured our favourite unsigned band in America!!

Solarcade!! If you havent checked them out, drop by theyre mySpace page and have a listen

www.myspace.com/solarcade




After that it was off to San Diego for a an evening off at a ballgame watching the Padres get theyre asses kicked by the Rockies.


Next day was the final show on this leg at San Diego Street Scene alongside Social Distortion, Editors, Paolo Nuitini and Arctic Monkeys amongst others.

Just a few short hours later i was in a car driving to Los Angeles and a flight home for 2 whole weeks so i guess next time i drop by ill be in Atlanta.

Stay safe ya'll

Ah Shit!!!!

So, we are now into hour 37 of this travel day and luckily there is only 5 people on the bus or chance sre someone would die. All our backline guys flew to Tahoe from El Paso because of girlfriends coming into town etc. So i wake up at 6am this morning as i feel the bus slow down and pull off the road and stop and i think "brilliant, we're here!!". Nope......



We blew a tyre and had to wait for a guy to come remove it. Its now 11am and we're still in the car park of an office depot waiting for a new wheel. Isnt that just a whole bunch of fun and we're still a good 2 hour drive from our destination.

Oh the glamour of washing your teeth etc in the employee bathroom of an office depot eh!!

Ooops!!

Found this picture in my camera and realised i never posted it!!
This is a 24 hour walk in dentist in Budapest a while back!!!


Think i'd wait until i got home somehow!!

We Dont Need No Water, Let The Motherf**er Burn.....

So next day we were off to the Austin City Limits festival in ......you guessed it.....Austin!!

A fairly average day was moving along until there was a loud bang from behind the Main Stage and a 30ft fireball and tower of smoke from what apparently was a propane tank exploding.







2 people were seriously burned and taken to hospital, not surprising really when you see the aftermath of what happened


So after that little interuption i was off to the main stage to watch Crowded House. Great set and a nice bunch of guys too.


Backstage, the facilities werent exactly great, hence the sign on the door of the only toilet in the main stage area!


After that whole thing it was off to Houston for a show at the Reliant Arena before a 14 hour drive to El Paso, Texas. For all intents and purposes this is basically Mexico as you can see from this picture.

You see the bridge in the middle of the picture?? This side of it is USA, other side of it is Mexico!! Of course we went over, be foolish not to! Its quite scary the difference in living standard actually. Guess, this time the grass is greener on the other side!! Had a walk around the town of Juarez and bought some good Mexican tequila. Its quite funny that you can buy pretty much any prescription drugs you want without any questions in a pharmacy down there. Luckily for one of my lighting Techs Peter who discovered that the nasty looking bruise he had on his leg was in fact a nasty bite from a Brown Recluse spider. Apparently this can be fatal over time as they bite and then lay theyre eggs in your skin and the eggs feed on the muscle but apparently he was quite lucky that there was still fresh blood flowing through the wound so they could drain it and he will be fine now.

Couldnt resist getting a picture of this on the way back across the border


Wonder how many times people have contemplated painting over the word proud!!




Next day was our show at the Abraham Chavez Theatre before a mammoth drive to Tahoe. We left at 2am monday night and will arrive at 9am on weds morning, its now 12 noon on Tues and im on the bus near Ontario, Ca where we will soon be stopping for 12 hours for our driver to sleep.

Fun, Fun, Fun!!!