Back home. Back to my normal life and work. Last year I worked on the OneRepublic record as a co-producer/engineer for 3 months in Denver. Then I attended Ryan’s birthday weekend blast back in Denver (which was awesome). Later in the year, I ran the tracks for them at some California shows while they opened for Rob Thomas. This year I spent a month with them on the road. Sure love these guys, they are great friends, and I thank them for letting me be a part of their world. It’s always an amazing experience.
Some final thoughts:
This was one of the best experiences of my life, no question.
Most of the brands we know are available everywhere. Like, everybody is global. Didn’t see much of anything that was ‘you can only get this in Europe’.
Everybody kinda looks the same as us and each other in all the countries we visited, even Russia. When I was in Europe in the 90′s, every stewardess/waitress/shop worker would automatically speak to me in English because it was clear by appearance that I was American. Now, they all spoke to me in whatever their native tongue was first.
Every city has a plethora of Italian restaurants, and it seemed like it was the ‘best place in town’ in way too many places we went.
This is tough to put well (however the other guys noticed it as well), but one of the most notable things I realized about 5 days into it: in all the European countries we visited, I saw almost zero signs of obesity. Didn’t see it until we got to Jolly ol’ England. There, everyone looked very notably way more ‘American’, in this particular sense. I’ve been told that they were probably American tourists.
The German/Austrian/Swiss countryside is gorgeous.
I was disappointed in the lack of broadband/phone reception in some places I thought it would be better.
Fun Fact: I made it through this whole trip with only a small, carry-on duffel bag of clothes, and never did laundry.
The wrong-side-of-the-road driving thing in England is manic.
All the batteries in all my devices seemed to perform way more poorly over there. My phone was always dead. This, and the lack of fast, always available internet made me more unhappy than I expected.
I will sorely miss the feeling of playing a song like “Marching On” and watching the crowd ignite by chorus 2.
Having a great crew makes all the difference in the world.
Touring with a band that actually gets along reasonably well makes all the difference in the world.
When a band has great fans, it makes all the difference in the world.
I am now wondering why I spent the last 15 years sitting in a studio trying to be a producer. Playing live is way more fun.
As the days go on, I will sort through more of the video footage I have, and add it to the posts.
