EU Tour: Madrid, Spain

--Madrid, Spain--

Though the rest of the band has no memory of this we had a brief layover in Berlin, Germany, and since we flew on Air Berlin we all got chocolate hearts and mints upon arrival! It was pretty awesome. We actually walked a few hundred feet on German soil from the airplane to the bus and in honor of this event I spoke only in German for the duration of our stay... Loosely 20 minutes. I'd been listening to Pimsler's Speak and Read German course and was able to say things like "Excuse me, I'm from America," and a comical expansion on JFK's speech, "WE are all jelly donuts." That one earned me a smile from the German family we shared the brief bus ride from plane to plane with.

Moments before passing out

The National Auditorium

The flight to Madrid was uneventful and once again we slept through the entire flight and woke up during the landing. Once in Madrid we picked up our luggage, Rook and I busted out our Spanish, and we all took a public bus to a stop near our venue. From there we walked the final half mile to the National Auditorium of Spain. It's at this juncture that i'm going to point out how utterly amazing it was and how excited we all were to be playing on the same stage as the Spanish National Orchestra in the National Auditorium!!! The members of the orchestra that we were able to speak with (the drummer, flutist, and a few string players) were super cool. When there wasn't enough room on the stage for Moose's drum set, the orchestra drummer said it was alright for him to play the Spanish National Drum set. When I mentioned to the flutist that I might be playing a duet with him for Time's Scar he told me that HE was honored to be playing with me... 0_0

Their kindness helped us feel significantly less nervous about performing with them.

Exploring Madrid

Since we would be the last to sound check, Konami and I walked the mile or so to the hotel and checked in. On the walk there we got to experience a little bit of Madrid. It felt almost exactly how Spain is often portrayed in films. It was laid back, the cars were extremely pedestrian friendly, almost everyone has a dog, and there are people who just stand outside and chat, not smoking but just enjoying being outside on a beautiful day. Our hotel, much to our surprise, was a four star accommodation for less than half the price of our two star hotel in London! The lobby was large, well lit, clean, the staff was friendly, the rooms were HUGE (the equivalent of one bedroom apartments!) and the beds were ridiculously comfortable. Konami and I spent a few minutes just admiring the rooms before we reluctantly left. Once back with the band we did our sound check and bumped into Tommy on our way out. Being the super friendly guy he is, he gave us Euros enough for a small feast and told us to go fourth and enjoy the cuisine of Espania! We thanked him thoroughly, departed, and did just that!

A great feast was had!

This was the night that we had our first group dinner of the tour (which included every single person in the band). We ate at a place we didn't get the name of but we entered because the window showed that it had won awards for best local food from 2010-present. The inside was bull-fighter themed and we ordered an array of delicious foods. I ordered the salmon and was surprised when my plate came out with not only a salmon sandwich, with the other half of the sandwich (which they didn't combine for some reason) that was topped with tomato slices and large chunks of extremely delicious mozzarella cheese! The entire band ate and drank Spanish beer/coffee, save for Kit, who's meal never seemed to have arrived... It was only as he described what he'd ordered, a mozzarella and tomato sandwich, that I turned ghost white, figured out what had happened, and apologized profusely. While everyone else's food had come on separate plates I guess Kit and my food came on one. He ordered something else (despite me telling him how amazing what he ordered was) and the band declined sharing in my teramasu dessert. I've long since learned, having been with the band for nine years, that if you acquire a taste for cuisine most people do not enjoy, no one else will want any of it.

The streets of Madrid

Anarchy in these streets?
Not on Kit's watch!

We got back to the hotel, took our first real showers in a few days, and instantly fell asleep on the most comfortable beds of the whole tour after nearly four days of nonstop transit. Somehow at 11:45pm (EST) I woke up, listened to Brandon Strader's final mix of our Super VG Christmas collaboration, told him it was perfect, and submitted it to the project coordinator with 5 minutes to spare! We had been discussing revisions over the previous day or two and I honestly can't remember when they happened. The next morning we got pastries and arrived at the venue for the pre-show festivities. I saw the couple we'd met in Manchester again, we learned that the show was completely sold out, and we prepared for our final show of the tour. About five minutes before getting on stage there was a silly technical issue whereby someone it was discovered that our gear had no electrical power running to it but it was miraculously fixed in the final moments before we took the stage (sweating with nervousness, wondering if all of our instruments would be powered).

Product Placement ad for Coke
This is how Random Encounter sits in terror before shows...
These are the faces of terror...

There were some oddities about the Madrid show. For one, as being pantsless is a sign of disrespect in most countries, Moose was asked to wear pants while drumming. Additionally, because there was no room for his set, he was playing the national orchestra's set, located on the opposite side of the stage from us. Without our monitors (which were working perfectly thanks to our sound check the previous day) we could literally hear the sounds bouncing off the room before the sound from the drum set itself reached us. Lastly, we were surprisingly cramped on the stage between the edge of the stage and the orchestra itself. It wasn't nearly as difficult a challenge as the TEDx event we performed/spoke at, but it was a case where we had to essentially "rock in place" without moving our feet.

Kit found a certain location from Earthbound

Well, while this is true for the rest of the band it was partly self imposed and did not apply to me as much. Being wireless, I wasn't afraid of knocking things over and had specifically asked the rest of the band to give me a bit more space to do as many foolish things as I could. They politely obliged and were a bit more bunched up as a result of my goofiness. In an effort to give them some space, I jumped into the crowd at one point. Somewhere, deep out there I also fell on my back while doing something stupid that fortunately wasn't caught on video, but it was okay because I kept playing and somehow jumped up from the what the others refer to as "the turtle on his back" position feared by most accordionists.

The mind blowing view from the stage

Person for person, the audience in Madrid was absolutely the most energetic crowd we've played to in a very very long time. As a collective they probably are the most energetic we've played to, or are tied with the folks from Will's Pub and our Album Release show for LMTYAS. The folks in Madrid have amazing spirit/energy, their clapping is like a heavy rain, their stomping is like thunder, and since there were literally two thousand of them their clapping overpowered Moose in volume! Even after experiencing this we still look back on this in wonder. 

Ultros was at the show! Vwe he he!

The people of Spain are also very accepting of accordions, and after the show I was stunned with how many accordion-based questions people had. After we got home I was told that one person at the show was so inspired that they went to the store and bought an accordion that same day! While in America my instrument is seen as a sort of gimmick ("You guys have an accordion in your band? How weird!") it's really close to the hearts of many Europeans who claim the instrument as part of their own national identity (Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Finland). I don't think I'm describing the feeling very well, but in short it's emotionally moving when someone tells you that your performance on an instrument they feel is a part of their heritage made them happy. It makes you feel as if the whole performance you gave was extremely personal to them, which makes it even more personal to me.

The daycare I kept thinking was a bakery

The meet and greet came and went quickly, and before we knew it we were saying our goodbyes to the VGL crew we'd come to be friends with over the last week and a half. We had planned to have a dinner with them, but our inability to find the place, and the fact that we were told (by locals) that the place was closed encouraged us to turn in early. 

Konami - The Quintessential Tourist

While the others slept, Konami and I went on an amazing adventure, seeking the finest food (and drink) in Madrid... within walking distance. We had beer in a place that took too long to get our food order, asked some local girls about the policy on tipping at restaurants, departed, walk to a gambling arcade place, departed immediately when we noticed the same girls from before (we did not want to seem like we were following them and/or being creepy), went to a convenience store, got Kinder Eggs, and stopped at a truly amazing restaurant. At the restaurant we ordered fried squid with lemon, another odd entre we could not identify but that the waiter said was "muy bueno" (he spoke no English and my Spanish is only conversational, despite taking 8 years of Spanish one). Lastly we ordered the best cake I can remember eating, one that rivals the Movenpeak of Jordan, and headed back to the hotel. Post tour shenanigans ensued that Kit will undoubtedly include in his videos of the tour and when I went back to my room to sleep, Moose turned on a Spanish opera (the cast was Spanish but they sang in English) stage production of Brokeback Mountain, turned the volume up, and inexplicably departed the hotel to go on a walk. Unable to sleep through a baritone call of "why can't I quit you" and unable to unplug or otherwise disable the television I watched the whole production and was fairly impressed. After this I sat through a soap opera about a woman who was in an abusive relationship. The show took an unexpected turn when she murdered her husband/boyfriend and it became all about getting away with the murder. I think she was also a shapeshifter.

Goodbyes to Spain

We woke up the next morning, late, barely caught the bus to the airport, and arrived at our terminal with an hour to spare, despite every last one of us getting randomly selected at one point or another by security to be searched. We flew into Belgium, had some chocolate, and took another flight to Manchester. I'll say again here that England really doesn't like letting me in their country and even with tickets showing that I'd be leaving in under 24 hours they were still skeptical that I'd do something weird. After an hour of interrogation I was reunited with the band, and in honor of my admittance to the country we booked a hotel. Because the taxi could only fit three of us, Kit and Rook walked the three miles from the airport to the hotel, which Kit's map had said was only half a mile. They seemed to have no problems with the walk, once they got their bearings, and were surprisingly chipper about it. Moose and I were really in no condition to walk very far and Konami carried most of Rook and Kit's luggage.

We're getting good at awkward photos

Once we were all at the hotel (which was also surprisingly inexpensive and awesome) we walked to a tavern nearby that was supposed to have excellent food. It was there that I finally got the meat pie I'd wanted since the tour started, that Kit got the drinks he'd wanted, that Moose got the hamburger he'd wanted. I didn't mention this but for lunch in Madrid Moose had ordered a hamburger off a menu that showed a massive and sizzling grilled hamburger. He was sincerely let down by the small and poorly cooked food he'd received from the airport cafe. It was a good victory meal. We chatted about the tour, how we all felt it had gone amazingly and that there was no one else we'd have rather done it with. This was a sincere feeling. We gave a toast to Tommy Tallarico, Emmanuel, and the VGL crew and in a blink (well, more like 24 hours of nonstop travel) we were all back home, due for work the next morning, and wondering what new adventures would be in store for us. Random Encounter has grown so much as a band, as individuals, and while we all collectively agree that we've neither "earned" or deserved this amazing tour we are utterly appreciative that we were able to do it. We've just undergone a truly amazing adventure.

Back in Florida

On the tour friendships were forged, new and exciting places were explored, we got lost, we went on adventures, we met some really interesting people, and we went where no video game cover band has gone before!

We started some new games (Dragon's Lair, Tie Fighter, Monkey Island), beat a few others (Rogue Legacy, Binding of Isaac), mixed an LP, made a colab song, and enjoyed amazing food and company. We met some extremely talented composers, musicians, had deep conversations into the odd hours of the morning, and enjoyed the performances of four amazing orchestras. True to our rock roots we slept in airports, hotel lobbies, a few pretty nice hotels, and I think Konami overdosed on coffee. Most importantly we took part in what I feel is the most amazing show in the world and we got a taste of the rock star life that will remain with us as we continue our 8 to 5 every-day lives.

Thank you.

If you're reading this, thank you for your support!

See You Next Mission

-Careless

Random Encounter

EU Tour: Stockholm, Sweden

--Stockholm, Sweden--

We again woke up to an airplane landing and now found ourselves in Sweden, which was less cold than Helsinki and less wet. The VGL crew had rented a van that was larger than they needed so instead of taking a series of trains we got to simply ride with them to the venue, the Annexet. We arrived at the venue early (a first) and sat back, napping as the crew (made up of extremely attractive men and women who dwarfed Kit and were capable of lifting objects ten times their own body weight!) put the stage together. The crew gave me an idea for a song about Valkyries, which I wrote the lyrics to the following flight.

The Annexet

The stage being built

All color drained from the room

Somehow, despite being in a warmer environment than Finland, the Annexet in Sweden was the coldest part of our journey. It was so cold in there that it pulled the color out of the room (just look at the pictures)! We had a warm breakfast with the crew, and spoke with the owner/manager of the Stockholm Concert Orchestra, who happened to be an old school punk rocker from the 80's who utterly loved hearing that we were living the rock life and touring Europe! He was friendly, extremely candid, and I wish we could have talked with him more. During the sound check one of the crew asked me personally if I could play random VG songs I happened to know on accordion, and I was able to deliver seamlessly, making a friend in the process.

Kit taking a double take on his guitar for the night
Henrik is not without humor!

Fun times in Sweden!

It was about that time that Henrik, aka Motherpluckin' B, aka Killed by Koopa arrived! He'd admittedly gotten a bit lost and I had to ask the security guard (who was extremely friendly and reminded me of the Jarl of Whiterun from Skyrim) for directions to help Henrik get to the right building. Henrik showed up and it was as if we had been friends in real life for a very long time (as opposed to internet acquaintances). Seriously, Henrik is a cool guy and he looks like a total undercover rock star. He drove a few hours to hang out and lend us his guitars for the night and we did our best to make him feel at home and hung out with him during the down moments of the sound check.

The door guy from the Annexet was a badass

Kit making final preparations on his guitar

Toward the end of the sound check there was a second treat as my friend from Moscow, Sergey arrived! I've been good friends and pen pals with Sergey for a few years and it was fun getting to meet him in person for the first time. I helped him get in touch with Tommy, who he had a scheduled interview with, and after the sound check we all went out to get a bite to eat at a Swedish pizza place, which apparently was the least Swedish restaurant we could have possibly eaten at besides McDonald's. When questioned about life in Sweden, Henrik or one of his friends (who joined us for dinner) informed us "it's horrible. Every day I am surrounded by beautiful women and none of them will talk with me." It's apparently not easy being handsome in Sweden.

Sergey, so stoic!

Drinks and pizza with friends in Sweden

Fantastic show that night

Between having friends in the audience (including a genuine Random Encounter fan we met during the intermission who had no idea we were going to be at the VGL show and who got really excited when he noticed our flyers on the seats), being wireless again, being in one of my favorite places of all time (Sweden), and knowing this was our last performance between us and sleep in a bed, we put on a solid performance. It was my personal best for the tour as I was literally able to jump off the stage, run 1000 feet into the room and rock out with folks in the audience. The meet and greet after the show was fun too! We signed a guy's back, met some interesting folks, and eventually said our goodbyes. 

We signed a baaaack!

Our view from the stage

Just like that we found ourselves in a hotel lobby-bar at 1AM, trying not to get ourselves kicked out, with the promise of a ride to the airport when the sun came up. In retrospect, I'm pretty positive that the VGL staff arranged for their extra van to be there just for us, though they didn't mention it because we'd have felt bad inconveniencing them. They're pretty awesome like that. In the early hours of the morning we drank coffee, chatted with the VGL crew who didn't want to sleep, avoided a creepy but silent guy who we were pretty sure was on some pretty intense drugs, we drank beer, and we enjoyed the 8bitX album premiere Listening Party for our good friends: the Returners, until about 4am. We caught a ride back to the airport and Emmanuel, Konami and I chatted at length about music theory, theorized how left handedness might affect musicians, and philosophized over a slew of really deep music-related topics you wouldn't expect to come coherently from such sleep deprived people. To give you an idea of how sleepy we were, Kit literally fell asleep sitting up and very nearly fell on the person next to him. That's how utterly beat we were. At the airport I bought as many coffee and soy hot chocolates as I could hold to keep us awake for the final sound check of the tour.

Album Listening Party or Ring Wraith listening party?

Hotel Airport

EU Tour: Helsinki, Finland

--Helsinki, Finland--

We got on our airplane (Finnair) without incident and again were woken up by the experience of landing. It's kind of a weird feeling when you can't recall taking off. I remember looking out the window and just seeing tall straight trees in the mist. These were kind of trees you'd expect marauding hoards of awesome warriors to burst forth from. Truly we had arrived in the land of black metal and brave warriors! We collected our things and I used my jacket to cover my accordion because by pure chance we had landed during the first snow of the season!!! Giant half-inch snowflakes fell and flew sideways at us while we slowly trudged toward the bus we needed to take. It was awesome and we felt very fortunate as Floridians to get an encounter with snow. Somehow Konami and I had picked up the three words we needed to communicate our destination and we were able to find the bus stop, transfer to the next bus, and to take that bus to the Helsinki Ice Hall!

The Helsinki Ice Hall

The Hall itself was massive. For us it was the equivalent of being on the rebel base of Hoth (incidentally the setting of the first Tie Fighter!), or a giant but calm glacial cave in the middle of the whirling snow storm outside, which by Finish accounts wasn't that bad, but for us was like a super-blizzard! Literally an ice rink, the Helsinki Ice Hall made for a fantastic venue. The staff was pleasant, the food was warm, and the internet was free! We were given a communal room on the side (presumably a hockey team locker room?) to stay in, which we enjoyed for the bulk of the day. I proceeded to get half way through the Hoth campaign of Tie Fighter, slept for about an hour, resolved an issue with the gear rental company (regarding missing guitar pedals), and caught up on a few emails.

View from the stage

Sound check went extremely well and we were now performing with a new orchestra, the Vantaan Viihdeorkesteri, who sounded really good! The choir in specific was spectacular. Lacking any Finish vocabulary beyond "this gentlemen will pay for everything", and feeling pretty cold inside the literal Ice Hall, we slept backstage after the sound check until the show started. Konami and Kit braved the outside at one point to get food, but beyond that none of us saw the outside of the building. It was largely our impression of Finland as a whole.

Quite the rockin' concert!

The show itself went well for all but myself. Due to electrical interference I was forced to play without my wireless gear, meaning that I was uncomfortably wired to the stage. Otherwise I had a great time and tried to figure out how the sound crew overcame the strange silencing effect the hall had on sound. After the show we met with people and hung out with the VGL crew for an hour or so after. It was pretty fun and they're a great group of guys (and gal)! The stage manager (who we had become fairly good friends with by this point) had offered to get us a ride to the airport, which we gladly accepted, and we spent the night inside the Helsinki airport, which was significantly warmer and more pleasant than the one in Paris. We could have probably got a hotel, but seeing as it was something like 1am by the time we got there, and the plane left at 7, paying money for what few hours remained made little sense to us. The internet in the Helsinki airport was also a lot nicer and I was able to finally download and play Monkey Island until my computer's battery ran out, at which point I passed out from exhaustion. 

"Tämä herrasmies maksaa kaiken!"... I mean, "Hauska tavata!"

EU Tour: Paris, France

--Paris, France--

I don't often have much to say about taxi rides but as we met our taxi driver (heathrow-taxi.cab) at 4am and he asked what airline we would be traveling with, something really important happened... He told us that our airline does not travel to/from the airport I'd hired him to take us to (I booked the taxi). Confused and tired, I argued with him for about a minute until one of us checked our airline tickets and discovered that indeed he was correct!!! Extremely thankful that the taxi driver hasn't just silently dropped us off at the wrong airport, he was able to get us to the correct airport (an extra hour away) in time for us to get on our flight! Five stars to you Heathrow-taxi.cab!!! You guys are exceptional! 

Random Encounter takes a power nap!

At the airport I was told that my bag was too big to be carried onto the plane and that our airline would charge me 50 pounds (~$80) to check my bag! So, instead of paying them I spent the 50 pounds at a luggage shop we'd passed to purchase a purple bag that was guaranteed to be allowed on any airline! Somehow (thanks to Konami and Kit) I was able to consolidate all of my belongings into the bag (which had working wheels and was half the size of my now broken bag) and some of their bags. I said my final goodbyes to my trusty old bag, and proceeded toward the terminal. In the terminal, the flight attendant aggressively informed us that she would not allow us on board with two bags, and that a purse did not count as a personal "item" but was indeed a bag. Instantly everyone (except Moose, who had his lone bag and a set of cymbals in a ruined cardboard box) had to consolidate their stuff into one bag, going so far as to be forced to fit our second bags INSIDE of their first one!!! So much for EASY Jet... This was pretty unreasonable, and they were really jerks about it, giving Rook flack for having a purse she literally could have concealed under her coat (and in retrospect should have tried to). They tried to stop me but I proudly told them that I had 1 bag and an accordion and walked past them. Konami, who literally could not fit his camera bag inside his other bag more or less strapped the two bags together, showed that they both fit into the space of 1 bag, and walked past them, fully expecting security to try to stop him.

I was too embarrassed to ask...

We all literally slept the entire flight and only remember the plane landing. On the ground in Paris we took a taxi to our hotel, discovered quickly that they are fairly picky about how many people they allow in each room (a fact i'd pre-cleared with them but whatever), and went looking for food nearby. You can tell that we were getting cranky because we hadn't eaten because my optimism is thinner than usual. We had no trouble at all finding our venue, but finding a place to eat that was less than 20 euro per person (~$30) was tough. Rook eventually found a sandwich shop that fed all of us for about four euro each. Full of delicious sandwich meats we happily returned to the hotel to hibernate... I should clarify, we had to rent an extra room nearby at a four star hotel because it was the only available room in a four block vicinity and it didn't seem fair that one of us sleep outside. The others were hell bent on sleeping, so Moose and I checked into our hotel room while the others slept in the "fancy" four star. It was as if fate itself intervened because the moment we were going to check in the elevator broke, and we had to take the stairs all the way up to our room, effectively located on the eighth floor (in Europe the first floor is called ground level). It's particularly comical because Moose has enough metal in his body to be considered disabled (though he doesn't consider himself such) and doesn't do stairs well, and I myself was still in a fair amount of pain with each step I took from the injury at the Manchester train station.

We were very protective of our food

Careless goes on an adventure!
(That's the venue in the background)

After a moment of rest at the top of the stairs I realized that Moose was gone to the world, so I did what anyone in my shoes would have done. Despite heavy sleep deprivation and a utter lack of ability to speak French beyond "My French is horrible, thank you," I left the hotel and went exploring! First I checked out the mall that surrounded the venue we would be playing at (literally located in the middle of the mall). I got hot chocolate, chocolate croissants, then I took a taxi to the Victory Arch, which was MASSIVE and incredibly detailed. It is truly a marvel to look upon! From there I continued the taxi past the Eiffel tower and to the Paris catacombs! My driver, who was originally from Haiti, spoke pretty good Spanish so we conversed in Spanish for the entire ride, chatting about our respective friends and families, places of interest in Paris, and how he'd come to live in Paris. He was a remarkably friendly fellow and showed me where I could find a taxi again that would accept credit cards in proximity to the entrance of the catacombs.

This sign reminded me of Deadpool

Victory Arch
(Cars in the picture for scale)

Entrance to the catacombs!

The line to the catacombs was pretty sparse ("only" 30 minutes), similarly to the lines in England, leading me to believe that it was a sort of off-season. In line I overheard an American accent behind me and wound up chatting with a father and son from Michigan State who was traveling Europe on vacation. They told me a bit of the history of the catacombs from their perspective and before I knew it we were inside. About 120 stairs down later I was in another world. Small aside, there's something disorientating about walking down a spiral staircase for more than three full spirals... For those like me who don't know about the location in question, the catacombs are a massive network MILES in length that run under Paris. Originally a limestone quarry, the space has been used to house dead bodies, outlaws, and the French resistance during World War 2. Now the catacombs (the parts I saw) are a 2 kilometer tour with a self-guided history. Midst the learning that goes on, and the experience of walking through the dark and foreboding tunnels visitors pass the bones of SIX MILLION dead bodies, which have been stacked and arranged in a self-described "French romanticism inspired" way. At first I didn't even register that the bones and skulls I was looking at were actually once human... We as a people have been pretty desensitized to the human skull or bones since childhood, and I almost took a picture of myself smiling next to a dozen or so skulls in the shape of a heart before being hit with the sudden realization that these were dead people... Actual dead... people! The kind that had once lived, breathed, and had full lives. Many of those in the catacombs had died from the plague and with these thoughts I was hit with a wave of solemn respect for the place. I took a few less-tacky pictures (actually some other tourists who only spoke French helped me take pictures of myself and I returned the favor), explored the entire exhibit, and limped up the 88 steps to the world above.

Actual human remains

A romantic gesture?

Wall to wall bones for nearly a mile

Lost in Paris, not necessarily a bad thing

I got lost briefly because I was now 2 kilometers away from the place where I knew to find a taxi, so I asked a local French woman in her 50's how to find a taxi that accepted credit cards, using pantomime to communicate. She seemed to understand, spoke to me in very rapid-fire French for about three minutes, and became hell bent on helping me find a taxi. This lady was awesome! She was talking to me the whole time in French, angry about something but smiling at me every so often like I was the only person in the world who took her seriously. I was nodding and smiling, and she wound up stopping other people on the road to ask them for directions because she herself was not exactly sure where she was going. We eventually found a parked Taxi, learned that it would accept credit cards, and she bid me farewell. I can't remember but there might have been a hug involved because I maybe reminded her of her long lost son. I told the taxi driver of my amazing adventures and the friendly people i'd met and his deadpan response was "friendly people? You're talking about Paris, right?"

The lamp in the 4 star hotel

A truly amazing and massive structure

Back at the hotel the band was starting to stir, finally prepared to go on adventures. This time Kit was a bit under the weather from exhaustion, so the four of us departed, found another taxi, and sped to the Eiffel tower, which was sparkling and glowing when we first saw it! Apparently it does that every hour or so and we did the free version of the Eiffel tower (it costs money to go up, even the stairs), where we simply walked beneath it. I was secretly happy to not go up because I'm hoping to return there on a romantic date one day, because as my second taxi driver said (as a native of Paris) "Paris is a city for lovers, not friend-zones." I did not expect to be impressed by the Eiffel tower but it was significantly more massive than I expected and I found myself just looking up at it in awe for minutes at a time. We all did.

Random Encounter in Paris

Escargot

Intrigued by lights in the distance we walked about half a mile toward a closed palace or museum and got dinner nearby at a very local restaurant. We had (French) onion soup, escargot (which we all unexpectedly enjoyed), crapes (Nutella and jam), and an amazing chocolate cake with giant bottles of water. This was my first time having French onion soup (simply called onion soup in France, similarly to French horns, and French fries) and it will certainly not be my last. I only wanted a taste of Konami's but wound up ordering a whole bowl for myself after. This was also Moose's first time having Nutella, which he also loved. That evening will be remembered as one of the best meals in all my life. After a few minutes we realized that the waiter had put any English speaking people who entered his establishment in a special section, on a patio away from the other patrons, but we didn't mind because everyone in our section, ourselves included, seemed to be louder and more boisterous than the other patrons. It also had a view of the Eiffel Tower.

Binding of Isaac:Rebirth

We hit up souvenir shops and caught a taxi back to the hotel, which was significantly more roomy and comfortable than the one in London (the hotel). I was tempted to stay out and visit Notre Dam but it was getting late and obligations brought me back to the room. I still had to edit a music collaboration that was due in under 48 hours, and I had emails to reply to. The others played the Binding of Issac: Rebirth while I got distracted and beat Rogue Legacy for the first time. I also took a bath, which was amazing. The evening concluded with us reading aloud all the negative online reviews we'd received on tour thus far in silly voices. Simply put, Paris was amazing.

View from the 7th floor of the hotel

The next morning we took the elevator (which was now fixed), walked to the venue, and got chocolate croissants for breakfast. We'd learned the previous night that all of our future airlines would only allow us 1 carry on (bag OR personal item), so we wanted to consolidate our gear to avoid the 50 Euro charge per bag, per person. I was the one to find the solution this time. Moose, Konami, and I wound up going to Le Post (the national post office of France), after getting horribly lost on the way there, and shipping three gigantic boxes of dirty clothes home, including my converse sneakers (meaning i'd be wearing my boots non-stop for the rest of tour). We pitied the poor souls who had to open the toxic boxes should they need to be inspected. Le Post was incredibly well organized, lines were nonexistent, and the people there went well above and beyond the call of duty to do their jobs. I was personally impressed by the respect they showed us and their dedication to their work. The boxes were also better quality than the ones in the US.

This is one of the things Kit hit his head on

Back at the venue I was finally able to see what the Palais des Congrès looked like on the inside and nearly got dizzy looking at the sea of red seats! The gear rental company had delivered everything we needed without incident and our band's green room (which was accessible by elevator) was extremely spacious and grand. We truly felt like rock stars in there, save for the fact that Kit hit his head on the small ceiling edge that half that engulfed only half the room, and the metal cage that protected the fire safety faucet. For real though, some of those hits genuinely made me cringe because I could feel them through the floor... I took a nap under a table in our room, using my jacket to keep warm and various unused pants as pillows, and woke up to another sandwich from the inexpensive shop down the road for lunch. Having a project due the following day, I recorded the final tracks for our collaboration, and sent everything off to Brandon Strader for mixing.

A sea of red seats

We sound checked without incident, so with my free time I went into the lobby to see what the people of France, who enjoyed Video Game Music, were like. I tried to communicate with a few folks who spoke no English and eventually got into a conversation with a girl dressed like Samwise from Lord of the Rings and her friend who was either an assassin from Assassin's Creed with a Witcher necklace, or a Witcher. They both spoke conversational English and we had a lot of fun chatting before the show, which was cool because I got to meet them as myself (the person and traveling/gaming enthusiast) and not as a performer. I saw a bunch of games from the night's set list being played on actual consoles they'd set up in the lobby, watched someone trudge through Dragon's Lair, and a few friendly rounds of Street Fighter.

View from the audience, before the show

The show started sooner than I'd have liked as I was enjoying the opportunity to meet fellow gamers from other countries (including Chile!) in what equated to a pre-show party. The show itself was fantastic though, and I particularly enjoyed my first time seeing Assassin's Creed: Black Flag performed, and the final performance of Journey with Austin. Just before we got on stage Moose suggested that the audience might actually boo us, as we didn't know any French and were effectively coming to their country as stereotypical ignorant Americans. However, when we got on stage Tommy pointed out that I play the accordion (normally a stigma at American shows) and the crowd really cheered... I think it's the loudest applause we've ever received and the most enthusiastic welcome from people who we'd never met. We played our best, had a lot of fun doing so, and in a blink the show was over. 

A galaxy of phones

I got to meet more people at the meet and greet after the show, and the band all had 3D model-photos taken of our heads with experimental technology, which was pretty cool. I've personally never been so popular. At the end of the evening, just before we left, Sam (LotR) materialized out of nowhere, kissed my cheek, and ran off. Rook mocked me, claiming that I made this up as no one seemed to witness the event. We packed up, trudged to the lobby of the building, and took a taxi to the airport at around 1am.

Not sleeping, just singing along to death metal

We were in a state between sleep and cold discomfort the entire evening at the airport, with the silence occasionally broken by the utterly disturbing sound the PA made before every announcement. It sounds kind of like a chorus being tormented deep within the pits of hell. I'd spoken with Tommy earlier in the day about Monkey Island, and which version to get off GoG.com, but the internet speed in the airport (which allowed only 1 hour of internet before you had to pay) would not allow me to download the game in time, so instead I downloaded the 1994 edition of Tie Fighter, which was only 20 megabytes!

[Picture intentionally left out as I was too terrified to take a picture]

I only used the bathroom in the airport once. It was terrifying. A gigantic greasy hand print on the elevator seemed to set the tone and make my journey alone part of a horror film/game. Weird noises from the stalls, a lack of hot water in the sinks, and creepy French writing smudged on the mirror seemed to further the theme and I tried to look as if nothing had happened when I got back to the others, who were trying to sleep in the terminal chairs. I played Tie Fighter for a few hours to try and forget about the bathroom horror experience, and until re-reading this I think it had effectively burred the memory. I got most of the training certifications/badges and combat training medals before the sun rose over Paris. Tomorrow I would graduate from the combat simulators and test my skills against actual rebels... In the game, of course...