we arrive late and right on time in bergen norway. fetched by a t-bone. the sun is out shining the need for my new oil slicker. we get plunked at the radisson hotel where the performance and housing are bundled together. the lobby is pure chaos and everyone there seems ok with it. when we find the room we’re playing in, the rest of the band are up and running and the song they’re playing without us sounds so good and i wonder what it is. realize it’s “ride the rail” and i probably better remember how the lyrics go soon. after some sound-check, we head out to our rooms which are scattered all over the hotel, but mine is directly behind the stage. that’s interesting.

there’s some time to shake off the lag in my room, but i miss ‘the handsome family’ in the process.  we all meet up a few minutes later at dinner. eat a lot. the entire farm yard. now we head back to my room before we gotta play. hang out there until the last second. it feels dream like to be in my hotel room till a moment before our set is due to commence, but such is the luck of the draw, room wise. we have no crew tonight. the old punk rock DIY sensibility never feels out of place. the danes are always there to bolster and add their natural brand of muster in cluster in set up and wire de-tangle.

we take the stage at 10:00 and rumble through while i’m remembering what we do while we actually do it. this is not as alarming as it sounds on paper, in fact, inversely, it actuates a dynamic set. we do very well, even with a few technical problems attempting to derail. kent, co-producer of BBM, is at the sound board, and it felt comforting having him handle our sonics in that room.

when the set finishes us, we feel pretty good. hang out with brett from the ‘handsome fam’ for most of the night. the only other set we take in is david cloud, having never had the pleasure. if you know him, you can imagine how the banter went back stage. if you don’t, there’s no explaining except to offer some bad acid trip resurrection that allows perplexia chuckle.

and then its time to find my back stage bed room. the end.

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