we arrive early for hotel rooms for the day .. our first and only hotel stay .. and it feels great

we all get single rooms .. .a very good idea .. here in a place i’ve never been before .. jena .. we chill in the rooms and stretch out our limbs like we’ve been living in a submarine

our host is oliver .. a very gracious one .. he drives to the stage when its time .. . a peculiar one at that .. built as an indoor stage .. but open to an outdoor audience .. some fluke occurence left over from the bauhaus era and then handled confusingly by the east german communists before settling in on what its become today .. a great open air theater experience but with a completely indoor stage open to the crowd .. whatever

the spread down in the back stage area is another amazing spread .. we are getting treated way to well .. especially when considering the small army we all add up to

the sound check is more slight adjustments .. and then we wait until commencement …

i finally take a walk .. head through town and over to the ancient church .. lean up against the old stones of it and soak up the pipe organ playing inside . . a stunningly beautiful woman walks by .. .
it makes the place more enchanting .. the gloss of a town .. its vibe and its vibrancy .. what is possible here .. what looms nicely

i make my way back to the festival stage by following the wafting sounds of brian opening the night again .. when i get there the band sounds great and welcoming .. i lull with miguel at his sound booth and soak it in like the pipe organ

then its time for us to begin .. .

the set unfolds this night beautifully so .. lonna and i nail “particle of love” and then the crowd delights in a the light swamp of “thing like that” .. and then into our waltz and away we go

couple hours later we bring it to a close .. .

the evening is sublime .. perfectly sunsetted weather

for the encore .. we hail only “out of the blue” and it continues to get better with all our voices singing and the anthem of the song hanging as if sustained in the air .. “out of this love for you…”

and its back to the hotel room .. and still so much food back stage

i am officially turning into one of those old blues guys
.. the belly is coming

g’night