Rusty's Road Stories

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Bremen Fair ferris wheel (SUPPLIED PHOTO)

Today we are in Dortmund, home of DAB beer — one of the few chilled varieties at the River and Osborne liquor store. Marti and Cam have taken the train to Dusseldorf to do one of those inevitable things you’ll need to do on a tour: replace Marti’s lost passport with a temporary one from the Canadian embassy. I’ve been there too when The Waking Eyes were in Germany years ago. It always happens right at the end of tour when you have 10 seconds to get your travel documents together, not a fun situation.

One morning about a week ago we woke up in a city called Rostock. It's a harbour town in northern Germany, and the venue was right beside a giant docked ship which has been refitted as a YMCA. One concern of the evening was the strong and often violent rivalry between the local soccer team and St Pauli — for which Thees has his own anthem celebrated by thousands of St Pauli fans.  There was actually a police presence requested for around the bus, but in the end everything was fine. In my head I’m thinking, "Jeez it's just a game, guys," but my face-hole stays shut.

After the shows the amazing German caterers often supply us with a huge basket of sandwiches. I once microwaved one to warm it up and soften the bun a bit — to the amazement of the Germans on the bus. They stared in childish wonder and bewilderment at how quickly this food was getting hot. I kid you not! Literally peering over each other's shoulders trying to catch a glimpse of this Star Trek chef making food from the future. Now every night as the bus leaves for the next city, it’s filled with chants of, "I want a microwave sand-wich! I want a microwave sand-which!" and so I microwave sandwiches for them. I should have my own cooking show.

Also proud to announce that halfway around the world we got news of winning the pop recording of the year at the WCMAs. Although it’s super nice to be given recognition of your work, winning awards is kind of a silly thing in music and, in the end, it’s not really a competition and one band’s music can’t really be pitted against another. Apples and oranges. Like my dad used to say (and still says): "That’s why they make red Camaros and blue Camaros." Congrats also to Cam Loeppky, our sound guy and engineer,  for winning Engineer of the Year.

Two days ago in Bremen we found ourselves right outside of an amusement park.. The Red River Ex on steroids. It was amazing and I was in heaven. I love fairs! I ate so much food and went on one to many rides resulting in a thrown-out back.

It’s better today and we are on our third last show. If you find yourself at the liquor mart pick up a DAB beer and think of us. We miss you.

Oh yeah, I forgot — Dave wanted me to have a cheesy sign off on this one, like we’ve discovered writers apparently do when they sign their books (see: two blogs ago). Ryan gets credit for this one, or maybe I’m just passing the buck:

"May all your hinges be a little rusty."