Jet lag, American food, and loud music.

Karen's keyboard didn't arrive in Livorno. We can't figure out exactly where it is but we are pretty sure it's at the Frankfurt airport. The Lufthansa agents were helpful but, no keyboard. Lorenzo and Anne met us at the tiny Florence airport, they look pretty happy considering how much stress they are under. We decided to wait an hour to see if the keyboard coffin came in on the next flight. It didn't, so we drove to Livorno, with a promise that if/when the the coffin arrives, Lufthansa will deliver it.

During the drive west, Lorenzo's phone is ringing constantly; band cancellations, police need to inspect the stage, lost musicians. To ignore the stress, we talk about what we are going to do when they visit us in August. I nod off for 10 minutes, my first sleep since San Francisco.

As soon as we make it over the last hill and descend into Livorno, the temperature drops 10 degrees and the sea breeze brings relief from the stagnant odor of the plains. Lorenzo takes us past the Diner, where we can see the scansions of a large stage erected, and directly to our hotel, Hotel Gran Duca. Easily accomplished goals of a shower and a nap are set and attained. Our rooms are great, large and funky suggesting centuries of unplanned remodeling and odd angles at the corners to keep ghosts at bay. This is a perfect place to stay for the first 5 nights of our tour.

Back down to the lobby at 6, we find the refreshed Tony, Stuart and Danny, ready to head over to the diner. A text message summons Luca, who also brings a big hug from an old friend. Our hotel is about 5 minutes north of the diner, or a nice 20 minute walk along Piazza Italia, the main seaside road. We can see that here is so much to explore.

 

The Surfer Joe Diner is beautiful and still has the sheen of newness. The booths are bright sea foam blue, the black and white tile shiny. The walls are covered with memorabilia from past festivals and tours. Beers and burgers arrive, comfort food. We discuss our travel misadventures, which thankfully are few. After dinner the group moves outside to sit under the newly constructed palapas in the tiki garden, and a beaming, smiling Steve Henderson shows up. This is such an rare occurrence that I have to snap a pic. He had a wonderful time while in London, and his jet lag has abated so he's ready to go. Mel is still a no show.

Karen and I decide to take a stroll by the Mediterranean, and there is a beautiful, wide mascagni following the coastline. Then a turn back down the main drag takes us into seaside Livorno, with attraction for kids like merry go rounds, fusbol and gelatarias. We are big kids so we have a chocolate coffee gelato which is so rich. In the summer night it melts so fast we lick most of it from the sides of the cup. We head back to the Diner to see what's going on. A band will come on at midnight, but we decide to go back to the hotel.

 



Friday morning we find Danny, Tony and Steve and head to the diner for breakfast. Maybe you think we're crazy for coming to Italy, but the foods great and it's comped. As we walked out of the diner the best news possible came in the form of an angel delivering Karen's keyboard. Wow, what great timing as the plan for today is to have Frankie practice at a rehearsal hall. So we drive through an industrial section of town and find a place that rents practice rooms, but it's unique as far as I know because the rooms are encased in glass. I'm sure there's a joke in here... Those who are rolling stones should not play in glass houses?

This was our first time playing with Lorenzo and he really did his homework and most of the songs were successful on the first try. I found it interesting that the songs that Lorenzo needed most work on were the new songs, as he had never played any of the material before, what difference should there between old and new. Well, the rest of us needed work on the new stuff, but overall, I was really happy with how it went. It's a lot to ask somebody to pick up a whole set, and he did it!

After rehearsal, Lorenzo picked up his sound permit from the police station, and we went to the diner for lunch. Lorenzo said that the TMen could run through our set on the indoor stage, so we did. It was about 4pm and the place was empty so we had a good long warmup for the night's show.

We decide to walk back to The Duke, and on the way out we ran in to Ralf, Tom and the rest of the Kiluaeas, and gave 'em a warm greeting. Well, it was really hot, so everybody got a warm greeting. Quick shower and change and back to the festival site for a sound check. The TMen ran through a few songs on the massive stage, with full PA and 4 way monitors. It sounds huge.

I hang with the Kilaueas for a while and the TMen do a brief interview. Karen and I go to find an authentic Italian dinner, which is pretty easy to do around here. Port town that Livorno is, we find a small outdoor seafood restaurant. We have smoked tuna on butter lettuce, speck and Gorgonzola penne, and a mozzarella salad.

As I write this, Les Chefs are on stage cooking up some surf music and the festival has officially started!