The Journey Itself Is Home

Our last concert in the first leg of the tour took place on Saturday night in the Gorge Amphitheatre, which is about two and a half hours’ drive from Seattle. It was great fun, I was unusually relaxed and Björk was marvellous. And the venue was so beautilful!

We didn’t go on stage until around midnight and as it takes about two and a half hours to drive to Seattle I wasn’t back in my hotel until 4am. And then I had to wake up at 6am to catch a plane to Boston.

From Boston I flew to Iceland, travelling with the brass girls and Mark Bell. I don’t know about them, but I have a horrible jet lag!

It is wonderful to be back. Unfortunately I won’t be here for long as Björk will be appearing on the Jools Holland show on June 5. But until then I rest my (suit)case! I will probably not be blogging until then. So all you wonderful people who have been reading the blog, see you in a week!

David Lynch is one of my favorite artists and I love the music of Angelo Badalamenti. So I bought the second season of Twin Peaks yesterday and started watching it last night. It brings back happy memories. I first watched it in London when I was studying there in the winter of 1990-1991. Every Tuesday night I would go to a friend of mine who lived next door and watch Twin Peaks with her and her husband.

It was at this time that I got to know Björk. She was then making her first solo album and stayed with me in my flat for a few weeks. It had two bedrooms, I slept in one of them and had a baby grand piano in the other. Both bedrooms were very small so when Björk stayed with me she slept under the piano.

I understand that the location of Twin Peaks is not far from Seattle…

The last few days have been fairly relaxed. We arrived in Vancouver on Sunday and the little I have seen of the city is really nice and harmonious. We were very lucky with the weather, the sun was shining most of the time and it was pleasantly warm.

On Monday I went with Einar Örn, Björk and her little daughter to the aquarium. The main attraction was the Beluga whales, one of which is named Aurora! For those who don’t know, Aurora is also the name if one of Björk’s better known songs. Aurora’s photo, which I took with my cell phone, is below. The jellyfish was also unbelievably beautiful.

On Tuesday I did nothing much except taking a long walk with Einar around the city. And last night we gave our concert in Lake Deer Park. As usual the venue was packed with people. I could see them extra well as we went quite early on stage, at eight o’clock when it was still daylight.

In spite of a few mishaps here and there the concert was OK. At least, I enjoyed myself a lot… but then I always do! And I loved the audience.

Ghostigital was our supporting group and this time I listened to most of their performance. I think it was splendid. Their music was so dark and mysterious, but never pretentious; it seemed to come from a really deep place in Einar’s and Curver’s souls. In my opinion, that is genuine art. Rock on, boys!

We are now in Seattle. This is Frasier city!!! Before embarking on the tour I made the decision to buy all the seasons of Frasier when in Seattle, but now that I’m here, I don’t think I will. I have already too much luggage (I’m not going to make that mistake when the European tour starts around June 20), besides, I have already seen all the episodes of Frasier…

It was terrific to play in Vancouver tonight as our last consert with Björk. Sun was shining thoug the weather forecast had sugested clouds and rain.

We had sun on our mind and added two new songs to our set so that we could advance a little.

Smoke was in the air and we felt the ‘love’ for everything.

It is great to play here, experience the city and mountains. And I guess we need to shift some records out here.

I also did a little trumpet with Björk on I Miss You.

We fly back tomorrow, great end to a short tour for us.

Me and Jónas went out walking in the sunshine in Vancouver yesterday. A great city to walk in. Very many people were also walking. I showed Jónas a big tunnel in the ground, the artery of the city which was widen open. We were staggered by the size of it. Everything is big in the foreign land we think.

We also started discussing the singalong discussion of the blog, if people should sing to the songs while watching them. I am so ignorant, that I am on the verge of being in eternal bliss all the time, but I can not really remember lyrics, well sometimes mine or what is just about to happen in the lyric, never though been able to mime.

So I thought just now, that the only song I remember is the Ghostigital song Bank, where the main line is actually “where is my money?”

This is all for now. Back to ghostigital now

I was just browsing through the gigography section of Björk.com and found the following comment: “One thing that ruins a show for me, are the people who sing along to every song during a concert. No one paid to hear YOU sing.”

I’m a classical musician and in a classical concert no one does that. I can only imagine a live performance of Beethoven’s Ninth with someone next to me in the audience humming along. My gawd!

We gave our concert in San Francisco last night. It took place in The Shoreline Amphitheatre. Some twelve thousand people were there and I was told some of them were from Google. Google is practically next door.

Just like in Red Rocks we performed two “new” songs, this time Aeroplane and Mother Heroic. My part in the former was originally played on a marimba, but one of the vibraphone voices on the electric piano is exotic enough. The last bit, a really tropical melody on the marimba heard in the distance in the original version always gave everyone a laughing fit when we rehearsed it. This time we decorated it with really loud jungle sounds!

As for Mother Heroic, it is one of my favorite Björk songs. Unlike the other quiet songs Björk sent me last fall, this one I didn’t want to change at all. So my accompaniment last night was exactly like in the recorded version. It is so pure and exalted in its simplicity.

Incidentally, our first rehearsal of Mother Heroic was just one hour before the concert last night!

My personal flag has been fixed and the Qabalistic Tree of Life is now in its correct position, i.e. not on the side. When Björk sang Declare Your Independence I noticed several people waving their own flags in the audience. That was great! I hope more people will do this in the future. Raise your own flag!

It was fun to have Einar Örn play the trumpet solo in I Miss You. He was absolutely wonderful.

All in all we had a fabulous time during the show and Björk was simply fantastic. And the party afterwards was lively. In the coach, as we were driving towards Eugene, Andrea Helgadóttir, Björk’s make-up artist, insisted that I let her give me a pedicure! She then put black nail-varnish on my toes, with Mark Bell assisting, holding my toes and blowing on them to dry the varnish. Surely a fitting end to a day in San Francisco…

I, that is Mr.E, is back on board after doing the Chicago concert a week ago. Tonight we have the Shoreline Amphitheater. Me and Curver landed in SF last night after a pleasant 14 hour trip from Keflavik, Iceland.
We left the ever expanding Leifur Eirí­ksson Airport into Minneapolis and onto SF. Both of us woke up in excellent form. Curver though wanting to show me strength went surfing, I went on the treadmill and hamstered on for a mile or two.
We have not done souncheck yet, we might not as time does not allow that.
And here is a photo of Curver setting up, fortifying the myth we have invisible technical people with us.
IF you need more of Ghostigital, our site is still open

Most of us are now in Reno and will stay here until early next morning.

Someone said to me that Reno is the Poor Man’s Vegas. At least, casinos are EVERYWHERE.

I told the guy who was helping me with the luggage this morning: “You know, I have many, many character faults, but a gambling addiction is not one of them.”

He told me not to worry, for here I could also indulge other evil tendencies!

The jacuzzi in my room sure looks tempting. Probably good for my muscles, which are sore from the dancing after the Denver concert. Will probably stay in it until tomorrow…

And then: San Francisco!!!

(I notice that the date on the above entry is wrong. It is still the 17th here in Reno. However, where Björk.com is based, it is already the 18th).

We performed two “new” songs last night. That is, songs that we, Björk and the present band, haven’t performed in public before: 5 Years and I Miss You. I love them both. Let’s perform them a lot more!

Religious fervour once gripped Guatemala City when, after a rainstorm, the face of Jesus Christ (or what he is believed to have looked like) appeared on the wall of a church; prayers were offered and miraculous cures were reported. More rain made the face clearer until it was recognised to be that of country and western singer Willie Nelson. His picture had been stuck to the wall and the painters who redecorated the church wall had simply painted over it ¦

Willie Nelson is one of several distinguished musicians who have given concerts in Red Rocks Amphitheatre, where we performed last night. On one of the walls back stage, there is a list of all those who have been there; I even saw the name of Stravinsky himself.

I must say that our concert yesterday was one of our very best. Due to a technical problem the piano didn’t work in the first song (Earth Intruders), but after that everything was just splendid. The venue, which is made of natural rock formations, is simply amazing, and we had a fantastic audience which screamed through the entire show.

I didn’t hear all of our supporting band, Joanna Newsom and a group of instrumentalists, but what I did hear sounded really interesting. I must get one of her CDs! She is obviously extrremely talented.

After the concert we were in such high spirits, both us and Joanna Newsom’s band, that we danced wildly for hours.

And now it seems we are about to arrive in Salt Lake City ” I’m writing this on the bus. We will stop here for a day but will continue our journey towards San Francisco tonight.