Days Off in London



So how have we been spending our time off? By doing lots of nuthin. It's funny, we have had several opportunities to hang out in London in the past, so for the last few days we have being laying low at the hotel and seeing movies. The rest has been good. We were really quite tired from all the traveling and the shows from last week. It's starts up again tomorrow morning when we fly to the Faroe Islands for a show tomorrow night and then Greenbelt Festival on Saturday. Sunday morning we all start heading home.

Get this.... the other day Ian and I did laundry and when we returned to our room we had a little guest.

Unfortunately, his day had come. By the time we met him, he was already in mouse heaven. The hotel claimed that they had never seen anything like that before. Whatever?! Anyway, this hotel has just re-opened three months ago after being totally renovated, so the poor guy had prolly just gotten out of some vent where he had been hiding for quite some time.

The hotel is actually really nice. However, wouldn't you know it, the airconditioning just happens to broken this week. The funny thing is that we kinda chose this hotel for the fact that they had air conditioning. At least it is in walking distance to several shops, restaurants, a theatre (british spelling of theater), and the Queensway tub stop.



Yesterday Tyson (a friend of Ian's from Nashville) joined us to hangout and see England for the next few days. It is his first time here so we took him to do a bit of sight seeing.





We saw Big Ben, the London Eye, and someplace named after George Clinton's band Parliament.


We had a good time, even though the weather was kinda rainy (these photos are actually color, its just that dreary here (just kidding!)).


I took this picture especailly for Luke, and Jamye & Jono. It's the Texas Embassy. You'll probably want to visit this place when ever you are over hear. I think they can help you with any passport issues.

That's it for now. Tune in soon for the exciting conclusion of the ASU European Tour 06!

BTW. Ian pointed out that I mentioned playing to a Dutch crowd in Denmark, but it was actually a Danish crowd. My apologizes to the Danes.

Friday Night Flevo Festival, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

What a kick! We had a great time at Flevo Festival this year. No suprise, we always do. This was our fourth time, the first was a shocking nine years ago. (It may not shock you, but it does me).

My wonderful drum tech took a bunch of photos with my camera for your enjoyment. I'll post a few and then the rest are all available on http://picasaweb.google.com/christiancrowe/



Before the show we did what we have done all days so far on this tour.... We waited. It can drive you a bit wacky as demonstrated by Costa biting through his wrist band.



This was by far our best show of the tour. We were extremely confident and energetic. The crowd did their job motivating us to play our hearts out. I wish you all could have been there. It was terrific.




After the show on the mainstage we waited until 2:00am and played a second show at the LaLuna stage. It is a much smaller space, but it was packed. We were much more relaxed as well as a lot more tired. It was a fun show though.

After completing our Flevo performances we loaded into the vans and headed back to Eindhoven. We spent an hour and half at the hotel. Ian and I slept while Costa and Brian powered through. At 5am the van was there to drive us the few hours to the Amsterdam airport. Once there, we were delighted that there were no lines in any way comparable to the lines we had gotten used to earlier in the week. Our flight was a short 50 minutes to Denmark, where we were picked up and driven another 45 minutes to the Glow Festival.




After (once again) waiting until 10:00 at night we played to a surprisenly large and energetic Dutch crowd. I think we have been there 2 0r 3 times, but never in this city, however several people were singing all the lyrics.


After the show we slept for a few hours, boarded our flight back to Amsterdam to connect to a flight back to Heathrow, jumped on a train to downtown London and then hailed a cab to our final destination until Friday.... this hotel. We are so excited to rest and relax for a few days.