Marotta / Griesgraber in Italy
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Cluny, France (Sat Feb 26, 2005)
We had an AMAZING show last Sat in Cluny, France, made so primarily by all the people involved. Cluny is a small town not too far from the Italian border, and by no means a place with lots of live music happening on a regular basis. Through Marco, we met a wonderful group of people that call themselves "Behind Ze Light." They love music and musicians and put on shows from time to time that they really get behind. The town itself was amazing, and our "venue" was actually part of an old Abbey. Apparently about 1000 years ago, Cluny had the largest Abbey in all of the Christian world. Today much of it is demolished, but what is left made for an incredible concert setting. The Behind Ze Light folks including Jean-Pierre, Cristelle, Amalia, Nicolas and many others took care of every detail great and small. We actually had back stage "laminates" (passes) like big rock tours. I even noticed that they all had posters for the show in their car windows. I could go on about how great they are, and how nice Cluny is, but I think the large number of pictures I took might say it better...

Jean-Pierre at the Abbey	leaving for dinner (Jerry films Amalia!)

outside the soundcheck	Main entrance (w. Nicolas, Jerry and Daniel)

Marco and Rosanna outside JP's home	another view from JP's home

car-vertising	the stage is set

The Abbey (pt 1)

more of the Abbey	even more of the Abbey (our venue building)

A plaque shows where the other end of the Abbey used to be

my hotel room (!) - part 1	and part 2

just outside my hotel room in Cluny	no really, it's a hotel!

Jerry could have had this bathtub, but chose another	Another toilet photo for the collection (part of the bathroom Jerry said no to)

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Tue March 1, 12:27am
Jerry and I just finished our set at our first show in Rome. The Peter Gabriel Tribute Band is playing now and sound great! Great audience tonight, very welcoming.

It's been days since I've been able to get online, but luckily this club is very internet savy. I've got tons of photos from an amazing show in Cluny, France and our travels which I'll have to get up asap... maybe even tonight, but at the moment I'm listening carefully to the band as Jerry and I might be sitting in soon.. but I don't know the set list! I'm finding it a bit tricky to find internet connections where I can use my laptop and actually get onloine to upload stuff. Not to mention the need for power converters. I have to stay on top of keeping my computer charged whenever I can find a spare outlet and have my converter with me. But.. for now, here's some things from last week... and I'll get it up to date as soon as I can!

Jerry had a session with an Italian singer yesterday, which basically gave me yesterday and today off. No sight seeing this time though, but errands. Jerry and I managed to survive an Italian laundromat this morning which was funny. With only the other customers to try to ask for translation, we eventually got things underway, but not before I had .60 euros disappear in a soap machine and then managed (with .60 more) to dump my soap in the wrong slot. Oh well..

Wed night we played in some part of Venice at a club called Magic Bus. I was excited to go to Venice, and hoping to see the famous canals, but.. not so. The club was simply in an industrial area. We had a small but enthusiastic group attend the show, made up of many of Marco's friends and a few journalists. Afterwards we stayed at the home of Vallero, one of Marco's friends. The view in the morning was amazing, like something out of a movie about a small Italian countryside town.

A Stick player in Schio (with Marco and Vallero)

Rachel Z

Jerry Z?? (with sincere apologies to Rachel Z)

Language has been a bit funny all along. Marco noticed with my last diary update that I had a picture of a toilet. He seemed concerned that the toilet was pictured but not him. This may be another translation problem, as I'm not sure why he would want to be pictured with a toilet, but since he has been so great and helpful to us on this trip, I spent some time in photoshop to make a picture. It seems a little strange, but hopefully this is what he wanted!

Marco asked for this photo... but maybe a translation problem? Seems odd... (just kidding Marco, your English is fine!)

Here's how we're actually seeing Marco more and more... as our trip is including more and more drives:

Marco drives

driving through Milan

Happy Hour at Sio Cafe	showtime at Sio cafe

Radio Popolare interview with the hosts On Monday (a day off) Jerry and I wandered around Milan a bit. The best sight for me was an incredible large church that people here refer to as Duomo (spelling?) I "think" it might actually be called the church of St Paul, but I'm not sure. In any case, it was by far the largest church I've been in to date (though possibly to change once we get to Rome). While the architecture was amazing, the thing that impressed me the most was a plaque on one wall which (if I'm guessing the Italian correctly) was a list of the Archbishops of the church of Milan... dating back to the year 51! It also seem to say in the headline that the church was founded by the apostle Barnabus (mentioned many times in the bible.). Amazing that they can trace the history back that far! Duomo exterior Duomo exterior (front panel) historical plaque (dating back to 51AD) plaque close up High Altar in the Duomo view from first hotel room first hotel room culture shock (that's not a sink on the L) CGT soundcheck in Milan Tues Feb 22, 2005, 12:45pm - hotel Corallo, Milan Jerry and I have made through our first few days here in Italy. Only one show so far, but it was a great one. We managed to line up the beginning of our tour schedule with the end of the California Guitar Trio's Italy tour leg. So the bill was CGT with Marotta / Griesgraber and also my friends SplendoRe as opener (a great Stick duo based in Rome). The audience was great, very enthusiastic. Jerry got up to speak to the crowd and when he figured out that many of them could understand english, launched into a whole comedy bit about how if they bought our CD and found us around town the next day we'd buy them lunch, or how if they bought enough CDs we'd play at their homes, or actually we'd just play at their homes for pasta and cheese. Everyone was laughing hysterically, but I couldn't help but wonder if somewhere in the crowd things were getting lost in translation for someone. It was a blast as always to get to play with CGT. I'm such a fan of their music that getting to make it with them and Jerry is just amazing. The end of the night also saw SplendoRe joining the five of us for what Paul dubbed the "We are the World" version of Punta Patri. 3 acoustic guitars, 3 Sticks and drums. Definitley not something one runs into in rock clubs all that often. Jerry and Bert in Milan Hideyo in Milan Backtracking... the flights from NY to Milan were less gruling than I first thought they'd be, but.. not without incident. Somewhere along the way my suitcase got broken "and" one of my two pairs of pants I brought for the trip got ripped. So.. Europe on one pair of jeans it is! While I was in Woodstock for two days, Jerry and I "did" in fact debut our new super group with Jerry's son Diego on percussion. Diego came to the new band full of ideas including a great new name; "Demons of Rock." He was a little nervous before the big debut gig at his school, but once we hit the stage (auditorium floor) he was wailing away with more chops than I think even Jerry has. The show closed with Jerry inviting all the kids to dance while we played and the scene was just amazing. Maybe 70 or so kids from kindergarden through about 3rd grade all dancing wildly in something like a Charlie Brown/ Snoopy style. It may be a few years till they can write their addresses on our mailing list and maybe 13 years till they're old enough to see us play in rock clubs, but our new double-Marotta super group has already started to build a great following with the after school cafeteria crowd. dual-Marotta percussion demo The Demons of Rock (Jerry M, Diego M, Tom G) Mon Feb 14, 2005, 9:46pm - home (but not for long!) Amazing night last night at the Grammys! Some of my more "musically hardcore" friends might scoff at the pop centered nature of the Grammys.. but I feel very lucky to have gotten to go to the shows and post-parties the past two years. Actually last year I played at the post party so I really didn't get to see much of the party and had to leave the telecast a little early, but this year I was just a guest and got to take it all in. I've seen a lot of amazing shows over the years, but last night and last year I was just totally blown away by the production of the Grammy's telecast. They are such pros! Everything is done so tightly. Last nights opening number had basically 5 stages going at once.. spread out around the arena with musical cuts between them that were so seemless. I sometimes feel overwhelmed dealing with all the cables and programming in my live rig. Watching the show last night was so inspiring for what "can" be done in a live show that it just made me want to go buy a whole bunch of new gear and expand what I do exponentially. Of course.. the Grammy's have whole teams of people to do it.. I just have me and my back. It's great to hear such a cross section of contemporary music too. The diversity of it all really makes 3 hours fly by! I'm actually scrambling tonight to finish packing for the upcoming Marotta / Griesgraber tour in Italy and France. Still lots to do, so I'd better get to it. The latest info I have on dates is now up on the schedules page. Should be an amazing trip! Actually there's one new date not on the page.. Jerry told me today that during my two days in Woodstock (pre Italy) he's arranged for us to play at his 6 year old son's school. I've also been told that for this show we're actually a whole new group. Diego Marotta got a new set of drums for Christmas, so we're now a double drum/ Stick trio called "Demons of Rock" (name also courtesy of Diego Marotta). I'll try to snap some pictures of our premier performance. History in the making no doubt! Want more Tom stories and trivia? Check out the website archives for past tour diaries. ©2005 ThosSounds.  All Rights Reserved.