The Adrian Belew Power Trio

Men in Helicopters: Tour Post Number Four

2006-11-26T19:23:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I know it's been awhile! Playing with Adrian Belew is so much fun I forget to do blog posts. I dedicate this post to "Men in Helicopters v4.0" from Adrian's new record Side Three. Another brilliant song. One of his best, for sure.

Anyway, today we're stuck in....
Tour Date Number Four: November 4th, 2006/Santa Fe Brewing Company

I woke up the next morning after being enticed and somewhat traumatized by "The Departed". Julie's boyfriend Matt and his friend had slept over and obviously had fun as evidenced by the neverending piles of discarded Tombstone's pizza crust. Unusually enough, I was the first person awake and decided to take advantage of this by going on the internet and eating danish. Soon everybody woke up and being in Santa Fe pushed us toward the decision of searching for the ultimate Breakfast Burrito. I'm not a fan of breakfast burritos -- I was much more interested in enchiladas. Adrian drove us downtown to the Market Square and we found a neat little self service spot that I can't remember the name of. The rest of the crew got breakfast burritos while I maintained my craving for enchiladas and inhaled them as I typically do. Afterwards we explored the artsy upper class area and there were rows of merchants with homemade jewelry. We ending up purchasing a nice set of earrings for my mom. There was also a cool guy who made Frank Zappa tiles. I say mass produce them!

After walking around aimlessly for what seemed like days, I persuaded the gang to walk 3 miles to the Camel Rock Suites.

Yes, I am insane.

Especially consdering there was very little pavement on the way back, and Julie was convinced she was the victim of deadly New Mexican bug bites. We sat in the hotel for roughly an hour and then we searched for the venue. "Genie" could not find the address for the Santa Fe Brewing Company so we followed Ade's engineer John Sinks' calm telephonic directions. I must say this was an outstanding place, truly designed for the touring musician. I loved the sound on stage during the soundcheck, and I was provided with a delicious Veggie Burger and salad. We were also at a massive 7,000 foot elevation. I'm surprised my ears weren't popping!

Saul Zonana called us out during his performance which was hilarious. Everyone looked at me like my hair was engulfed in flames after that. We went on and I knew right away that the night was going to be extra special. Adrian was excellent (duh!) and I'd like to thank the drinking crowd of Santa Fe for being loud. To future Adrian Belew concertgoers: Scream at any given time during the show, we love it.

My next post will drive us on up to Phoenix, Arizona where we played priceless guitars, introduced Dad into the touring crew, and ate expensive trail mix.

The Gypsy Zurna: Tour Post Number Three

2006-11-11T13:26:00.000-08:00

I'm sure most of you know what The Gypsy Zurna is. Do I even have to tell you, Adrian Belew fans? Well, just in case you missed out, "The Gypsy Zurna" is an awesome song from Adrian's 1985 album "Desire Caught By the Tail". Definitely one of those brilliant and underappreciated records. If you can find a copy, listen to it as much as possible!

I put it on this morning and had to write a blog post immediately so today we visit...

Tour Date Number Three: November 3rd, 2006/Day Off

No, we didn't play two nights in Santa Fe, but it would've been cool. After the raucous and confusing night in Austin, Texas, we woke up extra early to take a flight to Albequerque. Thank god, a day off for travel. Hardly a day off by any means! Our flight was 3 hours thanks to Southwest, as they never told us that we'd be making a rest stop in El Paso. We had a bunch of buff intimidating rugby team players on our plane, so that made me feel nice and scrawny. We got to Albequerque and what a surprise, it was cold. Didn't I leave Philadelphia to go do a West Coast Tour so I could bask in the warmth of the western sun?

Oh well.

"Genie" was still not feeling well and when we hopped in our new rental car she started spewing out the wrong directions again. I never thought a computer could get this lost. I was also starving because we insisted on not eating airport food again.

"Genie" finally got her senses together and we got to our hotel, The Camel Rock in Santa Fe. Y'know, I kept looking for that damn rock and I couldn't find it anywhere.

I did find a Walgreen's though.

After some heavy discussions about where we should eat thanks to Mrs. Julie, we decided on The Shed. Yes, the name makes it sound like a grotesque place to eat, but to the contrary the menu looked wonderful.

"Genie" was feeling better and she helped us find The Shed, which was located in the downtown area of Santa Fe. The downtown area is like a compacted version on Rittenhouse Square (in Philadelphia) with some high priced turqoise jewelry stores and art galleries (The Chuck Jones Art Gallery was by far the coolest). The Shed is hidden in the back of the bourgeois strip mall next to a year round Christmas accessory store. Adrian's stomach was rumbling with excitement. The menu was almost entirely Mexican, but what we didn't notice was that there was a warning which read:

"To our out of town customers, our green and red chile sauces are every hot. Beware!"

I should really make sayings like "Always read the fine print" seep into my daily mantra.

First they brought chips, salsa, and quacamole to the table and they were fantastic. The salsa was spicy and I started crying a little bit (ok, i'm a sissy), but I got used to it quickly.

I ordered a Bean and Cheese Burrito with red chile sauce. In fact, we all ordered items with the red chile sauce. Don't get me wrong, the food was incredible. But I've never seen the Adrian Belew Power Trio (emphasis on the word power) cry in pain from one bite of a meal. Julie looked like she was going to throw up which would have been simultaneously disgusting and hilarious, but alas she didn't. She ended up packing up her burrito and she somehow spread it out over 3 days worth of travel. Adrian and I completed most of our plates but our stomachs were now rumbling with more than defeat. We had lost to the red chile.

In order to conquer this defeat we mustered up the confidence and hunger to top off our meal with some Hot Fudge Sundaes. In the end, we beat the fiery Santa Fe red chile, but we almost didn't make it out of the restaurant. It was a close fight for sure.

Adrian went back to the hotel and Julie and I went to the Town Square. We went window shopping and listened to some guy play an acoustic massacre a version of Neil Young's "Harvest Moon". C'mon, he didn't even do the same melody!

After Julie and I waited for 2 hours, her boyfriend Matt and friend Will showed up to spend the next couple days on tour with us. At first, we wanted to find a jazz club where we could hang out. No such place in Santa Fe, but Adrian asked around for us anyway.

Good story: Adrian went to Walgreen's to ask where a jazz club was and the woman at the desk said, "Sorry, there's no jazz club here. But Adrian Belew is coming tomorrow!"

She didn't even know she was talking to him. Hah!

Julie and I split up, and Adrian and I went to go see "The Departed" by Martin Scorcese. Excellent movie, and very bloody. The drive back to the hotel was again screwed up by "Genie" but we started to get a feel for how to get around Santa Fe and we found the Camel Rock.

I was exhausted. Tomorrow's blog post will bring us to the 7,000 foot elevation of the Santa Fe Brewing Company, where we played to a drinking audience!

Woe is Uh Me Bop: Tour Post Number Two

2006-11-07T16:25:00.000-08:00

On stage in Austin, Texas -- photo courtesy of Todd V. Wolfson

In order to get my creative juices flowing, I decided to put on some Captain Beefheart! "Lick My Decals Off, Baby" is long out of print, but if you can find a copy I suggest you get it immediately. A masterpiece for sure.

Tour Date Number Two: November 2nd. 2006/Cactus Cafe

Today's blog post takes us to the cold winds of Austin, Texas. Yes, I wasn't expecting it to be cold but as our luck would have it, it was. The drive wasn't as taxing as I thought it would be and so getting to the Habitat Suites hotel was a piece of cake. For those who travel frequently, the Habitat Suites is like an environmentally safe zoo for humans. Solar panels grace the rooftop, the rooms are entirely water efficient (imagine toilets...without water!), and the free breakfast is organic/macrobiotic (compare THAT to our favorite Holiday Inn egg patties).

I've decided to call this tour, "The Drum Nightmare Extravaganza".

In the last post I mentioned that my drums were excruciatingly out of tune, largely due to the lack of fresh drumheads. I also was sans cymbals for the first gig because mine were forgotten in Nashville. The cymbal bag also held my lovely tambourine which added colorful spices to songs such as "Of Bow and Drum" and "Young Lions". Adrian agreed to drive us to Guitar Center so I could pick up my drum paraphenalia but being the genius that he is, he stayed in the car. If I were Adrian, I would not want to go to a Guitar Center anytime soon. Way too tempting. We ran in and out and as fast as we could, kind of like being on "Extreme Shopping".

I bought a futuristic tambourine from Factory Metal Percussion. It looks like a Celtic cross with jingles on it. It does the job though. I was also then told that master drummer Pat Mastelotto from King Crimson will be attending the show that night.

It's safe to say that I was nervous.

We relaxed for a while back at the hotel to reminisce about our youth by watching episodes of "The Wayans Bros." on BET. After a few laughs we went to the minivan and told "Genie" to direct us to the Cactus Cafe, which is somewhat located on the campus of the University of Texas. I've learned by now that "Genie" and Texas do not get along. Maybe it's because of the constant road detours, or maybe "Genie" is a Democrat. It's the bane of my existence and I should figure it out sometime.

So, "Genie" could not find the Cactus Cafe. It was hilarious. Driving around in circles, freaking out, laughing because of how bad these directions were. We asked everyone in sight how we could find it and few people seemed to know. My favorite part of this particular adventure was when Adrian didn't know where he was going and started driving onto an open food court much to the horror of the student body.

I live for this stuff!

Finally, we found a parking spot and rushed a soundcheck. Unfortunately, my double pass drum pedal did not survive in the car and somehow the durable aluminum body was ripped in half. Thank you Pat Mastelotto for being generous and lending me your bass drum pedal for the entire tour. It's holding up just great.

After scarfing down the best local falafel Julie and I went downstairs to our backstage area. I can't wait to post some pictures. it was like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory basement. I soon discovered that striking the metal poles down there created some interesting sounds so I recorded a short video of myself playing Radiohead's "Idioteque" that i'll post when I have access to a Firewire cable. Adrian came back from the hotel and we did our normal exercises and went onstage.

I would say it was a fairly decent set, there were some guitar and monitor troubles but I think this was the show where we worked out all of the kinks. The crowd in Austin was loud and fabulous, and if we packed an arena with these people the walls would shatter. Again, thanks to Pat and Co. for being supportive.

Now we drive off for two days in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Prepare for painful red chile burritos!

Back on the Chain Gang: Tour Post Number One

2006-11-06T12:06:00.000-08:00

The last time I wrote in this blog I talked about the very last day of our tour in August, or as I liked to call it, National Peach Cobbler Day. Since then a lot of things have happened: I played shows with Dean Ween/Dave Dreiwitz/Chris Harford, Mike Keneally and Bryan Beller, and the Sarah Zimmermann Trio (myspace.com/sztrio). I also cut my hair, but that doesn't really matter.

So let's just pick up where I left off, shall we?

Tour Date Number One: November 1st. 2006/Granada Theater
In a rushed frenzy we left our small row house in Philadelphia at 8:30 in the morning to leave for the airport. I felt unprepared as usual because I always leave my packing to the last minute. I can be the typical lazy guy when I want to be. So, we get to the airport hours ahead of time and we're flying to Dallas, Texas. I've never been to Dallas before. I think the flight was about 4 hours but luckily when we got off the plane we realized the airport was set up so ergonomically that it was impossible to get confused.

Take note: this is a serious plus when doing something as bewildering as touring.

We took the rental car shuttle and met up with Adrian (his hair was notably longer). Seeing Adrian helps me breathe that very last sigh of relief. When he takes charge, we get things done!

As we start heading to the hotel I realize that Dallas is practically one big Taco Restaurant. I mean, they're everywhere. If you went to Las Vegas and suddenly all the casinos turned into taco houses, it'd look like Dallas. Anyway, we're nearing the hotel and all of sudden "Genie" (for the new readers here, "Genie" is our trusty GPS system) starts sputtering out directions that make no sense.

"Turn left, then take ramp left u-turn", said Genie.

Being the hyperactive maniac that I am, I peeked over at Adrian who was completely at ease. I immediately felt better as we pulled into the driveway of the Best Western. I get out of the car and then it hits me - it's freezing in Dallas. I thought it was always warm here?! I was wrong. I rush to get my hotel keycard (because I am starving) and we go to a local hang that shall remain nameless. Hey, I was happy with my Veggie Burger, but Julie the Food connoisseur (and bassist extraordinaire for new visitors) decided that her Corn Chowder was far too salty and I agreed.

After 1 hour I already feel the spine tingling rigors of touring! It's good to be back, road.

There is no time to relax. We speed right on down to the Granada Theater for soundcheck. Another beautiful venue for sure. For all you Philadelphia readers, imagine the Trocadero with seating and painted walls with different murals. I go to the stage and there's a synthesizer propped up in the middle of Adrian's already gigantic rig. I thought it belonged to our opener (the fabulous Saul Zonana) but it did indeed belong to Adrian. He brought a new toy! That being said, Adrian can play piano and different synth sounds WITH HIS GUITAR. Isn't that insane?

So soundcheck goes okay, except my new drumkit is extremely out of tune. This is embarrassing for any musician, unless said musician does not know how to tune instrument. After I'm done my semi-accurate-by-ear-tuning I go straight for the Adrian Belew Emergency Relief Area (TM) a.k.a. the backstage food spread. This is a common pre-show ritual. I stay at the venue and talk to the super cool staff for awhile, then I make some long phone calls which makes my brain mushy. In my head I am sure the show will be good, but I go through the normal Eric Slick Paranoid Motions.

"Will I drop a stick?"

"Will I break my hand?"

"Will I eat too much of this pasta and become the guy who barfed on stage?"

Well, before I know it, we're walking onstage and it feels like we never left at all. We rip through the set, plagued with the usual first night bum notes and broken sticks, but the energy was fierce as usual. Good to be back, as I often say.

After the show, I was obviously not thinking clearly. There was a curtain that led us to the backstage but before our encore I simply could not find the entrance. This happened several times! I walked right into the concrete backing. Not only that, but I had this uncontrollable urge and I inexplicably threw some our backstage fruit to the crowd instead of drumsticks.

Sometimes I wonder about myself, I do.

Off to Austin, Texas: The Live Music Capital of the World and home to Pat Mastelotto and even more confusing GPS directions.

National Peach Cobbler Day

2006-09-07T17:15:00.000-07:00

Julie Slick, a/k/a Peach Cobbler Woman, on stage in St. Petersburg

The late Kengineer would've called our night in St. Petersburg "the great big rock show". I used to love when he'd say that and I get misty eyed when I think about him coming up to me after all was said and done. Touring without Ken is very strange; I can only imagine how Adrian feels. Luckily, John has done such a fantastic job so the incredible heartache of losing Ken is a bit easier to swallow.

Anyway, we left the old-timey Holiday Inn in the morning to travel to our last show of the summer tour that seemingly lasted forever. Our "Genie" was correct this time and took us with the right directions (albeit the drive was mostly rural which always scares the crap out of us). As we were driving a huge black storm formed above us and a serious torrential downpour started. I honestly thought we were caught in a hurricane or some sort of natural disaster. It was surreal, and I felt like the landscapes around us were merely gigantic Dali paintings. I don't think I've ever seen a rainstorm look quite like that. And then, all of a sudden, it was over. I soon realized that Florida is JUST like that, and heavy rain is just a part of the way it is down there.

After that scary incident we continued to drive along these non-highway roads when Julie unexpectedly shouts, "Oh my god! Fresh Georgia Peaches!" The loud gutteral groan that went on in my head (if amplified) would have shook the universe. I knew what was coming, and I don't think anybody else did. Julie had been craving peaches ever since we were in Atlanta and would NOT SHUT UP about them. My mom didn't know this, so she went along with the plan. Don't get me wrong, I love Julie a lot. When she gets wrapped up in this food obsession, it could drive a sane man beserk. I guess by now I'm used to it!

From that point forward, that portion of the day is pretty much blocked off in my head except for the whole supermarket encounter. Julie decided to take these roadside peaches that she purchased and turn it into a full-blown Peach Cobbler. We needed to find a supermarket in Lake Worth and "Genie" was not helping us at all. Our last resort was finding a Publix supermarket and of course we all got nervous when "Genie" took us to a Public Storage! Funny enough, the Publix was right behind it. All I remember is holding my head in the car and just laughing with Adrian about the whole situation. Julie eventually made the best Peach Cobbler we ever ate and I was incredibly grateful.

Actually, if you want the whole sordid story of just what we went through as concerns National Peach Cobbler Day, let me refer you to my mom's blog. She pretty much wrote about every gory detail, including the part about me hyperventilating in the backseat of Ade's (rented) jeep.

Our venue that night was fantastic: The Bamboo Room in Lake Worth, Florida. We had our last lunch together at a sports bar and then stayed at the hotel for awhile. Our hotel was crazy...they were more like apartments than hotel rooms. The backstage area was in a bizarre place, but I enjoy variety. The crowd was great and we started our show by walking through the crowd! Just try and imagine that. Thanks to everyone who helped to make that show a success.

The show that night was fun but bittersweet. I wasn't really ready to come home anytime soon. It's amazing on the road, how 10 days can sometimes feel like 10 years. Sometimes it's the complete opposite. Frank Zappa once said, "Touring can drive you crazy." I don't think this is necessarily true. You have to be a little insane already to tour.

St. Petersburg

2006-09-03T08:09:00.000-07:00

Adrian on stage at the State Theatre, St. Petersburg, Florida

The show in Jacksonville was definitely wacky. Lost bass strings, improvisations, and drunken fans contributed to the hectic nature of that show! I was expecting even crazier things to happen in St. Petersburg and I was kind of correct.

My mom flew down to Florida from Philadelphia as a birthday treat and she came to our old timey hotel...which was a disguised Holiday Inn. Before she came there, we ate at an organic restaurant and then Julie and I went to the local music store. Julie bought new bass strings and also fell in love with a gorgeous Fender Jazz Bass. There wasn't any drum equipment there, but I play guitar, too, so I was having a good time. The promoter for the show walked in and had a Ween shirt on...so of course I started schmoozing! I also showed Julie a Les Claypool bass trick that she couldn't do and of course it frustrated her until soundcheck. We walked over across the street to the performance spot - The State Theatre - and we proceeded to do our normal pre-show soundcheck. Jerry Outlaw from the Zappa cover band Bogus Pomp was there. I met him at Zappanale in 2005 and he's a total sweetheart. His band was opening for us and I would like to thank him for being amazing.

We went back to the hotel and watched episodes of "Walker, Texas Ranger" (our favorite show to watch) and "Law & Order". The Law & Order was particularly funny because of how dated it was. I think it was the first episode to ever mention the "World Wide Web". Does anyone even call it that anymore?

We got to the venue at 9:00 to watch Jerry Outlaw. He performed a heart-wrenching rendition of the Zappa tune "Black Napkins" and dedicated it to Ken. Jerry and Ken were good friends and Ken had even recorded Bogus Pomp before. "Black Napkins" was one of Ken's favorite tunes and it's safe to say we all got a bit teary eyed. I must say, John Sinks (Ken's replacement and best friend) has been doing a wonderful job and deserves all the credit in the universe.

Back to the show...

We walk onstage and we realize that there is a hefty crowd that has packed the State Theatre. The show that night ruled! This was by far the most energetic one we played on this tour. Song highlights for that night include: "Ampresand", "Drive", and "Thela Hun Ginjeet". After all was said and done, we went back the old timey Holiday Inn and Adrian joked that the water fountain that looked like a toilet actually WAS a toilet. I love my mom, because she exclaimed, "I need to use the bathroom! Is it that thing?! " (as she pointed to the water fountain).

Jacksonvillle!

2006-08-30T12:20:00.000-07:00

Julie Slick, Adrian Belew, and Eric Slick in Jacksonville, Florida

Part Two of my recap of touring begins with a story about our travels in Jacksonville.

After the amazing night in Atlanta, it was hard for me to imagine that any of our shows would get better. We woke up the next morning and told the "Genie" (Adrian's GPS system which he aptly named Genie) to take us to Jacksonville. I haven't spent too much time in Florida in my life. I played in Fort Lauderdale with the School of Rock and that provided me with many memorable experiences, but I didn't get to see much of the area. Anyway, "Genie" decided to screw up our order and started telling us the wrong directions. "Turn left. Make a U Turn. Turn right. Turn right. Go to Buckhead Diner." How frustrating! Finally, Adrian got it to work and we were on the right road. We arrived in Jacksonville and I suddenly felt like I was in Venice Beach. It has a similar setup - the palm trees everywhere and surf shops - and I felt like I was back on the School of Rock West Coast Tour from two years ago. That was the day I purchased an LAPD shirt and then our bus driver Abel stole it from me.

Julie and I were starving and headed over to the venue to see what was up. The venue was Freedbird Live which is actually owned by the late Ronnie Van Sant's widow. Ronnie was the lead singer of Lynyrd Skynyrd and it all clicked...Freebird Live? Get it?

Julie was into getting sushi for dinner but I was feeling quite pedestrian and decided to get pizza across the street. I wasn't feeling fulfilled so I got super delicious ice cream that was next door to the venue. Julie and I headed back to the hotel and on the way we walked by a Margaritaville Bar where a guy in a Hawaiian shirt was singing "Comfortably Numb" with an 80's Yamaha keyboard.

I love Florida.

We run back to the stage to begin the set. We had a small but enthusiastic crowd. They were very dedicated and inebriated! Our set was going along fine until Julie broke her low A bass string. Adrian saved the day by going into the solo portion of his set early. Little did he know the insanity that was ensuing backstage! Julie did not have an extra pack of bass strings and we were running around and freaking out. David (Adrian's roadie) and I just kept looking at each other, shaking our heads. Adrian finished his solo section and we still had a broken bass. Julie played the next couple songs without a string...wow...kudos to Julie! Finally some guy in the crowd ran in with bass strings and Adrian and I went into an impromptu jam session. I think we may have even started playing a Crimson song, I don't remember. I kept staring up towards the ceiling and I forgot there was another level of venue seating. So I looked and people were giving me thumbs up! I started cracking up because I was not expecting that.

Julie ran back on the stage with fixed bass in hand, and she proceeded to rip through the rest of the set with ease. Thanks to the crowd and sound guys for understanding our technical difficulties. Shows like that are always valuable and important to me. They're learning experiences and they remind you that you're touring, and that it's not always easy. I've always said that spontaneity is the core essence of being on the road.

The Past Week of Touring: Part 1

2006-08-23T09:35:00.000-07:00

Adrian Belew, Eric Slick, Julie Slick performing with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones and Umphrey's McGee

What an emotional week!

After last Monday's packed house at World Cafe, we all pondered if our show could possibly get any better than that night. The energy and unbridled spirit of the crowd was staggering, and I would also like to thank Larry Allen and Matt Klein for coming (sorry I forgot earlier). We woke up the next morning early and traveled to the airport for a rather quick flight to Atlanta. I didn't know our check-in would even take that fast considering the new guidelines of Airport security, but I made sure all of my shampoos and toothpastes were "stowed away" in my checked bags. The waiting was the hardest part for this flight, but I recall sleeping for most of it. I was hoping arriving in Atlanta would be a breath of fresh air but instead it was like taking a shot from an inhaler filled with murky, humid wind. Atlanta is beautiful, and the architecture is alarmingly modern, but the humidity was out of control! It was nice to have a night off, but I had a lot on my mind. I also took NyQuil the previous night because I felt sick. NyQuil is great for bad colds, but the aftermath is always dizzying.

After watching episodes of Jerry Springer all afternoon with Julie we went out to dinner at a small chain called Houston's. As a vegetarian, I'm always searching for the world's best veggie burger, and Houston's is now the reigning champion. As usual, Julie took a bite of it and I groaned (I love Julie but my personal pet peeve is when she picks at my meal without asking)

My night of sleep wasn't as good as usual. I slept on the fold out bed. We were staying at the HAMPTON Inn, which delighted all of us due to our recent impersonations of some people we had met in Amagansett, NY (none of the people attending our show, thankfully). "Today is an important day", I said to myself as I was waking up in the shower. In Atlanta, we were opening up for Bela Fleck and the Flecktones and Umphrey's McGee. For those of you who don't know, they are heavy hitters in the jam band society. They've had a successful run this summer under the title "The Acoustic Planet Tour". After running around finding an appropriate pre-show diner with our magic GPS system that we nicknamed "Genie", we drove over to the Chastain Park Ampitheatre. I've only had a taste of playing venues this big in 2003, when I "rocked"(?) the ridiculous Q102 Jingle Ball with Hillary Duff at the Tweeter Center in Camden. During our soundcheck I had an out of body experience when I realized there were 6,000 empty seats in front of me and that night they were going to be mostly filled. Talk about serious intimidation!

My fears were laid to rest as everybody from the respective bands introduced themselves. The jam band people are so much more courteous and they were completely open to any ideas we had the make the show interesting and unique for that night. Our backstage area was immediately reminscent of "This is Spinal Tap", because I got lost after about 2 minutes of my playful wandering. Too many doors in strange places for this drummer. Julie and I decided to keep our good luck charm by staying at the venue instead of going back to the hotel. Julie even tried to show her reckless rock star side by throwing a banana into our chips and salsa. Very reckless, Julie. Speaking of the salsa, Adrian tried to open it up before the show and spilled most of it onto his shirt. Luckily, Adrian Belew is no ordinary man, and he buys drip dry acetate shirts! No stains for you, Adrian.

The next two hours kind of flew by with excitement as Julie and I ran around and schmoozed with the members of Bela Fleck. In fact, thanks to Victor Wooten - bassist extraordinare - for interviewing us with his video camera.

Suddenly, it was time for us to go on stage. I can't say that I remember our set because it was one of those nights where I was so caught in the moment that I can only remember my own mental snapshots. Bela was amazing enough to sit in during our set, delivering a blistering banjo solo during "Beat Box Guitar". I looked back during this song and the gorgeous Lauren Zuber was standing there along with my good friend Robin Gelberg from the Project/Object tour. My friends were here to support me! Eli Saline and his friend Matt also arrived late, but I'll thank him for his manic excursions through Atlanta. During our last song, "Elephant Talk", Umphrey's McGee stormed the stage and started playing along with us. What a great idea for a tour concept! All of the bands keep their gear onstage at the same time so the switchover is seamless. Adrian sat in with Umphrey's for a powerful version of King Crimson's "Red" and the crowd went ballistic. The Flecktones came on during Umphrey's last song and delivered an easy going but jaw-dropping set.

At the very end of the show all of the bands came together on stage and we did a pretty much impromptu version of the Beatles' "Come Together". It was wild, looking out and seeing 6,000 people dancing and waving their fists in the air. After that we did a bluegrass jam with some tricky changes, some of which I missed. When all was said and done, we stood together in a row and took a bow. We shook hands with the crowd and securely put a lid on one of the greatest nights of my life.

Philadelphia!

2006-08-16T11:10:00.000-07:00

There we are in black and white at World Cafe Live and thank you Katie Jacoby for sending me this photo!

I've played the World Cafe Live as a Rock School All-Star, a member of Project Object, and Monday night with Adrian Belew. I knew from my past experiences with Rock School and Project Object that the audience would be enthusiastic, but nothing prepared me for that crowd!

This has been a hard week for me, but I knew that the Philadelphia show was going to be special. Soundcheck was at 4:00 and I was frustrated. My floor tom drumhead was completely dead and the sound guys must've thought I was crazy. It sounded like I was playing a set of gigantic timpanis! My parents ran out for me to 8th street music and picked up a new drumhead, they always save the day. We got through the soundcheck with my out-of-tune drums and I was stressed out.

As I get up from the kit all of a sudden a familiar face starts walking towards me. It's Taylor Hawkins, the drummer for the Foo Fighters....what?!! The first thought
that went through my mind was, "Oh my god, Taylor thinks I suck at drums." Not true! He was a sweet guy and we talked about drum nerd stuff, you know, how John Bonham tuned his bass drum and which snare drum Stewart Copeland used. I introduced Taylor to my friend Carolyn and then he came up to Adrian and started telling him how much enjoyed the recent Crimson records (he even pronounced Mastelotto correctly! That's right!).

I went outside to the area where most musicians would be smoking cigarettes and sure enough, Dave Grohl was sitting there. My teenage idol was there right in front of me and I tried to keep it cool. I told Dave about my Tama kit (Dave and Taylor are longtime Tama endorsers) and they were nice enough to come and check out my kit, take a picture with Carolyn and I, and talk about even more nerdy drum stuff. Thanks guys!

The show was about to begin and my normal adrenaline rush kicked into gear. There was a magic in the air and we could all feel it. Adrian and I did our normal pre-show giggling while Julie pranced about the dressing room like a maniac. We did our 80's hand warm-ups and ran out on stage to a screaming crowd. The show that night was almost perfect -- about as energetic as you could imagine. I could feel the crowd get sucked in from the second we started playing and they continued to dance the entire night. Adrian almost made my head explode when he announced we'd be doing a live record from the stage. Side Four here we come!

I would like to thank all of my friends who showed up -- Maira Clancy, Ben Grimm, Branden King, Carolyn, Katie Jacoby, Courtney Drew, Louis Graff, Amanda, Zach Bukowski, and Zach Gliva. I would like to especially thank the two Rachels in my life: Rachel Forman-Rubinsky and Rachel Kahn, both amazing support systems and the latter has never even seen me play before after two years of friendship.

Thanks to everyone for a memorable night.

And now this evening, on the 37th anniversary of Woodstock, we are playing an outdoor festival in Atlanta with Bela Fleck and Umphrey's McGee, and then it's off to finish the tour this weekend in Florida. We take some time off (not me -- I'll be gigging all over the place with various projects I have with the bass player from Ween) and then we hit the west coast with Adrian in November.

Okay, I'm going to go chill for a bit. Glad everyone in Philly liked the show -- I got some emails and so did my mom which really made us feel great.

Tonight in Philadelphia!

2006-08-14T09:20:00.000-07:00

Well, tonight is the night. World Cafe Live in Philadelphia at 7:30 p.m. I cannot wait to play in my home town in front of my family and friends. Julie and I are really proud to be part of the Adrian Belew Power Trio, and after a couple of months together, we've hit our stride.

Please come over and say hi!

Oh, and I see that the reserved seating is sold out but there's room at the bar and plenty of room down in front. Tickets still available here!

Last night in Pittsburgh

2006-08-13T07:30:00.000-07:00

Eric Slick with the Adrian Belew Power Trio

So our gig last night in Pittsburgh was awesome! The crowd was great; the venue (Club Cafe) was perfect, and I was really happy with our overall performance. The previous evening in Buffalo was a little rough because we had electricity problems (Gah! Did I have to go and say in my post yesterday before the gig that I was happy this leg of the tour had no "adventures"? Next time I will knock on wood before saying that.) Once again I had no monitor for part of the evening and couldn't hear myself and a lot of Adrian's effects kept going on and off but other than that, the Icon in Buffalo had a huge stage, it was full of appreciative fans, and we had a blast despite the technical difficulties.

We're about to leave for Philadelphia and yay! I get to see my girlfriend Carolyn who has been on tour herself with the Rock School All-Stars. We haven't seen each other in over two weeks! Tonight she wraps up the Rock School tour at the World Cafe Live where, interestingly enough, I'll be playing with Adrian the next evening. I can't wait to see this grand finale of the Rock School summer tour because it's also graduation night for a lot of the All-Stars I've known for years and the show (well, both of them, there's an early and late set) should be amazing since they're coming off a long tour which included gigs at the House of Blues on both the east and west coast and Lollapalooza.

But yeah, it's a day off for me once we drive back to Philadelphia from Pittsburgh. I get to see my family, my girlfriend, and sleep in my own bed for the next two nights before we leave for Atlanta on Tuesday to take part in the Acoustic Planet tour with Bela Fleck and Umphrey's McGee on Wednesday. Very cool news on that, too. CNN is coming with a film crew to interview us backstage pre-show! And there is a possibility of a documentary in the works.

So we're down to the last five shows on the east coast/southern portion of this tour and while I'm really sad about it, I have some incredible things to look forward to, the least of which is resuming the tour with the Adrian Belew Power Trio in early November when we head out west -- everywhere from Arizona to San Francisco to a swing through Texas and maybe New Mexico. I'm psyched.

But in my (ha) downtime in late August, September, and October, I have mini-tours and some way interesting gigs lined up and I will be talking more about them once I'm finished the Belew tour.

For now, I'm just prepping for the long drive home, anxious to see my girlfriend, and really psyched about our show at the World Cafe Live Monday night.

Oh. And Happy Birthday to bassist Matt Rothstein, Julie's significant other. We're all having dinner in his honor tonight prior to the All-Stars WCL show tonight so that should be a lot of fun, too.

Ahh...home sweet home. I've traveled all over the world but I really love Philadelphia best.

New York, New York!

2006-08-11T09:52:00.000-07:00

The Adrian Belew Power Trio on stage at BB Kings in New York City August 8, 2006

Greetings from Buffalo, where we'll be playing tonight at The Icon.

Wow, what a difference this leg of the tour is.

We opened on Tuesday night at B.B. Kings. Since my mom is also blogging about the tour, she really wrote it up nicely and I'm too humble and embarrassed to copy it here so I'll just give you the link to that and you can read all about it from the audience's point of view.

But it was amazing. I love New York.

I was afraid we were all going to be sad because of Kengineer's recent death but when we saw the crowd and felt the energy in the place, we relaxed and had an awesome time on stage.

It was also a great relief to have all of our equipment -- nothing lost, nothing broken, everything fine. I mean, when we first started the tour in Indiana, we had everything but it was our first time on stage and yeah, I was nervous during those first three gigs. Now, with many shows under our belts including all of the challenges we faced in Europe, we have really come together as a band.

Adrian Belew is an incredible musician and human being. Julie and I are having the time of our lives. I don't know what else to say other than right now, I feel like the luckiest man in the universe.

On Wednesday night we played in Long Island. We didn't have a huge crowd but the people who were there were enthusiastic and fun and we had a great time.

Last night in Piermont, NY was a sell-out. Only problem was they had a small stage and I was a bit cramped up there - I like to be able to really wail on the drums and move when I play but I managed.

I'm really looking forward to tonight. The Icon looks like a great venue. Tomorrow night we play one of my favorite venues on the east coast, The Club Cafe in Pittsburgh. I played there in May with Project Object and it's truly wonderful.

But...the show I'm looking forward to the most is Monday night in Philadelphia. I have so many friends and family coming it's going to really rock. I thrive on positive crowd reaction -- it takes me to new levels as a drummer. The show is at 7:30 at World Cafe Live and it's selling out quickly. Here's the link to order tickets.

Anyway, gotta run for now. I will try and come back and talk about some of our adventures but to be honest, so far this part of the tour has been adventure free and Julie and I are pretty happy about that.

Though I bet the Acoustic Planet Tour in Atlanta on August 16 where we rotate on the stage with Bela Fleck and Umphrey's McGee will be more than interesting. All of the members of the various bands shift and jam for three hours.

I live for this stuff.

See you soon! This Monday, Philadelphia! Be there or be...

Never mind. Just joking. But I do hope we pack the World Cafe Live!

Homegrown in Delaware

2006-08-06T03:05:00.000-07:00

Eric Slick on tour May, 2006

Being off of the Adrian Belew tour for a few weeks is like culture shock. I realize that I don't do much during the daytime, and that usually involves sitting down with my mom and watching The View and Who Wants to be a Millionaire, which, to be honest, makes us both crazy but it's more like background noise and The View we sit around and trash; Millionaire, sadly, we play along with. Sometimes. When we're desperate. Television is a serious addiction! It should be a surprise to nobody that while I should have been decompressing and sleeping for two weeks I've been practicing, and I even managed to play a show in Newark, Delaware last night. I wish I had somebody taking pictures so when I reach a new level of insane somebody can say, "Here's the ocular proof."

I took the R2 train to Wilmington around 5:00 yesterday after what I felt was a productive afternoon with my friend Dom Angeletta, and when I say productive I mean eating quesadillas and recording Tom Waits knockoff songs in his new apartment. Not one empty seat on board. I stood for the entire train ride clutching a box of my mom's newly published books -- which inadvertently went to her old office and she didn't want to go there -- and my understandably heavy bookbag. Eric Svalgard, keyboardist for Project/Object and music director of the Wilmington School of Rock, picked me up at the station and we proceeded to load up all of our gear. I knew that we were going to do a "jazz gig" last night, but in musician lingo that could honestly mean anything. I had to learn a few songs, like Billy Cobham's "Crosswind" and Chick Corea's "500 Miles High" (any fusion snobs in the house?). Before I got in the car I jokingly asked, "Hey, do you have those songs on your iPod?" Eric smirked and said, "This is going to be a interesting night!"

Homegrown is a neat hippie cafe smack dab in the middle of Newark's Main Street. There seemed to be a lot of left over college students, so I didn't feel completely out of place. Right before we went on I met my fellow musicians Chris Gordon (owner of the Grand School of Music, a guitar shredder, and a member of the touring version of Hedwig and the Angry Inch) and the bass player Mr. Cole who has children at the School of Rock. Another entirely School of Rock related concert, and they were both fine players! Our setlists consisted of completely improvised material, jazz standards, the previously mentioned fusion numbers, and somehow at the end of the night we became a classic rock cover band. That's right, we even did "LA Woman" and "Smoke on the Water" complete with theatrical stick twirls and other assorted 80's moves. The dinner crowd seemed to enjoy even when we were supposedly too loud. A good time was had by all.

Have I mentioned I can't wait for the Belew tour to kick off again this Tuesday night at B.B. King's in New York City?

But what I really can't wait for is to play at the World Cafe Live in Philadelphia on August 14. I hope to meet a lot of you there.

A Note From Adrian Belew

2006-07-31T17:05:00.000-07:00

For the past few days, I've struggled with what I wanted to write about Ken Latchney. I only knew him a couple of months but I liked him so much and it's been really hard for me to deal with his sudden death. Today Adrian posted his feelings about Ken on his website and so I think the right thing to do is to also post what he wrote here.

"the saddest longest weekend of our lives.

deep silent pauses. staring into space.

punctuated by more comments of disbelief. despair. tears.

that big empty hole in your stomach.
like the hole left in our lives.

me, martha, and ken. team belew. now it's gone.

for 10 years we have been a constant family.

traveled the world together.

another phone call from a friend.

another e-mail from a well-wishing fan.

mike keneally's e-mail said it all:
"unbelievable. so sad. I'm so sorry."

it begins to sink in. as impossible as it is to believe, we will never see ken latchney again.

now it's monday morning. anytime now I should see ken's white suburu coming down the driveway. I should hear ken's king crimson greeting "haaauwwwww" from the stairwell to signal his arrival. I should walk downstairs and see him sitting at the computer in the studio control room. it was ken's studio really. we own it but ken made it his. like me, it was his favorite place to be. ken loved music. tom waits. mike keneally. les claypool. the grateful dead. phish. the residents. and most of all: frank zappa. ken had everything frank has ever done.

in his apartment the walls were covered in zappa and king crimson posters from around the world, some of them huge enough to cover half a wall. he had collected posters, t-shirts, and paraphernalia from hundreds of shows we had done together. ken was very proud of the work we had done. his living room was virtually a 5.1 listening room with an expansive couch. ken lived between his listening room couch and our studio.

he was, apart from his few close friends, a bit of a loner who kept to himself. a rare breed; a true bachelor. a few years back when ken was still attending our weekly friday night dinners at houston's restaurant he became friendly with a woman who worked at the bar. she pursued ken and at last he had the only "date" I ever knew him to have. later we all laughed when ken recounted his date: "I asked her over to my apartment and we listened to 4 hours of zappa!". as I said, ken was a true bachelor.

his passion was our work. ken never stopped refining his engineering prowess. after each weekend he would come in with a handful of notes, make some changes to various tracks, listen some more. ken was a worker bee. whatever it was that needed to be done, he would steadily go about doing it.

ken had pet names for certain people. mine was "cat daddy". martha's was "miss martha". he was a pillar in our lives. there was a sense of security in knowing he would be here most every day. his talent was so multi-faceted, he could do nearly everything for us. ken was a dedicated partner. a gentle person. I never saw him mad. he was cynical at times and acerbic like his hero frank, but not angry. some people misunderstood his quietly gruff manner, but several times in moments of real stress martha and I saw the deeply sensitive side of his nature.

he liked to go to concerts and he liked sharing his knowledge with people who came to our concerts. no matter what city we were in, he would set out walking taking funny pictures of whatever he saw. here is my favorite picture of ken taken in japan where we attended an exhibit of beatles photos.

unbelievable. just last week ken and I were touring across europe.

mostly it was a terrific experience but there were several times when thoughtless people made it very stressful. the last concert we did together was the herzburg festival in germany. in a tent backstage, ken's face full of sweat, he looked at me and said "we're getting too old for this, cat daddy". little did I know how prophetic his words would be.

although the full report is not released yet, the coroner told his parents that he had "hypertension" and "clogged arteries" so it appears to have been a heart attack which caused ken's death. nonetheless I believe he loved the life he had. he loved traveling the world. he loved the music.

I look back and it seems we did a hundred years of work together.
all the museos our lives intersected with:

saul zonana, jaguares, robert fripp, bill bruford, tony levin,The Construkction Of Light, graham elvis, mike hodges, mike gallaher, the irresponsibles, les claypool, danny carey, Side 1, Side 2, Side 3, rob fetters, chris arduser, bob nyswonger, Car Caught Fire, The Bears Live, bill janssen, Belewprints, eric slick, julie slick, ian wallace, The Power To Believe, pat mastelotto, trey gunn, Space Groove, sara hickman, rick altizer, Coming Attractions, kevin max, erick cole, al slavik, john prior, bela fleck, Op Zop Too Wah...

on and on the list goes and none of it would be the same without ken.

and his close friendships: john sinks, kent huffnagel, gary platt, tim cane, bill smith, bruce marshall, jim jewell.

I know I'm leaving someone out, but please forgive me.

to all of you who have sent condolences and e-mails I would like to thank you very much for your thoughts.

ken died in his sleep wednesday night july 26, 2006. he is survived by his mother barbara, his father al, his brother mark, the two nephews he adored, and hundreds of people who knew him only through his work.

in our hearts and memories he will live forever."

adrian belew
july 31, 2006

A Very Sad Day

2006-07-28T04:43:00.000-07:00

Julie Slick, Adrian Belew, Ken Latchney, and Eric Slick clowning around in the funhouse room at the Escher Museum in Holland...July 20, 2006

Ken Latchney, RIP ‘Kengineer’

As some of you may have read this morning over at DGMLive.com, Adrian’s long time friend and engineer, Ken Latchney, or Kengineer as we all fondly called him, passed away suddenly yesterday at the age of 38. The cause of death is believed to have been an asthma attack.

Along with those at Krimson-News, I will simply quote their sentiments: "I’d like to personally express my condolences to his family and Adrian’s in this tragic and unexpected loss, and I’d like to echo the sentiment over at Adrian’s official site by saying to please keep all of Ken’s family in your thoughts and prayers."

Julie and I are devastated over this news. As you probably know from reading this blog, Ken was Adrian's engineer for ten years and accompanied us on every show of this tour. One of the beautiful things about the Adrian Belew Power Trio is how quickly we bonded as a family within a period of only two months.

Over the next few days, I will share a funny/interesting Ken story or two from the tour but today I am much too sad to do anything but reflect.

With heavy hearts, the tour will proceed as planned beginning August 8 at B.B. Kings Blues in New York City.

More From the Herzberg Festival!

2006-07-25T11:26:00.000-07:00

Eric Slick, Adrian Belew, and Julie Slick: The Adrian Belew Power Trio

So I got the above photos and the below e-mail from someone who attended the Herzberg Festival on Friday night and I figured I'd share them here because, well, I think it was really cool of "Stef" to take the trouble to find me via this blog and send me what I think are some awesome photos. (And I think I also have a new word: unfassible!)

Hi,

I´m stef and i took som pictures at your gig in Herzberg Festival at Friday

it was the first time, i hear you, but it was "unfassible" to me (unfassible is an art word about "unbelievable" and its german translation "unfassbar")

here and now some pics of you, your sister and adrian

greetings

stef

sorry about my worse "inglish" ;-)"

*********

So that made my day. Thanks, Stef!

And now it's off to practice, practice, practice!

The Herzberg Festival

2006-07-23T20:43:00.000-07:00

Scenes from the Herzberg Festival

Herzberg Germany:

I will never forget Herzberg as long as I live. A blond dreadlocked man named Duke gave us an early drive from the Berlin Ibis Hotel. I must say by now after touring with various bands and Rock School for the past several years I'm used to those kinds of keycard hotels with the breakfast buffet! However, our Herzberg hotel must have been frozen in time, like, back to 1971? It's not a bad thing, it was even kind of cool, but it certainly was a culture shock. We soon figured out that there was no food being served so Julie and I decided to go searching for a place to eat. We stumbled upon a supermarket where nobody working there spoke any English (perhaps the funniest moment was when I asked for a plastic knife and the deli owner started air-poking me with her real knife and shouting "Plastica? Plastica?!"). Just like a scene out of David Lynch film. Luckily Julie is our female McGyver and scrounged up enough materials to make delicious tomato and cheese sandwiches in our psychedelic hotel room. This show was going to be a trip, for sure.

We met up in the lobby at 5:00 p.m., and we ran into the members of the seminal UK group The Soft Machine. What a nice bunch of blokes (as they would say). Of course right after that the hotel owner walked out and exclaimed, "We have dinner on the house for the festival artists!". So even though our supermarket trek proved to be unnecessary, it was still an hilarious experience.

Got to the festival at 7:30 p.m. If you think Bonnaroo Festival is the modern Woodstock, think again. I've never seen anything quite like the Herzberg Festival in my life. Not only did we have the 1970's hotel, but we had the 70's concert flashback. Hippie jewelry stands, vegan meals and granola packets, and of course the obligatory bootleg shirt and vinyl stands.

I must say we played a fine show considering the circumstances of no soundcheck and no pre show 80's film warmup (remember Indianapolis?)...and um, I had no monitor for my drums, which is kind of like playing unable to hear myself. Well yeah, that's exactly what it was...it's a surreal experience, but everyone was kind of mellow so I didn't allow myself to get freaked out. The crowd of 10,000 people was also a welcoming and startling surprise. After the show we were treated to an awesome helping of seasoned french fries. A fine way to end a dizzying but successful European tour.

Right now we are back in Philadelphia for two weeks of r&r and practice for the east coast leg of our tour which starts on August 8. I will post here during the next two weeks as events happen or as I remember other funny/entertaining stories from the tour so far but expect things to get lively again during the month of August when we have at least ten more shows up and down the east coast and the south but of course we're looking forward to the Philadelphia show at World Cafe Live on August 14 the most! I hope to meet a lot of you there, and please come up and say Hi.

Hello from Holland!

2006-07-20T07:21:00.000-07:00

A fan shot this photo of me and Adrian Belew in the audience enjoying the music of the other bands playing at Zappanale on Saturday night.

So greetings from Holland! I have to say that our set last night at Boerderij - Zoetermeer was our best yet on the European leg of our tour. Why? Well, for the first time since we arrived overseas on Saturday morning, we finally had all of our equipment. I didn't want to bum anyone out but we were really missing everything in Italy...Adrian had no effects pedals, loops...nothing. At first we thought the airlines had even lost Julie's bass (again) but at least that didn't happen. So we were kind of happy to put that show behind us and hope for the best.

And yep, last night was incredible. The venue was small in comparison to the outdoor festivals we've played so far -- I'd say it was about the size of the The Troc in Philadelphia, but it was packed with enthusiastic fans. They were really into the music and we were finally so relaxed and happy that we could actually do our whole, rehearsed set that we were all pretty much smiling ear to ear all night.

Today we actually have a day off to sightsee! Our flight to Germany isn't until 9:00 p.m. tonight, and tomorrow, oh my god, we are going to play in front of more people than either Julie and I have ever played in front of our lives at the Herzberg Festival. I honestly hear that this is like Woodstock and there will be thousands and thousands of people in attendance. Ha ha - if you look at their webpage and the photos from last year, it even looks like Woodstock and, um, 1969. It should be extremely cool but I'd be lying if I didn't say I wasn't anxiety ridden over the possibility that our equipment might get lost again on the flight tonight. But I'm keeping calm by telling myself that if that's the case, at least it's a Friday and there are music stores open and many other musicians playing so we should at least be able to beg, borrow and steal (just kidding) in order to properly do our show!

And now at this time, I wish to interrupt this broadcast to bring you a blogpost from my sister, Julie, and here she is backstage at Zappanale last week with former Rock School All-Star and now Penn State University pre-med student Madison Flego, who now works part-time for Rock School as an assistant:

Hello, Julie here!

We are having the most incredible time ever, but it's not without problems. I want to write about all that's happened but I don't want you to think I'm not having one of the best experiences of my life; it's just that we've had some really strange things occur which I'm sure I will laugh about someday and maybe I can make you laugh today.

In just three days we have gone through a rollercoaster of emotions. First, right off the bat we had problems just getting to Germany. Our plane from Nashville was 10 minutes late in take-off and we got stuck in a 15-minute holding pattern in Newark – so we only had five minutes to switch planes. Nobody had eaten all day so we bum rushed a nasty Chinese stand, ordered some vegetables and rice and ran onto our plane – where we waited for 40 minutes because so many people were late. I was still excited though, as the row in front of Eric and me was still unoccupied. I made plans for Eric to move up, so that we’d each have a row of three seats to sleep on. These visions were soon dashed – and in such a fashion as they were filled up by a mother and her two young children. Right off the bat, the screams came from this little Spanish girl, which of course set off the high spirits of a little German boy.
These two then worked together, despite the language barrier, to omit primal screams throughout the flight. One would yelp, the other cried in response. It was some sort of warped dialogue. Anyway, I prefer not to relive that nightmare. So finally I managed to get some sleep in and arrived at the airport still exhausted and gross.

Of course everything came right away, except for the odd and vitally important items – Adrian’s oversized equipment (his amp and all of his effects) and my bass. We went over the overweight section and waited… and waited… and waited. The gear never showed up. We went over to the lost baggage claim and were told that that there was just one more flight from Newark and that it would be same time as the flight we had just taken. Adrian is the nicest guy ever and for the first time I saw that he was going ballistic – he couldn’t have fun and relax until he knew his set-up was coming and understandably so. Ken-gineer made fun of him to try and break the tension and it worked but let me tell you, we were all pretty panic-stricken, especially after the flight from hell. All day we stressed about it – I practiced on Andy’s (Andy Zimmerman, a Rock School All-Star) bass just in case. The next morning, we woke up to find out that my bass did indeed come – but that was all. Adrian was pretty freaked out about his messing gear but he is the consummate pro and regardless of all that happened, the show started and we pulled it off by cutting four songs and doing extended jams. I don’t really remember it at all, just that I was happy with my parts.

That night nobody got any sleep and we had to take two planes – one to Munich and one to Rome. We left at 6 AM and waited at the Munich airport for two and a half hours just to check in. The flights were so nice on DBA – the Europeans really know how to make a plane comfortable – I don’t know what it was about it, softer seats or something.

Our first flight was a little late so we only had a half an hour before our other plane was to take off. I bit my lip running to the next flight, not wanting to express my anxiety that we may lose our gear again. Our flight was again beautiful – I still did not sleep, but at least relaxed the whole way. We arrived in Rome and man; their language is so lovely and easy on the ears.

So this you can't believe. We waited 20 minutes at baggage claim for our flight’s luggage to come out. One by one, the personal luggage streamed out: Eric’s bag, Adrian’s two bags… but that was all. Adrian went over to oversized luggage and came back with the biggest smile as he carted over his two flight cases of gear. But my bass was still not there. He went back and returned to us again ecstatic as he hoisted up my bass. We looked over the gear happily until Ken, Adrian's long-time engineer, murmured, “I still need my bags.”

“That’s fine,” Adrian said, “what are you missing?”

“My personal belongings and my gear… which has all the power adaptors inside of it.” Apparently Adrian had forgotten that in Nashville, we had to shift all of his adaptors into Ken’s bag to more evenly distribute the weight.

“That’s OK,” he said “Bags are still coming out.”

But again we waited…and waited. Finally we walked over to the lost baggage claim again, this time not feeling as dismayed as we saw lots of flights coming in from Munich. Our hopes fell as we saw the long line and one man working the counter. After one and a half hours of waiting (and circling the complex for more baggage claim), we finally made it to the front – only Adrian had to fight with an old guy who tried to cut ahead of us. I thought the usual kind and patient Adrian was going to punch the old man in the face. Either way, Adrian managed to make him get in line behind us and explained our situation to the powers that be.

The man behind the counter pointed to the office next door, and Adrian and Ken quickly ran in. Horror and anger soon consumed me as I looked beside the office door – displayed were tiny signs for several airlines, including DBA. We had been waiting in the wrong line. After ten minutes Adrian resurfaced more dismal than ever: “The bags are in Munich and we can only hope to get them tonight after the show.”

Imagine for a moment our dismay in reliving this nightmare. Not only did we have to rough it again, but we also missed two precious hours in Bella Roma FOR NOTHING. We had to go straight to the gig and figure out what to use now during sound check.

After two more hours of excruciating traffic from the airport, we made it to the venue. As we pulled up, we saw a beautiful park. We didn’t realize that we’d be playing an outside gig. We walked up to the stage and saw folded chairs, a dance floor, and some food stands surrounded by a lake, which was surrounded by beautiful trees. Then we looked in the program for our show, which also comprised of all of the acts that had played and will be playing there this summer. On July 3, the Flaming Lips played there. Next month, Stewart Copeland will be playing there. It was really cool to think we’d be on the same stage. Anyway, this time Adrian didn’t even have his loop pedal, I didn’t have my pedal, and Eric was without his double kick pedal. AND instead of a Marshall, there was a Fender Twin, and Adrian had no distortion. We somehow figured out how to get a halfway decent sound, and retired to the backstage where we ate delicious little sandwiches and good espresso – which I desperately needed at that point. Eric even had one for the first time. The coffee went straight to work, and we came back to our hotel which is when I started writing this blog entry.

Anyway at 10:00 p.m. we went back to the venue and went right to the stage. And if things weren't crazy enough, Eric had a rare, minor asthma attack on stage. He quickly overcame it, but after the show he could not catch his breath. Believe me, I was worried about him and tried to comfort him. Then an Italian woman came in and started massaging him and tried to calm him down. Of course we had called for the van to go back to the hotel, but Eric didn’t want to leave. After about a half an hour, he finally started to get the feeling back in his hands and face (which were numb).

We got back to our hotel at 1:30. I was so afraid I’d miss sleep again. After about ten minutes I finally fell asleep. I somehow woke up naturally at 8:30 and decided to wash my hair – in my shower, which was also my bathroom with a showerhead and a curtain over the toilet. It was really cool in a bizarre sort of way! So that brings me to now, and I’m outside at the hotel writing this next to Adrian and Ken, drinking cappuccinos. They are discussing stories of tours in Italy and hopefully we can come back. If we do, we are doing a more extended tour and that is REALLY something to look forward to.

UPDATE: Holland is insane so far! We are miles outside of any major city -- we're surrounded by cows and people who don't speak English. Eric and I were going to get on a train to go to the Escher Museum in Den Haag. We even walked to the train right next to our hotel. We tried to buy tickets with euros, but the sole cash only machine was in Dutch. We went downstairs to check out the right track for a train. A sign read: Den Haag 12:51. It was 12:50. The train approached and Eric and I looked at each other. Should we get on? We didn't have tickets. Nothing was in English. The sign on the train said nothing of Den Haag, but we knew it was the right track - like going to Malvern on the Thorndale train. Eric hopped on. I hesitated and then I screamed for him to ask someone on the train. The alarm rang, the doors were shutting...

"NO NO NO!" I yelled. Eric jumped off in time. I was freaking out too badly. I looked at the schedule upstairs; the next train was in 8 minutes. I decided not to mess around in a random town in a foreign country, where we had to no contact information. I didn't want to mess up the show. Eric and I went back and forth about what to do on our way back to the hotel. I was starving my face off, and had boullion soup with delicious mushrooms alone at the brasserie in the hotel (only
restaurant for kilometers). I apologized to Eric for freaking out at the train, and we took a picture for the ad for our show outside the hotel. How surreal to see us listed on a big poster!

So I have a bunch of fun things lined up for us to do on our day off in Holland today; tonight is our flight to Germany, and if any of you out there do such things, please light a candle for us now or pray to whatever higher power in whom you believe...and see that the four of us and ALL OF OUR GEAR arrive safely in Germany so that we can put on the show of our lives tomorrow night in Herzberg.

Love,
Julie

Rome, Italy

2006-07-19T03:55:00.000-07:00

Julie Slick and Adrian Belew doing soundcheck at Laghetto Di Villa Ada, Rome, Italy

Morning (this time from Amsterdam!):

Italy was gorgeous. I'll have more pictures for you later, though I did find some crazy art shots someone took with their cell phone right here.

So guess what. Even though our equipment was mysteriously "found" by Continental Airlines AFTER our show in Germany, when we arrived in Rome Adrian's gear did not show up again. What a bummer.

Also, no bass pedal for my drumkit. I tried to stay calm because hey, this is all part of touring but man it was hard. It was so frustrating! Luckily, it arrived before the show, but not before nearly giving me a heart attack.

So you know you go to Italy to eat but I was so stressed I wasn't really hungry. We had tomato mozzarella sandwiches before the show, and I had my first cup of espresso ever. Understand that I don't even drink regular coffee. I basically had NO SLEEP following our show in Germany and even on the flight to Rome, which, combined with espresso for the first time and worrying about our gear, made for a Very Bad combination. About half-way through the show, during one of our craziest songs, Of Bow and Drum, I had an anxiety/asthma attack on stage. I struggled to keep playing but it was obvious I was having problems and it made the tempos much slower, Yikes. I somehow managed to keep playing but after leaving the stage I totally lost it and for about an hour I had a panic attack and I thought I was going to die. This has happened to me before, usually on plane flights. It was terrifying but obviously brought on by the excitement, no sleep, long hours of travel, and ask me if I'll ever, ever drink an espresso again! I scared Adrian and Julie who told me I looked horrible and just as I was thinking the hospital was my only option a woman came backstage and calmed me down. She hugged me for awhile and told me to take deep breaths. It was frightening. Luckily everything was okay, and I went to hotel and slept like a baby. We stayed at Hotel Villa Del Parco.(pictures of that soon)

I really want to talk more about the music and will do that in a future post because yes! we have good internet here in Amsterdam and after our show tonight we'll be here all day tomorrow, too. But in the meantime, here's a review of our show which appeared in an Italian publication, which, considering the fact that we were still missing equipment and I thought I was dying, is pretty favorable:

"I had already seen Adrian Belew with his trio last April in Rome. Both the line-up (Mike Gallaher on bass and Mike Hodges on drums) and show were awesome.

Yesterday I went to Villa Ada also to see the new guys in the band, Julie Slick (20) and Eric Slick (19). Since the beginning of the concert with "Writings On The Wall" (from "Side One"), Eric showed his tight and powerful drumming skills, a la John Bonham, twisting Belew's music a bit. I couldn't hear Julie's bass very well for the first few songs of the setlist, as the mix wasn't excellent, but later on the show it was clear that she can play. Adrian was in fine form, as usual, and the band streched out the songs a bit to let him play some longer solos, but again, I think there were some technical problems goin' on yesterday (I also heard that his guitar pedals were lost at the airport), and the sound wasn't great - "The Lone Rhinoceros" was played instead of "Matchless Man", maybe because of that.

The best part of the show was probably when some King Crimson's classics were played, like the Beatles-ish "Dinosaur" (what a shame that the bass again was still a bit low on this tune), "Frame By Frame", "Three Of A Perfect Pair" and encores "Elephant Talk" (which Julie managed to play on a 4 strings, despite the original 6 string Stick riff played by Levin) and an exciting "Thela Hun Jingeet", where Adrian was having a lot of fun with feedbacks and sounds from another planet. Regarding the solo stuff of Belew, I enjoyed very much the versions of "Ampersand", "I Walk Alone" from "Inner Revolution" and the instrumental "Beat Box Guitar", while "Big Electric Cat" didn't sound cool enough to me - still a great tune, though.

So, a nice and enjoyable concert, not that long (but I think it is the right choice for this kind of concerts). The young players in the band are good promises for the future, and I'm sure they will just get better and better everyday. I admire Adrian Belew as he let these guys shine on stage, performing along a giant of modern rock music like him."

More Germany

2006-07-18T04:30:00.000-07:00

Adrian, me, and Julie on stage at Zappanale 17 in Bad Doberan, East Germany

So the first thing that happened when we arrived in Germany is that Continental Airlines lost two huge cases belonging to Adrian with his equipment. Not his guitars, but effect pedals and loops and stuff like that -- equipment crucial to at least four strong songs in our set.

At first we were really freaked out. But then we calmed down and realized we were the headlining act and we were all accomplished musicians. Notice how I say "we" and I include Julie and me along with Adrian in that statement? I'm laughing when I type that. Adrian has a thirty five year career and Julie and I have been performing since 1999. But thanks to our eight years with Rock School and traveling all over the world, Julie and I know how to jam and we had a meeting and just decided to cut the four songs and really jam out on others and so that's what we did.

I was nervous because all of a sudden it hit me. I'm playing with a legend, we're the headlining act, and also, I had to play in front of the new Rock School All-Stars, who really kick butt! Julie and I played with a lot of those kids before we graduated and we were nervous, especially since Rock School had played the night before to like seven encores.

I have to admit, I sat in on a song with the All-Stars on Saturday night after midnight. What happened was they did so many encores, the kids were exhausted and cold, and that's when the crowd started screaming for a cover of Stairway to Heaven. Since I'd played that many times growing up, I offered to sit in on drums, and it was a lot of fun.

So back to our set with Adrian on Sunday night. We got on stage, and I looked at the crowd, and everyone was so into it and such fans of Adrian that I relaxed. As you may or may not know, Adrian is a Frank Zappa alumni, meaning, he played with Frank Zappa before he died and is revered by all of the Zappa freaks who throw this festival each year in Germany to honor the music of the late great Frank.

Our set did not include any Zappa music; it's all a mix of songs Adrian did throughout his solo career and with King Crimson.

Unfortunately, because we did not have the missing equipment, we had to cut one of our really strong songs, Matchless Man, but luckily, after the show wrapped up the stuff was mysteriously "found" by Continental Airlines and delivered to us so we had it in time to take to Italy. Our theory is the two cases were held up in customs because that was the day George Bush made a sort of secret visit to Bad Doberan.

Oh my god, he rode a bicycle through the city. I don't know if I'm happy or sad to have missed that. I don't think this is the place to get political, but let's just say that those in attendance at Zappanale are not exactly George Bush fans and it was very tense with all of the military helicopters flying overhead. The various FBI and stuff almost ruined the show for a lot of people at first. I'm just glad that by the time I played with Adrian on Sunday night, Bush was already long gone and at the G8 summit in Russia. But I mean, what are the odds that he'd be there in that tiny village the same time as Zappanale? Even if it was just for a day or two.

Anyway, by the time we played the second song, Dinosaur, we completely chilled out and had the best time of our lives. The crowd went crazy and gave us a standing ovation, screamed for an encore, and we just had a blast. Julie and I both had insane solos and I know that our set was recorded on both CD and DVD and will be available through the Zappanale website shortly. It's usually a retrospective of all the bands that played over the course of three days so what songs they choose for the CD/DVD will be a surprise.

Afer the show we were swarmed with people and it was kind of embarrassing signing so many autographs and having my photo taken; Julie and I gave a long interview to a German radio station -- they're going to use our voices and then dub in the German translation so that should be interesting.

It was such a relief, though, learning that the lost equipment had been found when we got back to our room Saturday night. We went back into town for the after-party and played a goofy game of Survivor...don't ask...it involved all kinds of weird challenges...just think of being a little kid and going into a restaurant and pouring ketchup, mustard, sugar and salt into a glass of water and daring someone to drink it for a dollar...only amp that up considerably, and well, you know...it's all rock and roll.

Be back with a report about out Italy show last night a little later. I think it went well, considering all the travel and anxiety we had over the past three days.

Music is the best!

(By the way, that is the official Frank Zappa motto. That, and "there's no such thing as a dirty word")

Auf Wiedersehen,
Eric Slick

Some pics from Germany....

2006-07-17T14:36:00.000-07:00

Me, Ade, and Julie

At Zappanale last night

I'm about to go on stage in Rome -- here's some photos in the meantime -- thanks to Andrew Greenaway!

I promise a post as soon as I get an extra minute...hopefully after the show tonight.

Quick note from Germany...

2006-07-17T05:29:00.000-07:00

Good morning!

We did not have easy internet access in Germany but we will have it in Italy where we are headed right now. I'm coming to you from the airport.

Headlining at Zappanale 17 in Germany as part of the Adrian Belew Power Trio was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. As soon as I get to our hotel and have some down time, I will try and tell you all about it and post some of my digital photos. We do have a show in Rome tonight after all of the travel today but I will do my best.

In the meantime, I am excited to announce that we're coming to Philadelphia to play at the World Cafe Live on August 14, 2006 before heading to the Acoustic Planet Tour in Atlanta Georgia the next day. I hope to meet a lot of you at the World Cafe Live and you can find ticket information right here.

Ciao, (Ha!)
Eric Slick

Germany!

2006-07-15T17:45:00.000-07:00

A street in Bad Doberan, East Germany and a photo of Julie backstage at Zappanale, talking with Don Argott, producer of Rock School.

Ha ha - click on the Rock School trailer and you'll see a young Julie and me (with short hair ugh). The trailer actually opens up with me on the drums, then you'll see me whacking myself in the head with my sticks when I get frustrated...and there's a blurb of Julie and me sitting side by side trashing the band 311. We're also on stage at Zappanale at the end of this clip if I remember correctly.

So, finally, we're in Germany. Did I say we had 6 flights in 9 days? Make that 10 flights in 9 days. Or something like that.

We don't go on stage until tomorrow night -- the Adrian Belew Power Trio is the headliner, so hopefully I'll get to do some sightseeing. At Zappanales past I was still part of Rock School and wasn't free to roam around.

As I said, Bad Doberan is in East Germany which I'm sure you all know was formerly communist. It's a tiny, beautiful village bordered by the Baltic Sea and an old fashioned steam train is the only transportation in the town -- if you ride it to the end (about 20 minutes) you arrive at this crazy beach which has bombed out beachfront art deco buildings and colored stones instead of the seashells we're used to in New Jersey. But first you have to walk through a dense forest to get there. We're only here two days, then get a load of our schedule:

After our show Sunday night, we head back to our hotel because the very next day we leave for Italy and our flight is at 11:30 a.m. We arrive in Rome at 3:00 p.m. on Monday and our show is at 9:30 p.m. The following day, after I guess having an outrageously excellent lunch in Italy, we take a 3:40 p.m. flight from Rome to Munich to Berlin. If all goes according to plan, we'll get to Berlin at around 8:00 pm and spend the night there. Then, on Wednesday, at 8:30 a.m., we take a flight from Berlin to Amsterdam, where we have a show at 8:30 p.m. that evening. What's cool is that we get to spend most of Thursday in Amsterdam but then we have a 9:10 p.m. flight back to Berlin, where we then have to drive four hours to Herzberg, where we will be on stage as part of the Herzberg Festival at 9:00 p.m. On Saturday, we take an 11:20 a.m. flight from Frankfurt to New York to Nashville, where we should (hopefully) arrive at 7:30 p.m.

Is that crazy or what?

So I'm off to check out the festival right now, do some exploring, and I'll be back later with any news and of course a write-up of Sunday night's show.

Night Three: Chicago, Illinois

2006-07-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

Julie and me post-concert in Indiana. I'm not really scowling -- I was just exhausted and Rena Fay, a huge Belew fan who was taking the photo, made a joke and told me to smile for my mother.

Chicago, Illinois - The Double Door. Another one of my new favorite places to play. I prefer standing room gigs because when the audience is dancing that means more energy to feed off of. Before the show, Adrian's booking agent, Joshua, was nice enough to take us out to dinner at a fine Italian restaurant called Club Lucky. We shared stories about Dweezil Zappa and we ate more bread than we should have but Julie and I are both vegetarians. Backstage area was underground and funky, again, the infamous deli tray with Honey Wheat bread (yep, and again, you could even fold it more than once!). Diet Rockstars were in order that night -- the first rider foul-up because I'm not a diet drink fan -- man, is there anything worse than that sugar substitute aftertaste? But no matter, I drank the whole thing anyway.

Adrian, Julie and I were unintentionally color coordinated like a bad joke (Julie was dressed in black, I was in white, and Adrian was red all over). I'll post a photo as soon as I find one -- a lot of King Crimson forum boards are putting up reviews of the show and I'm hoping someone has a link to pics. I'll put up some links to the forum boards themselves in my next post.

The show that night was our favorite. All around perfect. Gentle Giant guitarist Gary Green was in the audience much to my surprise and delight. He told us he really enjoyed the show. Afterwords, I went to a White Hen (Chicago's version of Wawa) where I watched a guy try to rationalize purchasing a six pack of beer and ten Peanut Butter Twix bars. Mmm...how nutritious. The mind boggles.

Anyway, an excellent mini tour. With three shows in the U.S. behind us, Europe here we come. I just got the tour/flight schedule and it looks like six flights in nine days. But seeing Italy and Amsterdam for the first time will be awesome...and I can't wait to see the European crowd's reaction because Adrian is just an unbelievable musician and he has a huge fan base there.

Okay then. We're off to Germany!

Night Two: Springfield, Ohio

2006-07-13T20:30:00.000-07:00

That's me on stage in Springfield on July 7, 2006

Springfield, Ohio - beautiful location. An ampitheatre settled in the middle of a mountainous area with smiley-face fold out chairs in front of us. The backstage area had a grand piano where I improvised and did an epic version of the "Free-Credit-Report.Com" commercial. They got it right again (our rider, that is) and had an overflowing cooler with Rockstar Energy Drinks. We also had the infamous deli tray, but unlike Spinal Tap we had bread that could fold more than once.

There were 3 huge screens behind us projecting us on video which at first was disorienting. I'm remembering touring with Project Object when we played at Ram's Head Live in Baltimore. They also had video screens of us throughout the venue but they were t.v. sized for the most part. And just like with the screens in Ohio, there was a couple of seconds delay in the broacast. So it was like Baltimore but bigger and scarier. The crowd was estimated at about 1,500 people, and by the end they were going wild which was kind of exciting to see.

It was great meeting and talking with the videographer/editor. He's a really cool guy named Jeremy Sewell. He told me he's been filming Adrian Belew over the past couple years and Adrian is one of his favorite artists he's worked with. He also told me he plans on filming more shows during these tours and hopefully will use some of the vids for the CD Julie and I are recording with Adrian called Side 4 which is going to be done live.

For those of you who know about such things, Jeremy said he filmed us in 24p...3 angles (2 up real close)

Jeremy has some wild stories about Grateful Dead concerts he attended -- it's always interesting to get the inside view of a Deadhead. Meanwhile, he's also filming one of my favorite bands, The Flaming Lips. I gotta see if I can get to one of those shows! Jeremy said The Flaming Lips are also one of his favorite bands and he's booked to film them by Warner Brothers this fall. He's already filmed them four other times. Man, how lucky can you get. Right now he's on the Les Claypool tour, and he also works for Jamcruise, Langerado, Bonnarroo, and Ratdog. He seemed impressed that I actually knew what tour his Residents t-shirt came from...I even gave him the year and told him it was the Cube E tour. Yeah, I know my music history. Maybe because music is my life? Anyway, also cool was that he told me our upcoming gig in Jacksonville Beach will be awesome because the venue, The Freebird, is "sick". He filmed Buckethead there for an upcoming DVD release.

So our second show was "different" as we did not know what to expect from an outside venue, but the sound was pristine and it was unique so we appreciated the variety. We finally felt relaxed and couldn't wait to play Chicago the following night.

And did I mention I'm in love with the drum set I have on this tour? Adrian asked me what I wanted and since I play a vintage Gretsch kit at home, I asked if he could rent me something on that order. Naturally, he came through.

Music is the best!

Night One: Indianapolis, Indiana

2006-07-12T19:58:00.000-07:00

Julie Slick and Adrian Belew on stage at the Music Mill in Indianapolis, Indiana

The Music Mill in Indianapolis is a crazy venue because it's located in the dead center of a strip mall parking lot. It looks like a giant cube that was plopped down from outerspace or something even though surrounded by a Pizzeria Uno and a Crabtree & Evelyn. It was only a 5 hour drive from Nashville and we stopped at a Frisch's Big Boy in Kentucky. I'm proud to say I had my first "Big Boy Salad Bar Experience", and certainly not my last. Adrian is quite fond of their fish sandwich -- I think he may have been raised on them.

Anyway, this place looked eerily similar to Philadelphia's World Cafe Live. Maybe it could've been the same designer. The backstage area was private and enjoyable but one thing I really love about this tour already is that we have a "rider". Though I've toured before with other bands, this is my first experience with riders and oh man is it cool. For those not in the know, a rider is a list of pre-show demands -- you know, like only green M&Ms back stage. Every single friend of mine knows I have a heinous addiction to Rockstar Energy Drinks, and much to my utter joy, they provided me with 2 packs of them backstage. Brilliant, Indianapolis, brilliant.

Our opening act was Graham Elvis, a longtime friend of Adrian's. He has this whole Kinks/British Invasion sound and look, and his post gig ritual involves throwing a pair of socks to the crowd.

I love artists.

Julie and I were frightened. We pranced about the dressing room doing calisthenics, which took the edge off of my um, vitamin packed beverage. Like a John Hughes movie, we huddled and put our hands in the middle and started an ascending yell. I walked on stage and I knew there was no turning back. This was it. The first night of touring with a legend. The show that night was electric and raw. Yeah, there were a few mess ups here and there, but the overall energy was perfect. A middle aged man yelled, "I'm in love with the bass player!" Julie blushed and looked down; she got really embarrassed and it was funny. Then two songs later the same guy shouted out "I'm still in love with the bass player!" It was hard not to break out laughing but I managed somehow though I did smile. But our biggest surprise were the 3 standing ovations we received. Highlights: "Big Electric Cat" and an uptempo "ampersand".

Afterwards, people asked us for our autographs. It was surreal. But with one show under our belts, we couldn't wait to get back on stage again and we would have our chance the following evening in Springfield, Ohio.

Preface and Preparation...

2006-07-10T19:15:00.000-07:00

Julie Slick on bass, Adrian Belew on guitar and vocals, Eric Slick on drums

Preface:
On May 12, 2006, I received a phone call from Paul Green, founder of the Philadelphia establishment "The Paul Green School of Rock Music". I was on the way to the Club Cafe in Pittsburgh. During April and May I had been touring with a Frank Zappa tribute act called Project/Object. Our shows were musically insane - 3 and a half hours with a ten minute intermission - and we would be packing up our equipment until well after midnight. If we were lucky we could get to a Motel 6 by 2:00 in the morning. Typically we would wake up at 11:00 AM and then rush to maneuver through 2 states. Let's just say that our routing for that particular tour involved days off strictly for travel, perhaps from Wisconsin to Kentucky or something radical like from New Haven, Connecticut to Cincinnati. A long drive was required the day of Paul's phone call and I was beat. Our last two shows were right in a row and I had a straight month of always having to be mentally, musically, and physically on my toes, which can do a certain amount of mental damage. (Just kidding but it was incredibly intensive - both the music and the physical exertion).

Anyway, I picked up my buzzing cell phone and without even saying Hello -- with no hesitation at all -- Paul said, "You're not gonna believe this."

I was hoping that it wasn't anything morbid at first because he had a concerned tone in his voice. I've known Paul since 1998 and he's not just a mentor; he's like family to me.

"What? What's up?" I asked.

"You're not gonna believe this," he repeated.

He was making me crazy

"Tell me!" I demanded.

"You are the new drummer for Adrian Belew's Trio."

I stopped. I gasped for air again and tried to let this sentence make sense. To some people, maybe even most people, Paul's remark wouldn't mean that much. A lot of alleged music lovers don't know who Adrian Belew is, much to my chagrin. In my eyes, I see Adrian Belew as the man who has played on not just one but three of my all time favorite records: Talking Heads' "Remain in Light", King Crimson's "Discipline", and Frank Zappa's "Sheik Yerbouti". It's always bothered me that he isn't consistently on the cover of Guitar Player or even Rolling Stone. Aren't those records considered classics? Is it forgotten that he also performed on David Bowie's "The Lodger", and Paul Simon's "Graceland"? Not to mention he contributed his industrial alien squeals to the 1994 critics favorite, "The Downward Spiral" by Nine Inch Nails and it's double album follow-up, "The Fragile". That infectious sample behind Mariah Carey's smash "Fantasy"? Yep, even that was him too.

So, I took a deep breath and asked Paul, "Are you kidding me?"

"No, you're flying to Nashville next Friday and you begin rehearsals. Oh, and Julie (my sister) is playing bass. You both have to learn 15 songs in 3 days. Congratulations."

Ha ha. That was so Paul. He's great.

Julie and I played with Adrian once when he was on a mini-tour with Rock School back in February. Paul invited us back as graduates -- Hall of Famers -- so that we could have the chance to play with a man he knew to be my hero. Things came full circle when we sat in on Zappa's "City of Tiny Lites", a song we had played with School of Rock about 300 times in venues around the world. I guess he was impressed because that was our only audition! Well, sort of. He still wanted us to fly down to Nashville for a few days to see if we were up to learning those fifteen songs of some very difficult music and executing them to his level of perfection.

That phone call was really exciting, but in the meantime, I was still on tour with Project Object. I spent the rest of the day preparing for the show in Pittsburgh but I admit it - I still couldn't quite grasp it what Paul told me. I'd be playing with my idol, a multi-instrumentalist renaissance man whose creativity and originality is still surging as he continues to evolve as a songwriter and producer. I could even say that I was playing with a legend.

Preparation for the tour:
I came back from the whirlwind known as touring on my 19th birthday. Little did I know that I was going to be brought right back into the hurricane of frantic rehearsing. That Tuesday, I had to learn 10 songs for a project with Dave Dreiwitz from Ween, and then I needed to focus and learn those 15 super complex songs for Adrian. I also had to get back into the swing of things by rehearsing with my sister, as we had not played in a group setting for awhile...the last band we'd been in together broke up last summer. My only means of gigging in Philadelphia up until that point was with my band, Flamingo. Once we got back together though, it went smoothly. Playing with a sibling or any family member for that matter can be like chatting with a longtime friend. You know exactly what to expect down to their personality, their mannerisms, facial expressions, and interestingly enough their faults (and how they slyly use their faults to an advantage). Plus, we had played together for the past eight years all over the world as All-Stars for Rock School and as I said, in a band of our own for a few years so we really are comfortable up on stage. Anyway, conversely, the rewarding thing about playing with Julie is that she pushes me to do things differently on the drumkit, and I push her to try new things on the bass. By Thursday night we knew the material well enough so hopefully we wouldn't chump it when we got Nashville!

The flight to Nashville the first time around was exhausting. We had 3 different planes to get there and the jet lag that ensued was mindmelting. We found Adrian at the airport and went straight to his house to get started. He has a state-of-the-art recording studio in hisbasement which was intimidating at first. For the first time in a long time, we were truly nervous. We ran through the first couple of songs and I dropped beats and Julie bummed notes and essentially it was a mess. Adrian is obviously not your typical shouting dictator though, and our anxieties soon vanished. Also, did I mention that Adrian is one of the nicest human beings I've ever met? He's even-tempered and a lot of fun. Over 4 days in Nashville we learned all of the arrangements and came home with a rough CD of our practice. Over the next month Julie and I prepared by running through the material twice a week. We came back to Nashville on July 3rd on only two flghts and did the set list once a day until our first show on Thursday. We felt pretty confident and couldn't wait to get on stage.

Next installment: Our first show in Indianapolis, Indiana

Meet Eric and Julie Slick

2006-07-07T13:24:00.000-07:00

Julie Slick, 20, began taking bass lessons at age 12 with Paul Green as one of 17 students Green taught in his apartment in 1998 in order to help pay his tuition at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a philosophy major. Green had the students to jam at venues around the city to give them real experience as musicians. For their first show, Green and his students performed at Pink Floyd's The Wall at the Griffin Cafe at Second and Market Streets. He didn't have a drummer so the owner of the restaurant sat in. Julie’s mother, Robin, suggested that Green consider her 11-year-old son, Eric, who eventually the house drummer. The Paul Green School of Rock Music was later born, Eric began studying drum lessons at the school and now teaches there.

Their first show was in Indianapolis Thursday night, to be followed by performances in Springfield, Ohio, Friday night and Chicago on Saturday night. On July 12, they leave for Germany where they will play a series of shows/festivals twice in Germany, Italy and Holland. An East Coast swing, including an August 14 show at the World Cafe Live in Philly, starts on August 8. Then they travel south on August 16 to Atlanta for another festival. More dates may be added, but at this point the tour wraps up on August 18 in Florida. They will then record a CD with Belew that will be followed by a West Coast swing in November.