It's 9 PM local time and I'm at a dinky internet cafe in Barcelona. Usually at these places I just rent a computer and take the ethernet cable from it and plug it into my laptop and steal the TCP/IP info from the desktop machine and plug 'em in to my laptop. For the first time I asked the nice girl at the counter if just had a cord I could use by taking my laptop out of my bag adn pointing to it. They totally did. So I get internet right now.

I'm going to be real brief about all the junk that's happened in the past three days because I have to make it over to the show in about 15 minutes, but let me tell you these things: I'm safe and healthy and having such an incredible and unbelievable time. It's like.. what? Is this really happening? Are these shows really happening to me? Like, I'm a part of this? WHAT? This bus? What? Devendra? Such a generous human being! AH!

Portugal was insane. We played at a "festival" called something like "a festival for sitting in chairs," or something. The only reason I put festival in quotes is because shows, big shows, in Europe are usually just one headlining band.. no openers, no nothing. Totally weird concept. In Madrid and in Bilbao and tonight in Barcelona this is the case. The festival was two shows over two days with 6 bands, total. That's like two regular shows in the US. So yeah, the show.. DAMN! It was totally mind-blowing. There weren't any seats unfilled in the house, which was a large beautiful theater. There were people in the aisles, so many people.. just everywhere. They were so kind and warm and welcomed us beautifully. Devendra played a song by himself, then one with Andy, then introduced the QUEENS OF SHEEBA like this:

"Ladies and Gentleman...YOUR PORTLAND BAY PACKERS.. JONA JONA JONA "YACHT," ADAM FORKNER "WORLD and JACKIE O MUTHERFOCKER," and KYLE, CAPTAIN, UNCLE GRIZZLE "LITTLE WINGS."

We played a very long version of this afro-beat/reggae jam we do called White Reggae Troll/Africa. People were SO IN. Clapping along. We played well and adam and I wore very fancy costumes.. well, costumes is a little much. I wore Devendra's blazer and glasses.. we were the steppers club. After we finished the crowd wouldn't let us leave.. the called us back to the stage 3 EFFING times! I was shocked.. I took some pictures and video. Here's an edit:

Portugal Vibration (7.6 MB - VIDEO MP4)

Uncle/Captain Kyle/Grizzle/Krizzle has now become this new character named "Kritz Krackers." I don't know why, but I totally don't mind at all. He is a brilliant man and a beautiful host. Did anyone know that Kyle is really, really, really into Spider Man? Devendra bought him this crazy glove that shoots silly-string-web and darts..

The next day was weird.. we drove to Bilbao and time was crazy. I woke up at 5 PM and I was so confused and tired and dirty.. Kyle and I went to the Guggenheim and our minds were blown by Bill Viola's video stuff.. oh my god. The show had a weird vibe from the start. It wasn't that much fun to play and people were nice and everything.. they just had a sleepy Sunday-night vibe.. you know? I think we were spoiled by the first two shows and I think the crowd just wanted soft music from a guitar and a boy.. no band. They still cheered for us to come back and play two encores.. but yeah.

Before the show in Bilbao (4.1 MB - VIDEO MP4)

OFF TO THE SHOW!

Truly,
Jona

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