Shim-shams! I'm a little behind. Let's play catch-up and get right up to the edge of the finale. We're at the end of an era, friends. I'm up in the loft of our minibus/van/Highway Tiger and it's pouring rain outside in England where we're hauling from Bristol to Leicester to play our final show of the tour.

SUDOESTE FESTIVAL, PORTUGAL: BEFORE & AFTER

We'd almost forgot that it was summer. I got up at 5:30 am in Leeds and hopped in the van. We had a four hour drive ahead of us to London's Stansted airport where were to board an Air Berlin flight to Palmo, Mallorca; a Spanish island right next to Ibiza. Why we were flying there remained a mystery, since it was very much out of the way and a much longer trip that a direct flight to Lisbon. We got to Lisbon where it was in the deeper 90s and dry and wet at the same time. Intense, hot, hot, heat.

The festival we were playing was a big deal, so much so that they put us up in the very fancy Sheridan hotel with a separate room for each of us. I took a quick nap and headed down to the lobby where we were meeting Devendra's Dad for a dinner at a place he had eaten a couple nights earlier and sworn it was some of the best food he'd ever eaten. This is a big deal coming from a man that made a ton of beautiful meals for a truckload of grungies up in Woodstock whilst recording, and, in general, holds eating well up in great heights. So we took a couple cabs (there are 9 of us at this point) to a seemingly small and residential part of Lisbon that's filled with awe-inspiring tile work on the houses. Enter an amazing meal and party glasses.

The next morning we woke up fairy early and a minivan picked us up and drove us to the festival in Odemira, three hours away from Lisbon via small, what the US calls "state," roads. We got to the festival and played a good-spirited set with our friend Pedro joining in to jam along on a few songs. Alissa shyly backed me up on percussion stuffs after I gave her a "don't be nervous" pep-talk. It goes something like this: "This doesn't matter. Whatever we do people will still clap and be excited. Festivals are full of crazy people!" With this I don't mean a single shred of disrespect to you festival goers; without you we would be playing to grass and mud.

After we played there was a DFA showcase set to go on until 5 am. I wasn't really expecting to like LCD Soundsystem at all, then I watched their entire set and I loved it so much. Sometimes I forget to listen to recorded music with the idea that it would be 1000% better in person. This was totally the case with LCD dudes. They struck my ass with lightning and made me loose my brains in the beat. What was it called again? Slam-jams? No, no.. Snap traxx! That's it! They played nothing but snap traxxxx. Then Black Dice destroyed the festival with beautifully dark cave lasers. I'm sure that at least half of the people there were freaked out, which sometimes translates to something being much more awesome than anything else. This was the case. I want to hear their new record.

Thank you Sudoeste for another good festival experience! Oh yeah, I got this close to Oasis. Luckey watched them play. The last time they played in Portugal they only got through 15 minutes of their set before they were barraged with glass bottles.

BENICASIM FESTIVAL, SPAIN: BEFORE & AFTER

We woke up early again and headed to the airport. This time we flew to Madrid, then to Valencia. When we got to Valencia the festival had a bus sent for us that took us an hour away to a small town close to Benicasim. All these connecting flights, car rides, and short sleep nights really take it out of you. When we got to Benicasim it seemed like a bit of a ghost town. We walked around the festival grounds and bought a couple falafels before watching the first band of the day on the same stage we were going to play an hour or so later. I'm not going to name names, but let me tell you.. Winter Camp is one of the most horrible things I've seen in a long time. It would be one thing if they were nice, but these ding-dongs proceeded to insult more than half of their already small audience with smarmy crap about them not being into it enough. This always makes me feel so bad. Then they announced that this was their third show! How is this possible!? One of the biggest festivals in Europe is your third show? Their parents must work for someone.

When it came time for us to play Devendra went missing. The stage manager seemed to be really stressed out and decided that I should take charge of the situation. I asked the dudes what we should do and explained that we were already late to play and we now only had 40 minutes. We started to play "The Good Red Road" and after about a minute Devendra showed up with 4 drinks he had bought to give to us. He is a nice man.

My camera has been acting up in a very annoying way. It's been turing off and on irregularly and can't seem to figure out if the battery is charged or not charged. I think this has something to do with the battery as well. Anyway, what I'm really saying is that I don't have very many photos or movies from Benicasim at all. This is where I wanted to show you how ridiculous a backstage area can be. There was a dressing-room just for us with snacks and drinks, a "VIP" area with a completely free bar and pool, and a dining area where you could get a full meal. I totally wanted to do an MTV Cribs-style report for you but my camera was being mean.

Here's a little blip of video I got of the intense video system at our show. There were multiple cameras and insanely-large screens displaying us in close-up detail while we played. Again, festivals are totally weird.

After our show we did a crapload of radio interviews and a couple television interviews, one of which was on MTV Espana. I didn't expect to be on MTV again... UK part II coming soon.

Truly,
Jona

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