Tour Diary - Vai: Real Illusions 2005 - Europe

DavejWeiner · #1 08-19-2005, 01:43 PM

It's almost time for another tour with Mr. Vai again so I decided to open up a new thread that will be the home of this tour's diary. I know the last diary was a bit on the "sad" side; lacking content and frequent updates. But I've gotten pretty good at keeping the site content flowing and plan on keeping it rocking even on tour. In fact, not only do I plan on talking about the tour, shows and experiences here, but I plan on adding pics of the tour personel, back stage candid shots, tour gear and even videos from the road!

I decided to start this thread a bit early b/c I want to take you along each step of the tour. The first step that I'm involved in now is getting ready for rehearsals (Sept 5-10). That means relearning the Vai tunes, learning new ones (Freak Show Excess - yikes!) and planning what to take (gear, clothes, supplies, etc).

I'm going to keep this thread locked and sticky, but I'm going to open a "Tour Diary Response" thread that you'll be able to add comments, questions, suggestions to.

It should be a very exciting tour and I hope you'll enjoy the virtual ride.

Dave

DavejWeiner · #2 09-05-2005, 03:56 AM

9/4/05:

Today I left Pa and headed to LA. We start rehearsals tomorrow. I went to the Mothership and set up my gear and had an impromptu "Freak Show Excess" jam with Steve and Jeremy. It's gonna be great to finally play that song live.

I took a bunch of pics today and plan to take many every day and post as frequent as possible.

Here's a few pics from Sunday:

Before I left, I had to say bye to my baby...

Everything always looks so cool from 35,000 ft. above the ground.

When I arrived in LA, I was picked up by my friends Mike & Jason. They're in a cool band called Krimzen. Check out their site: krimzenmusic.com.

Jeremy showed up with a short hair cut for the tour. He said he was tired of getting mistaken for this guy..

That's it for now, see ya in a few.

Dave

DavejWeiner · #3 09-13-2005, 04:18 PM

Today, we're flying to Europe. I have a bunch of new pics to post up here, I just haven't had a chance to go through them yet. But we have a long plane ride so I'll be able to get a new update with lots of pics ready to post when we land. The update will include pics from rehearsals and also a pictorial introduction to the members of the Dave Weiner Band.

Dave

DavejWeiner · #4 09-17-2005, 09:21 AM

Ok it's, Sept 17th. We're now in Linz, Austria. Rehearsals went great and so did the first show of the tour last night in Graz.

Here are a few pics from rehearsals:

DavejWeiner · #5 09-17-2005, 09:39 AM

Also, one night after rehearsals, Mikey, Tony, Jeremy, BB (Jeremy's tech) and I decided to go have some food. We decided to snap a pic at the end of the night. Right before the pic was snapped, Mikey accidentally pushed the table over which resulted in drinks being spilled on Tony. We thought this was very funny as seen here:

That's it for now. I'll have another update soon!

Dave

DavejWeiner · #6 09-25-2005, 12:13 PM

Sept 25, 2005...

Yesterday was my 29th birthday and towards the end of the show in Modena, Steve announced it to the crowd. As everyone started singing Happy Birthday, the band and crew doused me with tons of Silly String. It was a mess. I thought that was it, but at the end of the night when we were bowing, Eric Sardinas and a few other guys came out with Cream pies and I got one right in the face and back of the head.. I don't have any pics of it, but I'm sure some will surface soon.

In the meantime, here's a small update with a few pics from a day off. Tony, Mikey, Jeremy and I went out to lunch, then met up with the Sardinas crew for a few drinks at the local pub.

DavejWeiner · #7 09-25-2005, 03:24 PM

Sept 25, 2005..

We have a day off tomorrow and sometimes we don't have internet access in a few venues, so I figured I'd take advantage of the access today and post another pictorial.

Introducing the 2005 Vai crew.

Narci - Tour Manager

Damon - Front Of House / Production Manager

Nelson - Monitors

Paul - Stage left tech (He's the best tech I've ever seen!)

BB - Drum tech

DavejWeiner · #8 09-25-2005, 03:25 PM

Vai crew continued...

The infamous Thomas Nordegg - Steve's tech

Jedd - Lighting Director

Tom - Merch

They are a great crew. The tour is rolling along smoothly and it's because they have their act together.

DavejWeiner · #9 09-27-2005, 11:56 AM

9/27/05:

I was walking around taking some behind the scenes pics today in Munich, Germany. Enjoy.

And here's one of the Eric Sardinas band hanging out in their dressing room..

DavejWeiner · #10 10-02-2005, 12:09 PM

10/2/05:

Things have been busy the last week but today I managed to get out of the venue and go for a walk in Tilberg, Holland. Very nice city. Here's a pic near a local landmark.

I'm going to have someone start snapping live shots to post here. I should have some up in the next week.

Cya soon.

Dave

DavejWeiner · #11 10-04-2005, 09:45 AM

10/4/05:

We had a day off in Copenhagen, Denmark yesterday. We were out walking and came across this poster of handsome men so we had to strike a pose.

Dave

DavejWeiner · #12 10-13-2005, 11:12 AM

10/13/05:

Ok catcing up.. The shows have been going great. We're almost half way through the tour. It's flying by. Here are some pics from the last week.

Here's one of Billy after he ate a Habanero chili pepper. He's trying to ease the pain with some yogurt.

Here's a pic from Gothenberg, Sweden. I climbed to the top of this mountain where there was an old military lookout.

We traveled by ferry from Sweden to Finland and had a great time on the boat. Here's a pic before we left.

And at sunset..

Later that night we were in the bar where an acoustic player was singing some covers tunes. But, it wasn't long before Eric got up and gave us some blues..

Even though we're together every day, it's still nice to hang out on our day off and have some fun.

Here's a pick of Nick Vai, Steve's nephew and personal assistant for the tour. He's a very cool guy. Here he's kicking back having a few drinks.

That's all for now. Cya soon.

DavejWeiner · #13 10-28-2005, 11:11 AM

It's been a while since the last update.. we had 9 in a row which was pretty exhuasting. But, I have a few new pics to share with you.

First, I've been getting alot of inquiry on the new acoustic I'm playing. It's completely stock and available in your music store. It's the Ibanez AEF100EACV. It plays and sounds so good. Here's a pic:

We recently had a day off in Dublin. When we got to the hotel it had just finished raining. I looked out of my window and saw this nice old church and above it was a huge rainbow. I didn't see any Leprechauns or pots of gold though.

After a nap, I went out to walk around a bit and started smelling beer, lots of it. I turned the corner and found the Guinness factory.

While in Dublin, some of the guys got tattoos. Jed (lighting director) and Jeremy got "Eve" (from the cover of the RI cd) on their hands.

Here's Jed's:

Here's Jeremy's:

Finally, Nick (Steve's nephew) got Eve and the Vai logo on his shoulder blade:

More to come soon.

Dave

DavejWeiner · #14 10-29-2005, 11:38 AM

10/29/05:

Today we're in Paris so a few of us snuck out to do some sightseeing. We didn't have much time so we decided to go to the Louvre and do a quick run through.

The Louvre houses some of the most famous and precious art in the world such as the Mona Lisa and Venus De Milo. But my favorite piece I saw today was in the main lobby of the museum. Check it out:

It's a headless skeleton in a hammock which is being balanced by skulls on one side and something I couldn't make out on the other. Here's a close up of the skeleton in the hammock.

.. and here's a close up of the Skulls..

You could spend days in the Louvre, and there's so much amazing stuff to see, but in the spirit of Halloween, I thought I'd share this particular piece with you.

Dave

DavejWeiner · #15 11-07-2005, 12:36 PM

Nov 7, 2005... wow only 17 days left of the tour.

Every day, fans are pressing their faces against the windows of the tour bus to try to see inside. You can't really see anything so I thought I'd take some pics to give you a virtual tour of the tour bus.

Here's the outside of the bus:

.. and when entering:

First thing you see is the front lounge where we spend most of the time hanging out (as being demonstrated by Jeremy):

Another view of the front lounge:

There's all sorts of stuff laying around the front lounge..

As you pass the front lounge, you can see down the hallway into the kitchen and bunk area..

Here are a few pics of the kitchen area..