January 30th
Munich, Germany

I want to start this entry by letting you all know that Dexter is feeling 100% better. We want to thank everyone for their concern, but when my father in-law calls my wife up to make sure the tour is still on because he heard on MTV that Dexter is very Ill, I guess I'm not making myself clear enough. I am, However, glad that so many of you are tuning in. Please keep it up.

It is snowing here this morning. In fact we've seen a lot of the stuff over the last few days. These last four or five days have been the most brutal of the tour. I spent 21 of yesterday's 24 hours on the bus driving here from Warsaw. The last four shows have been hit and run where we have to leave right afterwards in order to make it to the next show in time. It usually takes all day to set up production- sound system, lights, and such- but we got to Warsaw with only three hours to do it all. Our crew is the best out there, so they managed to do it, but it wasn't easy. It was definitely worth the drive as well because the Polish audience was the best so far. This is partly due to the fact that there were about 2500 people in a space big enough for 600. There was no room for anything other than vertical movement so that when the crowd jumped up and down, it did so in waves. It was awesome to see and be a part of. Warsaw, we will definitely be back!

Wednesday's show in Prague was probably our best performance for this tour so far. As we opened with "All I Want" the crowd exploded and, for the next hour and fifteen minutes, it never stopped moving once. This was one of those shows that drives home the meaning of why we do this as a band. When the four of us are able to connect musically, extend that connection to the audience, and then keep it going for an hour or more, well that is what we live for. Forget drugs to get you high. They can't compete and, in fact can only bring you down afterwards. I believe that a lot of musicians drink and drug themselves to death because the high of performing can be too intense. And, just like getting high on drugs, there is a comedown after performing that can be pretty devastating. You can experience a huge range of emotions, from believing you can move mountains to feeling like the shit being scraped off someone's shoes. These, of course, are the extremes. Most of the times it is just pretty cool or mildly annoying.

So anyways, Prague and Warsaw were both great shows. Some guy called Oxygene from Budapest showed up backstage and made a nuisance of himself, but I promised that I'd try to mention him so there you go. On Tuesday we played just outside of Frankfurt. It was a good show as I remember. Things are going very well.

Later,
Noodles.