The further adventures of Mission of Burma.
Sun., Dec.9: Bologna, IT

Listened to Louie C. K. shows in the van on numerous occasions – generally I can’t tolerate comics, but there is something in his over-the-toppity that seriously amuses us all.  Heard “Slip it In” (Black Flag) today.  Early punk singles.  Rolling Stones greatest hits (stopping mercifully by 1971).  Alesh hit some nice ambient tracks as we went over the Alps to Italy from Zurich.  Later audio included Buzzcocks w/Devoto.  Now Lemmy is singing (sic) – just the sound of his voice makes one happy.  The Alps are, indeed, amazing to view.

We arrive in Bologna, IT, at the Locomotiv Club (after some perambulations trying to find the entry to it).  Extremely nice guys, hospitality superb.  We’re the only band tonight.  They took us out to a classic Italian dinner.
But like all classic Italian dinners (in my understanding), it went on and on with new plates. etc.  We realized that we had less than an hour to be on stage and the last plate had just arrived.
We just finished the set list back at the club, and our hosts come in and ask “are you done digesting?”  Well, no, not really…..
This was one of those “so calm and relaxing” type of gigs that we had odd problems, never really got going in our opinion.  2 or 3 songs good, then lose it a bit.  Then 2 or 3 good, lose it a bit.  Etc.  Crowd wasn’t wild but they were all there to see us, which again, always takes us by surprise.
At any rate, we didn’t feel like we really got to where we were supposed to be, but back at the merch. table the crowd was wildly enthusiastic and in a purchasing mood.  So all in all, a pretty damn good night, especially for our first ever gig in Italy.  What a funny world…  who would’ve thought 15 years ago?