Gig in Zurich

Last night was an amazing evening for the band and especially myself since I got to see and spend time with Dylan and Vanessa. We arrived in Zurich at noon and I drove directly to Offtringen to pick them up. We had lunch at an Asian restaurant before sound check and got to walk around ZRH for a minute before sound check. I also was very surprised to see some old friends from Sri Lanka that I hadn’t seen in a long time.

The sound was very good and the band played their ass off! The audience was very receptive. It was very hard to say bye to the kids the next morning. It was a short day with the kids, but a memorable one and I look forward to seeing them soon.

Vatican/Italy

Yesterday was an off day and I took the opportunity to visit the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel. Words cannot describe the feeling when I saw Michael Angelo’s painting on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel and all the artifacts, paintings, sculptures and architecture in the Vatican. Pictures don’t do it justice, you have to be there in person to see it.

It is 11.00 am in the morning and we are on a bus traveling to Barletta, Italy. We performed in Rome on Sunday for Pope John Paul II. It was a concert dedicated to the late Pope. We played four tunes and Backed up Paul Young! That was the high light of the evening for me as I am a huge Pino Palladino fan. I loved his fretless playing on all the early Paul Young tunes. When I heard that we were going to perform “Every time you go away” with Paul Young, I was very excited. I packed my Bossa 6-string fretless along with my OB-5 and was on my way. I had a blast practicing Pino’s fluid lines and throwing in a few of my own! Paul sang his heart out and the crowd chanted the chorus accapella. It was a special moment for me to be playing with Paul, we chatted about Pino backstage.

We will be playing in Zurich, Switzerland on Friday and I am looking forward to that because I get to see my kids Dylan, Vanessa and a bunch of my friends from Sri Lanka who now reside in Switzerland. It will be good to see all of them. Dylan and Vanessa are
very excited.