Z7 - Pratteln, Switzerland
Entry by Chris Buzby

"WOW
The past few days have been a wonderful, special blur for us all. Not only do we continue to meet new friends and play to full houses, but the music and our live show continues to get better and tighter than we were back home.

Since I last wrote, we performed at the Boardwalk (see European tour pictures section) in Sheffield England to a very positive and energetic crowd - this show was sponsored by the Classic Rock Society - huge thanlks from us for their support. The club was beautiful witzh hardwood floors, great hospitality, and a wonderful room to perform in....we'll want to play there again on our next European tour!

We had the next day off and our bus driver, Duncan, surprised us all by driving through the night while we were sleeping - so when we woke we were in Amsterdam! WOW, what a city...we had an entire evening (and early morning) strolling through the canals and cobble lined streets meeting wonderful Dutch nationals, sampling the fine Belgian beverages, and taking in some culture on our first day off...THANKS, DUNCAN!

Next morning we strolled back into the city to experience it by daylight and by early afternoon we were back on our tour bus headed to the next show... De Boerderij in Zoetermeer, Netherlands.

WOW
As if the clubs couldn't get any better or nicer...they did! We were treated to a bus park and load in by a very professional crew who had us on stage in 1 hour sound-checking... we had a primo dressing room loaded with food and drinks, we had a homemade dinner in their cafe next door and took a picture with the chef - she was very funny and was reminding us all to eat our veggies....and then she made us! - and to top it off we had our best show to date with a great turnout and fans who sang to every word of every song the entire night... we were blown away! Then we got to meet and greet afterwards with fans and had a nightcap at the buspark while Duncan got some zzz's for our next journey to Switzerland+

Before we entered Switzerland, Duncan surprised us again with a stop at Monkey Mountain - a wildlife preserve where you get to walk among the 100+ monkeys living there and feed them popcorn... it was really neat, and we had a nice afternoon checking out their habitat. We were in southern France, and the streets, architecture, and food was excellent. Then it was off to the next show...

And that is where I type this post from - an amazing club called Z7 that has internet access (YEAH!), showers, washers and dryers (yes mom, laundry has been done!), an amazing kitchen staff who cooked us a great dinner. We just got finished playing what might have been our best show yet... we signed many a CD and DVD for fans who stayed afterwards and hung out with us at our tour bus, and we're currently allowing Duncan to get some sleep as we have our hardest leg of our journey next - the 12 hour ride to Rome, Italy.

Hope you're all doing well and enjoying the new album. The fans were meeting here are buying it in droves and are loving the live show. To our American fans: do not despair, we have not forgotten about you, we just have a major payback in progress to the European fans who some waited 15+ years to see us. We hope to get some Canadian and East Coast shows booked upon our return and we'll then bring "The End is Beautiful" to each of you too!

Until I can break away and type again... cheers."

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