After a night like last night, I was pretty much ready for anything. We were returning back to France but we would be south of Paris in a town called Rodez. We first got to the hotel, which we again had day rooms but we all got our own, which was more convienient that just having 3 or four & having to share. We drove straight to the gig to drop off both the crew and park the bus. We then had some vans bring us all to the hotel. This hotel was off the beaten path & it looked like a little cottage in the countryside. Granted, we weren’t staying the night but if we were, it wouldve been a little rough. Room service was only served for a very short time & the nearest place to eat was about 20 minutes away in a car. Someone had said that the McDonald’s was walking distance. That was a big lie!!
We were one of the headliners of this festival and the only other act that I knew anything about was Lee Scratch Perry. Another thing that happened was that our merchandise guy got arrested by the Rodez police because some of our shirts have weed leafs on them. I guess they aren’t as liberal as they are in Paris. From what I hear, the police make a lot of their marijuana arrests from this one festival every year. Maybe because its more of a reggae-type festival, I don’t know. In any case, we needed to get the merch guys out and our merchandise too. I do know this, all of us were ready to get this gig over with so we can get to Amsterdam & that’s no disrespect to the people that came to the show, but it is understandable though, right?
The funny thing that happened was when we had to this press conference. We were told that there would be a lot of press for the conference, which there were but when it came down to it, the majority of interviewers didn’t ask a single questions. They all just kinda stared at us while maybe 4 out of maybe 35 people asked us anything. I personally said about 5 words. After the conference, we were taken back to our cottage of a hotel to chill for a bit before we were taken out to dinner by the promoter of the festival.
We returned to the festival waiting for our set. The crowd was ready but I think we were all more ready to get to Amsterdam. We hit the stage and it was on fire from beginning to the end. France definitely gives it up!! We were on point and there were few mistakes made. The crowd was loud and were jumping up & down from the front to the back. There weren’t any highlights besides them going crazy for “Dr. Greenthumb” & the DJ/Percussion solo. Like I said earlier, the general consensus was to hit it & quit it, head to Amsterdam & enjoy our day off. I think I’ll leave it at that!!
Next Stop : Amsterdam, Holland
