One could guess that Barcelona is a city run by art students and drag queens. Our 'travel' day which was supposed to start the morning after our set in Barcelona, quickly turned its head into a day spent at the spa and a night spent in Swedish Death Metal bars.
We awoke slightly bright eyed and barely bushy tailed. Used pizza boxes strung the floor while stripped off t-shirts and used pants were busy soaking up an overnight flooded hotel room. We had a long day of driving ahead of us and so we hightailed to the nearest Paella pot roast to fuel our bellies. About half way into our meal the fact was brought up that we had TWO days to drive 8hrs. A unanimous decision was made then and there that we would take the day off in Barcelona.
There were two very unique things about the 'ZT' hotel we were staying in. 1. It was by far the nicest hotel we'd had on tour and 2. It had a Spa. The only reason we were able to stay in the ZT was because the venue had helped us out. This meant that with the little extra cash we had in our pockets we could splurge and squeeze into the skin tight blue spandex (otherwise known as Spain's version of the Spa swimsuit). A day spent in the spa is to be a quiet and relaxing time, a short vacation away from the everyday toils of tour and a peaceful time to reflect. Hence, we entered the spa quiet as a clam, beers in hand and cannon balls into the pool. It was only 20min later we were greeted in the sauna by the hotel clerk who explained that there had been complaints we were being too loud. When we asked him who was complaining he simply said "Everyone".
We retired to our rooms to gather our shoes and decide on the fate of what was next to come. It came down to Matt, myself, our sound tech Mark and our TM Chris. With the rest of the band retired, we headed out to Mark's favorite Swedish death metal bar for what turned out to be a 'not so quick' cocktail. I don't think any of us know exactly what 'Carnival in Barcelona' is but we did find out as we hopped from club to club, bar to bar, party to party, that it makes people drink, smile, converse and dress up like Penguins, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Super Mario Bros.,The cast of LOST and various glam metal bands. An unexpected all day adventure starting at The Barcelona Spa and ending in a pile of soggy fries and moldy mayonnaise.
Andy
Local Natives
