Heyheyhey In Rockers and Welcome to this month’s edition of the Lobby coming to you from Anchorage, Alsaska as GGDS make our way through a short 3 show run through Vancouver BC, Alaska and then Oregon. We perform a trio of shows after a short break back home following a month long tour of Europe. A few days off at home spent camping with my daughter, going to the circus, amusement parks and much more as I try to get in as much time w/ Hana as possible before we were jetting off again to make some more rock!

The European tour was amazing, it has been almost 20 years since our last trip across Europe and the crowds were unbelievably excited to sing along with us after our absence. The tour started at a festival in Portugal made it’s way through Spain, Belgium, Germany, The UK, Latvia and we did an unbelievable festival in front of 300,000 attendees at The Pol And Rocks Festival, surely the biggest crowd we ever had ever performed for, and one of the most enthusiastic for sure. We then made our way through Scandinavia and then headed back to Eastern Europe once again finishing up in Hungary and then Vienna, Austria.

We did a variety of different types of gigs, from small concert halls/bars to large theaters and festival camping grounds built up like small cities for the 10s of thousands people flocking to the shows. These European festivals seem like a rite of passage for these teenagers, some odd the festivals were up to a week long with constant presentations of art and music throughout the day and night, some of the headline shows starting at 1:30am our later. The crowds over in Europe really love to sing and every night seemed like a giant sing along as we made our way through the busy schedule, it was really a truly, truly amazing experience.

Even with the crazy busy schedule we kept while we were traveling abroad, I amazingly got to do a bunch of sightseeing; visiting a castle in in Prague, a restaurant open since the year 800 in Vienna, wandered Old Town in Oslo, took a ferry ride to Sweden, spent a day off in Amsterdam and so much more, a fringe benefit of the job for sure. Lots of great food as well, meatballs in Stockholm, Goulash in Hungary, Fish and Chips in London, Paella in Spain, Schnitzel in Vienna… oh and Swedish Fish Candy (a band favorite) in Sweden was definitely on of the highlights for me! My family even came to visit during the 3 UK shows and they got to see a sold out show at The Brixton Academy. I love when my daughter gets to come out and see a whole show, she clapped along saying that she loved watching me make faces and run around, whatever part of the show she enjoys, I’m just glad she gets to be part of the fun and gets to see some of the world!

Tonight GGDS are playing in Alaska, our 2nd time to this remote area of the world, so beautiful, last night we had a crew/band dinner in Anchorage after a drive through the mountains and glaciers and even a few Beluga Whale sightings along the way. Beluga Whales and Rock, not always a common combination, but here in the wilds of Alaska it all just sort of makes sense. Last time we were here we shot a video called Music in High Places where we were filmed performing acoustically all around the wilderness of Alaska, it’s really worth seeing and gave us a great opportunity to see the sites as we played on glaciers, icebergs and other breathtaking locations.

My Good Charamel Records label has Japanese band Shonen Knife coming to the US in September and October and my wife Miyoko will be out with them for the trip! I will be home for a month with my daughter (I can’t wait!) and the band will be busy preparing for a US tour celebrating the 2oth Anniversary of our Dizzy Up The Girl albums release. More on that soon!!!!!

Enjoy the rest of your summer and I hope to see you next month here in the pages of the mighty In Rock!!!!

Peace!

Robby