It's always amazing how quickly time goes by, especially when we're having fun! So here we are, our 2015 European Rush Mode Tour is already behind us.
As many of you know, preparing a successful tour takes months and months of planning, organizing and hard work. After all the time and effort that go into it, it's always very special to be playing the tour's first concert and sad to play the last.
On April 29, 2015 we had the pleasure to start our tour "im Wohnzimmer" (in the living room) of the Chamber Unlimited Club in Bielefeld. Wolfman and Michael provided a very warm welcome and some very tasty Spaghetti Bolognese, which after the first of many eight-hour drives on German autobahns, hit the spot like only touring musicians can understand. It was a beautiful evening as well as a wonderful and promising start to the tour.
On May 2 and 3, we headed down south, playing in front of a full house at the reknowned Jazz Club Unterfahrt in Munich, followed by a cold but packed S-Bahnhof in Unterföhring. A special thanks to all the people of Bavaria who bought so many of our CDs, therefore helping us with the excess luggage charges on the way home!
On May 4, the tour took us to a gem of towns — Weinheim — where we played at the stunning Muddy's Club. It was another wonderful concert with more wonderful listeners. The next morning we even had half an hour to explore the stunning streets of this medieval town. If you've never been to Weinhem, it is well worth a visit!
Another highlight of the tour was the concert at the SWR Funkhaus in Mainz on May 7. The team there certainly made us feel like royalty, the sound and light were incredible and the audience was amazing! Some fans had traveled from Köln, Kelkheim, Mannheim and even Aachen — well over 2 hours driving just to come see and hear us play!
Our final German concert took us to a small place called Kodersdorf in the very East of Germany. It's so far east, that the following day we even had time to quickly stroll across the river into Poland, just so we could say we had done it.
After saying our goodbyes to the incredible German musicians we had had the pleasure of playing with, there was no time to waste as we were on our way to Italy to rehearse with the Italian band for the shows in Rome on May 16 and 17. But more about that in a separate blog post...
To recap: We had an absolutely fantastic time in Germany and cannot wait to do it again in 2016! A very special thank you to Claudia, without whom this whole tour may have never happened! We love you Claudia!
And also a massive thanks to the phenomenal musicians I had the pleasure of playing with for these shows: Julian Camargo and Leo Ebert (drums), JF May (piano), Gesa Marie Schulze and Thomas Groß (tenor sax), and Simon Schallwig (bass). You guys are all amazing!