Mon., April 27, Rockhouse, Salzburg, Austria-- A beautiful day was finally before us and I was feeling hungover. We headed out on the road and Baby Maryam was fussy, with everyone chiming in their own particular take on what would appease the screaming child. Joanna was good with the benky and bottle. Tony made up a song about cookin' a cake in a rich baritone which seemed to work. I worked her with the stuffed bear and high-pitched noises that only babies can make grownups make. Dede seemed to do the best with repositioning Maryam so she could push with her feet and stretch out in the claustrophobic van. We concluded it takes a band to raise a baby! The countryside through the foothills of the Alps is positively breathtaking and conjured memories from childhood storybooks. Rolling hills and meadows, castles atop forested mountains and deep greenery everywhere. We arrived in Salzburg around 4:30 and loaded in for sound check. The Rockhouse is a huge venue with two live music rooms. The big one holds about 1200 people if you pack them in standing, and is where Joanna did a doublebill with Luther Allison a couple of summers ago. But for this Monday night show, they put us in the small room, not expecting a great turnout because of the day of the week. The small room was shaped like the inside of a quansat hut with the urban-industrial decor thang happening. There were several groovy green room-type areas for the bands to hang out in on three different floor levels. The Rockhouse is literally carved out of the granite rock face of a 100-foot cliff, hence the name, and bare rock was retained as the wall covering of choice. I passed on the generous hors d'ouervres available for the band due to my hangover, and decided to take a nap on an inviting big old couch in a balcony area overlooking the big room. After about a half an hour of that, we were summoned for dinner in a room above the club adjacent to the business offices. There are a couple of apartments up there, too, where they house visiting bands, although we also had some rooms at the hotel around the corner (Pres. Gerald Ford had stayed there). Our chef and hostess was Irene, who got us all to sign her autograph book. She had five or six of these huge books filled with the autographs and messages from all the acts rolling through the Rockhouse, and the dining room had interesting posters of the latest ones, such as Iron Butterfly and Stuck Mojo. As was apparent by the show schedule, a wide array of genres was hosted there, from blues to heavy metal. Joanna, Dede and I ended up going to the hotel, while Vic and Tony stayed in one of the apartments above the club. Dede and I decided we'd try once more to sleep in the same room, although we had our doubts it would work... Petra picked us up at the hotel a few minutes before showtime saying there were only about three people in the club. But by the time we got there and hit the stage, the place had packed out with enthusiastic fans gathered tightly around. By this time on the itinerary I was concerned about the blisters on my hands from having to play drums on a set with a moving snare stand and tom toms without bottom heads so I had to play them harder. This raised blisters on both index fingers which I had to tape using Petra's medical bandage tape. It just wasn't sticky enough to stay on through sweat and motion, so I had to reinforce the bond with duct tape, which worked fine. We flew into "Walkin' Blues" and then "Just Wanna Make Love to You" which were good calls by Joanna. The crowd loved it and we were rockin'. By the end of the first set, I had managed to blister my left thumb, but didn't have time to get new tape from Petra. Instead, I wrapped a piece of plain duct tape around the thumb and kept blasting.