Tues., May 5, Neue Welt, Ingolstadt, Germany-- Two more relaxing days at The Village, which included a fun time at a local Italian restaurant where the waiters spoke broken German and NO English, and another trip to the supermarket. I'm finally getting the hang of the money transactions, but finding out that English is very much a second language here, and amongst the older generation, it is rarely spoken. I have redoubled my vow to learn the language--at least conversationally--before coming back here in the fall. We headed up to Ingolstadt, about an hour north of Munich, around 2:30 p.m. We're planning to stop in Munich on the way back on Wednesday to see the sights. Ingolstadt is a big town, and we were gigging somewhere in the middle of it. The club, Neue Welt (New World), is on a side street a couple of blocks from the main drag, and Petra had to park illegally in front of a driveway to unload the van, due to a beer truck blocking the entrance to the club. The place is fairly small, probably 150 or so capacity, but very quaint with old dark wood predominating amongst aged blues posters and historical photos on the wall. There was a two-room green room, where we ate some delicious minestrone soup. I had forgotten something out of the van, so got the keys from Petra. As I walked up to the van, a policelady was just about ready to write us a ticket. The driveway we were blocking was now occupied by a running car with an impatient driver trying to get out. I managed to find a mushy reverse gear and avoid the traffic infraction, moving the van to a now open parking spot a few feet away. During sound check Petra told us the promoter said we'd have to turn down the volume because of the neighborhood, yet the sound man was insisting on miking everything--something they do incessantly here in Germany. Our hotel was a nice one, right on the street of a mile-long mall of stores, although it did not have an elevator. As I horfed my bags up the stairs, I managed to drop a glass bottle of Evian on the concrete tile stairs. In the time it took to get to my room and come back to do something about the mess, the two women from the lobby already had mops in hand and had it just about cleaned up. Petra had made my apologies for me and one lady told her she was going to mop those stairs anyway. I keep being impressed by how damn clean everything is. Dede and I had no qualms picking up a couple of gyros at a Greek food stand, although the ordering process was a bit clumsy. The club was about three blocks from the hotel, so we just walked there shortly before showtime. It was packed out quite nicely, and we began. The crowd was polite and attentive, but not quite as enthusiastic as we had come to expect. By the end of the first set, though, we'd broken the ice sufficiently to get a good response. Vic was really bugging me. He again missed the beginnings of two songs and was not grooving at all. It was becoming work to keep the groove happening. During break Joanna and Tony both had beefs in the same realm. Joanna told Vic he'd better wake up and smell the roses second set, or else. There was small improvement, but it still was a chore on the second set. This guy is dead meat, as far as I'm concerned. What the hell is going on with him? Anyway, Marion had brought some friends with her up from Munich, and all were very complimentary of my playing, so it kind of made me feel better about the overall show, but Vic's distant demeanor and non-investment onstage was now a full-blown problem...