More Calexico
I interviewed Joey Burns of Calexico last week for a story to preview their gig tonight at Jazz at Lincoln Center. We talked for about half an hour, and about a third what he said made it into the story. That's just the way it goes sometimes. But he shared a great story, kind of epitomizing what it's like for the group to be on tour, that was just too good for me to keep to myself.
So after the jump, Joey talks about the band's lust for adventure.
-- Emily Hulme, www.amNY.com
Joey: I was speaking on the phone with our European tour manager and we were talking about playing Athens, Greece and Istanbul, Turkey and Helsinki and Norway and Spain and Ireland [on the upcoming tour] and so we get a chance to kind of go to more interesting places. Members of the band from Europe, they do enjoy going to those more exotic places that they don't normally get to go see.
Me: When you're on tour, do you generally get a chance to look around in the town you're in?
Joey: Sometimes, yeah, it usually takes a little bit of discipline, getting up early or doing some research before hand. ... Everybody's really into exploring those places and seeking those adventures because it makes the trip that much more meaningful. One time I had this idea, I heard about truffles, the more savory kind not the sweet ones, the mushrooms. And we were in Italy and I'd heard that Blixa Bargeld, who used to be in The Bad Seeds and Einstürzende Neubauten, from an Italian friend, he said you know he's really into truffles, whenever he comes he goes out to get some truffles. And I was like, "I wanna get some truffles. Come on, let's do it. "
So the next time we're down there I called ahead and said, "After the show we have a day off. Let's go find some amazing truffles." Now it wasn't the season for it but they still had some, and so basically the promoter came back with this offer basically like, "Hey, we've got a great restaurant. I've got a friend, it's gonna cost you twenty Euros each, or fifty Euros each," whatever it was, and I was like, "it's gonna be a band meal. Don't worry about it." I asked everybody if they wanted to come and even the vegans and the vegetarians were into it, because it was mushrooms, and we had this incredible meal. They started off with just really simple appetizers, just one or two things and you're waiting and waiting. So the anticipation builds until finally you get that one plate, and it was risotto with butter and just a few shadings of truffles, and it was exquisite because the whole build up: All the wine and talking and appetizers, that one moment, and then they were gone. And it's like, "Oh my gosh. I can't believe they were so good." And then it was like raining constant dishes: meat, eggs, you name it, with truffles and it's like, "No, stop!" It was like a bad dream. Of course we all enjoyed it.
And then it was summer time, and we went to the beach right after that which was hilarious because going to the beach, we just walked down the street. We thought, "Hey, we'll just take off our clothes, have our bathing suits on underneath and we'll just go hop in the water and float there in the Mediterranean," right? And these locals came up and were like, "Hey, no you have to pay in order to stay here. You can't be on the beach." And we were like, "What are you talking about?"
So we got kicked off the beach, and we went down in the cove, just away from all the tourism. We're walking to the beach, and we crossed over the train tracks, and we get to the beach and we're having a great time. As we're leaving there's a massive like wildfire that starts that came out of nowhere so it was this whole adventure, and those moments are what really make and define a tour or your experience of being on the road, when you have those kinds of stories that never end.
