White Plains’ 4th Best Personal Blog

There are few things that taste better than a pint of “the black stuff” in the place they make it. That’s one of the things I learned on my most recent jaunt over the Atlantic. This time, I spent a total of 10 days in Spain and Ireland (with an overnight pit stop in the UK).

The occasion for the trip, primarily, was to see Wilco’s last shows of 2007. And conveniently enough, three of the five shows that I saw were in cities I had never visited before: Bilbao, Spain, and Dublin, Ireland. It was also in Dublin, on the night before I flew home, that I caught what was apparently the New Pornographers’ first show in Ireland, or at any rate, first in the capital city.

After arriving in Madrid on the morning of the first Wilco show on my itinerary, I checked into my hotel and headed over to the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. It’s a great little art museum, one that I really enjoyed last time I was in Madrid but didn’t get a chance to fully explore. So I took my time this time, had lunch in the restaurant there and walked through just about every room. I probably took a little too much time because it was already getting dark by the time I headed over to find the venue for the show. I had looked up the address online, but it didn’t have a cross street or number. Still, I figured, ‘How hard can it be to find?’ Bad move on my part. I spent literally an hour and half walking up and down said street, until I spotted a guy scalping tickets and managed to ask where the place was. Turned out it was just across the street. Fantastic. By the time I collected my ticket from the box office, there was already a decent line of people waiting for the doors to open. Once we got in, I considered making a push for the front but I was already so tired from traveling and the trauma of trying to find the venue that I eventually decided to stand at a barricade in front of the soundboard, where I could at least lean. An inauspicious start. And that’s not even counting my discovery later that night that my laptop was no longer detecting my Airport card, which meant I was basically carrying around a glorified DVD player. (I suspect it happened when my bag fell on my way into the hotel earlier that morning.) Inauspicious start, indeed.

Three shows in three different Spanish cities on the first three days of the trip meant a rigorous travel schedule. The last time I was in Spain I actually saw four shows in four cities in four days, but my travel companion and I had rented a car and she was doing all the driving, so it somehow didn’t feel quite as stressful. This time, though, I was on my own, and I ended up taking a train from Madrid to Zaragoza the next day. I had booked a hotel that was advertised as being across the street from the train station there because the following morning, I had a reservation on the first train back to Madrid, from where I had to catch a flight to Bilbao. But another little snafu occurred when I discovered, much to my chagrin, that there was no logical way to walk from the train station to the hotel (which I wanted to do to save a little money on taxis). So even though I could see the hotel from the station, there was no easy way to get there because of a huge construction zone and a highway between the station and the hotel. On top of that, the hotel had misplaced my reservation, so it took about half an hour to check in. At least the show in Zaragoza was a good one. I had my only interaction with the band on this trip when a certain lead singer called me out before the first encore. It was cringe-worthy, to be sure, but ultimately nice of him to welcome me back.

I did manage to make all my travel connections (in order, taxi, train, subway, plane and taxi) the next day and reach Bilbao by mid-afternoon. Before the show that night, I even had time for a short visit to the famed, Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim museum. Conveniently, it was right across the street from my hotel. I didn’t even have to pay the admission fee because my awesomely luxurious hotel, the Silken Gran Hotel Domine, had given me a coupon for a free visit as part of the museum’s 10th anniversary celebration. And they were having a big retrospective of American art there. Perfect! I spent the next day and half wandering around Bilbao, eating some wonderful Basque food (I heartily recommend the bacalao al pil pil, a/k/a cod in pil pil sauce) and just taking a breath for the first time on the trip. Bilbao’s really an excellent small city, where you really get a mix of the old and the new in everything from the architecture to the people to the food.

Refreshed, I made my way to Dublin, Ireland (via EasyJet and RyanAir). My time in Ireland got off to a rough start as well. Not only was there a steady rain when I got there, I made a couple of not-so-good decisions in retrospect. First, I decided to walk from the Heuston train station to my hotel in Kilmainham, which is apparently a fine walk in nice weather but not when it’s raining and you’ve got two bags and no windbreaker on. I also decided to buy the Dublin Pass, one of those tourist cards that get you free admission to a bunch of sights. I didn’t realize that a lot of Dublin’s museums and churches are free, so I ended up visiting some sights just to try to get my money’s worth out of the card. It worked out OK, but I wouldn’t have bought the card if I had it to do over again. Also, I got some sort of 24-hour stomach bug on my first day in Dublin. I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it through the first show that night, but somehow I managed.

Anyway, I won’t prattle on too much longer. Suffice it to say, Vicar Street is a very nice place to see a show. Highly recommended. It’s carpeted! Plus, the sound and sightlines are good. After the Wilco run was over, I had the better part of two days left to do some sightseeing. On the first day, I met my friend Warner and his friend Dave at the Guinness Storehouse and we did the requisite tour there. We took our time, had lunch and eventually made our way to the Gravity Bar on the top floor, where your admission fee entitles you to a free pint (to be nursed for as long as you like in the bar, which has a neat 360-degree view of Dublin). Then we wandered back over to the Temple Bar area, which is where a lot of pubs and restaurants are located, and had a nice dinner.

The next day, my last full one in Ireland, I was back on my own again and decided to try and pack in as many sights as possible. I had already visited the very cool Kilmainham Gaol, which was literally across the street from my hotel, so I headed up to Phoenix Park and on the spur of the moment, decided to wander over to the Dublin Zoo. I hadn’t been to a zoo in forever, so it was a nice way to spend a couple of hours. My other goal was to go to the Dublin Writers’ Museum and the James Joyce Centre, so I headed east from the park and, as it started raining again, I walked over to one of Dublin’s main drags, O’Connell Street, and up to the Writers’ Museum. Then just before it closed, I snuck in for a quick visit to the Joyce Centre (which has the actual door to No. 7 Eccles Street, the fictional home of Leopold Bloom in Joyce’s Ulysses in the back terrace). Those visits, and being in Dublin in general, made me want to go back and read Ulysses from start to finish. Got to put that one on the to-do list.

Wilco//11-9-07//La Riviera, Madrid, SPAIN//support: The Sunday Drivers

You Are My Face/War on War/IATTBYH/Pot Kettle Black/Handshake Drugs/A Shot in the Arm/Side With The Seeds/Jesus, etc./Impossible Germany/Sky Blue Sky/Too Far Apart/Hate It Here/Walken/I’m The Man Who Loves You/Hummingbird/On and On and On//e1: Via Chicago/The Late Greats/Heavy Metal Drummer/Spiders (Kidsmoke)//e2: Red-Eyed and Blue>/I Got You (At The End of the Century)/Casino Queen>/Outta Mind (Outtasite)

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Wilco//11-10/07//Sala Oasis, Zaragoza, SPAIN//support: Smile

Either Way/You Are My Face/War on War/IATTBYH/Pot Kettle Black/Handshake Drugs/Side With The Seeds/Via Chicago/A Shot in the Arm/Impossible Germany/Sky Blue Sky/Too Far Apart/Jesus, etc./Hate It Here/Walken/Theologians/I’m The Man Who Loves You/Hummingbird//e1: California Stars/Forget the Flowers/Heavy Metal Drummer/Spiders (Kidsmoke)//e2: The Late Greats/Red-Eyed and Blue>/I Got You (At The End of the Century)>/Outta Mind (Outtasite)

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Wilco//11-11-07//Palacio Euskalduna, Bilbao, SPAIN//support: Smile

Sunken Treasure/You Are My Face/War on War/IATTBYH/Pot Kettle Black/Side With The Seeds/Shake It Off/Handshake Drugs/A Shot in the Arm/Radio Cure/Impossible Germany/Sky Blue Sky/Too Far Apart/Walken/I’m The Man Who Loves You/Hummingbird//e1: California Stars/Jesus, etc./Hate It Here/Heavy Metal Drummer//e2: Via Chicago>/Spiders (Kidsmoke)

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Wilco//11-14-07//Vicar Street, Dublin, IRELAND//support: Ollie Cole

Sunken Treasure/Remember the Mountain Bed/Muzzle of Bees/You Are My Face/War on War/IATTBYH/Pot Kettle Black/Handshake Drugs/Side With The Seeds/Radio Cure/Impossible Germany/Sky Blue Sky/Walken/I’m The Man Who Loves You/Hummingbird/A Shot in the Arm//e1: Spiders (Kidsmoke)//e2: California Stars/Jesus, etc./Hate It Here/Heavy Metal Drummer/Red-Eyed and Blue>/I Got You (At The End of the Century)>/Outta Mind (Outtasite)

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Wilco//11-15-07//Vicar Street, Dublin, IRELAND//support: Ollie Cole

Via Chicago/Either Way/You Are My Face/Company In My Back/IATTBYH/Kamera/Shake It Off/Handshake Drugs/Impossible Germany/Forget the Flowers/Too Far Apart/Hate It Here/Walken/Theologians/I’m The Man Who Loves You/Hummingbird/On and On and On//e1: Misunderstood/Far, Far Away/Side With The Seeds/A Shot in the Arm//e2: Jesus, etc./The Late Greats/Heavy Metal Drummer/Casino Queen>/Outta Mind (Outtasite)

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The New Pornographers//11-17-07//The Village, Dublin, IRELAND//support: The Chapters

All The Things That Go To Make Heaven And Earth/Use It/The Electric Version/All The Old Showstoppers/Jackie, Dressed In Cobras/Challengers/The Laws Have Changed/My Rights Versus Yours/The Spirit Of Giving/Mass Romantic/Testament To Youth In Verse/Unguided/Mutiny, I Promise You/Twin Cinema/Sing Me Spanish Techno/The Bleeding Heart Show//e: The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism