Check out Nick's website for an extensive update.

The Rick'n'Nick Birthday bash/Benefit.

Thanks to all who have helped put this together , it's gonna be a special night to be among friends and loved ones.

Molly Malones
this Sunday, Nov, 6th from 8pm -12pm
12$ admission, all proceeds go to Hurricane Victims
Molly's is on fairfax in LA , between 1st and Wilshire Blvd.

the address is:

575 S Fairfax Ave
LA, CA 90036
Ph: 323 935-1577

the bands and artists that are performing :
Janet Robin
Ferrante and Shamoon
Colin Keenan and Touched
SMUG
The Bryan Beller Band
NDV+Alan Morse+Stan Ausmus
The Mike Keneally Band

We're also gonna have guests sitting in and a big jam @the end. If you have an instrument, bring it and if we're left with some time, we can play.

Oh and another thing , John Ferrante is setting up a giveaway for some music or musical or instrument related things from Daddario, LR Baggs and others. There will be a drawing at the end of the night for a chance to win some cool things.

See you there!!!! Nick

Well, since I have been home from the road I've been in my garage building my little studio and man is it kicking my butt. I'm at the point where I'm putting the walls together (insulation, soundproofing, drywall) and I've done a little of all of that stuff before, but not everyday. I guess that is why I'm a musician :) But it's coming along nicely, and soon I will have my own space and will not have to work on my music in the living room with the family running all around. My wife is waiting anxiously to get her house back and not have to look at a mixing desk and other gear taking up the house. Anybody like putting up drywall ? :)

Thank you thank you thank you to all of you who have sent such great pictures from the EU tour. I am going to send a lot of them to Mr. web master and have him put them up.

Next thing: I have a couple of gigs here in LA coming up that all who can should come out for. the first one is this Saturday (sorry for the short notice) with The Mike Keneally band at The Baked Potato. The first set starts at 9:00. It has been over a year since I have had the chance to play with Mike, Bryan and Rick. We had a rehearsal last night and it was great fun. Go check www.keneally.com for more info on what Mike had been up to. here is the info for the gig:

Saturday, October 29, 2005
Mike Keneally Band
featuring Bryan Beller, Rick Musallam and Nick D'Virgilio
The Baked Potato
3787 Cahuenga Blvd. West
Studio City, CA 91604
(818) 980-1615
Open at 7:00 p.m.
Shows: 9:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.

The next gig is a very special one I hope many of you can come out to. Here is the official info:

Sunday, November 6
SPECIAL CHARITY EVENT AND BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
Rick 'n' Nick Birthday Bash & Benefit
(door proceeds to benefit disaster victims)
Molly Malone's
575 S. Fairfax Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 935-1577
8:00 PM - 12 midnight
Acts include:
Janet Robin
Mike Keneally Band
SMUG (power trio featuring Rick Musallam on guitar)
NDV (Nick D'Virgilio) + Alan Morse
Bryan Beller Band
Colin Keenan
John Ferrante and Shamoon

Look good? I think so. It is going to be a special night of great music to raise money for hurricane relief. It happens to be me and ricks b-day's so we though we would make that an even better excuse to get together and party. Alan and I are going to do an acoustic set featuring songs we did on this most recent SB tour. I will be playing with Janet Robin (an excellent guitarist/singer/songwriter) along with the MKB boys. So come on out and donate what you can for a lot of people who could really use the help.

All the best y'all. I hope to see many of you at the gigs. - NDV

From Jimmy -
Well, the tour has come to an end for now. I had an absolutely wonderful time. The folks that come to SB gigs are a unique lot. Respectful, attentive and always ready to have a great time. My favorite part of every evening is talking to the fans after the gig. Admittedly some of the venues were on the small side but the towns we visited and the people we met made up for it tenfold. Freiburg, Germany was a new location and what a beautiful town it was. I had never been to Copenhagen and I tell you what, the Danes are some smokin' hot people. Speaking of that, It would seem that The Beard has been attracting a younger, prettier crowd as of late. That's fine by me! I see it like this. The venue can be a crappy bar or a huge stadium. The crowd can be ten people or ten thousand. Guys, girls, adults, kids...it doesn't matter. If they are SB fans, it will be my honor and privilege to perform with every ounce of energy I can muster up.

Thanks to Al, Dave, Nick and Ryo for being nothing short of the finest gentlemen and musicians one could ask for. Thanks to Tommy, Olly, Uwe, Andy, Damian and Rob (special thanks for making that kick drum sound good even with a crappy head on it) for going way beyond the call of duty, again!

Thanks to the SB fans for being the absolute best reason to not get any sleep, eat crappy food, shower in unspeakable venues and miss my daughter and new dog very much. You guys go way beyond rocking!

Finally, who has the best gig in the world? I do, I do! Mike Portnoy is without a doubt one of the baddest cats on the planet! Not only do I get to tour with The Beard but Mike comes and hangs with us for a couple of days AND plays with us in Paris and London. What a great hang! You don't need to hear him play to know how talented he is. Spend five minutes with him and you know! Thanks Mike!

Now I focus on my daughter's birthday then back to the Vegas grind. If you find your self in Sin City, Come say hi! I'll be updating my website in a few days, check it out!

See ya kids, Jimmy

From Al -
Hello to everyone out in cyber space! Well, the tour's over but the memories are still really fresh. Thanks so much to everyone who came to see us, it really means a lot to us to see you all. We can't do it without you! People came from Israel, Spain, Finland, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, it was really amazing! Thanks to everyone who stuck around to chat after the gigs, it was great to meet you all & hear your kind words, you're truly inspiring.

One strange thing - when we arrived at the gig in Copenhagen they were doing some kind of porno photo session on the stage of the club! This woman was hanging above the stage in some kind of harness, naked to the waist, with a shaved head & tattoos all over her back. Not something you see every day, especially when you've just woken up. We all just stood around & watched for awhile, then went to breakfast.

Special thanks to Mike Portnoy for taking time out from the Dream Theater tour to come & hang out with us for a few days at the end of the tour, & sitting in on "The Light". A great guy, amazing player - he just played it spot on with one rehearsal! Thanks again everybody, we really had a gas! Cheers, Alan

From Nick-
Hi everybody. Well the tour is done and I am tired. Whooo. A lot of fun on the gigs though. Thank you so much to everyone who came to the shows. We can't thank you enough.

The last 4 gigs were great. Copenhagen was great because I love Copenhagen as a city and we played a new club called The Rock. They treated us very well there and the crowd that came was awesome. Then it was on to Deventer. Another great Dutch gig in a small but nice venue. Great crowd.

Then, the strangest but one of the best gigs of the tour was is Paris. It was only strange because we went on stage at 1 in the afternoon. What a crowd! We have always had great crowds in Paris ever since we have played there. Thank you everyone who came to the early show. It was weird to be done by 3:30 in the afternoon. Mike Portnoy came and sat in with us on The Light. Rob's DB meter hit 117 decibels when Mike walked on stage. If was great fun having him there. We had a final meal all together with the crew and the took off to London for the final gig.

Another great London show. One of the best of the tour. Even with the technical problems. The power went out on stage 3 times during the gig. Not just Ryo's keys. Everything. The lighting trusses above our heads were shaking so bad because of the band playing upstairs that if was kind of scary. I looked up while singing something and I thought London was having an earthquake. The backstage area at the Mean Fiddler is THE worst ever. The rankest, smelly-est, just down right shittiest place ever!!!! I am not kidding either. Some of the other guys braved it but I could not even sit in there. There was mold growing everywhere. All over the ceiling and pipes. It was just gross. Just another reason we are Gluttons for Punishment. I felt like going and getting a gas mask to just be in there. The gig was really great though. The people sang along. We had great fun. Mike joined us again. And now...........we are done.

Back to the homesteads to figure out what else to do. Finishing the studio I am building at my house will be high on my priority list when I get home. Along with just hanging out and loving my family. Thank you again everybody who came to rock with us. You are the ones that make it all worth it. All the best, NDV

more diary entries at the news archive

From Dave -
Hi Everybody, Finally. . .something unique to report! Our shows have been going very well, very smoothly and very normally, with no major ups or downs to report. That's why there haven't been many entries to this tour diary.

But today. . .aha! It's our day off, we are to stay in a hotel in Hamburg, meet with our booking agency, maybe do some laundry, whatever. That is... when we eventually get there.

I was asleep at the time, but apparently our bus got pulled over by the police doing a random check of our driver, as they do with truck and coach drivers here. While checking his driving data disc, it was discovered that his driving license had expired. Sweet.

So. . .it's 2:00p, and we're sitting at a truck stop about 150km from Hamburg. A new driver just arrived and we're getting ready to finally head into Hamburg. We should be at the hotel by around 4:00p. Nice day off!

Well, we have only five shows left. Five countries in five days, Germany, Denmark, Holland, France and UK. This tour is going by very quickly. Hope to see a lot of you between now and the end of the tour.

Cheers..........Dave

October 10, 2005

From Nick -
Hidee hoooo, I must say Freiburg Germany is one beautiful city. That is where we played last night. I had a nice hike up in the hills, the weather was perfect (it felt like LA - it never feels like that here), and the gig was packed! It was a small place but again we had another enthusiastic crowd who rocked along with us. We have never played in Freiburg before. It is nice to play some new cities.

Tonight in Nuernburg there is going to be a little side celebration because it is our sound man Rob Aubrey's 100th gig with us. How cool is that. He deserves such a huge thank you from us for all the work he has done for us over the years. On top of that he did an amazing job mixing our new live CD. Thank you Rob!!!!!

I have heard that there is a few of you out there who are wondering what we meant by calling our new live CD Gluttons for Punishment. I can tell you what I meant by it, I was thinking that even when we tour, yes even in Europe, we don't make any money. We pack 12 stinky (but I love them all) dudes on a bus for 3 weeks. Sometimes more. We had 16 guys and 1 girl on the last tour with KINO. I don't know how Kate did it. We don't have hotels. We all share the same shower (no not at the same time :) ) and sleep on the bus between cities. The crew and us for that matter have to deal with crappy gear at some of the venues. Sometimes bad food. You know what I mean. A lot of little things that can be a big pain in the ass. I'm not saying it is like we are being tortured but this is not high end touring. And the biggest thing for me personally is being away from my family. I miss them a lot when I am gone. So we do this stuff because of you. We do this stuff so we can come out and entertain our fans and play the music we love. We are very lucky to have the opportunity. That is why we are Gluttons for Punishment. We can't stop rocking.

OK everybody. All the best. NDV

October 6, 2005

From Nick -
Hi again, Hanging out in Amsterdam today. Al bought some cool new clothes that will make their way to stage near you soon...

We came from Oss last night. The gig last night went well. Nice audience as usual. The bar area was a little noisy but it's a club. That's just how it is. We are getting tight as a musical unit I think. It is nice. The guys are all playing well and we are gelling nicely. I think it is coming across well too. The people seem to be a having a good time just like we are and that is what I like to see. So far after 4 gigs the old voice seems to be holding up and that is a nice feeling. This singing thing can be hard sometimes.

Tomorrow we head back to Zaandam to play at the De Kade. We played there back in March. Just to let people know who came to that gig back then that we are doing some different material. So you will not be seeing the exact same thing. OK all, hope to see you soon, Nick

October 4, 2005

From Dave -
Hi everybody, Just rolled into Bern a couple hours ago and we're having fun setting up gear (it just gets more fun every time...just kidding, of course...).

We had some major technical problems with the house sound system yesterday in Oberhausen and didn't finish sound check until 8:00p, so that's the reason the show was delayed one hour. If you were there, sorry for the delay and thanks for your patience. After the problems were sorted out, it turned out to be a really enjoyable show, actually.

The shows so far have been really fun and it's been great seeing some of the people that have been coming around for years. To answer a couple of the questions that I've been seeing on our message board:

1) No, I'm not on drugs. (That's just my natural personality...sorry...).

2) My Rickenbacker is broken, so I've been using a Fender. I have managed to get it to sound very close to my Rick sound, though. The Rick has been in the shop for four months now, and I was supposed to get it back right before our rehearsals started, but the repair shop didn't quite make the deadline. (It was a really major repair, the neck was actually starting to de-laminate from the body).

So that's it for now. More later! - Dave

From Alan -
Hey Y'all, Just finished the show in Oberhausen. Kind of a rough night, we had sound problems so sound check took a really long time. No time to work on anything. But the show went off OK. I hurt my ribs falling off my bike the day before we left LA, & I reinjured them tonight getting too into it & throwing my guitar in the air. I should know better, at my age!

Forgot to mention, I signed some guy's arm last night. Pretty wacky. Bet he'll never wash that arm again! We have the best fans in the world. Long drive tonight to Bern, Switzerland. Dave says, "Isn't that a Deep Purple song?" (ar, ar, ar!). Moving on... See you all soon, Alan

From Nick -
We did our first show of this tour last night in Acshaffenburg Germany at the Colos Saal club. I really like that place. It 's a very nice club with very nice people working there. The equipment is good and all in all it's great place to play music.

For our first show there was a few rough moments but over all it was a really fun gig. My favorite point in the show was the acoustic set me and Al did. Mainly because we have never done anything like that before. It was fun and new. A good change of pace. It didn't last that long either so we got back to the ROOOOOOOCK quickly :) :)

Jimmy played well except the poor guy can't help but injure himself on a Spock's tour. He inadvertently hit his Hi Hat cymbal with his hand and cut his finger during the last song. The last song is 20 minutes long so he had just bare it and go. He's a pro and he made it through. On the last tour in March he hit his head and did a few other things to himself. We didn't know if he was going to still alive by the end.

Thank you to everyone who came to the show. It is nice to see familiar faces at our gigs. It was a great audience and we really had a great time.

Tonight we are in Oberhausen at the Zentrum Altenberg. This is a new place to play for us. We are looking forward to it.

I'll writer again soon. All the best, NDV

From Alan -
Hi Everyone, We just did our first gig of the tour at Aschaffenburg, Germany. It was awesome! Saw a lot of old friends and met some new ones. We did the world debut of a tune that will be on my solo CD, coming out early next year, people really seemed to dig it. Went for a a great bike ride all through town, by the castle, down by the river. Most everything was closed because it was Sunday, but it's a beautiful place.

I have to apologize to the members of The Bearded, someone pointed out that I got their name wrong in the liner notes of Gluttons for Punishment. They are called The Bearded, check out their website at www.thebearded.de. Great people! Thanks, guys & gals!

Met some people from eclipsed magazin, they were very kind, gave me some issues to check out, pretty cool. A lot of cool Prog coverage, www.eclipsed.de. Tomorrow night in Oberhausen. Hope to see you all on the road! - Alan

From Jimmy -
Well, the first show is about to start. Nick and I just did an interview which was cool as we don't often sit for an interview at the same time. Even though we, as usual, did not get enough time to rehearse, there is a confident feeling in the air. Nick's voice is stronger than the last tour. We both decided to get sick before the tour this time. Al sounds exceptional, Ryo has been shredding like crazy and Dave is...well...normal. He always sounds great. It's also fun to start off in Aschaffenburg which is where most of the live album was recorded.

I think overall I'm just happy to be here. With my Vegas band going through such a tough time, I am happy to be in a more positive atmosphere. I will be thinking about my friends but my mind is a little more at peace. Anywho, off I go! The first show is about to start, I have to go stretch my legs a bit (it sucks getting older). See ya soon, Jimmy

July 27, 2005

Oct. 2 (Sun) - Germany - Aschaffenburg - Colos-Saal
Oct. 3 (Mon) - Germany - Oberhausen - Zentrum Altenberg
Oct. 4 (Tue) - Switzerland - Bern - Bierhuebeli
Oct. 5 (Wed) - Netherlands - Oss - De Groene Engel
Oct. 7 (Fri) - Netherlands - Zaandam - De Kade
Oct. 8 (Sat) - Belgium - Verviers - Spirit of 66
Oct. 9 (Sun) - Germany - Freiburg - Cafe Atlantik
Oct. 10 (Mon) - Germany - Nürnberg - Hirsch
Oct. 12 (Wed) - Germany - Flensburg - Roxy Concerts
Oct. 13 (Thu) - Denmark - Copenhagen - The Rock
Oct. 14 (Fri) - Netherlands - Deventer - Burgerweeshuis
Oct. 15 (Sat) - France - Paris - La Locomotive
Oct. 16 (Sun) - UK - London - Mean Fiddler

It's been a while since we've put any new comments up, but we've all been busy with various projects and other work...which includes our new live CD, which should be out by the time we tour in September. Rob Aubrey, who does our live sound mixing, will be mixing this CD at his beautiful little studio outside of London, so we're looking forward to a really nice sounding CD! And John Boegehold is doing the artwork and layout for this one, so we're really keeping it all in the family this time

My good buddy Sir Millard Mulch has just released a massive Magnum Opus entitled "How To Sell The Whole F#@!ing Universe To Everybody...For Once and For All!". It's GREAT, you should check it out! It's not for everybody, but I find it highly entertaining and I'm totally into it. It's delightfully complex, high energy stuff, with large doses of humor, good-natured sarcasm, insight and creativity.

It's a seamless blend of man and machine. .. he's a mad scientist with Cubase, but he also incorporates a lot of real human playing, which is pretty ripping. Our own Nick D'Virgilio plays on a track or two, as well as a host of other prog-rock all stars, and I also have the honor of making an appearance doing a speaking part in one of the "skits" that he skillfully interjects between some of the songs.

But what I dig the most is that he says "choad" on one of the tracks. ;-)

Check it out at his website: www.sirmillardmulch.com.

Hope to see some of you in September / October! Our tour schedule is just starting to fill in, so keep checking the website for updates.

Cheers!!! Dave

from Dave -
Hi Everybody, thanks to all of you who came out to our shows in San Francisco and Los Angeles! It was great to finally meet a couple of the message board regulars who I had just known as their message board names before last weekend.

I was playing tour manager for those gigs, and my socializing time was very limited, so that's why I was pretty scarce before and after the shows, especially at House of Blues where I didn't get a chance to go out front at all.

It was a hell of a weekend, lots of traveling and setting up gear, and not much sleep. That was compounded by the fact that I made the drive to and from Fair Oaks...7 hours each way... oy! Jimmy drove in from Las Vegas, and Ryo flew in from Japan. What a lifestyle, eh? Ah, the glamour of it all. .. NOT!!!!!!! But it was fun anyway. . we always seem to have a great time once that intro music starts.

But fully enjoying the misery was Wayne (Gruno) and Stan (Conduqtor) who drove our gear from LA to SF and back and helped out immensely with both shows. They are truly gluttons for punishment and we love them for it.

And of course Rob Aubrey, who flew from London to do those two little shows. He did it for travel expenses only. What a guy!!

I feel like I'm doing a Grammy awards speech here ;-) But, really, these guys deserve a lot of credit and so does everyone who came out to see us, some from really far away. We really, truly appreciate it. - Dave

Again, we had an amazing crew who worked their tails off. Thanks guys!! KINO sounded great and it was fun to be on the road with those guys. Go buy their CD! We got to see and hang out with some great friends we have made over the years.

But most of all we got to ROCK and we had fun. I have attached some photo's from the tour taken by a few different people. They are from our friends DARKO, Heike, Ron, and Everlein. There are some great ones there.

Now it is onto getting ready for our 2 shows coming up here in California. We really hope to see a lot of you out to these shows.

There is also an update for my site NDVMusic.com If you heard of this Flat Stanley thing I did for my daughter in Europe you can see all the pictures over there. Plus the store is back open. Take care everybody, NDV

Nick got a really bad cold about two days into the tour, and it's spreading throughout the bus. I got it a couple days ago and am just getting over it now, thankfully. It's not good when trying to play a show feeling like my head was packed with cotton. I don't know how Nick is doing it...he's had a sore throat because of this cold and continues to sing really well night after night. Nine shows in a row without a day off is brutal for a singer, and he's doing it with a sore throat.

Jimmy has been literally sacrificing his body on this tour. . .it seems like every day something happens to him. If he continues on like this, he'll be going home in a box (just kidding)... He had a nasty fall a few nights ago that left him with a huge bump on the head, a couple cuts to the hands, and tonight another bump to the head, this time on the very top, leaving a perfect "X" pattern on his scalp. But nothing seems to affect him. .. he apparently doesn't feel pain, because he's playing as perfectly as ever.

The Kino guys are great, both musically and personally, and we're having a really good time with them. If you haven't checked out their music, you might want to pick up their CD, it's good stuff.

Tonight in Verviers was a great show...small venue but a great atmosphere and a wonderful audience. In fact, all of our audiences have been wonderful, and your support is REALLY appreciated.

Long bus ride tonight, 8 or 9 hours to Pratteln, CH, where we'll be playing one of our favorite venues, Z7. Besides being a great venue, with a great crew and great sound system, it has a clothes washer and dryer...a rare luxury! While on tour it's often the most basic, simple things that make the biggest impressions.

After that, it's just a couple more shows and already our tour is over... for now, at least. It seems like we're just getting warmed up. This was a really short tour, but we're talking about doing more in the fall...September or October. We'll keep you posted. There is talk of doing some parts of Europe that we haven't been before in addition to our usual haunts, but we'll wait and see what develops.

We're also recording a couple of these shows, and hopefully we'll get enough material to do a live CD.

So...I'll sign off for now and hopefully send in another update before it's all over. Don't forget about our upcoming California dates, either!! We're playing big places and need to fill them up!

Cheers......Dave

Shows are going well, really sounding much better. We all sang hqppy birthday to my Mom last night, happy birthday Mom! I'm using different amps & mics, I think it sounds way better. Oh well, surf's up here at the Spirit of 66 in Belgium, gotta go. Be Rockin' you all again soon!

From Jimmy
It's been kind of a whirlwind. I'm sitting at the Spirit of 66 computer going over some of the past moments. Nick has, again been the trouper singing while terribly sick and in turn getting me and Dave and some of the crew sick. It hasn't detoured us though. We had a few rough moments as most bands do and now we have our feet underneath us and we are rocking. It is always an absolute joy to be with the guys both personally and musically and this time is no different. Ryo has been playing his tail off, especially his solo section. Above it all, the fans have been incredible. Hearing the audience sing every word of The Light was pretty amazing. Kino is excellent and right pleasant batch of fellas. The crew as always is top notch and this time we have the lovely Kate helping us with merchandising. She is wondeful! It's been a blast! See ya soon, Jimmy

Yes, it has been a while since I have written. I just got back the other day from the short tour I did with Fates Warning. It was fun. If you go to my site www.ndvmusic.com I have put up an update describing what went on. There are lots of cool pictures.

On the Spock's front, we are starting rehearsals today at Al's for our upcoming EU tour. I am really looking forward to these gigs and I hope you all are also.

Lastly for today I want to truly thank everyone who has purchased our new disc from this site. It really has helped us out a lot. We know that you could easily go to your local store or to another web site and buy it but you chose to support us and help out. We can't thank you all enough. We are a small operation just trying to make some good music and to keep our heads above water and we couldn't do it without all of you.

More updates to come. I will let you all know how rehearsals are going.

All the best everybody!!!

NDV

Hi Everybody,

First, I'd like to say that SB has the best message board members on the planet. The Tsunami Project is a genuinely noble effort. Besides the always-entertaining comments on the message board, you guys are a constant source of inspiration and, at times, useful guidance. But this relief project also shows how big hearted you are. So cheers, and hats off to you.

Looks like we're doing a couple California dates in April. Just confirmed them today.

April 09 (Sat) San Francisco, CA - The Pound
April 10 (Sun) Hollywood, CA - House Of Blues

We're going to try to do more dates in September... a long way off to be sure, but we're doing what we can.

I also have noticed a lot of disappointment over the lack of a UK date on the upcoming tour in March. Believe me, there are none more disappointed than we are. It just didn't work out this time, but that wasn't for the lack of trying. Basically, with our limited touring schedule, we just didn't fit into any available slots at the venues we checked out. Very unfortunate, indeed...

London is always one of the highlights of our tours, and we're sad not to have it on the schedule this time. It is also geographically much easier for a pretty large number of potential concert goers to get to London than the parts of Europe that we play, so us not playing London is bad in that respect, too.

Next time, for sure.

Also... iTunes... I've been trying to get SB on iTunes for a year now and it's been a truly Sisyphean effort. I thought I had a really good connection, too. But every time I think it's going to happen, someone quits, or the CD's get lost, or something just as lame happens. I've pretty much given up on that until I can acquire a better connection there.

Thanks for your continued support, and we'll see some of you on tour!!

Dave

Hello All - Some good news to report.

We are getting excited about the upcoming "Octane" release. So, to celebrate we want to announce a short but sweet tour to Europe this March. The shows are:

March 13 (Sun) Netherlands - Zaandam - De Kade
March 14 (Mon) Germany - Hamburg - Markthalle
March 15 (Tue) Netherlands - Zoetermeer - De Boerderij
March 16 (Wed) Germany - Osnabrueck - N8
March 17 (Thu) Germany - Essen - Zeche - Carl
March 18 (Fri) Germany - Aschaffenburg - Colos-Saal
March 19 (Sat) Belgium - Verviers - Spirit of 66
March 20 (Sun) Switzerland - Pratteln Z7
March 21 (Mon) Germany - Karlsruhe - Substage

This is just the first leg. There are many cities missing that we want to play, but just can't this first time around. So, if you don't see your city there, we apologize and remember we will be back for more. There WILL be some US dates in the near future. There'll be more info on the tickets and times very soon. Tell all your friends!!

There'll be an opening band called KINO. It is a new band with Pete Trewavas (Marillion), John Beck (It Bites), John Mitchell (Arena) and Chris Maitland (ex-Porcupine Tree). InsideOut is going to release their debut album at the end of February. It should be a fun night of music.

The other thing I need to mention is The Tsunami Project. It is a benefit music compilation project that is being created to generate revenue to donate to the thousands upon thousands of victims of the recent tsunami disaster in Asia and Indonesia. Barry Thompson (a.k.a. Kirksnosehair) had the original idea to get other members of the Spock's Beard message board to donate songs to be sold on a CD so that the money could be donated to charity. Since then, the idea has sparked a remarkable response. Me (NDV) along with Neal Morse, Mark McCrite, IQ, and Randy George (with Rick Wakeman!), and lots of other great artists have given songs that will appear on the double CD set. In addition, there will be many wonderful songs from the board members themselves (over 2 hours of music!).

You can find out more about this project at the official website including a complete list of the songs and participating artists. They are currently taking pre-orders for this double CD, which should be ready for shipping by March 1, 2005. ALL of the money from sales will be donated to the tsunami victims through Harvard University and the Boston chapter of the American Red Cross.

I am very happy that I was able to do something for these people. I can't even begin to imagine that one minute I am sitting with my family having a good time and the next minute everyone I love is gone forever. Please help us help the victims through ordering a copy of the CD today! - NDV