Prayer Wheel, or just another roundabout?

Thursday June 28 Forli

Our fist stop of the day was a Dragon Music on the north side of Forli. Turns out its a great, family owned, music store with a couple floors of instrument and a great staff. The kind of shop you’d find everywhere in America 20 years ago, with all the major name brands. They have everything we need--picks for Jono, drum head for Jonathan, and even let us bring the Twin in to troubleshoot. Looks like a tube went bad, and they had a replacement in stock. I gave this place five stars.

We have lots of free time, so we head into Forli. Karen is using Google Maps to find Eataly, for lunch. It’s in the town center, but we didn’t know that, and this is one of those beautiful red brick ancient towns built on a random plan of concentric circles. I’m going full on Clark Griswold driving our giant van through the tiny cobblestone streets of the downtown. It’s not illegal, but I don’t see anyone else it doing it. Navigating our ship around these tiny corners and one way streets is really taxing. I even drove right through the main square. 

Eventually we found parking, and went to Eataly. It was OK, some kind of chain. I heard there’s one in Brooklyn now. There were probably better places around, but when you’re hungry you often go with the first place you find.

After lunch we had an hour to walk around Forli. As is usually the case, the town gets more interesting the father you get from the center. Many of the surrounding neighborhoods had tree lined streets and communal backyard parks. Of course, at this time of day, all the stores are closed, and that may be a good thing, as window shopping is much cheaper.

We drove south out of town through the many, many roundabouts to the the outskirts of Forli to find the BnB Calicanto. It’s a cute and well maintained place in the country, with lots of purple flowers and a nice big, green backyard. No Wi-Fi. Quiet, until Jonathan starts tuning up the bass drum outside. Naps, then a quick drive over to the Primary Pub at 5:45.

Primary Pub is a roadhouse outside of a little town in a farming area. Nectarines, corn plum trees surround it. It’s an Irish pub, although the brothers who own it are Italian. They are major music fans and the inside walls are covered with show poster and lp covers. The music playing is the best we’ve heard, mostly 80’s and forward college radio and alternative. Our friend Roberto Cola shows up with his wife, unfortunately, he didn’t bring any guitars for us to try out. Next time?

We meet our buddy Gardo by the stage in a big outdoor beer garden. The stage is open roofed, creaky and well worn, the blanks are warped. Gardo has brought a PA and is setting up. We have plenty of time to load in and run through a bunch of songs. About 20 minutes after warming up, the evil Twin starts making noise, so I guess it’s not a bad tube after all, but something more internal. Any time an amp makes noise with the sound off, it’s not a good thing. Thankfully, Gardo brought along an old ‘65 Bassman amp as a spare for us to use. The mosquitos are out, so we eat inside.

Dinner in the pub is burgers for most of us, though Karen has a curry chicken on cou-scous. We have a while until showtime, and the boys continue their epic dice battle while Karen draws up set lists. Outside it starts dribbling rain, Gardo grabs tarps to cover the equipment; hopefully it’s a passing moment.

At 10 we take to the stage and play for 75 minutes. The band is sounding really good, and playing in the pocket. I’m really happy with our progress, musically. During "The Wet Season," again, we feel rain drops but decide to finish the set. Sprinkles become more frequent, so it’s time to pack up.

In the morning our beautiful young host Emma makes one cappuccino after another. The calicanto tree, that the BnB is manned after, its tall in the front yard. It blooms with flowers in the winter and brings good luck!