2009 AFE Tour Blog Day 9: Camp Lemonaire Day 3

Our 3^rd day at Camp Lemonaire was Christmas Eve. It sure didn’t feel like it because it was about 85 degrees and sunny all day but we aren’t complaining.

We woke up early and went to the venue to deal with some “sound” issues we were having. When we are playing we don’t hear what the crowd hears, it sounds completely different to us. Each of us wants to hear different things while we play… for example Mike wants to hear the kick drum, bass guitar, lead guitar and vocals. Someone else might only want to hear their instrument or the vocals, etc… This is called the “monitor mix” and is very important to a band. If we can’t hear what we are playing it’s not much fun. Anyways at this base we had struggled with it the first two shows. One minute the monitor mix was great and the next it sounded like we were playing in a tin can several miles away.

Long story short, their was a problem with the generator and once we got a new generator we all rejoiced. Around noon or so we left the base and went to the Kempinski Resort in Djibouti. We ended up spending most of Christmas Eve poolside and beachside just soaking up the sun.

In the evening we went back to the base for our 3^rd and final show. It was by far the best show while we were in Djibouti and probably one of the most fun shows we’ve ever played.

Driving through Djibouti on the way to the hotel. It's kind of hard to tell but people are just hanging out of the vans.

Djibouti Palace Kempinski

Inside

The Brothers Schminke

KP relaxing

Not a bad view

This was the softest bed any of us have ever been on.

On the beach

Mike and John looking for treasure...

A peaceful sunset Christmas Eve in Djibouti.

This is more accurate....

Christmas Eve show

This is Brooks from the Ammo Unit. We got him up on stage to sing "The General" by Dispatch.

These two guys were the real rock stars of the night. They might be the best two dancers we've ever seen. Ever. Frey called them up on stage and is "presenting" them with CDs because we had to stop playing because we were laughing so hard.

This just shows a tiny, tiny glimpse of their energy. The one on the left did "the worm" across the stage frontwards......... and backwards. We all definitely learned some new dance moves.

Group Photo..... Thank You to Everyone that made that night sooooo much fun!!!

Go Hawks!!!