We arrived in Mannheim after the Dortmund gig; it was like a 5hr drive and we ended up in the venue at about 8:00am. We pulled into a bus port on the side of the building where we had to shimmy through narrow corridors to get to the larger area backstage. We were playing at the Guitar Summit in the Rosengarten, where the symphony plays.
Brooks and I walked to the hotel which was about 1km away. it was more of a PITA to get our bearings because it was raining when we had to drag our stuff to the hotel. We could have taken a Lyft but we'd rather walk.
The first day was dark for us so Brooks and I took a nap and got up about 1:00pm to have a walk around the town. We ended up figuring out Mannheim pretty quick, because it's all built on a grid. Very smart civil engineering.
The Auditorium we played was really warm sounding; lots of wood and when it filled up, the whole place sounded great. The crew was great too!
Billy Sheehan and Stu Hamm were there. I got to play with Billy in Nashville on the summer leg in the USA at our Nashville City Winery gig. THis time I got a photo with Billy.
