Mozzate Italy - MotoRockas Music Club

Drove about 3 hours up and over the alps this time to get to Mozzate, a cool little town in the beautiful Italian countryside. The moon was glowing and powerful as we entered Mozzate and we knew this was going to be a very good omen for our space-rocking demise in this town. The drive was incredible, so scenic and powerful, steep winding switchbacks and sheer vertical cliff sides some covered with snows or glaciers. Streams of water cascaded down steep meadows above us and the world became 75 angkes or more everywhere you looked.There were tunnels embedded into the sides of cliffs and the streams of water came rushing and over the highway in places, the river sometimes pacing our decending vehicle sometimes disapearing deep within the mountains. You can really feel the age of these mountains, almost as if they groan from the earth in a very deep and monumental way. A very humbling experience whether on the swiss or italian side of this mountain range. There is really no similarity between the Swiss/French and the Italians except for their extreme generosity. The club in Mozzate is called MotoRockas and some of the cool rocker guys Fabio - Alex - Franchesco we met when we got there made us feel welcome and excited for the night. We could not know enough Italian to understand them but they did a very good job of communicating with us about the instruments for backline and also to help us communicate with the soundguy.This is another club where they do not have a public sign outside and as it was explained to me - this is why they can stay open for 10 years now. Apparently keeping a low profile in Europe means your rock club may have a long prosperous life. The other bit of similarity was that there was no representation of disgusting american corporate culture in either SIerre or Mozzate, no Starbucks, Mcdonalds, KFC, or any of the other chains so familiar to those who travel in the USA or England. I hope they are able to resist this invasion forever. Before the show Ego and I got a taste of some culture shock as we spent nearly an hour trying to find what we describe in the states as a 'corner store'. These are typically places that have alcohol, cigarettes, phone cards, magazines, candy, botttled water, aspirin and other sundries. We drove to many places in the central part of Mozzate and each store we entered had a very specific selection of goods. Some were meat and fruit, some were wine and cheese and chocolate or pastries. Some were clothes and housewares, even the supermarket we entered had many unfamiliar items.The gas stations here only sell things related to your auto - oil, wiper blades' steering fluid etc. It was a bit confusing but also very exciting to be learning about these things. For dinner somone had brought us some delicious pizza for all the band and staff personell after the soundcheck, and I remember someone there told me that Naples has the best pizza in Italy. As in Sierre, I was totally amazed and energized by the amount of people who came to see White Hills on a weeknight. It was grand, and we put ourselves into the music as if we were a satellite racing to meet the earth through the atmosphere. The soundguy was very professional and it was a very good mix. Ego and Dave had many compliments, sadly for me I felt very bad before the show though I played well. These people are true fans of rock music in my mind, they might have had to work the next day or had other obligations, but they came to participate and enjoy the wild abandon of passionate kick ass rock and roll from the usa. We got to stay at the club again this night, and it was very fortunate for us as we had to wake up at 7am to drive to Rome from there. It had been many days since we had known the feeling of a shower so we stocked up on some things like wet naps and foot spray at the local farmacia.They are everywhere and only sell products you could classify as personal care remedies. There are some other things that I must mention because the observation seemed interesting, where you are from you may not realize it but you identify useful items by it's packaging. Some of the things we got on the way through europe included: Dijon mustard in what looked like a toothpaste tube, fruit juice and milk in a box, meat in cloth tied with wire or string, decongestants and other cold remedies delivered in the form of chewing gums and our personal favorite tissues strongly sented with spirits or antihistamines.