10 days off at home

THE US Tour Begins!

Here we are in our new bus- a US bus! It already feels odd doing a tour here for the first time in 4 years; people speak the language, our plugs work & so does our money. 
These first 2 shows are Whitesnake shows- most of the rest are supporting Judas Priest, a tour that will bring us home by the end of August (in time for burning man, and looking for a place to live in Berkeley with Shilo).

I'll also be popping backwards from time to time to fill in some posts I have half finished from Europe.

Stay tuned.
-UD in the USA

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Pic: Timothy Drury on the bus...

About to hit DOWNLOAD FEST!

Making 2 new Anchor Basses

Here's a little time lapse of the creation of two new Anchor basses
for Jo in Germany. Enjoy!

Aarhus, Denmark

3 more flights in a row got us here- another full day of travel, security checks, wanding, and beer. David took us out to a wonderful steak dinner in the Copenhagen Airport. Shilo came over to my hotel in the morning, as he only lives an hour by train from Aarhus. We roamed the streets and cafes until my meeting with T.C. Electronics. I've been forming quite the relationship with this high-end equipment company, as they've now entered the Bass Amp market. They even put a vid of me trying their rig on the home page. I've now been told that that vid is the most clicked vid in their history, at 600,000 hits! I still don't believe it! Anyways, the T.C. crew brought a rig for me to try: two heads and four 4x10 cabs. They are the first ones and aren't even out yet, let alone tested with a major act. I was a bit apprehensive to changing anything, as I've had my Eden rig dialed in over 15 years, and NO other bass amp can mess with my sound. But the T.C. rig held up nicely at soundcheck, and blew me away during the concert! I was VERY surprised to say the least. T.C. is a great Danish company that appears to want to work with me in all aspects of my career, both in and out of Whitesnake. This may be a great opportunity for both of us. Yee Haw!

After the show, Shilo's mom came to pick him and his friends up. It's always hard saying goodbye, but I'll see him again in the fall after this summers touring is complete. He's a great musician and is growing so fast that I really don't wanna miss a thing though!

Off to Paris.

-U

Umea, Sweden

Since we'd already plastered Europe in a couple of installments last
year, we now are playing in smaller towns/venues. That means lots of
connecting flights- in fact 3 flights today. All day. Umea was great,
and can be summed up in a few words: College Town, Drunken folks,
Classic American cars, big rock festival on the water with Whitesnake
headlining. We whooped ASS on this gig! I particularly loved how
people with boats could hang out on the river and watch the show for
free, much like Humphrey's in San Diego.

My back was still a wreck, as I can't even get out of bed without
rolling over first. So I got a massage. I think it made it worse, as
it was a combo sports massage and deep tissue/swedish. Way too high
impact for me. Hot stones, people... It's the way to go. Well I'll
just keep reluctantly poppin' ibuprofin to get through the shows.

After the show, I stayed behind rather than going to the hotel. I put
on my "civilian clothes" and headed out to the beer-garden, where a
cover band was doing a wicked Metallica medley, among other rock
favorites. What a great hang! Mind you, we're still far up enough
north that the sun doesn't set, so everyone just keeps partying the
night away. Sitting in the front lounge windows back at the hotel
yielded some of the best late-night foot traffic people watching ever.

Off Denmark (3 more flights to do so)!

Yay Sweden!

-U

Finland

Wow- The Helsinki Radisson is really a home away from home. I love
this city, and feel like I could spend some time here. It was a great
coincidence that my good friend Lauri Porra also had 2 days off here
while on tour (with his band Stratavarious). Perfect- old friends
drinking at the local rock bar and jamming some hangover bass duet
explorations, complete with ladies around to cheer us on- for 2 days!
Lauri's bass playing is amazing and we're very similar in many
aspects, but his compositional skills are excellent! Love the new
album Lauri. Keep up the great work!

Reindeer tastes gooood!

The gig was in a remote city- Oulu. Nice big club. Afterwards, us and
a bunch of fans took over a baron nightclub that was in the downstairs
of our hotel. DJ Doug Aldrich on the mic and the dancefloor.
Definitely a great hang. My friend Yvgeny came all the way from St.
Petersburg to see us, so I let him and his hot friend crash in my
room- it's the least I could do after the great personal tour of St.
Pete last year. I'm glad we had a lot of fan-friends there to make
this otherwise sleepy town a happinin' hang. Off to Sweden.

Here's a slideshow and some vid clips.

PS: My friend Lauri is a bassist/compser who also plays in the band Strativarius. The bassist we were listening to is Adriano Campagnani from Brazil.

4 shows in Norway start the tour.

Customer service? nope. Expensive as hell? yep. One of the most beautiful countries to drive the coast? Definitely.

Show 1: Sandnes. Outdoors, rainy, cold. They stood through it all and wanted more. True Viking blood! Dokken Opened for us.

Show 2: Larvick. Outdoors, rainy, cold. They stood through it all and wanted more. True Viking blood! Dokken Opened for us.

Show 3: Trondheim. Outdoors. Beautiful sunset and weather as we played to 20,000 in the town square. Europe opened up (and kicked ass)! Dokken played a late show nearby that was a blast. I've been goin stir crazy so I found an after hours biker bar that reminded me of an underground high school party complete with outdoor bonfire. One thing of note was the DJ. This "tough" biker bar played the crappiest techno music (is that redundant?), alternating with a rock selection.
Selection #1: Holy Diver, by Dio. Back to techno.
Rock selection #2: Holy Diver by Dio. More techno.
Rock selection #3? Holy Diver by Dio, again.
Now I dig that tune, but someone should've just put the DJ down. I still don't know what to make of this. Back to the Brittania Hotel, which much resembled an old folks home, but with a labyrinth for hallways. The only thing my bathroom was missing were safety handles on the walls! Of note: Close to the airport, we drove through the town of HELL. People actually live there, and in the winter, it DOES freeze over!

Show 4: Bergen. Indoors. We have a day off before the show this time, in which I'll do some solo sightseeing. I'll later meet with my good Norwegian friends Funky Halvor and Guro for food and/or beverage, and to reminisce of our fun times together last summer with the Jazz Mafia. G'night.
-UD

Here's a slide show and some home movies! Enjoy!

Hello Friends & Fans!

Here we go again! Rehearsals in LA were splendid and the band is ready to rock.

This is the first posting in this years Whitesnake Tour Blog. We'll be doin 3 weeks in Europe & 2 months in the US. Here's the dates: