March of the Gypsies West Coast 09 Tour

By Leilainia 9/11/09

Two weeks on the road was amazing.  We rented a 31-foot RV for six of us: 2 slept on the back bed. 2 slept on the pull out couch. 1 slept on the table that turned into a short bed and the other slept on the huge dashboard.  It was absolutely amazing how well we all got along. Not one argument or blow-up. We all loved the organic feeling of being on the road together and showing new communities our passion. What was inspiring was how well the new communities responded to us. In Glendale we closed the show at the Beyond The Stars Theater with all dancers and audience members on stage a grooving to Danyavaad's music.  In Ojai we packed the Village Jester with standing room only. Four members of the audience were from the Pepper Tree Retreat (the former home of the late Indian Philosopher Krishnamurti.) http://www.peppertreeretreat.com/ They invited us for a private tour of the library, meditation rooms and retreat. it was very quiet and soulful.

In San Luis Obispo we filled the gallery with 75 people and we didn't even know one of them. By the end of the show they were singing along with us "tra la la la.." and everyone was on their feet dancing. The next night  the Polenge Lounge in San Francisco  hit us with a different energy. This fast paced city reeled us in, shot out our energy like a passionate whirlwind, then kicked us off stage with an abrubt "We loved your show. Now get your stuff out of here, the next band is starting NOW”. But the crowd loved us and it was great too see some familiar faces on stage with us and in the audience.

The Humboldt Music Festival greeted us with sage, hippy kids and amazing vegan food. We performed a Sunday morning show after the opening ceremony by a local Native American tribe. It was a beautiful show, followed by a great swim in the Trinity River.  That swim lead to cliff jumping and a jam on the riverbanks. Which lead to the meeting of an amazing guitarist and traveler Charlie, who lead us to the Buddhist temple Chagdud Gonpa Rigdzin Ling http://www.snowcrest.net/chagdud/main/rigdz.htm. It was great to have a guided tour of the breathtaking grounds.  What was amazing was that this is where Gabriel (our drummer) spent most of his time between 6th and 7th grade. His best friends family ran the center at that time, and Gabriel made it his home. So for him it was back home for a few short hours.

So week one of our tour had ended without any snags. We took 2 days to get from Humboldt to Black Rock City. We arrived in the middle of a dust storm. Embraced the dust in all its glory. AS we drove into our camp Playa Monkey/Nomads the dust died down to nothing and thankfully we had 3 days on clear blue skies.  After setting up in our camp, finding all of our friends immediately (which is unheard of) we prepared for our Lightening Temple Show http://lightningtemple.wetpaint.com/ . The temple is on the esplanade, so as you perform you look out over the crowd onto a white salt bed, surrounded by mountains, filled with art and blinking lights. Behind the stage is a huge metal pyramid with lightening shooting out of the top of it. In front of the stage is a flaming lotus. The show served as a beautiful opening ceremony for us. We were honored to share the stage with Silverback, Mordecai and Dj Sandbag.

Our next show was Thursday Night on the DustFish Stage http://dustfish.org/. This was the best show I think we have EVER done. I was on fire (and I found that I love the energy of the old fashion saloon madam.) Their stage is in the style of a 2 story old west/new Orleans style bordello/saloon.  It's 50' wide and 20' high with the stage on the second story catwalk 10' up with windows, doors, and poles.  It’s painted black, red, and gold with satin gold and red silk cloth wallpaper. It has a 8,000 watt sound system teched by additech and a lovely group of admirers. We rocked that saloon as hard as we could! And the crowd loved it. I ended the show by performing a head balancing sword dance balanced on the banister on the second floor. I amazed myself (I love when that happens).  The energy of that show flowed into the wee hours of sunrise. As we collected nomad spirits like ourselves and searched the playa for live organic tunes. We find ourselves on a river boat dancing to live Balkan music. Then into a camp sipping whiskey and warming by the fire. Then into a meditative circle chanting and singing from the depths of our souls.  The sun rose and we captured the silence and beauty of timelessness.  We were quickly reminded of time as we realized we had only a few hours to sleep then get ready for our Center Camp show at 1pm. Which we made on time thankfully. The dust storm rising outside helped build our audience, as everyone come in from the elements to lounge and chill in the renaissance tent. The gypsy nomadic spirit of the room engulfed us and we shared our love of art to the audience of travelers entertainers and lounging souls.  We took that exhausted, creative energy and carried it through the dust storm and the night as we performed on the Purple Palace Art Bus http://current.com/items/89248051_purple-palace-party-bus.htm . Now that was an experience like non other! Dust. Wind.  Cold. As we perform on top of a moving bus! It was definitely fun! (I love our group. We have silly associations with fun.)  So that was our last show of our tour and BM and it was awesome. The next 2 days we chilled and explored that playa.

We got back to San Diego on Tuesday Night. Cleaned the RV. Then Thursday we went to the San Diego Music Awards http://sandiegomusicawards.com . Danyavaad and the Shimmy Sisters had been nominated in two categories: “Best World Music” &  “Best WorldAlbum”. Unfortunately we did not win, but we are honored that we where nominated and thank everyone for voting for us. 

Check out our album! http://www.danyavaad.com/product/march-of-the-gypsies

March of the Gypsies CD/DVD This is a two disc set - a 10 song CD and a DVD full of music videos, dance lessons, pictures, and much more. DVD includes:
Music Videos: ‘Eastern Road’, ‘Nomads‘, ‘Danyavaad’, ‘My Serpent Kiss’.
Instructional segments: Shimmy Sisters bellydance lesson, ‘Arabic Scales’ sitar lesson, dumbek rhythms, bass looping.
Photo slideshows and other surprises PRICE: $29.99