I didn’t want to leave Manchester because I was learning a lot and the people were interesting and nice. Also, I had been to Austria a couple of times and had found it to be really…Austrian. But this time, it wasn’t. The Wels Festival aka Music Unlimited is a very special festival. Though they often work on the guest curator model, this year the programming was by director Wolfgang Wasserbauer, and I thought it was fabulous. One compelling act after another—I listened to music for 7 hours straight. Do you know how hard that is for an ADD freakout like me? Some highlights–Carla, Fred and Stevie played beautifully, IsWhat?! got the whole crowd moving, and The Ex rocked me like my back ain’t got no bone. Can I just say, I have loved that band since I was an anarcho-tot (not to be confused with an anarcho-Trot) but I had never seen them live. They surpassed all expectations. RAWK! I had a very interesting conversation with the singer about the Dutch peacekeepers in Srebrenica and generally about international policy, the use of force, on genocide and witness. Ah, fun… The folks from IsWhat?! told us about the happening scene in Cinci (that’s Cincinnati to me). I met Mary Halvorson & Jessica Pavone, whose record I love, but they had played the night before so I couldn’t see them live. Oh yeah, and Charming Hostess played and there was a standing ovation, etc. It’s pretty fun to do all that Walter Benjamin stuff for people who speak German—they laugh at all the funny bits, it’s way cool. Hamid Drake sat in with us for “Dame La Mano,” which was a great honor and an absolute blast. And we sold every single CD that I brought, with none left for the Balkans. I really dug FIMAV where we played earlier this year, but Unlimited matched it for joy, curiosity, and good vibes. Really a singular vision, we were proud to be a part of it.