The following article was written by The Smoking Jackets:

I sleep until about 2 on Saturday because the rehearsal was canceled. Joel and I go to the airport around 4 to finally return the rental car, two days late. I’m kind of sorry to see it go. I really need to look into owning a manual.

The airport is on the other side of Prague, but we still take the long way to try to see as much of the city as possible. It’s really too bad that we’re only here for a little more than two days and that the bulk of our free time is in the middle of the night, but I take a lot of pictures from the car and I feel like I’ve seen a good deal of the city when we get back almost three hours later.

We get to the Jazz Dock early. I don’t think anyone is really too happy that it’s our last night playing here. We play two great sets, but the crowd isn’t quite as wild as is was last night, and we get off stage by 1.

Tiago and a few other people and I hang out with Ron and Liduska, drinking Ron’s master mixologist creations and playing Massive Attack on the sound system because we have the place mostly to ourselves, until Ron and Liduska decide to close at around four. Then we all head over to the nonstop again. I’m sort of taking it easy because supposedly a(nother) new driver is picking us up at 11am tomorrow (today), and because, after last night’s adventures, I’ve decided that gin and tonics at 7am, even with tonic water that tastes like sprite because of the cane sugar that’s in everything here, are definitely not my thing.

Eventually everyone else goes home, but Tiago, Liduska, and I wander the streets for a little while. In a convenience store, someone buys a bottle of Becherovka that I have no intention of touching. The three of us go back to the hotel for the continental breakfast and then back to my room. Liduska goes to sleep while Tiago and I talk music. Tiago leaves when I start to pack, but he keeps wandering back in, apparently intending not to sleep. I set an alarm and doze off around 930.

My alarm doesn’t go off, but Joel wakes me ten minutes later, around 11. He tells me that there’s a little holdup with the new driver’s car being too small for all of our equipment, because apparently this is a recurring theme, but that we should still get downstairs quickly. He leaves me in my room to finish getting myself together. Liduska has left. I notice that the bottle of Becherovka, unopened when I fell asleep an hour and a half ago, is now sitting on my dresser more than half empty. Tiago? I go to his room to make sure he’s awake, but he can’t hear me banging on the door over his metal blasting, so I give up after a few minutes and go down to the lobby by 1115. Joel is nowhere to be found.

The driver shows up around 1230 and tells me that, because the next town on the tour, Cernosice, is only a half hour away, he decided to make two trips rather than go to get another car. Even though Cernosice is close, the driver has an appointment for some other job in some other town at 1, so he’s in a rush and pissed that Tiago isn’t downstairs. I go to get Tiago, but his door is still locked and his metal is still blasting. After about five minutes of banging/kicking the door, I get a maid to let me in.

The metal becomes absolutely deafening when I open the door. Tiago is sprawled on his back, sideways on the bed so his feet are on the floor, and I wonder how the hell he can sleep through this explosive atonal noise. Then I notice that his eyes are open and he’s not moving. I start yelling at him, even though I’m barely audible over the music, and then I start hitting him. There’s absolutely no response, but I at least feel that he’s warm so probably not dead.

Finally, I smack him as hard as I can in the face. He sits up slowly and looks around the room, then at me, with a huge smile on his face. I tell him that we’re late and the driver is pissed. He says that he’ll be down in a minute, but then he notices the maid who let me in, still standing behind me looking terrified, and gets up to flirt with her. She stops looking completely terrified and starts laughing. I tell him to get it together as I take her out of the room.

After about ten minutes of trying to keep the driver calm, I go back up to check on Tiago, again getting the maid to let me in. He’s back to sleep, so I hit him again, though not as hard as last time nor in the face. I get him up and tell him that the driver is leaving as I start throwing his things in his bag. He tells me that it’s no problem, and that he’ll hurry up and be ready in an hour. I can pack for him, but I’m not about to try to dress him. He’s getting belligerent and he’s just not getting it, so I cut my losses and go downstairs, half hoping the 2/3 of a bottle of Becherovka is all that’s in him, half not really caring. The driver leaves the equivalent of about $50 at the front desk with directions to the next place, and we leave Tiago to figure it out himself.

Peace, Prague.