Dirty Beaches' European Food Tour - Part One

Since 2005, Dirty Beaches has been Alex Zhang-Hungtai’s one-man midnight train to the shadowy side of town. That all changed last fall when he graciously invited Jesse Locke and Francesco "Hobo” De Gallo on board as band mates for a U.S. tour fueled by fried chicken, roadside diners, and whiskey. Now they're over in Europe in one of the worst snowfalls the continent's seen in 50 years, supporting a pair of new 7-inches. We asked them to take photos of all the food they were gonna eat on tour, expecting weird images of French Funyuns or something. Turns out they're eating only the finest local delicacies that each city has to offer.

All photos by Alex Zhang-Hungtai and Jesse Locke

2/6 - BELLEY, FR:

Touching down in France to a whiteout landscape of -14° C was a shocker, but our visions of a balmy European vacation in February might have been somewhat naïve to begin with. Winding through tight turns on mountainside roads while listening to Stare Case was an eerie experience to say the least, and the haunting hotel/monastery in Belley didn’t help settle our nerves. These Kubrickian corridors were once home to menacing monks in black robes, but now house the assortment of elderly dwellers we shared our breakfast with the next morning. Bowls of coffee, rock-hard bread and Corn Flakes get a C- at best.

2/7 - RAVENNA, IT:

Italy loomed on the horizon as an oasis of something edible, but truly blew away any expectations with a buffet of gut-busting deliciousness. The first real stop of the tour was Ravenna, where the Bronson club and record label were releasing our first 7”. With a night off before the show, we had some real business to attend to: filling our bellies with seafood. Frank got busy on a pizza while Alex and I shared a mountainous plate of lobster, crab, clams, mussels, shrimps, langustini and pasta, digging in like death row inmates in tuxedo bibs. This was some serious Seinfeld shit: “The ocean called—they’re running out of fish.”

Since our last European tour, Frank’s been raving about some magical onion he ate in Ravenna. On the night of our show, we returned to its place of origin and sat down for our second food orgy of spaghetti alle vongole, baked cuttlefish and a juicy steak for yours truly. When the onions finally arrived, I have to admit I was slightly disappointed, yet nothing could have lived up to the hype piled upon these plump little blossoms. Regardless, the meal was another winner topped off with the classic short espresso (three times per day minimum) and led into a killer tour kick-off. Grazie mille to Chris, Francesco, Dario and the rest of the crew at Bronson for helping out with our technical blunders and treating us like kings.

2/8 - TORINO, IT:

This city might take the cake for this entire trip with the ludicrous meal we grabbed before the show at Astoria. Big props to Guido for showing us huge hospitality in this city of skinny streets and foot pump sinks. Following the customary cheese and thickly sliced meat platter, Frank dove into a pillow-pile of pumpkin ravioli while Alex and I decided to go all out with a walnut crepe full of bacon and drizzled in honey (drool…), polenta with spicy sausage, and the best tripe either of us have ever tasted. Content as could be, we ripped through that night’s set and ended up bringing down the house with our cover of DNA’s “Blonde Red Head”, paying tribute to the originals from way back when. Grande Torino!

2/9 - ROME, IT:

Rolling into Rome after sundown, we pulled up to the venue next to a casino overlooked by a glaring neon court jester. The staff at Traffic couldn’t have been nicer, but the stomach-glutting take-out trays of pasta and greasy french fries made Autogrill paninis (the Italian equivalent of Subway) seem like a better option.

Nonetheless, the night took a turn for the awesome when we met up with our new posse: filmmaker Brando De Sica, actor Michael Schermi and Thomas, the behind the scenes wizard. Another rowdy set and a few too many drinks spiraled into a parking lot after party of Zebraman proportions, as we sealed our friendship with these charming hooligans. After a hung over lunch of homemade ravioli at the De Sica family pad the next day, we set off for Switzerland happy as pigs in shit.

To be continued…

You can follow Dirty Beaches' non food-related adventures at @dirtybeaches808.