I returned from our Chanukah tour with about 25 boarding-pass stubs, 3 Netflix DVD’s viewed while waiting in airports, and fond feelings for the Wolfgang Puck Pizza Restaurant in Chicago O’Hara, Terminal B.

Which is to say: to undertake a tour flying across the US (and then back across, and then back across) during the heaviest travel season of the year, with seven musicians, two accordions (because we were travelling with fellow accordionist Socalled), a violin, a trombone, one blanket (mine), one electric menorah (don’t ask), and six laptops which were pulled out over and over again to check for free wireless, translated into quite the adventure.

But I am happy to report that not only did we make every show despite an 8-hour delay in Chicago and various sketchy airport van drivers–we actually had a great time as well. Each show seemed to be more fun than the last. And the backstage menorah lighting became a very sweet pre-show ritual. We dripped wax on greenroom tables from Los Angeles to Boston, and then jumped onstage to throw chocolate gelt at the audience, who didn’t seem to mind. I also got to check out some other great bands, most notably the Conspiracy of Beards in San Francisco, an all-male choir who perform a capella versions of Leonard Cohen songs. ("I hear you’re building your little house, deep in the desert…")

Another favorite moment was when one of the sound-guys in San Francisco ran across the street with me to show me a famous old violin shop which was right across from the club, and where I got some much-needed new strings. But the best was what I overheard at the El Rey Theatre in LA. I guess someone had said to the monitor man, “We’re going to be using an electric menorah.” Later I heard him saying to a fellow sound guy, “I mean, I know what a menorah is…but people come here with all these weird instruments, so when I heard ‘We have an electric menorah,’ the first thing I thought was – what the hell is a menorah, and how am I going to run sound for it?”

Yes, sustained by latkes and Wolfgang Puck’s Four Cheese Pizza and the December issue of Vogue and my beloved blanket and Netflix and my dear bandmates and four hours of sleep a night and dirty Stoli martinis and the Chanukah miracle and THE MUSIC, I am happy to report that not only did I survive the Chanukah tour, I actually enjoyed it. But I must say, I am glad to be home, and glad for a break from the ubiquitous latkes. Until next year…