RED SAILS IN THE SUNSET
I am on board the mega ferry, crossing from Helsinki to Stockholm, having (as recently as 12 hours ago!) rounded out another visit to that most extraordinarily KS-welcoming zone (well, probably they are just as friendly to everyone, but I certainly feel special there!)…Finland…I had the pleasure to spend two days there…and made the most of it…I played one concert with REM, saw two others, the Thrills and a living dead pile of pirate corpses known as Hanoi Rocks...both of the latter were witnessed at Tavastia, wherein I had such a transcendent musical night last month as to leave me boggled permanently…I ran into many fans who had seen the show, and was given some magazines with live reviews…that I can’t read…but…all in all, that night still rings in my head as one of the highlights of my musical life.
Also, during my visit I spent an hour or so in the living room of Lasse K., of Lemonator (who have just released a Best of called “Yesterday Was Good” on Universal Finland that includes the track “the Killer” I sang on) and my friend Markus, singing on a track for Markus’ thang, the Latebirds…I did whatever damage I could do in the time given…anyway, it was a great visit and I saw many bits of KS press with good (great, even) reviews and year end lists with Soft Commands….usw.
The days before Helsinki now seem VERY much a long time ago…there was some bar-hopping in Prague, which turns out to be pretty damn quiet on a Sunday night…a flight to Riga and exploration of the lovely home town of Brainstorm, with whom we have been on tour for the last couple of weeks. We were hosted at what is certainly the top restaurant or close to it in Riga, Vincent’s, in a welcome-to-our-town meal that was organized by the Brainstorm members, who, sadly had to be toasted in absentia as their bus had to pause in Warsaw to replace a mysteriously exploded window…we managed to find our way around town alright…a few shuddery shots of Riga Balsam and I was later found face down in the snow in a churchyard…seeking amnesty, I suppose.
Perhaps the most picturesque city we have visited on this tour was Tallinn, which looked a lot cheerier, cleaner, prosperous, etc. than when I visited there (with Lasse from Lemonator, no less) in 1996. The old center, which had received a generous helping of snow, is all eat up with quaint, and some fresh coats of paint. Kudos to the Three Sisters Hotel, which I unfortunately could only visit from 6am to 4pm the day of our show, but which wins my vote as my favorite hotel of the tour thus far…and REM always stays in the top hotel in town, so this is a well-researched and significant kudo! In fact, I think there is the head of a kudo on the wall in the Grand Palace Hotel bar in Riga…or is it a kudu…but isn’t a kudu the disease one gets from eating human brains…mad dude disease, or some such thing…
Ahem.
From Tallinn we had very much an adventure trying to make our show happen in St. Petersburg, unsuccessfully in the final analysis--
From remhq:
"After a great night in Tallinn and an all-night journey to St Petersburg in wintry conditions, R.E.M greatly regrets having to cancel the show tonight in St Petersburg. Lengthy delays at the Estonia/Russia border caused our trucks, crew, and gear (sound, lights, instruments, and so forth) to arrive too late to mount the show.
This is the first time since the widely-chronicled 1995 tour that R.E.M. has had to cancel a show, and it is a major disappointment for the band not to be playing this particular city. As Michael and the band told some Russian journalists at the hotel this afternoon, we are obviously sorry for all of the inconvenience this has caused for people who were planning to be there."
…suffice to say, my first visit to Russia was essentially just passin’ thru, stopping long enough to have a few pancakes and purchase a furry hat. Oh, and spend about 5 hours at various border checkpoints.
On to Sweden, always homey for KS as well…as we bounce over the slushy grey Baltic swells.
Love
KS
Viking Line, Gulf of Bothnia
