I CAN FLY
And I often do…ere I left Paris I checked out ‘Live from the Morning Alternative’ a compilation of live tracks recorded at the studios of the End, FM 107.7 in Seattle, featuring performances by Harvey Danger, the Supersuckers, the Divorce and really a great cross section of younger artists from our humble burg (I really dig the Schoolyard Heroes track). Incidentally: there is a very nice version of ‘Conversations’ done live in the studio, acoustic guitars, voice, and tambourine; and, even better, proceeds from the sale go towards the Vera Project, which promotes all ages music and cultural events.
www.1077theend.com is the station’s site, and I think you can find it by googling ‘vera project compilation' and find the direct link on the End’s site.
KONGSBERG 2/2
First show with Briskeby—and a mini set featuring Bjorn, Baard, and Claus of Briskeby, with yours truly on guitar and voice. I open the shows solo, then the 3 b´s and I play full band versions of ‘Find Yourself Alone’, ‘Don’t Die’ and ‘Lover’s Hymn’; then Briskeby seamlessly starts their set—during which I pop onstage and duet with Lise for ‘Joe Dallesandro’. The club here, Energimolla, is fairly small, the audience fairly close—I managed to win them over, a few folks talked and did the ‘Lise’ chant but I shut ‘em down—and got an ovation. The Disciplines 3 song set was very well received; and of course, after ‘ Joe’ when I jumped into the crowd (there was no backstage so nowhere else to go) I was grabbed and kissed like a pop star—yow!
That morning before we left Oslo I did interviews at Briskeby’s management’s office for our Australian tour. On the way I grabbed a coffee and a croissant, and was happily trotting down the street when, without sound, struggle, or warning, I was on my back—coffee and croissant bag went out of my hands, glasses flew off my face; I had hit the one patch of ice that hadn’t been sand sprinkled for safety, and went down without so much as a whiffing sound. Boom. My ass only stopped hurting today…
The good news is that Claus and Baard from Briskeby are tennis players…I played Claus the night we rehearsed, and he beat the stuffing out of me (I was wearing borrowed shoes too small, using a sucky racquet and I hadn’t played in 5 months).
OSLO 2/3
Ok, this one was quite a bit harder—this was in a venue, Rockefeller, a big place (where the Posies headlined last summer during the Oya festival) where the audience was further away, and more at my feet than looking at my eyes like the night before...plus there were balconies etc. So, I couldn’t quite grab and hold everyone’s attention during my solo set. Even with the full band stuff I had to work pretty hard (with…you might say). Of course when Briskeby’s complete lineup went on, people went mad—I managed, before Joe D., to shower, dry off, and change clothes so I came back to sing in a completely different outfit, and despite my uncertainty about the reception for what I was doing, a) Joe D. was great, and I sang my part brilliantly, and b) after the show I had lots of praise from local musicians and friends of the B’s. so I think it (me, band, etc), was better received than I could detect above the general din of anticipation. Afterwards, we decamped to a kind of bar/disco around the corner, and I was dancing in a PVC nurse costume (complete with hat) that was made for a tiny girl (a Briskeby fan brought it for Lise to wear, she didn’t go for it, but, I did of course). And then, I regained my composure, sobered up completely, and taxi’d to the Oslo airport to check in at 5am for my 6am flight to Rome…
I got in, after changing in Copenhagen, at 11am, and promoter Susanna Motta picked me up and took me to the hotel, where the rest of White Flag had already arrived. This time around inductees include the usual Pat Fear and Doug Graves, a certain El Swe (aka Chips from Sator) and the drummer V for Victor. And me. Instead of catching up on sleep, I caught up on 30 or so WF songs in rehearsal, and then went to dinner, where a couple of very drunk guys invited themselves to our table, ridiculed my fashion sense (I looked, and still look, fantastic), and scoffed that someone like Pat couldn’t possibly know anything about their favorite band, Rancid (of course he knows Tim—he’s on the last WF album). They were drunk, and insulting me, so I gave them a bunch of shit and made them apologize, which they did. When I saw them later at the show (night one of a two night punk festival that we play tonight-I am writing this before the show on Sunday) they were still giving me shit, but laughing, offering me beer, and hugging me.
Other highlights of the night: I met Penelope Houston of the Avengers, who was incredibly kind and interesting; I ran into Luis from Pansy Division who is playing for the Avengers; I met Paul Collins who, as it turns out is a Posies fan; and his band, who are mostly Spanish, who are all Posies fans. Now that’s a friendly crowd…
On to the show! Will report more lately...
ROMA 2/5
I can say without hesitation that the Avengers were superb. While I can’t say the same for White Flag, I had fun, and that counts for something.
The venue tonight was the Circolo Degli Artisti, where in fact the Posies had just played at the end of last year. Last night’s Paul Collins Beat et al show was also supposed to be there, too, but at the last minute the venue gave them the boot so Mattafix could play at the C.D.A.—how rude! Also, they were going to show the Afropunk documentary that’s just out, and that I want to see, but I have a feeling WF’s soundcheck length killed that. Here’s what I know about White Flag’s set—people came from all over the country to see it (WF has been making highly individualistic takes on the concept of punk, etc. since 1982, so, word gets around) and, in fact enjoyed it. There were 3 guitars blazing away most of the time, which is pretty cool, and when we were in tune, and when we knew the songs, it was prob. pretty fun. When it was out of tune, or one of us got lost (I actually held my part of the stage down pretty well), it was, well, frankly, I thought it was horrible in those moments and when we were done I couldn’t tell which category won out. But, like I said, I had fun. There was a clown who was geared up in his punk costume, who evidently loved it, and was so old school by numbers (he was probably 20 years old) that he spit at us—well, don’t mess with the camel, you will get the damn humps—I conjured up a weapon and fired away, and nailed him right in the hair with a spit blob.
Later, on stage, Penelope H. said, “OK, let’s talk about the spitting thing—White Flag—who, incidentally are the only band that seems to rehearse less than the Avengers—are into the spitting thing. If I want to swap spit with anybody here, I’ll let ya know after the show”. There’s a double ouch in there—and she wasn’t being bitchy—there was a smile on her face, but still…oof! My bad.
After the show, I walked back to the hotel just in time to watch the Super Bowl on Italia 1, which many friends said was happening. I bought a bottle of wine (Nero D’Avola for €4 at a convenience store/call center—I am in the epicenter of call centers in this neighborhood) and went to my room. Let’s mention that the 2 star Hotel Amico is interesting—you enter on the ground floor, and take an elevator up to the top (7th) floor to get to reception. Somehow you are discouraged from getting out on any other floor—our rooms are on the 6th, so we have to walk down the hall, and then down stairs to get to it—the elevator has emergency exit doors that are alarmed etc. on the 6th floor. I don’t know how far down the hotel part of the building goes. It’s not all 7 floors. On Italia 1 was a damn home shopping show—so I went back to reception, knowing that the reception and reception only had a satellite receiver. After much negotiation, the woman at the front desk allowed me to change the channel, and I found “NFL Seattle vs. Pittsburgh”, selected it, and saw I was in fact getting a Rolling Stones concert. I was hoping it was a new take on the halftime show, where they fill the whole playing field with spectators, but, it sure didn’t look like the normal halftime show—it just looked like a straight concert. I felt embarrassed, but then it was over and in fact it had been the halftime show, and eventually the game resumed. The 3rd quarter was great football, both sides making incredible plays; the 4th quarter was one-sided, Seattle was broken somehow and were just unable to hold their own against a brilliant Pittsburg offense. The various bands playing at the festival came back and I went to the room where a few folks had gathered, donated the rest of my wine bottle, and made merry, but not too merry. Then bed.
Love
KS
Roma ITALY
